Overcoming obstacles - Steven Claunch
Adults SocietyWhen faced with a bump in the road, sometimes we forget we have a choice: overcome the obstacle or let it overcome you. Steven Claunch, who was born without fingers on his right hand and with one leg shorter than the other and has excelled in basketball nonetheless, explains why obstacles can provide an opportunity to both inspire others and develop character.
Intimidated by a College Bully
Adults SocietyWhen you leave middle school and high school behind, you expect that bullying, fear and intimidation are in the past. When you get to college, you expect that people will be open-minded, compassionate and mature. Unfortunately this in not always the case. It certainly wasn't for Omar.
Where do new words come from? - Marcel Danesi
Adults SocietyThere are over 170,000 words currently in use in the English language. Yet every year, about a thousand new words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Where do they come from, and how do they make it into our everyday lives? Marcel Danesi explains how new words enter a language.
You Are Not What You Earn
Adults SocietyThe modern world firmly equates how much we earn with how good, noble, wise and worthy of honour we are. This is a brutal misunderstanding of how salaries are determined. We need to operate with a far more nuanced view of what the money we earn says about us.
The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall - Konrad H. Jarausch
Adults SocietyOn August 13, 1961, construction workers began tearing up streets and erecting barriers in Berlin. This night marked the beginning of one of history's most infamous dividing lines: the Berlin Wall. Construction continued for a decade as the wall cut through neighborhoods, separated families, and divided not just Germany, but the world. Konrad H. Jarausch details the history of the Berlin Wall.
How To Be A Genius
Adults Society"We hear a lot about genius. We are taught to admire the minds of those infinite, baffling but astonishing geniuses like Einstein, Tolstoy or Picasso. Quite what genius might actually be is left a little vague. It's a codeword for 'brilliant but perhaps too other-worldly ever really to fathom.' We are invited to stand in awe at the achievements of geniuses but also to feel that their thought processes might be quasi-magical and that it is ultimately simply mysterious how they were ever able to come up with the ideas they have had..."
How does the Nobel Peace Prize work? - Adeline Cuvelier and Toril Rokseth
Adults SocietyAmong the top prestigious awards in the world, the Nobel Peace Prize has honored some of the most celebrated and revered international figures and organizations in history. But how does the nomination process work? And who exactly is eligible? Adeline Cuvelier and Toril Rokseth detail the specifics of the Nobel Peace Prize.