Practical Communication: Translations and courses

Will Cloud Computing Make Everything (and Everyone) Work Harder?

2011-11-14T22:25:00.001-08:00

What do the following have in common: Computers, limousines, empty beds and stay-at-home moms?

The cloud keeps them busy.

The rest of us are next.

Virtualization of computer servers, a core element in the development of cloud computing, made it possible for a single PC that was used 20 percent of the time to be used 80 percent or more. Software monitored workloads, spotted when a machine was free, and assigned it a workload that would keep it busy without distracting it from the original function.

Now, thanks to the cloud’s ability to cheaply connect a lot of people and information over a broad array of devices, a similar use of spare resources is going on elsewhere in the economy. A company called Uber connects limousines that are between jobs with people who want a ride on the spur of the moment – after a boozy dinner, say, or a late night at work. The serviceAirbnbturns people’s spare rooms into a cheap alternative to hotels, sometimes with with mixed results.

It is possible to see this trend as a function of the cloud itself, since announcing, finding and occupying vacancies on the fly requires access from a lot of locations to common databases. It was always theoretically possible to rent out your room or pick up a fare in between jobs, but now it can be done cheaply and through a common system.

Another example of this trend is LiveOps, a cloud-based call center service. Companies like Pizza Hut, NationsHealth, and Kodak typically pay LiveOps 25 cents a minute to do things like take orders, field customer problems, and sell products. LiveOps farms the work out to 20,000 people who connect via the cloud from their homes. They sign on weekly for however many half-hour sessions they want, filling out what would otherwise be vacant time.

“The computers in the cloud find the right person among our agents, then routes the call to their house,” says Marty Beard, LiveOp’s chief executive. “They’re mostly students, parents, veterans looking for work – people with a little extra time.” In addition to phone calls, he is gearing the company up to respond to people’s Twitter and Facebook postings about the companies that have contracted with LiveOps.

Typically people work 25 hours to 30 hours a week, Mr. Beard says, gaining income by selling products, or getting licensed to sell insurance products. “If you’re really good, you can make $45,000 or $50,000 a year,” he says. “More likely, it’s half that.”

In effect, they are filling out their free time, like a limo on Uber or a server in a system, thanks to a cloud system.

This kind of machine-made urgency to utilize everything, creating lower prices (and for many, lower wages) will very likely find a lot more areas to attack. Much of our work may come to resemble a Uber or LiveOps model, as shared calendars and documents, along with location-aware devices, make work possible from more times and locations.

Same word, different meaning

2011-11-11T17:52:00.001-08:00

American or British? Maybe we're talking about different things!

What's wrong?

2011-11-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

Pay attention to modals and tenses.

Hallowe'en

2011-10-31T01:00:00.000-07:00

Halloween (or Hallowe'en) is an annual holiday observed on October 31, which commonly includes activities such as trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)".

The name of the festival historically kept by the Gaels and Celts in the British Isles is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".According to the Oxford Dictionary of English folk lore: "Certainly Samhain was a time for festive gatherings, and medieval Irish texts and later Irish, Welsh, and Scottish folklore use it as a setting for supernatural encounters, but there is no evidence that it was connected with the dead in pre-Christian times, or that pagan religious ceremonies were held."The Irish myths which mention Samhain were written in the 10th and 11th centuries by Christian monks. This is around 200 years after the Catholic church inaugurated All Saints Day and at least 400 years after Ireland became Christian.

The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints), All-Hallows-Even is itself not attested until 1556.

Beavis and Butt-Head Is Back

2011-10-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

I am Cornholio! Heh-heh-heh. Fire! Fire! Uhhhh. This sucks!

If those phrases mean anything to you, then you might be interested to know Beavis and Butt-Head returns to MTV tonight. The iconic animated series, about two dopey couch potatoes who offer sarcastic commentary on music videos, harass their neighbors, eat nachos and generally think everything "sucks," originally ran on MTV from 1993 until 1997, spawning the spin-off Daria, and the feature-length movie, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.Now, the metal-loving doofuses are back, and although this time they'll be ripping apart the network's staples like Jersey Shore instead of music videos. One thing hasn't changed though: They're still idiots. "There was a conscious decision to have nobody grow or learn much," creator Mike Judge told Rolling Stone.

Source: People Magazine

Adjectives to describe certain kind of people:

dopey, dopy [ˈdəʊpɪ]

adj dopier, dopiest

1. Slang silly

2. Informal half-asleep or in a state of semiconsciousness, as when under the influence of a drug

dopily adv

dopiness n

couch potato
n Slang a lazy person whose recreation consists chiefly of watching television and videos

doofus [ˈduːfəs]
n Informal chiefly US a slow-witted or stupid person

idiot [ˈɪdɪət]
n. 1. (Psychiatry) a person with severe mental retardation
2. a foolish or senseless person

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged

Combining Words for English Fluency

2011-10-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

A different way to practice pronunciation. For advanced students!

London Native English Speaker Interviews

2011-10-18T17:14:00.000-07:00

This is part 1 of a series of videos for people learning English. Luke went into central London recently and asked people "What's London really like?"These are their responses.Use the video to practise listening and to learn about English culture.Luke's English Podcast is a free service for people learning English as a foreign language. Transcript and definitions available here:http://www.teacherluke.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/london-video-interviews-pt-1/Enjoy!

English vs American slang

2011-10-14T00:13:00.001-07:00

Hugh Laurie (House) paid a house call to Ellen, at her "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and played an exciting game of American slang versus English slang.Enjoy!

2011-10-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

According to the story in Exodus, God inscribed the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets, which he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai.

The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, widely considered fundamental to Judaism and Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, and adultery. Different groups follow slightly different traditions for interpreting and numbering them.

What will it take for Argentina to beat New Zealand at their spiritual home?

2011-10-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

Crowning moment: Argentina celebrate victory over Scotland
which effectively put them into the quarter-finalsPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

On that July day in 1994 the French, enlivened by magicians such as Philippe Sella, Emile Ntamack and Philippe Saint-Andre in the backs, and stoked by the grunt of Christian Califano, Olivier Merle and Abdel Benazzi up front, snuck home 23-20. Ever since it’s been one way traffic going New Zealand’s way. Even against four teams rolled into one, as with the British and Irish Lions in 2005, the All Blacks ended up comfortable winners.

Challenging the burden of history

That’s the first task for Argentina as they seek to topple the All Blacks. Somehow they have to take the venue out of the equation. Ground records shouldn’t matter, but they do. Cardiff Arms Park was a cemetery for English ambition in the 70s and 80s, just as Twickenham becameEngland’s fortress under Sir Clive Woodward. Over the years South Africa have been more successful at Ellis Park than they have at sea level. But here’s the thing: Argentina have never played at Eden Park before. Its history means nothing to them.

Crank up the emotion

One way to negate home advantage is to turn the passion and emotion back on the All Blacks. The Pumas are the most charismatic, the most sentimental, the most expressive team in world rugby. Mario Ledesma and Rodrigo Roncero will be weeping like babies as the anthems blare out. They will hug and squeeze, then glare and froth as New Zealand perform their haka. Keep up that level of arousal, channel it intelligently and the All Blacks might get rattled.

Play to your strengths

There is no point whatsoever trying to outplay the All Blacks. That way lies ruin. The Pumas, even without the superb Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, injured against Scotland, have a beefy pack well versed at scrummage and line-out. There is no mileage in going wide. But a tight, controlled, driving effort where many bodies are aimed at small holes is a strategy which might confound the All Blacks. If only for the first quarter or so.

Belief

As from next year the Tri-Nations becomes the Four Nations with Argentina joining South Africa, New Zealand and Australia on an equal footing in the southern hemisphere’s premier international rugby competition. The Pumas need to play to their enhanced status, a reflection of the success they have had at World Cups and against sides ranked higher than them. As with Italy’s entry into the Six Nations, the Pumas need to understand and believe that this is where they belong.

Be lucky

Dan Carter has gone, Israel Dagg is out injured, Richie McCaw is playing with a bad foot, Sonny Bill Williams hasn’t a clue at to which is his best position and Kieran Read lacks match fitness. OK, there some serious straw-clutching going on, but someone, somewhere has to beat this All Black side in this World Cup. It’s happened at every tournament since 1987.

Source: The Telegraph

Steve Jobs: February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011

2011-10-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

Today is International Translation Day

2011-09-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

Saint Jerome Stridonsky, one of the teachers and the Early Church Fathers, died on September 30, 420.

He translated the Holy bible into Latin and is the patron saint of interpreters. He wrote a great number of texts on theology, commentaries to the Holy Scripture, and he was an excellent translator who was not just concerned about the practical side of this job, but reflected on the theory of translation. He discussed the issue of the "right" or "adequate" translation, reflected on the usage of literal translations and comparative translations. Saint Jerome traveled a lot and finally decided to stay in Bethlehem where he worked on the translation of the Old and New Testaments into Latin.Saint Jerome Stridonsky, one of the teachers and the Early Church Fathers, died on September 30, 420.
He translated the Holy bible into Latin and is the patron saint of interpreters. He wrote a great number of texts on theology, commentaries to the Holy Scripture, and he was an excellent translator who was not just concerned about the practical side of this job, but reflected on the theory of translation. He discussed the issue of the "right" or "adequate" translation, reflected on the usage of literal translations and comparative translations. Saint Jerome traveled a lot and finally decided to stay in Bethlehem where he worked on the translation of the Old and New Testaments into Latin.

Companies Use Immigration Crackdown to Turn a Profit

2011-09-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Private security companies have turned the detention of unwanted immigrants into a multinational industry with a history of abuse

(...)

Especially in Britain, the United States and Australia, governments of different stripes have increasingly looked to such companies to expand detention and show voters they are enforcing tougher immigration laws.
Some of the companies are huge — one is among the largest private employers in the world — and they say they are meeting demand faster and less expensively than the public sector could.

But the ballooning of privatized detention has been accompanied by scathing inspection reports, lawsuits and the documentation of widespread abuse and neglect, sometimes lethal. Human rights groups say detention has neither worked as a deterrent nor speeded deportation, as governments contend, and some worry about the creation of a “detention-industrial complex” with a momentum of its own.

Read the entire article: New York Times

What's your opinion?

Adele

2011-09-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988), known professionally as Adele, is a British singer-songwriter. She was the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critics' Choice and was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2008. Since her debut album 19, Adele has received much recognition both commercially and critically. The album debuted at number one, and has been certified 4x platinum in the UK. Her career in the US was boosted by a viewer record–breaking Saturday Night Live episode in late 2008. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Adele won the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Source: Wikipedia

Rugby 101

2011-09-22T08:10:00.001-07:00

A basic overview of the rules of rugby.

Agreeing and disagreeing

2011-09-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

Argentina Get an 8th Wall Show from Roger Waters. Unbelievable!

2011-09-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable! Roger and The Wall Livejust keep breaking records in Buenos Aires! An unprecedented eighth date, on March 18, 2012, has just been added to the tour. This takes us to 28 dates announced for the tour so far!

You will know by now that all 4 of the Brazil concerts will be rescheduled so that these extra Argentina concerts can be put on. Although not a million miles from each other, it still takes rather a long while to break a stage down, transport it to a new venue and then set it all up again!

I wonder if a 9th, 10th, 11th and more concerts will be added to Argentina? This hasn’t happened on this scale anywhere else on the tour since 2010, not to this extent. It would seem Argentina is the home of Roger Waters!

Source: http://www.rogerwaterstours.com

IT and computer vocabulary

2011-09-06T18:22:00.000-07:00

This is a two-part video on IT and computer vocabulary related to the "next generation" of internet technologies, commonly referred to as Web 2.0.
Enjoy!

Freddie Mercury's birthday - Google Doodle

2011-09-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

Did you visit Google today? They're paying tribute to Freddie Mercury.

Check it out and listen to the band’s best ever lyrics according to Queen fans.

Queen fans around the world have celebrated the band’s 40th anniversary – by voting for the band’s best ever lyrics.

The poll, as voted by 3,000 fans in an Island Records/HMV survey, also coincides with frontman Freddie Mercury’s birthday.

Storming into top spot were lyrics “Don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time, I’m having a ball” with one in five of those surveyed labelling it their favourite line.

However, despite its popularity, the song (penned by Mercury) only reached number nine in the charts in January 1979.

Coming in second in the poll was the lyric “My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies, fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die. I can fly my friends,” from The Show Must Go On.

Gennaro Castaldo, of HMV, said: “Whilst you’d imagine there might be more obvious choices, we shouldn’t be too surprised that a lyric from Don’t Stop Me Now is a clear favourite among fans – it’s such a feel-good, life-affirming song.”

The anniversary also sees a charity urging people to ‘Be Freddie For A Day’ to raise money to fight Aids. In 1992, the Mercury Phoenix Trust was set up in Mercury’s name to help fight Aids worldwide.

In addition to Queen’s four decades in the industry, the final instalment of the band’s remastered and reissued albums has been released.

Source: InsideIreland.ie

Why Women Win Fights

2011-08-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Dane Cook (an American stand-up comedian) talks about relationships and explains why women win fights. Do you agree? How does it work for you?

Jobs Steps Down at Apple, Saying He Can’t Meet Duties

2011-08-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

Steven P. Jobs, whose insistent vision that he knew what consumers wanted made Apple one of the world’s most valuable and influential companies, is stepping down as chief executive, the company announced late Wednesday.

“I have always said that if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s C.E.O., I would be the first to let you know,” Mr. Jobs said in a letter released by the company. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

Mr. Jobs, 56, has been on medical leave since January, his third such absence. He underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, and received a liver transplant in 2009. But as recently as a few weeks ago, Mr. Jobs was negotiating business issues with another Silicon Valley executive.

Mr. Jobs will become chairman, a position that did not exist before. Apple named Tim Cook, its chief operating officer, to succeed Mr. Jobs as chief executive.

Source: NYTimes
We recommend: While You Were Out: Apple’s Years With and Without Steve Jobs

How to Make a Paper Ninja Star

2011-08-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

This video explains how to make a throwable Japanese Ninja Star -Shuriken- out of paper. Cool enough! But it will also help you to learn certain phrases to give oral instructions or to explain how something is done. Pay attention and write down the ones that you find useful.

And please, be careful with your star!

British accent

2011-08-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

Do you what to practise British (informal) English? Listen and watch these videos. Which sounds are different? What about intonation? Listen and repeat.

Idiom: Split hairs

2011-07-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

to argue about very small differences or unimportant details It's splitting hairs to tell people that they cannot lie but it is all right if they exaggerate.

to argue about whether details that are not important are exactly correct 'She earns three time what I earn.' 'Actually, it's more like two and a half.' 'Oh stop splitting hairs!'

Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms

Top 10 Favorite British Words

2011-07-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

These are the top 10 favorite British words according to Merriam-Webster (an American English dictionary).

#1: Prat

Definition:
a stupid or foolish person
Example:
"Everyone's feeling a bit summery this morning, with a few rays breaking out over Britain and some of you lot daring to break the 'anyone who wears sunglasses in April is a prat' rule that we just made up." –3am.co.uk, April 6, 2011

About the word:
Prat probably comes from the 16th century slang prat meaning "buttocks." The original pratfall was a fall on the buttocks.

#2: Twee

Definition:
affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint.

Example:
"Micmacs [is a] ramshackle and unbearably twee French comedy." – Chris Tookey, Daily Mail Online, February 26, 2010

About the word:
Twee is a baby-talk alteration of sweet. It first appeared in print in a 1905 issue of the British magazine Punch.

#3: Knackered

Definition:
tired, exhausted

Example:
"Went for a 4 miler and then when I got back from work we took the kids swimming. Nice and knackered now." – blog post at SoreLimbs.co.uk, January 18, 2011

About the word:
The slang knacker means "to kill or tire."
Etymologists can't be sure if there's a link between the adjective knackered and the knacker that means "horse-slaughterer."

#4: Jiggery-pokery

Definition:
dishonest or suspicious activity; nonsense

Example:
"[Greece] flouted European Union rules on the limits to budget deficits; its national accounts were a moussaka of minced statistics, topped with a cheesy sauce of jiggery-pokery." – Jeff Randall, The Telegraph, May 20, 2010

About the word:
Jiggery-pokery is an alteration of joukery-pawkery. Both joukeryand pawkery are English regionalisms for "trickery."

#5: Plonk

Definition:
cheap or inferior wine

Example:
"Fine diners are drinking premier cru wines at plonk prices as a bring-your-own booze revolution gathers pace in Britain's best restaurants." – Robert Booth, The Guardian, June 20, 2010

About the word:
Plonk is a shortening of the earlier plink-plonk, and it may be a modification of vin blanc, which means "white wine" in French.

#6: Chunter

Definition:
to talk in a low inarticulate way: mutter

Example:
"Tell me about it. I was chuntering on last night about *padded* training bras." – michlan on Twitter, April 13, 2011

About the word:
Chunter is sometimes used as a synonym of "complain." The word is probably imitative in origin: when people are chuntering, it sounds a bit like they're saying "chunter chunter." (Mutter is also imitative.)

#7: Whinge

Definition:
to complain fretfully: whine

Example:
"I shall have one pint of beer less every time I'm in the pub, and I might occasionally whinge about the rises in the cost of living outstripping my wages." – blog post on A Dull Day at Work, April 2, 2011

About the word:
Whinge (short "i" and terminal "j" sound) predates the long "i"whine. The Old English ancestor of whinge meant "to moan."

#8: Gormless

Definition:
lacking intelligence: stupid

Example:
"Gormless, unhelpful and poorly trained shop staff create merry hell for customers who are simply exercising their legal rights to a repair, refund or replacement." – Sam Dunn, Two Pennies Worth blog, March 22, 2011

About the word:
The word gaum exists in some English dialects and means "attention or understanding." Someone without gaum (or gorm) lacks understanding.

#9: Boffin

Definition:
a scientific expert and especially one involved in technological research

Example:
"Brain boffins at University College London have made a major breakthrough in the ongoing effort to bridge the gap between man and machine." – Rik Myslewski,The Register, April 11, 2011

About the word:
Boffin dates to 1945. Although its origin remains a mystery, it may have originated as a slang term for scientists engaged in wartime efforts.

#10: Pukka

Definition:
genuine, authentic; first-class

Example:
"... the record-breaking Sri Lankan [cricket player] has always shown himself a pukka gent...." – William Langley, The Telegraph, July 24, 2010

About the word:

Chef Jamie Oliver rejuvenated pukka with his BBC series Pukka Tukka. That's fitting, since pukka comes from the Hindi and Urdu words for "cooked," "ripe," and "solid."

Public Speaking

2011-07-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

How do you feel when talking to an audience? Here you have some tips to improve your presentations.

Vocabulary: business terms

2011-06-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

This video introduces English vocabulary related to economics and the economy. Enjoy!

Future Perfect

2011-06-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we talk about an event that still lies in our future. But when we talk about this future event, it's from a point even further into the future. This is the future perfect tense.
The future perfect tense describes an action or circumstance completed or achieved in a more distant time in the future. This grammar structure may be used to imagine future events, as in the following:
By 2025, I will have gotten married and had a couple of kids.
By the 22nd century, we will have developed cars that fly.
The future perfect may also describe an event in the future which hasn't begun or hasn't been
completed in the present. For example:
Alex: What are you doing now?
Bill: I'm studying for my big test tomorrow. I will have finished in a few hours.
Pam: I just lost my job!
Steve: That's terrible.
Pam: Actually, I'm really happy. I needed a vacation.
Steve: But in a month or two, your money will have run out. What do you plan to do then?
In the first example, Bill is presently studying for his big test. He will have finished studying in a few hours. In the second example, Pam now has money. In one or two months, the circumstances may be quite different. Then she will have run out of money.

Heads Up English

www.headsupenglish.com

The Mactini

2011-06-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

"Each other" versus "one another"

2011-05-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Each other and one another are both pronouns, and their uses are almost identical. Both phrases refer to one of two or more people or things that are doing something together or are in some sort of relationship with one or more members of the group. Here are some examples of use:

The kittens chased each other. = The kittens chased one another. [=each one of the kittens chased the other(s)]
The members of the planning group consulted with one another. = The members of the planning group consulted with each other. [=each of the people in the planning group consulted with the other members of the group]
He and I looked at one another. = He and I looked at each other. [=he looked at me and I looked at him]

Some people say that each other should only be used of two people or things and that one another is used of more than two people or things, but our evidence shows that this is not the case. If you want to observe the rule, you can, but you do not need to. You can used each other and one another the same way.

Each other and one another are fixed idioms. Do not confuse them with phrases like each of the others (which means "each one of the other people") or one and another (which can be used to indicate a choice between one person or thing and another person or thing).

Source: "Each other" and "one another"

New York City - 10 Things You Need To Know

2011-04-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

New York, New York... This video will show you to the top attractions of this fantastic city. Enjoy!

4 tips for avoiding technology overload

2011-04-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

We've seen accelerating growth in information technology over the last few years. Find out what steps marketers are taking to keep from falling behind.

“OMG,” “LOL” enter the Oxford English Dictionary

2011-04-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

The term “OMG,” which comprises half the communication between teenagers at online chat sites, has entered the Oxford English Dictionary. But it was first employed in 1917 by John Fisher, an admiral. In a letter to Winston Churchill, Fisher mentioned a new form of Knighthood, adding the exclamation “O.M.G.(Oh! My God!) —Shower it on the Admiralty!”

“LOL,” first seen online in 1990, was another addition. “Heart” can now mean “to love,” and first appeared in printed form in an article by the Associated Press in 1983. Some news sources have wrongly reported that the heart symbol itself (♥ ) had been included by the OED.

If a word is to be included in the OED, it must see widespread and frequent use. It should be understood by a majority of people. Although Grandma might not know what “LOL” means, most people do. The OED includes a history of the usage of every word, and Graeme Diamond, who heads the OED’s New Word Group, says that a word should “have led a bit of a life” before the OED writes its biography.

Generally, a word must have been around for at least five years, however this is truncated for historically significant words like “AIDS.”

Source: Spinport

"You and I" or "You and me"?

2011-03-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Personal pronouns in English have one form (I, he, she, we, they) when they are used as the subject of a sentence and another form (me, him, her, us, them) when they are used as the object of a verb or follow a preposition (with me, after us, etc). This applies to all personal pronouns, as listed above, except you and it which remain the same in both subject and object forms:

We gave them some chocolates and they gave us some wine.
I'll lend you my flared skirt if you'll lend me your blue denims.
Can you see Paul and Julie? You can't see me, but I'm standing behind him and beside her in the photo.

So whether you say you and I or you and me in co-ordinate phrases depends on whether they function as subjects or objects in the sentence:

You and I should go and speak to Trevor about this matter.
Trevor has indicated that he wants to interview you and me.

Note that in colloquial informal British English, people often use you and me as subjects, even though it is known to be incorrect. This has led to an assumption that you and me can never be correct and people (even the Queen perhaps) then sometimes use you and I as objects instead of the correct form you and me. But for your own convenience, keep a clear distinction between them as the same rule applies to other personal pronouns, i.e it's she and I when they are the subject of the clause and her and me when they are the object:

Do you know Geoffrey? Well, he and I are going to Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea on Saturday.
They wouldn't listen to her or me when I said we couldn't go with them.

Source: BBC Learning English

How to harness the marketing power of humor

2011-03-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Humor is a powerful thing. It does so much more than merely make us laugh. Rather, humor is a complex cognitive process akin to creativity, says Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D., professor of psychology at SUNY Albany. That means marketers can use humor to improve their moods, memories, and problem-solving abilities -- not to mention their levels of innovation. Furthermore, humor is a core interpersonal skill for enhancing relationships -- and that has everything to do with how marketers persuade and encourage loyalty among customers, Earleywine notes.

Author of "Humor 101," Earleywine will be presenting a keynote address at the iMedia Agency Summit in May. In this preview interview with iMedia Connection, he discussed when, why, and how digital marketers should look to infuse their marketing message and consumer relationships with a bit of light-heartedness.
iMedia Connection: What can humor do in advertising that an appeal to another emotion (sympathy, joy, lust, fear) cannot?

Mitch Earleywine: Mirth leads us down a special path of persuasion that some emotions can't provide in the same way. This plays out particularly well on stereotypically threatening topics. For example, recent work on getting people to use sunscreen to prevent skin cancer shows that the fear appeals tend to make people freak out, but a humorous one is less threatening and much more likely to translate into intentions to slather on the lotion.

iMedia: Humor has long been a part of the advertising industry. How has its role in the industry evolved with the dawn of new digital platforms including social media, online video, and others?

Earleywine: What's beautiful about models of humor is that they apply in any domain and across any era. Print ads from the 1870s show humor functioning the same way that it does in today's media. The delight of the new digital platforms is the opportunity to persuade consumers to help us make the message go viral. When you think of the videos that are most viewed, the links most often forwarded, the emails that get sent around to big lists, they're almost always the funny ones.

iMedia: When it comes to humor in advertisements, we often see situations in which an audience can easily recall a joke -- but not the brand associated with it. What's the key to rolling humor into a campaign in a way that cements a brand in the customer's mind?

Earleywine: This might not be as big a problem as we once feared. This is a case where a little dab will do you. Recent data show that moderate humor improves memory more than no humor or a lot. Finding that happy medium takes some experimenting. In addition, anyone who crafts a humorous appeal so that the name of the product is part of the punch line is guaranteed longevity and success. Just ask anyone over 30, "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?"

Read more: imedia connection

The 2 most dangerous pitfalls of social media marketing

2011-03-06T07:36:00.000-08:00

Social media marketing (SMM) represents a significant opportunity for businesses to build brands, boost loyalty, increase word-of-mouth marketing, and drive profits. However, social media marketing success requires that you avoid falling into some of the dangerous traps that are waiting for you.

Most people think of SMM danger with common traps like over-promoting and communicating corporate rhetoric rather than personable messages, but there are two far more dangerous pitfalls that you need to be aware of so you're prepared to avoid them at all costs.

Pitfall 1: Marketing scared
As tempting as it might be to copy your competitors' social media marketing tactics and activities, don't do it. This type of copycat marketing is no more than falling victim to reactionary marketing. If an initiative does not accurately reflect your brand promise and lead you closer to your SMM goals, you should not pursue it. (read more)

Pitfall 2: Silo marketingThe best marketing plan is a fully integrated one, and that includes all of your online and offline marketing initiatives. SMM is just one more tool in your marketing toolbox that you can use to grow your brand and your business. Therefore, your SMM efforts should be fully integrated with your other marketing initiatives in order to achieve maximum success. (read more)

Source: imediaconnection

Idiom: Cry your eyes out

2011-02-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

If you cry your eyes out, you cry uncontrollably.

Illustration:

In use:

Anytime you talk it's all time used
So you can prove how big your mouth is
(Oh the lies that leave those lips)

You've got em dropping like cancer baby
Colder than ever
And that's why I'll say that even if I wanted you back
(And I don't)
You'd still be on call tonight for anyone who's down

Every time you call for some sympathy
Make it worth my while and cry your eyes out baby
Cry your eyes out
Every time you call for some sympathy
Make it worth my time and cry about, cry about it

Any word I bought was sold by you
So tell me how you deal with dead ends
(Oh the lies that lead those hips)

You've got me sweating a heart attack
Coming from all the stress you put me through
And even if I wanted you back
(And I don't)
You'd still be on call tonight for anyone who's down
I've had it

Every time you call for some sympathy
Make it worth my while and cry your eyes out baby
Cry your eyes out
Every time you call for some sympathy
Make it worth my time and cry about, cry about it

Cry about it now
It's not like anyone's supposed to know you were here
Making more messes for yourself
So figure out your damage and own up to what was said
Save your excuses I'm not hearing it

Every time you call for some sympathy
Make it worth my while and cry your eyes out baby
Cry your eyes out
Every time you call for some sympathy
Make it worth my while and cry your eyes out baby
Cry your eyes out
Every time you call for some sympathy
Make it worth my time and cry about, cry about it

(Oh the lies that leave those lips)

Saint Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T18:40:00.000-08:00

Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs, Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. It was deleted from the Roman calendar of saints in 1969 by Pope Paul VI. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.
Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.

Source: Wikipedia

50 Things You Don't Need To Know

2011-02-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

* 1- Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

* 2- Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

* 3- There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

* 4- The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

* 5- A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

* 6- There are more chickens than people in the world.

* 7- The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

* 8- On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

* 9- All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

*10- No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

*11- "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

*12- Almonds are a member of the peach family.

* 13- There are only 4 words in the English language which end in dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

* 14- A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

* 15- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

* 16- Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

* 17- In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

* 18- Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

* 19- The characters Bert & Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."

* 20- A dragonfly has a life span of 1-6 months

* 21- A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds.

* 22- It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

* 23- The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

* 24- In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

* 25- The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

* 26- The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

* 27- There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

* 28- The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.

* 29- A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death.

* 30- A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.

* 31- Elvis had a twin brother named Aaron, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron: in honor of his brother. It is also misspelled on his tomb stone.

* 32- Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

* 33- More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

* 34- Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

* 35- Shakespeare invented the words "assassination" and "bump."

* 36- The "ZIP" in Zip Code stands for "Zone Improvement Plan."

* 37- If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.

* 38- Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

* 39- Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.

* 40- The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.

* 41- Most lipstick contains fish scales.

* 42- TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.

* 43- The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.

* 44- A snail can sleep for 3 years.

* 45- American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

* 46- The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

* 47- Vatican City is the smallest country in the world with a population of 1,000 and a size of 108.7 acres.

* 48- "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

* 49- No president of the United states was an only child.

And last and definitely most important:

* 50- The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.

Source: Rense.com

Pay attention to the use of passive voice.

When are these facts presented in active voice and when in passive voice? Why?

(We haven't checked all of them, but we thought they were interesting. And it is good practice, anyway).

John Smith and John Doe

2011-01-15T15:26:00.000-08:00

“John Smith” is a name often regarded as the archetype of a common personal name in most English-speaking countries, a generic name sometimes representing ‘everyman’ or ‘the average person’. Whereas “John Doe” is widely used in the United States as a recurrent pseudonym or a placeholder name for a male party in a legal action, case or discussion whose true identity is unknown (or must be withheld for legal reasons).

Below is a list of other typical placeholder names from around the world (interesting to note that the Arabic "Fulan" gets used in a lot of Hispanic countries):
Italy: Pinco Pallino; Tizio, Caio e Sempronio.
Germany: Lieschen Müller; Otto Normalverbraucher; Hinz & Kunz.
Spain: Fulano; Mengano; Zutano.
France: Monsieur Durand; Monsieur Untel; Jean Dupont; Pierre-Paul-ou-Jacques.
Belgium: Duschmol; Jos Joskens.
Netherland: Jan Jansen; Jan Modaal.
China: 无名氏 (Wúmíng Shì, literally 'Mr./Ms. No Name'); 某某 (Mǒu Mǒu, literally "so-and-so").
Japan: 名無しの権兵衛 (Nanashi-no-Gombei, literally 'Nameless member of the imperial guard').
Israel: פלוני (Ploni); אלמוני (Almoni).
Arabic countries: فلان (Fulan); علان (Ellan); مجهول (Majhoul).
Russia: Иванов Иван Иванович (Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich).

Source: linguacuriosa

Origin of the dollar sign ($)

2011-01-05T13:16:00.000-08:00

Many suggestions have been made about the origin of the dollar symbol $, one of the commonest being that it derives from the figure 8, representing the Spanish 'piece of eight'. However, it actually comes from a handwritten 'p^s', an abbreviation for 'peso' in old Spanish-American books. The $ symbol first occurs in the 1770s, in manuscript documents of English-Americans who had business dealings with Spanish-Americans, and it starts to appear in print after 1800.

The word 'dollar' itself derives from the Flemish or Low German word daler (in German taler or thaler), short for Joachimstaler, referring to a coin from the silver mines of Joachimstal, in Bohemia (now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic). The term was later applied to a coin used in the Spanish-American colonies and also in the British North American colonies at the time of the American War of Independence. It was adopted as the name of the US currency unit in the late 18th century.

Source: Oxford Dictionaries

New Year’s Resolutions: excercise

2010-12-30T11:54:00.000-08:00

Match the first half of the sentence with the second half to make some New Year’s resolutions.

a I’m going to give up

b I’m going to join

c I’m going to

d I think I’ll go

e Maybe I’ll get

f I’m going to eat

g I’m not going to

i healthy food.

ii smoking this year.

iii stop eating chocolate.

iv a gym in my town.

v eat hamburgers.

vi a new job.

vii on a diet.

What's the difference between will and going to? Do you have any New Year’s resolution?

Source: www.pearsonlongman.com

Answers:

a ii

b iv

c iii

d vii

e vi

f i

g v

Word well used: "Frisson"

2010-12-27T11:09:00.000-08:00

From:
An essay about the most recent WikiLeaks disclosures
The Use:
"After the first slight frisson of pleasure at the discomfiture of powerful people and those in authority has worn off ... the real significance of the greatest disclosure of official documents in the history of the world ... becomes apparent." – Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal, Autumn 2010
About the Word:
A frisson is a brief moment of emotional excitement, a shudder or thrill.
The word has a somewhat formal tone that suits the context of diplomatic scandal.
Frisson is the French word for "shiver," which comes from the Latin for "friction," and ultimately from the Latin for "to be cold."

Source: Merriam-Webster

Christmas Shopping Dialogue

2010-12-23T11:20:00.000-08:00

Look at the following dialogue. Decide on the correct form in each case: present perfect or past simple.

James: (1) Did you finish/Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet?

Irene: Yes! (2) I bought/I have bought the last presents on Monday.

James: Oh that’s good. So where (3) did you go/have you gone shopping?

Irene: At that big shopping centre in Bristol. There (4) was/has been a special bus trip there for the staff at my office.

James: Oh! I don’t think (5) I ever went/I’ve ever been there. (6) Was it/Has it been it a good place to buy presents?

Irene: Yes. There (7) were/have been lots of bargains there. So, what about you? (8) Did you buy/Have you bought your turkey?

James: Well, sort of. (9) I ordered/I’ve ordered it from my local butcher’s but I’ll pick it up and pay for it on Christmas Eve.

Irene: Oh that’s a good idea. What about your tree? (10) Did you already/Have you already put it up?

James: It’s up but we (11) didn’t decorate/haven’t decorated it yet. We will probably do that this evening.

Irene: (12) Did you buy/Have you bought a real tree? (13) I bought/I have bought an artificial one last year, but I prefer the real thing.

James: I always buy a real tree. It looks so much nicer.

Irene: Yes, I may get one too. Well, if I don’t see you, have a lovely Christmas.

James: And you. And a happy new year!

Source: www.pearsonlongman.com

Answers:

1. Have you finished 2. I bought 3. did you go 4. was 5. I’ve ever been 6. was it 7. were 8. Have you bought 9. I’ve ordered 10. Have you already 11. haven’t decorated 12. Have you bought (either answer possible) 13. I bought

Muscle

2010-12-17T10:57:00.000-08:00

The origin of words sometimes are very weird. Take the word "muscle", for example.

Imagine a statue in ancient Rome. Its muscles, to an audience of that time, may have suggested something very different from what they do today.

Muscle comes from the Latin musculus, which means "little mouse."

Why? Probably because a flexed muscle (a bicep, for example) was thought to resemble a mouse – with a tendon for a tail – moving beneath the skin.

Do you see it?

Source: Merriam-Webster

Seinfeld disses Blackberrys and IPhones

2010-12-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

Has IT changed your behavior? How?

Gerunds and Infinitives

2010-11-20T18:58:00.000-08:00

It is often difficult to know when to use a gerund and when to use an infinitive. Jennifer's explanation may clear things up for you. Enjoy this video!

London - 10 Things You Need To Know

2010-11-15T19:22:00.000-08:00

Are you planning your holidays? Have you considered London? Here you have some interesting information about this wonderful city. Check it out!

"That is why" versus "which is why"

2010-11-09T19:08:00.000-08:00

That is why and which is why can be similar in meaning but function in different ways in a sentence.

In that is why, that is a demonstrative pronoun.

In which is why, which is a relative pronoun.

That in that is why is usually the subject of a sentence or a clause that can stand alone:

I want to be involved in town government, and that is why I'm running for mayor.

My mother always gives me good advice, so that is why I need to ask her opinion.

His last movie was terrible, and I think that is why his career has stalled in recent years.

Which is why is used to introduce a subordinate clause (one that does not form a sentence by itself):

Motorcycles are dangerous, which is why we should wear helmets.

The company went bankrupt, which is why their new building is unfinished.

The sunsets here are beautiful, which is why many artists come to paint them.

More tips, check out Merriam-Webster's webpage.

Listening: Apple - Special Event

2010-11-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

Watch Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveil the new MacBook Air, FaceTime for Mac, and the Mac App Store, and get a sneak peek at Mac OS X Lion.

Ideal for those in IT.

Describing the decade - How to call the "00's"

2010-10-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

On 31 December 2009 we said farewell to the first decade of the 21st century. It was an eventful 10 years in many respects, not least in terms of language change: English was enriched by thousands of new words or meanings, from podcast to sudoku, and even the debate about what to call the decade generated some inventive coinages.

Here’s a graph showing the relative fortunes of three of the main contenders for the name of the decade 2000 to 2009 – aughts, naughties, and noughties. It’s based on the frequency with which the words appeared in our language database, from January 2000 to early 2010.

Clearly, noughties was the out-and-out winner, rising sharply in 2009 and peaking in early 2010 to a frequency of almost 1.2 instances per million words in the Oxford English Corpus (Oxford’s 2-billion word database of real English, taken from writing as varied as newspapers, scientific journals, novels, and blogs). There’s more about the word here. Noughties comes from nought, the British word for the digit 0: the American spelling is naught. Inevitably, the similarity in sound of noughties and naughties made naughties a punningly neat alternative spelling, blending naught with the adjective naughty to refer to the supposed moral tone of the decade and also making a link to the naughty nineties (the last decade of the 19th century).

Although the Oxford English Dictionary shows that naughties was the first recorded spelling (evidenced in a New York Times Magazine article of 1989), our graph shows that the take-up of naughties was very low, remaining at fewer than 0.2 occurrences per million words on our databases.

While aughts fared slightly better, rising to a peak of almost 0.4 examples per million words, analysis shows that nearly all examples (76%) for aughts in the Oxford English Corpus are found in American English. British usage shows a clear preference for noughties (73% of the instances in the OEC), and it appears that this time the British version won out overall.

As you can see, both aughts and noughties rose markedly in 2009 to early 2010, probably as commentators, journalists, bloggers, and others took a retrospective look at the decade as it came to a close.

What next?
Of course, the name for the current decade from 2010 to 2019 isn’t entirely settled yet: with the current global economic situation looking gloomy, are there any takers for the terrible tens or the troubled teens?

What a relief when we get to 2020 onwards – surely no debate will be necessary and we will smoothly refer to the (twenty-) twenties, thirties, etc. – but language doesn’t always evolve in expected ways, which is part of what makes word-watching such a fascinating job.

Head Idioms

2010-10-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

Three English idioms connected with head. Enjoy!

Advertising billboards use facial recognition to target shoppers

2010-10-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

In Japan, sci-fi prophecy is now becoming reality, with the first digital billboards tailored to passing shoppers tried out in malls.

In Steven Spielberg's sci-fi film Minority Report, an interactive ad shouts to Tom Cruise's character "John Anderton, you could use a Guinness!" – having identified him by scanning his iris. In Japan, sci-fi prophecy is now becoming reality, with the first digital billboards tailored to passing shoppers tried out in malls.

Produced by the electronics giant NEC, the ad signage uses facial recognition software and can identify the shopper's gender (with 85-90% accuracy), ethnicity and approximate age. With obvious attractions for marketers, they can then be targeted with ads for appropriate products – perfumes for women, for example.

Read more: The Guardian

What do you think about this new and controversial product?

TEXTING IN ENGLISH

2010-09-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

Top 25 Most Commonly Used Text Terms:

1. 2moro - Tomorrow
2. 2nite - Tonight
3. BRB - Be Right Back
4. BTW - By The Way
5. B4N - Bye For Now
6. BCNU - Be Seeing You
7. BFF - Best Friends Forever
8. THX - Thanks
9. TTYL - Talk To You Later
10. TYVM - Thank You Very Much
11. WYWH - Wish You Were Here
12. XOXO - it means Hugs and Kisses
12. FWIW - For What It's Worth
13. GR8 - Great
14. ILY - I Love You
15. IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
16. IRL - In Real Life
17. ISO - In Search Of
18. J/K - Just Kidding
19. L8R - Later
20. RBTL - Read Between The Lines
21. LOL - Laughing Out Loud -or- Lots Of Love
22. NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard
23. NP - No Problem
24. OIC - Oh, I See
25. OMG - Oh My God

Did you know them all????

Second Type Conditional

2010-08-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

We use the second conditional to talk about situations or actions in the present or future, which are not likely to happen or are imaginary, hypothetical or impossible.

If I won the lottery, I would travel around the world and buy a castle in Norway.
-- I think that it is very unlikely that I will win the lottery. However, in this unlikely condition, I will travel and buy a castle

If I wasn't watching TV now, I would be playing football.
-- I am watching TV, and imagining what I would do if I wasn't

If I were an alien, I would be able to travel around the universe.
-- It is impossible for me to be an alien. However, I am imagining what I would do in this situation

Now, watch this video for more examples. Dedicated to all our students who really love The Big Bang Theory!

Google Leads, You Pedal

2010-08-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

I HAD the route mapped out in my mind. I would bike from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, hit the taco trucks along the ball fields of Red Hook, Brooklyn, cruise through Prospect Park over to Brighton Beach for a quick dip, then hypotenuse it back to a bar in Williamsburg to watch the World Cup finals.

Out of curiosity, I consulted GoogleMaps’s new bike software on my computer, to see if its brainy algorithm would match my battle-tested sense of directions. It did, for the most part, but for a few snags: It sent me the wrong way on Smith Street in Brooklyn, then diverted me away from Prospect Park — the borough’s best piece of biking real estate — and on the way back, like an overprotective concierge, it steered me away from the rough parts of Bedford Stuyvesant (normally I would have just bombed up Bedford Avenue).

Still, not bad for a piece of software created by some techie thousands of miles away.

“It’s still an experiment of sorts,” said Dave Barth, a product manager at Google Maps in Seattle. “We launched the bike maps without complete coverage because of the passion we were hearing among cyclists on the Internet.”

The beta version for bicyclists is just a few months old, but it is already reshaping how bike enthusiasts travel.

Source: New York Times

Could pollution-eating concrete clean up our urban jungles?

2010-08-06T17:23:00.000-07:00

Concrete isn't usually considered an environmentalists' friend, but a remarkable new technology could soon be turning the gray stuff green.

Scientists at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have developed a paving material that actually eats pollution, claiming it could soon become a crucial tool for improving air quality in urban areas.

The problem in many cities is that vehicle exhausts emit nitrogen oxides, which cause acid rain and smog that damages not only human health and quality of life but also the fabric of buildings.

But the new concrete is coated with titanium dioxide, which is a photocatalytic material, meaning it removes the nitrogen oxides and uses sunlight to convert them into harmless nitrate that is washed away by rain.

Source: CNN

Pay attention to all the "green" words, can you think of more?

World Cup: Adidas will sell you the shirts off their backs

2010-07-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

Spain's World Cup victory Sunday has turned out to a boon for the company that makes the team's uniforms.

Adidas, the world's second-largest sporting goods maker, has sold almost a million replicas of the Spanish national team jersey and has designed a new version after Spain won the soccer championship, Bloomberg News reported.

Adidas, which also sold more than a million replica jerseys from the German, Argentinean, Mexican and South African kits, shipped an additional 100,000 Spanish jerseys during the monthlong tournament, spokesman Jan Runau said from Johannesburg.

And the company has started producing a new version of the Spain shirt with one star in the emblem, representing the World Cup victory.

source: Los Angeles Times

Pay attention to the verbs in red. Why do you think the author decided to use this tense?

Germany knock out dismal England

2010-06-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

England's World Cup ended in a mixture of humiliation and controversy as they were thrashed by Germany in Bloemfontein.

Germany's deserved win and convincing victory margin will be overshadowed forever in the minds of Fabio Capello and his squad by a moment they believe robbed them of the hope of reaching the last eight.

Matthew Upson had thrown England a lifeline just before half-time after a vastly superior Germany had taken a stranglehold on the game with goals from Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.

But moments after Upson's header, in a grim echo of Geoff Hurst goal that helped England to victory over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final, Frank Lampard's superb lofted finish landed feet over the line behind German keeper Manuel Neuer, an incident obvious to almost everyone inside the Free State Stadium.

Capello was leading the England celebrations in his technical area, only to be stunned as Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda and his officials waved play on.

England's players and coaching team, including David Beckham, led vehement protests as the teams went off at half-time, but all to no avail and Germany made the most of their reprieve.

Continue reading: BBC Sport

Obama Seeking "Ass To Kick" Over Oil Spill

2010-06-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

Listen to Obama. He said:

"I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."

Whose is the possesive form of who and which.

It sounds like "Who's", but the meaning is completly different.

For further explanation, you can watch this video:

The seven 'must watch' players of the World Cup

2010-06-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

He is only 5-7, wears a schoolboy haircut and no tattoos, and is known as “La Pulga” (The Flea) back home in Argentina.

Despite his diminutive size and humble ways, there is no soccer star shining more brightly heading into the 2010 World Cup than Lionel Messi.

He is indisputably the best player in the game right now, has scored 114 goals in 199 games for Barcelona and was the 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year. His superb skill and pace led him to score four goals against Arsenal and back-to-back hat tricks against Valencia and Zaragoza.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said of the Barcelona playmaker: “Once he’s on the run, Messi is unstoppable. He’s the only player who can change direction at such a pace. He’s a PlayStation player.”

Argentina’s World Cup coach, Diego Maradona, to whom Messi is most compared, went a step further: “He’s at a select level, being the best in the world and a star at Barcelona. Lio is playing kick-about with Jesus. I told him I’d done my thing, now he has to make his career and at the end we’ll see who was the greatest of all-time. But he’s on the right path. He’s mature and full of will.”

Whether Messi will emerge as the star of South Africa remains to be seen.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Source:BDASUN

Past tense: pronunciation of regular verbs

2010-04-15T07:31:00.000-07:00

This video will teach you the 3 different pronunciations of the past tense -ed. Enjoy.

Whether

2010-03-31T19:32:00.000-07:00

Whether is a conjuction that is:

.Used to introduce an interrogative content clause (indirect question) that consists of multiple alternative possibilities, and indicate uncertainty between them; if.

He chose the correct answer, but whether by luck or by skill I don't know.

.Used to introduce a yes-or-no interrogative content clause (indirect question) that consists of a single possibility, and indicate uncertainty over it; if, whether or not.

Do you know whether he's coming?

.Used to introduce multiple alternative possibilities, and indicate the irrelevance of which is the case; regardless of whether, no matter whether.

He's coming, whether you like it or not.

Usage notes

.There is some overlap in usage between the first two senses, in that a yes-or-no interrogative content clause can list the two possibilities explicitly in a number of ways:

Do you know whether he's coming or staying?
Do you know whether he's coming or not?
Do you know whether or not he's coming?

Further, in the first two of these examples, the "or staying" and "or not" may be added as an afterthought (sometimes indicated in writing with a comma before), such that the whether may be uttered in sense 2 and then corrected to sense 1.

.Unlike sense 1, sense 3 does not have a counterpart that introduces only a single possibility; *"He's coming, whether you like it" is ungrammatical.

.In traditional grammar, the clauses headed by whether in senses 1 and 2 are classified as noun clauses, and those headed by whether in sense 3 are classified as adverb clauses.

Source: Wiktionary

Listen to Jennifer explaining how to use it.

Present Perfect and Past Simple. British English versus American English

2010-03-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

The British use the present perfect for recent actions, and especially with just, already and yet.

Bob has washed the dishes, look.
We've already eaten our lunch.
I've just seen Elaine.
Have you corrected your work yet?

Americans can use either the present perfect or the past simple in these sentences.

Bob has washed the dishes, look. OR Bob washed the dishes, look.
We've already eaten our lunch. OR We already ate our lunch.
I've just seen Elaine. OR I just saw Elaine.
Have you corrected your work yet? OR Did you correct your work yet?

The British normally use the present perfect with ever and never, not the past simple.

Have you ever played cricket?
The child has never seen snow before.

Americans normally use the past simple with ever and never, but the present perfect is
possible.

Did you ever play baseball? OR Have you ever played baseball?
The child never saw snow before. OR The child has never seen snow before.

Business English Vocabulary - Economic Terms

2010-03-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

Here you have a video to learn and practise some Economic terms.

Now, look at this article and find the vocabulary.

Tightening economic policy
Withdrawing the drugs

THE world economy has been injected with the biggest Keynesian cocktail yet seen in peacetime. In the past 18 months governments have pumped cash into their economies to fight financial seizure and recession. Central banks have slashed interest rates; the rich world’s largest ones have supplemented ultra-cheap money with a special drug, quantitative easing (QE). Finance ministries have cut taxes and boosted public spending

This infusion has had a dramatic effect. It prevented the biggest financial bust since the 1930s from triggering an economic catastrophe. Banks were stabilised, asset prices rebounded and the global recession, though the deepest since the second world war, was no second Depression. The pace of recovery varies, but every big economy has stopped shrinking ... (continue reading)

Source: The Economist

CONVERSATION CLUB

2010-03-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

Un espacio para practicar inglés de manera diferente, ideal para ganar fluidez y adquirir vocabulario, sin la necesidad de comprometerse a un curso tradicional.

COMIENZA EL 16 DE MARZO DE 2010

¿Cuándo? Todos los martes de 18.45 a 20.15. Las actividades son independientes por lo que podés empezar cuando querés y no hace falta comprometerse a venir el mes entero.

¿Dónde? En Practical Communication (Sarmiento y Callao)

¿Cuánto sale?

Alumnos de Practical Communication: $8 por clase
Alumnos externos: $14 por clase.

*Promoción: si venís todas las clases del mes, ¡la última es gratis!

¿Qué nivel hay que tener? Las actividades se planifican para todos los niveles.

¿Cómo me inscribo? Para la primera vez es necesario inscribirse hasta el sábado anterior a la clase que vas a venir vía mail a info@practicalcom.com.ar con el asunto "Conversation Club" y tu nombre, mail y nivel de inglés.

¿Cómo obtengo más información? Escribínos a info@practicalcom.com.ar con el asunto "pregunta Club".

¡Te esperamos!

Pronunciation: the TH sound

2010-02-18T16:00:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T20:02:00.000-08:00

Saint Valentine's Day (commonly shortened to Valentine's Day) is an annual holiday held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The holiday is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). The holiday first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. (Source: Wikipedia)

Practice with some Valentine's day vocabulary. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Passive Voice

2010-02-10T10:02:00.000-08:00

Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages (including Spanish) in which the subject receives the action of a transitive verb. It emphasizes the process rather than who is performing the action.

In English, a passive verb consists of an auxiliary verb plus the past participle (the famous "3rd column") of the transitive verb. The auxiliary verb usually is a form of the verb to be, but other auxiliary verbs, such as get, are sometimes used.

Active Voice: Jessica kissed Frederick. (here, Jessica -the subjet- performed the action)
Passive Voice: Frederick was kissed by Jessica. (here, Frederick -the subject- received the action. In other words, he didn't perform the action of kissing, he received it)

Watch the video for a more comprehensive explanation. Enjoy.

USA: Foreign Languages Fade in Class — Except Chinese

2010-02-07T20:27:00.000-08:00

Thousands of public schools stopped teaching foreign languages in the last decade, according to a government-financed survey — dismal news for a nation that needs more linguists to conduct its global business and diplomacy.

But another contrary trend has educators and policy makers abuzz: a rush by schools in all parts of America to offer instruction in Chinese.

Some schools are paying for Chinese classes on their own, but hundreds are getting some help. The Chinese government is sending teachers from China to schools all over the world — and paying part of their salaries.

At a time of tight budgets, many American schools are finding that offer too good to refuse.

Read more: New York Times

The iPad: What you need to know

2010-01-29T15:58:00.000-08:00

Anytime Apple releases something new, the questions soon follow. That’s especially the case when it’s an entirely new product like the iPad released by Apple this week. A tablet that blends elements of Apple’s iPhone and iPod mobile devices with the Mobile Mac experience, the iPad doesn’t fit neatly into Apple’s existing product line. Combine that with the rush to declare this device either a dream (“It’s revolutionary and magical!”) or a dud (“It’s nothing more than an oversized iPod!”) before Apple has even shipped a single device, and you’ve got an atmosphere ripe for more confusion than clarity... read more.

source: macworld

How to help people in Haiti

2010-01-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

On January 12, a series of earthquakes measuring 6.5 to 7.3 on the Richter scale devastated Haiti. There are many organizations that are assisting those affected by this disaster and you can help them by donating some money. It's really simple.

Donate to UNICEF - Donate to CARE or find out about other (serious) places where you can donate.

2010-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

The Pogie Awards for the Year’s Best Tech Ideas

2009-12-30T10:08:00.000-08:00

By DAVID POGUE

Wow, what an opportunity! Imagine having a newspaper column published precisely on the last day of the year. What a chance to step back, look ahead, sum it all up!

Or else I could just trot out my usual end-of-year silliness, better known as the Pogie Awards.

These honors, now in their fifth consecutive year, aren’t meant to identify the best products of the year; that’s way too obvious. Instead, the Pogies celebrate the best ideas of the year — great, clever features that somehow made it past the obstacles of cost, engineering and lawyers.

Kindly turn off your cellphones and refrain from flash photography. All right, then, let’s begin.

[Below you have the list of the best tech ideas of the year (according to David Pogue). To learn more about them, visit Pogue's column in the New York Times]

DROID DOCKS
ITYPE2GO
MIFI
SAMSUNG DUAL-SCREEN CAMERA
NIKON PROJECTOR CAM
BING POP-UP PREVIEWS
PALM PRE DATA CONSOLIDATION
FIND MY PHONE
READABILITY

Surround Sound

2009-12-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

J. D. Biersdorfer and Sam Grobart discuss the proper way to set up a surround sound system.

Nokia Sues LCD, CRT Display Makers

2009-12-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

HELSINKI (AP) -- Nokia Corp., the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said Tuesday it has filed suits against several liquid crystal display makers for alleged price fixing.

The Finnish company said the suits, filed last month in the United States and Britain, follow investigations by government authorities and similar actions by other companies.

''Nokia has filed suits to recover overcharges it paid as a result of cartel activities which are currently under governmental investigation,'' a company statement said. ''When certain companies and management employees have already admitted participating in, or are indicted for, global price-fixing cartels involving components that Nokia has purchased, it is reasonable for Nokia to seek redress.''

Nokia said it is focussing on alleged cartels involving liquid crystal displays, used in handsets, and cathode ray tubes.

''Nokia has filed LCD suits in the U.K. (Britain) and U.S., and filed a CRT suit in the U.K.,'' Nokia said. ''Other civil suits have already been filed in the U.S. by other claimants.''

The company said that in line with litigation policy, it had no further details ''to share at this time.''

Nokia, based in Espoo near the Finnish capital, sold 468 million handsets last year, up 7 percent on 2007.

NYTimes

New guidelines for fighting HIV

2009-11-30T18:18:00.000-08:00

Ahead of tomorrow's World Aids Day, the World Health Organisation has issued new guidelines for HIV treatment which would significantly increase the number of patients receiving anti-retroviral drugs.

At the moment, four million people around the world receive anti-retroviral drugs. There's another five million who need them but don't get them.

The WHO recommendations on when to start treatment for HIV would mean an extra three to five million people would be added to that waiting list. The WHO wants people who have HIV to start drugs before their immune systems get so weak they start displaying symptoms. A study recently published in the medical journal The Lancet showed starting treatment at the newly recommended level could increase survival by nearly 70%.

It would also add significantly to the cost on health care systems. In South Africa, which has one of the biggest HIV burdens in the world, currently fewer than half of the people who should be receiving HIV drugs get them.

Poor health infrastructure is a common problem for nearly all developing countries. Putting HIV-positive people on drugs earlier would significantly reduce the cost to health systems of treating opportunistic infections - illnesses which take hold while the immune system is weak. It would also greatly improve life expectancy of HIV patients, with repercussions for families and the workforce.

The WHO is still working out how much it would cost countries to improve their treatment regimes, but it won't be cheap.

Madeleine Morris, BBC News

Vocabulary

anti-retroviral drugs - medications for the treatment of infections caused by HIV (short for human immunodeficiency virus) and other retroviruses, i.e. viruses that 'implant', or incorporate their genetic code into host cells resulting in serious, sometimes fatal diseases

an extra three to five million people would be added to that waiting list - three to five more million people infected by HIV would now be considered for treatment (a waiting list is a list of people who are waiting for something that is not available straight away)

displaying symptoms - feeling and/or showing signs of an illness or another disorder (e.g. pain or fever)

add significantly to the cost on - require a lot more money to be given to and spent by

which has one of the biggest HIV burdens in the world - where the number and proportion of HIV infected people is one of the world's highest

HIV-positive people - people who carry HIV but do not necessarily develop Aids

opportunistic infections - diseases caused by bacteria which occur when someone's immune system, i.e. the body's ability to fight infection, is weakened

greatly improve life expectancy of - give a much better chance of living longer to

repercussions - consequences, results

You can listen to this report and find more articles to practise reading, listening and vocabulary at BBC Learning English

Camera Flash Settings

2009-11-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

Getting good photos out of your camera means taking control of the flash. Here's how.

Water on the Moon!!!

2009-11-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

It's official: There's water on the moon. "We found water. And we didn't find just a little bit. We found a significant amount," Anthony Colaprete, lead scientist for NASA's recent moon-crash mission, LCROSS, announced today.

Some space policy experts say that this makes the moon attractive for exploration again. Having an abundance of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts, supplying drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel.

A.M.D.-Intel Settlement Won’t End Their Woes

2009-11-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

The giant chip maker Intel, facing antitrust challenges around the world, announced on Thursday that it would pay $1.25 billion to settle its long-running disputes with its smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices.

The settlement, covering both antitrust and patent claims, ends the computer industry’s most bitter legal war.

But the truce may not be enough to turn around the fortunes of A.M.D, which has struggled to come up with chips that give it any significant technological or performance edge over Intel, which supplies about 80 percent of the microprocessors that sit at the heart of personal computers.

At least in the short term, the settlement also does not end Intel’s antitrust problems. Governments in Europe, the United States and Asia have accused the company of systematically using large rebates and co-marketing arrangements to persuade computer makers to use its chips instead of those made by A.M.D.

The regulators contend that Intel’s tactics have not only hurt competitors, but also effectively forced customers to pay higher prices. On Thursday, both the European Union and the New York attorney general’s office said they would continue to press their cases against the company.
Still, legal experts say the agreement resolves some of the antitrust issues surrounding Intel and could dissuade other government agencies from bringing cases against the company.

Source: New York Times

Look at the vocabuary used in this article. Do you think you can find it in other type of texts? What's your opinion on belligerent vocabulary?

Eye Idioms!

2009-10-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa, 'voice of Latin America,' dies at 74

2009-10-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa, known as "the voice of Latin America" for her songs about the plight of the poor, died Sunday, according to an announcement on her Web site. She was 74.

"On this day, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, we must inform you that Mrs. Mercedes Sosa, one of the greatest artists of Latin American popular music, has left us," the Web site said.
Sosa died at a Buenos Aires clinic, and had suffered from liver, kidney and heart ailments, the Washington Post reported.

Born on July 9, 1935, in San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina, Sosa produced 40 albums during her musical career, and performed at places such as the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican and New York's Carnegie Hall. She also served as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for Latin America.
"Her voice always carried a profound message of social engagement through folk-roots music, without prejudice," according to the Web site.

She formed part of the New Song movement in Latin America, which combined folk song traditions with contemporary music that often featured political messages in its lyrics.
When a military junta took over Argentina in 1976, many of her albums were banned, and Sosa left in exile to Paris, France, and Madrid, Spain. She returned to her homeland in 1982.

Source: CNN

Rio Wins 2016 Olympics in a First for South America

2009-10-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

When Rio de Janeiro was elected host city for the 2016 Olympic Games on Friday, the room where its bid team gathered turned into a boisterous party with members in uniform navy or moss green blazers hugging, dancing, crying and waving Brazilian flags. The bid leader, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, yelled, “We did it! We did it!”

Rio and Chicago had gone into the day considered the favorites, ahead of Tokyo and Madrid. But by the time Rio was chosen by the International Olympic Committee to become the first South American city to host the Olympics, the Chicago delegation and its star-studded supporters were nowhere in sight.

They had already left the building.

Despite the support of President Obama, who flew in specifically to address the I.O.C. voters, Chicago finished last, out of the running in the first round of voting, with a paltry 18 of a total 94 votes. Tokyo received 22, with Rio getting 26 and Madrid 28. In each round, until one city gains a majority, the low vote-getter is eliminated. After Chicago was tossed aside, nearly all of its votes went straight to Rio in the second round. In the third, after Tokyo was eliminated, Rio won handily, 66-32.

The chance to bring the Olympics to a continent that had never hosted the Games worked in Rio’s favor. During its presentation, the bid team showed a graphic of the world and marked all the places that have held an Olympics. South America was glaringly bare.“There was absolutely no flaw in the bid,” the I.O.C. president, Jacques Rogge, said.

Source: New York Times

Labor Crisis in Argentina Fuels Economic Worries

2009-09-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

BUENOS AIRES -- A labor battle at a Kraft Foods Inc. factory is causing disruption on the streets here and raising concerns about further union unrest at a time of economic distress.
Protesting what they call wrongful dismissals by the Northfield, Ill., food company, a group of Kraft workers had occupied the plant in a suburb of the Argentine capital for three weeks until they were forcibly removed by police executing a court order this past Friday.

The expulsion of the workers has sparked a series of street protests in recent days by the Kraft workers' union and its supporters. The protests have snarled the capital's traffic, in an echo of the turmoil that racked the city during Argentina's 2001-02 economic collapse.

The labor unrest is a big headache for leftist President Cristina Kirchner at a time when Argentina's unemployment and poverty are rising because of the global economic crisis. Official government statistics put unemployment at 8.8%, but private economists say it is closer to 11%. While official data put poverty at 13.9%, some economists say the true number easily surpasses 30%.

Street protests by unemployed workers -- albeit much larger than the current demonstrations -- contributed to the downfall of several governments that came before Mrs. Kirchner's and that of her husband and predecessor, Néstor. But several years of economic growth, along with the Kirchners' political adeptness, allowed the government to co-opt many union leaders, as well as leaders of groups of unemployed workers known as piqueteros.

In the case of Kraft, the workers on the plant floor seem to have peeled away from their pro-government union leaders. "Kraft is trapped involuntarily in a political conflict between the traditional union leadership and more radical, lower-level representatives," said Federico Thomsen, an economic and political analyst in Buenos Aires.

Read more: The Wall Street Journal

International Translation Day

2009-09-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

On September 30, translators around the world celebrate the day of their patron saint, Jerome, and with it translation itself—a profession as old as humanity.

Translators today are cross-cultural communication specialists and essential business partners; without their expertise, it is difficult to work successfully across borders. The economic impact of translation is also growing. Translators must acquire new skills and new approaches to remain (or, in some cases, become) valued partners in a fast-changing world. It is up to translators—as individuals and as a professional community—to meet these new responsibilities with passion, commitment and rigor.

Souce: http://www.fit-ift.org/

Argentine police, workers fight at Kraft plant

2009-09-26T13:04:00.000-07:00

Argentine police have used force to remove laid-off workers occupying a Kraft Foods plant since last month.
Authorities used tear gas and rubber bullets Friday against union members throwing sticks and rocks.
The court-ordered evacuation could resolve a standoff that started when Kraft Foods Inc. laid off about 160 of the plant's several thousand workers.
The union demanded the jobs back and seized the plant. They also occupied a major freeway, demanding government help.
Argentina's labor ministry and company executives met Friday, reaching a deal to resume operations Monday morning and keep the plant's remaining jobs. Union members weren't present at the talks.

The Associated Press

Kraft workers’ struggle in Argentina goes global

2009-09-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

In July, at the peak of the H1N1 “Swine flu” outbreak, workers at the Buenos Aires plant went on strike in protest of management’s refusal to provide adequate sanitation for workers. Workers were also denied sick leave and family leave during the outbreak. Hand sanitizers and other supplies needed to prevent spread of contagion were not available. After numerous demands from the workers were ignored, the strike was called resulting in a production stoppage lasting a week.

Argentina’s labor laws require compulsory arbitration if workers are unable to reach a satisfactory resolution to demands. Argentina’s Ministry of Labor sent inspectors to the facility at the onset of the strike and confirmed that Kraft had violated the compulsory arbitration conditions of national labor law by refusing to take any actions in response to worker demands. The company responded to the strike by firing over 150 workers, including elected union officers, shop stewards, and delegates in an apparent attempt to both intimidate the workers and weaken their union.

On Sept. 1, workers again called a strike, resulting in a work stoppage. This time, Kraft responded by declaring a lockout, leaving fired workers stranded within the plant, isolated from their co-workers who were demonstrating outside. Armed riot police barricaded the compound, and shot rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd outside the plant.

The Argentine workers have been utilizing social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube to disseminate information about their struggle. Since late August, the workers at the Buenos Aires plant have been constantly organizing demonstrations, protests and other acts of resistance.

In spite of an “obligatory conciliation” ruling by Argentina’s Ministry of Labor, Kraft continues to refuse to reinstate the illegally fired workers and has yet to comply with demands for adequate sanitation measures in the workplace.

On Sept. 17, American activists and workers responded with demonstrations at two major Kraft facilities in Illinois: a major manufacturing plant in Champaign and Kraft corporate headquarters in Glenview.

Read more: PWW.org

Boxing Idioms

2009-09-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Verizon Wireless Snowy Surprise

2009-09-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Stallman Takes His Free-Software Crusade to Argentina

2009-08-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

Two whirlwinds blew into Buenos Aires this week: the hundreds of Wikipedia supporters, editors and administrators here for their annual Wikimania conference, and the free-software activist Richard Stallman, who was in town as part of his never-ending tour of the globe to promote his cause.

The two are set to meet Wednesday, when Mr. Stallman gives the keynote address at Wikimania in a theater across the street large enough to accommodate the expected crowd. But they don’t exactly blow in the same direction.

While Wikipedia’s officials were holding a news conference on Tuesday to introduce themselves to dozens of local journalists in a big hall with a booth to offer simultaneous English-Spanish translation, Mr. Stallman was into the second hour of his own news conference two floors above in a small room with a handful of technology-focused journalists. “I do have some criticisms of Wikipedia that I am going to save, I would rather save, for my speech tomorrow,” he said.

Mr. Stallman said he is generally a fan of the online, collaborative encyclopedia, but it is on the narrow grounds that befit a single-issue activist who has spent more than two decades preaching the cause that software wants to be free –- “free as in freedom, not free as in beer.” Translation: It’s not necessary that software be cheap, but once someone owns it, she should be free to do with it what she pleases.

Read more: New York Times

Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security

2009-08-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.

Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.

Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response.

Read more: New York Times

Idiom: to cry wolf

2009-07-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

To cry wolf means to raise a false alarm.

It comes from an old folk-tale, "The little boy who cried wolf".

The Boy Who Cried Wolf, also known as The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf, is a fable attributed to Aesop with a lesson about jokes and lies. The protagonist of the fable is a bored shepherd boy who entertained himself by calling out "Wolf!". Nearby villagers who came to his rescue found that the alarms were false and that they had wasted their time. When the boy was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers did not believe his cries for help and the wolf ate the flock (and in some versions the boy) in their skepticism. The moral is stated at the end of the fable as:

Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.

In reference to this tale, the phrase to "cry wolf" has long been a common idiom in English, described in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, and modern English dictionaries.The phrase "boy who cried wolf" has also become somewhat of a figure of speech, meaning that one is calling for help when he or she does not really need it. Also in common English there goes the saying: "Never cry wolf" to say that you never should lie, as in the above phrases.

Source: Wikipedia

Influenza A: What can I do?

2009-07-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

What can I do to protect myself from catching influenza A(H1N1)?

The main route of transmission of the new influenza A(H1N1) virus seems to be similar to seasonal influenza, via droplets that are expelled by speaking, sneezing or coughing. You can prevent getting infected by avoiding close contact with people who show influenza-like symptoms (trying to maintain a distance of about 1 metre if possible) and taking the following measures:

avoid touching your mouth and nose;
clean hands thoroughly with soap and water, or cleanse them with an alcohol-based hand rub on a regular basis (especially if touching the mouth and nose, or surfaces that are potentially contaminated);
avoid close contact with people who might be ill;
reduce the time spent in crowded settings if possible;
improve airflow in your living space by opening windows;
practise good health habits including adequate sleep, eating nutritious food, and keeping physically active.

What about using a mask? What does WHO recommend?

If you are not sick you do not have to wear a mask.

If you are caring for a sick person, you can wear a mask when you are in close contact with the ill person and dispose of it immediately after contact, and cleanse your hands thoroughly afterwards.

If you are sick and must travel or be around others, cover your mouth and nose.

Using a mask correctly in all situations is essential. Incorrect use actually increases the chance of spreading infection.

How do I know if I have influenza A(H1N1)?

You will not be able to tell the difference between seasonal flu and influenza A(H1N1) without medical help. Typical symptoms to watch for are similar to seasonal viruses and include fever, cough, headache, body aches, sore throat and runny nose. Only your medical practitioner and local health authority can confirm a case of influenza A(H1N1).

What should I do if I think I have the illness?

If you feel unwell, have high fever, cough or sore throat:

stay at home and keep away from work, school or crowds;
rest and take plenty of fluids;
cover your nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing and, if using tissues, make sure you dispose of them carefully. Clean your hands immediately after with soap and water or cleanse them with an alcohol-based hand rub;
if you do not have a tissue close by when you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth as much as possible with the crook of your elbow;
use a mask to help you contain the spread of droplets when you are around others, but be sure to do so correctly;
inform family and friends about your illness and try to avoid contact with other people;
If possible, contact a health professional before traveling to a health facility to discuss whether a medical examination is necessary.

Should I take an antiviral now just in case I catch the new virus?

No. You should only take an antiviral, such as oseltamivir or zanamivir, if your health care provider advises you to do so. Individuals should not buy medicines to prevent or fight this new influenza without a prescription, and they should exercise caution in buying antivirals over the Internet.

Warning on purchase of antivirals without a prescription [pdf 35kb]

What about breastfeeding? Should I stop if I am ill?

No, not unless your health care provider advises it. Studies on other influenza infections show that breastfeeding is most likely protective for babies - it passes on helpful maternal immunities and lowers the risk of respiratory disease. Breastfeeding provides the best overall nutrition for babies and increases their defense factors to fight illness.

When should someone seek medical care?

A person should seek medical care if they experience shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, or if a fever continues more than three days. For parents with a young child who is ill, seek medical care if a child has fast or labored breathing, continuing fever or convulsions (seizures).

Supportive care at home - resting, drinking plenty of fluids and using a pain reliever for aches - is adequate for recovery in most cases. (A non-aspirin pain reliever should be used by children and young adults because of the risk of Reye's syndrome.)

Should I go to work if I have the flu but am feeling OK?

No. Whether you have influenza A(H1N1) or a seasonal influenza, you should stay home and away from work through the duration of your symptoms. This is a precaution that can protect your work colleagues and others.

Can I travel?

If you are feeling unwell or have symptoms of influenza, you should not travel. If you have any doubts about your health, you should check with your health care provider.

Source: World Health Organization

2009-06-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he made his debut as an entertainer in 1968 as a member of The Jackson 5. He then began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group and was referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller remains the world's best-selling album of all time, and four of his other solo studio albums are among the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).

The moonwalk or backslide is a dance technique that presents the illusion that the dancer is stepping forward while actually moving backward. It gives the appearance of a person moving along a conveyor belt. The dance gained worldwide popularity after Michael Jackson executed it during his performance of his song "Billie Jean" on the March 25, 1983, television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, and was considered his signature move. The moonwalk has since become one of the best known dance moves in the world.

Here there is a tribute to Michaels's influence.

World now at the start of 2009 influenza pandemic

2009-06-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

Statement to the press by WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan

Dr Margaret Chan
Director-General of the World Health Organization

Ladies and gentlemen,

In late April, WHO announced the emergence of a novel influenza A virus.

This particular H1N1 strain has not circulated previously in humans. The virus is entirely new.

The virus is contagious, spreading easily from one person to another, and from one country to another. As of today, nearly 30,000 confirmed cases have been reported in 74 countries.

This is only part of the picture. With few exceptions, countries with large numbers of cases are those with good surveillance and testing procedures in place.

Spread in several countries can no longer be traced to clearly-defined chains of human-to-human transmission. Further spread is considered inevitable.

I have conferred with leading influenza experts, virologists, and public health officials. In line with procedures set out in the International Health Regulations, I have sought guidance and advice from an Emergency Committee established for this purpose.

On the basis of available evidence, and these expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met.

I have therefore decided to raise the level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 5 to phase 6.

The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic.

We are in the earliest days of the pandemic. The virus is spreading under a close and careful watch.

No previous pandemic has been detected so early or watched so closely, in real-time, right at the very beginning. The world can now reap the benefits of investments, over the last five years, in pandemic preparedness.

We have a head start. This places us in a strong position. But it also creates a demand for advice and reassurance in the midst of limited data and considerable scientific uncertainty.

Thanks to close monitoring, thorough investigations, and frank reporting from countries, we have some early snapshots depicting spread of the virus and the range of illness it can cause.

We know, too, that this early, patchy picture can change very quickly. The virus writes the rules and this one, like all influenza viruses, can change the rules, without rhyme or reason, at any time.

Globally, we have good reason to believe that this pandemic, at least in its early days, will be of moderate severity. As we know from experience, severity can vary, depending on many factors, from one country to another.

On present evidence, the overwhelming majority of patients experience mild symptoms and make a rapid and full recovery, often in the absence of any form of medical treatment.

Worldwide, the number of deaths is small. Each and every one of these deaths is tragic, and we have to brace ourselves to see more. However, we do not expect to see a sudden and dramatic jump in the number of severe or fatal infections.

We know that the novel H1N1 virus preferentially infects younger people. In nearly all areas with large and sustained outbreaks, the majority of cases have occurred in people under the age of 25 years.

In some of these countries, around 2% of cases have developed severe illness, often with very rapid progression to life-threatening pneumonia.

Most cases of severe and fatal infections have been in adults between the ages of 30 and 50 years.

This pattern is significantly different from that seen during epidemics of seasonal influenza, when most deaths occur in frail elderly people.

Many, though not all, severe cases have occurred in people with underlying chronic conditions. Based on limited, preliminary data, conditions most frequently seen include respiratory diseases, notably asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and obesity.

At the same time, it is important to note that around one third to half of the severe and fatal infections are occurring in previously healthy young and middle-aged people.

Without question, pregnant women are at increased risk of complications. This heightened risk takes on added importance for a virus, like this one, that preferentially infects younger age groups.

Finally, and perhaps of greatest concern, we do not know how this virus will behave under conditions typically found in the developing world. To date, the vast majority of cases have been detected and investigated in comparatively well-off countries.

Let me underscore two of many reasons for this concern. First, more than 99% of maternal deaths, which are a marker of poor quality care during pregnancy and childbirth, occurs in the developing world.

Second, around 85% of the burden of chronic diseases is concentrated in low- and middle-income countries.

Although the pandemic appears to have moderate severity in comparatively well-off countries, it is prudent to anticipate a bleaker picture as the virus spreads to areas with limited resources, poor health care, and a high prevalence of underlying medical problems.

Source: World Health Organization

NEC develops new chip that promises superior 1080p upscaling

2009-05-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

More people are buying 1080p HDTVs, but unless you’re playing a Blu-ray disc (or console videogames), you have to rely on a device that can upscale your other video sources to take advantage of that extra resolution. NEC Electronics have been working on improving the current technology used to perform that upscaling, and has just announced a new chip that offers several improvements over current solutions..

In particular, the new µPD9280GM boosts the operating frequency to 150 megahertz from competitors’ 108 megahertz, and supports 30-bit color (which HDMI v1.3 also supports) instead of 24-bit. While 24-bit color offers 15 million colors, 30-bit color can display up to 1 billion colors. Finally, because the µPD9280GM can process image data from just a single frame, it doesn’t require any external memory, which current technologies must rely on since they need to process multiple frames.

According to NEC, the result is better upscaling using fewer resources. In the age of low-res Web videos and 1080p screens to view them on, upscaling will only become more important. The company plans to start mass production of the µPD9280GM in July, though no devices have been announced yet that will be using the chip.

Source: zdnet.com

Pay attention to the use of Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous. What are the differences between them? What is the main difference between "has just announced" and "have been announced"?

Playing For Change

2009-05-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.

Listen to Marc Johnson, creator of the project:

And now, listen to the latest project. Enjoy:

Just Don’t Compare Kosmix to Google

2009-03-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

KOSMIX, a well-financed Silicon Valley start-up, is often described on blogs and news sites as a search engine that may someday rival Google.

As flattering as that notion may sound, it rankles Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, the co-founders of Kosmix. And that’s not because other start-ups making similar assertions have fallen laughably short of the mark. It’s because Kosmix is trying to do something that is quite different from traditional Web search.

“Search does what it does well, very well,” Mr. Harinarayan said. “I don’t think we can ever compete with that.” Kosmix, he said, is not about finding the best set of documents for a specific keyword or phrase. Instead, its goal is to “tell me more about something,” he said.

For a key word or topic that a user enters, Kosmix gathers content from across the Web to build a sort of multimedia encyclopedia entry on the fly. For many queries, the results are pretty satisfying and look as if they have been compiled by a human editor, not a computer.

First Pictures of Extrasolar Planets Taken

2008-11-17T08:06:00.000-08:00

Beautiful new images reveal our first visual glimpse that other solar systems share planets just like ours does.

One of the central themes both to science fiction and to real-life space progress was the drive to find and eventually travel to extrasolar plants. In recent years, constantly improving computer processing and better imaging technology have allowed scientists to at last confirm what many have long fantasized -- there's a wealth of planets outside our solar system.

From water bearing planets to ultra-hot ones, and even with a few that resembled larger versions of Earth, extrasolar planets thus far have shown great variety. Most of these planets were detected using Doppler, or "wobble," technique to locate stars which were tugged at by the gravity of orbiting planets, leading to a wobble. Thus far, infrared images from the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope and spectral analysis of composition had provided us of our clearest picture of these worlds. However, the public has never seen a picture of an extrasolar planet -- until now.

Source: DailyTech