become a polygot

I have always wanted to see a page like this, and I finally found it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_phrases_in_different_languages

test your lexicon

Hey fellow learning friends

Here is a site for a fun little vocab quiz to test you lexicon on:)  There are also other quizes available.  Enjoy, and may the force be with you

 

http://encarta.msn.com/quiz_44/By_Definition_A_Vocabulary_Quiz.html

Tims random things from meeting

Here are a few things that I shared this month at the meeting:

Queueing Theory: A mathematical study of waiting lines... very interesting.

Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is very interesting, especially pages 83. It can be found here.

There were the about the same amount of Indians as their were Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. Chief Massasoit said he brought 90 Indians with him. Lincoln declared thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. Before this it was celebrated as 'Founders Day" in the northeast. There has been many 'thanksgiving' feasts even before the 'First Thanksgiving'.

There are some interesting criticisms of PowerPoint. How can we make PowerPoint more effective?

The search bar in FireFox is most useful. I created a plug in to search the BYU Library. There are many more cool ones.

White Elephants

Anything in the dense jungles of South East Asia is incredibly hard to find, but a White Elephant was found in Myanmar in 2002 after a month of searching. Just a few centuries ago, the best white elephants were given to the king (of Thailand), but the lower grade ones were given as gifts, and since the elephants were sacred, they could not be put to work, causing a great financial burden on the recipient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant

Slime Molds

If you have never heard of slime molds be prepared for a shock.  Scientist are not quite sure how to classify these things, some put them in with fungi and others classify them a protists.  The really interesting thing about them is that although they function autonomously during certain times, they can "team-up" and form giant blobs that can move like cat sized amoebas.  Pretty cool huh?  For example if a group of them are lining a pipe and conditions aren't good they could team up to form a blob and climb up into your sink.  People have found massive pulsating blobs in their backyard thinking they have discovered an alien or a new species only to be informed it's just slime mold.