Lisp

A lisp, also known as "sigmatism" is a speech impediment in which a person misarticulates sibilants ([s], [z], [ts], [dz]), ([ʒ], [ʃ], [tʃ], [dʒ]). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech.

Types

*Lisp

The *Lisp (aka StarLisp) programming language was conceived of in 1985 by Cliff Lasser and Steve Omohundro (employees of the Thinking Machines Corporation) as a way of providing an efficient yet high-level language for programming the nascent Connection Machine.

History

Prelude

At the time the Connection Machine was being designed and built, the only language being actively developed for it was an Assembly-level language known as PARIS (Parallel Instruction Set). It became evident that a better way to program the machine was needed and needed quickly. Waiting for the completion of CM Lisp, or "Connection Machine Lisp" (an implementation of the very high-level programming language Lisp with parallel programming extensions) was not an option. CM Lisp had been proposed by Danny Hillis, and development was expected to continue for several more years.

Development

A *Lisp interpreter was initially developed. It quickly became apparent that a *Lisp compiler, translating *Lisp into Lisp and PARIS, would be needed to attain the gigaflop speeds that were theoretically attainable by a Connection Machine. The *Lisp compiler was written by Jeff Mincy and was first released in 1986. (An application achieving more than two gigaflops, a helicopter wake simulator, was developed by Alan Egolf, then an employee of United Technologies, and J. P. Massar, a Thinking Machines employee, in 1987; see "Helicopter Free Wake Implementation On Advanced Computer Architectures", International Conference on Basic Rotorcraft Research, 1988)

Lisp (band)

Lisp was an English trip hop band from East London. Formed in 1995, they were signed to Mind Horizon Recordings, a subsidiary of London Records, on which they released their first and only album, Cycles (2000), which saw radio success from its singles "Flatspin" and "Long Way to Climb".

History

Lisp was formed in East London in 1995, with the lineup including former Disco Inferno bassist Paul Willmott on keyboard, vocalist Johnnie Gordon, guitarist Brad Rubinstein, bassist Jason Hall, and drummer Adam Rich.

The band was signed to the London Records subsidiary Mind Horizon Recordings in 1999 by Pete Tong, through which they released their first single, "Flatspin", in September of that year. Their second single, "Long Way to Climb", was even more popular, getting airplay on XFM. In November, the band played a show at the club Scala in King's Cross, London. The full album, Cycles, was released on 17 April 2000.

The group disbanded in 2001, in part because Rubinstein's then-nascent return to Orthodox Jewish faith made it difficult for him to attend shows that fell on religious holidays. Following the breakup, Rubinstein moved to Israel, where he co-founded with rapper Ori Murray the Jewish hip hop/rock group Shtar.

Lisp (programming language)

Lisp (historically, LISP) is a family of computer programming languages with a long history and a distinctive, fully parenthesized Polish prefix notation. Originally specified in 1958, Lisp is the second-oldest high-level programming language in widespread use today; only Fortran is older (by one year). Like Fortran, Lisp has changed a great deal since its early days, and a number of dialects have existed over its history. Today, the most widely known general-purpose Lisp dialects are Common Lisp and Scheme.

Lisp was originally created as a practical mathematical notation for computer programs, influenced by the notation of Alonzo Church's lambda calculus. It quickly became the favored programming language for artificial intelligence (AI) research. As one of the earliest programming languages, Lisp pioneered many ideas in computer science, including tree data structures, automatic storage management, dynamic typing, conditionals, higher-order functions, recursion, and the self-hosting compiler.

Speech

Speech is the vocalized form of human communication. It is based upon the syntactic combination of lexicals and names that are drawn from very large (usually about 1,000 different words) vocabularies. Each spoken word is created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech sound units. These vocabularies, the syntax which structures them, and their set of speech sound units differ, creating the existence of many thousands of different types of mutually unintelligible human languages. Most human speakers are able to communicate in two or more of them, hence being polyglots. The vocal abilities that enable humans to produce speech also provide humans with the ability to sing.

A gestural form of human communication exists for the deaf in the form of sign language. Speech in some cultures has become the basis of a written language, often one that differs in its vocabulary, syntax and phonetics from its associated spoken one, a situation called diglossia. Speech in addition to its use in communication, it is suggested by some psychologists such as Vygotsky is internally used by mental processes to enhance and organize cognition in the form of an interior monologue.

Speech (album)

Speech was the fourth (and final) album of the British blues-rock band Steamhammer.

In 1971, bassist Steve Davy left the band, and Louis Cennamo was recruited as his replacement - then vocalist Kieran White also left the band after a summer tour. Guitarist Martin Pugh, drummer Mick Bradley and Cennamo (with guest vocalist Garth Watt-Roy, of Fuzzy Duck) then went in the studio to record "Speech", which was released in 1972. It consisted of three lengthy (and mostly instrumental) songs in a heavier progressive-rock vein, that was somewhat different from their initial blues and folk/jazz-influenced albums.

Bradley died from leukemia shortly before the album's mixing was completed (the album is dedicated to him on the inside album cover), and the band dissolved the following year; making Speech their final album.

After Steamhammer wound down, Pugh and Cennamo joined up with former Yardbirds vocalist Keith Relf (who had provided production assistance on "Speech", as well as contributing background vocals) and drummer Bobby Caldwell, formerly of Johnny Winter's band and Captain Beyond, to form Armageddon.

Public speaking

Public speaking (sometimes termed oratory or oration) is the process or act of performing a presentation (a speech) focused around an individual directly speaking to a live audience in a structured, deliberate manner in order to inform, influence, or entertain them. Public speaking is commonly understood as the formal, face-to-face talking of a single person to a group of listeners. It is closely allied to "presenting", although the latter is more often associated with commercial activity. Most of the time, public speaking is to persuade the audience.

Overview

In public speaking, as in any form of communication, there are five basic elements, often expressed as "who is saying what to whom using what medium with what effects?" The purpose of public speaking can range from simply transmitting information, to motivating people to act, to simply telling a story. Good orators should not only be able to engage their audience, but also able to read them. The power of a truly great presenter is the ability to change the emotions of their listeners, not just inform them. Public speaking can also be considered a discourse community. Interpersonal communication and public speaking have several components that embrace such things as motivational speaking, leadership/personal development, business, customer service, large group communication, and mass communication. Public speaking can be a powerful tool to use for purposes such as motivation, influence, persuasion, informing, translation, or simply ethos.