Politics & Current Affairs — April 26, 2010

Joining the Fray

“The need for Americans to enter the arena has never been greater,” write Bob and Elizabeth Dole. They write in favor of Theodore Roosevelt’s idea of “robust citizenship.”

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A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

“The need for Americans to enter the arena has never been greater,” write Bob and Elizabeth Dole. They write in favor of Theodore Roosevelt’s idea of “robust citizenship.” “America has and will succeed because, not without error, men and women of great devotions and worthy causes are willing to step into the arena.”

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Ancient stone structure with stairs under a blue sky with scattered clouds, surrounded by vegetation.

The Past

A beginner’s guide to sociopolitical collapse

How (not) to end up in the ash heap of history.

Strange Maps

Why the U.S. has had more vice presidents than presidents

Trump is #45 but Pence is #48 – and other strange consequences of the curious office of vice president.

Blogging Better Angels: The Escalator of Reason

This is part 4 of my review of Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of Our Nature”. Read Part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here. In my last […]

Guest Thinkers

DEBATING THE INTERNET AND COMMUNITY, PART B: American University Students Examine ‘Virtual’ Society

This semester in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that Americans are using the Internet to alter the nature […]

Person sitting at a dimly lit table with a laptop, using a smartphone. Another person is visible in the background. There are buildings and lights visible through the window.

Neuropsych

Are you a workaholic? How to spot the signs

In a major shift, psychologists now view an out-of-control compulsion to work as an addiction with its own set of risk factors and consequences.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Stirring in the Deep

Researchers have discovered a deep-ocean current carrying frigid water rapidly northward from Antarctica along the edge of a giant underwater plateau. They call it a climate change “fast lane.”