12.26.2004
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In their book, The Research Manual: Design and Statistics for Applied Linguistics, Evelyn Hatch and Annne Lazaraton state that “The world has two answers to [academic scholarly conclusions] – either ‘I don’t believe it’ or ‘Oh, I knew that already.’” To which I respond, oh, I knew that already.
But I did. That's why I'm the one quoting it.
But in the realm of academic scholarly conclusions, a critical breakthrough was made in the field of beverage conservation. After British retail giantMarks & Spencer commissioned a study from the School of Science and Environment at Coventry University, researchers were hard at work determining the optimal conditions and subsequent methods for opening a bottle of champagne (or, one must assume, a similarly bubbly non-French-produced sparkling wine). The bottle must be suitably chilled, not only for the pleasure of drinking a cold, crisp sparkling wine, but also to reduce the pressure, since Gay-Lussac's Law states that for a fixed amount of gas at a fixed volume, the pressure is proportional to the temperature. So the bottle must be chilled. Well, duh... So there's a new law in town: Smith's Law, named after Coventry University wine studies lecturer, Dr. Steve Smith. P (pressure) = T (temperature) / 4.5 + 1. But while Smith's Law is an equation, it is written up as a "technique" in today's Daily Telegraph, and it even comes with a handy infographic, in case you don't have time to read the entire article.
This reminds me of the 1999 document produced by the British Standards Institute on the method for brewing the perfect cup of tea. That was a 5000 word behemoth of an instruction manual.
Interestingly, the police in London have instructed officers to stop using the words "black" and "asian" to describe people of those ethnic backgrounds. Instead, both are now to be lumped under "VME" or Visible Minority Ethnics. This is ridiculous. I am particularly amused by the alternative, or the Invisible Minority Ethnics.
But I did. That's why I'm the one quoting it.
But in the realm of academic scholarly conclusions, a critical breakthrough was made in the field of beverage conservation. After British retail giantMarks & Spencer commissioned a study from the School of Science and Environment at Coventry University, researchers were hard at work determining the optimal conditions and subsequent methods for opening a bottle of champagne (or, one must assume, a similarly bubbly non-French-produced sparkling wine). The bottle must be suitably chilled, not only for the pleasure of drinking a cold, crisp sparkling wine, but also to reduce the pressure, since Gay-Lussac's Law states that for a fixed amount of gas at a fixed volume, the pressure is proportional to the temperature. So the bottle must be chilled. Well, duh... So there's a new law in town: Smith's Law, named after Coventry University wine studies lecturer, Dr. Steve Smith. P (pressure) = T (temperature) / 4.5 + 1. But while Smith's Law is an equation, it is written up as a "technique" in today's Daily Telegraph, and it even comes with a handy infographic, in case you don't have time to read the entire article.
This reminds me of the 1999 document produced by the British Standards Institute on the method for brewing the perfect cup of tea. That was a 5000 word behemoth of an instruction manual.
Interestingly, the police in London have instructed officers to stop using the words "black" and "asian" to describe people of those ethnic backgrounds. Instead, both are now to be lumped under "VME" or Visible Minority Ethnics. This is ridiculous. I am particularly amused by the alternative, or the Invisible Minority Ethnics.
