Are You Smarter Than Your Grandfather- An article in the Smithsonian magazine that examines the rise in IQ scores over the last hundred years. The argument is largely that the environmental factors surrounding linguistic and scientific development of young people has led to a rise in IQ scores without necessarily an actual increase in “intelligence.” [...]
Tagged Amherst, Chicago, Doggerland, fox, Istanbul, National Geographic, publishingAngry Panama- A feature in the Economist that looks at the unbalanced economic growth in Panama and the civil unrest that is taking place as a result. Atheism and Islam- An article in the Economist that uses a trial and riot in Indonesia against an atheist in order to discuss some of the other laws [...]
Tagged Atheists, Berlin, Goebbels, Muslims, Panama, Syria, TurkeyA Tsunami in Switzerland- New geological findings provide evidence that Gregory of Tours documented an actual event in recording a wall of water on Lake Geneva in 563 CE. The study discovered a massive deposit of sediment in the middle of the lake, likely put there by massive rock fall into the silt near the [...]
Tagged Gaza, Geneva, Germany, Israel, SyriaWhy Che’s daughter fights to preserve his image as idealistic revolutionary-A story in the Guardian about Che Guevara’s daughter as the 45th anniversary of his death approaches. The article addresses both the bloody legacy of Guevara and the financial success that has come with his image. How Google Builds Its MapsA story in the Atlantic [...]
Tagged Che Guevara, google+, Hemingway, Salmon RushdieThe periods in history that most interest me are those with great political upheaval. Often, this means wars. One of the periods that keeps drawing me back in is the first generation of the Hellenistic period, otherwise known as the first thirty five or forty years after the death of Alexander the Great. There are [...]
Tagged Babylon, Hellenistic age, PtolemyA Critic’s Case for Critics Who Are Actually Critical-An op-ed in the New York Times that suggests that while nobody likes to be criticized, having these flaws is part of what it is to be human, and that real criticism is not petty putdowns, but thoughtful response. Ira Glass: By the BookAn interview in the [...]
Tagged critics, Historians, Istanbul, Rome, Siberia, YemenIn preparation for the semester, I am reading A Rumor of War, by Philip Caputo (this is our assigned text for the Vietnam war). It is a memoir written by a marine officer who served in Vietnam and first published in 1977. So far it has proven an interesting and relatively straightforward read that should [...]
Tagged A Rumor of War, cultural memory, Forrest Gump, VietnamA bit over eight and a half years ago I wrote my college entrance essay. It was an exploratory essay wherein I discussed an evolution in my thought from a world of black and white, good and evil to one of indistinct shades of grey. In this essay I advanced one of my core tenets: [...]
Tagged evil, good, Historians, Hitler, relativism, RooseveltMitt Romney Confirms he would end US wind power subsidies -The idea being that he would “allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles, and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits.” Merits like OPEC, smoke, and depleting resources, I guess. Drone warfare: a [...]
Tagged energy, field hockey, gymnastics, India, Italy, Olympics, restaurants, RomneyThis is me thinking publicly about a hangup that I have about one of the major scholarly debates surrounding aristocratic politics at the Macedonian court. There is no research beyond what I have done in the past and it relates right now to a single line in a nineteen page paper. Nonetheless, it is a [...]
Tagged Alexander, Attalus, Coenus, Harpalus, Macedonia, Parmenion, Philip, Philotas, scholarship