Diamond vs. Loaf

Based on the incredible popularity of my Pence vs. Quayle post I’ve decided to do another head-to-head face off. Today’s topic, however, is far more important: Neil Diamond or Meat Loaf? Who is the more bombastic performer? Who is cheesier? Who has the best lip curl? Who the most ridiculous lyrics? Who is your favorite? …

Over-diagnosis of ADHD?

Today’s post again comes from a NYT crossword puzzle. Clue 25A: reason to grant extra testing time, for short. Answer: ADHD. As a parent and educator the answer piqued my interest. I had some vague idea of a controversy regarding ADHD over-diagnosis , especially in the United States, but I didn’t really know much about …

Correcting the EU’s failed immigration policy

This is the third in a series of slightly longer posts drawing on some of my academic work. Following up on my last post, here I propose an alternative to current failed EU immigration policies. As Europeans we stand before a caesura. Our unity, our democratic institutions, our belief in the inviolability of human dignity, …

Only focusing on strengths is a recipe for mediocracy

Hi, Astrid here. I haven’t been as active as I would like to be on the Brain Juice blog – something I hope to correct in 2021. This is a revised English version of a German post on our company homepage. My motivation for writing this post is the banality of many business coaches posting …

The true legacy of the Cold War

This is the second in a series of slightly longer posts drawing on some of my academic work. Following up on my last post, here I examine how post Cold War hubris has laid the groundwork for current Europe nationalism and xenophobia. When the Berlin Wall fell, neoconservative policy makers in the West broke into …

The Cold War wasn’t all that cold

In the next few blogs I am going to shorten up and break into blog sized bits some of the papers I completed this past semester. The blogs will be a little longer than usual, but I think they are well worth reading. Here is a first installment about the Cold War. Let me know …

Lying to get a job in the Age of Big Data

Last semester I took a seminar on digital ethics. In the course we examined how big data and algorithms intersect in models that analyze what we do and predict what we are likely to do next. Two of the books we read were Cathy O’Neil’s Weapons of Math Destruction and Nick Bostrom’s Superintelliegence. I recommend …

Corona is not the only crisis

After the Moria fire in September 2020 media coverage suddenly focused on the appalling conditions in the refugee camp. In 2018, the BBC had already dubbed Moria “the worst refugee camp on earth,” and Jean Ziegler had compared it to a concentration camp. The world, however, took no notice. The refugees have now been moved …

A message to my fellow Austrians and friends around the world

A few days ago Arnold Schwarzenegger, posted “a message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world” on LinkedIn. I won’t wade into the quagmire of comments (and rants masquerading as comments) that his video has triggered. Suffice it to say, the United States is deeply divided and Joe Biden faces a challenge. I …

Nose jobs in Korea

Jeff Bezos isn’t the only person whose business has improved because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cosmetic surgeons in South Korea have been profiting from a significant increase in the number of rhinoplasty patients. The nose job boom can be attributed to two factors. First, many Koreans are self-conscious about the bruising and swelling associated with …