Disclosure: The author is a member of the Harvard Open Data Project. The group pushes for open data policies at Harvard and conducts projects with public datasets. Stores of data are growing so quickly that we now create as much data in two days as the entirety of mankind did up until 2013. Now that we … Read more
The first things that come to mind at the word “infrastructure” are roads and bridges. But access to clean water is one of the most important infrastructural resources needed to sustain human life and develop large population centers. However, many voters don’t consider clean water access or other related environmental issues, with the exception of … Read more
In the past four years, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray have become household names after they were killed by police. Their deaths helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement and initiated a conversation about the relationships between police and communities of color—in particular, black communities. As other cities have seen major protests, Boston … Read more
In “The Odyssey,” Homer refers to a substance which “banishes all care, sorrow, and anger.” Here, he is likely speaking of opium, a substance with the same active ingredient as the modern-day heroin. It seems that from Homer’s time to modern day America, psychoactive substances have fascinated us throughout all of human history. Accordingly, different … Read more
In the wake of the worst Democratic defeat in decades, most Democrats seem to have completely missed the point. Instead of a forum for serious analysis of the 2016 election, the race for chair of the Democratic National Committee, which will come to a long-awaited end today, has become merely another battlefield in the ongoing … Read more
When Cage Reeder was accepted to Harvard, he knew his next step. He had played football throughout high school and hoped to continue participating in the game he loved. The fact that he had not been recruited for the Harvard team was not going to keep him from pursuing his passion. He contacted the coaches, … Read more
On May 10, 1973, Sahrawi university students and soldiers from the Spanish army assembled in a small village-fort in northeast Mauritania to declare the Polisario Front. Ten days later, seven of these individuals began their campaign across the West African coast, attacking a Spanish outpost at El-Khanga. With this began the Western Sahara Conflict––the … Read more
Over the past year, violence between the Burmese government and Rohingya Muslims has escalated due to the killing of nine police officers in Rakhine State, home to most of Myanmar’s one million Rohingya. Reprisals over the police assassinations have led state security forces into the region to search for the alleged Rohingya terrorists. However, since the … Read more
Given its over-200 year legacy, the Electoral College has been greatly distorted by the rose-colored lenses of history, its purposes and its creators’ intentions largely relegated to the background in the popular imagination. Though optimistic views of its origins have perpetuated its support, said origins are not as pure as proponents claim them to be. … Read more
Last week at the IOP’s National Campaign for Political Engagement, college students from a variety of schools around the country gathered to discuss political polarization. In one discussion group at the event, U.S. Army veteran Joe Goodwin talked with students about a proposal for a mandatory national service program. In his TED Talk, Goodwin details … Read more