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Sep

Aha Moment Maker: Famous Last Words

by Your friends at OIC on September 21, 2013

NASHVILLE, 1845—The funeral of Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, took an unexpected turn when his pet parrot had to be physically removed from the service due to its loud and incessant stream of obscenities. It was not known whether the swearing parrot was merely overcome with grief, or just doing what parrots are known to do. Those who knew Jackson best suspected the latter.

What’s the aha moment you see?

Image © iStockphoto

Your friends at OIC Comments

Your Own Aha Moments

Sep

Past Meets Present in Creative Photography Series

by Meredith Mullins on September 19, 2013

Old photo blended with modern scene of the Washington D.C. Capitol building, from a creative photography series about past meets present (Image © Jason Powell)

Capitol Cornucopia, Washington D.C.
© Jason Powell

Looking into the Past: There’s a Little Time Travel in All of Us

Which comes first—the past or the present? The answer to this question may seem obvious. But when you’re involved in time travel (and creativity), the sequence is not always clear.

Jason Powell’s photographs challenge us to think about time. How things change. How they stay the same. How the past and the present fit together. What we remember and what we forget. Read more...

Meredith Mullins 9 Comments

Clever Ideas/The World's Photography/USA

Sep

10 Words to Borrow from Different Cultures

by Janine Boylan on September 16, 2013

Two men standing on opposite cliffs with overlapping speech balloons sharing borrowed words from different cultures. (Image © Thinkstock)

Pardon me. Can I borrow that word?

Better Than Translation

Language makes us who we are. It’s how we share opinions, feelings, directions, knowledge. The complex spoken language that we have is uniquely human.

UC San Diego Professor Jeff Elman told NPR, “The Earth would not be the way it is if humankind didn’t have the ability to communicate, to organize itself, to pass knowledge down from generation to generation.”

It’s also the way we pass ideas into different cultures.

In fact, sometimes a word in one language is so perfect, people speaking another language have that “Oh, I see” moment and incorporate the word, as is, into their language. Read more...

Janine Boylan 4 Comments

Crossing Cultures/Language & Culture/Worldwide Sites

World Views: