Culture

Why the 5 Major World Religions All Reject Suicide 0
- Culture
- June 20, 2018
The recent suicides of fashion designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef and writer Anthony Bourdain have reminded all of us that, even for the wealthy, life can become too painful to bear. The sad truth is that suicide rates have been increasing in the United States. In the last decade, the suicide rate increased by
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How Did America Become a Nation of Slobs?8
- Culture
- June 20, 2018
One evening in early April I was waiting for my ten-year-old twin granddaughters to finish their indoor soccer practice when a girl their age approached me and said, “Your coat looks really nice.” It was a wet, chilly evening, and I was wearing a London Fog given me thirty years ago by an elderly
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FDA Nears Approval of Ecstasy Drug for Treating PTSD 0
- Culture
- June 19, 2018
Last August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began testing MDMA (ecstasy) for treating post-traumatic stress disorder. The FDA also granted MDMA breakthrough therapy status to expedite the approval process by making it easier for drugmakers to begin clinical trials. Recently, MDMA passed phase 2 of the FDA’s four-phase drug-approval process. Although phase 3 requires
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Research Suggests Media Efforts to Portray Suicide as a Passive Act Could Increase Suicide 0
- Culture
- June 19, 2018
In less than a week in early June, the world lost two cultural luminaries to suicide. Designer Kate Spade, whose name and creations embodied feminine power and panache, died on June 5. Four days later, American chef Anthony Bourdain, whose empathic stories transcended food to connect humanity, killed himself. Spade and Bourdain’s premature deaths sparked
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Pew: 3 in 4 Americans Have Trouble Discerning Between Fact and Opinion 0
- Culture
- June 19, 2018
A few years ago, the ACT released a study showing that K-12 teachers and college instructors believe discerning between fact and opinion is one of the most important things students can learn. Unfortunately, less than 20 percent of first-year college students are able to tell the difference between these two items. As it turns out,
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How ‘Incredibles 2’ Is Making Superheroes Great Again 0
- Culture
- June 18, 2018
I saw Incredibles 2 over the Father’s Day weekend, and just like its predecessor, there’s a lot to ponder beneath the surface of this animated film. In the real world we’ve had to wait 14 years, but the sequel picks up basically where the original left off. As the Rev. Jerry Zandstra wrote of the original, “litigiousness and
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