Our Own Worst Enemies

Ageism: we are our own worst enemy.

In 1969, Butler (1969) first coined the term "ageism" to confront "prejudice by one age group toward other age groups" (pp. 243). As with other "isms," such as racism and sexism, ageism leads to bigotry and discrimination, though it is a very distinct beast in that, for the most part, other "isms" refer to those different from ourselves: distinct, mutually exclusive, and impervious groups. Conv...

Making Our Own Luck

QuickCheck-style property-based random testing [4] requires efficient generators for well-distributed random data satisfying complex logical predicates. Writing such generators by hand can be difficult and error prone. We propose a domain-specific language, Luck, in which generators are expressed by decorating predicates with lightweight annotations controlling both the distribution of generate...

Immigrant workers are our allies, not our enemies.

The cold, hard reality of the global "savage capitalism" will be the greatest recruiter for unions offering real protections for workers. Health and safety issues have long been recognized as key to organizing workers. There is a positive "union effect" on workplace health and safety when informed and active workers are part of a member-controlled union on site. Solidarity among all working peo...

Ancestor to Call Our Own

Controversial new fossils could bring scientists closer than ever to the origin of humanity POITIERS, FRANCE—Michel Brunet removes the cracked, brown skull from its padlocked, foam-lined metal carrying case and carefully places it on the desk in front of me. It is about the size of a coconut, with a slight snout and a thick brow visoring its stony sockets. To my inexpert eye, the face is at onc...

Do we own our bodies?