&Germany is the most grown-up country in the world today& In these days of specialization, Peter Watson is a rare generalist; in 2008, he published Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud, and his more recent book is The German Genius: Europe's Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution and the Twentieth Century.
Craig Morris, an American, spoke with Watson, an Englishman, about how impressed they are with Germany. In the 1990s, I taught at the University of Freiburg, and in one of my courses we discussed the influence of Germans on the United States. A student from Scandinavia asked me why Germans were leaders in practically every field you could think of - not only in economics and the sciences, but also in music, literature, etc. I didn't have an answer, but I also realized that the question itself is based on a correct assumption.
A decade and a half later, you answered his question for me - over 1,000 pages. Peter Watson: Germany really represents the age of educated middle-class culture. What the science of human nature can teach us. After the boom and bust, the mania and the meltdown, the Composure Class rose once again.
Its members didn’t make their money through hedge-fund wizardry or by some big financial score. Theirs was a statelier ascent. They got good grades in school, established solid social connections, joined fine companies, medical practices, and law firms. Wealth settled down upon them gradually, like a gentle snow. You can see a paragon of the Composure Class having an al-fresco lunch at some bistro in Aspen or Jackson Hole.
A few times a year, members of this class head to a mountain resort, carrying only a Council on Foreign Relations tote bag (when you have your own plane, you don’t need luggage that actually closes). Occasionally, you meet a young, rising member of this class at the gelato store, as he hovers indecisively over the cloudberry and ginger-pomegranate selections, and you notice that his superhuman equilibrium is marred by an anxiety. Help comes from the strangest places. Ms. Facebook rehab - Features. Almost a year ago in Korea, an infant starved to death while her parents obsessively played an online game in which they cared for a virtual baby instead of their real-life daughter.
Examples such as this indicate there are phenomenal social changes occurring due to increasing use of the internet - and in step with these new social and health problems, internet rehabilitation clinics are appearing all around the globe. "I don't think anyone could have designed a more addictive device than the internet," said Dr Nahmeldeen al-Falahe, a consultant psychiatrist at the Priory Hospital in the UK. Disconnecting? A study carried out by the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) named "24 hours unplugged" followed students at the University of Maryland as they went without any form of digital media including internet, social media, phones and music - for one day.
While disconnected, students complained of feeling depressed, lonely, bored and less focused. Facebook rehab? 100 Websites You Should Know and Use. Entertainment Meet David Peterson, who developed Dothraki for Game of Thrones There are seven different words in Dothraki for striking another person with a sword.
Among them: “hlizifikh,” a wild but powerful strike; “hrakkarikh,”a quick and accurate strike; and “gezrikh,” a fake-out or decoy strike. But you won’t find these words in George R. R. Culture My Year of TED: How 54 talks changed a life By Kylie Dunn What do you get when you cross a 39-year-old perfectionist with 54 TED Talks and far more honesty than any person probably needs to experience?
Entertainment Meet David Peterson, who developed Dothraki for Game of Thrones There are seven different words in Dothraki for striking another person with a sword. Culture. Jane Has A Job: Modern Career Fashion + Style. DollyMix. Jezebel: Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women. Without Airbrushing.
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