I am a dirty generalist. I’ve written about sponges that record sound and Amazon adventures, mimsy musicians and international gobbledygook. As I always say, you can't know all things about everything all of the time, but you can fake knowing a little about something once in a while (or was that Abraham Lincoln who said that?).
I've written a series on the Future of
English, looking at Artificial Languages and simplified Englishes,
dialects, creoles, pidgins, SMS, slang, spelling, dictionaries,
grammar, origins of English, language death. My new strand discusses Language & Technology: computer translation, reprogrammed brains & cyber-thinking.
The Times: Artificial Languages (Europanto)
Translating Harry Potter
Kenelm Digby's Powder of Sympathy
Captain Vosterloch's recording sponges.
Speak Up (Brazil): Lost in the Amazon
Brazilian Cricket
Philip Jeays, Lorraine Bowen, Lewd, Tiger Lillies, Noel LeBon
Barb Jungr
Utter Nonsense (Edward Lear's influence on modern life)
Speak Up (Italy): Language Police
We don't Need No Education (Pop Song English)
Europanto & The Failure of Artificial Languages
Spelling Revolutionaries
Don't Learn English from this Man (Bushisms)
Europa Vicina: Digital Natives: how to survive in Futuresville
Radio Gigabyte: if video didn't kill the radio star, will iTunes?
Edinburgh - the Athens of the North
I also write stories and plays. The Delinquents of Malaga was published in Lonely Planet's Collection Rites of Passage: Backpacking Round Europe, while Copying was published in Product magazine and Wild Blue Yonder.
