Articles written by Pavel Podolyak

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Politics, News & Issues > Hunger, Disease & Poverty Is foreign aid the solution to global poverty?: 2 of 45

Lack of focus on aiding fellow citizens instead of foreigners has hurt the richest and the poorest countries of the world. Let's say somebody forced you to give 500 dollars away but gave you the option to choose who to give it to. Let's say they also gave you the option of giving same amount in the form of a gift or labor. W...
Politics, News & Issues > War & Peace The Pentagon reports rising violence throughout Iraq: Who's to blame?: 1 of 14

The Primary Influence on Iraq Violence Since 2005 is Changes in the Price of Oil Fluctuations in the oil price and Iraqi people's reaction to it seems to better explain decrease in violence during the "surge" as well as recent rise in bombings. We had it drilled into our heads that correlation is not causation so why does ev...
Entertainment > Entertainment (Other) Which genre is the most useful: Radio or television?: 2 of 21

If you think that current television programming is only good for poking fun at it, you've seen nothing yet. Television is obviously more useful than radio due to ability to transmit more visual information about the state of the world. However that is becoming irrelevant since demographic trends and profit driven industry i...
Politics, News & Issues > International Politics (Other) Should the US continue to be the leader in world politics?: 3 of 31

English influence in Europe, and by extension the world, has done enough harm already and it's time for America to let Europe and the world economy breathe free. As much as it seem beneficial for Europe to have a common lingua franca (so it could finally unite politically and start creating a grand supra cultural entity) one...
Health & Fitness > Depression Causes of depression: 4 of 28

American Style Economic System Causes Mental Depression So it appears that the anti-depressant use in United States has risen from 6% of the population in 1996 to over 10% by 2005. It is hardly surprising that a 10 billion dollar "depression" fighting industry (that is bigger than video games) doubled the amount of regular u...
Religion & Spirituality > Religion & Spirituality (Other) The Golden Compass: Is religious criticism warranted?: 3 of 18

To systematically attack religion is to honor and empower it. Even in late 18th century, many self respecting people who valued knowledge would not be caught dead admitting belief in a very particular form of ghost worship. Anything short of deism/atheism was seen just as absurd as ghost worship of conquered Native Americans...
Politics, News & Issues > Political Issues Did President Obama's speech in Cairo launch a 'new beginning' in relations between Muslims and the U.S.?: 1 of 6

Obama's speech in Egypt should be seen through a lens of economic nationalism. As such, his speech seemed intent to weaken the Egyptian regime. How would that help United States? Obama's primary focus is domestic and revolves around stabilization of the American economy through industrial policy, to crawl out of the economic...
Politics, News & Issues > International Politics (Other) Is a Single World Government the way forward?: 3 of 15

Recently, the global international situation changed from one of feudalism (with each feudal lord constantly trying to slaughter the other with full use of the vassal states and being polite and collegial in peacetime), to one of libertarianism. The former vassal states/serfs are now "free" to work for former masters who now...
Local Guides > New York City A visitor's guide to New York City's subways: 1 of 5

Nothing illustrates the economic and moral bankruptcy of the country that calls itself a superpower better than the midtown Manhattan subway complex on Lexington avenue. I recently had the misfortune to find myself there after a light rain. Above the station, the area is filled with rather impressive corporate high rise stru...
Health & Fitness > Nutrition & Health Issues McDonald's Big Mac turned 40 in 2007: Time to retire this icon of unhealthy fast food?: 3 of 14

Popularity of McDonalds, and the ghastly pride the nation takes in it, has done a lot to help create an insurmountable nutritional gap between the wealthier and poorer citizens of United States. This gap is bound to grow wider in years ahead and it has a mutually influential relationship with the similarly widening education...