Book Review: What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Tom G. Palmer SOURCE: The Cato Institute

As Milton Friedman (who Sandel dismisses without engaging) once noted, “no one who buys bread knows whether the wheat from which it is made was grown by a Communist or a Republican, by a constitutionalist or a Fascist, or, for that matter, by a Negro or a white.

New Rule: Make the Mall Great Again | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Saudi Arabia's wants to build a 105-mile-long 'Line' city in the desert By Stephanie Pappas FROM Live Science

1982 THROWBACK: "VALLEY GIRLS" from CBS News and Hezakya Newz & Films

Language Dossier gives lots of examples of Valspeak, most of which have faded away. But at least three annoying variations have made it around the world, unfortunately also to Taipei:

1. totally            2. like            3. so  

 

Listen to a CBS News clip interviewing some Valley Girls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIOocUQkfzk

Report On Donald Trump Taxes Begs The Question: Who Is Paying Trump? | The Last Word | MSNBC

How Social Media Have Changed Campus Climate by Ilana Redstone and John Villasenor FROM reason.com

David R. Williams · TEDMED 2016 How racism makes us sick FROM TED Talk

 

 

Perhaps it applies to Taiwanese as well: The Everyday Discrimination Scale

Egypt to give Saudi Arabia two Red Sea islands FROM Al Jazeera

7 Tips to Know If You're Boring Someone by Gretchen Rubin FROM Psychology Today

"We are always bored by those whom we bore.” - La Rochefoucauld

 

 

howjsay.com (words pronounced)

A free online Talking Dictionary of English Pronunciation [British English] by Tim Bowyer

Annoying Words By MICHAEL HILL FROM Associated Press

Whatever!

"The popular slacker term of indifference was found 'most annoying in conversation' by 47 percent of Americans surveyed in a Marist College poll released Wednesday."

Oxford Researchers List Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases By Charlotte Bailey FROM The Telegraph

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

The article mistakenly says that the word synergy began as office lingo. It was actually coined by the American sociologist Lester F. Ward (1841-193), though its meaning has changed. He coined lots of others too, but this is probably his most successful neologism.

Read more >> Options >>

How to think faster, better on your feet FROM CNN

Life coach Gail Blanke went to acting school to learn to improvise in any situation. Turns out the tricks that actors use on stage can help you score a date, land a job -- or just make any conversation more engaging.

There's no getting around it. We live in an unscripted world. You can rehearse in front of a mirror till the cows come home -- for that job interview, for that meeting where you're expected to speak, for the moment when you finally walk up to that very attractive guy at the gym and introduce yourself. But the minute there's another person involved, the script goes out the window. If you mean to make an impression, you have to be able to think on your feet, hurl yourself into the moment, and improvise.

How? Well, obviously, some people are simply naturals. To help the rest of us develop some techniques, I turned to the professionals.

Inogolo: English Pronunciation Guide to the Names of People, Places, and Stuff

What American accent do you have?

To most Americans, an accent is something that only other people have, those other people usually being in New York, Boston, and the South. And of those other people, half of the ones you meet will swear they "don't have an accent."

Well, strictly speaking, the only way to not have an accent is to not speak. If you're from anywhere in the USA you have an accent (which may or may not be the accent of the place you're from). Go through this short quiz and you'll find out just which accent that is.

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have

How to Pronounce -ed in English

The past simple tense and past participle of all regular verbs end in -ed. For example:

base verb (v1)	past simple (v2)	past participle (v3)
work	worked	worked

In addition, many adjectives are made from the past participle and so end in -ed. For example:

• I like painted furniture.

The question is: How do we pronounce the -ed?

The answer is: In 3 ways - / Id/ or / t/ or / d/

If the base verb ends in one of these sounds:		example base verb*:	example with -ed:	pronounce the -ed:	extra syllable?
unvoiced	/t/	want	wanted	/ Id/	yes
voiced	/d/	end	ended
unvoiced	/p/	hope	hoped	/ t/	no
	/f/	laugh	laughed
	/s/	fax	faxed
	/S/	wash	washed
	/tS/	watch	watched
	/k/	like	liked
voiced	all other sounds, for example...	play	played	/ d/
		allow	allowed
		beg	begged

* note that it is the sound that is important, not the letter or spelling. For example, "fax" ends in the letter "x" but the sound /s/; "like" ends in the letter "e" but the sound /k/.

Exceptions

The following -ed words used as adjectives are pronounced with /Id/:

aged blessed crooked

dogged learned naked

ragged wicked wretched

Amir Khan - The 'You know what I mean' interview

Don't sound like this guy by repeatedly saying "You know what I mean."

Some Suggestions for Speaking on the Phone

SOURCE: University of Florida, IFAS Extension
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/CD018

[Also] pay attention to your vocal quality , consisting of rate, pitch, volume, clarity, and tone . Is your voice rate too fast or too slow? The average speech rate is 140 words per minute. Fast talkers come across as untrustworthy or too busy to talk. Callers may think of slow talkers as mentally slow. Pitch is the highness or lowness of your voice. High-pitched talkers tend to grate on people's nerves, while low-pitched talkers sound mechanical, almost robotic. Volume is how loud or soft you talk. Loud people are perceived as brash, overbearing; soft speakers are seen as shy, wimpy. Clarity takes in how your words are understood. Do you articulate your words, or do you slur them together? A problem in the South is dropping end consonants ("droppin'" for "dropping") or mispronouncing some words ("git" for "get"). Lastly, tone is the expressiveness in your voice. It makes up 38 percent of the communication message, so make it count. Be expressive.

vocal quality: 聲音的品質
rate: 率
pitch: 高/低音
volume: 音量
clarity: 清晰
tone: 音調

Using the Phonetic Alphabet to Spell Words

Letter	Pronunciation	Letter	Pronunciation
A	Alpha (AL fah)	N	November (no VEM ber)
B	Bravo (BRAH VOH)	O	Oscar (OSS cah)
C	Charlie (CHAR lee)	P	Papa (pah PAH)
D	Delta (DELL tah)	Q	Quebec (keh BECK)
E	Echo (ECK oh)	R	Romeo (ROW me oh)
F	Foxtrot (FOKS trot)	S	Sierra (see AIR rah)
G	Golf (GOLF)	T	Tango (TANG go)
H	Hotel (hoh TELL)	U	Uniform (YOU nee form)
I	India (IN dee ah)	V	Victor (VIK tah)
J	Juliet (JEW lee ETT)	W	Whiskey (WISS key)
K	Kilo (KEY loh)	X	X Ray (ECKS RAY)
L	Lima (LEE mah)	Y	Yankee (YANG key)
M	Mike (MIKE)	Z	Zulu (ZOO loo)

The above table can be used to avoid misunderstandings when spelling words.
For example the name Smith would be spelled as follows:

S as in Sierra.
M as in Mike.
I as in India.
T as in Tango.
H as in Hotel.

If pilots feel this is a useful tool, ESL speakers shouldn't hesitate to use it when communicating important information. Americans also often use A as in Apple, S as in Susan, and others. The table is the more "official" guide.