Is Facebook a global public utility? A for-profit business? A necessity of modern life? A vile and dangerous entity? Some combination of the above? Whatever it is (or isn’t), Facebook does grow, evolve, and respond to all manner of changing conditions and events. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains two new policy statements in this …
Continue reading The most voice to the most people: Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s goals
Is college the best option? That’s a hotly debated topic these days, and in fact, Chapter 16 of your text addresses that very question. Gillian White, senior associate editor of The Atlantic, reports on the results of a new Georgetown University study showing that college “still pays off.” Her article was published in the magazine …
Continue reading It still pays off: Gillian White on the value of a college education
As robots and mechanized transactions become increasingly more commonplace, questions about their abilities and their “humanness” become ever more urgent and complicated. Science writer Robin Marantz Henig explores some of the issues surrounding robots in life-and-death situations in this January 2014 article in the New York Times Magazine. Read it here: Henig, "Death by Robot" …
Continue reading Death by robot: Robin Henig addresses automation and morality
Here’s a simple question: are you a feminist? Before you answered, did you pause? Gulp? Gasp? Hem and haw? OK, maybe it’s not such a simple question, after all. In this piece, published in Slate magazine in January 2015, staff writer Amanda Hess presents a brief history of asking that question to celebrities. Read it …
Continue reading Popping the question: Amanda Hess on asking about feminism
You and your parents sit down at a restaurant, and the server turns out to be your professor. It could be awkward. It could be embarrassing. And it could also lead to some serious thinking and questioning about our attitudes toward different kinds of jobs. Brittany Bronson is a college instructor, waitress, and contributor to …
Continue reading Blue collar, white collar: Brittany Bronson on teaching and waitressing
While most states continue to suffer deep cuts to funding for public higher education, North Dakota and Alaska are increasing their education budgets substantially. Journalist Dan Marcus, who specializes in issues of higher education, examines the reasons for the difference in this article published by the Hechinger Report, an education-related news organization, in November 2014. …
Continue reading Investing in people: Jon Marcus on public higher education funding
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer has stood unbroken for more than 25 years. He has been an actor, an author of young adult books, and a U.S. cultural ambassador. Despite his long and distinguished career, he hasn’t forgotten his experiences as a UCLA basketball player. In this November 2014 article published …
Continue reading Athletes, unite: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on NCAA rules
The 1% have the best of everything that money can buy, but they’re still missing something really important. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz lays it all out in this May 2011 article in Vanity Fair. Read it here: Stiglitz, "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Stiglitz asserts that the U.S. economy will …
Continue reading “Self-interest properly understood”: Joseph Stiglitz on economic inequality
Recently, many writers and social critics have declared the American Dream dead, but journalist Keli Goff goes a step further and says “good riddance.” She explains her position in a July 2014 article in political journal The Daily Beast. Read it here: Goff, "The American Dream is dead, and good riddance” The assertion in Goff’s …
Continue reading Dead and good riddance: Keli Goff on the American Dream
No one would dispute that the automobile has been a world-changing invention. Economist, lawyer, actor, and writer Ben Stein argues that the car “transforms you from a mortal to a god” in this October 2014 article in American Spectator. Read it here: Stein, “I love cars—the greatest invention of mankind” It is hard to doubt that …
Continue reading Cars: Ben Stein on the “greatest invention of mankind”
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