Blog 3 Columns

Is Playing Powerball More Rational than Voting for President?0
- Culture
- August 9, 2016
Those who agree have scoffed at the hullabaloo over the Powerball of February this year, with its $1.6 billion jackpot and 1 in 292 million odds. After the drawing, such skeptics smirked at amusing news stories about lottery losers doubling down on their innumerate antics. There was Cinnamon Nicole, a Tennessee woman who had spent
READ MORE
Harvard study: Women struggle with reconciliation after conflict more than men 0
- Education
- August 9, 2016
Anyone else a bit surprised by this lead via the Harvard Gazette? It’s not exactly front-page news that when it comes to conflict, men and women usually behave very differently. The way they resolve those conflicts also tends to differ. While men can be aggressive and combative, a new study shows that, from the tennis
READ MORE
Why watching people take selfies feels so awkward 0
- Culture
- August 8, 2016
I’m having dinner with my flatmates when my friend Morgan takes a picture of the scene. Then she sits back down and does something strange: she cocks her head sideways, crosses her eyes, and aims the phone at herself. Snap. Whenever I see someone taking a selfie, I get an awkward feeling of seeing something
READ MORE

What Star Wars can teach us about constitutional democracy 0
- Entertainment
- August 8, 2016
Cass Sunstein is one of America’s leading legal scholars. Both his work generally and his book about Star Wars specifically have attracted enormous attention from both academics and the general public. But one theme of his new book, The World According to Star Wars, highlights an area that is often neglected: the depiction of constitutional issues
READ MORE
Prof: Today’s Students and Professors ‘Know Hardly Anything about Anything at All’44
- Culture
- August 8, 2016
Six months ago we shared a frightening observation from Patrick Deneen, a political science professor at Notre Dame who has also taught at Princeton and Georgetown. He described his students as “know-nothings… devoid of any substantial knowledge.” More recently, a respected author and English professor at Providence College in Rhode Island has echoed Deneen’s concerns.
READ MORE
Olympic Athlete: ‘I was born to have babies’0
- Culture
- August 8, 2016
One of the fascinating parts of the Olympics is the backstory which every athlete brings with them. For three-time gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, that backstory focuses heavily on her family and life as a mother. Jennings won gold for the third time as a beach volleyball player in the 2012 London Olympics. But even
READ MORE

Muslim in hijab should have had US flag-bearing honor at Olympic Games… says everyone on the internet except me 0
- Culture
- August 8, 2016
People are upset that Michael Phelps, who won his 19th gold medal Sunday while competing in the 400-meter freestyle relay, was tapped to be Team USA flag bearer at the Olympic Games in Rio. Editorial writers around the world—here, here, here, here, here, here, here (I could keep going)—thought the honor should have gone to
READ MORE
Jan Bloch: The man who prophesied World War I 0
- History
- August 8, 2016
Looking back on the Great War today, it feels almost inevitable. If a discontented 19-year old Bosnian Serb with the devil’s luck had not managed to put a bullet into the jugular of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand on a hot summer day in 1914, something else would have triggered the chain of events that resulted
READ MORE
If You “Do No Harm,” Should They Leave You Alone?0
- August 8, 2016
The “do no harm” principle underlies many political and social arguments made over the last few decades. Essentially, its proponents believe that as long as one person doesn’t harm another, then he or she should be free to do whatever. Naturally, the thinking then extends to relationships between people as long as everyone involved consents.
READ MORE

Is Playing Powerball More Rational than Voting for President?0