Stephanie Zvan is one of the hosts for the Minnesota Atheists' radio show and podcast, Atheists Talk. She serves on the board of Secular Woman. She speaks on science and skepticism in a number of venues, including science fiction and fantasy conventions.
Stephanie has been called a science blogger and a sex blogger, but if it means she has to choose just one thing to be or blog about, she's decided she's never going to grow up. In addition to science and sex and the science of sex, you'll find quite a bit of politics here, some economics, a regular short fiction feature, and the occasional bit of concentrated weird.
Oh, and arguments. She sometimes indulges in those as well. But I'm sure everything will be just fine. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
Ooooh! Me too! Although I admit to butchering some finer points of grammar when intoxicated.My biggest grammatical turn-on? Subject-verb agreement concerning “data”.It’s “these data are…” or “these data show…”NOT “this data is…”Arrrrgh!You’d be surprised at how many scientists(!) balls this up. A part of me dies inside every time. But oh, to hear someone who gets it right, every time. This is bliss.
ScientistMother, I didn’t mean it that way at all. I’m much more concerned with what people are saying than how. It’s just that when I get both…mmm, yum.AA, confession time: I have too much fun tweaking “data are” people. I know how it works, but just about everyone who gets it right twitches so reliably if I do it wrong. It’s evil, I know.Juniper, I just knew you were going to say that. 🙂
You’d be surprised at how many scientists(!) balls this up. Actually, I’m surprised that any scientists care. The science of linguistics tells us that “data is” is correct and has been for a long time. Read this.Anyway, we speak English, not Latin. “Opera” and “agenda” are also Latin plurals that have become singular in English.
Anonymous, to the extent that linguistics is pursued scientifically, it tells us that English is not a single language. Many words that behave one way on the street behave very differently in the lab. No reductionism needed or desired.
Guess what? ME TOO!
Ooooh! Me too! Although I admit to butchering some finer points of grammar when intoxicated.My biggest grammatical turn-on? Subject-verb agreement concerning “data”.It’s “these data are…” or “these data show…”NOT “this data is…”Arrrrgh!You’d be surprised at how many scientists(!) balls this up. A part of me dies inside every time. But oh, to hear someone who gets it right, every time. This is bliss.
ooh, i’m so bad at grammar, especially when I’m trying to get post out while managing the monkey…my bad.
ScientistMother, I didn’t mean it that way at all. I’m much more concerned with what people are saying than how. It’s just that when I get both…mmm, yum.AA, confession time: I have too much fun tweaking “data are” people. I know how it works, but just about everyone who gets it right twitches so reliably if I do it wrong. It’s evil, I know.Juniper, I just knew you were going to say that. 🙂
You’d be surprised at how many scientists(!) balls this up. Actually, I’m surprised that any scientists care. The science of linguistics tells us that “data is” is correct and has been for a long time. Read this.Anyway, we speak English, not Latin. “Opera” and “agenda” are also Latin plurals that have become singular in English.
Anonymous, to the extent that linguistics is pursued scientifically, it tells us that English is not a single language. Many words that behave one way on the street behave very differently in the lab. No reductionism needed or desired.