Mad Prime

Passive Aggressive

Madeleine Ball — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:39:00 +0100

Genetics was on the front page of Wikipedia yesterday as Featured Article of the Day! This was pretty cool, but this of course attracted a crop of editors and comments that wanted to improve on the article -- some wonderful and knowledgeable, some newbies, some with an ax to grind.

The one that really got to me was the guy who got really upset with usage of the passive voice:

"With all due respect, I find the drenching of this article in passive voice to be sophomoric and cumbersome. I intend to re-edit the entire article and make it readable to a literate audience, as I believe that Wikipedia articles should be written in a dynamic manner. Should you chose to remove all of my edits, I will seek redress."

My reply:

"Please don't get too passive aggressive with me: [1]." .... "I was concerned that your attempt to remove the passive voice made the article harder to read by introducing unnecessary vocabulary. If you can do it in a cleaner manner then you are welcome to it." .... "While it is hardly arduous for me to comprehend your verbiage, I would importune you to contemplate first the lucidity of your emendations before foisting them upon a somewhat less literate audience."

That link I made there is worth reading, it's to a Language Log post "Passive Aggression" that illustrates the fallacy of an absolute injunction against the passive voice.

And so I tend to ignore the injunction, although I do appreciate that it can generally improve readability. But if removing the passive voice from a sentence requires introducing more complicated vocabulary, I think it is actually reducing the clarity of the sentence. Some examples of changes this editor made...

"For genes that are closer together" was replaced with "For genes located in closer proximity"
"DNA (rather than protein) was the genetic material of the viruses" was replaced with "DNA (rather than protein) comprised the genetic material of the viruses"
"A popular theory during Mendel's time was the concept of blending inheritance" was replaced with "A popular theory during Mendel's time pertained to the concept of blending inheritance" (the theory was only related to the concept? This one isn't even correct. I'm not even sure it's passive??)

I'm really not a writing expert, but I think the article needs to be as accessible as possible -- in these cases, the passive voice is preferable to doing some grammatical backflips over fancy vocabulary. Make sure to read that Language Log post, it's very funny!

Media and causes

Madeleine Ball — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:35:00 +0100

Ethan Zuckerman has a couple of recent posts about Darfur and Tibet, I found both very good to read. "China, bias, and misunderstanding" is about the disconnect between Chinese and Western perceptions of Tibet -- for example, how and why many Chinese were upset and offended by the Olympic torch protests. "Media, reality, representation: what are we paying attention to when we pay attention to Darfur?" explores the oversimplification made of the Darfur conflict -- it's much more complex than I've been led to believe! -- and he hypothesizes why this particular conflict has become such a popular cause for activism.

Gallons per mile

Madeleine Ball — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:20:00 +0100

Bunnie's latest blog post is interesting -- I was fooled as he was. It teaches me that small improvements on the worst mileage cars is more effective than improving the mileage on cars that are already moderately efficient. I recommend it to anyone interested in the general issue of reducing gas consumption.

Cool words

Madeleine Ball — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Here is a short list of some cool words. If you have a cool word, add it with a comment (make say what it means and why it is cool)!

crapulent / crapulence

definition: sick due to excessive eating or alcohol, excessively drunk
why it's cool: this should be obvious

pulchritude

definition: beauty
why it's cool: ugliest word for beauty I've ever heard

chaotropic

definition: disrupts the structure of proteins and/or DNA, denaturing them
why it's cool: sounds bad ass

UPDATE 7/8:

callipygian

definition: having well-shaped buttocks
why it's cool: fancy-ass ass-fancy

LOL

Madeleine Ball — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:45:00 +0100

I don't care if it's not cool anymore, I still love lolcats. Chris found this one - I don't know who made it but I feel I must post it.

Powers of Life

Madeleine Ball — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 02:40:00 +0100

I made this picture today in the new version of Inkscape, making extensive use of the new thin/thicken tool.

Doh!

Madeleine Ball — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:39:00 +0000

From Science magazine news Hobbit Redux? article:

Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg discovered the bones while on vacation in Palau in 2006. (His wife had deliberately chosen a remote, young island because it was unlikely to have fossils on it).

Genetics

Madeleine Ball — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:49:00 +0000

Looks like my Genetics article was overdue for a "good article" rating. I think I'll work towards getting a featured article rating, the GA reviewer encouraged me to do this...

The double-blossom article was in the Did you know section of the front page for seven hours yesterday morning. It got the top spot, with the pretty double impatiens photo.

Did you know...

Madeleine Ball — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:51:00 +0000

... that double-flowered mutants (pictured) were first documented over two thousand years ago by Theophrastus and are found in many popular flower varieties — including carnations, camellias, and most roses?

I made this new wikipedia article in the last couple days and have submitted it to the Did you know project for display on the main page.

Throw

Madeleine Ball — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:45:00 +0000

Our kitty Zoe likes to play fetch. She's always bringing us a little plastic toy or fake mouse and dropping it at our feet. Then she eagerly waits for us to throw it.

But if we pick up the a toy and throw it she just watches or maybe chases it but won't bring it back to us. So instead instead of training her to play fetch I think she's taught us to play the game "throw".