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Linguists have identified a new English dialect that’s emerging in South Florida
Phillip Carter
Associate Professor and Sociolinguist
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
With more than 1.5 million reads, Carter’s viral article that ended up everywhere from TikTok to the New York Times explores his research documenting Miami’s unique dialect — the result of a common phenomenon that’s happened across the world whenever two languages come into close contact. Read the article.
“Most people know that Old English is radically different from Modern English, or that English in London sounds different from English in New Delhi, New York City, Sydney and Cape Town, South Africa. But rarely do we pause to think about how these changes take place, or to ponder where dialects and words come from.”
India and Vietnam are partnering with the US to counter China
Leland Lazarus
Associate Director of National Security Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
An expert on China-Latin America relations, Lazarus breaks down how the U.S.’s collaborative agreements with India and Vietnam may be a strategic move to counterbalance China’s growing global influence. Read the article.
“These actions are aimed at restraining China’s political, economic and military might, even if U.S. leaders don’t explicitly say that is their intention. Regardless of rhetoric, actions speak louder than words.”
What exactly caused the explosion at a hospital in Gaza? Without an independent, credible investigation, it will be hard for everyone to agree
Stefan Schmitt
Forensic Scientist
Global Forensic Justice Center
Schmitt has investigated war crimes and mass grave sites in global conflicts throughout his career and describes what’s normally involved with investigating explosion sites like that at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Arab Hospital on October 17, 2023. Read the article.
“Just like blood spatter can be analyzed, so too can shrapnel or an explosive pattern. Patterns such as injuries on victims, or things like shrapnel, crater damage and burn pattern still tell us much about the type of weaponry used. Injury and blast patterns over a group of people or a damaged site aren’t easily manufactured or faked.”
Teenage brains are drawn to popular social media challenges – here’s how parents can get their kids to think twice
Elisa Trucco
Associate Professor of Psychology
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Center for Children and Families
Trucco tackles an escalating online problem with offline consequences: How social pressure on social media makes teens more likely to participate in popular challenges that can be dangerous and sometimes deadly. Read the article.
“Teens today may find it more difficult to resist social pressure. They not only have unlimited access to their peers and other influencers, but online social networks are also much larger, with teens following hundreds – sometimes thousands – of online users.”
AI and the future of work
Mark Finlayson
Associate Professor of Computer Science
College of Engineering & Computing
Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences
Will artificial intelligence steal your job? Finlayson — who specializes in an area of AI called natural language processing — says while tools like ChatGPT will undoubtedly impact creative and knowledge workers, they will also present new opportunities for people willing to use them. Read the article.
“To conceive of what might happen, it is useful to recall the impact of the introduction of word processing programs in the early 1980s. Certain jobs like typist almost completely disappeared. But, on the upside, anyone with a personal computer was able to generate well-typeset documents with ease, broadly increasing productivity.”
This article was selected for inclusion in the 2024 anthology The Conversation on Work.