5 Reasons Internet List Posts Drive Me Crazy
1) Ubiquity: Wherever your Internet journeys may take you, there they are — lists. Lists on everything from 11 Tips On Starting A Business to 17 Ways to Make the Best Blueberry Pancakes This Side Of Omaha. No Internet site worthy of its URL is without its fair share of list posts these days.
2) Nobody Has a First Mover Advantage: Being the first to establish a particular niche can be everything on the Internet. Internet lists are so generic that anybody can run them without the fear of being accused of ripping off someone’s else’s idea. (OK, this point doesn’t drive me crazy, but I thought I would mention it anyway.)
3) Some Weaker Points Are Clearly There Just to Fill the List: At least one and probably more of the items on the list are going to be obvious filler because – though a list post appeared to be a brilliant idea at first – the realization suddenly strikes you at about item #3 that you didn’t have enough material.
4) I Am No Darn Good at Writing Them: See point #3 and multiply it by however many points are on my list.
5) They Work: People love lists. I love lists. Whenever I see one, I am bound to click on it. I want lists! Give me lists!
Multilingual Books to Give Away $1 Million in Free Language Downloads to Libraries
Multilingual Books announced this week that it will give away 20,000 language courses, valued at $1 million, to libraries throughout the world.
All a library needs to do in order to take advantage of this offer is to contact Multilingual Books by phone (253 353 2761) or email.
Each library can receive up to $1,000 in downloads.
The downloads offered include the comprehensive Foreign Service Institute language courses, the popular Audio Libros Spanish Intermediate Readers, and the renowned Platiquemos Spanish Course.
“We are happy to announce this giveaway. We know how language demand is soaring for libraries, and also how strapped their budgets can be. This is an opportunity for us to help,” Kenneth Tomkins, president of Multilingual Books, said.
A 20-Kilogram Bronze Umbrella Is the Must-Have Fashion Accessory in Zagreb This Season
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Vandals in the Croatian capital managed to detach the umbrella Zagorka is carrying from the statue – for reasons which must only be known to them. Further, the umbrella is closed, so it won’t be of much use during the cold and wet Balkan winter.
According to reports, the statue weighs between 400 and 500 kilograms, so we are guessing (conservatively) the umbrella comes in at about 20 kg.
Zagorka, who penned some 35 books in the first half of the last century, is one of the most widely read writers in Croatia.
Happy New Year Spoken in 50 Languages by Native Speakers
As we are only conversant in a mere 40 languages we cannot vouch that each of the greetings in the accompanying video is pronounced perfectly and/or grammatically correct. And of course we don’t know that there are any native Latin speakers around these days.
Nevertheless, requests by our sister site, Simple English News, to embassies, culture houses, students, teachers, priests and rabbis have enabled this multilingual New Year’s greeting. A special thank you, from Arabic to Yiddish speakers, to all those who contributed.
We would like to wish our loyal reader(s) a happy, successful, productive and peaceful 2012.
A Guy Breaks Into a Bar … And Falls Asleep
The arrest of a 40-year-old man who broke into a public house last month in Ujkigyos, Hungary proved to be bereft of challenges.
According to a report on the BEOL website, the man, upon entering the drinking establishment in the southeast Hungarian town on October 19, poured himself a glass of vodka and a bottle of beer from the bar.
He then proceeded to fill a bag with a bottle of vodka and a beer.
As he was on his way to exit the bar, however, the man succumbed to a powerful attack of fatigue.
When the publican opened his premises the following morning, he found the man on the floor, straddled in the arms of Morpheus.
The local constabulary was promptly alerted, and the man – who had no previous criminal record – was placed on probation for one year.
