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Math on the brain

3/30/2016

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Do you love math or do you hate it? Either way, I think you'll find this interesting.
Dirty Rotten Survival video
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50 questions to ask kids

3/28/2016

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Not the swear words you learned from your friends

3/26/2016

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​I don't teach swear words much; mostly I try to teach people not to swear if they don't mean to. This means saying "focus" instead of "fuck us" and "sheet" instead of "shit". Swear words with an accent often sound funny to my ears. Personally, I would be more impressed by a foreigner's level of English if I heard one of the expressions on this list, used in the right context, of course. This is native speaker English. Check it out.​
Fudge!
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Is your vibe more hippo or koala?

3/25/2016

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C'mon, take the quiz. You know you want to.
Quiz!
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Andrew Grove, 1936-2016

3/23/2016

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I like history. I like biographies. I especially like short biographies. Strictly speaking, this is an obituary, not a biography, but while reading it, I couldn't help but think "What a life!"

Even if you have never heard of Andrew Grove before, I think you will find these articles interesting. A pioneer of the microchip industry, some say the Father of Silicon Valley, he survived scarlet fever, WWII and its aftermath; he emigrated penniless to the US; he was almost completely deaf, yet still learned English and studied chemical engineering... and that was just the beginning. Andrew Grove left his mark on the world in many ways. What a life!
NYTimes obit Andrew Grove
Andy Grove: What I've learned
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NYTimes: Short Answers to Hard Questions about Climate Change

3/22/2016

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​Here is what The New York Times has to say about climate change. Is it measured? Is it biased? How does it compare with the views in Europe? You tell me.
Climate change: short Q&A
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Batman versus Superman: 11-minute sneak preview

3/21/2016

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​There's not much dialogue in this combination of promotional trailers. But hey, what little there is, is in English. So it can almost count as your daily dose. Top it up by reading the Time article.
article and clip
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Equinox? Solstice? Leap year? The Old Farmer's Almanac to the rescue

3/19/2016

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Vernal Equinox
Earliest spring since 1896
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Hexaflexagons

3/17/2016

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The narrator of this primer on Hexaflexagons speaks a bit too fast even for me; still, this video rates so high on the "cool" meter that I can't help but post it... and rewatch it. See Part 2 as well, which is linked at the end of the video.
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Mom, does 'micro' mean small?

3/14/2016

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Did you know that people used to think that a disaster ("dis-ast" => ill-starred) happened because the stars were out of line? 
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When one of my children was six, he asked me, "Mom, does 'micro' mean small?" My heart started to beat fast. As casually as possible I said, "Why do you ask?"  "Well, I use a microscope to look at small things, a microbe is a small animal and a micron is a small measure. Does micro mean small?" So I explained Greek and Latin roots to him, and without missing a beat, he spouted, "Well in that case, 'tri' means three because a tricycle has three wheels and a triangle has three angles."

We were on our way to a birthday party and at that point we reached our destination so we said goodbye. Three hours later when I went to pick him up, less than 10 meters out the door, my son burst out with, "Mom, I know visible means you can see it, and invisible means you can't see it, so 'in' must mean 'can't'; since invincible means you can't be hurt (think 'superheroes') and 'in' means can't, vincible must mean you can be hurt, right?"

He spent the next six months taking words apart and putting them back together again and checking with me on the meaning. 

If a six-year-old can do it, so can you.​

Here's a start.​
Minute Greek and Latin roots
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Scott Kelly's Year in Space - he's back

3/12/2016

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​Have you heard about American astronaut Scott Kelly's year on the International Space Station? He's back on earth, and here are some numbers to put his trip into perspective.
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Source: New York Times Feb. 25, 2016
Click here!
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Welcome to Minute English

3/8/2016

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​Let's start with one of my favorite children's books: Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss. The vowels are unabashedly American!
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