Blog 3 Columns

G.K Chesterton, Modern Ethics, and the Anti-Smoking Crusade 0
- Culture
- September 22, 2017
We’ve all seen them, haven’t we? I mean those ugly shots of lungs featured in anti-smoking campaigns. It’s not likely that a cigar-smoking G.K. Chesterton ever caught this particular act. After all, in his day tobacco was still a century away from achieving its current—and much vaunted—status as the great moral evil of our time.
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Does College Crush the Entrepreneurial Spirit?0
- Culture
- September 22, 2017
The Washington Post recently ran an article about young Lena Geller, a newly enrolled student at George Washington University. Like most freshmen students, Ms. Geller is learning the ins and outs of college life. But as the WaPo explains, she is also learning to juggle her studies with managing her own business as a baker
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China’s Education System: A Case Against Importing It 0
- Education
- September 22, 2017
I remember a story my college economics professor told my class many years ago about the differences she saw between her American economics students and the Chinese ones she taught during frequent sabbaticals to Beijing. She said that the Chinese economics students generally had superior math skills and the ability to quickly solve complex calculus
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Why People Rarely Take the Last Donut at Meetings (But the Coffee Runs Dry)2
- Economics
- September 21, 2017
As a professor, I’ve attended many administrative meetings. The one near-constant thing I, and others, have noticed at these meetings is that the coffee always runs out, but at least a small remnant of a donut remains. Why this occurs tells a great deal about how we use social norms to solve pool resource problems
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When the West Lost the Battle of Ideas 0
- History
- September 21, 2017
The dismantling of the idea of the West began when medieval philosophers began re-introducing the Sophist notions reduced to ashes by Socrates. This reintroduction came about as a reaction to extreme scholasticism in the Middle Ages. It was a fascinating thought experiment known as nominalism, but it unwittingly wrought massive damage upon the very ways
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We Had to Pull the Article on Indoctrination 0
- Culture
- September 21, 2017
Yesterday, we published a piece on indoctrination and propaganda in an American high school. After it went up, we found out there was confusion about sharing the documents and the family who drew attention to the questionable handouts worried about the repercussions to their student. Having been on the receiving end of such repercussions in
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Tech Execs Limit Their Kids’ Screen Time 0
- Education
- September 21, 2017
In September 2014, the New York Times published an article whose headline came as a shock to many: “Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent.” The article’s author, Nick Bilton, reported that he was surprised when Jobs told him back in 2010 that “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.” But as it
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Stanislav Petrov Saved the World By Thinking For Himself Instead of Following Orders 0
- History
- September 21, 2017
The world recently learned of the death of the Soviet military hero Stanislav Petrov who saved the world from nuclear war. In 1983, Colonel Petrov was on duty to detect incoming missiles aimed for the Soviet Union. His computer console told him that there were five incoming nuclear missiles. Without any evidence, Petrov made the
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Has U.S. Intelligence Been ‘Politically Weaponized’?0
- Politics
- September 21, 2017
Former CBS investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson asked a chilling question on Wednesday: Have U.S. intel agencies become “politically weaponized”? It sounds like an absurd question. It’s the type of speculation respectable journalists (and editors) normally would not raise at a cocktail party, let alone attach their byline to in an op-ed. But Attkisson, whose own
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G.K Chesterton, Modern Ethics, and the Anti-Smoking Crusade 0