There are so many languages in the world! But some of us - actually quite a few - go through life without learning - or needing to learn - any other language except the one provided to us since infancy, our mother tongue. Depending upon where you were born though, you may have been surrounded by other languages beyond your mother tongue to the extent that it has been only natural - or perhaps even necessary - to take up at least one of them. Continue reading

Statue of Richard the Lionheart in front of the British Parliament in London. Photo credit Alex-David Baldi Two of Europe’s most powerful rulers - Richard I of England (perhaps better known as Richard the Lionheart) and King Philip I of France, had met on the banks of the river Seine on January 13th, 1199, and made a truce. With a peace secured, Richard is now able to refocus on bringing internal order to the south of the Angevin Empire (i. Continue reading

First a notification, if we may: Creative Commons turns 20 years today. Congratulations! You can take part in their Better Sharing campaign, honoring 20 years of commitment to open access and better sharing. So, once again time for the female name of the month in “First Names First”, namely Francesca. Why not follow one of those Wikipedia links to read about the person, and then see what if anything she could contribute your life with. Continue reading

We head in Streets & Squares this time to a slightly smaller city or shall we say town. That is, to Largo, the third largest city - after Clearwater and St. Petersburg - in Pinellas County, Florida. As well as the fourth largest in the Tampa Bay area. Largo was incorporated as a town in 1905. And yes, it is not to be confused with Key Largo, also in Florida. Continue reading

Another piece in our series First Names First! Pick one of the names that you see below. Then follow the Wikipedia link to read about that person, and to see what if anything he could contribute your life with. Inspiration, passion, enlightenment, encouragement, empathy, etc. Give a couple of minutes to this for lives lived have all something worthwhile to tell us. This time it is all about Frank! Frank James* Confederate soldier/ outlaw/the older brother of Jesse James – Clay County, MO USA (1843) Continue reading

“Contagious Laughter” Photo credit Ed Schipul We people are a funny sort. We can emulate the feelings and expressions of others, even when we ourselves are nowhere near that particular emotion at that particular time. For for the most part we can easily identify with it. Smiling, let alone laughing, can be such a contagious thing! You sit in a subway car and see someone start laughing out loud - and then not being able to stop laughing - and you may find it very hard, if not impossible, to prevent a smile spread across your own face. Continue reading

Sun, the source of all life in our solar system, certainly earns its own Language Day article! From the linguistic point of view, you can easily see the similarities in several of the European languages in the words we have for sun, be they Germanic, Latin or Slavic languages. The Romans replaced the Greek word for sun, Helios, with the Latin Sol, a root word that continues to refer to the sun in the present day, but sol itself came from the Proto-Indo-European sóh₂wl̥. Continue reading

This month in “First Names First” is German month, so we continue here with the female name, namely Jutta - a German form of Judith. A name which is in use outside of Germany as well. Follow one of those Wikipedia links to read about the person, and then see what if anything she could contribute your life with. Inspiration, passion, enlightenment, encouragement, empathy, etc. Or just thoughts for the day. Continue reading

In compliance with the voting results where you could choose between Barcelona, Casablanca and Visby, we now head in Streets & Squares to Barcelona - the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, and also the second most populous municipality of Spain. As always in Streets & Squares, clicking on the address links leads you to Google Maps, and clicking on the names to the person’s Wikipedia page. Continue reading

This one might hit a little sore spot. Or so it might seem. We all dream. Growing up, getting in the labor market, creating a career, family, traveling to places, climbing Mount Everest, you name it. We all have dreams. From the youngest age till the day we die perhaps. Dreams add spice to our lives and even hold it together, but at some point, if we don’t back them up with substance, they may become a bit unrealistic. Continue reading

This time in First Names First we have a German name, **Jürgen.**Lately in use in Estonia as well. Why not pick one of the names below, then follow the Wikipedia link to read about the person, and see what if anything he could contribute your life with. Lives lived have all something worthwhile to tell us – let them! Jürgen Wullenwever* merchant/burgomaster of Lübeck – Hamburg, Germany, Holy Roman Empire (1492) Continue reading

the reason why ambulances have the word AMBULANCE written as mirror writing on the front of the vehicle is so that drivers (of cars driving in front of them) would be able to see the word the right way around in their rear-view mirror? Some people are naturally good at mirror writing. Leonardo da Vinci for example wrote most of his personal notes in this way. But it is a phase that most of us go through in childhood. Continue reading

Have you ever wondered what the term “polymath” entails? Anything to do with mathematics for example? Being in various ways talented in mathematics? You would be partly right. It may indicate being talented in mathematics, but also in many other fields of science as well. According to Wikipedia, “A polymath is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems” Continue reading

First Names First has mostly been about first names that are in promiment use either in the English-speaking countries, or internationally. But we will more and more take on names from other countries. Last time it was Tarmo, a male name in use mostly in Finland and Estonia. Today’s name is the female name Tarja. A common name in Finland a few decades ago, but not so much these days. Next month’s names will be German. Continue reading

We head in Streets & Squares this time to Wellington, Te Whanganui-a-Tara in Maori language. The capital city of New Zealand, located at the south-western tip of the North Island, which is the more populous one of the two large islands of New Zealand. On January 22nd in 1840, British colonists reached New Zealand, officially founding Wellington. As always in Streets & Squares, clicking on the address links leads you to Google Maps, and clicking on the names to the person’s Wikipedia page. Continue reading

When is a pretty new article series here in Journeys of Life that we attempt to develop into something much bigger. The stories here can entail most anything, and is really about creative writing – as opposed to some other article series here. The When can be a beginning of a question sentence, or a story that follows. These stories will typically be short ones, but can be long-reads as well. Continue reading

When you go to a museum, how awesome is it not to see all those old works of art painted or sculptured perhaps hundreds of years ago! As photography hadn’t been invented yet, the only way to immortalize or give shape to something was of course to paint or sculp it. There is a very suitable Latin phrase for this: “Ars longa, vita brevis”. Dissected this would be: ars (art) longa (long), vita (life) brevis (short). Continue reading

This time is First Names First we have a much less common name, as it seems to be in use only in Finland and Estonia. We are talking about the male name Tarmo. Pick one name, then follow the Wikipedia link to read about the person, and to see what if anything he could contribute your life with. Why not give a couple of minutes of your life to this for lives lived have something worthwhile to tell us – let them! Continue reading

the word taxi comes from the Greek word taxithi (ταξίδι) which means travel? And taxi being the means of travel. And that when you call a cab, you are calling a cabriolet? A term which originated from a carriage cabriolet, i.e. a light, two-wheeled, one-horse carriage with a folding top, capable of seating two persons. Taxi is a very universal word with only slight variations so it is easily recognizable wherever you are in the world. Continue reading

Off and on, we need something to enliven our lives. Bring something new to it, something exciting, something refreshing in order to feel alive instead of just going through the motions of the daily living. It can be a trip somewhere, having coffee with a friend in the city, applying fresh paint on the living room wall, starting a new hobby. Anything to break the routine. Then there is something we can’t quite control - or control at all! Continue reading