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Heaven: What might it be like?
History & The Arts

Heaven: What might it be like?

...English (1894) in which he outlined principles of non-violent resistance in the face of violence. Mohandas Gandhi was deeply moved by reading this work and corresponded directly with Tolstoy on the principles of non-violent resistance as a means for transforming India into an independent nation (Murthy 1987). Searching for heaven within an individual has also served to...
Christmas at war: 1915 - A wish deferred
History & The Arts

Christmas at war: 1915 - A wish deferred

...English Christmas for hundreds of years. But if we cannot expect the full-blooded mirth of an old-fashioned Dickens Christmas, we may still anticipate a time of quiet cheerfulness, seasoned with the hope that before the advent of another Yuletide the peace so ardently desired by the whole world will at length have dawned and the period of wholesale slaughter and wholesale...
Should animals have legal standing?
Society, Politics & Law

Should animals have legal standing?

...English-speaking jurisdiction will hear a habeas corpus case brought on behalf of someone other than a human being. In India courts have declared the rivers Ganges and Yamuna ‘living entities’ recognised by the law What about ecosystems and natural features? Some courts have even gone beyond the animal kingdom in recognising the natural world as capable of legal...
Year of the Rabbit: Chinese New Year
Languages

Year of the Rabbit: Chinese New Year

...English, the two languages are mingled to create what is known as ‘translanguaging’ , i.e. making use of one’s existing language(s) and knowledge to convey the meaning. On Chinese social media, the following has gone viral: Happy New Year 兔 you! The character in the middle of the greeting means ‘rabbit’ and is pronounce ‘tù’ which sounds similar to...
Approaching poetry
History & The Arts

Approaching poetry

...English is known as the iamb, which is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (x /). Many words in English are iambic: a simple example is the word ‘forgot’. When we say this, the stresses naturally fall in the sequence: Iambic rhythm is in fact the basic sound pattern in ordinary English speech. If you say the following line aloud you will hear what I...
Level 2: Intermediate 20 hrs
Passports: identity and airports
Society, Politics & Law

Passports: identity and airports

...everyday objects? This free course, Passports: identity and airports, explores how the passport became a commonplace item and how material objects, such as the passport, have come to mediate modern air travel. Passports may seem like unremarkable everyday objects, but they’ve played a crucial, and often surprising, historical role in shaping the relationship between...
Level 2: Intermediate 8 hrs
Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's poems
History & The Arts

Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's poems

...English and the music scores of four of the song settings, on the home page of the course. You are not expected to be able to read the music, but even if you are not very familiar with musical notation, you may well find the scores useful in identifying what is happening in the songs...This free course, Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's poems, looks at the short...
Taking your first steps into higher education Badge icon
Education & Development

Taking your first steps into higher education

...everyday objects. In the following film, John Butcher introduces the study of visual art: John Butcher – author Hi again, it’s Week 3 and it’s art history, and here at the Open University campus we have a great deal of public art on display, and also regular exhibitions of contemporary art in the academic library. It’s the sort of thing you might see in your local...