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Zeteo (ζητέω): to challenge, question, dispute, explore the forgotten and ignored

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The sky wasn’t blue until just recently

March 2, 2015 by Alexia Raynal

Last week, the Business Insider published an article about the way we see colors, arguing that until recently in human history, people did not “see” or notice blue. In The Odyssey, it explains, “Homer famously describes the ‘wine-dark sea.’ But why ‘wine-dark’ and not deep blue or green?” The suggested answer is not a mere matter of preference or poetic choice. Kevin Loria, the author of the article, refers to findings from a Radiolab episode titled “Colors,” which claims that ancient languages like […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: Business Insider, colors, History, literature, sky

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Philosophical Crumbs and Snippets

March 1, 2015 by Ed Mooney

  Remote from human passions, remote even from the pitiful facts of nature, the generations have gradually created an ordered cosmos, where pure thought can dwell as in its natural home, and where one, at least, of our nobler impulses can escape from the dreary exile of the actual world. — Bertrand Russell, “The Study of Mathematics” I’ve often thought we should value collections of philosophical snippets more than we do—and not for mere cocktail-party polish. (Does anyone still go […]

Categories: Ed Mooney, ZiR

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Naomi Shihab Nye

What Doesn’t Change

February 24, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

Written by Arab-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye, the poem below is launched in a childish tone, but closes in a distinctly mature voice. For me, this combination of child/adult voices is what makes the poem interesting, what makes it work. Otherwise, the piece stands the risk of being another doe-eyed “barrio” poem. But it is not. It is a rather masterful poem representative of Nye’s highly respected and abundant body of work. Trying to Name What Doesn’t Change Roselva says the […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, literature, poet, poetry, reading, writers, writing

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The drawbacks of ethnic product placement

February 23, 2015 by Alexia Raynal

Or On the Importance of Inclusion To some extent, ethnic art (including film and literature) has been recognized as an empowering tool for minorities. Latino and African-American advocates have consistently pushed for the inclusion of content reflecting the lives and struggles of people of color in art and at school. But while these stories have gradually made it into the market, they have nonetheless preserved their ethnic labels. For example, movies with African-American casts are usually labeled as ethnic films rather […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: African-Americans, art, books, children, education, film, literature, reading, writing

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Carol Ann Duffy

Nothing my thumbs press will ever be heard

February 17, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

I keep coming back to this poem by British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy again and again. There is a myth among poetry writers that poets will only ever write a few perfect poems. Well, I think this is part of her (quite ample) list of absolutely perfect poems.  It is from her collection “Rapture,” which won the T.S. Elliot Prize and should be on every poetry fan’s bookshelf. Text I tend the mobile now like  an injured bird We […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, lit, literature, love, poetry, reading, writing

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Michael “Little B” Lewis, abandoned orphan who has spent more continuous time incarcerated than any person starting his sentence at the same age.

How to treat a boy convicted at age 13

February 16, 2015 by Alexia Raynal

Last month, The Daily Kos published an article written by Shaun King about Michael “Little B” Lewis, a 13-year-old Atlanta resident who was convicted for murder in 1997. In one of the first paragraphs, King explains: [Lewis’s] story had gripped the city and was regularly on the nightly news and on the front page of the AJC. They said he murdered a dad in cold blood in front of his kids on January 21, 1997. I didn’t know if it was true or not, but […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: childhood, children, civil rights, crime, education, politics

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I Take It Back

February 10, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

This will be my third and last post on Chilean poet Nicanor Parra, a former mathematician who is famous as Latin America’s straight-talking alternative to flowery verse.  Parra recently turned 100 and is still doing well, an impressive feat for any being. After most of his recitals he would say “I take back everything I’ve said.” Below is a poem that summarizes the poet’s (anti) attitude.   I Take Back Everything I’ve Said Before I go I’m supposed to get a […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, literature, Nicanor Parra, poetry, reading, writing

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A culture’s fear of aging

February 9, 2015 by Alexia Raynal

Two weeks ago I came across a book titled How to Age as I strolled through the snowy streets of Brooklyn. The book, written by Anne Karpf, criticized people’s fear of aging and promoted advanced adulthood as a nurturing life stage. To illustrate negative views of aging, Karpf used an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science in 2000 as an example: In a booth open only to children under 15, participants had their photo taken and then, at the press of a button, a […]

Categories: Alexia Raynal, ZiR • Tags: aging, Anne Karpf, art, Boston Museum of Science, childhood, children, How to Age, technology

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You think you can multitask? Think again!

February 5, 2015 by William Eaton

        In 2009 I became aware of a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the effectiveness of multitasking by Professor Clifford Nass, Department of Communication at Stanford. Nass was one of the first academics to study and warn of the dangers of multitasking and decline of social interaction. He and his colleagues at Stanford devised three tests to study the effects of multitasking—an increasingly prevalent activity of the young. They compared chronically […]

Categories: Gayle Rodda Kurtz • Tags: science, technology

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