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Real Good For Free: The Paradox of Leisure Time
I’m pretty busy. Like most people I know, I try to balance a lot of different things—a full-time job, household chores, cooking and meals, regular exercise, time with family and friends. Throw in an occasional bike ride, a movie or museum, maybe even reading a book—oh, and sleep—and there aren’t many free minutes left in a typical week. Yet I volunteer my time, too. I do this because it’s a good cause, but also because it makes me feel good. And somewhat surprisingly, I’ve never had the sense that this is one more obligation chipping away at my already compressed day. Indeed, it sometimes seems the other way around, as if working for free eases the time pressure of modern life.
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I Think, Therefore I Exercise: Philosophy and Health
Researchers investigate how dualists, who view the body as separate and independent from the mind, tend to see their bodies and, specifically, their fitness and health.
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Two cheers for multiple-choice tests
The oldest geyser in Yellowstone National Park is: a. Steamboat Geyser b. Old Faithful c. Castle Geyser d. Daisy Geyser We’ve all answered hundreds if not thousands of these multiple-choice questions over the years. We answer them to get our drivers’ licenses, to get into good colleges and grad schools and professional schools. They’re ubiquitous, yet everyone hates them. Educators dismiss them as simplistic, the enemy of complex learning. Students think they’re unfair. And learning experts say they plain don’t work. To be clear, learning experts are questioning the value of these tests as learning tools.
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Shivering Liberals, Parched Conservatives
Imagine you’re reading a newspaper and you come across an article about a woman lost in a nearby forest. She had hiked several miles to a small cabin for a bit of escape from her stressful work life, and a freak spring snowstorm dropped eight inches of powder overnight as the temperature plummeted. This forest is difficult to navigate under the best of conditions, and the woman is a fairly inexperienced hiker. Her family and friends are concerned because she didn’t pack food or water for a long stay, and she dressed for mild weather. Rangers are combing the forest. How do you feel about this woman as you read her story?
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Throwing Light on the Dark Side
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there may be someone who has not heard of “the dark side.” But I think that’s unlikely. Whether you are a Star Wars aficionado or not, there is no doubt that these hugely popular movies have saturated the culture and the common vocabulary. As Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi explained to the innocent young Luke Skywalker in the original 1977 film, the once virtuous Darth Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force, his destructive power fueled by rage and hate. The dark side is all the galaxy’s evils rolled together. Of course, Star Wars creator George Lucas did not invent the metaphor of the dark side. Not even remotely.
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The Risks of ‘Racy’ Thinking
I worked in the news business for many years, and sometimes the pace could get hectic. But the work day didn’t really charge up until mid-morning. In the early morning hours, my routine was to leaf through several of the day’s newspapers, including the sports section, usually with my feet up on my desk. Occasionally I would check the AP ticker or turn on the TV, but not until after I had spent some time with the papers and my morning coffee. This was back in the 20th century, of course, and looking back that pace seems almost leisurely by today’s standards. Technology has radically altered the way that many of us consume information.
