Month: September 2015

More Food Banks Serve Hungry College Students (CNN)
Katie Lobosco
“They may be studying at high-priced institutions, but a growing number of U.S. college students rely on food pantries for their next meal.”

It’s Time to Get Serious about Reducing Food Waste, Feds Say (NPR)
by Allison Aubrey
“We consumers let a lot of food wilt or go sour in our refrigerators. And we may toss out items when they pass their sell-by dates — even though the food is still safe to consume.”

Ex-hedge funder buys rights to AIDS drug and raises price from $13.50 to $750 per pill (Raw Story)
by Tom Boggioni
“This is not the first time the fledgling pharmaceutical executive has come under scrutiny. He started the hedge fund MSMB Capital while in his 20’s and was accused of urging the FDA to not approve certain drugs made by companies whose stock he was shorting.”

Turn Food Waste into Ice Cream for Fun and Profit (The Plate)
Tracie McMillan
“When Obama administration officials announce the nation’s first-ever goals for reducing wasted food Wednesday morning, most people probably think of donating surplus food to charity. But a new study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Cabrini College suggests that part of the solution might be a little more tasty—and profitable: House-made ice cream, freshly fried veggie chips, and smoothies.”

Extreme altruism: should you care for strangers at the expense of your family? (Guardian)
Larissa MacFarquhar
“Julia believed that because each person was equally valuable, she was not entitled to care more for herself than for anyone else; she believed that she was therefore obliged to spend much of her life working for the benefit of others.”

Hey, media: Those gentrifying neighborhoods had residents before the yuppies moved in (The Grist)
by Ben Adler
“The New York Times is being racist, classist, and colonialist when it writes about rich white people discovering off-the-radar neighborhoods.”

Check out these links related to our latest writing on The Prindle Post:
Sarah Ertelt: Alternatives to Incarceration: The Impact of Prison on the Black Community
—The Black Family in the Age of Incarceration (Atlantic)
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

6 Things You Should Know about the Iran Nuclear Deal (Politifact)
by Linda Qiu
“With 41 Senate Democrats backing the historic agreement between Iran and five world powers, the Iran nuclear deal is on its way to becoming a done deal, notching a foreign-policy win for President Barack Obama…The 159-page deal may hinge on nuclear physics, but understanding the basics shouldn’t be rocket science. We’re here to help. Here are six points you need to know.”

Meet the Companies That Are Trying to Profit from Global Warming (Vox)
by Brad Palmer
“Global warming won’t necessarily be bad news for everyone. For some companies and countries, it might even prove quite lucrative.”

Scientists Want to Study the World’s Best Humans (NY Mag)
by Melissa Dahl
“Researchers at Wake Forest University recently won a $3.9 million grant intended to fund a three-year research initiative studying the most morally upright people they can find, nominated by the people who know them. They hope that these ‘moral superstars,’ as the researchers dubbed them, will provide some lessons for the rest of us on how to be good.”

California Approves Physician-Assisted Suicide (NPR)
by April Dembosky
“A controversial bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in California is headed to the governor for consideration, after almost nine months of intense — often personal — debate in the legislature. If Gov. Jerry Brown signs the bill, California would become the fifth state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it, after Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana.”

Judging a Person by Their Friends (Practical Ethics)
by Jim A.C. Everett
“Is it a legitimate strategy to infer an person’s ethics through their friends? On the basis of limited information, should we judge a person by their friends?”

Here are some great ethics-related videos to watch when you’re finished with your reading:
Jonathan Haidt: The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives
Sarah Silverman: Being Put Off By Political Correctness is a Sign of Being Old

Brutal Images of Syrian Boy Drowned Off Turkey Must Be Seen, Activists Say (New York Times)
by Robert Mackey
“A sense of weary resignation at the plight of the Syrians — and hundreds of thousands of other refugees and migrants taking desperate risks to reach the safety of Europe — was briefly punctured by horrifying images of one of the young victims, a small boy whose body was discovered, face down in the sand, by a Turkish police officer.”

Does the Tech Industry Even Deserve Women? (Broadly)
by Cecilia D’Anastasio
“It’s hard to be a feminist in tech, as countless horse-beating articles have confirmed over the last few years. It can feel like you’re ride-or-die with women or you’re just another complicit brogrammer. Potential whistleblowers weigh being tolerant of abuse or out of a job. Harassment happens, startlingly often and unprovoked, and it can feel it comes with the territory of tech jobs—just like a signed contract and a fridge stuffed with craft beer. ‘Lean in’ all you like, but in an industry where women largely lack the structural support to remain happy and healthy, there’s an underrated third option: ‘leaning out.’ ”

Public Goodbyes (Inside Higher Ed)
by Colleen Flaherty
“Like most breakups, those between higher education and the academics who choose to leave it typically happen quietly. But as in romance, sometimes these breakups become very public affairs — usually when an academic decides to reflect on the decision in a blog or other medium. The genre, called ‘quit lit,’ has been around for several years, at least according to social media.”

The Worst of the Worst (New Yorker)
by Patrick Radden Keefe
“Clarke may be the best death-penalty lawyer in America. Her efforts helped spare the lives of Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), Zacarias Moussaoui (the so-called ‘twentieth hijacker’ in the 9/11 plot), and Jared Loughner (who killed six people and wounded thirteen others, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, at a Tucson mall).”