Just heard about that people are now against using the word “LOL”. That’s right, people, no more LOL (see http://nomorelol.com/)
I never really used that word frequently. Saw that word from my friend Mei. She always “LOL” when we chatted over MSN. The first time I saw it, I have asked her what it means. She said “Laugh Out Loud”. Well, that’s funny because several years ago it means “lots of love”. But we know that language does not stay still. Especially with the wide spread of IM tools and chat rooms, LOL has totally changed its meaning in the new Internet Age.
Now if you rethink, how many people are really lolling while typing in these three words? The website showed a pie chart showing you that most of the people are lying when they claim that they are lolling. Yes, in the Internet age, you cannot even tell whethe you are talking to a dog. Then how do u know whether the other side are laughing out loud. So what’s now? people are advocating “Loi” – laugh on the inside. Well, I am not so liking this phrase…it’s not easy to say and feeling like a mean person did something they don’t really dare to LoL. I will go back to my favorite, “hah-hah”. How simple is that! and how strong the feeling is! Let’s release our laugh from inside and “hah-hah”…
I was doing my research on forecasting mechanisms. It seems that “precition” and “forecast” are two words people use interchangeably. A review of Lewis-Beck (2005, BJPIR) clarifies the fine difference between these two:
“Forecasting aims to tell of events before they happen. It differs from prediction in that it looks to the future, where as prediction may not (as in a successful reconstruction of some past outcome). Further, forecasting differs from explanation, having the goal of predicting an outcome, rather than the goal of theorising about outcomes. “
Well, not fully cleared yet. So I further checked the M-W Dictionary:
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Predict – transitive verb. to declare or indicate in advance; especially : foretell on the basis of observation, experience, or scientific reason (syn. foretell)
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Forecast – transitive verb.
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1a: to calculate or predict (some future event or condition) usually as a result of study and analysis of available pertinent data; especially : to predict (weather conditions) on the basis of correlated meteorological observations
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1b: to indicate as likely to occur
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2: to serve as a forecast of …
So my understanding would be that to forecast, you have to talk about a future subject. But to predict, you just say something in advance. So my research is more about forecast then prediction. Happy to clear that up…
