Good news for me: Bilingualism delays onset of dementia.

People who are fully bilingual and speak both languages every day for most of their lives can delay the onset of dementia by up to four years compared with those who only know one language, Canadian scientists said on Friday.
Researchers said the extra effort involved in using more than one language appeared to boost blood supply to the brain and ensure nerve connections remained healthy – two factors thought to help fight off dementia.
[...] Bialystok stressed that bilingualism helped delay the start of dementia rather than preventing it altogether.
Psychologist Fergus Craik, another member of the team, said the data showed that being fully bilingual had "a huge protective effect" against the onset of dementia but he added that the study was still a preliminary finding. The team plans more research into the beneficial side effects of bilingualism.

That sounds like an incentive to make more people learn other languages and use them frequently.

Posted by Bibi on January 13, 2007 04:16 PM in Language, Science, Science ||

I'm a huge fan of South Park, and I can't resist testing silly generators. That's why I'm suggesting to you do the same with Kenny Translator - a generator and translator, where you can Kennify your text or translated the Kennyspeak to something understandable. Pppppffpp Mff mmfmmmppp fmmmmmffm mmmpmfpmf fmpmfpmpp mpmmffpfffmpffm mmmpppmpm pppmmmfmmfmpffm fppppfpffmpmfmm Mff pmppppppffpp mffppp Mpppppmfmpmfmfffmmmfp! It's available to downloads too. (via Por fin es viernesss)

Posted by Bibi on February 2, 2006 03:22 PM in Fun, Fun, Language ||

Just in case, if you thinking about using a pick-up line with your crush, check if it's in The Most Complete and Most Useless Collection of Pick-Up Lines so that you will never use any of them! The site has close to 1200 lines into nine categories for your browsing pleasure. Pleasure? Ok, most of them are funny if you aren't using them or having them used at you. A few examples:

Baby, I'm an American Express lover.... you shouldn't go home without me!

I think I can die happy now, cause I've just seen a piece of heaven.

Are you lost ma'am? Because heaven's a long way from here.

Hi, the voices in my head told me to come over and talk to you.

Baby, you're so sweet, you put Hershey's outta business.

You know, if we cut your arms off, you'd look just like Venus de Milo.

They are very good, no? I have one favourite, but I didn't see it in that list. It is "You're burning up my monitor. Are you always this hot?"

PS.: meu namorado também tem uma cantada favorita: "(Ele diz) Você tem doce de leite na barriga? (A moça fala) O quê? (Ele responde) É que você parece um sonho."

Read also but don't use: Picking Up Girls Made Easy.

Posted by Bibi on January 25, 2006 03:15 AM in Fun, Fun, Language ||

And the issue is: Fallacy. In logic, fallacies of the latter sort are either formal or informal; because the validity of a deductive arguments depends on its form, a formal fallacy, or Logical fallacy, is a deductive argument which has an invalid form, whereas an informal fallacy is any other invalid mode of reasoning whose flaw is not in the form of the argument.

Wikipedia has vast material, but if you want more, visit Logic & Fallacies, A List Of Fallacious Arguments and the very good site Logical Fallacies. It's a good thing to know: how to use them, because they are very useful, specially to win an argument. Here is one of the fallacious arguments that I heard a lot:

Euphemism:

the use of words that sound better. The lab rat wasn't killed, it was sacrificed. Mass murder wasn't genocide, it was ethnic cleansing. The death of innocent bystanders is collateral damage. Microsoft doesn't find bugs, or problems, or security vulnerabilities: they just discover an issue with a piece of software.

This is related to Argument By Emotive Language, since the effect is to make a concept emotionally palatable.

Related posts: Guide to the Logical Fallacies and Eight Ways to Win an Argument.

Posted by Bibi on January 21, 2006 10:19 PM in Language ||

Now I'm officially back, or something like that. The Mostra was very good, but I have to say that wasn't so good as the last years, or maybe I'm getting more demanding with all the films. If you like cinema I suggest some of the films that I saw there: Manderlay, Caché, Good Night, And Good Luck. Film Site, A History of Violence, Broken Flowers, Luna de Avellaneda, Free Zone, Moolaadé, Brokeback Mountain, Первые на луне (First people on the moon), Me And You And Everyone We Know, Dealer, Kong que, L'enfant and any film of Victor Sjöström. Those are some of the films that I remember the name, but among 70 and something films, that I saw, there are more good thing.

These days I also made a search about courses of languages and found some interesting things, specially in podcasts. I didn't care about them, the podcasts, till finding those podcasts with languages classes. Most of my podcast subscriptions are about languages: English tips, new words, classes about Italian, French, Chinese. But there are some about cinema and culture. Here are some suggestions:

- Cartoon Radio Network is wonderful if you like cartoons: cartoon music from the new and old cartoons, openings, short audio dialogues and more fun. Dr. Don accepts suggestions of something special that you want to hear if you send a nice email. Don't lost the episode #24, Halloween special with "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown".

- Incipit Blog it's a audioblog with lectures of books or extracts of them. It's a French blog, and the audioblog too, but there are lectures of non-French classics too. If you don't want to sign the podcast try the normal subscription or take a look there to download or listen some of the good options available. Suggestions: Roland Barthes - Mythologies, Le vin et le lait, Le bifteck et les frites, Patrick Süskind - Le Parfum, Histoire d’un meurtrier, Edgar Allan Poe - Le corbeau and Franz Kafka - La métamorphose, but there are much more to check out.

- Radio Memories Network has many channels with great audio files, but my favourites are Tales of HorrorPodcast and Scifi Friday. Don't miss Scifi & Horror Episode 1 with original readings of "The Telltale Heart" and "The Raven".

- RetroCRUSH: The World's Greatest Pop Culture Site. The site has a podcast with a bit of everything: retro commercials, bad TV theme songs, interviews, reviews, soundtracks, etc. The site has many curious sessions, 100 Greatest Horror Movie Performances, The 100 scariest movies scenes of all time, a gallery with Retro Babes, Bad girl movie posters and much more cool things on The retroCRUSH Archives. The episode #29 is an one hour Interview with George Romero.

- The French PodClass is what it says, French podcast classes. A French guy called Sebastien is one of those lovely souls that "wastes" his time providing audio classes, texts of classes, exercises, bilingual texts with vocabulary, videos, and tips of songs, books and tools to everyone that speaks English and wants to learn French.

BTW, I'm using iTunes to listen the podcasts, but I'm searching for tools to create one, a recorder, something like that. All suggestions are welcome.

Posted by Bibi on November 6, 2005 08:38 PM in Audio, Blogs, Books, Cinema, Language, Media ||

No I dont forgot that today it's Talk Like A Pirate Day, Aye, i'm just late with my posts Gar. Ahoy, me have a few more links about this great day: Aye, me parrot concurs. Pirate Image Archi'e has some great images and illustrations from Howard Pyle's Book o' Pirates, printed in 1903. Gar. (via Boing Boing) Arrr, take a look also: International Talk Like a Pirate Day on Flickr and Wikipedia, Talk Like A Pirate Day UK Headquarters, one more TalkLikeAPirateDay with a Pirate Speak Translator and Swash My Buckle! post from Mornin' Coffee & Afternoon Tea.

Posted by Bibi on September 19, 2005 11:55 PM in Books, Culture, Events, Illustration, Language ||

Ok, let's talk about sex on this blog. First, here is a list with The Absolute Bottom 50 Euphemisms for Doin' It. So it's better you never use expressions like Making Puppies, Docking the Hovercraft or Dancing the Llama with your partner if he / she doesn't have a lot of sense of humour. (via The Daily Pick)

Now maybe you don't know the meaning of some words, but this is not a problem, since there are always some great search tools, dictionaries and thesaurus. That thesaurus is divide in 15 sessions by themes as man, woman, phrases, BDSM, prostitution, romance etc., and has many "old" expressions. More things that I discovered there beagle is nose, a bit of raspberry is an attractive woman, a Dutch Nickel is a kiss, French stuff is pornography and more expressions that I prefer not cite here.

But all this is an excuse to talk about this post: Me, Myself, and I, by Cult of the One Eyed Cat (thanks Sizi). That hilarious post is about, well... you know what.. masturbation with many euphemisms. If you don't like the word, ok, just go to The World's Largest Collection of Masturbation Synonyms and chose other word. There are expressions for men, women, in other languages, a collection with funny expressions and a random generator. Plus, a nineteenth century cartoon "showing" deadly consequences of self love auditioning the hand puppet.

PS.: for some people the language used on the links can be NSFW.

Posted by Bibi on September 16, 2005 10:04 PM in Curious things, Fun, Fun, Language ||

What is your favourite word? I don't know what is my favourite word in English, maybe fluffy or yummy because they are funny, cute and I like the sound. Everyone has a favourite word, so share it on My Favorite Word or check the favourite words of other people.

Posted by Bibi on September 13, 2005 01:32 AM in Language ||

English Accents and Dialects. All languages change over time and vary according to place and social domain, as is perfectly illustrated by these extracts taken from two large audio resources held in the British Library Sound Archive: the Survey of English Dialects and the Millennium Memory Bank. The collection has 681 items (audio and text information) by chronological order. And if you have more time make a search through The Voices Recordings page of BBC.

Posted by Bibi on September 6, 2005 09:28 AM in Audio, Language ||

Color Code is A Color Portrait of the English Language.

The artwork is an interactive map of more than 33,000 words. Each word has been assigned a color based on the average color of images found by a search engine. The words are then grouped by meaning. The resulting patterns form an atlas of our lexicon.

(via The Presurfer)

Posted by Bibi on August 17, 2005 02:40 PM in Design, Language ||

I had a problem these days because I didn't know the meaning of a swear word and asked what the word meant, but some people complained. After that incident I searched for some help and found it on Urban Dictionary. It is a slang dictionary with thousands of words and growing. But I searched for more and found The Alternative English Dictionary - Slang, profanities, insults and vulgarisms from all the world. A nice place to find not so nice words, it has a a PDF version, useful for vacations.

And there is more: a swearsaurus: The Art of Insults. Offensive jokes, an insulting slang dictionary, the world's largest multilingual swearing archive of 165 languages, random insult generators - you'll find them all here. I took a look on Brazilian Portuguese Language Swear Words page and I had some surprises. I didn't know many of the words and expressions of the list and I can't use most of them, because they are too rude for my taste, even when I'm very angry. I tried also the Portuguese Language Swear Words list but didn't find some of my favourite expressions (no, I won't write them here).

Posted by Bibi on August 14, 2005 07:30 PM in Language ||

Acronyma - The largest database of acronyms and abbreviations on the web. I tried some acronyms in Portuguese (ex: CCBB, ABNT), English (ex.: IMNSHO, BRB, YMMV, IANAL) and the only one that I know in French (RSVP) and they worked almost fine. But we don't use so much abbreviations in Portuguese, we usually use for places and organizations, and I know just a few in English, so it's better you try. And I missed a Latin search there for abbreviations like i.e. and e.g.. Anyway, it's a nice tool to search if you have any doubt.

PS.: não achei o CQD lá, mas já postei a sugestão.

Posted by Bibi on July 7, 2005 02:27 AM in Language ||

Do you have any phobia? So take a look on The Phobia List. The list told me that I have automatonophobia and pediophobia, that for me are very similar. And if someday I develop bibliophobia or ailurophobia, please somebody kill me. (via Cynical-C)

Posted by Bibi on June 15, 2005 12:28 AM in Curious things, Language ||

Luciferous Logolepsy is a a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. There are some curious words there.

baculus n. - stick; rod; symbol of power. baculiferous, adj. bearing canes, reeds, etc. baculiform, adj. rod-shaped. baculine, adj. pertaining to rod or punishment therewith.

Posted by Bibi on June 3, 2005 01:26 AM in Language ||

Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies - by Stephen Downes. Very interesting site with the fallacies definitions, examples and a way to proof the fallacies.

False Analogy Definition:

In an analogy, two objects (or events), A and B are shown to be similar. Then it is argued that since A has property P, so also B must have property P. An analogy fails when the two objects, A and B, are different in a way which affects whether they both have property P.

Example: Employees are like nails. Just as nails must be hit in the head in order to make them work, so must employees.

Posted by Bibi on June 2, 2005 05:23 AM in Language ||

Learning Languages: The website about teaching yourself languages. There are FAQs, basic guide, tips and tricks, many informations about each language, eminent linguists, books, success stories and forum. It's interesting if you are learning or wants to learn another language. And if you don't know what's the best new language to study, take a look on the comparative table of languages and language profiles for the prospective learner.

Posted by Bibi on May 17, 2005 03:12 PM in Language ||

Idiomsite - Idioms and Sayings. The site has some popular English expressions and word, the meanings and origins.

Mumbo Jumbo
From Mama Dyanbo, a Mandingo god....meaning 'Nonsense'.

Cool! One more for my list. Visit also the site of etymology Word Origins with more than 400 words and phrases. (via Cynical-C)

Posted by Bibi on May 16, 2005 02:40 AM in Culture, Language ||

Yes, I'm back after a short unintentional break. I was (and still) busy with my new French classes: I'm very excited with them! These days were spent doing some things that I had to do a long time: getting a life, or something very near of that, and using the computer for things related with my new classes.

Good things about this blog on the last days: I have some more new links to this blog (thanks folks) and Google Directory is telling me that finally this blog belongs to a category (but I can't find it there). The bad part of all: unfortunately I wasn't reading my feeds so I lost many cool things these days.

Anyway, if you have any interest in French I found some neat links:

19th-Century French Women Poets: few writes, but interesting works to read (there are some poetrys).

Argot Français: French Slang - texts and audio.

French Word-A-Day: a new French word everyday with the meaning, expressions, citation and/or a small text with the word.

Learn French: French Language at About.com. The site is wonderful: full of information, texts and audio files. For small doses everyday try the feed subscription.

Le Français Cool - un trés cool BBC link about French slang with audio too.

Wikipédia:Portail Cinéma - a lot of information about cinema on Wikipedia.

PS.: any tip about French are welcome. Be free to make suggestions, if you know something about it.

Posted by Bibi on May 9, 2005 07:33 AM in Audio, Blogging, Cinema, Language, Literature ||

Babelplex Bilingual Google Search:

Babelplex is a bilingual search service that searches the web in one language and in another language via a cross-language information retrieval system utilizing Google Translate for translation and utilizing Google for search. Sort of like plugging a Babelfish into a search engine to do bilingual search.

(via The Unofficial Google Weblog)

Posted by Bibi on April 13, 2005 11:35 PM in Google, Internet, Language ||