As I've been working my way through a backlog of older articles, once in a while I wondered why I saved a certain article. Upon reading it, I remembered why. Ah, they joys of rediscovery ...

With that out of the way, let's get Monday started with these links:

The US island that speaks Elizabethan English — A fascinating glimpse into the way of life of the inhabitants of North Carolina's Ocracoke Island, a place where an 18^th century dialect persists but which, like many dialects and minor languages, is slowly fading away.

From the article:

"What's happening is that some of these small dialects that thrive on isolation are dying because isolation is a thing of the past," said Dr Wolfram. "They still pick up terms and vocabulary, but when a kid from the island retains a strong dialect, that was the norm and now it’s an exception."

Our Algorithmic Grey-Beige World — If you've been thinking that a lot of what you read and see online is a variation on one theme or another, you're not alone. It seems we live in an online world that rewards blandness disguised as creativity.

From the article:

And yet here we are. Our algorithmic gods are our teachers, tastemakers, and economic incentive all at once. Fall in line, and get paid. What May called courage banishes you to a world of lower distribution, fewer views, less income. It’s safer to wear the cloak of grey-beige conformity.

The Secret History And Strange Future Of Charisma — Who'd have thought that charisma was so complex and ephemeral. And yet all of us have, at one time or another, fallen under the sway of an individual possessing that quality whether for good or for bad. It's just who or what that individual will be in the future that's troubling.

From the article:

The inability to understand quite how sophisticated algorithms exert their will on us (largely because such information is intentionally clouded), while nonetheless perceiving their power enables them to become an authority in our lives. As the psychologist Donald McIntosh explained almost half a century ago, “The outstanding quality of charisma is its enormous power, resting on the intensity and strength of the forces which lie unconscious in every human psyche."

On Editing and Not Editing — Editing is something writers can't avoid. The results can be good, bad, and just plain ugly. Editing can improve a piece of writing, mangle its message or worse. The same can be said for editors ...

From the article:

All of which makes me crook a skeptical eyebrow at the sort of writer who praises her editors to the skies. There are many more of these than you might suspect, or than can possibly be healthy for the culture. Such praise generally presents as a protestation of helplessness: Without the wise interventions of an editor, the poor, beleaguered scribbler would have remained a little lost lamb, a babe in the woods.