Clipmarks | Brimstone's 'language' clips

The Boy With The Incredible Brain

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:54:40 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster

[Video]

This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few ... all » savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’. (2005) «

Tags: pi, savant, autism, neuroscience

How to improve your memory - Techniques

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:48:31 GMT

clipped by: kwonsu

Clip Source: www.mindtools.com

Memory Improvement Tools

Introduction to Memory Techniques

Remembering a Simple List - The Link Method and Story Method

Remembering Ordered Lists - The Number/Rhyme Mnemonic

Remembering Ordered Lists - The Number/Shape Mnemonic

Remembering Middle Length Lists - The Alphabet Technique

Remembering Long Lists - The Journey System

Remembering Grouped Information - The Roman Room System

Remembering Very Long Numbers - The Major System

Using Concept Maps to Remember Structured Information

Memory Games - Have fun while you improve your memory

How to... Learn a Foreign Language

How to... Remember Information for Exams

How to... Remember People's Names

How to... Remember Lists and Long Numbers

Other Memory Tools - Reviewed... - Our reviews of other important memory resources

Download this section of Mind Tools in PDF format to read and print at your leisure

Tags: memory, brain, science, health, people, life

Right Brain vs Left Brain test

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 01:06:24 GMT

clipped by: MomLes
clipper's remarks: I can only see her moving clockwise!

Clip Source: www.news.com.au

THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

Tags: right brain, left brain, tests

18 ways to improve your body language

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:25:50 GMT

clipped by: bakanootaku
clipper's remarks: Go to the website for more information. 'tis hard to be concise.

Clip Source: www.positivityblog.com

1. Don’t cross your arms or legs –

2. Have eye contact, but don’t stare

3. Don’t be afraid to take up some space

4. Relax your shoulders

5. Nod when they are talking

6. Don’t slouch, sit up straight

7. Lean, but not too much –

8. Smile and laugh

9. Don’t touch your face

10. Keep you head up.

11. Slow down a bit

12. Don’t fidget

13. Use your hands more confidently

14. Lower your drink

15. Realise where you spine ends

16. Don’t stand too close

17. Mirror

18. Keep a good attitude

Tags: body language

No wonder english is so hard to learn

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 10:17:00 GMT

clipped by: rotofade

Clip Source: www.whosoever.org

No Wonder English Is So Hard To Learn

We polish the Polish furniture.

He could lead if he would get the lead out.

A farm can produce produce.

The dump was so full it had to refuse refuse.

The soldier decided to desert in the desert.

The present is a good time to present the present.

At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.

The dove dove into the bushes.

I did not object to the object.

The insurance for the invalid was invalid.

The bandage was wound around the wound.

There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

They were too close to the door to close it.

The buck does funny things when the does are present.

They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line.

To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.

I shed a tear when I saw the tear in my clothes.

I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.

Back To The Table of Contents

Tags: language, funny, english, satire, pronunciation

Reverse Dictionary

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:02:48 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell
clipper's remarks: I've had many many many moments when I can't remember a word....I still haven't tried out this site though....I just thought it was interesting that someone actually finally came up with it...

Clip Source: onelook.com

OneLook Reverse Dictionary

How do I use OneLook's reverse dictionary feature?

OneLook's reverse dictionary lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept. Your description can be a few words, a sentence, a question, or even just a single word. Just type it into the box above and hit the "Find words" button. (Keep it short to get the best results.) In most cases you'll get back a list of related terms with the best matches shown first.

Tags: dictionary, reverse, language

Know where to search, No where to hide

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 12:34:13 GMT

clipped by: antiw

Clip Source: bhandler.spaces.live.com

Know Where to Search, No Where to Hide

We all have our favorite search engines tips, and use Google, MSN, and Yahoo! – but there are times when these search engines don't have the information you're looking for, so you'll need to venture down the road to know where!

STANDARD SEARCH

About – Comminity Help Search

Accoona – artificial intelligence for “better” searches

AddAll – book search

AltaVista

Answers – searches for answers (aka Guru)

AOL

Ask Jeeves

BookFinder – Book Search

Brainboost – searches for answers using “natural” language

dmoz – Open Directory Project (ODP)

Exalead – still in Beta

Excite

Kazazz! – Combines Search Engine and Social Networking

Lycos

Microsoft Search Result Clustering – still a research project, uses "clustering" to group results.

Snap

METASEARCH - Metasearch engines gather information from many other search engines and provide consolidated search results. Most metasearch engines combine the results from: Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN, & Yahoo! and more.

Clusty – uses "clustering" to group results

Dog Pile

gada.be – My new favorite

Gigablast

Kartoo

MyriadSearch

QKsearch

Walhello

WebCrawler

GENERAL RESEARCH

Apple’s Advanced Computation Group

AT&T Labs – Research

Google Tools and some not ready for prime time.

IBM Research

Intel Technology & Research

Lucent Technologies (Bell Labs)

Macromedia Labs

Microsoft Research and Sandbox Prototypes.

Sony-Kihara Research Center

Sun Research

Xerox – Palo Alto Research Center

Yahoo! Research

ACADEMIC & SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

ArXiv – Scientific Journal Archive

CiteSeer – Scientific Literature Library

Google Scholar Search

Scirus – Scientific Information

SmealSearch – Academic Business Literature

NEWS

All Headline News

FeedsFarm

Plazoo – still in Beta

BLOGS

Bloglines

Feedster

Google Blog Search

Pubsub

NEW! Talk Digger

Technorati

NOTE: I didn’t include many search engines like A9, AllTheWeb, Teoma etc because they have too close ties to commercial entities!

Tags: search, tips, links

6 Key Social Skills

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:33:33 GMT

clipped by: firebird
clipper's remarks: Obvious? Perhaps not - judging by how people often respond in social situations - where 'me' is the most important subject

Clip Source: www.self-confidence.co.uk

6 Key Social Skills

Social skills are arguably the most important set of abilities a person can have. Human beings are social animals and a lack of good social skills can lead to a lonely life, contributing to anxiety and depression. Great social skills help you meet interesting people, get that job you want, progress further in your career and relationships.

Happily, like any skill, social strategies and techniques can be learned…

The main social skills are as follows:

1) The ability to remain relaxed, or at a tolerable level of anxiety while in social situations

Regardless of how skillful you are in social situations, if you are too anxious, your brain is functioning in way unsuited to speaking and listening. In addition, if your body and face give the unconscious message that you are nervous, it will be more difficult to build rapport with others.

2) Listening skills, including letting others know you are listening

3) Empathy with and interest in others' situations

A major part of social anxiety is self consciousness, which is greatly alleviated by focusing strongly on someone else. A fascination (even if forced at first) with another's conversation not only increases your comfort levels, it makes them feel interesting.

4) The ability to build rapport, whether natural or learned

Rapport is a state of understanding or connection that occurs in a good social interaction. It says basically "I am like you, we understand each other". Rapport occurs on an unconscious level, and when it happens, the language, speech patterns, body movement and posture and other aspects of communication can synchronise down to incredibly fine levels.

Rapport is an unconscious process, but it can be encouraged by conscious efforts.

5) Knowing how, when and how much to talk about yourself - 'self disclosure'

6) Appropriate eye contact

Tags: social skills, psychology, self-development

So you thought you knew everything

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 17:33:51 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.johnsimonds.com

“Stewardesses” is the longest word typed with only the left hand and “lollipop” with your right. (Bet you tried this out mentally, didn’t you?)

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”. (Are you doubting this?)

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. (You’re not doubting this, are you?)

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: “abstemious” and “facetious.”(Yes, admit it, you are going to say . a e i o u)

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.(All you typists are going to test this out)

A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A snail can sleep for three years.(I know some people that could do this too.)

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon

If the population of Chinawalked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!

The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.(Good thing he did that)

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Fallsfroze completely solid.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Now you know everthing you need to know.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

Tags: humour

Librarian Chick Wiki: hundreds of free learning resources

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:37:09 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Very cool. I haven't had a chance to dig into more than a few of the links, but looks to be a tremendous resource.

Clip Source: librarianchick.pbwiki.com

Hello, and welcome to Librarian Chick!

This a list of free resources for students and educators... and anyone else who's hip to learning. Feel free to click away! Though many of these resources could be listed under multiple categories, I've only added them once so you can CTRL+Click all links to open in tabs and never open the same page twice.

Librarian Chick's Learning Center - Search for more free educational information, sites, games and software!
Librarian Chick's Free Book Search - Quickly search for free audio books, text books and eBooks!

Tags: via:donationcoder, library, links, cool, research

12 Writing Tips From George Orwell

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:14:30 GMT

clipped by: missangelyss

Clip Source: www.writingclasses.com

George Orwell has earned the right to be called one of the finer writers in the English language through such novels as 1984 and Animal Farm, such essays as “Shooting an Elephant,” and his memoir Down and Out in Paris.

George expressed a strong dislike of totalitarian governments in his work, but he was also passionate defender of good writing. Thus, you may want to hear some of George’s writing tips.*

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:

What am I trying to say?
What words will express it?
What image or idiom will make it clearer?
Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

Could I put it more shortly?
Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

* From “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell.

Back

Tags: writing

10 Tips to Eliminate Wordiness

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 16:54:28 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: owl.english.purdue.edu

Conciseness: Methods of Eliminating Wordiness

1. Eliminate unnecessary determiners and modifiers

2. Change phrases into single words

3. Change unnecessary that, who, and which clauses into phrases

4. Avoid overusing expletives at the beginning of sentences

5. Use active rather than passive verbs

See our document on active and passive voice for a more thorough explanation of this topic.

6. Avoid overusing noun forms of verbs

Use verbs when possible rather than noun forms known as nominalizations. Sentences with many nominalizations usually have forms of be as the main verbs. Using the action verbs disguised in nominalizations as the main verbs--instead of forms of be--can help to create engaging rather than dull prose.

7. Reword unnecessary infinitive phrases

Some infinitive phrases can be converted into finite verbs or brief noun phrases. Making such changes also often results in the replacement of a be-verb with an action verb.

8. Replace circumlocutions with direct expressions

9. Omit words that explain the obvious or provide excessive detail

Be sure always to consider your readers as you draft and revise your writing. If you find passages that explain or describe in detail what would already be obvious to readers, delete or reword them.

10. Omit repetitive wording

Watch for phrases or longer passages in your writing in which you repeat words with similar meanings. Below are some general examples of unnecessary repetition contrasted with more concise versions, followed by lists and examples of specific redundant word pairs and categories.

Redundant Pairs

Redundant Categories

Tags: writing, write, howto, concise, short, tips, tricks, help, language, linguistics, list

Learn Chinese in 5 minutes

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 23:27:06 GMT

clipped by: eknock28
clipper's remarks: hilarious

Clip Source: www.skirsch.com

English phrase	Chinese Interpretation
Are you harboring a fugitive?	Hu Yu Hai Ding?
See me A.S.A.P.	Kum Hia Nao
Stupid Man	Dum Gai
Small Horse	Tai Ni Po Ni
Your price is too high!!	No Bai De Thing!!
Did you go to the beach?	Wai Yu So Tan?
I bumped into a coffee table	Ai Bang Mai Ni
I think you need a facelift	Chin Tu Fat
It's very dark in here	Wai So Dim?
Has your flight been delayed?	Hao Long Wei Ting?
That was an unauthorized execution	Lin Ching
I thought you were on a diet	Wai Yu Mun Ching?
This is a tow away zone.	No Pah King
Do you know the lyrics to the Macarena?	Wai Yu Sing Dum Song?
You are not very bright	Yu So Dum
I got this for free	Ai No Pei
I am not guilty	Wai Hang Mi?
Please, stay a while longer.	Wai Go Nao?
Our meeting was scheduled for next week.	Wai Yu Kum Nao
They have arrived	Hia Dei Kum
Stay out of sight	Lei Lo
He's cleaning his automobile	Wa Shing Ka

Tags: funny, chinese, language, translation

Geek office slang

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:34:53 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell
clipper's remarks: Hahaah....more at the source.

Clip Source: www.berro.com

Geek Office Slang: New Office Slang Incorporating Geek Language

404: Someone who is clueless. From the Web error message, "404 Not Found," which means the document requested couldn't be located. "Don't bother asking John. He's 404."

Alpha Geek: The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. "I dunno, ask Rick. He's our alpha geek."

Assmosis: Remember "Osmosis" The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

Betamaxed: When a technology is overtaken in the market by inferior but better marketed competition as in "Microsoft betamaxed Apple right out of the market"

Chips and Salsa: Chips = hardware, salsa = software. "First we gotta figure out if the problem's in your chips or your salsa."

Dilberted: To be exploited and oppressed by your boss, as is Dilbert, the comic strip character. "Damn, I've been dilberted again! The old man revised the specs for the fourth time this week."

Treeware: Hacker slang for documentation or other printed material.

Vulcan Nerve Pinch: The taxing hand position required to reach all the appropriate keys for certain commands. For instance, the warm re- boot for a Mac II computer involves simultaneously pressing the Control key, the Command key, the Return key and the Power On key.

Yuppie Food Coupons: Twenty dollar bills from an ATM

Tags: humour, humor, funny, geek, language, slang, internet, computers, technology

I wanna join this damn church

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 19:42:19 GMT

clipped by: laceym

Clip Source: www.infidelguy.com

A grumpy old man walks into a local First Baptist Church and says to the secretary, "I wanna join this damn church."

The astonished woman replies, "I beg your pardon, sir. I must have misunderstood you. What did you say?"

"Listen up, dammit. I said I want to join this damn church!"

"I'm very sorry sir, but that kind of language is not tolerated in this church." The secretary leaves her desk and goes into the pastor's study to inform him of her situation. The pastor agrees that the secretary does not have to listen to that foul language. They both return to her office and the pastor asks, "Sir, what seems to be the problem here?"

"There IS no damn problem!," the man says. "Looky here, I just won $200 million bucks in the damn lottery and I want to join this damn church to get rid of some of this damn money."

"I see," said the pastor. "And is this bitch giving you a hard time?"

Tags: humor, humour