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Stronger concrete translates into significant gains for the environment because it can be applied more thinly, consuming considerably fewer raw materials than regular concrete. (The basic mixture includes cement, stone or other aggregate and water.) Moreover, concrete has some properties that make it intrinsically energy-efficient when used in buildings. It insulates well because it's poured and thus doesn't let in wind and water. Its density also means that it stores heat during the day and releases it at night, making it possible to save on air-conditioning and heating. Architects including Ferrier are playing with such possibilities...
...voters gossip about everything from this decision to the breed of the coming presidential puppy, the woeful state of public education in America persists. American children routinely score lower than students in comparable countries in basic math and reading skills. Obama himself has stated, “the question is whether or not ordinary parents, who can’t work the system, are able to get their kids into a decent school.” Yet he chose to send his kids to private school instead of personally supporting the public-school system. Unlike the Clintons, the Obamas didn?...
...considerable pressure, the university agreed to authorize a fund to provide scholarships for graduate students from Africa, because those dollars would flow directly to Harvard’s coffers. While the decision in itself is a victory, Harvard still fails to recognize the serious need of African universities for basic infrastructure, nor does it embrace this need as a legitimate use for alumni giving. More troubling, we recently learned that the scholarship fund is not “additive”: In other words, the fund will not bring new African scholars to Harvard, even though less than two percent...
...nobody ever suggests that these corporations should not be taxed. The reason, of course, is that they are private institutions whose day-to-day operations are accountable only to their shareholders, even when the consequences of those operations are socially beneficial. Our basic political assumptions about the interface between the private and public spheres of interest require these corporations to formally support the work of the common good through the mechanism of taxes. This is a mechanism that has its share of functional problems. But it is the best mechanism we have, and Americans—including most academics?...
...picture: the most basic rule is that the law is entitled to all the evidence, in order to assure a fair trial. The rules relating to privileges are exceptions to that general rule; rules creating privileges deny the parties access to certain kinds of evidence. The legal theory is that the public's interest in protecting the privilege outweighs the public's interest in having all the evidence for a fair trial. Some are obviously necessary (e.g. lawyer-client), some are more historical than practical (e.g. priest-penitent), and some are quite questionable (e.g. spousal privilege). The theory underlying...