Word of Mouth

The English language is remarkable for the richness of its vocabulary. The revised Oxford English Dictionary includes over 600,000 words, however English is the only language that has, or needs, a thesaurus. There are twice as many words in common use in English than in French. Nonetheless, sometimes English words fail us -- at least when it comes to love. Our guest has compiled an illuminating top-ten list of foreign words describing nuances of love and relationships.

In 1948, a plane crash in a remote Alaskan mountain range killed everyone on board …twenty-four merchant mariners returning to the US from Shanghai, and six Northwest Airlines crew members. The crash site was quickly covered by snow and eventually entombed in ice…where it remained until 1999. It was then that a pair of former US Airforce pilots turned their hobby of solving forgotten aviation mysteries into an investigation.

Contrary to the buy now messaging of the season, kids aren’t looking only for instant gratification. Take Lego.  In 2005, Lego Corporation came back from the brink by capitalizing on research showing  that kids are inspired by the difficulty and process of mastering a complicated model. So, rather than dumbing down to compete with the plug-in immediacy of video games, Lego ramped up the sophistication of its models.

However you celebrate the holidays, we are now in deep. Hannukah begins at sundown tonight. There are five more shopping days and umpteen things to do until christmas…the holiday parties, the food shopping, the secret santa gifts, school plays and pick-ups. Time seems to compress as our wish to enjoy each other in this dark season expands.

Over the weekend, the Senate overwhelmingly approved extending the payroll tax cut for two months...but before earners could count their thousand-dollar chickens, house speaker Boehner announced the extension would be DOA at the House, sparking a fierce public debate on a week better known for empty halls on Capitol Hill. But with all the kerfluffle over the payroll tax, there are a number of smaller, targeted tax cuts set to expire this year you probably haven't heard about.

South Korean troops are on high alert today after the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong iI. Kim’s chosen successor and third son, Kim Jong Un, now becomes the figurehead of an exalted dynasty that is revered by the citizens, despite a dismal quality of life inside of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea or D.P.N.K.

Awesomator Brady Carlson runs down his top ten awesomest online moments of the year.  

Raj Patel, Sherry Turkle, Bruce Levine, Tyler Cowen and Eliza Griswold...oh, my! We smack a big red bow on our 11 for '11 series of conversations with big thinkers, analyze their predictive powers, and talk about their spheres of influence.  How  

We also look at some folks who, in retrospect, should have made the list, like leading edge tweeter Evan Hill, and music critic and retro-downer Simon Reynolds. 

Part 1: Auto Paparazzi

Back in the mid-2000's, peer to peer lending web sites like Prosper and Lending Club bet that ordinary people could take the place of banks. The business model was both daring and consistent with the hyper-connected internet culture. The idea was that people who needed loans could connect with investors willing to bet on getting paid back with a little interest. Prosper’s faith in crowd-sourcing replacing traditional risk-assessment tools used by banks turned out to be a mistake.

The CEO of Reppify, a start up offering employers a new way to measure prospective employees by their use of social media, explains why "Klout" is what it's all about.   

The Golden Globe nominations were announced earlier today, with usual suspects Meryl Streep and George Clooney making the grade along with newcomers Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling getting nods for acting. Award nominations generally have some surprises for Hollywood, but the industry doesn’t always heed the message. As we approach the 2011 best-of-extravaganzas, Word of Mouth is asking two of our favorite movie critics to review some of the things Hollywood has learned.

If there are gamers in your family, their Christmas lists probably include a new title or two, or maybe a shiny new HD or even 3D video game system. As with all things in pop culture, games are subject to their own trends, some are blockbusters, some bomb, and others inspire franchises and copycats. Here to tell us what’s hot in video games now, and what could be coming down the pipe is Clay Wirestone. He’s an avid gamer and freelance writer who has written for Mental Floss Magazine. He’s also the arts editor for the Concord Monitor.

We’ve heard the stories of farm family underdogs pitched against profit-hungry developers or deep- pocketed corporations. This story of a land dispute in Canterbury New Hampshire defies the good guy versus bad guy model. The players in this conflict are two well-liked farm families. One has been farming in town for hundreds of years, and currently runs a dairy farm. The other family is not native, farms organically, and has corporate backing.