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.

Simple Acts of Kindness

As the holidays approach, we're going to look at the following videos and discuss "Random Acts of Kindness." We'll start off by hearing about how last year there were a slew of "Layaway Angels" in America, paying off store bills for strangers who couldn't afford to purchase the toys they hoped to give their children for Christmas.





We'll then look at the following video which shows how five different people performed random acts of kindness, discussing what these specific acts were, and why we think the people who did them chose to do so. We'll also talk about the effects of their acts on others—not just on those who received unexpected kindness, but also on those who witnessed it or heard about it later.

Lastly, we'll think about doing kindness for strangers in general, brainstorming all the ways that we could do this ourselves in our daily lives. Are there any differences between performing such acts in the United States or in Russia?

***Added on two weeks later***

I just came across this video for Noah and the Whale's "Give a Little Love." This really nails how doing one kind thing for a stranger can have a domino effect all over a city, state or nation!

Really Annoying Common Grammar Mistakes

Top 20 Grammar Pet Peeves!
Check out this great photo/grammar presentation... Today is National Punctuation Day in the United States!

Quiz: Top 10 Spelling Mistakes
May you NEVER make any of these...

Grammar Paragraph Pet Peeve Quiz
This one is HARD! Can you find the ten most common mistakes people make in one short paragraph?

Cooking Club: Jamie Oliver Recipes!

Cooking Club! This past Friday it was JAMIE OLIVER night! We made these favorite recipes :-)

greek salad

servings

4

ingredients

• 1 medium ripe tomato

• 200g ripe cherry tomatoes

• 1 beef tomato

• 1 medium red onion, peeled

• 1 cucumber

• 1 green pepper

• a handful of fresh dill

• a handful of fresh mint leaves

• a large handful of black

olives, stoned

• sea salt

• 1 tablespoon red

wine vinegar

• 3 tablespoons good-quality

Greek extra virgin olive oil

• 200g block of feta cheese

•1 teaspoon dried oregano

method

This salad is known and loved around the world. Those of you who’ve been lucky enough to eat this salad in Greece will know that when it’s made well it’s absolute heaven. Hopefully this recipe will help you achieve the big bold authentic flavours that it's known for. The trick is to pay attention to the small details that make it so wonderful: things like finding the ripest tomatoes, good Greek olive oil, beautiful olives, creamy feta and lovely herbs.

I think it’s quite nice to have different shapes and sizes in a salad, so cut your medium tomato into wedges, halve the cherry tomatoes and slice the beef tomato into large rounds. Put all the tomatoes into a large salad bowl. Slice the onion very finely so it’s wafer thin and add to the tomatoes. Scratch a fork down the sides of the cucumber so it leaves deep grooves in the skin, then cut it into thick slices. Deseed your pepper, slice it into rings and add them to the salad along with the cucumber.

Roughly chop the dill and most of the mint leaves, reserving the smaller ones for garnish. Add the chopped herbs to the bowl of salad, then squeeze your handful of olives over so they season the vegetables, then drop them in.

Add a pinch of salt, the vinegar and the extra virgin olive oil. Quickly toss everything together with your hands. The minute all those flavours start working with the veg is when the magic starts to happen. Have a taste, and adjust the flavours if need be.

To serve, pop the block of feta right on the top of the salad. Sprinkle the oregano over the top along with the reserved mint leaves, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and take it straight to the table. It’s confident and scruffy with a bit of attitude. Delicious.

P.S. I’ve been known to pop leftover Greek salad into a liquidizer with a splash of extra virgin olive oil and a few ice cubes, then blitz it up to a smooth consistency so it's basically a Greek gazpacho. It’s not a classic thing to do, but it is very delicious, not to mention a great way of using up leftovers!

chicken tikka masala

servings

4

ingredients

• ½ fresh red chilli, deseeded

• 1 clove of garlic, peeled

• 15g fresh ginger

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

• a pinch of paprika

• ½ tablespoon garam masala

• a teaspoon of tomato puree

• 3 sprigs of fresh coriander, leaves picked and chopped, stalks reserved

• 400g chicken breast, preferably free-range or organic, diced into 2.5cm pieces

• 1 small onion, peeled and sliced

• ½ red pepper, deseeded and sliced

• ½ green pepper, deseeded and sliced

• a pinch of ground cinnamon

• a pinch of ground coriander

• a pinch of turmeric

• 1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes

• 100ml plain yoghurt

• 100ml double cream

method

(Note: the marinade will need to be prepared the day before so the chicken can marinate overnight.)

For the marinade

Blitz the chilli, garlic, ginger and vegetable oil in the food processor. Add the paprika, garam masala and tomato puree, plus the coriander stalks, and blitz again to form a paste. Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl, coat them with the marinade and leave in the fridge overnight.

The next day…

In a little vegetable oil, on a medium heat, fry the onion, peppers and spices in a large saucepan. Cook gently for 10 minutes then add the tin of tomatoes and the yoghurt. Add the chicken pieces and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked. Just before serving, stir through the double cream and chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with fluffy boiled rice and a mixed leaf salad.

eton mess

ingredients

For the meringue:

• 6 large free-range egg whites
• 300g caster sugar
• A pinch of sea salt

For the fruit and cream:

• 565ml Jersey cream
• 1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways and seeds scraped out
• 2 heaped tablespoons caster sugar
• 250g mixed-color strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 250g mixed-color raspberries
• A good splash of Pimms
• 1 teaspoon good-quality balsamic vinegar
• Optional: a handful of flaked almonds, toasted

method

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Put the egg whites into a bowl, making sure there are absolutely no little pieces of shell or yolk in them. Whisk with an electric hand whisk or freestanding whisk on a medium setting until they form firm peaks. You’ll know that it’s thick enough if you can hold the bowl upside down over your head!

With your mixer still running, gradually add the sugar and salt. Turn the whisk up to the highest setting for about 7 or 8 minutes, or until the meringue mixture is deliciously white and glossy. Dip your finger in the meringue and rub the mixture between your thumb and index finger. It should feel perfectly smooth. If it feels at all grainy, whisk for a little bit longer. Keep a close eye on the meringue, because if you whisk it for too long, it will collapse.

Spoon dollops of the meringue on to the prepared baking tray — you’ll get about 6 to 8 meringues from this amount — leaving a bit of space between them. Dab them with the bottom of your spoon so you get wispy bits coming up from the surface of the meringue. Pop the baking tray into the oven for around 1 hour, or until the meringues are crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. Leave to cool.

Meanwhile, whip the Jersey cream with the vanilla seeds and 1 tablespoon of sugar until you have soft peaks. In a bowl, mash half the strawberries and half the raspberries with the rest of the sugar and the balsamic vinegar. Pop both bowls in the fridge until your meringues have cooled down.

You can serve Eton mess on a large platter on in individual glasses. To assemble, break up your meringues into a bowl — you can crush some of the bits into powder, leaving other bits chunky. Ripple the cream and mushed-up fruit together, then sprinkle in the rest of the fruit and fold again. Layer your crushed meringues and fruity cream onto your serving platter or in glasses, then sprinkle with the toasted almonds, if using. Serve right away.

Serving

If you want to make it look extra special, serve it in individual glasses.

Serving Size

Makes 12 servings