Life Imitates Movies

It's not quite the same story as the movie "Slumdog Millionaire", but computer operator Sushil Kumar has gone from "rags-to-rajah" on the real-life Indian version of the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" game show, a Hindi-language program called Kaun Banega Crorepati.

The host of the show is Amitabh Bachchan - the very same movie star whose autograph young Jamal wanted so badly in the movie!

Happy 150th Birthday, Fridtjof Nansen!

Here's a version of his story your history teacher didn't tell you....

A wonderful (long!) video about language

Language is a fascinating thing. It is part of what makes us human. It is one of the most complicated and important things our brains do, but we know little about it. Here is a video from the BBC, narrated by Stephen Fry, that talks about what we know and what we only wonder about.

Have a great vacation! Get some rest, and we'll start classes as usual after the break.

The Little Red Hen and Donald Duck

You may have grown up reading Donald Duck comic books. (Maybe you still do - many adults in Norway do....) But did you know he was first introduced in a cartoon? The cartoon was called "The Wise Little Hen" and was a retelling of "The Little Red Hen", one of the first stories in the Tracks 1 book. This cartoon is from the 1930s - the animation and even the music look very strange to us today.

50 State Stereotypes (in 2 minutes)

Samoa skips a day

The tiny island nation of Samoa(which used to be called Western Samoa) sits very close to the International Date Line, the imaginary line that divides Monday on the western side from Sunday on the east. Samoa currently sits on the eastern side of the line. Now the government has decided that Samoa will move to the western side of the line. This is because Samoa mostly does business with Australia and New Zealand to the west, and not so much with the countries to the east. The islands, of course, will not move, just the imaginary line on the map.

It's Star Wars Day!

May the Fourth be with you!

(It's a very bad pun, I know.)