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PAST ISSUES
Shorts
Medicaleze
“The misappropriation of medical terms now prevalent within the English language has created ‘medicaleze’, a language that inherits its authority from the popular myth of the reliability of science. Identifying the problem as an ‘itis’ or an ‘ism’ provides the reassurance of a name for a society infected with nameless fears.” Continue reading
The World’s Top 5 Failed Utopias
Utopia, pronunciation: /juːˈtəʊpɪə/, noun singular:
An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect; the word was first used by Sir Thomas More in his book, Utopia.
The Isis explores the top five failed attempts at achieving this ideal society. Continue reading
Is Twitter killing the English language?
Though its arbitrary 140 character limit certainly affects the language people use on it, this does not mean that they are discarding complex words in favor of lazier alternatives or are substituting inane thoughts for brilliant ones just because they won’t fit. In fact, the opposite might be argued. Continue reading
Mona Who?
Isis looks at the role of an audacious 1911 theft in starting the legend of this iconic painting. Continue reading
The Rise and Fall of Internet Poetry
What if someone were to tell you that practically everything on the internet – from LOLcats to facebook chat conversations, from Viagra adverts in spam e-mails to inane tweets – was potentially of poetic value? That bloggers, and creators of … Continue reading
Menstrual Taboos
“Contact with menstrual blood turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die… Even that very tiny creature the ant is said to be sensitive to it,” wrote the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder in his … Continue reading
The Right Kind of Madness
image credit: flickr, ashley rose There is something that doesn’t quite add up in the ‘reality TV’ industry. As a sector, it is very anxious to cover its tracks: applicants agree not to disclose any aspect of the selection process … Continue reading
McWeddings
Since 1 January this year, one branch of the fast food chain has been offering wives, as well as fries, with meals. Continue reading
Stuck! Stuck! Stuck!
The movement against conceptual art, complete with clown costumes. Continue reading
