Category Archives: Culture

‘Love and Romance’, the way I feel it: Dorothee Heckmann (28)

Q. What is love? How would you define it?

Dorothee: I think there are two ways of love. Just two, between man and woman. One of it is the normal way, that means, I think I need someone to clean my flat, to tell me that I am beautiful or to spend some time with me or anything like that. It means I have a need. And this is a ‘shit love’.
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Bring your own service: Employees want social tools at work, despite company restrictions and hesitation, reports new Microsoft survey

Global survey across 32 countries shows worker appetite for social tools is increasing, even if it means spending their own money and defying organizational policy to use the technology.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 27, 2013 — Nearly half of employees report that social tools at work help increase their productivity, but more than 30 percent of companies underestimate the value of these tools and often restrict their use, according to new Microsoft research released today.

The survey, conducted for Microsoft Corp. by research firm Ipsos among 9,908 information workers in 32 countries, also found that 39 percent of employees feel there isn’t enough collaboration in their workplaces, and 40 percent believe social tools help foster better teamwork. More surprisingly, 31 percent said they are willing to spend their own money to buy social tools. (more…)

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Women donate less to charity than men in some contexts

Given the chance, women are more likely than men to opt out of a request to give a charitable donation, a group of economists have found.

The issue of which gender is more generous has been debated for years. A new field experiment conducted by scholars at the University of Chicago and University of California, Berkeley shows that when it’s easy to avoid making a donation, such as not responding to a door-to-door solicitor, women are less likely than men to give. (more…)

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Individual Donation Amounts Drop When Givers Are in Groups, Says MU Researcher

COLUMBIA, Mo. — In December of last year the New York Post published images of a man about to be killed by a train while several bystanders did little to help him. Numerous studies have provided evidence that people are less likely to help when in groups, a phenomenon known as the “bystander effect.” Those studies examined situations where only one person was needed to take action to help another. A University of Missouri anthropologist recently found that even when multiple individuals can contribute to a common cause, the presence of others reduces an individual’s likelihood of helping. This research has numerous applications, including possibly guiding the fundraising strategies of charitable organizations.

“In our study, individuals who didn’t want to share money tended to influence others to not share money,” said Karthik Panchanathan, assistant professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Science. “We don’t know what psychological mechanism caused that, but perhaps potential givers did not want to be ‘suckers,’ who gave up their money while someone else got away with giving nothing. Selfish behavior in others may have given individuals an opportunity to escape any moral obligation to share that they might have felt.” (more…)

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Mapping American life

Winterthur exhibit showcases UD professor’s research on maps and culture

A new exhibit at Winterthur Museum highlights the research conducted by University of Delaware faculty member Martin Brückner, focusing on the important part that maps played in everyday American life from the 1750s to the 1870s.

“Common Destinations: Maps in the American Experience” opened Saturday, April 20, and will run through Jan. 5. Brückner, associate professor of English and of material culture studies at UD, was exploring what seemed to be an early American fascination with maps when he discovered that Winterthur’s collections included numerous examples of maps being used in daily life. He developed the idea for an exhibition from that discovery and his additional research.  (more…)

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150 Years of Mexican, Mexican American History Now Online

The UA Libraries has just made 150 years of regionally published newspapers documenting the voice of Mexican and Mexican American communities digitally available for the first time

A new digital collection at the University of Arizona Libraries makes accessible more than 150 years of news coverage documenting the voice of the Mexican and Mexican American community. (more…)

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Jordanna Bailkin studies postwar Britain in new book ‘The Afterlife of Empire’

Jordanna Bailkin is a University of Washington professor of history and author of the new book “The Afterlife of Empire.” She answered a few questions about the book for UW Today.

Q: What is the central concept behind this book?

A: I wanted to understand how Britain and Britons were affected by losing their empire, and how they were changed — often in deeply personal ways — by this process of decolonization. (more…)

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Perfectly mixed up

Drama has become a regular activity for Exeter’s young people in care who have joined forces with students from the University of Exeter to stage a play in Austin, Texas. Stetsons and cowboy boots are at the ready as Exeter’s creative gang of performers head to the United States.

This life changing experience will be the first time that the theatre company ‘Perfectly Mixed Up’ travel and perform outside of Devon. Throughout the week long stay the company will perform their show, More than the Sum, and run two workshops with young people in care in Austin, Texas. ‘Perfectly Mixed Up’ are guests of the University of Texas at Austin who have an exchange programme with the Drama department at University of Exeter.   (more…)

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