Words R Us

"Research suggests that bilingual people can hold Alzheimer's disease at bay for longer, and that bilingual children are better at prioritising tasks and multitasking." See also: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/100218-bilingual-brains-alzheimers-dementia-science-aging/

Ryan, you're the best!

"The problem with the dash-as you may have noticed!-is that it discourages truly efficient writing. It also-and this might be its worst sin-disrupts the flow of a sentence. Don't you find it annoying-and you can tell me if you do, I won't be hurt-when a writer inserts a thought into the midst of another one that's not yet complete?"

My problem has always been (and it is shared by others) that when one is thinking (or even just musing), we surround our ideas with parenthetical thoughts (which, to my mind, bracket every moment of waking life) and they become, in their own way (or "in the way", as it were) intrusive. And yet colorful.

I wonder what the effects of possessing the skill to read others' facial expressions would produce. Would it strengthen our relationships with people or weaken them?

When the article said that misreading emotions is worst than not knowing of the emotion at all is worst, I question whether reading emotions is even worth it. Also, compared to a century ago, the divorce rate has skyrocketed. Could the lack of reading emotions be the cause of this increase? Emotions are innate and humans have always read or not read emotions. What's the difference between now and then? Freedom? So what if you can read someone's emotions? If you can't assist the person in his/her tragedy or emotional stress being able to read emotions is worthless. In addition Paul Ekman said that the percent rate after his lessons on DVD rose to 80-85%, but that still leaves 15%-20% of mistake. As i previously said, the article says that misreading emotions is worst than not knowing of the emotions at all. There's still of chance of being worst. Are we really accomplishing whatever we are trying to do by learning how to read emotions?

This is a very cool article, as it has caused me to become more aware of other people's reactions - sometimes I know that someone is holding an emotion in, but hopefully, through observing their facial gestures, perhaps I can find out how they feel.

How can music increase or decrease blood pressure? Change digestion? Can music really cause sickness? Maybe plants react differently?

analysis obama's rhetoric

This is a simulation of reading text online if you are dyslexic.

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

color test

Take quizzes on vocab and grammar, and rice is donated for your correct answers.

German researchers say babies begin to pick up the nuances of their parents' accents while still in the womb.

This article reminds me of the "Singing Neanderthals" reading that we did. Perhaps whales, like babies, hear tones instead of actual words and can also perceive emotions of other whales they communicate with. If this is so, would this 'tone communication' be considered a language in of itself?

"I think this is a unique metaphor-it goes back to the idea that the brain is everything. I see this message all the time in these discourses I am looking at: "You _are_ your brain." It's the ultimate dream-through science we can fully know all that there is to know about human nature, and then control it perfectly."