Hallo, Corelings! How are you faring this week? Today we look at friendliness, medieval multiverse theories, questionable experiments undertaken by Core authors, and more. Read on:
- Despite the current political climate, Prof. Carrie Tirado Bramen of the University of Buffalo studies on the characteristic friendliness of Americans, a topic that both Alexis de Tocqueville and Walt Whitman commented on in their time, in her book American Niceness: A Cultural History.
- After four years of work, Goethe’s two-part play Faust has been translated into Persian, thanks to the efforts of Iranian translator Saeed Jowzi. It is a fitting pursuit: after all, the author originally took inspiration from 13th-century Persian poet Hafez of Shiraz.
- Did Aristotle hold back science in the medieval era? Was the Renaissance truly a rebirth of science or a continuation of a field already in motion since the supposed “dark ages”? Were multiverses and alien worlds compatible with the medieval worldview? CLICK HERE FOR ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS… AND MORE.
“A medieval missionary tells that he has found the point where heaven and Earth meet…” The Flammarion engraving, depicting the edge of the universe, by an unknown artist for Camille Flammarion’s L’atmosphre: mtorologie populaire (1888).(Public Domain)
- Fun fact: William James experimented with nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in an attempt to induce “the mystical consciousness” or a state of transcendence in himself. It was through that experience that he determined that transcendence involves a far different state of consciousness than that of everyday life. Along those same lines, researchers are dabbling in the effects of drug-induced transcendent experiences like those on which James wrote may bring peace to terminally ill patients.
- Did you know that John Keats’ villa in Hampstead, London, is open to visitors? Today, it is a museum and literary center that holds frequent events, including poetry readings and more. Core field trip, anyone?
There you have it! May your Independence Day be filled with barbecue, loud noises, and other strange activities that somehow remind us of our country.
