German multimedia producer, Oliver Radtke is on a mission to save Chinglish. He first discovered the odd and wonderful world of Chinglish in 2000 in a Shanghai cab, where he saw a curious sign reading: "Don't forget to carry your thing." Nine years later, he has written two popular books on the subject, and is […]
Gourmet Water? Originally uploaded by waɪ.tiː A gourmet is a person who knows a lot about food and cooking, and who enjoys eating high-quality food. Not to be confused with a gourmand, which describes a person who enjoys eating large amounts of food. How water can be a gourmet is anyone's guess.
Scientists at the University of Reading have used a supercomputer called ThamesBlue to model the evolution of words in English over the last 30,000 years. The results suggest that the oldest words were "I" and "who", which have been in use for at least 10,000 years. The most commonly used words included the numbers 'two', […]
"Rome wasn't built in a day" is something that you say which means that it takes a long time to do an important job. This photo shows the Coliseum in Rome. Original photo by Eustaquio Santimano
Mourning sickness is a collective emotional condition of "recreational grieving" by individuals at the death of murder victims or celebrities. It's a play on the term "morning sickness", a condition that affects more than half of all pregnant women. Some critics have described the public displays of mourning as "phony" and more for the benefit […]