25 maps that explain the English language English is the language of Shakespeare and the language of Chaucer. It’s spoken in dozens of countries around the world, from the United States to a tiny island named Tristan da Cunha. It reflects the influences of centuries of international exchange, including conquest and colonization, from the Vikings through the 21st century. Here are 25 maps and charts that explain how English got started and evolved into the differently accented languages spoken today. The origins of English 1) Where English comes from English, like more than 400 other languages, is part of the Indo-European language family, sharing common roots not just with German and French but with Russian, Hindi, Punjabi, and Persian. 2) Where Indo-European languages are spoken in Europe today Saying that English is Indo-European, though, doesn’t really narrow it down much. 3) The Anglo-Saxon migration 4) The Danelaw The next source of English was Old Norse. 5)The Norman Conquest 6) The Great Vowel Shift The spread of English Credits
Memories Can Be Inherited, and Scientists May Have Just Figured out How In Brief Our life experiences may be passed on to our children and our children's children - and now scientists report that they have discovered that this inheritance can be turned on or off. What is Epigenetics? Epigenetics is the study of inherited changes in gene expression…changes that are inherited, but they are not inherent to our DNA. The question, of course, is how are these genetic “memories” passed on? This is the question that a Tel Aviv University (TAU) was seeking to answer when they reportedly discovered the exact mechanism that makes it possible to turn the transference of environmental influences on or off. Understanding the Mechanism According to their study, epigenetic responses that are inherited follow an active process as it gets passed on through generations. “We previously showed that worms inherited small RNAs following the starvation and viral infections of their parents.
Could Personalized Food Labels Help You Eat Better? Nutrition is a slippery science, full of research that is constantly debunked by more research. We're left largely confused, pondering whether " vitamins are good for you" or "whether eating saturated fat gives you heart disease." Sam Slover, a graduate student at NYU, tackled the problem by creating Wrap Genius, a nutrition label that can be customized to accommodate anyone’s diet. “Ideally, I want the label to take into account who is looking at it, and adapt accordingly. We all care about different aspects of food, so a dream label should become personalized to the unique interests, background, and diet of each person,” Slover explains. “More realistically, I want the label to make it easy for people to quickly understand the overall nutritional profile of the food. Slover's redesign of the nutrition label hinges on three color-coded categories: Quick Facts (in neutral blue), Avoid Too Much (in alert red), and Get Enough (in good-to-go green). See the project here.
Are Psychedelic Drugs the Achilles' Heel of the Establishment? Back in 2010, I took a winter solstice themed acid trip with my lovely wife, which spawned the impetus for me finally writing my second book (which should be coming out this summer). I realized I needed to start writing said book during the trip because it was the one part of my magickal practice I had been neglecting, my magickal journal. According to some Occultists, this is the most important variable in the equation, so yeah, a pretty big oversight on my part and not something that was occurring to me at all before then. So I woke up the next day, sketched out the outline and got moving. Two and a half years later and it’s finally almost done (it only took me a year to write, finding a decent editor and getting that wrapped up has now taken me far longer, unreal). During this particular neuro-excursion I also had a fairly profound vision embed itself into my psyche seemingly out of nowhere. “People of Earth. This was my channeled communication to humanity.
Practicing the top priority lexis – a quick and dirty tip I’m enjoying a Saturday lie-in with Corpus Linguistics for ELT: Research and Practice by Ivor Timmis, a great new book which arrived in my mail just yesterday. It made me think of a quick exercise that can be used as a follow-up to any reading or listening activity. It’s really simple, but since it takes a bit of technology to create it quickly, I thought I’d write a quick post. The book overviews the insights into language achieved by corpus linguistics and discusses their implications for the ELT classroom. I’m currently reading the chapter called Corpus research and grammar, and one of the main topics of the chapter is to what extent the frequency of a linguistic feature should influence the amount of time devoted to teaching that feature. One striking fact mentioned in this chapter comes from an article by Biber and Reppern. Finding and replacing the various forms of these verbs could be time-consuming, but there are tools in which one can make such a gap-fill exercise in one click.
It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkies Susan* bought her 6-year-old son John an iPad when he was in first grade. “I thought, ‘Why not let him get a jump on things?’ ” she told me during a therapy session. John’s school had begun using the devices with younger and younger grades — and his technology teacher had raved about their educational benefits — so Susan wanted to do what was best for her sandy-haired boy who loved reading and playing baseball. She started letting John play different educational games on his iPad. Eventually, he discovered Minecraft, which the technology teacher assured her was “just like electronic Lego.” Enlarge Image At first, Susan was quite pleased. Still, Susan couldn’t deny she was seeing changes in John. Although that concerned her, she thought her son might just be exhibiting an active imagination. Then, one night, she realized that something was seriously wrong. “I walked into his room to check on him. We now know that those iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of digital drug. Enlarge Image
The 5 Fattest States In America There's a new top state in the obesity stakes, and the dubious honor goes to Mississippi. It now has the highest rate of obesity in the nation (35.4%), replacing West Virginia (34.4%), which had been top state from 2010 to 2012. Montana has the lowest obesity rate, followed by Colorado and Nevada. Gallup's 2013 figures are based on a survey of self-reported height and weight. People are "obese" when their Body Mass Index (BMI) exceeds 30. You can see all the states in Gallup's obesity map here. According to Gallup, the states with the highest levels of obesity also have higher rates of obesity-related disease. Cutting obesity levels improves people's health, but also reduces pressure on the overall health care system. The Centers for Disease Control obesity numbers--which are also based on a survey--have slightly different results. [Images via Shutterstock]
How To Learn Hacking Copyright © 2014 Eric S. Raymond The “hacking” we'll be talking about in this document is exploratory programming in an open-source environment. Hacking is primarily a style of programming, and following the recommendations in this document can be an effective way to acquire general-purpose programming skills. Note that one can be doing hacking without being a hacker. Hacking doesn't have enough formal apparatus to be a full-fledged methodology in the way the term is used in software engineering, but it does have some characteristics that tend to set it apart from other styles of programming. Hacking is done on open source. The hacking style has been closely associated with the technical tradition of the Unix operating system Recently it has become evident that hacking blends well with the “agile programming” style. Stages of Learning How To Hack Learning to compose music has three stages. The equivalent of playing scales is writing small programs, alone. The Incremental-Hacking Cycle
Stop Looking At Your Phones – A Lesson From The Britishes 4.9KShare 22Tweet 5Share 4Reddit 0Share 2Stumble 29Email Print Friendly So this is hilarious and done so well. A great video that shows how ridiculous we must all look as we constantly look at our phones all day. So great! Like Rare Humor on Facebook 6.7kShare on Facebook 23Twitter Follow Rare 6.7kShare 23Share by Taboolaby Taboola Sponsored LinksSponsored Links Promoted LinksPromoted Links Money Morning Forget Iran, Iraq, Ukraine: This is Where War WWIII StartsMoney Morning Undo Yellow Pages 4 Reasons Why Going to a Car Wash is Worth Your MoneyYellow Pages MadBid.com Canadian public Snaps Up Bargains Using 'Bizarre' Online TrickMadBid.com LonnyMag This Is What A $30 Million Jungle Hideaway Looks LikeLonnyMag This best man caught his friend's wife doing the unthinkable The parents of this girl who joined ISIS just received sad news Sh%t Southern Women Say Maleficent - Honest Trailer