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From wikipedia:

In 1948, psychologist Bertram R. Forer gave a personality test to his students. He told his students they were each receiving a unique personality analysis that was based on the test's results and to rate their analysis on a scale of 0 (very poor) to 5 (excellent) on how well it applied to themselves. In reality, each received the same analysis:

"You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life."

On average, the rating was 4.26, but only after the ratings were turned in was it revealed that each student had received identical copies assembled by Forer from various horoscopes. These statements later became known as Barnum statements, after P.T. Barnum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect#Forer.27s_demonstration

SundayMagazine found a newspaper article from 1890 titled, "FRIENDS THEY NEVER MEET: ACQUAINTANCES MADE BY THE TELEGRAPH KEY. CONFIDENCES EXCHANGED BETWEEN MEN WHO HAVE NEVER SEEN EACH OTHER — THEIR PECULIAR CONVERSATION ABBREVIATIONS"
http://sundaymagazine.org/2010/08/from-1890-the-first-text-messages/

It describes the equivalent of text messaging over the telegraph. Given the cumbersome nature of tapping out each letter, it naturally bred a new kind of shorthand language:

Their morning greeting to a friend in a distant city is usually "g. m.," and the farewell for the evening, "g. n.," the letters of course standing for good morning and good night. The salutation may be accompanied by an inquiry by one as to the health of the other, which would be expressed thus: "Hw r u ts mng?" And the answer would be: "I'm pty wl; hw r u?" or "I'm nt flg vy wl; fraid I've gt t mlaria."

Also worth reading is "How jokes went viral in 1910": http://sundaymagazine.org/2010/06/passing-a-good-joke-along-the-wire/

Credit to:
http://liana.tumblr.com/post/95793665/your-npr-name

referenced on:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/04/whats_your_npr_name.html

"You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then you add on the smallest foreign town you've ever visited."

I don't know the populations of all the little foreign towns I've been in, but let's say my name is Mact Ataria

This is very impressive

John sent me this link:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/11/video-pho-vs-faux.html which includes this video.

I love me some phớ - especially when the weather gets cold. Nothing beats it.

Pho vs. Faux from Brian wilcox on Vimeo.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_name

"Surnames were not required by law until 1811 when emperor Napoleon annexed the Netherlands. Since many Dutch people thought this convention would only be temporary, some deliberately chose confusing or comical names. For example:
De Keizer - probably a wordplay on Napoleon when people registered their name; Who are you? I'm the emperor.
Rotmensen - rot, adjective meaning "rotten" + mensen "people"
Poepjes - poep, noun meaning "poo/feces", + jes plural diminutive
Piest - piest, third-person singular form of the verb piesen meaning "to urinate/to piss"
Naaktgeboren - naakt, adjective meaning "naked", + geboren meaning "born"
Zeldenthuis - zelden, adverb meaning "seldom", + thuis meaning "at home"

From NYTimes:

A recent slide show, "A Sampling of Chinglish," which accompanied a story by Andrew Jacobs, showed signs in Chinese paired with unusual and often funny English translations. We asked readers to share photos of amusingly translated or otherwise quirky signs that they've found during their travels. Click an image to enlarge it, and scroll to browse through the collection.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/11/travel/funny-signs.html

The Art of Manliness has a list of a few dozen key slang terms used in Victorian times.

Some are merely amusing:
Fart Catcher A valet or footman, from his walking behind his master or mistress
Sit-upons Trousers

Some give a sense of what the dangers of the times were:
Sneeze-lurker A thief who throws snuff in a person’s face, and then robs him

And some are words I wish were still in use:
Hobbadehoy A youth who has ceased to regard himself as a boy, and is not yet regarded as a man
Rumbumptious Haughty, pugilistic

http://artofmanliness.com/2010/03/10/manly-slang-from-the-19th-century/

The word "Astronaut" comes from the Greek for "Star Sailor" and was coined by author Neil Jones in 1930. It is used for space-faring people in the U.S. or on American missions.

The word "Cosmonaut" is used to refer to Russian astronauts and comes from the Greek for "Universe (Cosmos) Sailor"

While the Chinese government uses the words "astronaut" and "cosmonaut" many English-language media use the word "Taikonaut", from the Chinese word for "Space" ("taikong") along with the Greek for "Sailor" ("naut").

It seems the rule is that any nation that sends people into space needs their own word for what to call its space-pilots. Now that India is in the game (first flight scheduled for 2015), they need a word as well.

The Sanskrit for "Space" (or "Sky") is "Vyoma" and so their word is "Vyomanaut" (vee-OHM-uh-naut) according to the Indian Space Research Organisation.

I've heard descriptions of teabaggers being ignorant and racist, but it was only when I heard the word "teabonics" that I more fully realized the connection between ignorance and the political views espoused by them.

My question is why the spelling is so bad. Some of the misspelled words look like victims of haste, which could be understandable if the signs were written in the back of a car, or under the influence of alcohol. And others look like the writer has dyslexia and simply doesn't know the difference. But others seem like they might be intentionally misspelled. Perhaps the teabaggers are protesting standardized spelling as well as social services?

What does it say about a group of people when so many are either too lazy to spell-check a single sentence, or too ignorant to know how to spell simple, common words?

This Flickr set is quite a lot like People of Walmart where snarky people post photos of people who seem to be less mannered and/or worse at spelling than themselves.

But some of the pictures are troubling. The racism and hatred indicated by some of the signs makes me very concerned about the Tea Party movement. If I were an intelligent libertarian thinking about joining the Tea Party I would be revulsed by this.