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POPSLinguistic superpowers The book Limits of Language by Swedish linguist Mikael Parkvall is a sort of languages-only Guinness Book of Records, listing everything that’s large, small and otherwise interesting about the manifold manners of human speech and associated forms of communication. One item deals with the world’s most linguistically diverse countries, and is illustrated with this map, of the world’s ‘linguistic superpowers’.
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POPSLanguage Without Numbers: Amazonian Tribe Has No Word To Express 'One,' Other Numbers However, the MIT team decided to add a new twist--they started with 10 objects and asked the tribe members to count down. In that experiment, the tribe members used the word previously thought to mean "two" when as many as five or six objects were present, and they used the word for "one" for any quantity between one and four. This indicates that "these aren't counting numbers at all," said Gibson. "They're signifying relative quantities." He said this type of counting strategy has never been observed before, although it may also be found in other languages believed to have "one," "two," and "many" counting words.
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POPS20 of the World's Most Beautiful Libraries For some people it’s castles with their noble history and crumbling towers, for others it’s abandoned factories or lost cities. But for those who enjoy reading, a huge beautiful library is a place of endless pleasure. Meet 20 of the biggest and most beautiful libraries around the globe.
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POPSOur Earth as Art Welcome to the Earth as Art Gallery.Here you can view our planet through the beautiful images taken by the Landsat-7 satellite - and most recently, the Terra Satellite's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). This gallery of images uses the visceral avenue of art to convey the thrilling perspective of the Earth that satellites provide to the viewer.
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POPSExpressions that define cultures 9. Maningue Nice, Mozambique A cross between a purely national term and a flair of English, maningue nice means “very nice” and is the closest thing to a slogan in Mozambique. Scream it from the tallest buildings whenever fortune favors you. 10. Bahala Na, Philippines Come What May. A Cross Cultural Theme When I started researching these expressions, I was expecting to find similarities based on geography: patterns in Asia, South America, Western Europe, etc. I was surprised, however, to find a cross-cultural theme; many of these phrases are used in response to circumstances beyond people’s control. How each culture is epitomized in these terms is indicative of how they react to unfortunate or unavoidable events. The Japanese and French suck it up; the Thais, Kiwis, Aussies, and others shrug it off; Arabs put the responsibility to a higher power.
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POPSCatholic Church gone mad On rape and Catholic justice: This is why morals from 3rd century goat herders stink. Clearly no moral guidance exists here, let alone moral guidance from above.
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POPSThe 10 Coolest Foreign Words The English Language Needs they even teach it in universities, and in the armed forces. They believe this ability to slap together haphazard solutions has been key to their survival over the centuries. Don't laugh. At one time they managed to build an empire stretching from Brazil to the Philippines this way. "Screw" preparation. They have desenrascano. To view the other five follow link: http://www.cracked.com/article_17251_10-coolest-foreign-words-english-language-needs.html
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POPSIndigenous SEX Wipeout Deliberate? Survival International Survival's director Stephen Corry stated, "Tribal people die because their land is invaded and taken and because they succumb to outside diseases they never knew before. Increasingly now we can add HIV/AIDS to the list of killers. "It is striking the most vulnerable peoples of all: those who have no grasp of the risks of unprotected sex; no access to condoms; no appropriate treatment; and whose numbers are already small. The first solution is the simplest - governments must ensure tribal lands are properly protected."
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POPSStudy Of Countries I do not claim that sites such as this are the be all and end all of research regarding any given country. But still they are fairly comprehensive. If any given country or nation intrigues you then I recommend further research. If this site creates a even greater thirst for knowledge then I will have done something useful.
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