What Shapes Our Language? Our language is constantly being shaped by a number of different influences, from social media and pop culture to other languages and even human error. Thanks to the ever-evolving Internet, new words enter our language almost daily. But beyond new words, technology has had a big impact on the ways in which we communicate, particularly with respect to how many words it takes us to get our point across. (Click Image To Enlarge) Use This Infographic In Your Class We think that infographics are an awesome learning and teaching tool, so our creations will always be available for you to print out, use with your students and embed on your blog! Embed this image on your site <a href=" src=" <a href=" Blog</a> Warm-Up Activity Why are languages constantly evolving over time? Writing Challenge
Where is The Mind?: Science gets puzzled and almost admits a non-local mentalscape. This will be the last "home-produced" blog entry for a while [save the short "Everyday Spirituality" which will follow it as a sign-off] . West Virginia beckons tomorrow morning and off I will go to whatever that entails. As I said in one of the commentary responses the other day, I hope that reading two journal runs "cover-to-cover" will bring up a few thoughts worth sharing. This day's entry was inspired by two articles bumped into coincidentally which had scientists puzzling about a holographic universe and a non-local mind. The first of these articles [both from the New Scientist] was "Where in the World is the Mind?" That brings in the second serendipitous article. It reminded me then, also, of a moment when I was able to spend a [too short] time with David Bohm, the famous theoretical physicist. I am happy to be [in body] a holographic projection of force dimensions--not from the "edge" of the universe but its core reality.
Top 3 Reasons to Spice Up Language Learning Evernote, the cross-platform note-taking and archiving service that helps users “remember everything”, is growing and expanding into the educational community. In particular, it has caught the eye of many language learners who, quite simply, want nothing more than to “remember everything” they have learned in and about their foreign languages of study. If you find yourself struggling with the Russian alphabet or German syntax, here are the top 3 reasons to spice up your own language learning odyssey with Evernote. 1. Evernote works by syncing all of your computers and mobile devices through a single account. 2. Long gone are the days when bookmarking was the best way to keep track of your top-100-websites-to-revisit-before-they-get-buried-under-another-100-links. 3. At Voxy, we are currently building an iPhone appthat allows users to learn English in the “privacy of their own phone.” (Visited 1,433 times, 2 visits today)
Why It Pays To Be Bilingual Being bilingual provides a variety of perks. Aside from giving you the ability to impress your latest love interest by reciting foreign poetry, being bilingual also pays dividends – monetarily, cognitively, and culturally. See the graphic below to find out why. Note to teachers, edubloggers and all those interested: Want to use this infographic in your class or share it on your blog? (Click Image To Enlarge) Use This Infographic In Your Class We think that infographics are an awesome learning and teaching tool, so our creations will always be available for you to print out, use with your students and/or embed on your blog! Warm-Up Activity Before handing out the infographic, discuss the following question with your students: What are the advantages of being bilingual? Speaking & Critical Thinking Practice Questions to ask your students after presenting the infographic: What is the most surprising fact that you discovered from this infographic? Writing Challenge Spread the Infographic Love
Exceptional Memory Explained: How Some People Remember What They Had for Lunch 20 Years Ago Researchers from the University of California, Irvine reported in 2006 on a woman named Jill Price who could remember in great detail what she did on a particular day decades earlier. James McGaugh, Larry Cahill and Elizabeth Parker put the woman through a battery of tests and ascertained that she was not using any of the memory tricks that have been known to mnemonists for millennia. Word got out, the media descended and the lab now receives calls every day from people who say they have the same ability as Price. A question that has persisted about this line of research is whether the brains of these people are distinct from the organs of others who can’t remember yesterday’s lunch, let alone trivial events from 20 years back. “There seems to be this extreme organizational capacity, kind of like the tricks that mnemonists use,” says Howard Eichenbaum, a Boston University professor who is editor of the journal Hippocampus. Source: University of California, Irvine
10 Astounding Infographics Comparing Money Matters Around the World 47 Flares Google+ 2 Twitter 31 Facebook 4 Reddit 1 StumbleUpon 1 Pin It Share 0 LinkedIn 8 inShare8 47 Flares × It goes without the saying that comparing wealth and spending in different countries is almost impossible: people work, earn and even spend differently – moreover, their ways of life and views can be too different to compare. However, we still try to compare because people move around the world and they want to know what they can expect in different corners of the globe. Here are the 10 greatest examples of information graphics comparing money, spending and earning around the world: 1. U.S. The most interesting finding of the stats research and the visualization: The U.S. is the clear leader in total annual spending, but ranks 9th in Science performance and 10th in Math. Note: It is unclear what was the measure used to compare the countries in their math and science performance. 2. Most Expensive Cities is the World is an interesting visualization by Home Loan Finder. 3. 4. 5. 6.
What Are The Hardest Languages To Learn? [INFOGRAPHIC] Learning a new language can be difficult, but some languages can be trickier than others. For native English speakers, the difficulty level of a new language depends on a variety of factors. So which are the most difficult to learn? And which languages would you be able to master in under a year? View the infographic below to learn more. (Click Image To Enlarge) Use This Infographic In Your Class We think that infographics are an awesome learning and teaching tool, so our creations will always be available for you to print out, use with your students and embed on your blog! Embed this image on your site <a href=" src=" <a href=" Blog</a> Warm-Up Activity Before handing out the infographic, discuss the following questions with your students: Are some languages harder to learn than others?
The Brain: A Body Fit for a Freaky-Big Brain | Mind & Brain Aiello and Wheeler noted that this dramatic increase in brain size would seem to have required a dramatic increase in metabolism—the same way that adding an air-conditioning system to a house would increase the electricity bill. Yet humans burn the same number of calories, scaled to size, as other primates. Somehow, Aiello and Wheeler argued, our ancestors found a way to balance their energy budget. As they expanded their brains, perhaps they slimmed down other organs. The scientists compared the sizes of organs in humans and other primates. Aiello and Wheeler christened their idea “the expensive tissue hypothesis.” Then William Leonard, a biological anthropologist at Northwestern University, put the expensive tissue hypothesis to a new test. This suggested that the gut-shrinking phenomenon within the primate groups was probably too subtle to explain our increase in brain size completely. Wray and his colleagues compared SLC2A1 in humans and other animals.