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We have a new word for that feeling when travel makes everything new
A tourist generally has an eye for the things that have become almost invisible to the resident.
23 February, 2021
TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images
On a double-decker bus from Dublin airport to Drumcondra early one June morning, a young lad stretched out on the back seat and started to rap.
<p> What he lacked in talent he made up for in gusto. I was with a dozen of my students who were travelling from DePaul University in Chicago on a study abroad trip and this was their very first impression of Ireland. I cringed and tried to ignore the atonal reveller. Their response, it turned out, was at odds with mine. 'That's American rap!' one of them chortled. 'Why is he rapping Kendrick?' The oddity of the situation entertained them, and they discussed it with a fervour typically reserved for matters of greater significance.</p><p>One thing I've noticed over the years of bringing my students to Ireland – my homeland – is that they pay rapt attention to the little things. This heightened and delighted attention to the ordinary, which manifests in someone new to a place, does not seem to have a name. So I have given it one: <em>allokataplixis</em> (from the Greek <em>allo</em> meaning 'other', and <em>katapliktiko</em> meaning 'wonder'). In Modern Greek <em>katapliktiko</em> and the related word <em>katataplixie</em> can be used to register astonishment. Admittedly, in Ancient Greek the family of words surrounding <em>kataplêxis</em> sometimes signified 'terror' and 'panic'. It is, however, the note of pure 'amazement' and 'fascination' present in this word that I want to celebrate in my neologism.</p><p><em>Allokataplixis</em>, as I use the term, is the gift, usually unacknowledged, that the traveller offers to the places they visit.</p>
<p>For the past five years, I have travelled around Ireland each summer with a bunch of allokataplixic American kids. Almost everything draws them in. In the city, they never choose to stay downstairs on the bus – there's just too much to see from the upper deck. Marvellous to them also is the slight smell of salt in the air when you arrive in Dublin, the raucousness of seagulls crying overhead, the low-rise and higgledy-piggledy appearance of the city's architecture, the garrulousness of the people, the little fossils embedded in the bridge that spans the pond in St Stephen's Green, the 99 Flake ice-cream cones, the inclination of Irish people to traditional music, the almost unfathomable reverence in the west for uilleann pipers, the omnipresence of sheep on hilly tracts of land, the unhealthy deliciousness of Tayto crisps, the intense greenness of the vegetation, the yellowness of the butter, the perennial greyness of the sky, the presence of poets – actual poets – in the streets, Martello towers, walled gardens, the frankness about matters of mortality, the way the elderly habitually cross themselves as their bus lurches past the churches, the vat-loads of tea consumed, the vat-loads of stout consumed, the strangeness of Ireland's youthful drinkers hailing Budweiser as a premier beer, the national addiction to sweets, the quantity of dog shit left to gently steam in the thoroughfares, the medical acumen of pharmacists in 'Chemist' shops, the casual insults that friends sling at one another, the extravagant length of the midsummer's day, the gorgeousness of the sun setting on the Atlantic viewed from the beaches of the west, the melancholy slopes in County Kerry that were abandoned during the famine. And so on.</p><p>There is, of course, so much to learn when any of us visit a place for the first time and it would be easy to assume that information passes in one direction only, from the host nation to its guests. Yet over the years that I've been bringing students to Ireland I've observed that their thirst for fresh experience is contagious. It oftentimes brings out the best in people. A tourist generally has an eye for the things that, through repetitive familiarity, have become almost invisible to the resident. What is revealed need not always be congenial of course – visitors can make the resident aware of the shortcomings of their home: litter in the streets, poor service, even troubling cultural attitudes such as xenophobia. A tourist can stir within us a recognition of both the delicious strangeness of mundane things and our own unseemly peccadilloes.</p><p>This annual migration to Ireland that I take with Hugh Bartling, a climate policy wonk, and our students, is focused primarily on the ecology of our national parks. Unlike the United States, where such parks are often regarded as wilderness areas, in Ireland there is an acknowledgement that even remote landscapes are as much a product of cultural forces as they are of nature. To instil an understanding of the history and resilience of these traditional, cultural landscapes, we prepare our students before they leave by reading a great quantity of Tim Robinson's work. Over a period of four decades – from the 1970s until his recent departure from Ireland – Robinson walked, mapped and wrote about the west of Ireland with verve and enormous grace. Those who have read his brace of books on the Aran Islands – <em>Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage</em> (1986) and <em>Stones of Aran: Labyrinth</em> (1995 ) – or his trilogy on Connemara – <em>Connemara: Listening to the Wind</em> (2006), <em>Connemara: The Last Pool of Darkness</em> (2008) and <em>Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom</em> (2011 ) – will know the story of his coming to Ireland fairly well. Jaded from the European art scene, Robinson and his partner visited Inis Mór in the 1970s and elected to stay. A local postmistress mentioned that a map of the island would be useful. What began as an index of place names mushroomed over the years into one of the great European literary projects of the last several decades: the work includes maps, books, a Gazetteer, essays and lectures. A central metaphor in Robinson's body of work is the notion of the fractal – a geometrical pattern that shows the property of self-similarity at various observational scales. Snowflakes and coastlines are examples in nature. Robinson writes that the fractal promises to be a rich 'source of metaphor and imagery' in literature and life. He continues: 'Like all discoveries it surprises us yet again with the unfathomable depth and richness of the natural world; specifically it shows that there is more space, there are more places within a forest … or on a Connemara seashore, than the geometry of common sense allows.'</p>
<p>Robinson, the one-time tourist, became one of the great natural and social historians of that part of the world. Though the work is rightly celebrated, what is not always noted is how Robinson, as an attentive outsider, awakens even his Irish readers to a recognition of the fantastical in the mundane landscapes of the west. Robinson is, in other words, a great writer of allokataplixis.</p><p>One does not need, however, to be an outsider or a tourist to be allokataplixic. Is it not the task of most writers to awaken us from the dull, the flat and the average sentiments that can dominate our lives? Many of the Irish writers that my students read before travelling have a knack for noticing the marvellous in the everyday, and of making the quotidian seem wholly other and amazing. Robert Lloyd Praeger, the great naturalist of the last century, is one such writer – as he travelled the rural counties, some of his greatest botanical discoveries were made right outside the guesthouse door. J M Synge, especially in his often-neglected writing on travels in Wicklow, Connemara and Kerry, is another such writer. And James Joyce, that profound naturalist of life's epiphanic moments, specialised in observing how the ecstatic intrudes – sometimes painfully – into the everyday. My students read the story 'The Dead' as an ecological text, for it provides an abiding account of a rupture between Ireland's supposedly refined east coast and its feral west. At the conclusion, Gabriel Conroy, cuckolded by the ghost of Michael Furey, his wife's dead boyfriend, takes a melancholic psychological journey across a snowy Ireland to that boy's grave. Joyce wrote in one of his most celebrated passages that the snow 'was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried.'</p><p>I'll mention just one more recent writer, if only to illustrate that a new generation of allokataplixic writers is emerging: Karl Whitney, author of <em>Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin</em> (2014). In <em>Hidden City</em>, Whitney becomes a visitor to the city of his birth, a tourist of the commonplace. In one brilliant chapter, he inches along beneath the streets of Dublin, following the courses of rivers that have long been paved over. In another, he follows the excrement of the denizens of the city out to the sewage treatment plants and, once treated and refined, follows the liquid discharge out into Dublin Bay. Not since Leopold Bloom defecates so leisurely in an early chapter of <em>Ulysses</em> has urban excrement been so vividly described.</p>
<p>Last year as we crossed the Midlands, we walked out on the boardwalk at Clara Bog in County Offaly, where by chance we met with a local out on his morning constitutional. Tommy was a former worker for Bord na Móna, the Irish semi-state body that oversees the economic development of peat for use as fuel. He is now an enthusiastic conservationist. That my students took such a delight in the bog seemed to ignite something in him. Noticing that one of the students carried a tin whistle, he volunteered to play a couple of reels and so we listened to the blast of a few tunes out on the bog on an ordinary Saturday morning. He said he'd never done anything like it. Allokataplixis is contagious.</p><p>I don't suppose one needs to live a life of perpetual astonishment. After all it's adaptive to forget. Our daily grind is perhaps easier to endure in a state of mild amnesia. Muscle memory sets in, routine takes over, and one day seems the same as any other. But days go by, the years hum along, and one can careen towards senility without being unduly startled by anything at all. Surely, there are times when we must be released from our moorings and free ourselves up to notice the peculiarities of everyday life. Our greatest writers have, as often as not, lived in a state of astonishment – this is not an easy burden. But in a quieter register and perhaps in an equally instructive way, even the everyday tourist can alert us to the remarkable in our home terrain. When we are ourselves tourists, we notice things. But even in noticing how tourists are alive to their surroundings, might we not learn something from them? Observe the tourists on Dublin's Grafton Street listening to the buskers, or watch them marvel at the lights on Broadway in New York. Witness them sip their ouzo at the Acropolis or behold them picking their way across the newly minted basalt lava-flow in the Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. They've brought their allokataplixis with them.</p><p><em>Thanks to my wife Vassia Pavlogianis for discussions on the Modern Greek words for wonder, and to Dr Sean Kirkland of DePaul University in Chicago for a tutorial on the Ancient Greek etymology.</em><img src="https://metrics.aeon.co/count/170d73af-c3dd-4d6e-be95-20c44cbb3652.gif" alt="Aeon counter – do not remove"></p><p>Liam Heneghan</p><p>This article was originally published at <a href="https://aeon.co/?utm_campaign=republished-article" target="_blank">Aeon</a> in 2017and has been republished under Creative Commons. Read the <a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/we-have-a-new-word-for-that-feeling-when-travel-makes-everything-new" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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An ancient migration across the ocean was no accident
A new study shows that at least one long-ago journey would have required deliberate navigation.
08 December, 2020
Credit: Yosuke Kaifu/University of Tokyo
- Historians have wondered whether ancient mariners drifted from Taiwan to Japan or navigated there on purpose.
- The passage between Taiwan and the Ryukyu islands contains one of the world's strongest currents.
- Thousands of buoys suggests that the journey was anything but an accident.
<p>It's something experts are still piecing together, but there's a growing body of evidence that as humans left Africa and scattered across the globe, they often did so by traversing land bridges that are now underwater, and, in other cases, by crossing oceans.</p><p>There was really no other way they might have gotten to <a href="https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/the-spread-of-people-to-australia/" target="_blank">Australia</a>, for example, even linked as it was for a time with New Guinea as the Sahul landmass. There was always ocean between the continent and Asia, from which its early inhabitants apparently came. It may well have been a less daunting passage at times of lower sea levels, however.</p><p>What, if anything, guided ancient mariners to the places they reached remains an intriguing riddle. Did they just drift on currents hoping to bump into somewhere to land, or was their navigation more intentional?</p><p>A new study from researchers at the University of Tokyo suggests the latter, at least in the case of the ancient migration from Taiwan to the Ryukyu Islands in southwestern Japan—Okinawa is one of the those islands—some 30,000 to 35,000 years ago.</p><p>The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76831-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Scientific Reports</a>.</p>
Not an easy trip
<p><span style="background-color: initial;"><a href="https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/people/k0001_03383.html" target="_blank">Yosuke Kaifu</a></span> of the University Museum at the University of Tokyo and his colleagues sought to answer the longstanding riddle. "There have been many studies on Paleolithic migrations to Australia and its neighboring landmasses," said Kaifu in a <a href="https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00149.html" target="_blank">press release</a>, "often discussing whether these journeys were accidental or intentional."</p><p>"Our study looks specifically at the migration to the Ryukyu Islands because it is not just historically significant, but is also very difficult to get there." </p><p>The ancient sailors would have known of the islands because they were visible from the top of a mountain on the coast of Taiwan, although not down along the coast itself.</p><p>The waters between Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands represented an opportunity for the researchers since they are dominated by the Kuirishio current, one of the strongest currents in the world. The researchers' hypothesis was that sailors were unlikely to have crossed it accidentally. Says Kaifu, "If they crossed this sea deliberately, it must have been a bold act of exploration."</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDkzMTczNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDE5MzY3Mn0.bwWV2NA1Dh_b0cfYKtJ6wmsBMiEvWOPMQHgHQdtCOS0/img.jpg?width=980" id="03baf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e298d9ae8b5e41ce6b1f1fd2f39a7716" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1440" data-height="810" />Okinawa shoreline
Credit: w.aoki/Adobe Stock
Buoys will be buoys
<p>Kaifu had long been interested in devising some kind of experiment to better understand those who made the journey but, "had no idea how to demonstrate the intentionality of the sea crossings." Upon meeting the study's Taiwanese co-authors, experts in the Kuirishio, the outlines of a plan because clear.</p><p>To test the possibility of an accidental arrival at the Ryukyu Islands, Kaifu and his team set 138 satellite-tracked buoys adrift and tracked how many of them managed to float over to the islands.</p><p>"Only four of the buoys came within 20 kilometers of any of the Ryukyu Islands, and all of these were due to adverse weather conditions," explains Kaifu. This was an unlikely factor in the human travelers' voyage because, "If you were an ancient mariner, it's very unlikely you would have set out on any kind of journey with such a storm on the horizon."</p><p>The results reveal that the current was more likely to take ancient sailors anywhere <em>but</em> the islands. "What this tells us is that the Kuroshio directs drifters away from, rather than towards, the Ryukyu Islands; in other words, that region must have been actively navigated."</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDkzMTc2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDA3MzIyMH0.S3kwkamV4-AkzOeC_J5RDPFKptV1G9lYPVmJU-nnBV8/img.jpg?width=980" id="8a663" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4a38c1086300eb13308ef3a17204d44e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2331" data-height="2532" />Where the buoys traveled
Credit: Tien-Hsia Kuo/University of Tokyo
An old current
<p>Supporting the researchers findings are geologic records from the area that suggests the Kuirishio hasn't changed since the mariners' journey so long ago — it's been present in its current form for about 100,000 years.</p><p>The research appears to answer the riddle of at least this one ancient migration, says Kaifu: "Now, our results suggest the drift hypothesis for Paleolithic migration in this region is almost impossible. I believe we succeeded in making a strong argument that the ancient populations in question were not passengers of chance, but explorers."</p>
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Newly discovered mineral petrovite could revolutionize batteries
A mineral made in a Kamchatka volcano may hold the answer to cheaper batteries, find scientists.
20 November, 2020
Credit: Filatov et al.
- Russian scientists discover a new mineral in the volcanic area of Kamchatka in the country's far east.
- The mineral dubbed "petrovite" can be utilized to power sodium-ion batteries.
- Batteries based on salt would be cheaper to produce than lithium-ion batteries.
<p>Researchers from St. Petersburg University in Russia found a beautiful new mineral species called "<strong>petrovite</strong>," created in the volcanos of the remote region of Kamchatka in the country's far east.</p><p>The research team that found petrovite was headed by crystallography professor Stanislav Filatov, who studied the minerals of Kamchatka for over 40 years. The area offers amazing mineralogical diversity, with dozens of new minerals found there in recent years, according to the university's <a href="https://english.spbu.ru/news/4037-st-petersburg-university-scientists-discover-a-new-mineral-that-looks-promising-for-producing-batteries" target="_blank">press release. </a></p><p>Specifically, Filatov focused his attention on scoria (or cinder) cone volcanos and lava flows formed after the eruptions of the <a href="https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/tolbachik.html" target="_blank">Tolbachik Volcano</a> in 1975-1976 and 2012-2013.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc5NjU0MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTIxNjg1MH0.z7H9zTwrw_ruLkhnxC0_exV05piAjmzfSnIjP9acnZU/img.jpg?width=980" id="27397" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8903108fa5559c9f46ed3534a9a291a7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="800" />
Excited Russian scientists at the edge of the volcanic area in Kamchatka where the mineral was found.
Credit: St. Petersburg University / Filatov
<p><span style="background-color: initial;"><strong>Petrovite</strong>, the blue and green mineral Filatov's team discovered, with the chemical formula of </span><span style="background-color: initial;">Na</span><span style="background-color: initial;">10</span><span style="background-color: initial;">CaCu</span><span style="background-color: initial;">2</span><span style="background-color: initial;">(SO</span><span style="background-color: initial;">4</span><span style="background-color: initial;">)</span><span style="background-color: initial;">8</span><span style="background-color: initial;">, contains oxygen atoms, sodium sulphur, and copper in a porous framework. "The copper atom in the crystal structure of petrovite has an unusual and very rare coordination of seven oxygen atoms," <a href="https://english.spbu.ru/news/4037-st-petersburg-university-scientists-discover-a-new-mineral-that-looks-promising-for-producing-batteries" target="_blank">explained</a> Filatov. </span><br></p><p>The scientists think its structure of voids connected by channels, which can pass through small sodium atoms, holds potential for ionic conductivity. The mineral may be adaptable as <em>cathode</em> material in sodium-ion batteries. Due to the abundance of salt, sodium-ion batteries could be a very inexpensive alternative to lithium-ion batteries you can commonly find in many devices today.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"At present, the biggest problem for this use is the small amount of a transition metal – copper – in the crystal structure of the mineral," <a href="https://english.spbu.ru/news/4037-st-petersburg-university-scientists-discover-a-new-mineral-that-looks-promising-for-producing-batteries" target="_blank">added</a> Filatov. "It might be solved by synthesizing a compound with the same structure as petrovite in the laboratory.'</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc5NjUzNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDIwMTQ5MX0.50cH30oumjXHK4ES1CpPpVLbx_CeyWZn6yD2XAmKFMI/img.png?width=980" id="aa428" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b221e63dadf4d16b187b3c46d427f2e9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="700" data-height="509" />
Crystal structure displaying sodium migration pathways.
Credit: Filatov et al., Mineralogical Magazine, 2020
<p>The mineral was named "petrovite" not in honor of (as you might first guess) Peter the Great, the founder of St. Petersburg, but in recognition of Professor Tomas Petrov, a crystallographer at the university. He was part of the team that was first in the world to synthetically grow malachite.</p><p>Besides researchers from St. Petersburg University, other Russian scientists involved came from the <a href="http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/eng/" target="_blank">Institute of Volcanology and Seismology</a> of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the <a href="https://www.iscras.ru/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Grebenshchikov Institute of Silicate Chemistry</a>.</p><p>Check out the new study published in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mineralogical-magazine/article/petrovite-na10cacu2so48-a-new-fumarolic-sulfate-from-the-great-tolbachik-fissure-eruption-kamchatka-peninsula-russia/08CD1AF71512AAF1146019481A3B42D1" target="_blank">Mineralogical Magazine.</a></p>
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Finally, a language app that you'll master in no time
Memrise's three-step approach is a game-changer for learning languages.
29 October, 2020
- The benefits of learning a new language include becoming a better problem-solver, increasing your memory capabilities, and sharpening your mind.
- You'll also gain a greater appreciation for the culture you're studying.
- Speaking another language is considered one of the top eight skills required in all occupations.
<script async="true" src="https://widgets.stackcommerce.com/js-deal-feed/0.1/widget.js" type="text/javascript"></script><p>While sheltering at home has its downsides, one lesson we're all learning is how interconnected the world is. In that sense, it's a wonderful time to satisfy your curiosity about other cultures. There are many means of education like exploring music, cuisine, and fashion, but few things are as effective and beneficial as learning the native language.</p><p><strong>Memrise</strong> created a unique three-step approach to learning that helps you naturally acquire a new language. And for a limited time, a lifetime subscription is available <a href="https://shop.bigthink.com/sales/memrise-lifetime-subscription?utm_source=bigthink.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=memrise-lifetime-subscription&utm_term=scsf-442916&utm_content=a0x1P000004YajFQAS&scsonar=1" rel="noopener" target="_blank">for only $99.99</a>.</p><p>Memrise's smart learning app adapts to every individual student by creating a learning path with the right level of challenge. This way, you stay motivated and make progress faster. You'll learn through real-life words and phrases, as well as naturally voiced audio and video clips. Even better, there are no strict grammar rules.</p><p>The benefits of learning a new language include memory improvement, increased cognitive abilities, and better communication skills. You learn how to think broadly, which translates into becoming a more mindful and powerful thinker and, by extension, communicator. </p><p>Google Play awarded Memrise with a Best App award from the Google Play Awards in 2017. And with a 4.6-star rating from over 1.3 millions reviews on Google Play and 4.8-star rating from 150K on the iOS Store, it's easy to see why. It's worth mentioning that CNET also ranked Memrise at #4 for best language apps of 2020.</p><p>Memrise features 22 languages, including Chinese, Italian, Polish, and many more. See it in action: </p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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</p><p>A lifetime subscription to <a href="https://shop.bigthink.com/sales/memrise-lifetime-subscription?utm_source=bigthink.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=memrise-lifetime-subscription&utm_term=scsf-442916&utm_content=a0x1P000004YajFQAS&scsonar=1" target="_blank"><strong>Memrise Language Learning</strong></a> is on sale for only $99.99 for a limited time — a 28% discount from the list price.</p><div data-react-checksum="-914674273" data-reactid="1" data-reactroot="" style="position: relative;"><div data-reactid="3" style="border: 1px solid #000000; padding: 35px 10px 35px 35px; text-decoration: none; display: flex; align-items: center;">
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<div data-reactid="7"><strong data-reactid="8">Memrise Language Learning: Lifetime Subscription - $99.99</strong><br data-reactid="9"><br data-reactid="10"><a data-reactid="11" href="https://shop.bigthink.com/sales/memrise-lifetime-subscription?utm_source=bigthink.com&utm_medium=referral-cta&utm_campaign=memrise-lifetime-subscription&utm_term=scsf-442916&utm_content=a0x1P000004YajFQAS&scsonar=1" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Learn a New Language Today! </a></div>
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