According to Geoffrey Pullum, head of linguistics and English language at the University of Edinburgh, The Elements of Style, the classic Strunk and White grammar guide, is filled with errors and he is happy to list them for you.

http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497

Reality just warped a little for me. If you can't trust ( Read more... )

Latin Quotes and Phrases

Some are classic quotes, some are silly, and a lot of them would make great sig lines.

Cave canem, te necet lingendo - Beware of the dog, he may lick you to death
Estne tibi forte magna feles fulva et planissima? - Do you by chance happen to own a large, yellowish, very flat cat?
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me ( Read more... )

I've been trying to figure out which sect of Buddhism Miroku belongs to for nearly as long as I've been reading the series so that would be something like four years. My best guess was some variety of Jodo (Pure Land) but we don't get a lot of details in canon and repeated attempts to find clues based on the design of his clothing via Google were ( Read more... )

This is a fun little tool that will do a search on any key word you want and show you a graph of how often it's been mentioned in blogs for up to the last 90 days. For instance:

Inuyasha:
http://trend.icerocket.com/trend?query1=Inuyasha&label1=Inuyasha&query2=&label2=&query3=&label3=&days=90

Doctor Who:
http://trend.icerocket.com/trend?query1=Doctor+ ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

If you need to read a book for fun or research that is old enough to be in the common domain then your first stop should be Project Gutenberg, not the library or bookstore. Here you will find electronic additions of 20,000 books available for free download and links to other sites with a total of approximately ( Read more... )

Sake World Newsletter Issue #75
Sake Brewing in Shrines and Temples

http://www.esake.com/Knowledge/Newsletter/SW/SW2006/sw2006_0.html

There is a reason Mushin has a constant supply, he probably makes it himself.

In addition to the history of Sake brewing there are some interesting tidbits about the interaction between Buddhist monks and Shinto ( Read more... )

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/

I can almost guarantee that if you haven't read the rest of this post your first reaction upon clicking that link will be to think I've lost my mind. The big ads for hot Japanese girls and hotels give it a particularly tabloid trashy look. What could be of interest here?

Quite a lot actually once your eyes ( Read more... )

http://www.comnet.ca/~foxtrot/kitsune/kitsune1.htm

Kit LaHaise has written a nice introduction to kitsune mythology. He draws heavily from the book, Kitsune: Japan's Fox of Mystery, Romance, and Humour  by Kiyoshi Nozaki tsune.

He covers  the various types of kitsune, famous kitsune from legends, kitsune magic, and stories of possession and spiritual ( Read more... )

Confrontation II: Trials and Tribulations by Simonkal of Inuy http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/view_st.php/130285

The action takes place in Japan in the mid-sixteenth century. In chapter 12 she describes the wall around a fortress made of "thick robust cinderblocks" A pretty neat trick since they won't be invented for a few hundred years. Closest I ( Read more... )