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Sam Kelly

@samkellyproof.bsky.social
205 followers 274 following 28 posts

Brit in Argentina. Bad pool player and good reader for pleasure; proofreader for money (also good at that, or at least so I like to think). Professional Member of the CIEP | undisputedproof.com Also podcast @handofpod.bsky.social

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Sam Kelly @samkellyproof.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Love reading @lynneguist.bsky.social’s email newsletter.
Newsletter extract, reading:

It’s a very interesting study, and I love that they used dictionaries as input to their computational study. I was hoping Scientific American would quote this bit of my take, but since they didn’t, I’ll put it here for posterity:

We look at studies like this and go “look what computers can do!” but we need to pause for a moment and notice: the computers are counting things in work that was done by hundreds of language speakers, lexicographers, anthropologists, and linguists who documented these languages. The research team has found a way to put that varied information together and to ask interesting questions of the data set. It was a lot of work, but nothing like the amount of work that needs to go into making the dictionaries in the first place. We need that work done by people out in the linguistic field to continue so that we can continue to ask interesting questions of such data. Dictionaries offer only snapshots of a language at a particular time, from a particular angle.
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Sam Kelly @samkellyproof.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Bloody hell, Google. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the amount (I’ve checked my admin console and it is in fact an annual invoice, as it normally is).
Screenshot of an email telling me ‘Your Google Workspace monthly invoice is available.’
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Sam Kelly @samkellyproof.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Next up, a rare second physical book in a row, because my partner’s currently reading something on my Kindle. Read this one in English a couple of decades ago, but this is the first time in Spanish. #booksky
Spanish-language edition of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
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Sam Kelly @samkellyproof.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Just finished Moon Witch Spider King by Marlon James. Wonderful stuff, and looks great next to the first book in the series. Can’t wait for the next one! #Booksky
Two hardback books, side by side: on the left, Black Leopard Red Wolf; on the right, Moon Witch Spider King, both by Marlon James
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