History Of The English language

English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and eventually became a global lingua franca. It is named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to the area of Great Britain that later took their name, as England. Both names derive from Anglia, a peninsula in the Baltic Sea. The language is closely related to Frisian and Low Saxon, and its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse (a North Germanic language), and to a greater extent by Latin and French

English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are collectively called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England; this was a period in which the language was influenced by French.^[7] Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London, the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great Vowel Shift.

Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, and later the United States, Modern English has been spreading around the world since the 17th century. Through all types of printed and electronic media, and spurred by the emergence of the United States as a global superpower, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigational law.

English is the third most-spoken native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish. It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. There are more people who have learned it as a second language than there are native speakers. English is the most commonly spoken language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, and it is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia. It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union and many other world and regional international organisations. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch. English has a vast vocabulary, though counting how many words any language has is impossible. English speakers are called "Anglophones".

Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent marking pattern with a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection, a fairly fixed SVO word order and a complex syntax. 

Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses, aspect and mood, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives and some negation. Despite noticeable variation among the accents and dialects of English used in different countries and regions—in terms of phonetics and phonology, and sometimes also vocabulary, grammar and spelling—English-speakers from around the world are able to communicate with one another with relative ease.

Mueller did not find Trump or his campaign conspired with Russia

Special counsel Robert Mueller did not find Donald Trump's campaign or associates conspired with Russia, Attorney General William Barr said Sunday.

Mueller's investigation of whether the President committed obstruction of justice did not conclude the President committed a crime, but it also "does not exonerate him," Barr quoted from Mueller's report.

After nearly two years of being under the cloud of the Russia investigation, Trump's presidency is no longer directly under threat from the special counsel probe as the White House turns toward the 2020 campaign, although he still faces the specter of more legal and congressional action from the other investigations that remain ongoing.

Trump and his allies charged that Mueller's report fully vindicated the President, while Democrats were already raising questions about Barr making the decision on obstruction, a signal that the fight and the fallout from Mueller's investigation is far from over.

Mueller did not make the decision himself on whether to prosecute the President on obstruction. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the determination the evidence was "not sufficient" to support prosecution.

The President went beyond the conclusions of Barr's letter, saying Sunday the findings were a "complete and total exoneration."

"No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!" Trump tweeted.

"It was just announced there was no collusion with Russia ... there was no collusion with Russia, there was no obstruction, none whatsoever," Trump said to reporters before flying back to Washington from West Palm Beach, Florida. "It was a complete and total exoneration. It's a shame our country had to go through this. To be honest, it's a shame your President had to go through this."

Trump added, "This was an illegal takedown that failed and hopefully somebody's going to be looking at the other side."

Barr submitted to Congress a four-page summary of Mueller's conclusions on Sunday, which stated: "The special counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election."

Read: Justice Department summary of Mueller report

Mueller's team has no plans to issue any new indictments.

"The report does not recommend any further indictments, nor did the special counsel obtain any sealed indictments that have yet to be made public," the letter states.

Barr wrote that no one associated with the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government, "despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.

Mueller defined coordination as an "agreement -- tacit or express -- between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference."

The special counsel's office employed a massive effort through the court system and in interviewing witnesses to reach its findings. In all, Mueller's team interviewed about 500 witnesses and obtained more than 3,500 subpoenas and warrants of various types -- the bulk of which were subpoenas -- and 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence.

Obstruction questions

Barr and Rosenstein said they could not bring a criminal case with proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump's actions obstructed a specific proceeding.

Barr notes the "absence of such evidence" related to crimes around the Russian election interference weighed on his decision regarding obstruction.

The letter stated that Mueller said he conducted a "thorough factual investigation" into obstruction.

"While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," Barr quotes Mueller as saying.

In his letter, Barr says that Mueller's investigation into obstruction of justice found the President's actions were not "done with corrupt intent."

"In cataloguing the President's actions, many of which took place in public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct, had a nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding, and were done with corrupt intent, each of which, under the Department's principles of federal prosecution guiding charging decisions, would need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to establish an obstruction-of-justice offense."

Fight over Barr's findings and release of full report

Democrats have demanded that Barr make Mueller's full report public and provide the special counsel's underlying evidence to Congress. They are threatening to subpoena and take the Trump administration to court if they're not satisfied with what the Justice Department provides.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Sunday his committee will call Barr to testify "in the near future."

"In light of the very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department following the Special Counsel report, where Mueller did not exonerate the President, we will be calling Attorney General Barr in to testify before @HouseJudiciary in the near future," the New York Democrat tweeted.

Mueller's findings, Nadler said, means it is up to Congress to determine the President's future.

"Seems like the Department of Justice is putting matters squarely in Congress' court," Nadler tweeted.

Barr said he intends to release as much as possible from the report. Mueller will be involved in the scrubbing of the report to remove secret grand jury material and any content related to ongoing investigations before it could be made public, Barr wrote.

"Given these restrictions, the schedule for processing the report depends in part on how quickly the Department can identify the (grand jury) material that by law cannot be made public. I have requested the assistance of the Special Counsel."

The special counsel's investigation ended Friday after Mueller submitted his confidential report to Barr for review.

The Digital Population ; Social media statistics 2019

The Digital Population 

Most popular social networks worldwide as of January 2019, ranked by number of active users (in millions)

Social media statistics 2019

Facebook Revenue per daily user

The interaction change on Instagram 

The real story of Saint Patrick

Everyone knows about Saint Patrick — the man who drove the snakes out of Ireland, defeated fierce Druids in contests of magic, and used the shamrock to explain the Christian Trinity to the pagan Irish. It’s a great story, but none of it is true. The shamrock legend came along centuries after Patrick’s death, as did the miraculous battles against the Druids. Forget about the snakes — Ireland never had any to begin with. No snakes, no shamrocks, and he wasn’t even Irish.

The real story of St. Patrick is much more interesting than the myths. What we know of Patrick’s life comes only through the chance survival of two remarkable letters which he wrote in Latin in his old age. In them, Patrick tells the story of his tumultuous life and allows us to look intimately inside the mind and soul of a man who lived over fifteen hundred years ago. We may know more biographical details about Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great, but nothing else from ancient times opens the door into the heart of a man more than Patrick’s letters. They tell the story of an amazing life of pain and suffering, self-doubt and struggle, but ultimately of faith and hope in a world which was falling apart around him.

The historical Patrick was not Irish at all, but a spoiled and rebellious young Roman citizen living a life of luxury in fifth-century Britain when he was suddenly kidnapped from his family’s estate as a teenager and sold into slavery across the sea in Ireland. For six years he endured brutal conditions as he watched over his master’s sheep on a lonely mountain in a strange land. He went to Ireland an atheist, but there heard what he believed was the voice of God. One day he escaped and risked his life to make a perilous journey across Ireland, finding passage back to Britain on a ship of reluctant pirates. His family welcomed back their long-lost son and assumed he would take up his life of privilege, but Patrick heard a different call. He returned to Ireland to bring a new way of life to a people who had once enslaved him. He constantly faced opposition, threats of violence, kidnapping, and even criticism from jealous church officials, while his Irish followers faced abuse, murder, and enslavement themselves by mercenary raiders. But through all the difficulties Patrick maintained his faith and persevered in his Irish mission.

The Ireland that Patrick lived and worked in was utterly unlike the Roman province of Britain in which he was born and raised. Dozens of petty Irish kings ruled the countryside with the help of head-hunting warriors while Druids guided their followers in a religion filled with countless gods and perhaps an occasional human sacrifice. Irish women were nothing like those Patrick knew at home. Early Ireland was not a world of perfect equality by any means, but an Irish wife could at least control her own property and divorce her husband for any number of reasons, including if he became too fat for sexual intercourse. But Irish women who were slaves faced a cruel life. Again and again in his letters, Patrick writes of his concern for the many enslaved women of Ireland who faced beatings and abuse on a daily basis.

Patrick wasn’t the first Christian to reach Ireland; he wasn’t even the first bishop. What made Patrick successful was his dogged determination and the courage to face whatever dangers lay ahead, as well as the compassion and forgiveness to work among a people who had brought nothing but pain to his life. None of this came naturally to him, however. He was a man of great insecurities who constantly wondered if he was really cut out for the task he had been given. He had missed years of education while he was enslaved in Ireland and carried a tremendous chip on his shoulder when anyone sneered, as they frequently did, at his simple, schoolboy Latin. He was also given to fits of depression, self-pity, and violent anger. Patrick was not a storybook saint, meek and mild, who wandered Ireland with a beatific smile and a life free from petty faults. He was very much a human being who constantly made mistakes and frequently failed to live up to his own Christian ideals, but he was honest enough to recognize his shortcomings and never allow defeat to rule his life.

You don’t have to be Irish to admire Patrick. His is a story of inspiration for anyone struggling through hard times public or private in a world with unknown terrors lurking around the corner. So raise a glass to the patron saint of Ireland, but remember the man behind the myth.

Prof. Meredith Thring with his Stair-climbing Chair. c 1964

Source: Robots and Telechirs, M. W. Thring, 1983.

Thring has worked on an electrically powered carriage with three or four rimless wheels to enable handicapped people to climb stairs freely, which essentially places its spokes (rubber-tipped) on the step in front of it so that like a human foot it has no tendency to roll down the inclined plane formed by the corners of the step, because the weight is always carried on a horizontal surface.

The motion on the staircase is not perfectly steady because the point of contact of the spokes may be very close to, or even right on, the edge of the step, or it may be up to the distance between the spokes from the edge. However, it is considerably smoother than any system which rolls along the step and then climbs up to the next one, and there is a certain smoothing effect between the front and rear wheels.

Figure 6.11 shows an early working model of this kind of machine with four driven wheels having twelve rubber tipped spokes on each. By having driven front and rear wheels it gradually changes angle as it comes to the beginning and end of the stairs. If the spokes are too sharp they wear the rubber tips very fast, but if they are too thick they tend to come on the rounded corner of the step more often and can roll (on the downward movement) or slip (on the upward movement) on to the next step. The optimum number of spokes is also a very important consideration. The wheel should have a radius (when the spoke is loaded) slightly greater than the height of the highest step to be climbed, so that as it rolls forward on the step below the spoke comes forward on to the next step. If there are too many spokes the spoke always begins to lift from a point very close to the edge of the step-tread, and the smoothing effect of the edge going deep between the treads is lost. If there are too few, the reciprocating motion when going on the level ground at higher speed becomes excessive. Twelve spokes give noticeable oscillation at 3 m.p.h. on the level. The amplitude of the oscillation is inversely proportional to the square of the number of spokes, so 16 or 20 would be better from this point of view though more expensive.

There are two problems which must be overcome in a final design.

(i) Stability. It is desirable that the seat carrying the person shall tilt so that this seat remains approximately horizontal when the chair ascends or descends stairs. If the chair is pivoted about a point above the centre of gravity of the person so that this levelling is automatic on the pendulum principle, then his weight will be thrown in the downstairs direction on the tilting of the chair, making the system fundamentally unstable. It is, therefore, necessary to tilt the seat about a pivot close to the ground or to slide the seat upstairs as the carriage tilts. In either case the weight has to be lifted and thus the levelling mechanism must be powered, unless the movement is carried out by the driver before reaching the stairs at the same time as he changes to low gear for stair-climbing. It is also possible to have front- and rear-wheel drive only when in the climbing mode.

Steering. 

Steering a system of this type requires front- and rear-wheel drive when it is climbing stairs. Moreover, it should have very good mobility corresponding, if possible, to complete rotation about an axis within the framework. This rules out conventional steering methods unless the driven front wheel can be rotated up to 90° in each direction, a proposal which is being explored at UNAM in Mexico.

Scientists 'Clear' Alzheimer's Plaque From Mice Using Only Light And Sound

Clumps of harmful proteins that interfere with brain functions have been partially cleared in mice using nothing but light and sound.

Research led by MIT has found strobe lights and a low pitched buzz can be used to recreate brain waves lost in the disease, which in turn remove plaque and improve cognitive function in mice engineered to display Alzheimer's-like behaviour.

It's a little like using light and sound to trigger their own brain waves to help fight the disease.

This technique hasn't been clinically trialled in humans as yet, so it's too soon to get excited - brain waves are known to work differently in humans and mice.

But, if replicated, these early results hint at a possible cheap and drug-free way to treat the common form of dementia.

So how does it work?

Advancing a previous study that showed flashing light 40 times a second into the eyes of engineered mice treated their version of Alzheimer's disease, researchers added sound of a similar frequency and found it dramatically improved their results.

"When we combine visual and auditory stimulation for a week, we see the engagement of the prefrontal cortex and a very dramatic reduction of amyloid," says Li-Huei Tsai, one of the researchers from MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.

It's not the first study to investigate the role sound can play in clearing the brain of the tangles and clumps of tau and amyloid proteins at least partially responsible for the disease.

Previous studies showed bursts of ultrasound make blood vessels leaky enough to allow powerful treatments to slip into the brain, while also encouraging the nervous system's waste-removal experts, microglia, to pick up the pace.

Several years ago, Tsai discovered light flickering at a frequency of about 40 flashes a second had similar benefits in mice engineered to build up amyloid in their brain's nerve cells.

"The result was so mind-boggling and so robust, it took a while for the idea to sink in, but we knew we needed to work out a way of trying out the same thing in humans," Tsai told Helen Thomson at Nature at the time.

The only problem was this effect was confined to visual parts of the brain, missing key areas that contribute to the formation and retrieval of memory.

While the method's practical applications looked a little limited, the results pointed to a way oscillations could help the brain recover from the grip of Alzheimer's disease.

As our brain's neurons transmit signals they also generate electromagnetic waves that help keep remote regions in sync - so-called 'brain waves'.

One such set of oscillations are defined as gamma-frequencies, rippling across the brain at around 30 to 90 waves per second. These brain waves are most active when we're paying close attention, searching our memories in order to make sense of what's going on.

Tsai's previous study had suggested these gamma waves are impeded in individuals with Alzheimer's, and might play a pivotal role in the pathology itself.

Light was just one way to trick the parts of the brain into humming in the key of gamma. Sounds can also manage this in other areas.

Instead of the high pitched scream of ultrasound, Tsui used a much lower droning noise of just 40 Hertz, a sound only just high enough for humans to hear.

Exposing their mouse subjects to just one hour of this monotonous buzz every day for a week led to a significant drop in the amount of amyloid build up in the auditory regions, while also stimulating those microglial cells and blood vessels.

"What we have demonstrated here is that we can use a totally different sensory modality to induce gamma oscillations in the brain," says Tsai.

As an added bonus, it also helped clear the nearby hippocampus – an important section associated with memory.

The effects weren't just evident in the test subjects' brain chemistry. Functionally, mice exposed to the treatment performed better in a range of cognitive tasks.

Adding the light therapy from the previous study saw an even more dramatic effect, clearing plaques in a number of areas across the brain, including in the prefrontal cortex. Those trash-clearing microglia also went to town.

"These microglia just pile on top of one another around the plaques," says Tsai.

Discovering new mechanisms in the way nervous systems clear waste and synchronise activity is a huge step forward in the development of treatments for all kinds of neurological disorders.

Translating discoveries like this to human brains will take more work, especially when there are potential contrasts in how gamma waves appear in mice and human Alzheimer's brains.

So far early testing for safety has shown the process seems to have no clear side effects.

This research was published in Cell.