All posts tagged: principles

The Psychology Behind Why Some Homes Feel Good But Most Don’t: Interior Design Principles Explained

The Psychology Behind Why Some Homes Feel Good But Most Don’t: Interior Design Principles Explained

Published by José Betancourt

Though it may have enjoyed occa­sion­al waves of pop-cul­tur­al pres­tige over the years, inte­ri­or design remains an over­looked art. That is to say, few both­er to appre­ci­ate, or even to notice, its sim­i­lar­i­ties with oth­er, more “seri­ous” forms of human endeav­or. Watch the recent Five by Nine video above, and even if you’ve felt rea­son­ably con­tent with wher­ev­er your own couch, chairs, and tables have come to rest up until now, you’ll soon find your­self con­sid­er­ing which prin­ci­ples of inte­ri­or design you’ve always been unknow­ing­ly vio­lat­ing. For our eyes “read” a room just as it would a para­graph, or even a paint­ing, and they sense instinc­tive­ly if some­thing’s wrong — or, worse, if too much is right. One com­mon ama­teur mis­take is to arrange rooms so that “every­thing lives on one sin­gle hor­i­zon­tal band that starts at the floor and ends around two and a half feet up.” With all the fur­ni­ture on more or less a sin­gle lev­el, your eye “has no rea­son to trav­el upward or into the cor­ners,” and thus per­ceives a strange­ly flat­tened …

When Brazil Built Its Capital on Modernist Principles: The Controversial Design of Brasília

When Brazil Built Its Capital on Modernist Principles: The Controversial Design of Brasília

Published by José Betancourt

When we think of mod­ern archi­tec­ture, we often think first of what’s called the Inter­na­tion­al Style, whose min­i­mal­ist, rec­ti­lin­ear, dec­o­ra­tion-free forms were cham­pi­oned by the likes of Wal­ter Gropius, Lud­wig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Cor­busier. Though they did build projects all over the world, that isn’t exact­ly the rea­son for the name. In fact, the Inter­na­tion­al Style rep­re­sents an attempt to devel­op a cul­tur­al­ly neu­tral aes­thet­ic for all built envi­ron­ments, deploy­able equal­ly in Europe, Asia, the Amer­i­c­as, and every­where else besides. That pre­tense to uni­ver­sal­i­ty may count as the most utopi­an aspect of an avowed­ly utopi­an move­ment — and the one whose imprac­ti­cal­i­ty came soon­est to light. Before he became Brazil’s most famous archi­tect, Oscar Niemey­er sub­scribed to the prin­ci­ples of the Inter­na­tion­al Style. But then, as an acolyte of Le Cor­busier, he could hard­ly have done oth­er­wise. When the great man came to Rio de Janeiro in 1936 to design the new Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion and Health, Niemey­er was hired to work on the project. The expe­ri­ence seems to have done its …

Politics Home Article | PM Says His Principles Are The Same As Public On Iran War

Politics Home Article | PM Says His Principles Are The Same As Public On Iran War

Published by Sam Flores

(Alamy) 4 min read10 min Keir Starmer has said he believes that his principles on how to approach the Iran war “are shared by the British people” as he set out support for UK households using heating oil. At a Downing Street press conference on Monday morning, Starmer said there would be “immediate support” worth £53m for households reliant on heating oil that are “most exposed” to rising prices. Referring to reports that oil companies had been cancelling orders and hiking prices, the Prime Minister said legal action would be taken if they had been found to have broken the law. UK households will be protected by the Ofgem cap until July. However, energy bills could rise that month if global prices remain high. Drivers are already seeing the impact of the war in Iran, with diesel and petrol prices rising sharply in recent weeks.  On Sunday night, US President Donald Trump called for European allies to join him in the Middle East, telling the Financial Times that NATO faces a “very bad” future if allies like …

Iran and US agree on ‘guiding principles’ for a deal, say Iranian officials

Iran and US agree on ‘guiding principles’ for a deal, say Iranian officials

Published by Sam Flores

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, Switzerland on February 17, 2026. PIERRE ALBOUY / REUTERS Iran and the United States agreed to “a set of guiding principles” laying the groundwork for a broader deal during talks in Geneva on Tuesday, February 17, Tehran’s top diplomat said, after the leaders of both countries traded warnings of military action. The Omani-mediated talks were aimed at averting the possibility of US military intervention to curb Iran’s nuclear program, while Tehran is demanding the lifting of US sanctions that are crippling its economy. Iran’s supreme leader had warned earlier in the day that the country could sink a US warship recently deployed to the region. Read more Subscribers only Iran: Videos show live ammunition used in crackdown “Ultimately, we were able to reach broad agreement on a set of guiding principles, based on which we will move forward and begin working on the text of a potential agreement,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state TV after Tuesday’s talks, which he described as “more constructive” than the previous round …

How African principles of community are helping Black students in the UK into PhD study

How African principles of community are helping Black students in the UK into PhD study

Published by skeptic

Across the UK, Black students remain significantly underrepresented in doctoral programmes. This is despite years of widening participation policies and a growing awareness that the pathways into a PhD are often far harder to navigate for some groups than others. My research with colleagues shows that a different approach is possible: one that draws on long-standing African philosophies of community, character and collective care. In 2021, I and colleagues launched the Accomplished Study Programme in Research Excellence (Aspire), an initiative led by Sheffield Hallam University in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University and higher education charity Advance HE. The programme emerged from a national funding competition aimed at widening access and participation for Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups in postgraduate research. Aspire provides personalised, culturally grounded mentorship that combines academic development and wellbeing support. The programme works with Black students in their final year of undergraduate and master’s degrees, as well as graduates who may have left university long ago, helping them find their way into doctoral study. Aspire takes inspiration from two African philosophies. …

How Trump’s Greenland threats amount to an implicit rejection of the legal principles of Nuremberg

How Trump’s Greenland threats amount to an implicit rejection of the legal principles of Nuremberg

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — U.S. President Donald Trump has, for the moment, indicated a willingness to abandon his threat to take over Greenland through military force – saying that he prefers negotiation to invasion. He is, however, continuing to assert that the United States ought to acquire ownership of the self-governing territory. Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of using military action, against both Greenland and Canada. These threats were often taken as fanciful. The fact that he has, successfully, used military force to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power has lent some plausibility to these threats. Crucially, these military possibilities have been justified almost exclusively with reference to what Trump’s administration sees as America’s national interests. Anything short of ownership in the case of Greenland, the president has emphasized, would fail to adequately protect American interests. As a political philosopher concerned with the moral analysis of international relations, I am deeply troubled by this vision of warfare – and by the moral justifications used to legitimize the making of war. This view of warfare …

Conservatives are flipping civil rights principles on their head

Conservatives are flipping civil rights principles on their head

Published by Sam Flores

A year into President Donald Trump’s second term, the federal government is flipping the logic of civil rights on its head, using the language of nondiscrimination to destroy the legal structures that themselves aim to prevent discrimination. Early in Trump’s second term, he moved to end federal diversity, equity and inclusion measures, popularly referred to as “DEI” programs. While DEI programs found themselves the topic of conservative ire in the 2020s, especially after the summer of 2020, the programs go back decades. For example, President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order No. 11246 mandated nondiscrimination in federal government employment and the employment practices of federal contractors. This required government agencies to establish a “positive program of equal employment opportunity” and required private contractors to file compliance reports with the federal government, demonstrating their nondiscrimination practices. While diversity programs have gone by a variety of names over the decades — nondiscrimination, affirmative action, DEI — they all trace their roots to the Civil Rights Movement, which lasted from 1954 to 1968. Now the Trump administration is ending …