HISTORY

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The Comfortable Conscience

How Eighty-Six turns a story of war, discrimination, and survival into an unsettling examination of human empathy—and why its greatest achievement may be its refusal to abandon hope. Contains major spoilers for the anime Eighty-Six. There is a country where nobody dies in war. Its citizens live behind enormous walls, attend school, drink coffee, fall […]

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The Many Gods of a Single Street

In Singapore's old waterfront district, a Chinese temple, an Indian Muslim mosque and a Methodist church have survived nearly two centuries of political change. Their history raises a difficult question: how does a society divided by faith decide the terms on which it will live together?

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THE BEAUTIFUL MACHINES

Why do humans refuse to leave useful things merely useful? A truck does not need a peacock to carry freight. It does not need poetry painted across its body, mirrors along its sides, or colors bright enough to announce its arrival before the engine does. None of that makes the cargo lighter or shortens the […]

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