We all lead busy lives—so are speed reading courses a good idea? Plus, if you hear someone speaking with a British accent, do you tend to assume they’re somehow more intelligent? And some common English surnames tell us stories about life in...
For the math lovers out there: Listeners on our Facebook page recommend Fermat’s Enigma by Simon Singh, and In Pursuit of The Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed The World by Ian Stewart. This is part of a complete episode.
synthetic short n.— «At a time when traders would normally have shorted the stock as part of the trade, they’re instead bypassing the rising cost of doing so by assembling what are called “synthetic shorts.” In case you’re not familiar...
ambulance-chasing n.— «Ambulance-chasing?…Some say that the division has become an “ambulance-chaser,” pursuing funding opportunities regardless of their relevance to the core work of the division.» —“Ecology takes...
traffic furniture n.— «CSC began to chase, but the pursuit took time and distance. Intermittent rain, narrow roads, and what the riders call “traffic furniture”—roundabouts, speed bumps, and road dividers—held up the riders...
God’s number n.— «But perhaps the most difficult challenge in cubing, and the one that has attracted the interest of Northeastern University researchers, is the attempt to determine the minimum number of moves it would take to solve the...