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In relation to the current election that just passed, it was pretty obvious that there was a huge disconnect between two opposing sides. Words of frustration and anger flooded newsprints and social media. In the past, researchers found that there was a curious phenomenon in known as "positive feedback", which refers to people's tendency to use more positive words than negative words. In recent years, Google Books and the New York Times partnered to disprove this phenomenon. Both major print companies forged through tons of texts and found that 16.2 million of those texts contained negative language. They also found that negative words were used more frequently during times of unemployment, poverty, inflation rates, wartime casualties and political tension. More research has been conducted by psychological scientist including William Hamilton and Mark Liberman. Shockingly, they found that events like these were being triggered more often and positive language has decreased in the last 200 years.

This article is pretty self-explanatory based on the article - it talks about how monkeys' vocal cords and bodies are physiologically able to talk and make distinct sounds. However, monkeys lack the brain circuits used by humans to learn sounds, and the special nerve sets humans use to control the shape of our vocal tracts.

A study showing that most users only read headlines without actually reading the article was shown to be accurate. A satirical science news site hosted an article with the headlines "Study: 70% of Facebook users only read the headline of science stories before commenting". Though the story was shared over 50 thousand times, about only 40% of the time the link was clicked. This is interesting because this shows that we tend to rather comment on what we believe about a article from its headline, instead of its content.

"IT IS A SPECTATOR SPORT to look at someone else's books, if not an act of voyeurism or armchair psychology," wrote Henry Petroski in " The Book on the Bookshelf." Yet when the books don't belong to an individual, but rather to a hotel or a bar, it is not armchair psychology - it is an invitation to a chance encounter.

What makes a politician, or a person, authentic? This article lists off the various definitions of authenticity, according to ancient meanings, famed psychologists like Freud and Rousseau, and political pundits. In the past, the politicians deemed authentic by the public were those that were the most likable, a very interesting standpoint. However, it now seems that a politician that cares about what's in his heart, like Trump, is now thought of as being authentic.

A whistling language like that quoted in "Tree of Codes," she said, speaks to "how we humans adapt to and interact with our environment, not being separate, but really being in a merged relationship with everything around us." That positive attitude sets Ms. Lim apart from some of the other musical-linguistic ventures.

Students at Stephen F. Austin State University ask questions that pertain to creating your own language. Big TV shows and movies such as Game of Thrones and Avatar are making creating your own language a popular idea. This article also describes how to create your own language, which includes picturing what your character looks like and how they would speak.

Donald Trump, who often talks about "my beautiful family" and "lasting relationships," is a rather feminine-speaker. But Trump is also prone to speaking in overtly masculine ways (for example using phrases such as "absolutely destroy"). There are also times in which Trump uses language alienating to all people (regardless of gender); examples of such words include "moron," "imbecile," and "loser."

"Researchers identified subtle variations caused by differences in the shape of individual whales' heads. It's the first time that sperm whale vocalizations have been linked to specific individuals. ... While the whales tended to possess the same basic repertoire of "codas" - the technical name for each distinctive series of clicks - one female had a completely different set. ... The question of whether it's appropriate to think of sperm whales as having names is a controversial one. Some scientists think that many cetaceans should be considered persons ..." See also "Sperm Whales Really Do Learn From Each Other" (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/sperm-whales/) - "Yes, sperm whale culture really is culture."

The benefits of bilingualism

Science writer Virginia Morell, in her wonderful new book Animal Wise, describes an experiment involving horses and whinnies - whinnies being very like names. She also cites the research of ornithologist Karl Berg, who states that while most people might think, 'Well, all those [bird] calls are just noise, but I think they're having conversations." Berg has listened to so many parrots in so many nests for so long, he has been able to identify that weeks after birth, these little birds begin to use very specific peeps to identify themselves to others. Not only that, they learn the peeping "names" of their parents, brothers, sisters, and use them in conversation, as in, "Peep-duh-dee-Peep, is that you?" Apparently, dolphins also use particular clicks and whistles to designate particular individuals.

Language doesn't directly shape how we think, but it does have an influence on who we are and how we are raised.

"A physicist named M. F. M. Osborne noticed that stock prices tended to cluster around numbers ending in zero and five. Why? Well, on the one hand, most people have five fingers, and on the other hand, most people have five more. [...] As it turns out, in well over 100 languages, the words that denote bigness are made with bigger sounds."

Interactive timeline of the history of English (spread across 10 different "acts") - includes sound clips (including Beowulf and the Canterbury Tales prologue), English language history, etc.

Adding on to Ryan's commentary: For each era, you can click on the different icons and do the following: 1. Read and hear a famous document 2. Get a brief historical overview 3. Linguistic developments 4. New words entering the language 5. A fast fact 6. A pun or riddle

"Word usage in 40 speeches given at graduations this year."

This is an article about a village in Northern Australia whose original founders of their language are still living there.

Courtesy the New York Times Magazine: thoughtful essays on what language reveals about our moment by rotating columnists Virginia Heffernan, Colson Whitehead, Amanda Hess, Michael Pollan, and others. Some sample titles: "The Underground Art of the Insult", "How `Flawless' Became a Feminist Declaration", "How Rock Star Became a Business Buzzword," "When You `Literally Can't Even' Understand Your Teenager."

Tibetan Entrepreneur detained for one and a half months according to his family. He writes and posts things to his Sina Weibo account and many of his posts express how he feels about the gradual extinction of Tibetan culture, he wants to enhance bilingual education. Chinese-ruled Tibetan regions have Mandarin taught as the main language and teach Tibetan like a foreign language.

How -phobic has changed in its use over the years and how it's used in various ways in society now.