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This is a follow-up to a previous Al's Morning Meeting post. Police are upset about a video game that allows players to shoot officers.

See the story in the Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times.
 

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Do We Talk Like That?

A University of Pennsylvania linguist says that, despite the effects of mass media, individual cities around America are developing more distinctive, not homogenized, speech patterns.

 

He even has a demo version of some of his research (which, to access, requires a pain-in-the-behind registration, but is worth it) so you can hear examples of how people in different cities say certain words. Listen to how people in different parts of the country say words such as "man," "Dan" and "bad."

 

It could be a lot of fun to examine how your city thinks it sounds. There is great podcasting and online/multimedia audio potential for this one.

 

Are linguistics changing in cities -- especially southern cities, where there has been an infusion of folks from other parts of the country?

 

Send me a note if you do something on this, so we can share it with others.

 

National Public Radio interviewed the researcher. Listen to the interview.

A little while back, PBS produced a broadcast and interactive Web site -- called "Do You Speak American?" -- that covers American accents, linguistics and slang. It might be worthwhile to explore it a bit.

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Snowboarding Injuries

As a follow-up to another previous Al's Morning Meeting story -- this time, about snowboarding -- NPR aired a nice piece on the frequency of injuries in this emerging extreme sport that has gotten such big play in the Olympics.  

 

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Awesome Multimedia Project

I just love the streaming Flash profiles of Minnesota Olympians on the Star Tribune's Web site. Roll over a mug shot and click. The stream starts quickly. It is outstanding multimedia.  
 

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Average Income

The average family income in 2004 [PDF] was $70,700, according to a recent Federal Reserve Board report. Adjusted for inflation, that is down from 2001.

The median income (or, the point where half of all families fall above the number and half below) stood at $43,200, which is a little higher than it was in 2001 (adjusted for inflation). Not all of this may matter much to you, except for when people -- including politicians -- talk about average families and wages.

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Average Debt

The new Fed report also says 76.4 percent of all American households carry some sort of debt. (See Page 28 of the report.)

Page 28 of the report shows that, in 2004, 44.9 percent of households with a mortgage had refinanced in the previous three years. A large number of those who refinanced held out some of the equity to pay debts or renovate. Fifty-seven percent of the new loans were at least 30-year loans. (See Page 30 of the report.) About 9 percent of debtors were 60 days or more past due on their payments for any debt they owed. (Page 34)

 

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Credit-Card Debt

The Fed report [PDF] says 46.2 percent of households have some credit-card debt. (Page 28) The median balance was $2,200. The average balance was $5,100.

Of course, richer folks have higher balances because they buy more stuff. Maybe surprisingly, more than 55 percent of all bankcard holders say usually they pay their balances off each month. (Page 31) Does this suggest that there is too much hype over Americans drowning in credit-card debt?

 

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