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The virtual workspace of essayist Elizabeth Marcus. Read. Explore. Discuss.
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essays by elizabeth marcus
A Matter of Time
Bellicose Bambini
Brain Packing
Dark Chocolate
Edna’s List
Misguided
Reluctant Baccante
Small World
The Bugs and Us
Travel Wars
explorations by elizabeth marcus
Questions and thought related to “Misguided”
How does basic knowledge get lost?
Why did the flat earth myth take hold?
related art
What does Wikipedia have to say about the play?
What does Wikipedia have to say on the purpose of the towers?
Wikipedia on why the Pisa Tower leans?
Questions and thoughts related to “A Matter of Time”
After Sandy: a shortened updated version of the essay, A Matter of Time
Does scaring people about climate change do more harm than good?
Geo-engineering: Yea or Nay?
Vanishing Coastlines
Apocalypse now: Mexico City today and our level of concern
Are we hard-wired for optimism?
Can information be inherited?
A mind-body paradox
Another mind-body paradox
Can we hold on to optimism with its benefits while preventing risk?
Do we over-admire optimism?
If optimism is hard-wired, what do we do when it imperils us?
When realism spells doom
Living in an alternative universe
End of the World Panics
Can an amateur see something the specialists miss?
What are examples of not seeing the forest for the trees?
Subjects that become more obscure the closer you look.
What is the use of speculating?
How did the pattern begin?
How the apocalypse wrought by Cortes fits the theory
related art
related films
Questions and thoughts related to “Reluctant Baccante”
If smell is our most powerful connection to memory, why are smells so hard to recall?
related films
The wine cellar as confrontation with mortality.
Why can’t I appreciate wine?
Questions and thoughts related to the essay “Bellicose Bambini”
Are nations driven by the same emotions that drive individuals?
Are sibling influences greater than parental ones?
Can twin studies help us understand sibling rivalry?
How can parents thwart sibling rivalry?
Related films
Why is sibling rivalry such a rare subject in film and literature?
What are the preconditions of a blood feud?
Questions and thoughts related to the essay “The Bugs and Us”
Differing views on parental anxiety
How endangered are the Monarchs, and how can we help?
Sad news on the monarchs
Some faint hope for the Monarchs
Threads connect: Monarchs and climate change
Information on the site’s discovery and how to visit
Related films
Why are butterflies called butterflies?
‘Butterfly’ as linguistic anomaly: why?
Questions and thoughts related to the essay “Travel Wars”
Are we doomed to be either just like our parents or their opposite?
More on travel to the Copper Canyon
trains in art
trains in film
Where has the “generation gap” gone?
Has the generation gap morphed into the red and blue divide?
What is the red/blue divide really all about?
Ways in which the generation gap has never been wider
Questions and thoughts related to the essay, “Brain Packing”
A list of films for travel: by country
And with films themselves: To prepare or not to prepare?
Lists of great films around other topics
Questions and thoughts related to the essay, “Dark Chocolate”
How do you understand the idea that race is a myth?
The Latino view of race
The Mexican view of race
Why are interracial marriages among Asians on the decline?
related art
related films
What explains the fear of miscegenation?
What is the power of chocolate?
Why did the Spanish interbreed with the Indians, while the Northern Europeans did not?
Thoughts and questions related to “Small World”
A theory about the “small world” phenomenon + an amazing update on the essay story
Does serendipity happen all the time?
More on travel to Belize and by horse
related art
related films
What is the imaginative lure of the jungle?
Why do children prefer a facsimile to the real thing?
Thoughts and questions related to the essay “Edna’s List”
How two artists 200 years apart rediscovered the lost Wonders
More on the pilgrimage to San Juan de Compostela
Why aren’t friendships made on the trail sustained?
Related books
Does an originial manuscript impart more than a digitized copy–or not?
Related films and art
“Waste Not,” by Song Dong
A life’s work trashed and rescued
Good advice about how to de-clutter
What drives us to collect?
When “stuff” is good.
Where does collecting end and hoarding begin?
Beauty in clutter
Collectable objects of minimal value
Was the first list written to encourage travel or just put to this use?
The difference between travel and tourism
Why is the number seven magical?
Serious superstition
Why are first-love memories so potent?
First love versus the memory of first love
How can you have intense feelings about someone in the past, while having no feelings about the person in the present?
How love changes the brain
Is passionate love an emotion or a drive?
Why do we fall in love with the person we do?
Why do we feel we know an old lover intimately despite the years, decades of separation?
Why doesn’t romantic passion last?
How adding the biology changes the equation
Is continued sexual passion even possible in long-term love?
Why can’t I learn Japanese?
Is Pimsleur better?
New, free on-line language system: Rosetta Stone, get ready.
What is “the mismatched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit”?
What is the best pre-trip language product?
What is the difference between multilingual and polyglot?
Why bilinguals are smarter
What is the evidence that language aptitude is age related?
What is the impact of emotion on language learning?
Who is the oldest person you know to become fluent in a foreign language?
New research on infants is bad news for us
Why doesn’t Rosetta Stone work?