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Stalin Erased His Enemies From History (Literally)0
- History
- August 11, 2016
It’s no secret that governments in the 20th century killed a lot of people, but few did it with greater efficiency than Joe Stalin, whose policy of forced collectivization killed an estimated 14.5 million people between 1930-1937. Stalin employed terror with a zeal and skill few could match, marginalizing rivals such as Leon Trotsky, who was expelled from the
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Smartphone Nation: Data suggests Americans addicted to smartphones0
- Culture
- August 11, 2016
How many times a day do you check your smartphone? According to a recent survey, the typical American checks once every six-and-a-half minutes, or approximately 150 times every day. Other research has found that number to be as high as 300 times a day. For young people, the attachment is particularly acute: 53 percent of
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Should we model ourselves on Sir Mick Jagger?2
- Culture
- August 11, 2016
For most of the time I live in a bubble of sanity, comfortably cushioned from the malaise that seems all consuming in the wider culture. Occasionally, however, I leave my comfortable bubble to travel to speaking engagements and conferences. When I do so, I’m struck by how bad things really are. This was brought home
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Salaries for College Presidents Are Swelling0
- Education
- August 11, 2016
In a typical week, I get four or five inquiries from media relating to some higher education issue. Five years ago, perhaps five or ten percent of those inquiries related to university executive compensation, especially the salaries of presidents. Now, probably 40-50 percent of the queries are on that topic. The public is increasingly interested
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C.S. Lewis’ theory on why so many modern marriages fail0
The last several years have seen a rise in articles sounding alarms about the decline of marriage. A Salon article and its accompanying graph from earlier in the summer are a perfect example. According to Salon, marriage rates have dropped roughly 30 percent since 1980, to 6.9 per 1,000 people, and everything from religious decline
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‘White America’: Eminem channels Christopher Lasch0
- Culture
- August 11, 2016
You know Eminem, but do you know Christopher Lasch? He was one of the more brilliant political philosophers of the 20th century and seemingly spot on in his book The Culture of Narcissism. I was reminded of that when in the same day I watched Eminem’s White America music video and then skimmed The Culture of
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Why the US needs more Career and Technical Education0
- Economics
- August 10, 2016
The National Conference of State Legislatures recently released a report entitled “No Time to Lose: How to Build a World-Class Education System State by State.” Recognizing the United States ranks 17th in reading, 21st in science, and 26th in math in international comparisons like PISA, the report set out to discover what high-performing countries were
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What is the Goal of Modern Science?0
- Science
- August 10, 2016
“Whether, in the end, science will prove to have been a blessing or a curse to mankind, is to my mind, still a doubtful question.”—Bertrand Russell, The Future of Science (1924) By any casual reckoning, the modern scientific project has thus far proven a mixed success. To list the pros and cons would be a
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Unruly students could be ruining your child’s future0
- Education
- August 10, 2016
Teachers, parents, and researchers have long recognized that unruly students in classrooms can impact the quality of education for other pupils, but it has been difficult to estimate their impact. In The Long-Run Effects of Disruptive Peers(NBER Working Paper No. 22042), Scott E. Carrell, Mark Hoekstra, and Elira Kuka report that classroom disruptions lead to more than just short-term lower grades
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