Group items tagged

If you want to publish a book on Amazon.

I've noticed this trend, too, in a lot of the articles I've posted recently. Something to be aware of: "...we worry that shorter, single-study articles can be poor models of science. ... we are troubled by the link between small study size and publication bias. Theoretically, if several small studies on a topic, each with its own small data set, are sent to publishers, the overall published results should be equivalent to the results of a single large study on that topic using a complete data set. But according to several "meta-studies" that have been conducted, this is often not the case: rather than the small studies' converging on the same result as a large study when published, the small studies give a very different result. ... Small studies are inherently unreliable - larger studies or, better still, multiple studies on the same topic, are more likely to give definitive, accurate results."

The number of books english-language publishers are translating and publishing are declining. This is hindering us from exposure to other great literary works from around the world. "Compare that Anglophone two or three per cent to figures in France, where 27% of books published are in translation. And if that sounds a lot, you might care to know that in Spain it's 28%, Turkey 40%, and Slovenia a whopping 70%."

This article combines data from two lists. This first one was compiled by National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center at Beijing Language and Culture University: "Big data analysis" of over a billion online posts and forum discussions from the Chinese internet in 2021 was reportedly used to decide on the final list, but it's clear from the selection that the artificial intelligence tool used has a good understanding of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The second list comes from Yaowen Jiaozi, a magazine founded in 1995 that publishes stories about the the misuse and abuse of language in Chinese society. This combined list has items that made BOTH lists. Separately, the magazine Yǎowén Jiáozì (咬文嚼字) published its year-end list of "popular buzzwords" (2021年十大流行语). Yaowen Jiaozi is a magazine founded in 1995 that publishes stories about the the misuse and abuse of language in Chinese society. Its name is variously translated as "Correct Wording," "Verbalism," and "Chewing Words." The Yaowen Jiaozi list does not claim to be created by big data, but rather from reader suggestions, online polling, and selection by specialists.

Hawaiian nonprofit organization Awaiaulu, Inc. is in the midst of a massive translation project fueled by history, newspapers, and volunteers, that aims to bridge the gap between Hawaii's past and present. About 100 Hawaiian-language newspapers published from 1834 to 1948 are being translated by roughly 3,000 volunteers.

This researcher has a summary of parallels between songbird songs and human language; also links to his many published papers.

See also the graphs at the bottom of the page. "Perhaps the biggest collection of words ever assembled has just gone online: 500 billion of them, from 5 million books published over the past four centuries... The words make up a searchable database that researchers at Harvard say is a new and powerful tool to study cultural change... You can, for instance, type in a word or a short phrase, and the database produces a graph - a curve that traces how often an author used those words every year since 1800."

Published by Benjamin Franklin in his newspaper, this list of more than 200 slang terms for drunkenness was probably not compiled by Ben Franklin, as is widely reported on the internet.

When you think of Egyptian hieroglyphics, you probably think of looking at them. What you probably don't think of is reading them. However, for the first time ever Ancient Egyptian stories have been published in English for people to read. Writings from Ancient Egypt published by Penguin Random House contains stories that are over 2,000 years old.

This article discusses the history of Trinidad Creole English, also known as TCE. It explains the history, sociolinguistic situation, and phonology of TCE. Published by The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online, this factual page contains statistics and a detailed overview of how TCE came about and how it has evolved throughout the years. There are charts of Trinidad's population and the languages spoken in Trinidad & Tobago. The article includes lists of practice sentences and pronunciation lessons.

Three University of Southern California professors offer their thoughts on whether print media and traditional books will survive this digital age, or whether they will become obsolete. "Today, practically anyone with online access can blog or tweet to a worldwide audience. This has both democratized writing and, in some ways, devalued it. At the same time, the rise of digital books and online mega-sellers like Amazon means more writers can self-publish their books, and readers can order books instantly with the push of a button. But authors are getting a smaller piece of the economic pie. Then there's the halo effect of social media. Some authors build strong followings on Twitter and Facebook, which bring writers closer to their readers-turned-fans. In this swirling media landscape, what will happen to the book as we know it?"

There are two hypotheses to why note-taking is beneficial in the first place. The first idea is called the encoding hypothesis, which says that when a person is taking notes, "the processing that occurs" will improve "learning and retention." The second, called the external-storage hypothesis, is that you learn by being able to look back at your notes, or even the notes of other people. A 2014 study published in _Psychological Science_, co-written by Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles, suggests that taking longhand notes may have superior external storage as well as superior encoding functions, in comparison to taking notes via laptop.

" by: 29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment | . published: September 21, 2016 AIBANO TRAINING AREA, Japan -- U.S. Soldiers participating in Orient Shield 2016 went through the Japanese chemical decontamination process Sept. 14-15 by following the direction of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members. About 1,600 U.S. " Soldiers were able to get the job done and work with their counterparts by learning and pushing past the language barrier. Without learning the decon, the job would have been much more difficult. So this was very beneficial for both sides.

A new studysuggests that children who speak multiple languages are better at understanding other people. And not only those who are fluent, but those who are simply exposed to another language in their daily lives.

Here's the link to the original University of Chicago study referenced by the Atlantic article, published in The Economist: http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21652258-children-exposed-several-languages-are-better-seeing-through-others-eyes-do

(This article was by my college friend, Quinn Eastman, who's a trained scientist and science writer for Emory University.) Listening to metaphors involving arms or legs loops in a region of the brain responsible for visual perception of those body parts, scientists have discovered. The finding, recently published in Brain & Language, is another example of how neuroscience studies are providing evidence for "grounded cognition" - the idea that comprehension of abstract concepts in the brain is built upon concrete experiences, a proposal whose history extends back millennia to Aristotle. When study participants heard sentences that included phrases such as "shoulder responsibility," "foot the bill" or "twist my arm", they tended to engage a region of the brain called the left extrastriate body area or EBA. The same level of activation was not seen when participants heard literal sentences containing phrases with a similar meaning, such as "take responsibility" or "pay the bill." The study included 12 right-handed, English-speaking people, and blood flow in their brains was monitored by functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). "The EBA is part of the extrastriate visual cortex, and it was known to be involved in identifying body parts," says senior author Krish Sathian, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, rehabilitation medicine, and psychology at Emory University. "We found that the metaphor selectivity of the EBA matches its visual selectivity." The EBA was not activated when study participants heard literal, non-metaphorical sentences describing body parts. "This suggests that deep semantic processing is needed to recruit the EBA, over and above routine use of the words for body parts," Sathian says. Sathian's research team had previously observed that metaphors involving the sense of touch, such as "a rough day", activate a region of the brain important for sensing texture. In addition, other researchers have shown t

Could understanding other cultures' concepts of joy and well-being help us reshape our own? The Positive Lexicography Project aims to catalogue foreign terms for happiness that have no direct English translation. The brainchild of Tim Lomas, a lecturer in applied positive psychology at the University of East London, the first edition included two hundred and sixteen expressions from forty-nine languages, published in January. Lomas used online dictionaries and academic papers to define each word and place it into one of three overarching categories, doing his best to capture its cultural nuances. The glossary can be found here: http://www.drtimlomas.com/#!alphabetical-lexicography/b5ojm

Recently, people have been returning to writing basics: handwriting, notebooks, pens, paper, and stationary. While technology can certainly provide an edge for certain tasks, digital overload, addiction, and distraction are growing concerns. many studies indicate that multitasking is bad for us and makes our brains more scattered. In contrast, several studies suggest that pen and paper have an edge over the keyboard. In three studies, researchers found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. Those who took written notes had better comprehension and retention of material because they had to mentally process information rather than type it verbatim. And, another study, published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, showed that people who doodle can better recall dull information. Writing it down also sparks innovation. Being innovative and creative is about "getting your hands dirty" a feeling that is lacking when you use technology or gadgets, says Arvind Malhotra, a professor at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School."Research has also shown that tactile sensory perceptions tend to stimulate parts of the brain that are associated with creativity. So, touch, feel and the sensation you get when you build something physical has also got a lot to do with creativity," he says.

This month, the journal Pediatrics published a study that used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study brain activity in 3-to 5-year-old children as they listened to age-appropriate stories. The researchers found differences in brain activation according to how much the children had been read to at home. Children whose parents reported more reading at home and more books in the home showed significantly greater activation of brain areas in a region of the left hemisphere called the parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex. This brain area is "a watershed region, all about multisensory integration, integrating sound and then visual stimulation," said the lead author, Dr. John S. Hutton, a clinical research fellow at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. This region of the brain is known to be very active when older children read to themselves, but Dr. Hutton notes that it also lights up when younger children are hearing stories. What was especially novel was that children who were exposed to more books and home reading showed significantly more activity in the areas of the brain that process visual association, even though the child was in the scanner just listening to a story and could not see any pictures. "When kids are hearing stories, they're imagining in their mind's eye when they hear the story," said Dr. Hutton. "For example, 'The frog jumped over the log.' I've seen a frog before, I've seen a log before, what does that look like?" The different levels of brain activation, he said, suggest that children who have more practice in developing those visual images, as they look at picture books and listen to stories, may develop skills that will help them make images and stories out of words later on. "It helps them understand what things look like, and may help them transition to books without pictures," he said. "It will help them later be better readers because they've developed that part of the brain

Tense people may miss the subtle warning signs of danger Image: Roc Canals Photography/Getty Images Worrywarts, beware: all that fretting may be for naught. Anxiety has long been interpreted as a symptom of hyperawareness and sensitivity to danger, but a study published last December in Biological Psychology turns that logic on its head.