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Can the Pursuit of “Efficiency” Ever Be Wrong?0
- History
- January 27, 2016
When the machine gun gained popularity in the 1890s, people were so horrified by its power that some hoped its very existence would prevent wars. Only a short time later the machine gun would be used to kill millions in World War I. As a piece in The Atlantic explains, Hiram Maxim built the first
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Long-lost Beatrix Potter Tale Uncovered 0
- Culture
- January 27, 2016
My relationship with Beatrix Potter goes way back. I got to know her in second grade when the school English curriculum took me through her famous stories one by one. Although finding the definitions for the vocabulary words and answering the comprehension questions – in COMPLETE sentences, mind you – were a daunting task, I
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Give the Nazis What They Want 0
- History
- January 27, 2016
If you called Donald Trump a Nazi, he’d probably take offense, even though his nationalism is socialistic. If you called Bernie Sanders a Nazi, you’d be dismissed out of hand, though his socialism is avowedly nationalistic. But did you know that Adolf Hitler himself took offense when the word was applied to him and his
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Those with Student Loan Debt: Do They Only Have Themselves to Blame?0
- Education
- January 27, 2016
Man goes to college. Man takes out loans to pay for college. Man graduates and is surprised to discover how burdensome it is to pay back those loans. It’s a familiar story repeated in outline by Samual Garner in a highly-read piece for Slate this week. But Garner’s story has this one unique detail: he graduated
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“Risk Compensation”: A Paradox Whose Time May Have Come 0
- Science
- January 27, 2016
“Risk compensation” is the theory that adopting certain safety measures can actually increase risky behavior by unduly increasing people’s sense of security. In a Washington Post article earlier this month, Terence McCoy reported on a man who wants to apply the theory to football. Erik Swartz, a University of New Hampshire professor of kinesiology, believes
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10 Quotes from the Highly Influential Karl Popper 0
- January 27, 2016
1) “True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.” 2) “The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.” 3) “Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem
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Can the Pursuit of “Efficiency” Ever Be Wrong?0