Category: News

Real-world data are messy. Relationships between two variables can take on an infinite number of forms, and while one doesn’t see, say, umbrella-shaped data very often, strange things can happen. When scientists talk about correlations or associations between variables, they’re usually referring to one very specific form of relationship–namely, a linear one. The assumption is that most associations between pairs of variables are reasonably well captured by positing that one variable increases in proportion to the other, with some added noise. In reality, of course, many associations aren’t linear, or even approximately so. For instance, many associations are cyclical (e.g., hours at work versus day of week), or curvilinear (e.g., heart attacks become precipitously more frequent past middle age), and so on.

Detecting a non-linear association is potentially just

Linguists and others interested in more in-depth information about the Omaha language may view the working database behind the Omaha Ponca Digital Dictionary. This database is a work in progress.

In this post, I demonstrate the collection and comparison features of WordSeer by using it to compare the usage of the word “love” in Shakespeares comedies and tragedies. You can watch the screencast, or simply read on.

FAST, an enumerative, faceted subject heading schema derived from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), is now available as an experimental Linked Data service and is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License.

On November 11th, the University’s new Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures hosted a daylong symposium on “The Humanities in a Digital Age.” The symposium included two panels—one on Access & Ownership and the other on Research & Teaching—and two keynote talks.