Peanuts Made of Skin

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The Alternative dictionaries are a collection of various forms of “bad language” from many languages. At the moment, there are 2743 entries in 162 dictionaries. This is a collaborative project with contributions from a lot of people. The pages are developed and edited by Hans-Christian Holm.

from The Alternative English Dictionary

Who knows, this may come in handy someday. They have listed dozens of languages but there are only entries for the ones you might expect– English, Cantonese, Hungarian, Belarusian, Hindi, a few from Afrikaans, and so on.

Here’s a vivid entry from Indonesian: “makan cacang kulit To literally “eat peanuts made of skin’: to perform cunnilingus.” If you know how to pronounce that, leave me a comment (hopefully with a sound file).

According to the home page a new entry system– something wiki-like, one hopes- is being implemented soon. It does look a little unattended. So if you know a few cuss words from, say, Javanese, go for it.

Posted in: Language, Online Places, Writing

H-Net Reviews

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H-Net is an international interdisciplinary organization of scholars and teachers dedicated to developing the enormous educational potential of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Our edited lists and web sites publish peer reviewed essays, multimedia materials, and discussion for colleagues and the interested public. The computing heart of H-Net resides at MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online, Michigan State University, but H-Net officers, editors and subscribers come from all over the globe.

Humanities and Social Sciences Online Net

H-Net is a kind of ‘web 1.5’ resource– halfway between the old static content of the 1990s and the social networking and participation sites common today. It’s has a very old school look and feel, but it is still a great place to do some reading to see what academia is up to in the humanities and social sciences.

“Among H-Net’s most important activities,” the What is H-Net page notes, “is its sponsorship of over 100 free electronic, interactive newsletters (“lists”) edited by scholars in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific.” The site also includes a database of reviews, a job guide and an announcements page for “academic conferences, calls for papers, and programs… ”

I am particularly fond of the reviews, which are searchable, and provide a helpful way to find ideas and to start to dig through the vast mountain of scholarly books and articles published each year. You can find the most recent reviews and information on the home page or go here to the content search page. It’s not fancy, but it works.

Posted in: Online Places, Writing