Culture

Leonard Bernstein’s Search for Faith 0
- Culture
- July 24, 2018
”I’m no longer quite sure what the question is, but I do know that the answer is Yes.” Thus did Leonard Bernstein famously conclude his Norton Lectures on the nature of music at Harvard University, 1973. This year we commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bernstein’s birth Aug. 25, a good time to unpack his statement.
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$3 Million Government Study Finds Link Between Excessive Drinking and Aggressive Nightclub Behavior 0
- Culture
- July 24, 2018
Perhaps unaware of centuries of evidence that suggests some kind of connection between excessive alcohol consumption and aggressive behavior on the part of revelers, including its own, the U.S. government launched a series of studies to learn more in 2014. Since then, the cumulative tab for the ongoing studies into the behavior of alcohol-consuming nightclub
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George Orwell Knew We’d Buy the Screens That Are Used Against Us 0
- Culture
- July 24, 2018
Sales of George Orwell’s utopian novel 1984 (1949) have spiked twice recently, both times in response to political events. In early 2017, the idea of ‘alternative facts’ called to mind Winston Smith, the book’s protagonist and, as a clerk in the Ministry of Truth, a professional alternator of facts. And in 2013, the US National
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What Living in a Single-Sex Dorm Has Taught Me About Men and Women 0
- Culture
- July 23, 2018
The college I attend is admittedly not your average college. We have no majors and no minors. We have no professors and no lectures, and I’ve not cracked open a textbook in the entire time I’ve been here. We don’t have many tests at all. (Don’t worry, we still learn—just not in the conventional way). Most
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101 Books Millennials Should Read Before They Die 0
- Culture
- July 23, 2018
MercatorNet’s book list, “101 books Gen Ys must read before they die”, which we published in 2012, long before anyone had ever heard of Millennials, has become one of our most popular features. So here is a sequel for the next generation, selected according to the same criteria: the books have to be interesting, enriching
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Is Motherhood Falling Out of Fashion?0
- Culture
- July 20, 2018
Over the last several months, I’ve received multiple recommendations for one single book: Jane Eyre. I finally got around to cracking its cover and can happily say that I’m a quarter of the way through – and enjoying it very much. Jane Eyre is prominently known for the rather stormy relationships the title character has
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