PEACE & disarmament...

Shame on warmongers for there IS so much fighting and killing and suffering on this planet.
But we, the people of the rich countries with our cohort of weapons manufacturers and bomb salesmen do not seem to care. Well, I care. And I'm sure you do and it makes me smile.
Happy new Year to all.Life and peace.

Orwellian times. Can you believe it?

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2010/12/14/nr.how.to.spot.hidden.cameras.cnn
Cameras everywhere and ...Oh my!
Every nincompoop, (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nincompoop)every nitwwit and the likes can monitor anything and they'll keep wasting their time in front of a screen, for nothing or sheer evil. Just like Big Brother.

Geomagnetic storm

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/NOAAscales/

Life is a gift indeed

A quote about war

I'm sure that someday children in schools will study the history of the men who made war as you study an absurdity. They'll be shocked, just as today we're shocked with cannibalism.
-Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister (1898-1978)
Thank you again Anu http://wordsmith.org/

Not an advert... We're relieved!

An orang-utan

Her name is Green, she is alone in a world that doesn't belong to her. She is a female orang-utan, victim of deforestation and resource exploitation.

http://www.greenthefilm.com/

Some speech

This speech was deliverd by Bernie Sanders on the senate floor on November 30th, 2010
a comment here:http://tinyurl.com/34gkvyx


Sénateur Bernie Sanders: l'Amérique à deux vitesses S/T
envoyé par hussardelamort. - L'info internationale vidéo.

The Infamous Double Slit Experiment

If you want to begin to grasp what Quantum Physics is, you will watch that video:

Wired: Danger Room

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/air-force-on-secret-space-plane-nothing-to-see-here-move-along/

Banksy

A video with many works by Banksy and more here: http://bilien.blogspot.com/search?q=banksy

Chimps and morality

BP's Gulf of Mexico OIL SPILL

Remember the oil spill? I'm sure you haven't heard about it much since August...
Well, you can now watch this very interesting video here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/commando602#p/a/f/0/d_x-b97LX0k
If you don't want to watch it all (15 minutes), concentrate on 3:45 up to 4:55 and then 13:00 onwards.
And then of course you might only have time to watch BP being made fun of...

Picasso

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Planète Bureau

I know, I know, this is in French, but you'll enjoy it!
You see, I've got very creative friends!... but they're French ;-(
Why don't we write subtitles for them!
To my pupils: If you do so, you'll get a reward!

http://www.planete-bureau.fr/

A Darwinian Theory of Beauty

Learn English with songs!

http://www.lyricstraining.com/index.php
As the video unfolds, you have to fill in blanks. It automatically waits for you.
Choose your song, your level, and try it!

The Fly

A poem by William Blake

Little Fly,
Thy summer's play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength and breath
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

Body scanners: Opt out!

http://www.optoutday.com/
Some people are willing to refuse body scanners and would rather have a body search or "enhanced pat down"

Know that the TSA is Transportation Security Administration "that protects the nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce." Indeed!!!

Let's be careful drivers!

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims from lucy pepper on Vimeo.

John Lennon's aurora borealis

See http://bilien.blogspot.com/search?q=imagine
 and
http://www.wtop.com/?sid=2074196&nid=114
http://www.spaceweather.com/

ORAL COMPREHENSION SITES

TWO GREAT FINDINGS!
Remember!
If you really want to improve your English, LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN to as much English as you can!

http://storycorps.org/listen

http://soundportraits.org/on-air/

Thomas Jefferson

A great PBS series on youtube. Thx PBS, thx youtube

Physics according to Niels Bohr

"It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what we say about Nature. "


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bpbohr.html

If you like horses,

you'll love Zenyatta
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7009219n&tag=component.1

5th of November = Guy Fawkes'night

Watch V for Vendetta tonight, on Bonfire Night and learn more about it,Guy Fawkes and the conspirators led by Robert Catesby:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,1605605,00.html
or here:http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/gunpowder_robinson_01.shtml
I quote:
"Their first meeting was on 20 May 1604. Catesby was joined by his friends Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright and Thomas Percy at the Duck and Drake, in the Strand. The fifth person was Guy Fawkes. Originally from York, he had been recruited in Flanders, where he had been serving in the Spanish Army. They discussed their plan to blow up Parliament House, and shortly afterwards leased a small house in the heart of Westminster, installing Fawkes as caretaker, under the alias of John Johnson."
Here is a video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ikQQk8cJQ
And the nursery rhyme: thanks Emily!

"Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd (or by God's mercy*)
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holla boys, Holla boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
And what should we do with him? Burn him!"

The empathic civilization

Marijuana: 7 Health Myths Up in Smoke

Proposition 19 also known as the "Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Act" was a ballot initiative on the November 2, 2010 California statewide ballot...  
Two days ago when U.S. democrats lose the majority in the House of Representatives but keep it in the Senate.
It was ultimately defeated, with 53.9% of California voters voting 'No'
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20021612-10391704.html
Marijuana: 7 Health Myths Up in Smoke
http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-204_162-10005201.html?tag=page

National Geographic

One of the links towards NG's website.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/science.html

TEN FACTS

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/6546462/The-10-weirdest-physics-facts-from-relativity-to-quantum-physics.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/6546462/The-10-weirdest-physics-facts-from-relativity-to-quantum-physics.html

Food poisoning

Easy enough to cure

This video dates back to 1991!!!

Most of you kids, pupils, students weren't even born when that video was shot 20 years ago. Still, we haven't got this digital desk yet!
Sitting in my study in front of my desktop, (a portable PC) I'm surrounded by paper. Bad for the planet.
Loads of files containing document, lessons, tests, papers, on the shelves and bookcases.

How nice it would be to have only one portable computer each with a video projector in the class, connected to the internet with the possibility for you to download the articles, links, audio and video files easily.
But the Education Nationale missed the opportunity then.. And it could have been cheap.
I guess it's better for businesss to give high-tech gizmos (gadgets whose name you can't recall) to people gradually, trickling down the devices only to make them obsolete with some new gadget, itself rendered obsolete with another one... ad lib.
Don't you see?
If you really don't see my point, make a list of all the electronic devices you've had since childhood.
You'll get it then!
If you mail this list to me and tell me what I mean, you'll get 2 additional points to your next test. I promise!

Rally to restore sanity

............................................UPDATES......... SOME SIGNS .........................................

Two great U.S. comedians: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-27-2010/moment-of-zen---obama-will-not-be-at-the-rally
Watch this video too where the U.S. president's spokesman answers the question:" Is there a chance the president will put an appearance at the rally?"Watch his fingers spin.
tMon - Thurs 11p / 10cMoment of Zen - Obama Will Not Be at the Rallywww.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Rally to Restore Sanity

Seven years later... still so true!

Sing along! Just mute the sound on the lyrics video ... and start them both. You might want to use F 11 to get both videos visible on your screen.


Here a comment on the video I liked!
"What happened to the Black Eyed Peas?
I miss them. They used to make music with meaning and reason. This song brings me back when i was a little kid listening to this on the radio before all this same crap comes on over and over again: Everything now is sex and partying.
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting their young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what the see in the cinema
Now i ask you black eyed peas, "Where is the love?"
...from "The Shattered Element. Kuddos!

Happy Thanksgiving in advance!

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1796513126

Thank you Fanny!

Impressive Figures

TV Commercial with aliens...for the BBC, Budweiser and more!

ETs are becoming an increasingly popular in the media culture. Both intriguing and funny?





And many others, did you notice?
http://creativebits.org/inspiration/ufos_advertising

URBAN FARMERS

                                      http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/04/garden/04FARM.html?pagewanted=all&position=

UK TV Commercial

Birdmen

Extreme sport indeed but amazingly collected people risking their life for the sheer pleasure of ... flying.
Copy/Paste the link below to watch birdmen in action
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6816775n&tag=mncol;lst;5

Julian Boulle, a South African asks at the very end of the video:
Do you think anybody else had as much fun as us today in the entire world?
To which Holmes, an American professional skier answers: "I don't think so."

America's front yard

Watch the video on the link below
if you wish to see famous sights of Washington D.C.and its National Mall.

http://www.nps.gov/nationalmallplan/Timelapse.html

Julia Fischer

Discover or rediscover one of the greatest artist of all times!

About Tax Havens

Ahhhh les paradis fiscaux!
For once, a video in French. I'm sure Evav Joly speaks English but I couldn't find the English equivalent so here you go!
I quote Eva Joly:
"Une mesure aussi simple que de demander aux sociétés transnationales de déclarer ce qu'elles gagnent pays par pays et de ne pas l'obtenir au bout de huit ans..."
Listen to her if you want to know more.

Eva Joly - Les paradis fiscaux c'est la colonisation
envoyé par ccfd. - L'actualité du moment en vidéo.

The Event, some TV event...

Considering all those hours I, you, we spend on the web, I just wanted to post a link which might not be legal but well, Hadopi will let me know.
No big deal really. Just the opportunity to watch a great series just a couple of days after the U.S. NBC viewers.
I've already posted a preview on that blog.Now the third episode has been I've just watched the third episode of The Event.
Yes, I do have some leisure time in front of my screen.
Well, that third episode of The Event is abso-...-lutely mind-blowing.
Great thriller and the plot unfolds smoothly. Actors are definitely convincing and as for the characters, we want to know more about them.
Well, you may want to see for yourself. Enjoy!

http://www.couchtuner.com/the-event/
Kuddos to couchtuner a.k.a. mytvsource.
Hey, NBC, we'll still buy the DVDs! Don't you worry.

The SEED School of Washington DC

Nature by numbers

Tigers in Bhutan ... up high

Best Universities in the world

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/index.html
Thanks to G.G.

Hollywood's Social Network

http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/2010/revenge-of-the-nerd

The Event

Another series to come... 

http://www.nbc.com/the-event/

Ground Zero 2010

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6856449n&tag=contentMain;contentBody
a cbsnews video: after the inevitable commercial, learn about the progress made on ground zero.
An impressive building site.

9 X 9/11

For once in that blog... some French:  a "Le Monde" article about a hugely crucial subject: 9/11
http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2010/09/11/les-etats-unis-n-en-ont-pas-fini-avec-le-11-septembre_1409267_3222.html#ens_id=1395749
Thanks to Teo, I've done my research and found this video. I chose mainly it because I love that child's voice and the design of the carpet. While the kid is fumbling with the $20 dollar bill, listen to the background sound.

Come and ask me to show you a $20 bill students! You might make an impression on your  teacher if you can tell her, in English, what you've heard in the background!
For the BTS students in particular, a 9/11 research by architects and engineers:
http://www.ae911truth.org/

Mars latest news

Great video about Mars. Thank you Opportunity, Thank you Rovers!
http://izlegenclik.com/video-izle-29610-Opportunity+On+Mars.htm
and life too?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10151001

KuaFu

KuaFu was a giant in Chinese Mythology who wanted to capture the sun...
Read about our sun again while listening to "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles!
It might cheer you up....
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/16jul_ilws/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6j4TGqVl5g

TOP SECRET AMERICA

A Washington Post  Investigation by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin
Watch the video first
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/
Then, read the article entitled The secrets next door  by The  Washington Post http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/
Finally, read about the reactions to the Washington Post series
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/2010/07/washington_reacts_to_top_secre.html

Our sun again

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sun-storm-to-hit-with-force-of-100-bombs/story-e6frfro0-1225909999465

A wise man

Thanks Yo for this precious link!

Talking for a New Fairer World

Interesting talk about population growth:
PS: taxonomy (in French, taxinomie or taxonomie): science and practice of classification.

Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish: Kings 'n Queens of Camouflage!

Here is the scientist who shot this incredible transformation!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW4PbW893ik&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Ho, those Freudian Slips!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/02/national/main6641548.shtml?tag=cbsContent;cbsCarousel

For more...
http://www.myspace.com/mitchellandwebb

Internet Kill Switch

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Worst Case Scenario

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Have you ever heard of Kudzu?

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

If you want to know more about it, have a look here http://www.kudzuworld.com/Kudzu/index.en.aspx

Grand Old Party 's future candidate?

In the U.S.A., the G.O.P. is also known as the republican party. Nixon, Reagan, Bush father, Bush son were GOP presidents.
You can also read the article below that tells us U.S. citizens might not know what GOP stands for... http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/03/politics/main531460.shtml

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

A quote

I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth. -Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

The promising journalist and the politician

Firefly? No! MIT's FLYFIRE

http://senseable.mit.edu/flyfire/#

38 years 4 months and fifteen days

That's the time it took the British government to admit that the killing of peace protesters on Bloody Sunday was unjustified and unjustifiable.
Watch and read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/15/bloodysunday-northernireland

Noisy Vuvuzelas on South African football grounds!

PEACE

I'm a fishwife

Go figure!
http://wordsmith.org/words/billingsgate.html
Dear Anu Garg, you make my day, and today, my blogging way.
And oh my, oh my, what a quote!

For those who have taken the time to open the link above and read that wordsmith.org page from top to bottom,they'll see what I mean.
Wordsmith is such a gem on the web.

silly bandz

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

The laws of Physics

Great article!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=deep-in-thought-what-is-a-law-of-ph-2010-06-04

DO YOU SPEAK FOOTBALL?

A great site for English learners who love football. Interesting interviews with series of questions below them.
http://premierskills.britishcouncil.org/premierskills-dvd-questions
And below, the South African map with the football stadiums of the 2010 world cup.

GOOGLING YOURSELF?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/05/earlyshow/saturday/main6551213.shtml?tag=cbsContent;cbsCarousel

Gulf oil spill: Will Deepwater sink the 101-year-old BP?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/gulf-oil-deepwater-sink-bp

STOP IT!

"The revolution volcano"

Its name, Laki, is easier to pronounce than Eyjafjallajokull. Some Icelandic words are easier to pronounce than others!
The Laki volcanic fissure in southern Iceland erupted over an eight-month period from 8 June 1783 to February 1784.
It triggered a weird weather and bad crops which were one of the causes of the revolution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/15/iceland-volcano-weather-french-revolution

Synthetic Life?

For science-craving minds, an astounding breakthrough
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form

6 mn 21 sec about robots

10 mn 4 sec about crows

8th Wonderland

The video might make you feel like visiting the website below:
http://www.8thwonderland.com/
Well, you'll have to join to visit the country first and then you might want to get naturalized. hat's what I did.
It was entertaining to watch the short videos beginning with "Meet the ambassador" but then, when I got naturalized, even if I thought the constitution which is to be voted soon made sense,I was disappointed by the ambassador's replies to my questions!
I don't regret getting naturalized anyway.
I still think it's a great idea, this new land of democracy. The web could indeed become a great platform for actual democracy

OIL SPILL OUT OF CONTROL ... or WORSE

Follow-up on the Mexican Gulf Oil Spill.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0513/gulf-oil-gusher-ten-times-worse-prior-estimates/

Facebook is not private.

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

David Cameron: New British Prime Minister

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/11/david-cameron-uk-prime-minister

steam on the left, magma ash on the right

Here is the best way to follow the Eyjafjallajokull volcano live!
http://eldgos.mila.is/english/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

And a great site to get more follow-up.
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/

I want one of those!

How to pronounce names

http://www.pronouncenames.com/

Useful site!
Here is a video link about it!
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=56429

OIL SPILL OUT OF CONTROL

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7113708.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093

CBS — 1 mai 2010 — Until last week, drilling in the Gulf of Mexico had been catastrophe-free for decades. Now, drilling opponents have new ammunition in their fight. Wyatt Andrews reports:

The leading conservative politician about UFOs

Extract from Wikepedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010

"The United Kingdom general election of 2010 will be held on 6 May[note 1] to elect one MP in each of the 650 constituencies to the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The election was called on 6 April, and Parliament was dissolved on 12 April for the ensuing campaign. Voting will take place between 7.00 am and 10.00 pm. Local elections will also be held in some areas on that day.

The governing Labour Party will be looking to secure a fourth consecutive term in office and to restore support lost since 1997.[1] The Conservative Party will seek to gain a dominant position in UK politics after losses in the 1990s, and to replace Labour as the governing party. The Liberal Democrats hope to make gains from both sides; their most realistic ambition, as the campaign began, was to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament. Since the televised debates between the three leaders, their poll ratings have risen to the point where many are considering the possibility of a Liberal Democrat role in Government.

Archiving tweets?

Texting Teens

Icelandic Pronunciation

WOW!

Slow Down, Take it Easy!

AND WATCH OTHER VIDEOS FROM THE ORIGINAL SITE HERE:http://slow-n-easy.ch/

EYJAFJALLAJOKULL

CBS LONDON, April 15, 2010 Iceland Volcano Ash Grounds European Air Travel
Tens of Thousands Stranded as Airports Shut Down in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and France
Watch the video below the article. Some plumes of smoke...and ash
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/14/tech/main6394180.shtml
Also read about the eruption and what preceded it here:
http://www.nat.is/travelguideeng/glacier_eyjafjallajokull.htm
You can also watch here how the plume of ash travels and where it prevents airplanes from flying.
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMKDU9MT7G_index_0.html
Read about

GREAT WEBGIFT FROM DOWN UNDER

A GREAT SITE for all those who want to get to speak English fluently:

http://australianetwork.com/learningenglish/

BRAVO to the Australian Network! Kuddos Down Under;-)

They knew, We knew, Guantanamo news

TRUTH ALWAYS COMES OUT IN THE OPEN SOME DAY
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7092435.ece?print=yes&randnum=1270802329473

There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword.

By Paul Craig Roberts
See first who he is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts
Then read this
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03242010.html
And if it's too tough for you to read in its original version here are the French subtitles from a "Le monde" blog:
http://legauloisdechaine.blog.lemonde.fr/2010/03/26/la-verite-dechue-a-entraine-la-liberte-avec-elle-paul-craig-roberts/

The Metalliers Champenois restored the Statue of Liberty Torch

And as you can see, the Metalliers Champenois
(Champenois = from the Champagne region) restored the torch prior to 9/11

Soon in the class

by the 2TBAA, an exhibition about New York City in room I 02...
your English classroom pupils!

Here: the Chrysler Building
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/chrysler2_skyscraper.html

From Ireland! Thank you Lynn!

Lynn is visiting Ireland and sends that picture from across Oscar Wilde's residence in Dublin.
Vocabulary note: the gutter:

Learning vocabulary

Revise your basic vocabulary here. Thanks to Wilson Cheung for teaching me that "forehead"
can be pronouced /'forid/ but also /for'hed/!
http://learningchocolate.com/

Spring? Ok GO!

I find those videos invigorating.
http://vimeo.com/8528144 get an idea of how it was shot http://vimeo.com/8878427
http://vimeo.com/7166047
Great spring to you all!

Imagine Peace Tower

IMAGINE PEACE TOWER is composed of a tall shimmering tower of light that will appear every year and be visible from October 9th (John’s birthday) until December 8th (the anniversary of his death).In addition, the Tower will illuminate from Winter Solstice (December 21st – 28th),on
New Year’s Eve (December 31st) and the first week of spring (March 21st -28th).
It is lit from 2 hours after sunset until midnight, and until dawn on New Year’s Day.




See more pics of the Imagine Peace Tower here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yokoonoofficial/sets/72157607538726414/



Imagine peace Tower site: http://imaginepeace.com/projects/imagine-peace-tower

Oldies but goodies

Revise "Imagine" lyrics

Happy Saint Patrick's day

Even Google is featuring it!

Lousy papers / Teacher with a sense of humour

Contagious is a good word

Painting 18 hours a day

Watch CBS News Videos Online

ORIGAMI

Origami, the art of folding paper...
The video on the link below on PBS is definitely a must-see if you like art, craft, beauty and human inventivity.
So do watch this Independent Lens movie called "Between the Folds". Enjoy!
http://video.pbs.org/video/1340426590/
And there's this great site in progress: Le Crimp, a French folding group:
http://www.le-crimp.org/
Here's another video with Vincent Floderer from le crimp in English, s'il vous plait!:
At the beginning he says "I'm doing Origami since twenty years." If you send me what he should have said in the comment, I'll grant you additional points on your next paper. Be the first to correct him!
(What I would do to get just one comment :-(

Inglorious Bastards

Thank you Geoffrey, if you ever drop by!

A word a day, my favourite sites about words.

Thank you once again Anu Garg! Your site, http://wordsmith.org/ is a real treasure!
Here is a very interesting text in today's edition of Anu Garg's newsletter:

To subscribe to his newsletter and discover his precious online work:
http://wordsmith.org/words/today.html

" Recently I visited London to attend a wedding. The bride had graduated from Oxford, and among the invitees were some of her fellow graduates and a professor. During the long ceremony, we intermittently chatted about London weather, Gordon Brown, Queen Lizzie, and language.

Among other things, we talked about the differences between British and American English. I recalled reading about the inroads American English is making even in the UK, so I decided to carry out an experiment to find to what extent American English had "corrupted" English English.

I told them that sometimes the British write certain numerals (e.g. 1 and 7) differently from how they're written in the US, and asked them to write a short sentence so I could see if there were other differences in the script.

I quickly thought of a sentence for them to write:
"Her favorite flavors were in the gray catalog, she realized."

I said it aloud and the five Oxonians and the Oxford don kindly wrote it down on their napkins (serviettes). I collected the napkins and then told them about the experiment -- it had nothing to do with handwriting. In reality, that sentence had five words that could be written with American or British spellings (favorite/favourite, flavor/flavour, gray/grey, catalog/catalogue realize/realise).

Of the six people who participated in the experiment, three spelled (spelt) everything the British way. The other three had one or more words spelled in American English.

What does this experiment prove? Not much, according to my 12-year-old daughter, "Your sample size is too small."

Language, by its very definition, is a vehicle of exchange. A language means nothing in vacuum. When two people share, they give and take, though the movement is not always equal in both directions. US export of movies, television, music, books, technology, etc. includes something that goes through under the radar: Language.

Will American English take over the other Englishes? Probably not. Will the English language diverge into distinct languages just as Latin turned into French, Spanish, Italian and other languages? Hope not.

But who knows? Only time can tell, but in the meantime let's celebrate the diversity of languages by learning words English has borrowed from some of the less-known languages: Hungarian, Hebrew, Nootka, Afrikaans, and Persian. Even though they're not as well-known to most of us, they are still spoken by thousands or millions of people."

I'm way more than a little proud to be quoted in his second book, Another word a day, on page 122! Anu Garg has written three books which are all in my library! Well, on my bedside table!

http://www.amazon.com/Another-Word-Day-Limited-Gift/dp/0471778788

And Anu's site has long been in this blog's tags.

Amazing demo: SixthSense

You want to know what the future looks like?
By the way, what movie and what actor does the speaker, Pattie Maes, refer to?
This is a question of oral comprehension for my pupils ;-) Additional points in sight for any comment...