Let's start at the beginning--Call me Ishmael. Or rather, let's take it from another beginning--just call me Google. Since their inception in 2004, Google Books and Google Scholar have been making headlines for their lofty goals and, well, battling it out with lots of angry authors and publishers. They've become the epicenter for one of the more tumultuous discussions of our generation: How much do we allow technology to change us? At least, that's what I think this argument is really all about. more

Howdy--I'm Katie, thet newest member of the Cambridge EchoDitto team. And yeah, I say howdy. It's a fantastic word--wait just a second while I go look up the etymology in the Oxford English Dictionary--and although not everyone says it in my recently departed home of Washington State, no one would smirk at a casual "howdy" thrown their way. Here's what the OED had to say about it: Howdy originates from the colloquial slurring of "How do you do"--or, more specifically, "There, how d'ye do now?" first found in Vanbrugh, circa 1697. I'm curious what other people think of howdy-ing. more