Show 959 Thursday 4 February
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.
Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.
The video I recommend today is called Death and Taxes.
It’s an ad for an American tax preparation company called H&R Block.
I saw it because it was part of a campaign that YouTube was doing – something about the Super Bowl which is the championship game of the National Football League – which is American football. I had to look that up because I always forget if Super Bowl is football or baseball because it sounds like it should bowling.
Anyway, I guess the ad is a reference to the famous saying: Nothing is certain but death and taxes.
So, what does that proverb mean?
This from phrases.org.uk:
A rather fatalistic and sardonic proverb. It draws on the actual inevitability of death to highlight the difficulty in avoiding the burden of taxes.
The Acadia Report
Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada
In the Acadia Report today I’d like to talk about the election which is coming up.
It’s on the 12th of February and it’s the Acadia Students’ Union General Election.
So, what is a student union?
They have them in universities in New Zealand – and I think most universities around the world. But maybe you’ve heard of them being called something else. I just looked it up in Wikipedia and it says they’re also called: student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body.
And what’s the point? What do they do?
The purpose of these organizations is to represent students both within the institution and externally, including on local and national issues. They are also responsible for providing a variety of services to students.
So depending on the university the organization might be more focused just on providing support and services to students – or they might be more political and organize lots of protests to try and change laws.
Anyway, I think the Acadia Students’ Union is doing a really good job of promoting their elections this year. They’ve made a website and they also uploaded some videos to YouTube which I think are really well made.
STICK NEWS
Kia Ora in Stick News today a man in the United States is selling a famous phone number on eBay.
In 1982 a band released a song called 867-5309/Jenny. According to Wikipedia the song became so popular that to this day people in the United States call the number and ask for “Jenny” as a prank. Now the guy who has the New Jersey version of the number, is selling it. Spencer Potter says he has got about 40 calls a day since he got the number free five years ago. To get around the phone company rules against selling telephone numbers, Potter is selling his DJ business with the number.
And that was Stick News for Thursday the 5th of February.
Kia Ora.
TDES Niseko Snow Report
at Niseko Yurt Village
Check out this cool snow clearing machine.
It takes in snow at the bottom and spits it out at the top.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is drove.
This is a noun, which is usually plural.
a large number of people or animals, often moving or doing sth as a group
For example: People were leaving the countryside in droves to look for work in the cities.
One of the Acadia Students’ Union videos is a parody of the start of Star Wars and it says: It was a new era for the Acadia Students’ Union. On February 12th, 2009, droves of students went online to vote for those who they thought were worthy of leading the students into the battle of 2010.
conversations with sarah
#601 What are you doing here?
Step 1: Repeat Death’s lines.
Step 2: Read Death’s lines and talk to Murray.
Death Murray!
Murray Listen, I’ve got to go. Hey, Death, what are you doing here? We already did your taxes.
Death I had some people take a second look at my return.
Murray Oh yeah?
Death And you made some mistakes.
Murray Maybe they …
Death No, they got me a bunch of money you missed. I’m not mad I just won’t be using you any more.
Murray I totally understand.
Death See you in 38 days.
links
today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures
867-5309 Jenny - video
music
show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace
The Acadia Report start
artist: DJ iPep's
album: Home Mix 2007
track: Concerto
from: EVREUX, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
nsr start
artist: Zeropage
album: Ambient Pills Update
track: Is It Real?
from: Switzerland
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
WOD start
artist: DJ iPep's
album: Home Mix 2007
track: Game Toy
from: EVREUX, France
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: Off to Osaka
artist site
YouTube channel
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