How True

My friend said to me, "I guess the point is…people who have manners exhibit them almost all the time, everywhere they go.

People who don’t---don’t."

This is known as LOPHT (lack of proper home training).

Word Of The Day

inveigh \in-VAY\ verb : to protest or complain bitterly or vehemently : rail

Example sentence: The senator inveighed against the new FDA regulations, claiming they allow loopholes for manufacturers.

Did you know? You might complain or grumble about some wrong you see, or, for a stronger effect, you can "inveigh" against it. "Inveigh" comes from the Latin verb "invehere," which joins the prefix "in-" with the verb "vehere," meaning "to carry." "Invehere" literally means "to carry in," and when "inveigh" first appeared in English, it was also used to mean "to carry in" or "to introduce." Extended meanings of "invehere," however, are "to force one's way into," "attack," and "to assail with words," and that's where the current sense of "inveigh" comes from. A closely related word is "invective," which means "insulting or abusive language." This word, too, ultimately comes from "invehere."

You're Not Going To Believe What My Young Girlfriend Wants Me To Do Now

Go hang out with a Red Hat Club. I'm more inclined to perch at a biker bar.

Thanks honey. May I call you Heidi?

The Word of the Day

corrigendum \kor-uh-JEN-dum\ noun : an error in a printed work discovered after printing and shown with its correction on a separate sheet

Example sentence: Not only was the document itself full of errors, but the corrigenda included with it had mistakes as well!

Did you know? If you guessed that "corrigendum" might be connected to the word "correct," you are quite right. Both "corrigendum" and "correct" derive from the Latin verb "corrigere," which means "to correct." The noun "corrigendum" and its plural "corrigenda" came to us unaltered from Latin in the early 19th century. The verb "correct" is much older; it has been part of our language since at least the 14th century. Other descendants of the very correct "corrigere" include "incorrigible" and "escort."

Word Of The Day

enjoin \in-JOIN\ verb
*1 : to direct or impose by authoritative order or with urgent admonition
2 a : forbid, prohibit b : to prohibit by a judicial order : put an injunction on

Example sentence: Mr. Alvarez enjoined the class to be quiet, and the stern tone of his voice made everyone obey immediately.

Did you know? Which of these words do you think has the same root as "enjoin"?

a. entelechy b. joy c. junta d. purloin

It might help if we tell you that "enjoin" derives ultimately from the verb "jungere," which means "to join." "Jungere" is behind a number of English words, including "join," "conjoin,"
"disjoin," and "junction." Are you ready for your answer? The
correct choice is "junta," a term that entered English by way
of Spanish. A junta is a committee that controls a government,
especially after a revolutionary seizure of power -- in other
words, a group of persons "joined" together for a specific
purpose.

So What Really Is In A McDonald's Chicken McNugget?

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a fascinating book that details the changing eating habits of Americans. I can't recommend it highly enough. It explains how, over the last 30 years, we have become a nation that eats vast quantities of corn – much more so than Mexicans, the original "corn people."

Most folks assume that a chicken nugget is just a piece of fried chicken, right? Wrong! Did you know, for example, that a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget is 56% corn?

What else is in a McDonald's Chicken McNugget? Besides corn, and to a lesser extent, chicken, The Omnivore's Dilemma describes all of the thirty-eight ingredients that make up a McNugget – one of which I'll bet you'll never guess. During this part of the book, the author has just ordered a meal from McDonald’s with his family and taken one of the flyers available at McDonald’s called "A Full Serving of Nutrition Facts: Choose the Best Meal for You." These two paragraphs are taken directly from The Omnivore’s Dilemma: {click title for article}

Word Of The Day

drub \DRUB\ verb
1 : to beat severely
2 : to berate critically
*3 : to defeat decisively

Example sentence: After being drubbed by the worst team in the league, the hometown players slunk into the locker room with their heads hung low.

Did you know? Sportswriters often use "drub," but the term's history reveals that it wasn't always a sporting word. When "drub" was first used in English, it referred to a method of punishment that involved beating the soles of a culprit's feet with a stick or cudgel. The term was apparently brought to England in the 17th century by travelers who reported observing the punitive practice in Asia. Etymologists are uncertain of the ultimate origin of "drub," but some have speculated that it may have evolved from the Arabic word "daraba," meaning "to beat."

Word Of The Day

augur \AW-gur\ verb
1 : to foretell especially from omens
*2 : to give promise of : presage

Example sentence: California's unusually cold winter does not augur well for the citrus crop.

Did you know? Auguring is what augurs did in ancient Rome. These were official diviners whose function it was, not to foretell the future, but to divine whether the gods approved of a proposed undertaking, such as a military move. They did so by various means, among them observing the behavior of birds and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals. Nowadays, the "foretell" sense of the verb is often used with an adverb, such as "well," as in our example sentence. "Augur" comes from Latin and is related to the Latin verb "augere," meaning "to increase."

Word Of The Day

perforce \per-FORSS\ adverb : by force of circumstances

Example sentence: Lorel and Curt's tiny vineyard produces a limited quantity of top-quality chardonnays that are perforce rather pricey.

Did you know? English speakers borrowed "par force" from Anglo-French in the 14th century. "Par" meant "by" (from Latin "per") and the Anglo-French word "force" had the same meaning as its English equivalent, which was already in use by then. At first, "perforce" meant quite literally "by physical coercion." That meaning is no longer used today, but it was still prevalent in William Shakespeare's lifetime (1564-1616). "He rush'd into my house and took perforce my ring away," wrote the Bard in _The Comedy of Errors_. The "force of circumstances" sense of "perforce" had also come into use by Shakespeare's day. In _Henry IV, Part 2_, we find "...your health; the which, if you give o'er to stormy passion, must perforce decay."

on Books

"But no one assembles a library entirely by the bestseller list, and books are obviously more than just business figures. The best ones stay with us, whether we are aware of it or not, helping us make sense of the world long after the delight, surprise and challenge of reading them has passed." click title for article

134340

n. The celestial object formerly known as Pluto. All asteroids and minor planets are assigned numbers, and Pluto is now 134,340 out of 136,563. The demotion has given pluto currency as a verb: If you've been plutoed, you've been dumped.

Where Learning is Free

MIT to be online

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff | March 10, 2007

MIT intends to reach an epic milestone soon: By the end of the year, its entire curriculum should be available online for free.

Scholars -- and amateur scholars -- are coming in droves; this month, the site could receive 1.5 million visits.

"It's exceeded our expectations," said Anne Margulies, the official at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who heads up the online curriculum program called OpenCourseWare.

MIT began putting courses online in 2001; more than 1,500 are already available, and all of its 1,800 courses should be posted by the end of this year.

So far, the most popular online course has been an introduction to electrical engineering, Margulies said, but visitors to the site can also school themselves on such subjects as cell-matrix mechanics, holographic imaging, hip-hop, and How to Make (Almost) Anything. click title

gethuman

The gethuman project is a consumer movement to improve the quality of phone support in the US. This free website is run by volunteers and is powered by over one million consumers who demand high quality phone support from the companies that they use. how to get a real person not a machine

Look Out Mr. Clean

Nuclear Lab Develops Powerful Dust Rag
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD
Associated Press Writer

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) -- This is one cleaning that could pass anybody's white-glove test.

A high-tech dust rag developed by a research chemist at a nuclear weapons plant can pick up potentially deadly beryllium particles that are 20 times smaller than what can be seen with the naked eye. Its inventor, Ron Simandl, says it could be used to mop up industrial accidents or wipe down semiconductor "clean rooms."

And look out Swiffer dusters: The "Negligible-Residue Non-tacky Tack Cloth" could be bound for the consumer market, albeit with a catchier name. click title

Prelude to the Ride of His Life

"At an age when many of his contemporaries are thinking about retirement, [Stephen] Hawking seems determined to add yet another chapter to a tale of already legendary adventurousness and determination, not to mention scientific achievement." click title

Some Greatest Engineering Achievements

How many of the 20th century's greatest engineering achievements will you use today? click title