Interview on NPR with David Crystal on "English in 100 Words"

Very interesting talk with Cambridge professor David Crystal on the history of the English language.

April Fool's!

Here is a good round-up of pranks you can find on the web and in newspapers today.

Google Nose:




Google Maps Treasure Mode:



Virgin Air Glass-Bottomed Planes:



Twitter Charging for Vowels

Bacon Mouth Wash:





Here are some more:

From "The Guardian"...

From PocketLint.com...

"How to Change the World"

Kristopher Bronner

Kris is a co-creator of UNREAL™ Brands, a mission-based company dedicated to proving that junk food, a leading contributor to the diabetes and obesity epidemic, can be "unjunked." This past summer, UNREAL™ launched with five reinvented versions of America's favorite candies in 25,000 stores nationwide. These candies are sold side by side with the originals, cost the same, and we think tastes as good. They also have zero junk and up to forty percent less sugar. Bill Gates, Matt Damon, Gisele Bündchen, Tom Brady and Jack Dorsey are among the many who have shared their excitement for the change UNREAL™ will create in the world. A recent WSJ article compared UNREAL™'s innovations to Apple's and Ford's, and Fast Company named UNREAL™ one of its top food stories of the year. According to Kris, UNREAL™ fulfills its mission when other companies are inspired to "unjunk the world."

Kris is 18 years old and is also the innovator of the world’s first levitating food. He loves science, technology and food, and passionately believes that entrepreneurship is the medium through which change is most influentially applied. Kris is up for adventures of all kinds, having climbed Kilimanjaro, played tennis in Antarctica, and skydived in NZ.

(Copied from the TEDxTeen program for their March 16, 2013 event in New York City).

Honor Codes—Could One Work at Our School? Why Would We Want One?

In the high school we'll be discussing how Honor Codes work in US schools and universities. What are they? Why do schools have them? Why do they work—or not? Here are some sources we will be using to inform our discussion:



There has been a scandal at Harvard University this past year, with 125 students accused of cheating on a final exam in a Government class—"Introduction to Congress." 75 students ended up being expelled for a year in this case.





We'll be looking at the following articles, including:

1. What does "Honor Code" mean? How do they work?

2.  A discussion of the Taft School Honor Code and Honor Council

3. Essays by students found guilty of violating Georgetown University's Honor Code

4. Why do foreign students have higher rates of cheating when studying at US universities and schools? 

5. What is plagiarism, why it's wrong, and how to avoid it.