A joke goes like this: A friend at work had an unusual dental related problem recently. About a month ago he had to have a small steel plate inserted in his mouth. A week later he noticed the plate was starting to rust. The dentist asked him if he had a change in his eating or drinking habits tha...

I'm looking for a word, if one exists, to describe a self-fulfilling prophecy. I have only prediction at the moment, but it does not fit the context which is exactly that of a negative self-fulfilling prophecy, but a bit short of a curse. Usage (in negative sense): Whenever she comments about ...

These terms have slightly different nuances in meaning and connotation. Would you use world-view in an academic discussion? What is the correct context? For example, would you say creationism is an ideology, atheism a world view? What is a simple criterion to differentiate usage?

Is Ideologie just a foreign word/scientific term for Weltanschauung? Where do you see nuances in meaning? Would you use Weltanschauung in an academic discussion? What is the correct context? For example, would you say leftism is a ideology, atheism a weltanschauung/world view? What is a simple c...

This article made me think of what im actually supposed to think of an expert for ... When can/should i introduce somebody as an expert? Definitions in dictionaries dont show much accordance to me. Professional experience, academic grades, should you use it only for academics at all? Your answe...

Im pretty much annoyed by this term and its imho mis-use for many pseudo-experts. Experts for terrorism, amok, climate, babysitting... you probably all know this phenomenon of people designated in german TV interviews etc. as so-called experts. So there are different levels when everyone of us s...

I don't know how much and deep actually school kids in US get in touch with Latin. In Europe you can choose it on many high schools and the use of it common in mainstream media. For some areas of studies it seems to be a prerequisite. In US literature, also scientific, it has -to my opinion- a k...

I don't know how much and deep actually school kids in Germany get in touch with Latin. For some areas of studies it seem to be a prerequisite. In US literature, also scientific, it has -to my opinion- a kind of elitist touch. I don't see Latin phrases quite often here despite a simple per se ...

Often your boss/team mates seems just to know everything better despite having expertise in a specific discipline. What polite metaphor/periphrasis would you choose that states clearly and shortly thier solution for a problem is oversimplified and out of their scope without offending them in the ...

Physics Forums has probably the highest quality, other ones i know but havent frequented regularly. Big Boards often have a very very poor quality concerning such topics and esp. boards on physics tend to attract a lot of pseudo/hobby scientists hardly trying to succeed with their self-knitted "m...

What do you think - how many words is enough to learn for everyday learning? I just want to know how it is for other people. Because for me it's normal to learn 3 new words per day. If i try to learn more - i forget it.