Robert Seyfarth describes how monkey calls used by Vervet Monkeys might be precursors to language. Vervets give different types of calls in reaction to different kinds of approaching predators. These calls are simple. They are not language, though Seyfarth suggests that these types of calls are precursors to language.
According to a Texas jury, it was OK for a man to say "shit" when referring to cat shit to a 13-year old neighbor child. More precisely, his use of the word "shit" didn't constitute "disorderly conduct."
I usually like the online magazine Slate. I listen to many of Slate's podcasts, read several of the site's posts a week, and peruse their author-run blogs on occasion, too. The site isn't perfect, but I usually carry some respect for the site's authors and its generally thoughtful, funny content. Exceptions being boneheaded pursuits like their recent attempt to track down the evolutionary origins of Facebook's 25 Things meme (Hint to Slate: that trend dates back to the years before Facebook, the golden days of Livejournal). But for all of Slate's occasionally out-of-touch, misguided posts, nothing beats The Happiness Project. Authored by ex-lawyer and non-Slate author Gretchen Rubin, it's a recent addition to Slate's blog roll, and not truly a "part" of Slate itself. I still hold Slate somewhat responsible for sharing the drivel that the blog spews. I'll give you a pretty representative taste: Five Ways to Outsmart Your 3-Year Old. Let's take Way #1. Gretchen writes:
Isn't it time that we do away with the sentence, "He/She is doing computer work?" It made sense 20 years ago, when everyone was spending inordinate amounts of time trying to get their computers to work at all. But now we use our computers to actually accomplish an amazing variety…
We can label our attempts to stop politically motivated violence in a variety of ways. We could use the law enforcement metaphor or we could use the social epidemic metaphor. The Bush administration, however, has consciously chosen to invoke the metaphor of "war." An article in the current edition of…