Blog 3 Columns

College Libraries are Purging Book Collections. Are They Discarding Thought as Well?0
- Education
- April 20, 2017
While on a local university campus last fall, I decided to swing through the library. Near the entrance was a cart loaded with books waiting to be discarded. I made a beeline for it and soon left with an armload of books. Their loss was my gain. Unfortunately, that library isn’t the only one purging
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Are We Focusing Too Much on Gender Discrimination?0
- Culture
- April 20, 2017
In an article for Forbes, scholar Andrew Biggs highlights a recent study on the gender differences in Ph.D. graduates. As the chart below shows, women hold a majority of Ph.D.’s in the humanities, while men hold them in the areas of math and science. As Biggs goes on to explain, such differences are just one
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10 Ways to Know You’re Being Gaslighted 0
- Culture
- April 20, 2017
You feel small, stifled and burdened by life events. Maybe you’re experiencing neurosis, hyper-sensitivity and alienation. Deep down you think you’re going insane. It’s possible that you’re not. Instead, you’ve been gaslighted. Gaslighting is a method of manipulation, emotional abuse or bullying, often employed by sociopaths and narcissists. It involves making someone feel as if
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The Science of Why People Don’t Listen to Facts 0
- April 19, 2017
You know something is true—for example, that vaccines are good for children, or that socialism doesn’t work. You’ve done the research, you’ve carefully weighed the arguments against your position and found them wanting, and you’ve diligently formulated your own reasoned case for it. And then you try to convince someone else (repeatedly, in some
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The Berkeley Battles Are a Sign of Things to Come 0
- Culture
- April 19, 2017
Just how close are we to repeating the political violence of interwar Germany? How bad is it, and how bad can it get? ??Populist-right demonstrators and radical-left protesters clashed in Berkeley, California yesterday. The belligerents used such weapons as fists, feet, rocks, pepper spray, smoke bombs, barricades, and a trash dumpster/battering ram. There was one
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Study: Political Bias is Bipartisan 0
- Culture
- April 19, 2017
In recent months, the phrase, “You’re biased,” seems to have become one of the most common epithets tossed between the media, Donald Trump, and yes, even the American public at large. The question is, who’s right? Is it possible that a certain political leaning tends to be more biased than another? Researchers from the University
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How the Ethanol Mandate is Destroying America’s Prairies 0
- Economics
- April 19, 2017
color:#222222″>Many years ago, I wrote an article on the research of Cornell University professor David Pimentel. color:#222222″>Pimentel, a geneticist and evolutionary biologist, claimed it takes more energy to produce ethanol from corn than the combustion of ethanol yields. Because of this fundamental input-yield problem, corn is a really lousy crop for making ethanol, Pimentel said.
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How I Caught Pope Francis Sharing Fake News 0
- Culture
- April 19, 2017
Pope Francis is a pastor who loves telling stories. One of his most memorable is a vignette drawn from To Every Man a Penny, by the Scottish novelist Bruce Marshall. A young officer in the Gestapo has been condemned to death by the French Resistance after the Germans have evacuated Paris. L’Abbé Gaston, a wise
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Did Respect Go Out the Door When We Abandoned ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’? (See Chart)0
- Culture
- April 19, 2017
Not long ago, a young and recently married friend of mine confessed that she had encountered a bit of a disappointment in married life. Contrary to what many might think, her disappointment was not with her husband, or their home, or any other common aspect of a newlywed’s life. Instead, she mournfully declared, “Nobody calls
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College Libraries are Purging Book Collections. Are They Discarding Thought as Well?0