The Poet or the Pebble?

In ancient Greek the semantic ideas of crisis and decision were expressed by the same word. We don’t have to make choices because there is a crisis. A crisis evidences itself precisely because a need for a decision exists. A crossroads has been looming for some time and coming into focus…

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On A Mission, Heading West

A family of five wild turkeys dwelt in this valley last spring, three newborn chicks, one albino. Watched them grow, seen often through the summer and fall. Then their homelands were invaded by an aggressor troop eighteen strong. Occasional brief territorial squabbles, tribal instincts leading to an uneasy union. Leaves more sparse, but so very resourceful, their tree roosts sometimes exposed. Then the snows began, early and unceasing. Till finally, only a last intrepid one was still to be seen…

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Do Electric Eels Shock Jacques Cousteau?

Maybe you’ve wondered about why speakers of a certain native language, say Portuguese, always seem to have the same specific stumbling blocks when pronouncing certain sounds within a second language, like English. This can be true even decades after they have learned the new language and achieved functional fluency. In fact, it has a lot to do with why we are able to identify charming accents between language pairs. Only a very deliberate study and practice with a language coach can normally overcome these pronunciation tendencies. All this relates to electric eels… how?

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