Wednesday, January 07, 2009

#929 I’m A God, Twitter Hacked


Show 929 Tuesday 6 January
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.


Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.

Yesterday someone left a comment asking me to explain when to use a and when to use the. I’ve talked about this before and this is something that many students – in Japan anyway – have trouble with.

It’s tricky because there are many different scenarios or rules.

One rule is that you use the when there is only one of something, for example: What is the longest river in Japan? There’s only one longest river, so you use the.

I found a clip from the movie Groundhog Day which gives a good example of this.

Bill Murray’s character says: I’m a god. I’m not the God.

The word god has a few meanings. One meaning, in religions like Christianity, is: the creator of the universe.

In that meaning, there is only one god, so it is just called God. And in the movie he’s referring to the Christian god who created the universe, when he says: I’m not the God.

Another meaning of god is: a superhuman being or spirit worshipped as having power over nature or human fortunes.

In that meaning, there are many gods, so you can say: a god. And Bill Murray’s character means he is this kind of God, so he says: I’m a god. If he thought he was the God who created the universe, he would have said: I’m God.

This is a god. Well, it’s a little cup for sake actually, but the picture is of a god. I have seven of these little cups and they all have a picture of a different god on them. A nice man from the gas company gave them to me.



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora in Stick News today several Twitter accounts have been hacked including the accounts of Barack Obama and Britney Spears.

Twitter is a website where people can write messages of up to 140 characters in length. Yesterday several twitter accounts were hacked. CNN reported that this lead to “false and inappropriate messages being posted on their accounts.” Twitter has written a message to all users: Warning! Don't sign in to fake Twitter.com from a DM.

And that was Stick News for Tuesday the 6th of January.
Kia Ora.





TDES Niseko Snow Report
with Scott Adventure Sports


Last week I went snowshoeing for the first time. I went on a snowshoe tour with Scott Adventure Sports. It was so much fun. We walked to a lake which was frozen on top. We had a cup of tea. And a snow shower.



Word of the Day

Today’s word is hack.
Hack
has many meanings. Today’s news was about some Twitter accounts being hacked.

use a computer to gain unauthorized access to data

Here’s another meaning of the word hack:
hack it informal manage; cope

For example: The job was too difficult and I just couldn’t hack it so I quit.



conversations with sarah
#579 I’m a god


Step 1: Repeat Phil’s lines.
Step 2: Read Phil’s lines and talk to Rita.

Phil I’m a god.

Rita You’re a god?

Phil I’m a god. I’m not the God. I don’t think.



links

today's news
see the messages here
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace

nsr start
artist: Zeropage
album: Ambient Pills Update
track: Is It Real?
from: Switzerland
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: Wolfgang S.
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Dynamite
from: Belgrade, Serbia, Former Yugoslavia
artist site
MySpace

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: Style Funk
artist site
YouTube channel

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