Trump: Tribune Of Poor White People

With the possible exception of Yuval Levin’s The Fractured Republic, for Americans who care about politics and the future of our country, Hillbilly Elegy is the most important book of 2016. You cannot understand what’s happening now without first reading J.D. Vance. His book does for poor white people what Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book did for poor black people: give them voice and presence … [ Read more ]

Author: Rod Dreher
Source: The American Conservative (July 22, 2016)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump

Good Karma: The Dalai Lama’s Instructions for Life

I had a Powerpoint presentation forwarded to me with the following, which is supposedly what The Dalai Lama has to say on the millennium:

  1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
  2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
  3. Follow the three R’s:
    • Respect for self
    • Respect for others
    • Responsibility for all your actions
  4. Remember that not getting what you want

… [ Read more ]

Author: Dalai Lama
Subjects: Inspiration, Life & Society, Wisdom

Drawing a Bead on Terrorism

Third World poverty may often be a contributing factor in terrorism, but it is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause, argues Richard K. Betts, director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University […] “Economic development in an area where the political and religious impulses remain unresolved could serve to improve the resource base for terrorism rather than undercut it.”

[…]‌

Terrorism is … [ Read more ]

Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Summer2002)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Foreign Policy, International, Terrorism

Schwartz Theory of Basic Values

This article presents an overview of the Schwartz theory of basic human values. It discusses the nature of values and spells out the features that are common to all values and what distinguishes one value from another. The theory identifies ten basic personal values that are recognized across cultures and explains where they come from. At the heart of the theory is the idea that … [ Read more ]

Author: Shalom H. Schwartz
Source: Readings in Psychology and Culture (February2017)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Psychology | Behavior, Values

Ideas and Consequences: Michael Sandel on the Supreme Court

Tocqueville noticed this back in the 1830s … almost every political question is turned into a question about rights, because the idea of rights and of individual rights [is] so deeply ingrained, not only in the Constitution or in the Bill of Rights, but also in American public culture, in the political culture.

We cannot argue so much in the name of the good society, or … [ Read more ]

Author: Michael Sandel
Source: The Atlantic (October2007)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Law | Legal, Politics & Public Policy

And The Winner Is…

Human beings have never lacked for things to fight over, but for the last two millennia, they have fought the most over ideas involving the divine. Politics, technology, military capacity, and diseases have all played decisive roles in shaping history, yet it is impossible to understand the rise and fall of empires, the clash of civilizations, and the evolving balance of power without appreciating the … [ Read more ]

Author: Alan Wolfe
Source: The Atlantic (March2008)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Religion

Speeding Up Memories

The notion that the ability to remember new information often depends on prior knowledge of the topic is well known. Now, researchers in Edinburgh, Tokyo, and Trondheim, Norway, have conducted a study that helps answer one of the most important questions in neuroscience: Why is it that the more people know, the more they can learn?

Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Summer2007)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Math & Science

Probability Without Formulas

There are many cookbook formulas for calculating probability, and they are useful at times. However, it is more fun to use logical thinking when tackling a probability problem, and you will be more confident that you have the correct answer.

One example is a computer game on Windows called “FreeCell.” It has 32,000 unique games in memory that randomly come up when you play a new … [ Read more ]

Author: Don A. Dechman
Source: The Bent (Tau Beta Pi), page 49 (Spring2001)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Math & Science, Miscellaneous

Validity vs. Reliability

Like systems, individuals also tend to favor either reliability-oriented systems or validity-oriented systems consistently across multiple types of situations. When faced with the trade-off between validity and reliability, some will always sacrifice incremental validity to secure incremental reliability, while others will always sacrifice incremental reliability to secure incremental validity.

Author: Roger Martin
Source: Rotman Magazine (Winter2005)
Subject: Thought Starters

The Economics of Artificial Intelligence

When looking at artificial intelligence from the perspective of economics, we ask the same, single question that we ask with any technology: What does it reduce the cost of? Economists are good at taking the fun and wizardry out of technology and leaving us with this dry but illuminating question. The answer reveals why AI is so important relative to many other exciting technologies. AI … [ Read more ]

Author: Ajay Agrawal
Source: McKinsey Quarterly (April2018)
Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Information, IT | Technology

Success-Driven Philosophy: Finding Clarity of Purpose and Achieving Arete Through Philosophical Examination

This manifesto will facilitate your philosophical examination as you iron out what you believe and why you believe it. We do this by providing a philosophical toolkit, as well as a framework for considering the principal areas of philosophy. Ancient Greek philosophers had a concept they called “arete.” It is often translated as “excellence” or “virtue,” but Brian Johnson of ThinkArete says it’s better defined … [ Read more ]

Authors: Jason Shen, Joshua Goldman
Source: ChangeThis
Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Philosophy

The End of White America?

The election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of “whiteness” as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like—and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness … [ Read more ]

Author: Hua Hsu
Source: The Atlantic (January2009)
Subjects: America, Excerpts, Race Relations