Articles in Mad Musings
Simone de Beauvoir on facing old age and avoiding bad faith

Old age is not exactly a time of life that most of us welcome, although globally speaking it is a privilege to reach it. In Western societies, the shocked realisation that we are growing old …
ADHD Procrastination Strategies: Accomplish More, Feel Great

Whether you fear criticism, misjudge the passage of time, or get overwhelmed by the sheer size of your to-do list, procrastination is a problem that most with ADHD share. Learn three common reasons why we …
Argue better by signaling your receptiveness with these words

Whether it’s warring spouses, neighbourly disputes or broken friendships, it seems that disagreement followed by conflict is almost inevitable whenever people spend enough time together. And the more important the relationship, the more devastating that conflict …
Zelle scammers bilk bank customers out of thousands

Two Chicago-area women say scammers bilked them out of $3,500 each by conning them over the phone and then using the Zelle mobile-payment system to withdraw money from their Bank of America accounts.
“It’s really distressing,” …
How to Drop Your New Adult Off at College

Hey, parents who are about to drop your kid off at college for the first time. Can we talk?
As you usher your precious pearls through the archway of adulthood in the midst of a pandemic, you …
What to do in your 20s to avoid regrets in your 30s and 40s?

1. Don’t make a belief about “living in the moment.” Either do not trust that purchasing new bags, shoes, or clothes can give you extra points, yet don’t think it is cool to squander. Before …
How can you identify intelligent people?

Really like this list – lifted from Quora by Kelly Duncan:
Intelligent people do not like to gossip, they like talking about idea and innovations. Hence, they cannot just be friends with everybody. Average people sometimes …
A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you

Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life – money, power, jobs, university admission – should be distributed according to skill …
Do Americans Know How Much Trouble They’re In?

A President who invokes absolute authority to…pardon himself. An ambassador to Germany who declares he wants to…topple the German government. Senators — the most powerful people in democracy, save the President — knocking on the door of a …
Source: …
Employees Don’t Quit Their Job; They Quit Their Boss!

Employees might join companies, but they leave managers. Too many managers view their position as one of entitlement rather than one of responsibility. In days past, managers would focus on developing their employees. Today they …
Americans are pack rats. Swedes have the solution: ‘Death cleaning.’

If your family doesn’t want your stuff when you’re alive, they sure won’t want it when you’re dead.
That’s the blunt assessment of yet another self-help author from abroad who is trying to get Americans, who …
A pretty good idea of when humans will go extinct

This might strike you as overly optimistic or pessimistic, depending on your worldview. Certain apocalyptic scenarios envision a perfect storm of inequality, resource scarcity and political instability wiping out civilization as we know it in …
Read like you’re on a diet

I think in this context, they’re absolutely necessary. The Internet is like a bunch of fast food restaurants, all within a click’s reach, yelling at your face:
“HEY YOU. READ MY SHIT.”
“NO, READ MINE.”
“YOU’VE GOTTA READ …
Nothing fake about the top 0.1% holding the same amount of wealth as the bottom 90%.

While people argue about what is real and fake news the widening gulf of inequality in the real world only continues to expand. This is actually happening and for the ultra wealthy that hold most …
Stop Punishing Black Children Just Because They’re Black

Schools should be held to higher standards than students. If schools irresponsibly impose discipline practices, then those rules (or leaders) should be expelled. However, when it comes to discipline, we give students the cane and …
The states that spend more money on prisoners than college students

It’s a terrible waste of taxpayer money.
Since 1990, state and local spending on prisons and jails has risen more than three times faster than spending on schools, according to a new Department of Education report …
Is it possible to be fair to actors we simply, irrationally just don’t like?

More to the point, why do we unquestioningly “love” certain actors and instinctively, almost reflexively, “hate” others? In the vortex of 24/7 celebrity infotainment, it’s now impossible to watch performers on screen without being aware …
Crony capitalism and the rigged system

Both Democrats and Republicans are in this game together. They only differ in minor ways. That is why this year with Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump having success, it is surprising to hear from candidates …
Learning to play fair: Is it the same for kids around the world?

Life isn’t fair.
That truth is something that children seem to understand almost intuitively at a young age. However, the path through which they develop a sense of what’s fair and what isn’t — and how …
Gandhi’s Unequal Justice in South Africa

The young lawyer fought the British empire for the rights of Indians, but not those of the Zulus he lived among.
Gandhi was 24 years old when he arrived in Natal, South Africa in May 1893, …
Statistically speaking, when are you going to die? Come find out!

Give us your age and gender, and we’ll tell you when you’ll die, using math!
The last Friday of the summer season is now upon us. As the days shorten and the leaves change and the year …
Liberals Are Wrong to Separate Race from Class

Doing so undermines the cause of racial equality in general and the pursuit of equitable treatment in the criminal justice system in particular.
After shutting down a Bernie Sanders speech at a Seattle rally for Social Security, …
At college drop-off weepfest, remember these three words

Parenting doesn’t stop at Freshman Week.
All across the United States, people are weeping. They are sobbing, sputtering, sniveling and mewling because they are in the process of saying goodbye to their little baby boy or …
A Hubble Cosmic Couple | NASA

What a spectacular sight
Here we see the spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 — more commonly known as WR 124 — and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it. Both objects, captured here by …
DARPA-Funded Humanoid Runs Through the Woods

The 6-foot 2-inch, 330-pound Atlas robot is the brainchild of Google Inc. subsidiary Boston Dynamics, which has received contracts from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon’s research arm, to develop the technology for …
Dark side of the moon captured by Nasa satellite a million miles from Earth

“It’s unusual because you need a spacecraft that has gone beyond the moon to get a picture of the moon like this,” he said. “This was taken around one million miles from Earth. We don’t …
Stormy Seas in Sagittarius | NASA

Some of the most breathtaking views in the Universe are created by nebulae — hot, glowing clouds of gas. This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the center of the Lagoon Nebula, an object …
12 Things People Regret the Most Before They Die

Life is full of choices, and many of them come with uncertainty. We can never know what might have been if we had chosen differently.
No life will ever be completely clear of opportunity for regret. …
According to the theory of evolution, why do we die? – Quora

Excellent question. And before I explain the real answer, which is rather mind-bending, here are some previous arguments and why they are wrong.
Myth 1: We die to make room for younger generations.
Genes are selfish, …
Dead or in Jail: The Burden of Being a Black Man in America

There was a time when I vowed to never bring another black child into this world. “For what?” I thought. “To be beaten, to be caged, to be taught to hate himself and everyone who …