TOK Teacher
“Broadcast targeted speakers of language still spoken by 4 million Peruvians, symbolically ending centuries of marginalisation”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/14/peru-nuqanchik-quechua-broadcast-inca-empire
“A decades-old thought experiment reveals our inconsistent moral intuitions. What would you do?”
“Maps are flat representations of our spherical planet. I cut open a plastic globe to understand just what it takes to turn a sphere into something flat:”
What does this article say about how we value the lives of animals when compared to the lives of humans? This article points out that many birds have been killed to keep people safe but these methods have been ineffective. What if they had been effective? Would they have been justifiable then?
“An Associated Press analysis of bird-killing programs at the New York City area’s three major airports found that nearly 70,000 gulls, starling, geese and other birds have been slaughtered, mostly by shooting and trapping, since the 2009 accident, and it is not clear whether those killings have made the skies safer.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/miracle-hudson-legacy-70-000-slain-birds-122453379.html
“United States military and counterterrorism officials have never forgotten where that detour into darkness led — unreliable intelligence, demoralized interrogators, terrorists who still cannot be tried in a court of law because they were tortured and a stench that still clings to America’s counterterrorism reputation these many years later.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/opinion/the-lingering-stench-of-torture.html?login=smartlock
What does the creation of Esperanto tell us about the power of language? Can a neutral language, if properly implemented, actually achieve the goals Zamenhof set out to achieve?
Below are two articles that dig into the history, goals, and current status esperanto.
“Esperanto was invented in 1887 by a Polish ophthalmologist named L.L. Zamenhof, who hoped his creation would bring about world peace. Zamenhof saw a turbulent world divided by language, and concluded that the situation was too complicated, essentially unfair, and ultimately doomed. He believed that the languages people already spoke were oversaturated with history, politics, and power, making it impossible to communicate clearly. Esperanto was a fresh start, a technology that would allow its speakers to sidestep the difficulties of natural languages altogether.
“He made it as easy to learn as possible, with no irregular verbs, a vocabulary adapted from Romance language roots, and a simple, genderless, almost caseless grammar.”
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/29/8672371/learn-esperanto-language-duolingo-app-origin-history
““If mortality is what it is like to live after Eden, misunderstanding,” she writes, “is what it is like to live after Babel.” This is not just a psychological misfortune but, more pressingly, a political one. Because we don’t speak the same language as our neighbors, we can’t see their point of view, and therefore we are more likely to rob them and kill them.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/31/a-language-to-unite-humankind
“Most schools teach a heavily distorted view of what the world looks like”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/12/daily-chart-1?fsrc=gnews
Below is a link to the first in a series of New York Times videos examining the subject. It is related to the idea of intuition and how we acquire and process knowledge and information.
“Think of all the movies and TV shows that have referenced Star Wars. Most of those scenes are pretty forgettable, except for a scene in the 1994 film Clerks, which set off a debate that’s still going on today. One of the characters notes that the second Death Star was still under construction when it got blown up. So there must have been independent contractors there trying to finish the job. Is it fair if they got killed too? Judge Matthew Sciarrino, Josh Gilliland of Legal Geeks and economist Zachary Feinstein discuss the value “good guys” should place on the lives of “bad guys.” ”
http://www.imaginaryworldspodcast.org/workin–on-the-death-star.html
“Bias incidents on both sides have been reported. A student walking near campus was threatened with being lit on fire because she wore a hijab. Other students were accused of being racist for supporting Mr. Trump, according to a campuswide message from Mark Schlissel, the university’s president.”
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/8/13891648/new-york-times-false-equivalence
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