Awful things took place in Cologne and other German cities over New Years. In Cologne alone, 1,000 men assaulted women to varying degrees, including rape. As the BBC reports: “City police chief Wolfgang Albers called it ‘a completely new dimension of crime’. The men were of Arab or North African appearance, he said.” Ah, yes,
READ MOREIt’s not hard to find a child these days who has been diagnosed with ADHD. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the number of children labeled with the condition had risen to 11% by 2011. But a new medical article by Dr. Dimitri Christakis raises the question: are American adults
READ MOREWith the holidays over and graduation fast approaching, many students are preparing for a final crack at the SAT. In light of this test preparation, it’s interesting to consider whether or not today’s students would be able to take one of the earliest SAT exams. Judging from the 1919 English Literature test from the College
READ MOREMarket Watch recently reported that while employment is up, the number of people who can go any length of time without a paycheck is abysmally low. “Approximately 63% of Americans have no emergency savings for things such as a $1,000 emergency room visit or a $500 car repair, according to a survey released Wednesday of
READ MOREThe ancient Greek thinker Plutarch (46-120 A.D.) is best known for his historical work Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans and his collection of essays entitled Moralia. This latter collection begins with a wonderful essay (or, at least, it’s attributed to him) on “The Education of Children.” I’ll discuss the rest of the essay
READ MOREFor many people today, waking up in the middle of the night is incredibly frustrating, stressful, and is often labeled as insomnia. But apparently, for people in the past, it was part of their normal routine. As Business Insider reports (using excerpts from Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep), Virginia Tech historian Roger Ekrich
READ MOREIf you’re a military-history buff, you’ve probably heard the name Hiram Maxim. If you haven’t, he is credited with inventing the Maxim machine gun in 1884, which substantially changed warfare with its ability to fire 600 rounds per minute. Now, the ingenuity of the Maxim machine gun reveals that odd contradiction of progress. On one
READ MOREToday’s students are on a much more delayed educational schedule than in times past. Before the 20th century, students used to enroll in college around the age of 15. The Harding family of Alabama is witnessing to the previously more expedited educations in a remarkable way: their first seven children all enrolled in college by
READ MOREWe’ve come to a place in our political discourse when government action often is perceived as more important than respecting the traditions and institutions upon which that very government derives its authority. Many Americans are impatient with the process required by our system of checks and balances. The recent announcement by President Obama regarding his
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