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By Laura Tropp. This week I have been following some conversations taking place about screen addiction. Jane Brody wrote about the issue in her New York Times column, and a new documentary called Web Junkie, about teens in China addicted to video games, airs next week on PBS. Read more...

By Rosemarie Emanuele. In math, we sometimes talk about a set having a “boundary” that separates it from items not in the set. For example, the boundary of the United States to the South might be seen as the border with Mexico. I found myself thinking of such boundaries this past week as a heat wave swept through our part of Ohio, when I, almost of necessity, brought my daughter to the public pool most evenings. Read more...

By Rosemarie Emanuele. In Economics, the idea of “hedonic pricing” is sometimes used to study the determinants of prices, where the differences in qualities of products can be seen as leading to the differences in market prices. I thought of this recently as I watched a TV show following two families as they attempted to purchase homes in Charleston, South Carolina and in San Francisco, California. The family in Charleston bought a large, beautiful home for the same price the family in San Francisco spent on a two bedroom condominium, a condominium much smaller than my first home for which I paid a small fraction of their price. Read more...

By Rosemarie Emanuele. In math, a central role is played in the process of classifying numbers and objects to form groups, as when numbers are classified as whole numbers, integers,  or complex numbers. I found myself thinking of this recently, and about my own journey into different academic self-classifications, as I watched the arrival of photographs of a celestial body formerly known as a planet, but always called “Pluto”. Read more...

By Rosemarie Emanuele. Economic theory, and the graphs that can illustrate it, indicate that people tend to prefer “mixed bundles” of goods to bundles consisting of only one good. For example, people tend to prefer dinners consisting of a protein, a starch, and a vegetable to dinners consisting of only one of these. Read more...

By Susan O'Doherty. In the morning, I posted one of his toddler pictures on my Facebook timeline, along with a brief appreciation. I heard from friends from many different parts and periods of my life, sending congratulations to Ben and reminding me of shared experiences over the years. Read more...

By Susan O'Doherty. Years ago, I accompanied an older friend, who was in the early stages of dementia, to a medical appointment. Her husband and others who saw her in a number of settings commented on her increasing cognitive confusion, but because I usually visited her at her home, where she was comfortable and in a familiar environment, I experienced her as the same charming and witty hostess I had known before she became ill. Read more...

By Susan O'Doherty. I have wanted to produce and direct a film for some time now. I don't aspire to actually be a producer or director, but I am curious about aspects of filmmaking that I don't have experience with, and I am a hands-on learner. Read more...

By Susan O'Doherty. I used to work in a troubled, overcrowded inner city elementary school. Some terrific kids went there, but even the brightest and most industrious weren't learning much. There were usually 30-35 students in a class, with an overwhelmed, burned-out teacher. Read more...

By Susan O'Doherty. My first round of trying to "make it" as an actor — high school through my early thirties — was marked by a lack of ambition that a number of my teachers, colleagues and friends found troubling. Read more...