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Trump "soft power" in action in Puerto Rico ...
bbc.comTrump tossed rolls of paper towels into the crowdThe mayor of Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan, has described Donald Trump's visit to the hurricane-hit island as "insulting" and called him a...
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An American Dialect Dictionary Is Dying Out. Here Are Some Of Its Best Words...
Katherine Brooks, Huffington Post [Original article contains additional links/illustrations.]From twistification to storm caves to slushburgers, the U.S. has quite the history of local language...
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Nothing Divides Voters Like Owning a Gun - Note for a discussion, "E...
By NATE COHN and KEVIN QUEALY OCT. 5, 2017, New York Times[Original article contains maps and links]Americans are deeply split along demographic lines, but there aren’t manydemographic characteristics...
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A Count Becomes a Waiter in a Novel of Soviet Supremacy
By CRAIG TAYLOR SEPT. 23, 2016, New York Timesimage fromA GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOWBy Amor Towles462 pp. Viking. $27.Beyond the door of the luxurious Hotel Metropol lies Theater Square and therest of Moscow,...
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'Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia
theguardian.comGoogle, Twitter and Facebook workers who helped make technology so addictive are disconnecting themselves from the internet. Paul Lewis reports on the Silicon Valley refuseniks alarmed...
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The Second Amendment
constitutioncenter.orgCommon InterpretationThe Second AmendmentTHE SECOND AMENDMENTBy Nelson Lund and Adam WinklerModern debates about the Second Amendment have focused on whether it protects a private...
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Co-Parenting With Alexa
By RACHEL BOTSMAN OCT. 7, 2017, New York Timesimage from articleYou are going to have a chance to play with Alexa,” I told my daughter, Grace, who’s3 years old. Pointing at the black cylindrical...
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What's your favorite power? "Hard" or "Soft"? ... Well, it's not that simple ...
John Brown (from a Facebook entry)21 mins · And now we have ... "Making the Hard Case for Soft Power" ...The PDC is co-sponsoring a forum tomorrow (Monday) at 5:30, "Making the Hard Case for Soft...
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Columbus Day? In More Than 50 Cities, It's Indigenous Peoples Day - Note for...
J. Brian Charles, governing.comImage from article, with caption: A signing ceremony for a resolution designating the second Monday in October as Indigenous People's Day in Seattle. Columbus Day is...
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Prediction: A "Slavic" accent will be the new "in-linguistic-thing" ...
https://www.cbsnews.com/…/ivana-trump-first-ex-on-parentin…/Prediction: A "Slavic" accent will be the new, all-American "in-linguistic-thing" in Trumpland after this interview (at least the ex is not...
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Krakow ... (inspired by a faceless FB friend)
+22John Brown Krakow, the intellectual capital of Poland, where I had the privilege to serve as a USA dip 86-90. At that time, pollution was a real problem in Krakow (with the communist-built steel...
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Dove ad underscores tense cultural moment for advertisers - Note for a...
Mike Snider and Charisse Jones, USA TODAY [original article contains video]image fromIn the current cultural moment, when racial divisions [JB emphasis] are being rubbed raw by debates over...
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‘Constructing Revolution: Soviet Propaganda Posters From Between the World...
Bolshevik posters offered utopian visions, often focused on the mundane, undergirded with an unmistakable message of powerBy Edward Rothstein, Wall Street JournalOct. 9, 2017 5:30 p.m. ETBrunswick,...
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How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds
Wall Street JournalResearch suggests that as the brain grows dependent on phone technology, the intellect weakensILLUSTRATION: SERGE BLOCHByNicholas CarrOct. 6, 2017 12:36 p.m. ETSo you bought that new...
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The Real America - Note for a discussion, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the...
From: Paul Krugman, New York Timesimage fromExcerpt:[T]he “real America” is more than small towns and rural areas; it’s a place of vast variety, unified — or so we like to think — by a shared...
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Our Patchwork Nation - Note for a discussion, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps...
Friday, November 19, 2010; 11:56 AMimage fromOUR PATCHWORK NATIONThe Surprising Truth About the "Real" AmericaBy Dante Chinni and James GimpelGotham. 322 pp. $26We Americans take pride in our varied...
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Let's talk about something interesting ... let's talk about me ...
FB image, via a valued friend, attributed to CC.LikeVia a great artist, FW. Note the "soft power" weapon near the dealmaker's leg ...
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Spies on campus
via TG by emailThe Chronicle ReviewHow the CIA secretly exploits higher educationBy Daniel Golden October 10, 2017 PremiumPhoto illustration by Oliver Munday for The Chronicle ReviewOn the crisp autumn...
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Poetic consolation for our ultra-specialized/computerized times ...
image fromWalt Whitman, 1819 - 1892When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and...
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