Tag: language

Plain language bill in U.S. Senate is being stalled – Update: it is now a Law

Karen Mardahl on

Update (16Mar2020): The Plain Writing Act of 2010 Became Public Law No: 111-274 10/13/2010

You might be able to help.

Whitney Quesenbery brought us the latest news about the Plain Language bill that we wrote about back in April this year.

It is stuck in the Senate. Senator Bennett (R. Utah) has blocked the bill on the grounds that it would be a problem for the Federal Election Commission and the Election Assistance Commission.

Whitney has two simple answers to their objections:

  1. The law does not apply to regulations
  2. Are they really suggesting that information about elections should be hard to understand

If you are in the United States, you can help by writing or calling your Senator's office and Senator Bennett's office to express your opinion.

Here's additional information from the International Law Prof Blog about how to write your representative on this matter:
Plain Language in Government Communication

Dr. X’s Free Associations

Cynthia A. Lockley on

An example of free association is finding an unexpected gem while searching the Web for something else. While searching for photos of Washington, DC, I discovered a very interesting blog about psychology, neuroscience, vintage photos, Web-based testing, and lots more. The blog is called "Dr. X's Free Associations". Dr. X is a clinical psychologist who blogs about old photos, psychology & psychoanalysis, science, and more. [Note: We deleted the link to the blog (/vintage-photos-name-index.html) because unfortunately the blog's web host no longer exists as of 14Apr23.]

Today's post is titled "Psychology, Mind & Neuroscience Roundup" has a collection of interesting links. On the 27th, his post "Woman Recovers Balance Using Tongue" presents a video report about how the late Paul Bach-y-Rita used sensory substitution and applied the same principle to the development of devices for visual and hearing impairments to help a woman regain her balance. Followed by "A Researcher's Thoughts on Web-based Experiments" on cognition and language.

I hope you enjoy losing yourself in this blog as much as I have. It also has a collection of other related blogs in the sidebars. And, of course, those old historical photos that were last updated 5 February 2013.
[Note: We deleted the link to the blog (/vintage-photos-name-index.html) because unfortunately the blog's web host no longer exists as of 14Apr23. You might enjoy looking at another blog of Rare Historical Photos.]