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Blog 3 Columns

  • What makes an American? (Part 2)

    What makes an American? (Part 2)0

    In the movie Bridge of Spies, James Donovan, the lawyer tasked with the legal defense of a Soviet spy during the Cold War, makes the argument to a CIA operative that what makes us Americans is our agreement about the Rule Book, the Constitution. As seen in movie clip above, Donovan states: “Just one thing

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  • What makes an American? (Part 1)

    What makes an American? (Part 1)0

    Up until the mid-1960s, America was largely a melting pot of white Europeans. With changes to immigration laws, the last fifty years have seen a large influx of migrants to the U.S. coming from non-European nations. As a nation of immigrants, if race and ethnicity don’t bind us together, what does? In Bridge of Spies,

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  • U. of New Hampshire Students Actually Created a ‘Bias-Free Language Guide’

    U. of New Hampshire Students Actually Created a ‘Bias-Free Language Guide’0

    Over the weekend I stumbled on an article in The Harvard Crimson that referenced the University of New Hampshire’s “Bias-Free Language Guide.” I was amused if not terribly surprised to hear that such a thing existed, but my initial searches failed to turn up the document. It turns out that the University of New Hampshire

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  • Terrific: District Calls Teacher ‘Negligent’ for Trying to Break Up a Fight

    Terrific: District Calls Teacher ‘Negligent’ for Trying to Break Up a Fight0

    A week ago, I asked an out-of-state friend how her job as a teacher was going. “Terrible!” she responded. “The entire school is chaotic and out of control.” She went on to explain that the school’s students have caught on to the fact that there are no serious consequences when teachers send them to administration

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  • Physicist: You Don’t Need God to Get ‘Something’ from ‘Nothing’

    Physicist: You Don’t Need God to Get ‘Something’ from ‘Nothing’1

    Believe it or not, there’s been a controversy lately between physicists and philosophers about how to define ‘nothing’. The issue is more important than many think. As you may know, it’s one of the central tenets of the Judeo-Christian tradition that God created the world “ex nihilo”—“out of nothing”—and that, metaphysically speaking, only a divine

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  • How Did Ancient Humans Interpret Eclipses?

    How Did Ancient Humans Interpret Eclipses?0

    For the vast majority of history, people freaked out about eclipses. Ancient peoples in particular often could not rationally explain eclipses. Unsurprisingly, it was not uncommon to say the eerie, celestial phenomena foretold doom: floods, pestilence and famine. The earliest record of an eclipse we have comes from clay tablets unearthed from the ancient Sumerian

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  • Here’s Why Robots Will Never Achieve Consciousness

    Here’s Why Robots Will Never Achieve Consciousness0

    You know the doomsday movie scenarios: An army of robots we’ve made to serve us decides to enslave or even replace the inefficient, refractory human race, and to that end wages a pitiless war of extermination on us. But is all that mere sensationalism? It would be flippant to dismiss the possibility. As science writer

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  • Gandhi’s Warm Letter to Hitler

    Gandhi’s Warm Letter to Hitler0

    It’s safe to say that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is one of the most revered figures of the twentieth century. His method of patient, peaceful resistance to British colonial rule proved both wise and effective. He said many beautiful things, demonstrated powerful discipline, and was a deeply spiritual man. The full picture of Gandhi goes beyond

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  • Former Clinton Advisor: Censorship on Campuses Un-American and Selective

    Former Clinton Advisor: Censorship on Campuses Un-American and Selective0

    Lawrence Summers, the former treasury secretary to Bill Clinton, wrote a blog in the Washington Post Thursday taking universities to task for the increasing lack of tolerance and civil discourse on campuses. He pointed out that this lack of tolerance is particularly unsettling because the “hypersensitivity” to alleged discrimination seems, well, selective: It has seemed

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