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Rethinking Human Value Beyond Wealth

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I was surprised to realize I had never read  The Great Gatsby  until last week. The 1925 novel is almost a required reading for high schoolers across the US and is consistently deemed one of the greatest American novels ever written. A recent article in the Economist extolling the relevance of the novel's overarching theme on the permanence of class differences and the meaninglessness of wealth finally piqued my curiosity enough for me to pick up the book and finish it in two days. Let's call it a belated gift to my high school self. 

Lazy Stereotypes Hampers Real Intercultural Understanding

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A piece of news from a few days ago gave a group of cynical netizens a good laugh. An Air India flight bound for Delhi was forced to turn back less than five hours after it took off from Chicago. The cause was a widespread blockage of toilets on the flight, leading to 11 of the 12 lavatories onboard being out of service despite the flight being less than a third of the way to the destination. Anxious passengers, upon return to Chicago, were provided with accommodation and booking on alternative airlines on their way, as one can assume, home.

How Malta Treats Its Cats Shows that Not Everything that Can Be Marketable Needs to be

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My wife and I have become habitual feeders of the stray cats in our neighborhood. Several plastic bowls sit on the few stone steps to the narrow street below the front door. Filled with dry food throughout the day and wet food in the colder evenings and overnight hours, the impromptu feeding station can sometimes attract up to a dozen cats. Many have become comfortable enough to run into the house for a quick petting when we open the door to refill the bowls. We are comfortable doing so because all the neighbors also put out food, as if competing for the cats' attention.