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I work in a psycholinguistics lab that studies, among other things, the effects of being bilingual on cognitive functions, both linguistic and non-linguistic. While we haven't ourselves studied this question, I expect that cursing in a nondominant language would be less effective at prolonging the amount of time someone was willing to hold their hand in cold water, based on research that shows that words in one's nondominant language evoke less of an emotional response than words in one's dominant language.

I can't remember which papers support that statement, but a Google search reveals (at least) one paper claiming that bilinguals curse more often in their dominant languages (and while I haven't read it, I expect they controlled for frequency of use). If one of the purposes of swearing is to relieve emotional tension, that conclusion would make the most sense if swearing in your dominant language provided a greater emotional release. It wouldn't surprise me too much if the same thing was true for pain.

http://netbook.cs.purdue.edu/

Corba was totally fucked up and doomed to suck, long before Java was invented. The part about EJB compatibility came a long time later. Are you old enough to remember all the earlier bullshit about DOE and NEO and OpenStep compatibility? CORBA is a fashion victim, and after TNT, XView, OLIT, MOOLIT, Motif, CDE, Fresco, DOE, NEO, OpenStep and TCL fell out of fashion, EJB eventually became fashionable, and they changed the standard to reflect that, too.

Does anyone remember Mark Linton's C++ user interface toolkit called Fresco (based on his earlier work on Interviews), which was at one time supposed to become the official display services for DOE? What ever happened to that? (Not to be confused with the more recent Fresco which was just a new name for Berlin -- or do they actually share any code or architecture?)

According to Chuck Price at Sun:

Fresco(TM) is being developed by a working group within the MIT X Consortium. It is a platform and language independent environment for constructing applications. Specifications have not yet been released from the working group, but certain decisions have been made public, to wit: 1) Fresco interfaces will be specified using the Object Management Group's Interface Definition Language, 2) the system is intended to support "distributed embedding", and 3) it defines a notion of structured graphics.

OMG was always so confused about what their user interface and "Display Services" would be -- everybody went off in different directions, that they eventually abandoned: From the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) Frequently Asked Questions:

Subject: 4.5 Is an object-oriented GUI toolkit like Fresco in the works for CDE?

I have not heard anything about Fresco by name, but OpenDoc, OpenStep, and Taligent are on the minds of (i.e., being finacially supported by) those who are the sponsors of COSE. There has not been any public mention of the plans for transition from CDE as it is today to an object-oriented environment, but one is certainly needed since the COSE sponsors are heading down that path.

The potential problem is that the new object-oriented environment from Sun (i.e., OpenStep) does not interoperate with the environment from IBM (i.e., Taligent) and that they have a different "look and feel." This is precisely the problem that CDE is supposed to solve. In a session at Xhibition '94, Sun held a developer's meeting in which they described the future desktop environment with CDE windows, OpenStep windows, WABI windows, etc. as a desirable thing. Sun went further to state that (and I am paraphrasing here) that developers could choose between rapid application development (and all the other good things from the object-oriented paradigm) using OpenStep or cross-platform portability with CDE. Of course, it might be nice to have both.

Here's another interesting article from DDJ about Object Interconnections: The History of the OMG C++ Mapping.

Why a C++ Mapping?

Versions 1.0-1.2 of the OMG CORBA Specification [3], which existed from 1991-1995, contained a language mapping only for C. Unfortunately, given CORBA's OO (object-oriented) nature, writing CORBA programs in C was tedious and error-prone. However, given that CORBA was strongly influenced by C-based RPC systems such as the Apollo NCS (Network Computing System), standardizing a C language mapping first was easiest for those blazing the CORBA trail.

Even as the first versions of CORBA were being published in 1991, however, the need to

I totally denounce the way summary is written and poster allows such posting. It sounds as if people are being force to the clinic (which I don't see in the article, from CNN for gosh sake), and make it sounds horrifying and crazy that they will add '200 beds'. This addiction is uncommon, but problems happens here as well.

Guys, open your eyes instead of just read what you want to read, or post what you want to post. This /. culture of putting down ANYTHING 'China' is sickening me. We in the western world have access to such vast amount of information compare to developing country such as China, yet we would rather use tunnel vision: anything deviates from 'our way' is 'freak'. All prejudice starts from ignorance. Posters: please once and for all think about the way articles are being summarized; if you don't stop them you're pretty much helping to spread the hate.

Big Bird is imaginary--no adult thinks that he really exists as more than a character, and actor, and a costume.

Although some definitions of imaginary mention that the imagined object is considered real, others simply list it as synonymous with false. Consider the sentence: "I thought I saw your car leaving, but I guess it was just my imagination"- at the time the speaker imagined that false concept, she treated it as real.

Also, some large proportion of the target-audience for Big Bird considers it real... the fact that millions do believe it is true does not (by itself) invalidate Doc Ruby's claim that the idea was generated in some charlatan's imagination.

But the "ether" isn't imaginary--it just wasn't there.

Modern scientists use the specific word "imaginary" to describe the concept of ether.

Lucifer does not do what God made him to do. In fact, he does just about the opposite.

When I write a computer program that turns out to do the opposite of what I made it for, people interpret that as a sign of my imperfection...

You want to be careful with LN2 and not just because it's so cold. Air is a bit heavier (no doubt someone will bring up dewpoints, density) than N2 but in a confined space liquid nitrogen will evaporate and displace oxygen.

The body needs oxygen, and inhaling gases that don't contain it causes the body to pull oxygen from other parts that do - this causes a system shutdown. You can't reboot, it is a true BSOD, no recovery possible (even if you use Linux).

Read this.

If you're hoping they'll convert newtons to pounds for you you're out of luck.

But they might be able to give you a league for your foot.

I`m aiming for a masters degree in bioinformatics, and I`m uncertain which courses would be good to follow

So take a Master's degree in Bioinformatics. What's to be uncertain about?

currency

What the hell is Boxing Day?

Colorful currency = children's toy.

What the hell is Boxing Day?

Colorful currency = children's toy.

What the hell is Boxing Day?

Colorful currency = children's toy.