Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Young people don't want to let adults in on their conversation

The slang you use gives away your age? Far out! This article leaves one question unanswered: Why would any adult want to talk with today's foul-mouthed, body-pierced, tattooed freaks yutes?

Slang vocabulary, like musical tastes, or physical height, may be one of those things that is more or less fully formed before we exit our teens...

Pamela Munro, a linguist and editor of U.C.L.A Slang 6, defines slang as "language whose use serves to mark the user as belonging to some distinct group within society."

In other words, when your kid is slangin,’ he’s really saying he is different than you — and he likes it that way.

"Anthropologically, kids form themselves," said Munro. "Slang is a kind of code or password if people are trying to show that they are a member of your group."

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Late-night snacks could pack on the pounds...

...although the study doesn't mention that they might give you weird dreams, too.
Midnight raids on the refrigerator may have worse consequences than indigestion -- a study in mice boosts the theory that when you eat affects whether the calories go to your hips or get burned off.

Mice fed during the daytime -- when they normally would be sleeping -- gained more weight than mice fed at night, Fred Turek of Northwestern University in Illinois and colleagues found.