The truth about Michael Jackson's death

Was he murdered, or did he die a natural death? Or was it an unfortunate overdose? Was he gay (talk about opportunist!)? Was he healthy enough to perform or was he going to have to call off all those concerts anyway? Are really they planning a future Jackson 3 with his children?

Read all the theories here.

Or maybe he's still alive?

Add your own theory in the comments, if you have one. :)

Hunch

Mónica (from ex-4S) has sent me the link to this page: Hunch.com

Firstly, you should know that "hunch" means "presentimiento", "corazonada".

This page asks you some questions about your preferences, and based on your answers it suggests other things that you may also like.

It introduces itself like this:

Hunch is a decision-making tool, built by its users. In ten questions or fewer, Hunch gives you its best hunch of what you would like. Read the FAQ for help, post to the forums for questions or suggestions, and let us know how we can make Hunch help you. We're glad you're here.
Now go make some decisions!

Last night I was playing around with it and answering questions, and after I'd finished 20, I decided to see what British comedy shows it recommended for me.

And surprise surprise: its first recommendation was precisely my absolute favourite series (Peep Show). Incredible! So I decided to create an account so that it can keep my results and give me more recommendations.

Not all the questions are interesting, and some don't really need much research. For example the answer to "Which Tom Hanks movie should I watch?" is obviously "why on earth would anyone want to watch a Tom Hanks movie?". But there are others that will probably spark your curiosity. Eg:

Should I cheat on my spouse?
Which kitchen knife should I get?
Which foreign language should I learn? (Maybe a bit late for that one)
Which philosopher should I read?

Etc.


Well, thanks Mónica!

How many tapeworms could live in your stomach?

This is the kind of silly information we didn't know we needed before the internet.

How many tapeworms could live in your stomach? Do the mini-quiz:

Created by The Oatmeal

The Eyeballing Game

Test your feeling for geometric accuracy in this game, helpful for construction workers, but fun for anyone.

Instructions

The Eyeballing Game

You are not alone

I was particularly pleased to read the other day that the Tiger Mosquito has finally reached Lloret de Mar (Somebody I dislike lives there, and that person doesn't like the Garraf area), but I hadn't realised that this pest had managed to travel so far.



Helicopters blasting insecticide used to tackle mosquito threat to Britain.








A Tiger mosquito kissing somebody. Probably.

I can't believe it!

Nobody has noticed that I've added lots of links and grouped them for your convenience.

It took f****** AGES!!

Buáaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

It could happen to anyone, I suppose

Boy, 8, saves sister and drunk adults from fire

WARSAW, Poland – Police in Poland say an 8-year-old boy saved his sister and three drunk adults from a fire by calling police and ... (read more)


What a clever kid! Can you imagine!? Would your children have or have had the presence of mind to act so responsibly? Maybe he was used to it? It's kind of worrying, really.

Acrostic poem

In the mood for a poem?

Here you have a simple guideline for an acrostic holiday poem: http://www.abcteach.com/free/a/acrostic_vacation.pdf

I've done mine:





Luckily, modern poems don't have to rhyme.

(Ok, admittedly I did it in less than five minutes).

Looking forward to reading yours in the "comments", mainly Alicia, Mónica, Desi and Elisabeth, of course, but maybe there's someone else out there with a poetic streak in them, who knows? I hope so!

Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

I know this isn't free: you either have to suscribe or buy the programme, but you have a (very) limited amount of tries. For those of you who enjoy learning new vocabulary, even though classes have finished.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Urban dictionary

A friend sent me this link: http://www.urbandictionary.com/

It's a dictionary of (very) contemporary slang (American) terms, and a lot of them are funny.

A little bit difficult, though: YOU ARE WARNED.


Today's Word of the Day is "chronoptimist", defined as:

A person who always underestimates the time necessary to do something or get somewhere.

Eg:

"Hey, Cindy. you know my parents are expecting us in 20 minutes."

"No problem. I just have to wash the dishes, take a shower, do my hair, walk the dog and then I'm all good to go. See you in 15."

"You are such a chronoptimist! I'll see you in 45."

Come to think about it, teachers are kind of chronoptimists really: you think you've got pleeeeenty of time to finish the book before May AND do lots of revision, then things happen and bla bla bla...

News in slow English

Somebody recommended me this page: News in slow English.

It's not updated very regularly, and some things I tried didn't work, but it has some interesting parts.

Good dog!

Do our dogs really love us?

If I were this dog's owner, I might not be too sure.

Dog plays fetch with live grenade in Germany

Yes, at last!

German newspaper Bild yesterday replaced its usual topless girl model on the cover for hunky US actor Zac Efron.

Read about it: Move over page-one girl, here comes German 'Bild' boy

Progress?

And now excuse me while I try to find visual evidence for this piece of news.

Discrimination against nude gardeners

Really, some people worry about the weirdest things! :D

Gardening nudists claim landlord discrimination

Beware of British Tourists this summer...

They say "drink is the curse of the working classes", and Oscar Wilde said "work is the curse of the drinking classes", but what happens when the "drinking classes" are out of work?

Drink more, of course!

So just when you thought the British drank enough already, the crisis is in fact proving the opposite.

Read more about it here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/warning-as-redundancy-britons-drinking-more-1701327.html