Mind Soup

OUR MAN IN BEIRUT : Ladies and gentlemen, following this exclusive online guide is a sure-fire way to be mistaken for a Lebanese. Driving: The driver's seat must be in an uncomfortable and impractical reclined position at all times. No more than one hands shall be on the wheel at any time. The other hand should be on the window frame. Alternatively it may be located on the gear-shift or your girlfriend's leg. Profuse use of horn is encouraged. Religious symbols are to be attached to dashboard at will. Clothes: Shirts are never to be tucked in. A minimum of three buttons must be undone to reveal chest hair and optional gold medallion. Brand names are to be exposed on every visible area of clothing. Technology: Ownership of mobile phones released more than two months ago are a big no-no. Be sure to keep your phone visible at all times. Keep it in your hand and place it on the table during diner or coffee. Fiddle around with the menu at all times, to seem like you are alw...

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Translation: This American is a donkey. He doesn't read Arabic.   -- Your brother Abu Jahar

Have you seen every single episode of Lost multiple times? Do you have complex theories about time travel? If so, then, like many other devoted fans, you might be addicted to Lost. But how can you be sure? We have a list of 42 signs that you are a confirmed Lost addict. See how many you have to diagnose your addiction. 1. You might be a Lost addict if...you play 4-8-15-16-23-42 in the lottery every week. 2. You might be a Lost addict if...you call your bedroom "The Hatch." 3. You might be a Lost addict if...you request to sit in seat 23B, just like Jack, every time you're on an airplane. 4. You might be a Lost addict if...you'd never vote for President Ob A ma again if he'd preempted Lost with the State of the Union address. 5. You might be a Lost addict if...you used the data in the Lamp Post to try and triangulate where the Island is. 6. You might be a Lost addict if...your Valentine's Day gift for your gi...

London, England (CNN) -- Obsessive, overenthusiastic, fanatical -- call them what you will. They used to be the exception rather than the norm. But these days, devoted fan followings are cropping up with increasing frequency. The latest embodiment of the die-hard fans that have emerged: "Avatards," the loyal followers of James Cameron's wildly popular 3D science fiction film "Avatar." Since the blockbuster epic hit the cinema screen across the globe last month, countless forums, Web sites and wikis devoted to all things "Avatar" have popped up. Enthusiastic fans can go to "Learn Na'vi" to study the language spoken on the mythical world of Pandora. On fan sites like "Naviblue," fans discuss everything from their bordering-on-obsessive relationship with the film to feelings of despondence caused by the fact that Pandora is not real. On fan site ""Avatar Forums," one forum member, Neytiri, offers advice on...

If you feel like laughing your ass off, watch this :P

Meet Griffin, the grey parrot, whose astonishing vocal and physical skills are demonstrating just how smart the avian world really is. Griffin has recently begun to play with objects and speaks English in a way that raises fascinating questions about the thought processes going on inside a bird's brain. The parrot will stack different-sized bottle caps in the right order, for example. He will also mix up the English words he has learned, and will say simple phrases, like "wanna green nut". This type of behaviour was once thought to be exclusive to humans, great apes, and monkeys. Griffin suggests Parrots should be added to the list. "Human children start combining their labels at about 22 months," says Dr Irene Pepperberg, who works with Griffin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "So, they start not just identifying 'cookie' and 'milk', but will say 'want milk' or 'want more cookie'. "And they also t...

The "invention" of language is not known except for references in the Bible. It is not known what language Adam and Eve spoke. The first mention of different languages is the reference to the tower of Babel when different tongues were bestowed. The invention of writing, however, is credited to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC. Their descendants, the Sumero-Babylonians, developed the time system that we use today: an hour divided into 60 minutes, which are divided into 60 seconds. Today, there are more than 2 700 different languages spoken in the world, with more than 7 000 dialects, most of which are catalogued by the Ethnologue language dictionary. In Indonesia alone, 365 different languages are spoken. More than 1,000 different languages are spoken in Africa. The most difficult language to learn is Basque, which is spoken in north-western Spain and south-western France. It is not related to any other language in the world. Mandarin is the most spoke...