Sun, 01 Feb 2009: Common Sense

Category: General

If you were dirt-poor and had no job, would you get “free gas” from a leaking tank truck?  That’s what people tried to do this weekend …

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Thu, 18 Dec 2008: TANSTAAFL

Category: General

Were you offered a free iPod or other in-demand item for merely clicking a link?  Heinlein says, “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch,” but I decided to see how much I could find out without actually getting stung.  I did not get stung, and I will pass on what I found …

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Wed, 26 Nov 2008: Race doesn’t Matter

Many will tell us that race doesn’t matter.  Wayne Joseph thinks it does matter: “I see their point, but race does matter, especially with things like medical research ?,?

What do I think? ?

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Mon, 01 Sep 2008: Thinking It Through

While mowing the lawn, I noticed that my socks were getting all twisted around. that’s odd?I wonder why. ?

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Fri, 29 Jun 2007: I have to admit, it’s cool

Has absolutely nothing to do with Language or Learning, but it does look cool:

http://www.engadget.com/gallery/
iphone-first-hands-on-and-unboxing/293799/

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Is being “unable to see the forest for the trees? a handicap?  Or is it part of a normal personality?

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Wed, 29 Nov 2006: Biting the Fan that Reads You

It seems I have been banned from commenting on Pat Barrett’s words of wisdom.  No, Pat is not practicing censorship?it seems the spam-bot somehow sees some similarity between my comments and the 200+ advertisements that a few freeloaders are attempting to post here.  The irony is that I installed and trained this robot!

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Mon, 06 Nov 2006: Aw, it Ain’t Important ?

?I want to do everything? but of course you can’t do everything. (But wouldn’t it be fun to paint the White House yellow?)

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Fri, 27 Oct 2006: Recognize these?

Can you translate this French excerpt (audio)? Is “translate? the right word? If you need the text to follow along, “read more.?

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In his recent ?skills? article, Pat Barrett said

? Krashen’s distinction between learning and acquiring where the monitor is used with learned material and therefore available only in slow, deliberate writing and speech, not spontaneous language usage.

The BIG QUESTION is: can learned material be transformed into acquired material without going through the acquisition process?

The answer to the BIG QUESTION depends on definition and interpretation.

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