The frequent texting, the flipping back and forth between apps on your tablet, the intermittent glancing at notifications of social media updates. What these actions both cause and represent is a lack of stillness – that inner state of restfulness needed to focus on an activity for a significant amount of time. Chances are that
READ MOREA few weeks ago, I wrote a piece which raised the idea of separating sports from school. Many of you agreed that uncoupling the two would be beneficial in boosting academic performance. According to a new poll from Education Next, Intellectual Takeout’s readers are not alone in wanting to see less emphasis on sports in
READ MORELet’s face it: January 1 is a lame day for celebrating the New Year. In our Northern hemisphere the weather is cold, and promises to get colder, and many people are still worn out after the celebrating Christmas for the past month. And with changes in the college football playoff system, sports enthusiasts are now
READ MOREJacques Ellul’s Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (1965) has been called “a far more frightening work than any of the nightmare novels of George Orwell.” In it, the French philosopher and sociologist dispels some of the popular notions about propaganda and exposes how it really operates in the modern world. In the first chapter
READ MORELast year, prompted by Louis C.K.’s bit on the Conan O’Brien show, Morgan Housel at the Motley Fool put together a list titled “50 Reasons We’re Living Through the Greatest Period in World History.” Below are his first 10 reasons: 1. U.S. life expectancy at birth was 39 years in 1800, 49 years in 1900, 68 years
READ MOREBased on a variety of discussions on Intellectual Takeout’s Facebook page about extramarital affairs, the consensus seemed to be that affairs are still considered disgraceful moral behavior (vs. other behaviors that have grown more acceptable over time) because they involve a breach of trust. Many argue that we live in a decadent society, but apparently, that society
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