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Toddlers who dislike spicy food ‘racist’

July 8, 2008 11:25 am

Toddlers who turn their noses up at spicy food from overseas could be branded racists by a Government-sponsored agency.

The National Children’s Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.

This could include a child of as young as three who says “yuk” in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food.

link

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Chinglish as full-fledged English dialect

9:35 am

Michael Erard’s Wired story on the ways that Chinglish is mutating into a full-fludged (and widespread) dialect poses some interesting possibilities for the language’s future, in which tonal suffixes, borrowed vocabulary words, and streamlined grammar open up rich new expressive possibilities.

It’s not merely that English will be salted with Chinese vocabulary for local cuisine, bon mots, and curses or that speakers will peel off words from local dialects. The Chinese and other Asians already pronounce English differently — in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways. For example, in various parts of the region they tend not to turn vowels in unstressed syllables into neutral vowels. Instead of “har-muh-nee,” it’s “har-moh-nee.” And the sounds that begin words like this and thing are often enunciated as the letters f, v, t, or d. In Singaporean English (known as Singlish), think is pronounced “tink,” and theories is “tee-oh-rees.”…And it’s possible Chinglish will be more efficient than our version, doing away with word endings and the articles a, an, and the. After all, if you can figure out “Environmental sanitation needs your conserve,” maybe conservation isn’t so necessary.

Link

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Zeitgeist, The Movie

February 19, 2008 9:22 pm

While I’m not one to believe in conspiracy theories, the movie below does make a lot of good points. While I don’t buy into all of the points made therein, it does make you think. Some of the coincidences are a bit too perfect.. If you’ve got some spare time I think its definitely worth a watch.

Tags: 911,conspiracy theory,fed,religion
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Walking to the shops ‘damages planet more than going by car’

August 6, 2007 1:03 pm

Walking does more than driving to cause global warming, a leading environmentalist has calculated.

Food production is now so energy-intensive that more carbon is emitted providing a person with enough calories to walk to the shops than a car would emit over the same distance. The climate could benefit if people avoided exercise, ate less and became couch potatoes. Provided, of course, they remembered to switch off the TV rather than leaving it on standby.

Show me more… »

Categories: Interesting, zeitgeist
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Another Simpsons Widget

July 18, 2007 8:10 pm

Here’s another link — you can upload a photo and it’ll automatically make you into a character from the Simpsons. It did a pretty good job I think. Here’s the link.

If you missed the previous one, here’s the previous one I made with another widget.

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My dream has come true, me as a character on the Simpsons!

July 17, 2007 11:19 am

Well, not quite, but close! There isn’t a lot of customization options, but it’s still fun to play with for any fan of the show.

You can make your own here.

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Time to move to NY?

April 5, 2007 3:30 pm

I think this chart is self explanatory. Time to move, eh guys?

singles_2

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Gummi Bear Chandelier — Yummy!

March 9, 2007 7:19 pm

Part of an entire series of gummy bear sculptures by YaYa Chou, this chandelier looks both tasty and retro-chic. How long till the bears start to melt and get covered with ants? “I once laughed while eating gummy bears and honked a little bit out my nose. I had a tangy burning sensation in my sinuses for three days. Looking at this chandelier makes me feel like I have to go snort some water or something.”

Obligatory Simpsons Quote: “That is the rarest gummi of them all, the gummi Venus de Milo, carved by gummi artisans who were exclusively in the medium of gummi.”

gummychandelierclose

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Nacho Fountain — Disgusting!

March 6, 2007 10:44 pm

Chris Vogt and Schuyler Senft-Grupp, two MIT Engineering alums, fulfilled a “mission from the Nacho Gods,” to build “the beast,” which was directly inspired by a nacho fountain seen in Talladega NIghts. All it took was 4 gallons of water, 6 feet of copper tube, 1 plumber’s torch, 4 hose clamps, 4 plastic bowls, 1 aluminum water heater drip pan, 1 emergency drill pump, 1 power drill, various PVC bits, some string, 2 heating plates, 1 wooden spoon, several bags of chips, and of course, 6 gallons of cheese. Three days and six hours later, “the beast” came to life, overflowing with nacho goodness for Vogt, Senft-Grupp, and a posse of fellow nacho-lovers to worship / devour.

nacho

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Chicken Fried Bacon

January 28, 2007 1:32 am

As many of you know, one of my favorite phrases is.. everything tastes better with bacon. I mean, how could you go wrong? Anything that’s bacon wrapped is instantly delicious. Hot dogs, filet mignon, scallops.. but well, for the first time ever, I’ve actually been disgusted by a show touting a tasty treat. This is one bacon dish I don’t think I’d ever sample!