This might be hard to believe, but we may currently be living in the most peaceful time in human history.THE IMPORTANT QUESTION to ask here, according to Steven Pinker in this article at the Wall Street Journal, is: “How bad was the world in the past?” It certainly feels like a very violent time, most likely due to mass media coverage (i.

Even if you don’t speak a word of a language, chances are you can identify it based on the sounds you hear.GLOTTAL STOPS, LILTS, PITCH – there’s a lot more to hearing a language than just the words. Do you speak German? If not, do you know when you hear someone speaking German? Probably so.And what about English?

Whether traveling to surf, ski, kayak, climb, dive, bird watch, or whatever, the activity is only a small part of the trip. Matador Ambassador Chris Burkard spends a great deal of his time chasing waves to the remote corners of the earth, but the vast majority of that time is spent in transit, within a place and among its people.

Andy Gee is sixteen years old and a senior at San Leandro School in San Leandro, CA. He was one of 3 students who received the Matador Travel Scholarship and traveled to Nicaragua this summer with a non-profit organization called Global Glimpse.THIS SUMMER I WAS GIVEN a wonderful opportunity to travel to Nicaragua with a group of diverse and talented high school students from the Bay Area.

Jailed for civil disobedience in Arizona, Mary Sojourner reflects on being alone in a cell.THE JAIL CELL DOOR CLANGS SHUT. I am in a tiny concrete room with a concrete bench and a concrete wall that shields the stainless steel toilet from a viewer’s eyes. The only viewers that will peer in through the thick window for the next long hours will be the detention officers of the Coconino County Jail.

Jules Torti is on a blind date in Cuba. With 6 people. For 10 days.IT’S A GROUP TOUR. The sentence glowed in the email like a neon sign.I was flattered to be selected for the Adventure Center travel scholarship, but hadn’t considered the possibility of being at the mercy of strangers and a set itinerary for two weeks.