“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs @FiorenzaMella

The OED says that the relevant senses of mate come from "Middle Low German māt comrade", and suggests that we "Compare early modern Dutch maat (1546), maet (1573) friend, partner". The OED traces the English sense "A companion, fellow, comrade, friend; a fellow worker or business partner" back to 1380, and notes that this is "Freq. as the second element in compounds, as bed-, flat-mate, etc. (in which it is generally less colloq. than when standing alone)". @FiorenzaMella

Interesting read. Psychologist James Pennebaker reveals the hidden meaning of pronouns @FiorenzaMella

"The Earth would not be the way it is if humankind didn't have the ability to communicate, to organize itself, to pass knowledge down from generation to generation," says Jeff Elman, a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego. "We'd be living in troops of very smart baboons," he says. Instead, language has allowed us to cooperate in groups of millions instead of dozens, he says. It also lets us share the complex ideas produced by our brains, and it's flexible in ways you don't find in the communication systems of other species. @FiorenzaMella

....During one of my presentations I was explaining the benefits of a network-based approach to remote access vs. a premise-based approach. That is when it happened! The customer asked me, “Don’t you mean premises?” I forgot the rule about the customer always being right and said “No, I mean premise.” He was not happy and further explained that a premise is a basis of an argument and that equipment is kept on premises. Following the demo I looked it up and he was right!!! OMG, how many times did I make this mistake and why didn’t anyone tell me before? Now I can’t help but notice when premises is used correctly or incorrectly. I noticed my local diner got it right when they hung a sign that read “Baking done on premises.” Yet the cloud industry can’t seem to make up their mind. @FiorenzaMella

The written word, in contrast, is relatively new. Humans have been putting words on tablets, textiles and paper only for approximately the past 5,500 years. Yet many assume the written word is superior to how humans actually speak. If a language isn't fixed on a page — like English, French, Spanish or Chinese — it isn't "real." .....And while many English speakers consider the English language to be relatively advanced, linguist John McWhorter says it's actually profoundly simpler than many ancient languages. In his book, What Language Is: And What It Isn't and What It Could Be, McWhorter, a professor of linguistics and Western civilization at Columbia University, debunks some of our most persistent myths about language. Languages are anything but pure, he writes; they are complex, intermingled and, as he tells NPR's Tony Cox, constantly morphing "like a lump in a lava lamp." @FiorenzaMella

But like many critics of Americanisms, Engel got some of his facts wrong. True, the U.S. may be influencing the spread of English as a world language today, but it was British imperialism, not American, that set English on the path to world domination. Matthew Engel is a British journalist who doesn’t like Americanisms ...... a few of the words Engel complains about aren’t even Americanisms. The first OED citations for hospitalize (so spelled), heads up, and rookie are British, not American, and if the OED and Google are any indication, “park-up,” unheard of stateside, seems to be solely a Briticism, an unnecessary alternative to simply saying park, as in “Park-Up.com finds the cheapest parking for you” in London and Brighton. As is fitting for a Financial Times writer, Engel acknowledges that there’s a kind of linguistic marketplace where languages trade words the same way that their speakers trade goods and services, but he sees the balance of trade as seriously tipped in fav...

There are numerous rankings of "difficult" (and "easy") languages to learn (note that we are talking about second-language learning here, not acquiring one's native tongue). Some such rankings are unofficial, like the Accreditedonlinecolleges.com ranking or the ranking at MyLanguages.org; others are official, for example the classification by DLI based on the number of hours needed to achieve a certain level. @FiorenzaMella

At the individual level, metaphors affect our thinking. This has been known at least since George Lakoff published the book "Metaphors We Live By" with Mark Johnson in 1980. Mr Lakoff is, of course, now known as a consultant trying to get Democrats to re-frame political issues in America. Specifically, he wants voters internalising a Democratic metaphor of society-as-family with a "nurturing parent" model of leadership. Republicans, he says, think society needs a "strict father". @FiorenzaMella

Jupiter is one of the planets in our solar system. Its beauty lies in its marble type appearance of different hues. @FiorenzaMella

A pair of robots has made up their own words to tell each other where they are and where they want to go. @FiorenzaMella

A recurring idea in popular discussions of languages – usually exotic or minority ones – is that they have “no word for X”, where X could be hello, tomorrow, burger, ten, accountability, robin, and so on. Sometimes it’s sheer fantasy, sometimes the language simply has (or has had) no need for the word (robins in the Arctic?), and sometimes it has other ways of conveying the idea – such as a longer phrase, a different kind of metaphor, or another syntactic category. The point is, it’s not as though there’s a nagging word-shaped gap there that makes it difficult for speakers of a language to communicate with one another, to make sufficient sense of their experiences, and to get through the day without falling apart. If there’s a need for a word, a word will arise. @FiorenzaMella

The amount of information carried in the arrangement of words is the same across all languages, even languages that aren’t related to each other. This consistency could hint at a single common ancestral language, or universal features of how human brains process speech. “It doesn’t matter what language or style you take,” said systems biologist Marcelo Montemurro of England’s University of Manchester, lead author of a study May 13 in PLoS ONE. “In languages as diverse as Chinese, English and Sumerian, a measure of the linguistic order, in the way words are arranged, is something that seems to be a universal of languages.” Language carries meaning both in the words we choose, and the order we put them in. Some languages, like Finnish, carry most of their meaning in tags on the words themselves, and are fairly free-form in how words are arranged. Others, like English, are more strict — “John loves Mary” means something different from “Mary loves John.” @FiorenzaMella

Life at Willow Manor: segue to spring : "The Picasso eye lodged in the bent branch like a scuttled vessel brooding in limbs of a giant sugar maple no longer disp..." @FiorenzaMella

Outstanding communicators distinguish themselves by the way they use language. The first thing that strikes you when you listen to an outstanding communicator speak is the simplicity of their language: they use words you can understand in a way that makes it easy to follow what they’re saying. But simple is hard, and takes courage. It takes courage because it goes against the grain of workplace communications. In organisations, language is often used as a protective veil whose main purpose is to cover the speaker’s back rather than enlighten their audience. A concoction of jargonistic words arranged into convoluted sentences is an effective way of covering up ideas that are half-baked, obvious, or trivial. @FiorenzaMella

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In contemporary New York City, it is common to hear local teenagers use the word “y’all.” A few decades ago, this word would have been confined to speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), who brought the word with them from the American South. Yet nowadays, with the spread of AAVE, the word has been adopted by young New Yorkers of every ethnicity under the sun. But where did this strange little word come from? The answer reveals a remarkable (and unlikely) story of language dispersion. If you’re a little confused about what “y’all” means, you’re not alone. Even people who get the basic jist of “y’all” don’t grasp its grammatical purpose. The word is a “second person plural,” meaning it is a plural version of “you.” So, for example, in the American South (where “y’all” is most widespread) somebody would say: “You want to go to the store?” if they were talking to a single person. Or, “Y’all want to go to the store?” if they were talking to a group of people. How “...

...What we found was interesting. Both male and female listeners consistently gave higher ratings to speakers who sounded more native-like. For the speakers who were rated as “most attractive,” listeners often guessed them to be from countries like Canada, England, or the United States where English is a native language.. @FiorenzaMella

Interesting piece.. @FiorenzaMella

Accent matters more than looks when it comes to identifying a person’s ethnicity, according to a study published in the November Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany asked students to identify Italian- and German-looking men who spoke German with or without an Italian accent. The students were more likely to confuse two people who spoke with the same accent than two who looked liked they belonged to the same ethnic group, meaning accent was more of a distinguishing feature than appearance. The authors say their results emphasize the importance of language in how we judge those whom we meet. . @FiorenzaMella

Enjoy this video! @FiorenzaMella

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Jerry's words can draw. His drawings can talk. @FiorenzaMella

ScienceDaily (Mar. 23, 2011) — A team of researchers has found that pursuing carefully planned goals and engaging in more automatic habits shows overlapping neurological mechanisms. Because the findings, which appear in the latest issue of the journal Neuron, show a neurological linkage between goal-directed and habitual, and perhaps damaging, behaviors, they may offer a pathway for beginning to address addiction and similar maladies. @FiorenzaMella

ScienceDaily (Mar. 23, 2011) — The way in which teachers and textbooks use language and different metaphors in mathematics education determines how pupils develop their number sense, according to a recent thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. @FiorenzaMella

Interesting study confirming the theory @FiorenzaMella

The answer is affirmative. This post is truly inspiring. @FiorenzaMella

The one that dominates the Internet, the ones we learn in the womb, and the ones that are whistles by Dean Christopher @FiorenzaMella

So many pregnant words... March 22nd, 2011 by Mark Nepo It is ancient but not old. The Taoist master Chuang Tzu first spoke of it in the 3rd century BC as the Great Ridgepole that holds the Unseeable Tent of the Universe open. Around which we dance. Trying to leave it. Always coming back. Within a hundred years it was known as Tai Chi. In the Tang Dynasty an unknown poet spoke of life as swinging on the Great Ridgepole. Hundreds of years later, a Spanish poet said that meeting another in mid-swing is the wonder of love. After living through monsoons, a Hindu master said that we move until we tire into stillness. Then we are still till we grow impatient to move. One blossoms into the other. In that blossoming we become wakeful. In such moments we are the bubbles carried by water, the blue within the heart of every flame, the aliveness sleeping inside every ache. It is ancient but not old. Meet me at the Ridgepole. We can take our turn swinging around eternity....

1. Studies have shown that being bilingual actually structurally changes the brain and increases intellect, especially for people who have been bilingual from an early age. Therefore bilingual people are more likely to have a rounded intelligence than monolinguals. 2. Language is not just about semantics. Having access to a language means having access to another culture and coming to truly understand it. This is great for business as different cultures have different ways of doing things and makes you more desirable to potential employers! 3. Knowing a second language increases your knowledge of the English language. Many non-native English speakers are sticklers for grammar – the same goes for language students. Learning a language from scratch makes you more aware of your native language’s grammatical structures. 4. Language skills get you into university. Some UK universities are now rejecting applicants without at least a GCSE in another language. Deg...

Mamihlapinatapai (sometimes spelled mamihlapinatapei) is a word from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the "most succinct word", and is considered one of the hardest words to translate.[1] It refers to "a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something that they both desire but which neither wants to begin." It is described in Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life, by Len Fisher (p76), when describing the Volunteer's dilemma. It is also mentioned in Defining the World[2] in a discussion of the difficulties facing Samuel Johnson in trying to arrive at succinct, yet accurate, definitions of words. The word consists of the reflexive/passive prefix ma- (mam- before a vowel), the root ihlapi (pronounced [iɬapi]), which means to be at a loss as what to do next, the stative suffix -n, an achievement suffix -ata, and the dual suffix -apai, which in composition with...

Is it a robot? @FiorenzaMella

Even the most vocal detractor of language lessons knows the difference between a noun and a pronoun. But it takes a special kind of grammar aficionado to pick up on the intricacies between the various verbs and plethora of pronouns. As with every passion, linguistics comes with its own unique vocabulary challenging fans to memorize them all. Hundreds more exist beyond these 33, but they certainly make for an amusing start! Especially that "eggcorn…" @FiorenzaMella

The words we hear and read have an impact on the way we think. This often happens at a subconscious level, so while the power of the word goes apparently unnoticed by the listener, it is taking root alongside all that other information stored in the brain. If you allow the words I hate you! to take root in your brain, ask yourself what message you are conveying to your self. What will inevitably grow from that root? Something hateful? This is why it is important to listen to and read information consciously rather than unconsciously. Om Namah Shivaya Sticks and Stones is a chant which, when said with absolute conviction, must hold true. Its power is contained not only in the words themselves, but also in the faith of the person uttering the words. Put another way, you have to believe in your words if they are to have true power. All language is a form of vibration, as is everything in this Universe. Think ‘resonance’ (with the Universe itself) when you think ‘vibration’ and...

Some immigrant novelists neglect their mother tongue to write in the language of their adopted home. Forming distinctive styles, they have won over locals and even given rise to new literary techniques. @FiorenzaMella

Hundreds of filmmakers came to Austin, Texas, to attend the SXSW Film Festival this past weekend. Their films ranged from narrative features to short documentaries to music videos. Almost all of them had at least one thing in common: a soundtrack. But the work of deaf filmmaker, designer and animator Robyn Girard stood out from the rest of the pack. Girard, a visual storyteller who works to bridge the gap between deaf and hearing audiences through film and animation, spoke at the SXSW Film Conference and Festival about the portrayal of deaf people in film, how popular films often perpetuate stereotypes and how the deaf community can counteract those perceptions. "It's our job," says Girard, "to prove that deaf people are not silent." In other words, not being able to hear doesn't mean they can't make some noise in the culture. @FiorenzaMella

ScienceDaily (Mar. 14, 2011) — Learning a foreign language literally changes the way we see the world, according to new research. Panos Athanasopoulos, of Newcastle University, has found that bilingual speakers think differently to those who only use one language. @FiorenzaMella

I'm not particularly confused about the facts at hand, but how to think about them can be confusing. In Latin, datum is a singular noun that pluralises as data. We imported "data" and use it frequently in English; we use "datum" much less often. Since some people think of data as a mass, not as the plural of a thing you can count, they mentally file it with singular mass nouns like "water" and "oatmeal". Doing so is hardly mouth-breathing stupidity, but it does violate the Latin rule. But then again, who says we have to import foreign morphology into English when we import a word? The answer clearly isn't "always". The Economist, for example, pluralises "consortia", "data", "media", "spectra" and "strata" thus, but prescribes "conundrums", "forums", "moratoriums", "referendums" and "stadiums". (The rest here.) The rule is feel ...

People tend to underestimate the importance of the Latin language because it isn't a spoken language, but that doesn't mean there aren't considerable other benefits that can be derived from the study of Latin. The derivation of many words in many languages, including most Romance languages and English is often Latin and many English words have Latin prefixes or suffixes. The study of Latin often makes it possible to dissect a word and figure out its meaning by going to the Latin roots. You can also learn how to find similar words that can be used in place of a more frequently used word. @FiorenzaMella

British Library's Map Your Voice scheme records 10,000 English speakers and finds 'Americanisation' of speech may be a myth @FiorenzaMella

A great TED video about an interesting experiment. @FiorenzaMella

In the March issue of Scientific American Carl Schoonover, author of Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century, describes a new computer-modeling technique that allows researchers to zoom in on the smallest components of the active brain in 3-D. To accompany the story, we've collected images from his recent book, which describes the tools that scientists have used to observe the nervous system from the second century to the present. During the past 20 years, breakthroughs in these technologies have fueled unprecedented advances in neuroscience. @FiorenzaMella

A beautiful example of videopoetry. A nice story about a team effort gathering different resources to accomplish a project. A great example of the inspiring power of art. @FiorenzaMella

Comparing 1997 and 2010, group was found in both years with rights, small, ethnic, pressure, rebel, support, armed and environmental. However, in 1997 it was also found with Islamic, paramilitary, action, working and separatist, while in 2010 it collocated with conservation, crisis and Islamist. There is a parallel small change between 1997 and 2010 in the collocates of nation and nations. In both years the words are linked with: African, Asian, developed, developing, European, industrial, industrialised, United and western. However, in 1997, nation also collocated with donor, favoured, foreign and poorer, terms that do not occur in the top 50 collocates of 2010. There has also been a change in the way people are reported. While 1997 and 2010 have shared uses, including: black, British, elderly, indigenous, local and ordinary, in 1997, people also collocated strongly with: disabled and HIV-positive, but in 2010 the emphasis had shifted to fat, gay, older and rich. @FiorenzaMella

The process of language forgetting begins when the domains of use of a language are considerably reduced, if not simply absent. It will extend over many years in adults and is marked by hesitant language production as the speaker searches for appropriate words or expressions. There will also be frequent intermingling of languages as he or she calls on the dominant language for help; pronunciation is marked increasingly by the other language or languages; "odd" syntactic structures or expressions are borrowed from the stronger language, and so on. Language comprehension is less affected, although the person may not know new words and new colloquialisms in the language that is being forgotten. People who are in an extended process of forgetting a language avoid using it because they no longer feel sure about it and they do not want to make too many mistakes. If they do have to use it, they may cut short a conversation so as not to have to show openly how far the attrition h...

An increasing number of psychological studies reveal strong associations between personality traits and aesthetic tastes. According to these investigations, the jazz aficionado—who prefers challenging books and abstract art—is more likely to be an extrovert and open to new experiences. The top-40 fan, on the other hand, probably shies away from novelty. Based on his fondness for Impressionist art, though, he is likely to be agreeable and conscientious. @FiorenzaMella

"Story forms have evolved continually since the days of the shaman. Literary genres from epic poetry to drama to the novel use stories as political or social calls to action. Technological breakthroughs — movable type, movies, radio, television, the internet — have provided new ways of recording, presenting, and disseminating stories. But it isn’t special effects or the 0’s and 1’s of the digital revolution that matter most — it’s the oohs and aahs that the storyteller evokes from an audience. State-of-the-art technology is a great tool for capturing and transmitting words, images, and ideas, but the power of storytelling resides most fundamentally in 'state-of-the-heart' technology. At the end of the day, words and ideas presented in a way that engages listeners’ emotions are what carry stories. It is this oral tradition that lies at the center of our ability to motivate, sell, inspire, engage, and lead." — Peter Guber @FiorenzaMella

Scientists have found out the basic mechanisms used by the brain to combine elementary pieces of language in order to construct complex ideas. The study was conducted by Douglas Bemis, a graduate student in NYU’s Department of Psychology, and Liina Pylkkänen, an associate professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and Department of Linguistics. @FiorenzaMella

A great example of how virtual connection can lead to amazing team results. The leader's vision, the team goal, the communication made it possible. Connection turned into true engagement. Eric Whitacre told the story of his deeply inspirational virtual choir, which brought together nearly 200 talented singers from around the world in a spellbinding collaborative performance of “Lux Aurumque” via YouTube Read more: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/03/01/ted-2011-highlights-day-1/#ixzz1FQkQlRqX @FiorenzaMella

One of the most fascinating windows scientists have into the human mind comes from watching babies learn to interact with the world around them. Janet Werker is a psychologist at Vancouver's University of British Columbia who studies how babies learn languages. Some of her recent work was aimed at investigating the claim that growing up bilingual can confuse a baby and make learning to speak more difficult. In fact, Werker and her colleagues found the opposite: Rather than causing any difficulties, learning two languages at once may confer cognitive advantages to babies, including not just special auditory sensitivity, but enhanced visual sensitivity as well. LiveScience spoke to Werker at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., about what bilingual children can teach us about how the mind works. Why can babies learn second languages without "foreign" accents, but adults rarely can? I would not take this s...

If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, I will answer you: I am here to live out loud.’Emile Zola @FiorenzaMella

Dispelling longstanding misconceptions that the underlying causes of stuttering are language problems or psychological problems like anxiety or trauma, researchers say stuttering is really a speech-production problem: a snag in the cascade of steps that our brains and bodies undertake to move the proper muscles to produce words. “People who stutter have motor difficulties in producing fluent speech,” said Luc De Nil, a speech-language pathologist at the University of Toronto. “They don’t have difficulty developing words or syntax, although they may process language differently. They have difficulty with efficient coordination of motor movements, and speech is such a high-demand fine-motor skill that requires extremely fast sequencing and timing.” Speaking involves brain areas responsible not only for language, but for hearing, planning, emotion, breathing and movement of the jaw, lips, tongue and neck. Anne Smith, a stuttering expert at Purdue University, said that in stutterers, “...

THE history of a language is invariably linked to the history of its people. With the rise and fall of power, the fortune of the language too changes. But as records prove, some languages survive the decline of the people, the culture in which it is spoken and the land where it was born. The German language can definitely boast of this standing. According to a recent book German: Biography of a language, it is thousands of years old and has evolved over the millennia. Author Ruth H Sanders takes us through the tumultuous course of German, citing anthropological, historical and linguistic research. Sanders is Professor of German at Miami University of Ohio. German is the "linguistic daughter of the Proto-Indo-European language once spoken throughout vast stretches of Eurasia." According to Sanders, six events were defining moments in the development of German. They include: the pre-historic breakaway of pre-Germanic language from Indo-European mother tongue, the decisive v...

Nature can surprise us with its beauty. @FiorenzaMella

I always enjoy Valeria's posts. This one addresses the essence of connecting with a diverse audience and the importance of the depth in relationships. ...... There's no hiding in real life. Your assets must be real. Just like in business, eventually you will be found. The good news is that once you make a connection real, you have it for a long time 1. Diversity - a person who communicates with a diverse audience will be more influential than a person who communicates with a uniform audience. 2. Autonomy - a person who is free to speak his or her own mind, and is not merely parroting some 'official view', will have more influence. 3. Openness - a person who writes in multiple languages, or who can be read on multiple platforms, or who is not limited to a single communications channel, will have more influence. 4. Connectivity - a person you can communicate with, and who will listen to your point of view, will have more influence than a person who does not. ...

Workplace engagement is all about genuinely caring for your employees. They should be aware of their employer’s attitude towards them, which means that there should be ways and means to convey an employer’s concern to his employees. Employers must make clear that they care for them. This should be part of the Company policy so that employees can actually benefit from it. This policy will reap long-term rewards for the business. Some important pointers about an engaged workforce are that: •They will always speak positively about their Company to others including clients, customers, colleagues or friends. •They are committed to stay with the organization, no matter what, sometimes even at the cost of a financially better opportunity. •They are completely involved in the work they do and for the organization they work for – body, mind, heart and soul. Engagement is a two-way process wherein both the employee and employer can find a middle ground to work their way around issues ...

I always wonder if weak minds represent the majority of the population. @FiorenzaMella

The poet John Milton invented “sensuous” because he apparently felt that the existing word, “sensual,” was getting too sexy for his purposes. “Sensuous” first appeared in writing, according to citations in the Oxford English Dictionary, in Milton’s essay Of Reformation Touching Church Discipline in England (1641). In the relevant passage, Milton contrasts the “Soule” with “her visible, and sensuous collegue the body.” He used the word again in a 1644 essay on education. This quotation comes from a passage in which he discusses practical arts like logic and rhetoric: “To which Poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being lesse suttle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate.” It seems the author of Paradise Lost regarded “sensual” as inappropriate for exalted writing and needed something a bit drier. @FiorenzaMella

Losing Our World's Languages Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them not yet recorded—may disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and the human brain. National Geographic's Enduring Voices Project (conducted in collaboration with the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages) strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hotspots—the places on our planet with the most unique, poorly understood, or threatened indigenous languages—and documenting the languages and cultures within them. Why Is It Important? Language defines a culture, through the people who speak it and what it allows speakers to say. Words that describe a particular cultural practice or idea may not translate precisely into another language. Many endangered languages have rich oral cultures with stories, songs, and histories passed on to younger ...

Very interesting article! @FiorenzaMella

The col­ors are deep and lush, warm and envelop­ing. And if eyes are the win­dow to the soul, don't you feel you can see right into the soul of these figures? This is truly inspiring! @FiorenzaMella

"If there is a more important key to communication than finding common ground, I certainly can’t think of it. Common ground is the place where people can discuss differences, share ideas, find solutions, and start creating something together. Too often people see communication as the process of transmitting massive amounts of information to other people. But that’s the wrong picture. ... [C]ommunication is a journey. The more that people have in common, the better the chance that they can take that journey together." — John C. Maxwell @FiorenzaMella

So many examples of candid beauty. @FiorenzaMella

Hs simplicity and humility combined with his bravoure are truly overwhelming. He lets his piano talk while smiling from artistic joy. @FiorenzaMella

Learning a second language boosts your brain power and can protect against Alzheimer's disease, scientists say. New research has shown that bilingual people do better in mental challenges and are more skilled at multi-tasking than those who have just one tongue. They also develop symptoms of dementia an average of four or five years later. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1358234/People-speak-languages-better-multi-tasking-likely-develop-Alzheimers.html#ixzz1EKRpjXzm @FiorenzaMella

Tout le monde est conscient des limites actuelles de l’email et du fait qu’il est aujourd’hui un facteur limitant de la performance des collaborateurs. Mais peu prennent encore le taureau par les cornes pour régler le problème une fois pour toutes. Parmi ces entreprises qui osent on trouve, depuis peu, Atos Origin qui se donne trois ans pour passer de l’email aux réseaux sociaux. Coup de Génie ? Folie douce ? L’un ou l’autre selon la manière dont cette révolution sera pensée. Migrer les flux d’un environnement vers l’autre, en plus de ne pas combler tous les problèmes des collaborateurs peut même engendrer davantage de complexité. Repenser la nature du mail, de l’information partagée et des besoins en termes d’actions et d’intéractions pour rationaliser le tout a davantage de sens mais impose une refonte autrement plus profonde et ambitieuse de l’architecture même du SI. Les réseaux sociaux ne remplaceront pas l’email dans l’entreprise, par contre ils sont un premier pas vers un social...

I love any espression of beauty. Most of these pictures are breathtaking. @FiorenzaMella

Great quote! @FiorenzaMella

A very interesting Post about how we can or we should not interact with our audience @FiorenzaMella

"It's been said that music is what happens between the notes. I believe that a great speech happens between the words, during the pauses when an audience can reflect upon and internalize the message. Never forget the impact that a well-timed pause can have." — John Zimmer @FiorenzaMella

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In this new RSAnimate Steven Pinker shows us how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings. Taken from the RSA's free public events programme www.thersa.org/events @FiorenzaMella

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have identified a gene that may help explain how language develops in children. The gene, called ROBO1, helps chemicals in brain cells to recognise and translate speech sounds into meaningful language. The researchers found that a particular variant of ROBO1 significantly enhanced a core component of language learning. The study identified a significant correlation between the way the gene functions and the brain's ability to store speech for short periods of time, a process which is especially significant during infancy when words are not yet associated with an object or concept. Professor Timothy Bates, from the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh who led the research, said: 'The discovery of ROBO1 gene helps to understand how speech sounds can be stored long enough to be integrated with meaning'. Scientists analysed language learning techniques of 538 families with up to ...

1. Appreciate Life Be thankful that you woke up alive each morning. Develop a childlike sense of wonder towards life. Focus on the beauty of every living thing. Make the most of each day. Don’t take anything for granted. Don’t sweat the small stuff. @FiorenzaMella

Men and women can now thank a dozen brain regions for their romantic fervor. Researchers have revealed the fonts of desire by comparing functional MRI studies of people who indicated they were experiencing passionate love, maternal love or unconditional love. Together, the regions release neuro­transmitters and other chemicals in the brain and blood that prompt greater euphoric sensations such as attraction and pleasure. Conversely, psychiatrists might someday help individuals who become dan­gerously depressed after a heartbreak by adjusting those chemicals. Passion also heightens several cognitive functions, as the brain regions and chemicals surge. “It’s all about how that network interacts,” says Stephanie Ortigue, an assistant professor of psychology at Syracuse University, who led the study. The cognitive functions, in turn, “are triggers that fully activate the love network.” Tell that to your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day. @FiorenzaMella

An asymptote is a straight line that a curve approaches but never touches. It comes from the Greek word asymptotos which means “not falling together”. In the diagram below, the vertical and horizontal black lines are asymptotes to the two curved red lines. Well, perfect public speaking is like an asymptote. Nobody has ever reached it and nobody ever will. There is always room for improvement. There is always room to learn. We might never be perfect speakers, but we can be better speakers. @FiorenzaMella

Jerry's drawings are always intense. Black & white drawings, perfect drawn lines that make you feel an unexpected emotional depth. That's Jerry's talent. He draws bidimensionally but he involves us threedimensionally. His solo echoes in an orchestra of profound sounds. @FiorenzaMella

Appreciating the variety....Art is inspiring.. @FiorenzaMella

“Drawing Secrets Revealed” is the newly launched drawing art instruction course by professional artist Sarah Parks. This innovative online video class will help students access their right brain's visual and spatial ability to help them really “see like an artist” and enhance their creativity in other areas of their lives. @FiorenzaMella

Shapes lost in soft colors... @FiorenzaMella

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Lost in grief...I will undress your pain @FiorenzaMella

For all intents and purposes, linguistics cannot be separated from history. In fact, language cannot be understood to any true resolve without considering the history surrounding it. As linguist and Father of the “linguistic relativity” concept Benjamin Whorf (1897–1941) said a century ago, “studying language and studying culture is the same thing.” @FiorenzaMella

A great quote that leads to the contestual nature of language an its beautiful complexity. @FiorenzaMella

Sound-alike words can cause problems in written text; don’t fall pray—umm, prey, that is—to these troublesome terms. @FiorenzaMella

Workers who feel they have autonomy - that they are free to make choices in the workplace and be accountable for them - are happier and more productive according to an extensive research literature review. Yet there's no universal cross-cultural definition of autonomy. What people from one culture perceive as workplace freedom, those from another may view as simple disorganization. This is one of the conclusions of a chapter featured in a new book on workplace autonomy, Human Autonomy in Cross-Cultural Context: Perspectives on the Psychology of Agency, Freedom, and Well-Being (Springer), that's coauthored by professors Marylène Gagné and Devasheesh Bhave from Concordia's John Molson School of Business. "Autonomy is important in every culture," says Gagné, about her chapter entitled, Autonomy in the Workplace: An Essential Ingredient to Employee Engagement and Well-Being in Every Culture? Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins @FiorenzaMella

Congratulazioni a Gabriella Sannino per essere riuscita a promuovere questo Workshop che nasce dal desiderio di diffondere la conoscenza di tutti gli aspetti legati alla SEO. Interessanti anche i suoi commenti che fotografano il malessere di molti Italiani che lasciano il Paese disconoscendo un potenziale nascosto che risiede nell'uso appropriato e professionale di internet. Il percorso verso nuove conoscenze mira ad offrire nuovi punti di vista, a professionalizzare la conoscenza ed infine a rendere manifesto il potenziale latente. @FiorenzaMella

For a long time, the idea that language might shape thought was considered at best untestable and more often simply wrong. Research in my labs at Stanford University and at MIT has helped reopen this question. We have collected data around the world: from China, Greece, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how we see the world. Language is a uniquely human gift, central to our experience of being human. Appreciating its role in constructing our mental lives brings us one step closer to understanding the very nature of humanity. @FiorenzaMella

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2011) — We know that people tend to be attracted to, date, and marry other people who resemble themselves in terms of personality, values, and physical appearance. However, these features only skim the surface of what makes a relationship work. The ways that people talk are also important. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people who speak in similar styles are more compatible. @FiorenzaMella

Entanglement, that most counterintuitive quantum phenomenon by which particles share an unseen link that aligns their properties, is looking more mundane all the time. Just last week two groups of researchers reported entangling a photon with a crystal-based device, potentially paving the way for solid-state memories that can store and then release entangled particles as needed. @FiorenzaMella

Bonus Tip: Avoid “Contact Us,” - Create Stronger Offers As far as I'm concerned “Contact Us” does not count as a landing page. If this is the only "offer" on your site, you’re just going to attract spam and sales people. Diversify and create more offers. Specifically, create one early-stage and one late-stage offer. For example, an early-stage offer could be a guide, a kit, or a white paper. A late stage offer can be a free consultation, an estimate / price quote or a free trial. @FiorenzaMella

“What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes if he’s a painter, ears if he’s a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he’s a poet? Quite the contrary, he is at the same time a political being constantly alert to the horrifying, passionate or pleasing events in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. How is it possible to be uninterested in other men and by virtue of what cold nonchalance can you detach yourself from the life that they supply so copiously? No, painting is not made to decorate apartments. It’s an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.” — Pablo Picasso @FiorenzaMella

The dynamics behind signal transmission in the brain are extremely chaotic. This conclusion has been reached by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization at the University of Göttingen and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Göttingen. In addition, the Göttingen-based researchers calculated, for the first time, how quickly information stored in the activity patterns of the cerebral cortex neurons is discarded. At one bit per active neuron per second, the speed at which this information is forgotten is surprisingly high. @FiorenzaMella

Manning argues for acceptance of variable systems of language, and for searching for structure in these systems using probabilistic methods. Manning applies quantitative techniques to sentence structure, digging for the frequency, probability and likelihood that people will use specific turns of phrase in certain real-world contexts. Looking at distributions in the ways people express ideas in a language “can give a much richer description of how language is used.” Indeed, Manning finds that certain typical constraints on sentence structure in one language “show up as softer constraints and preferences in other languages.” @FiorenzaMella

Andre Heller: "Lüge ist wahrer als die Wahrheit - weil die Wahrheit so verlogen ist." "Lies are truer than truth - because truth is such a lie." Is everything an illusion then?

Anglicisation, machinisation et mondialisation sont ici trois arguments qui font dire à l’auteur qu’Internet est loin d’être neutre et nous oblige implicitement ou explicitement à adopter certaines valeurs, avec toutes les conséquences que cela implique[1]. Peut-être ne serez-vous pas d’accord ? Peut-être estimerez-vous que l’on enfonce des portes ouvertes ? Peut-être ajouterez-vous d’autres éléments à la liste ? Les commentaires vous attendent, même si il est vrai que le débat s’est lui aussi déplacé, des forums et des blogs vers les Facebook et Twitter (et en se déplaçant il a changé de nature également). @FiorenzaMella

Most companies have it all wrong. They don't have to motivate their employees. They have to stop demotivating them. The great majority of employees are quite enthusiastic when they start a new job. But in about 85 percent of companies, our research finds, employees' morale sharply declines after their first six months—and continues to deteriorate for years afterward. That finding is based on surveys of about 1.2 million employees at 52 primarily Fortune 1000 companies from 2001 through 2004, conducted by Sirota Survey Intelligence (Purchase, New York). The fault lies squarely at the feet of management—both the policies and procedures companies employ in managing their workforces and in the relationships that individual managers establish with their direct reports. Our research shows how individual managers' behaviors and styles are contributing to the problem (see sidebar "How Management Demotivates")—and what they can do to turn this around. @FiorenzaMe...

Night: from time immemorial, it has been a human fascination. From ancient moon worship to art, music and literature references throughout the ages. From historical celestial calendaring and mathematics, to men walking on the moon, there are innumerable interesting things that are associated with the night @FiorenzaMella

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The English language is in a constant state of flux. New words are formed and old ones fall into disuse. But no trend has been more obtrusive in recent years than the changing of nouns into verbs. “Trend” itself (now used as a verb meaning “change or develop in a general direction”, as in “unemployment has been trending upwards”) is further evidence of—sorry, evidences—this phenomenon. @FiorenzaMella

Ever wonder how musicians manage to play in unison? Credit their brain waves: they synchronize before and while musicians play a composition, according to new research. @FiorenzaMella

Enchanted! @FiorenzaMella

Brilliant set of interactive vocabulary games. Digital Dialects. @FiorenzaMella

Avec un savoir-faire hors du commun, cet artiste plasticien a réussi à recréer des mots en 3D qui sortent littéralement des pages d'un livre. @FiorenzaMella

A list of suggestions to think about.. @FiorenzaMella

Amzing, original, intense @FiorenzaMella

A way to get some visual and emotional rest @FiorenzaMella

He can grasp profound moments of intense beauty. Life epiphanies. @FiorenzaMella

When Bauty is not ashamed

What I like best as an artist is this never ending freedom and urge to surprise myself. To not rely on things I already know but to keep searching, trying, failing and wondering. To me, painting is the best way to communicate with the world around me. Communicating with my surroundings is essential to me. I’ve tried it with words, either spoken or written, in several jobs over the last 25 years. As a teacher, a consultant, a manager. To me, the meaning or intention of a certain message was always clear. But, as is normal in language, it turned out the receiver just remembered a small or insignificant part of that message, or interpreted it completely different, or even disagreed! This frustrated me immensely every now and again. It led to miscommunication and loss of energy. @FiorenzaMella