You’ve always got old geezers (lookin’ at you, Homecoming) lamenting the rapid deterioration of the English language, and yesterday was no different. In this Atlantic article, notable linguist and Penn alum Noam Chomsky duked it out against Penn linguistics prof Mark Liberman.

Chomsky claims that Twitter is the beacon of all things evil, corrupting the English language with its “superficiality [that] draws people away from real serious communication.” Meanwhile, back in our town, Liberman notes that despite all the abbrevs and slang, Twitter is in fact improving the language. Citing the DP twitter feed, he notes that the average tweet actually has a greater mean word length than Good Ol’ Billy’s Hamlet.

On the one hand, we hate when fuddy duddies tell us what we can and cannot do with our own evolving language. Evry1 understandz us just fyne, wrighte? But then again, we’re a little skeptical about the calculations that Liberman brings to the table. #doesthiscountasoneword?

Either way, it’s worth a read. (Did we mention the overall kicker is that the article itself is written by a Penn alum?)

You might by now have heard of Occupy Wall Street, an anonymous movement in New York City meant to put an end to the corrupt relationship between government and Wall Street.

Although OWS was initially dismissed by major publications as juvenile and disorganized, the demonstration has quickly gained publicity, mostly stemming from reports of police brutality. An estimated 100 people have been arrested in the last week, including a handful of Columbia students.

In the past few days, the movement has garnered many supporters, among them Michael Moore and Penn alum Noam Chomsky. Some have gone so far as to compare this protest with those of Greece and Arab nations. As much as we all love to joke about that red tower of greed that casts its long shadow over the rest of campus, the OWS movement has serious implications for us, as Penn students and millennials. Read the rest of this entry »