IB Theory of Knowledge - an ongoing list of interesting finds

One particular event this week helped to clearly illustrate the powerful driving force of media and social media. Donald Trump, during a late-night inspiration, decided he was going to comment via Twitter on recent frustrations.  Unfortunately, his post left quite a bit up to the imagination... What immediately followed was a flurry of activity that began with confusion and concern, quickly moving onto humour and ridicule.  Check out the highlights posted on The Guardian: " What is covfefe? The tweet by Donald Trump that baffled the internet ." (The Guardian Online, May 31 2017). The New York Times article, " What's a 'Covfefe'? Trump Tweet Unites a Bewildered Nation " also explored the immediate confusion with a humourous twist - that which confuses the heck out of a nation, also unites them.   CNN, in their article entitled " 'Covfefe' tells you all you need to know about Donald Trump ," interviewed people to see what they tho...

And do we have a right, so many decades later, to reinterpret or redefine an iconic work of literature?  Can we accept that the novel is a "simple folk tale," as claimed by L. Frank Baum, the author?  Must we always attempt to interpret works of art or reason their "deeper meanings"?   Can a work of art simply stand as a piece of knowledge itself outside of our responses to it?  How valid is our personal knowledge or interpretation of a piece of art? Does it matter in the end what the artist may have "intended"? To what extent can we actually know what was "intended" by an artist without their direct input? An intriguing video that explores these questions and more. 

An article appeared in The Guardian  yesterday that I found quite amusing -  Do sea monsters exist? Yes, but they go by another name … .  It touches on the human need to create stories and to sensationalize that which we do not understand. The journalist, Jules Howard, points out the familiar narrative pattern : a rotting carcass washed up on the shore in Indonesia and, due to its advanced state of composition, a storm of activity began in the media from those attempting to define what this "sea monster" could be. "And so, within hours, a familiar narrative was playing out in the world’s media as the whale became a dead sea monster that no one could identify, a Scooby Doo mystery that could be maintained by journalists for days as long as nobody checked Twitter, where 10,000 scientists were screaming “That is clearly a whale” at each other. As such, in the news reports, the whale’s decomposing skin became “fur” and its blood became “mysterious red fluid” floating in ...

In this opinion column, journalist Arwa Mahdawi explores the limitations of gendered language such as mansplaining  and girlboss. These neologisms seem to have been created to illustrate a criticism of gendered language, but end up having the reverse effect. Mahdawi explores how we create language to subvert the sexism within current phrases, titles or expressions, but in the end Mahdawi argues that  " It doesn’t tear down the sexism encoded in language, it reinforces it." Sophia Amoruso, who popularised the term girlboss, at the premiere of Netflix’s Girlboss TV show. The problem with gendered language

Was it really that crazy for a newspaper to reject the mistaken spelling? In this entertaining column, Bill Walsh, a copy editor at the Post, discusses what his issues are with evolving language - especially when it is incorrect in form .  While criticized at times for fighting against trends in language, Walsh identifies some reasons why some of these changes were so slowly accepted. Once central reason had to do with structure and sound:   "Still, mic is an aberration. Words like that aren’t pronounced like that. A bicycle is a bike, not a bic. Bic, as in the pens, rhymes with Mick. So do hic and Nic and pic and Ric and sic and tic and Vic. That’s how short forms work: They’re intended to be pronounced, and so they’re spelled phonetically. You don’t just start subtracting letters until you’re left with something approximate. A refrigerator is a fridge; frig is a mild curse word that rhymes with pig." He also addresses the ongoing and controversial question of " w...

DO we have, or SHOULD we have, the right to choose ?  An ongoing debate fraught with health hazards and potentially deadly consequences. Check out the following resources to explore the controversy surrounding vaccinations, the reasons behind the standpoints of "anti-vaccine" protests and the scientific standpoint on the benefits and potential risks. Resources : Bronfin, Daniel R., MD. " Childhood Immunization Controversies: What Are Parents Asking? " The Ochsner Journal. 2008 Fall; 8(3): 151–156. PMCID: PMC3096324. Chou, Vivian.  " To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? Searching for a verdict in the vaccination debate ." Harvard University: The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Science in the News Blog. Online. January 4, 2016. Harris, Gardiner. "J ournal Retracts 1998 Paper Linking Autism to Vaccines ."  The New York Times: Research. Online. February 2, 2010. Jacobs, Charlotte DeCroes. " Vaccinations Have Always Been Controvers...

An emotional and though-provoking feature article that explores the efforts of Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem ("A Memorial and a Name"), who, since 1954, have been working to recover the names of all the victims, and to date has managed to identify some 4.7 million. Dr Alexander Avram, director of Yad Vashem's Hall of Names and the Central Database of Shoah [Holocaust] Victims' Names states that "Every new name we can add to our database is a victory against the Nazis, against the intent of the Nazis to wipe out the Jewish people. Every new name is a small victory against oblivion." The Hall of Names is a haunting memorial to those who were lost during the Holocaust - a literal collection of names, facts and stories about individuals who perished.  A daunting task as much is based on memory and piecing together of information, and yet is highly symbolic in terms of what it represents.  The memorial and the efforts behind it beg the question ...