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Does Reflecting on Death Help Prepare Us for it?0
- Economics
- April 5, 2018
Memento mori – invitations to reflect on our own mortality – have been common throughout history. Two ancient traditions that made reflection on death central to their paths are Buddhism and Stoicism. For both, the starting point is the fact that our normal perceptions of value are deeply flawed, as we are constantly craving or
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Not All Smart Girls Need to Go to College 0
- Culture
- April 5, 2018
A recent Forbes article left readers with a statistic that is downright scary: Two-thirds of the American student debt is held by women. This is perhaps not surprising since more women than men now go to college. But there’s a more alarming reason at play. Compared to men, women are less likely to understand the
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Abraham Lincoln’s ‘Letter to His Son’s Teacher’ is Totally Fake 3
- Education
- April 5, 2018
Someone recently shared with me, via social media, a charming letter Abraham Lincoln supposedly wrote to his son’s teacher on the day the lad started school. The headline was catchy. I couldn’t resist clicking. After all, perhaps there was a bit of wisdom in the letter I could share with Intellectual Takeout readers. Here is
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Why Manners and Respect Classes Are Back (and a Big Hit with Children)0
- Culture
- April 4, 2018
A friend of mine recently posted a handful of pictures on social media of the neighborhood tea party her daughter and several other little girls had. An older mentor joined in as well, teaching the girls the basics of polite table manners. Following the party, my friend asked the girls what their favorite part had
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Are Parents Responsible for the Troubled State of American Children?0
- Culture
- April 4, 2018
We read about teenage killers, we acquiesce to college students by establishing free speech “Safe zones” lest feelings are bruised by politically-incorrect opinions elsewhere, we hear about high-school teachers imposing personal and political agendas in classrooms, we accept “Gun-free zones” in schools that invite invasive violence, we watch our youth — taught to abandon the
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The Reason a Facelift Costs Less Than a Knee Replacement 0
- Culture
- April 4, 2018
Between 1998 and 2017 prices for “Medical Care Services” in the US (as measured by the BLS’s CPI for Medical Care Services) more than doubled (+105.3 percent increase) while the CPI for “Hospital and Related Services” (data here) nearly tripled (+189.3 percent increase). Those increases in the costs of medical-related services compared to only a 50.3 percent
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