Something insignificant is sometimes said to be worth "a pinch of salt." On the other hand, people of impeccable integrity are often called, "the salt of the earth." Salt is now among the most common substances on earth, although once it was rarer and more valuable than gold. Paul Kennedy considers the incredible history, science and mythology of salt.
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Tagged with “science”
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Salt - Part One
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Signing, Singing, Speaking: How Language Evolved : NPR
Humans evolved a brain with an extraordinary knack for language, but just how and when we began using language is still largely a mystery. Early human communication may have been in sign language or song, and scientists are studying other animals to learn how human language evolved.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129155123
Tagged with language evolution communication science linguistics culture
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Lera Boroditsky: How Language Shapes Thought — The Long Now
Languages are Parallel Universes
"To have a second language is to have a second soul," said Charlemagne around 800 AD. "Each language has its own cognitive toolkit," said psychologist/linguist Lera Boroditsky in 2010 AD.
Different languages handle verbs, distinctions, gender, time, space, metaphor, and agency differently, and those differences, her research shows, make people think and act differently.
http://longnow.org/seminars/02010/oct/26/how-language-shapes-thought/
Tagged with language linguistics cognitive science long now
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Space elevators, black holes and time travel
The science of space, with Dr Alastair Reynolds. Plus: how does broadband go faster?; why can’t nuclear waste be shot in to the Sun?; and what happens when black holes merge?
Tagged with dr karl science astrophysics space book:author=alastair reynolds
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NPR: Shakespeare Had Roses All Wrong
From NPR Science Correspondent Robert Krulwich: Through Juliet’s lips, Shakespeare said "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But the Bard may have been wrong — names do matter. Language researchers say your sense of the rose depends on what you call it.
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Alastair Reynolds interview
An interview with Alastair Reynolds, author of Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap and more.
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Michael Shermer on why people believe weird things
Editor of Skeptic Magazine, Michael Shermer, delivers an entertaining lecture on his book Why People Believe Weird Things.
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The Sledgemaker’s Daughter by Alastair Reynolds
The setting is the River Tyne in the North East of England, a few centuries hence, when many years of cold weather is gradually being replaced by a warmer weather. This is bad for the sledge-maker, as we follow his young daughter as she makes a long journey on foot along the river to deliver two hogs heads to an old woman reputed to be a witch.
Tagged with science fiction sci-fi book:author=alastair reynolds
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Scales by Alastair Reynolds
Fresh from signing a £1m deal with Gollancz, the science fiction author Alastair Reynolds has penned a story for the Guardian which follows a new recruit sent out to battle in an interstellar war.
Nineteen years after his first short story appeared, and nine years after the first of his eight novels was published, Scales is Reynolds’ first foray into militaristic SF. In it, he explores the transformations war imposes on soldiers as his hero Nico’s mission evolves into something stranger than he could have possibly imagined.
Reynolds is best-known for his mastery of space opera – the SF sub-genre in which the stakes are high and the aliens deadly – but, after 16 years working for the European Space Agency, he brings a scientist’s rigour to the genre’s high drama.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2009/jun/19/alastair-reynolds-scales-short-story
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Hyperion
The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas, Show 1.
"As was discussed earlier, I have had problems over the years trying to understand why there was so much hype about Dan Simmons’ Hyperion being such an outstanding novel, so I figured that’d be a good topic for a first show."
From http://www.kickassmysticninjas.com/2005/10/16/show-1-hyperion/
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