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Editor's note
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The U.S. government is officially closed for business. Senate Republicans failed to gain enough support to pass a last-minute deal to keep the government open for another month. While federal employees deemed essential, such as soldiers, airport screeners and food safety inspectors will continue to do their jobs – albeit unpaid – hundreds of thousands will be sent home. So what kind of impact will a sudden absence of several million paychecks have on the U.S. economy? Finance professor Scott Baker studied the impact of the last shutdown, in 2013, and found some
surprising results.
Meanwhile, the political blame game begins. Political scientist Jennifer Victor argues that fingers should be pointing in a familiar direction.
And for those troubled by the distractions of the world we live in, UC Berkeley’s David Marno offers words of comfort when he explains how early Christian monks had a “remarkably patient attitude” towards distraction. In fact, he urges us to consider: Are attention and distraction in reality the same behavior?
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Bryan Keogh
Economics + Business Editor
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Top stories
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The Lincoln Monument was a casualty of the last shutdown, in 2013.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Scott R. Baker, Northwestern University
The 2013 shutdown offers some clues as to what the impact will be now after Republicans and Democrats failed to agree to a short-term spending deal.
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Trump on Jan. 19, 2018.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Jennifer Victor, George Mason University
What’s unique about this shutdown? It happened under a unified government – and that’s bad news for the GOP.
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Should we be more patient with those we view as distracted?
Serhii Bobyk/Shutterstock.com
David Marno, University of California, Berkeley
We disapprove of distraction and consider attention as being valuable. What if they were, in fact, morally charged words, referring to the same behavior? Here's what early Christian monks thought.
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Politics + Society
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Miguel Angel Latouche, Universidad Central de Venezuela
Venezuela's terrible crisis has gotten worse, as children die of hunger and food riots grip the country. Still, President Maduro retains his grip on power. This is not what democracy looks like.
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Juliet Williams, University of California, Los Angeles
While sexual harassment is still all too common, at least we’re having more open conversations about it, and victims are speaking up on their own terms.
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Environment + Energy
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David R. Montgomery, University of Washington
In response to mudslides that have killed at least 20 people in Southern California, a geologist calls for more resources to study and map landslide hazards so residents can understand the risks.
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Tom Vilsack, Colorado State University
Congress is drafting the 2018 farm bill, which will guide agriculture, nutrition, trade and rural development policy. A former agriculture secretary explains how this bill reaches far beyond farms.
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Science + Technology
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Timothy J. Jorgensen, Georgetown University
In what came to be known as the Thule incident, an American bomber crashed in Greenland, spreading radioactive wreckage across 3 square miles of a frozen fjord. Denmark was not happy.
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Clifford Johnson, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
You might not think much about science topics as part of your everyday life. But science – like art, music, religion – is part of our culture, and scientists can help it reclaim its rightful place.
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Sharon Strover, University of Texas at Austin
Many people in rural America don't have access to fast, affordable internet access. How might those communities connect to the global exchange of goods, services and ideas?
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Congrui Jin, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Adding a bit of fungus to the initial ingredient list might be one way to endow concrete with the ability to fill in any bits of damage that occur, without the need for human intervention.
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Education
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Kelly Ochs Rosinger, Pennsylvania State University
Although proponents of making the SAT optional hoped it would expand college access for low-income and minority students, research shows that hasn't happened.
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Claire Smrekar, Vanderbilt University
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos once called Excel Academy Public Charter School a 'shining example.' A Vanderbilt scholar explains why that description was woefully off target.
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Arts + Culture
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John Dyck, CUNY Graduate Center
Sometimes a work of art is characterized by a string of failures, but nonetheless ends up being a gorgeous freak accident of nature.
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Thomas J. Whalen, Boston University
A debilitating eye injury and racial epithets weren't enough to derail O'Ree's resolve.
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Health + Medicine
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Miriam Boeri, Bentley University
Research from the last few decades suggest marijuana helps more than it harms. But Jeff Sessions' proposed crackdown would take us back nearly a century.
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Morten Wendelbo, Texas A&M University ; Christine Crudo Blackburn, Texas A&M University
Thanks to Hurricane Maria, some US hospitals are experiencing a saline shortage. In times of emergency, medical supply chains break down too easily.
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Economy + Business
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Amy Hsin, City University of New York
While comprehensive immigration reform may be out of reach, giving immigrants who came to the US as children citizenship not only has broad political support but makes economic sense too.
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Chris Larson, University of Colorado
Few of them are getting rich off their books but the genre is making them more money than it used to.
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Ethics + Religion
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Lisa Bitel, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
An affair between a philosophy professor and his teenage student became the subject of ballads in the streets of Paris in the 12th century. A scholar asks: Why wasn't it called sexual harassment?
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