Who needs a real, living being in a computer?

How do you rate this gaming experience? Disturbing, creepy, funny, siniter?

Peter Molyneux demos Milo, the virtual boy | Video on TED.com

Until having watched the video I'd given little attention to this type of computer technology. A quick surf of the internet, and the result blew up my mind: at a click of the mouse I got a list of about 150 virtual reality sites: for the newbies, for the techies, for 7 year olds, for the artists etc. How many more? This, I'm not interested in. But a question is haunting me: What have they been created for? This is a good topic for an essay:
Virtual reality - a benefit to our society, or detrimental to those who use it?
If you have little experience in writing an essay, go to:
http://lexis4communication.blogspot.com/p/courses.html

Please share freely in the comments below. Did I miss anything important here?

The Skier | Listen & Watch | Learn

A story about the skier who practises skiing in the middle of the desert. Will his determination take him to the Winter Olympics?
READ, LISTEN, WATCH and DO THE TASKS. Don't forget to test yourself!

The Skier | Listen & Watch | Learn

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS CRAZY! (4 )

This post is about words. An average native speaker knows thousands of words. A language student memorizes just a few new words on a daily basis. But the process can become smoother and faster if you understand the inner structure of complex words.

Enjoy your own analyses of word-formation in English:

Deriving adjectives from nouns and verbs
-able = fit for doing, fit for being done (comfortable)
-al (-ial, -ical, -ual) = having the property of (facial)
-an, -ian = belonging to, resembling (reptilian)
-ary = having a tendency or purpose (secondary)
-ate = full of (passionate)
-ese = belonging to a place (Chinese)
More: -esque, -ful,- ish,- less, -some, etc.

Forming abstract nouns
-asy, -acy “state or quality” ecstasy
-age “condition, state, rank, office of” coinage, postage
-ance, -ence “state, act, fact of” emergence
More: -ade,- al,- ation,- ery,- ry,- hood, ism –ity, -ment, -ness, -ship, etc.

Forming nouns
-ant, -ent = one who (agent, servant)
-arian = member of (authoritarian, amphibian)
More: -ast, -er, -ist, -ician, etc.

Forming verbs from roots and stems
-ate = cause X to happen (terminate, suffocate)
-en = to become (liken, darken, lessen)
More: -ify, -ize

Miscellaneous suffixes
-arium = locative, a place for of connected with (aquarium, planetarium)
-ess = feminine of X (tigress, actress)
-let = diminutive of X (booklet, starlet)

Do more exercises with Oxford Builder Plus: http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/olg/contents/b_exercises/wordendings01/

Men's Brain vs. Women's Brain

Men and women are different, everybody knows that.
Are there differences between the brains of males and females? Definitely, yes. But what di these differences mean? Are they the reasons for many of our behaviours?
Scientists have the answers to these questions, but they might be long, boring, maybe too technical.
Unlike them, Mark Gungor - comedian, director and speaker - makes this topic less serious.

 NOTE: You can add captions to this video using Transcribe audio which is an experimental service Google provides. Play the video, click the red arrow (bottom right hand corner) and then the CC icon. The transcript is not very accurate.

157 of the Most Useful Websites on the Internet | The Social Media Guide

157 of the Most Useful Websites on the Internet | The Social Media Guide