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This plugin for Firefox and Chrome is cross-platform... Mac and Windows and it's free.

Among other sites you can watch BBC4  and the latest episodes of Big Bang, Homeland, HIMYM etc... and there are also English subtitles!

Happy holidays! See you next year!

james

Boyd Varty: What I learned from Nelson Mandela | Video on TED.com

Here you have the real meaning of Ubuntu, which I'm sure we've all heard of... This is also an interesting take on life in South Africa and Nelson Mandela...
Please prepare a few questions for Denis Hirson, maybe one or two about the short story and one or two about South Africa today (and then).
See you on Friday... Last class before the New Year!  You're welcome to bring food or drink...
See you in F551. We've also invited Sophie's students to join us.

(If you watch this... please leave a comment on the blog... or am I "peeing in a violin"?)

Oh, and happy new year!

Boyd Varty: What I learned from Nelson Mandela | Video on TED.com

Denis Hirson. Poetry Readings. 2013 - YouTube

Denis Hirson. Poetry Readings. 2013 - YouTube: "Denis Hirson. Poetry Readings. 2013"

Denis will be our guest in our last class before the holidays...  Here he is reading some of his poetry.

You should think of one or two questions to ask him.... perhaps about the short story we read today, or perhaps more general questions about South Africa.

TGIF

james

'via Blog this'

Alisa Miller: The news about the news | Video on TED.com

Alisa Miller: The news about the news | Video on TED.com:

This report is from the same period.... about 5 years ago. Is the US an isolated country? A cultural island? This might explain why....  Comments are welcome. (Very welcome... click back to the blog to leave them.)

"Alisa Miller, head of Public Radio International, talks about why -- though we want to know more about the world than ever -- the US media is actually showing less. Eye-opening stats and graphs."

'via Blog this'

Hope they had bad luck interviewing the wrong people...

I hope we can find something similar with french people, or that they really had bad luck asking the wrong questions to the wrong people.

▶ What are the secrets of a great WikiTalk? Phil Waknell - WikiStage ESCP Europe - YouTube

▶ What are the secrets of a great WikiTalk? Phil Waknell - WikiStage ESCP Europe - YouTube:

You might enjoy this talk about giving talks!
What do you think? How about a comment?

(BTW he's slated to speak this coming Sunday at the WikiStage event at the ENCP.
Are you going to buy a ticket and go? I might see you there!)

(Don't forget the debate on Thursday at lunchtime!)

all the best
james






'via Blog this'

The Day after Thanksgiving (Le jour après Merci-Donnant)

With Thanksgiving (happy families meeting in peace around a nice dinner) comes what is known as THE BLACK FRIDAY.
This day is the one where you will get the best rewards on tons of items in shop centers like costco or walmart.
Look at what happens every year in all of these shop centers.

http://gawker.com/the-best-walmart-thanksgiving-day-fight-videos-1473555155?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

this is how you recognise you're in America.

Movies in Real Life | Improv Everywhere

Improv Everywhere | We Cause Scenes:

(Second try!  the first post went to last year's blog! sorry! this one is our blog!)

An interesting aspect of American street theater!  Do you know their shopping mall sketch? It's one of my favorites...


"Improv Everywhere is a New York City-based prank collective that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 100 missions involving tens of thousands of undercover agents."

How about contributing something to the blog! (And leaving a comment!)
see you later

james


'via Blog this'

The 5 Most Annoying Facebook Posts About Being Engaged

The 5 most annoying Posts about being engaged

I was doubtful when i read this article.
At first, i thought it was hilarious, and so true!But then i belived that the cynicism of the author is kind of sad.
Bitter much?

Folklore.org: Macintosh Stories -- interesting reading...

Folklore.org: Macintosh Stories: The Original Macintosh
Anecdotes about the development of Apple's original Macintosh computer, and the people who created it. (119 stories)

Since I hope that some of you can still register for Daniel Kottke's talk at school on November 6th (at 6 pm)... I thought it might be nice to let you read some of the inside stories of the Macintosh project!
Kottke was one of Apple engineers who worked with Steve Jobs and others... on the Apple 2 and on the Mac. He went to India with Steve Jobs (in the days before Apple) and even, I believe, was one of Apple's first employees!

See you later....  and..
Have a good weekend.
james

ps... comments?

Welcome!

Welcome to this shared webspace for our Cross-Cultural Connections Class on Fridays!
Here's where each of you can contribute interesting videos and websites in English to share with the rest of the group as well as your partners at Yale and later at Smith.  

(BTW: Other members of the group should naturally comment on the articles that are posted.... otherwise it's like "peeing in a fiddle!" for the poster.)

We'll add a link to the notes of our classes on the blog, with the expressions and any vocabulary we discover... it'll be a shared Google document so again each of us can edit and add to it.  Of couse you can add links to other documents, to photos or videos as well as blurbs & critiques about the books you're reading.

After accepting the invitation each member of the class will be made an admin which of course gives you (almost) unlimited power! You should each get two invites... since I used both addresses... You only have to accept one!

See you soon
james 

(Don't forget Daniel Kottke who is speaking at school on Nov 6th... you have to register...)
PS: posts to the blog go to the mailing list so we get updates in our email....  :-)