I’ve always been fascinated by words and phrases, and how we manage to employ textures of meaning, even when we don’t know the etymologies. The Wired blog has a great post by John Scott Lewinski that called my attention to a new book called A Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare . We learn, for instance, that we use language in chunks of words–as one linguist put it, “we know words by the company that they keep.” For instance, the word quintessentially is joined half the time with a nationality–something is “quintessentially American” or “quintessentially British.” Likewise, in comparing eccentric with quirky, the Corpus reveals that eccentric almost always appears in reference to people, as an “eccentric uncle,” while quirky usually refers to the actions of people, as in “quirky behavior.” Using such observations, Butterfield explains how dictionary makers decide which words to include, how they find definitions, and how the Corpus influences the process. Also included in the book is the “Oxford Researchers List of the Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases.” I’ve seen lists like this before, but I was interested in the University of Oxford researchers’ version because they track such usage through the Oxford English Corpus database, a terrific resource in its own right. Someday, I’ll have my very own OED…. sigh. Yes, I’m enough of a bookworm nerd to drool over it. At the end of the day Fairly unique I personally At this moment in time With all due respect Absolutely It’s a nightmare Shouldn’t of (Damn you all! It’s “shouldn’t HAVE”!) 24/7 It’s not rocket science I would add these: smart X extreme X X on steroids cutting-edge bottom-line outside the box dealbreaker 110% having said that I’m just saying I’m not a racist, but… literally (especially when it’s not literally) basically irregardless like, you know and I was like I mean to be completely honest touch base I hear what you’re saying same difference nucular rilly no doubt happy camper free gift I’m good on the same page maverick sour grapes Have any more? Click here to play Less

Two questions I received on Kabbalah books: Question: At the Blackpool Congress you recommended for everyone to have the book Kabbalah for the Student in Hebrew. Why? My Answer: Experience shows that our permanent students end up learning the original language of Kabbalah - Hebrew, because it is impossible to convey all of the information in a different language, using different symbols. However, this only applies to our permanent students. For example, right now I am in St Louis. The local group, who are Christian Americans, study Hebrew twice a week. They understand it and listen to the lessons with almost no translation. Question: In one of your recent lessons you said that the texts on a computer screen give less Light than a book. What difference does it make how the text is displayed? My Answer: It makes a difference, especially for a beginner, who can open a book anywhere, anytime. However, for the new generation, the monitor screen is closer. Related Material: Laitman.com Post: “Kabbalah for the Student” – A New Book Laitman.com Post: The Power of Kabbalistic Texts Kabbalah Books in English Kabbalah Books in Hebrew Share This Less

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed You may think that words of the same language are pronounced the same, no matter what country you may be in. This isn’t always the case. There can be many different dialects. What do you do if you are going to travel, and want to be sure you’re pronouncing important words correctly? Forvo can help. Forvo is an online pronouncing dictionary. We want to have all the words that exist in the world pronounced and recorded, including names. Forvo isn´t for large audio files or documents. Audio clips are limited to 2.5 seconds, long enough for any word. We mean that almost every word is allowed, including bad words. We think that it´s not the word what´s wrong but the way of saying or context that makes a word removable. Anyway, words are limited to 40 characters. Onomatopoeias, exclamations or so are not allowed. We know there are completely different pronunciations depending on the country or region, even in the same language. So, why don´t you pronounce yourself that word with your accent? Forvo support multiple pronunciations for the same word. That way users learning a language can hear pronunciation from different places. Did you know there are 197 languages in the World? The World isn’t even that big! So the next time you need to learn how to pronounce something, or even just want to learn something new for the fun of it… check out Forvo. And yes, I finally stopped laughing about an hour after I finished recording this. Massive 10 Book Arabic Language Learning Course. Emanuels School Of English. Eiaculazione Precoce. Italian Review. Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video: <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RMrRN8n3_Gw"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RMrRN8n3_Gw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a> 10 Tips to Keep Your Notebook Safe when Traveling My Favorite Travel Accessory What Do You Use to Translate Words into Different Languages? How Do You Travel with Electronics? Do You Like Taking Road Trips? Have you Ever had to Travel at the Last Minute? What can you do in Argentina? Don’t cry… The Secret Language of Lovers How to Travel Website Language Settings Join the Geeks Community Dialogues with Dialect: How Do You Pronounce a Word? Less

http://geeks.pirillo.com - http://live.pirillo.com - You may think that words of the same language are pronounced the same, no matter what country you may be in. This isn't always the case. There can be many different dialects. What do you do if you are going to travel, and want to be sure you're pronouncing important words correctly? http://chris.pirillo.com Distributed by Tubemogul. Less

I’m ecstatic today! Happy happy joy joy! Thanks to Vance for reminding me in the comments that I had predicted Obama’s presidential win in July four years ago after his speech at the Boston Democratic Convention. Barack Obama - An Amazing Example - 7-28-2004. And as rushed as I am, I have to document a prediction for the future here. Barack Obama will someday be president of the united states. He will have to pay his dues in the Senate (and he will be a great Senator - although he’s not yet even elected!) and prove himself over and over. But he’s the real deal. A newcomer, he zoomed right up there. His speech was candid, electrifying, and inspiring. He transcended all the divisions, he touched on all the great issues - and he did it in a way that created confidence and caring in all who heard him. Ok, I was blown away. I was already in a near-rapturous state from Monday’s convention, and the Tuesday line-up was wonderful too - so much so that I couldn’t tear myself away no matter how much I really should have. I was already “pumped up,” no doubt about it. However, in a very special way, Obama’s intelligence and talent seems to beam right through screen at me. It really was amazing. Whatever it is, whatever it takes, he’s got it. And his message, like Bill Clinton’s, represents a politics of hope. I didn’t expect it to be so soon, but I knew he was the real deal. Recognition! Click here to play Less

On Friday 10.24.2008 I gave an international children’s lesson which was translated from Hebrew into English, Spanish, German, French and Russian. The topic of the lesson was: “We are the generation of correction,” as well as preparation for the Congress that will be held in Israel in February 2009. Our children (the children of the members of our organization all over the world) are the children of the future generation. They study Kabbalah: the creation of the world, its development and the goal it is moving to. They live and grow with this knowledge. As they study the regular school curriculum, they interpret it according to what they learn in Kabbalah. They realistically see themselves in both worlds. Their worldview completely includes the common soul and its current shattered state. They see the events happening in the world as movement toward the souls’ correction, their unification into one whole and the subsequent adhesion with the Creator or Nature. Their interactions and attitudes to themselves and the environment show that they see themselves and the whole world through this picture. They understand how different they are from others and they conceal their knowledge from their classmates in school. They interpret all the phenomena in the world based on the general picture of the universe, with which they grew up. I consider them a miracle in our world! My lessons with them are translated into six languages and broadcasted to children all over the world. Groups of children from our centers worldwide gather together and participate in the lessons together with us in real time. Share This Less

When I find myself in a curmudgeonly state, I listen to episodes of StoryCorps. I used to listen to it on NPR’s Morning Edition on the way to work on Fridays, but my car radio doesn’t work anymore. Now I listen via podcast. I honestly don’t know anything that more predictably awakens my love for humanity than listening to these recordings. All the complexities and quirks of human being are there, and those things are always kind of new and surprising and wonderful. I started listening to try to improve my skill at writing dialogue. I wanted to listen to a range of “real voices” very quickly. But I fell in love with it. Listening to the experiences of others is a form of loving. It is a form of spiritual practice, one I tend not to value enough in the world of everyday existence. You can’t listen to many of these and continue to think in exclusively negative terms about people. During this election season, I’ve been desperate enough that I have even gone back into the archives. They are short. Sweet. Highly recommended. The podcasts are supported by the Fetzer Institute as part of its Campaign for Love and Forgiveness (loveandforgive.org). All the recordings are being saved for the Library of Congress and, if you know someone with an interesting experience to relate, you can arrange to record that story, too. Listening to people telling their stories helps us all to remember and to really feel why hating or fearing other people is not going to be any kind of solution to anything. It sounds trite, but when mind and body and spirit are in agreement, it’s a powerful thing, and we have so few opportunities for that sometimes. I could feel the endorphins flood my system. No kidding. Really paying attention also develops the inclination to do so more often - and with more people, and a wider range of people. Sometimes there are amazing experiences that people have undervalued for years… the woman who would not be deterred from voting, the romance that took decades to come to fruition, the very first jumpshot, the reason why Grampa grins when you say that word. There are stories all around you. Beliefs and values come from the stories of people’s lives. One thing that everyone could do is to ask! “Have you experienced something that informed your view of this issue?” Maybe if we shared our stories more often, we might start to understand how to negotiate through some of the more difficult issues we face. Maybe if we listened to people who have had different experiences than we have, it might help to heal all the communication pathologies that are so clearly evident today. When you listen, and read, and think about real experiences from different perspectives and places and times, it also makes you a little more impervious to manipulation. The heart of StoryCorps is the conversation between two people who are important to each other: a son asking his mother about her childhood, an immigrant telling his friend about coming to America, or a couple reminiscing on their 50th wedding anniversary. By helping people to connect, and to talk about the questions that matter, the StoryCorps experience is powerful and sometimes even life-changing. Our goal is to make that experience accessible to all, and find new ways to inspire people to record and preserve the stories of someone important to them. Everybody’s story matters and every life counts. Just as powerful is the experience of listening. Whenever people listen to these stories, they hear the courage, the humor, the trials and triumphs of an incredible range of voices. By listening closely to one another, we can help illuminate the true character of this nation reminding us all just how precious each day can be and how truly great it is to be alive. -Dave Isay, Founder, StoryCorps On the home page, there is a subject index for you to pick a topic. Enjoy. Click here to play Less

Thursday, October 23, 2008 Um… Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders If you listen to a recording of yourself speaking, you might be surprised at how many times you say, “um,” and, “uh.” Hopefully you wouldn’t hear yourself utter something like, “misunderestimate,” or, “like such as in South Africa, and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as.” Verbal missteps are the subject of Michael Erard’s new book, “Um…: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean.” He joins us on Thursday to talk about the book and the bloopers therein. Because of our Fall Membership Drive this is an archive edition and we will not be taking calls this week. To pledge your support for WFPL, please call 502-814-6565. Thank You! Listen to the Show Related Links: Um…: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean Um, Read My Lips: No More Bloopers Just Like, er, Words, Not Just, um Throwaways Verbal Typos: A Collection Less

Todd Herman is a former talk show host who says he realized he had to do something about "spin" in the news when he "heard a national anchorman lie" to his well-educated mother. Herman, a conservative, and John Atcheson, a liberal, created a Seattle company called SpinSpotter. Less

iPod | 3:07 | To Embed or Email: click above New and old are such loaded words - they can be used to manipulate our feelings if we are not paying attention. Like most things, I think it is case-specific. New is not always improved nor does the new necessarily invalidate the old. Hawaiian Word: Kahiko: old Hou: new ʻAno hou: new-fashioned P S We are using Viddler. It has a lot of cool features - you can leave a comment right in the video - or even leave a video comment! Please check it out! (You will need to create free account at Viddler to leave a video comment.) To find the vidgets page on viddler, look in the footer at the bottom of the page! Our username is "beachwalks" if you want to make a custom player to put on your web site. Thanks for sharing! Join us at The Reef for discussion, Reef Radio, and occasional live streaming. Support us by buying yur own copy of our Beach Walks Theme music. Please check out our Blogroll page with many more links to our friends' web sites. Less

Warren & Hugh talk about the language that is used to describe cheese, and how these definitions vary from person to person. For more like this visit: www.legourmet.tv Less

It’s very efficient in Spanish to replace specific words with direct object pronouns. It’s done all the time in Spanish, similar to how it’s done in English, but as you’ll see in this installment of Rolling R’s, there are a few differences. The structure works a little differently in Spanish if you compare it to English. After you watch this episode of Rolling R’s, if you have questions for Larry, please simply leave a comment here. Or you could also email him at rollingrs (at) gmail (dot) com. You can watch episode 59 of Rolling R’s here. Less