Speaking in Tongues

Hi,

What's the difference between a biometric and a machine-readable passport?

Thanks!

What do speakers and teachers of classical Latin do when they wish to talk about modern subjects with each other in Latin? Do they just individually make up a word as they go along, such as 'laptopum, -i (pl)", or 'avatara, -ae (pl)', or is there a body that invents new words and distributes them for general use?

Does anyone know what a person would have to ask for in Spanish in Mexico to get one of those gel cold packs? You know, they come in various shapes and sizes, you put them in your freezer and then put them on bumps and bruises when you need to ice part of your body. Athletes use them a lot. And if you have any idea what sort of place sells them (pharmacy, sporting goods store, etc.) please let me know! Thanks.

In an editorial in the NY Times about the Republican presidential candidates, the author (Paul Krugman) talks about conspiracy-theorizing: "tinfoil hats have become a common, if not mandatory, G.O.P. fashion accessory".

What does this mean? Do these tinfoil hats have some sort of implication of fake protection against something?

We all know that words spelt backwards that read the same way are Palindromes, e.g. madam. I read an article the other day where someone was suggesting that words spelt backwards that form new words, e.g. drawer/reward looter/retool should be called Semordnilap, i.e. palindromes spelt backwards. There are a number of words that do it

A Slovenian over on Your Choice mentioned the other day that most of the curse words in Slovenia were Serbian. My understanding is that most of the curse words in Modern Hebrew are Arabic.

Are there other examples of this? The closest equivalent I can think of is English speakers saying merde instead of shit, but if I understand the phenomenon correctly, that's almost the opposite, sort of a euphemism.

I'm hoping to watch a movie a day in French or Spanish for the foreseeable future to try to get closer to fluent in each. Can any of you suggest some good French or Spanish speaking movies that I'll be able to download with English subtitles?

I am looking for a term I have heard, but cannot think of. When reading old text or studying history etc. it is important that we don't transfer our own world view/or understanding of how things develop what is this called? Or what is the falacy of failing this? Thanks

Given the immense overlap between the two languages, is it sometimes difficult to maintain a distinction between them?

i have made the observation that in many countries when the block of commercials on tv comes on, the volume automatically goes up, then, when the ads are over and the film continues, the volume goes back to to what it was before the ad break.