50 Sophisticated Words You Should Start Using Instead. Your New Year's resolutions might have included getting more exercise, or going back to school to get your degree. Might we humbly suggest you also take this time of starting things anew by phasing out some of the played-out words in your vocabulary and replacing them with creative alternatives? Don’t feel bad; everyone you know has been guilty of letting a "fail" or an "LOL" slip at least once in a while. But those words are tired. They need a long rest. Here are 50 sophisticated utterances to deploy instead. Cyber Substitutes Supreme: Epic doesn’t mean what you think it means. Better Buzzwords Donjon: Men, have you been relegated to a small segment of the house referred to as your "man cave? " Underage Upgrades Alas: "Oh, snap" is so out. Professional Pick-me-ups Demiurgic: "Innovative" is the second-most overused resume filler word.
Romantic Retools Cherish: Take a lesson from The Association and discover another way to say "I love you. " Dignified Descriptors. Want to Get Smarter? Read Something on This List. 117 Most beautiful words in the English language. Top 10 Highly-Desired Skills You Can Teach Yourself. A List of Books | 623 of the Best Books Ever Written. 600 free eBooks for Kindle, iphone/ ipad | Just English. The most watched and most highly-rated TED talks at the moment. Handwriting tips.
You’ve decided you want to improve your handwriting and you’re probably hoping a fountain pen will do the trick -- maybe a friend told you it would. Maybe you’re just adventurous and you want to try your hand at calligraphy (or you might, once your handwriting improves). Good for you! A fountain pen may make your writing look a bit better, but if your writing looks as if frenzied chickens got loose on the page, chances are this won’t be enough.
Most likely, you’ll need to retrain your arm and hand. After coaching handwriting and teaching calligraphy over the years, I’ve learned to see the characteristics of those who’ll be able to pick up the necessary motions quickly from those who’ll have to work a bit harder. Crampy, uneven letters are often the result of drawing the letters with the fingers rather than using the whole arm to write. People who inevitably have trouble with handwriting and calligraphy write with their fingers. It will take time to re-train muscles and learn new habits. Because Every Country Is The Best At Something. Where did my tax dollars go? Native & American Indian News, Culture, Music, Art and More - Indian Country Today Media Network.com.
LiveAndTell, A Crowdsourced Quest To Save Native American Languages. While you won't have any trouble finding a way to learn Spanish, French, or German in the United States, brushing up on your Lakota or Navajo isn't so easy. The Endangered Language Fund projects that half of the languages spoken on earth will disappear in the next century, and Native American tongues are among them. The Administration for Native Americans reports that when the U.S. was founded, more than 300 Native American languages were spoken.
That number has since dropped to 175, and only 20 are taught to children. The rest, it says, “are classified as deteriorating or nearing extinction.” In an attempt to preserve endangered indigenous dialects such as Lakota and Ho Chunk, South Dakota-based programmer Biagio Arobba has built LiveAndTell, a user-generated content site for sharing and learning Native languages. It can work for any language, but his passion is to preserve the endangered tongues you won't find in textbooks, language programs, or widely taught in classrooms. 50 Things Everyone Should Know. By Mark and Angel Self-reliance is a vital key to living a healthy, productive life.
To be self-reliant one must master a basic set of skills, more or less making them a jack of all trades. Contrary to what you may have learned in school, a jack of all trades is far more equipped to deal with life than a specialized master of only one. While not totally comprehensive , here is a list of 50 things everyone should know how to do. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Read the rest of the article. How to Use a [BUSTED] Cell Phone to Meet 5 Basic Survival Needs. Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Creek Stewart. Last week we talked about the many survival uses of the tampon. But unless he specifically packed one in a bag or car, a man’s unlikely to have one on him in a pinch. So today we’re going to explore the survival uses of an everyday item you’re much more likely to have with you in an emergency: your cell phone.
Ever leave home without your cell phone? For most of us, the answer these days is no. I think I’d be more comfortable leaving home without my pants on. I feel more naked with no cell phone. Whether in a boat, on a plane, traveling through Africa, taking a road trip, or backpacking the Rockies, our cell phone has become a regular piece of Every Day Carry (EDC).
Survival Signal Mirror Each of the cell phones I cracked open had metallic, mirror-like layers of material behind the screens. Aiming an improvised signal mirror requires a little finesse. Navigation Most speakers (if not all of them) contain a magnet. Fishing Lures. The Chip Bag Fold. Learn this chip bag fold and you will never need a clamp ever again! Have you ever had a bag of unfinished potato chips which you want to keep fresh? These simple steps will allow you to close the potato chip bag without using a clip or clamp. An example of a silly (but undeniably useful) origami fold. 1. Place the bag of potato chips on a table and flatten the top of the bag. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 100 Amazing How-To Sites to Teach Yourself Anything | Rated Colleges. Posted by Site Administrator in Online Learning May 7th, 2009 Learning new skills and expanding your knowledge doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg.
There are loads of free resources on the Web that can help you find instructional videos, tutorials and classes to learn a wide variety of skills from fixing basic car problems to speaking another language. With 100 sites to choose from, you’re bound to find something here that will help you learn just about anything you could want. General Tutorials These sites offer a wide range of tutorials and videos. Around the House Want to know how to fix that broken cabinet or hang up some great wallpaper? Business and Management If you feel like you’re seriously lacking on business and management skills at work, no need to worry. KnowThis? Language and Writing Those who want to learn a new language, improve their writing skills or just learn more about literature will be well-served by these instructional sites.
Technology Math S.O.S. Science Creativity. 12 Dozen Places To Educate Yourself Online For Free. 5 Ways to Give Yourself an Education That Kicks the Crap Out of the One You Got in School. 5 Ways to Give Yourself an Education That Kicks the Crap Out of the One You Got in School One of the biggest reasons that people are denied the privilege of education is because they can’t afford it. However, today we live in a world where knowledge and information are at our finger tips like never before. Technology has leveled the playing field so that anybody with an interest and an internet connection can receive a world class education. Bloggers, podcasters, search engines and digital content creators of all types of have made it possible for us to learn virtually anything we want to even if we don’t have the money.
If you want to learn anything chances are there is somebody creating content about the subject and sharing it with the world at no cost. Self Motivation is Not Optional Taking this kind of approach to educating yourself requires an extremely high degree of self motivation. 1. 2. Want to learn how to get in shape? 3. 4. 5. Education as we know it is changing rapidly.
Perform Everyday Tasks for Free. Improve your Brain Health. Brain Training, Brain Games And Memory Programs, Brain Fitness - CogniFit. Free online speed reading software | Spreeder.com. 8 Things Everybody Ought to Know About Concentrating - StumbleUpon. “Music helps me concentrate,” Mike said to me glancing briefly over his shoulder. Mike was in his room writing a paper for his U.S. History class. On his desk next to his computer sat crunched Red Bulls, empty Gatorade bottles, some extra pocket change and scattered pieces of paper. In the pocket of his sweat pants rested a blaring iPod with a chord that dangled near the floor, almost touching against his Adidas sandals. Mike made a shift about every thirty seconds between all of the above.
Do you know a person like this? The Science Behind Concentration In the above account, Mike’s obviously stuck in a routine that many of us may have found ourselves in, yet in the moment we feel it’s almost an impossible routine to get out of. When we constantly multitask to get things done, we’re not multitasking, we’re rapidly shifting our attention. Phase 1: Blood Rush Alert When Mike decides to start writing his History essay, blood rushes to his anterior prefrontal cortex. Phase 2: Find and Execute. Fall of the Roman Empire… In the 15th Century. 25 Free Sites for Reading Books Online. Do you love to read but hate to walk or drive or rise from a prone position on your hammock?
Well, if you have Internet access, you don’t have to! (Granted, if you only have a desktop computer, you’ll probably have to sit up.) With these 25 great sites, you have access to tens of thousands of books, plays, essays, poems and other written works in electronic form anytime for free! With the scanned documents, you can even enjoy the illustrations and the visual look and feel of the often historic works. The texts available are primarily older ones whose copyright protection has expired, and thus they’re now in the public domain, so don’t expect to find the latest Twilight book or anything like that. Still, there are plenty of cool e-books to explore — from Dracula to Alice in Wonderland — and plenty of useful stuff you’ll no doubt have to read at some point in an English class.
Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts: Collects several thousand texts, mostly from Project Gutenberg (see below). Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books. More than 5,000 of you nominated. More than 60,000 of you voted. And now the results are in. The winners of NPR's Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey are an intriguing mix of classic and contemporary titles. Over on NPR's pop culture blog, Monkey See, you can find one fan's thoughts on how the list shaped up, get our experts' take, and have the chance to share your own. A quick word about what's here, and what's not: Our panel of experts reviewed hundreds of the most popular nominations and tossed out those that didn't fit the survey's criteria (after — we assure you — much passionate, thoughtful, gleefully nerdy discussion).
You'll notice there are no young adult or horror books on this list, but sit tight, dear reader, we're saving those genres for summers yet to come. So, at last, here are your favorite science-fiction and fantasy novels. 1. Neil deGrasse Tyson Lists 8 (Free) Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read. A Reddit.com user posed the question to Neil deGrasse Tyson: "Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on the planet? " Below, you will find the book list offered up by the astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, and popularizer of science. Where possible, we have included links to free versions of the books, all taken from our Free Audio Books and Free eBooks collections.
Or you can always download a professionally-narrated book for free from Audible.com. Details here. If you're looking for a more extensive list of essential works, don't miss The Harvard Classics, a 51 volume series that you can now download online. 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) 7.) 8.) Tyson concludes by saying: "If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. " He has also added some more thoughts in the comments section below, saying: Thanks for this ongoing interest in my book suggestions. Related Content: 30 Books I’m Glad I Read Before 30.
In various ways, these 30 books convey some of the philosophy of how Angel and I live our lives. I honestly credit a fraction of who I am today to each title. Thus, they have indirectly influenced much of what I write about on this site. A medley of both fiction and nonfiction, these great reads challenged my internal status quo, opening my mind to new ideas and opportunities, and together they gave me a basic framework for living, loving, learning and working successfully. If you haven’t read these books yet, I highly recommend doing so. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert – Gilbert, a Harvard professor of psychology has studied happiness for decades, and he shares scientific findings that just might change the way you look at the world. What are your favorite books? Photo by: Katie Harris.
Books that will induce a mindfuck. Here is the list of books that will officially induce mindfucks, sorted alphabetically by author. Those authors in bold have been recommended by one or more people as being generally mindfucking - any books listed under their names are particularly odd. You're welcome to /msg me to make an addition to this list. And finally, although he's way down at the bottom, my personal recommendation is definitely Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, as it turns the ultimate mindfuck: inverting the world-view of our entire culture, and it is non-fiction. Information Is Beautiful | Ideas, issues, knowledge, data - visualized!