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It all started with the Hadids. Where supermodels who went before used shades to shield themselves from the paparazzi, Bella can often be seen taking shelter behind a hefty book. To be more specific, The Outsider by Stephen King. Over the course of Paris Fashion Week autumn/winter 2019, she carried the novel distinguishable by its scarlet jacket with her everywhere she went. And upon leaving the city, Hadid shared an Instagram photo of her unputdownable read as her chosen form of in-flight entertainment. Next to it sat some other cherished accessories: a cherry-print vintage Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami carry-on and a Dior monogrammed pouch. Leaving us to wonder: are hardback books back? Because where the supers lead, the rest of the world tends to follow.

Bella Hadid clutching her copy of The Outsider

Claudio Lavenia

Days before at Milan Fashion Week, Bellas older sister Gigi was seen toting not a Chanel bag, but a copy of The Stranger by Albert Camus. Never heard of it, far less attempted to read it? Thats because its typically found on the bookshelves of French literature geeks and aspiring philosophers. En route to the Fendi show, Hadid clasped her copy rather than a clutch, its black and white cover the perfect complement to her light olive green suit.

Gigi Hadid is a Camus fan

Arnold Jerocki

In the months that followed, Kendall Jenner was frequently seen with her latest read tucked under her arm, or sidelining her phone to delve into a book instead while on holiday. In one exotic locale, Jenner sunned herself with friend Luka Sabbat while devouring Darcie Wilders Literally Show Me A Healthy Person. That was in May 2019, by August she was onto her next literary find: No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July. Next came Fariha Roisins How To Cure A Ghost, swiftly followed by Melissa Broders So Sad Today.

While fashions love affair with literature is nothing new, models flaunting their latest must-read like a fresh-from-the-runway accessory certainly is. British Vogue cover star Jourdan Dunn spent February getting stuck into Candice Carty-Williamss debut novel, Queenie, and took care to Instagram it for her followers to take note of, too.

Read more: Kaia Gerber Rediscovers Her Denim To Kick Off Her Book Club

Kaia Gerber, meanwhile, is a self-confessed bookworm who was photographed leaving many a 2019 fashion show clutching her copy of Mario Vargas Llosas page-turner Bad Girl. Fast forward a few months, and the super-in-the-making has launched her own online book club. Before doing so, she shared a hefty, 18-book round up of suggested reads to keep your mind busy during the global lockdown. From A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and Perfume by Patrick Sskind to A Lovers Discourse by Roland Barthes and even Platos Symposium, the list was proof that Gerber isnt really into light reading.

One things for certain, books are providing a much-needed panacea for many of us as we navigate lockdown life. Something which two more models whove recently entered the literature-loving fold can attest to: Emily Ratajkowski and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. While self-isolating in her apartment in New York, EmRata has been getting stuck into All About Love: New Visions by Bell Hooks, White Girls by Hilton Als and Martin Hgglunds This Life: Secular Faith And Spiritual Freedom.

On the other side of the pond, RHW recently shared the stack of novels currently occupying her bedside table: Joan Didions The White Album, Inner Engineering: A Yogis Guide To Joy by Sadhguru, Jordan Petersons 12 Rules For Life, and The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. As more and more virtual book clubs spring up on our feeds (further proof that it is indeed the new social hang), its just a matter of time before another It-girl proudly embraces her bookworm status.

More from British Vogue:

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From Kaia To Kendall, The New Supers Making Reading Cool - British Vogue

McManus and Hamilton have each written exceedingly unfair reviews of Jim Prosers recent bookSavage Messiah: How Dr. Jordan Peterson Is Saving Western Civilization.

Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher and playwright, wrote the script for a screenplay, which would later be turned into a play entitled LEngrenage (in English, In the Mesh). The name of the main character is Jean Aguerra, and the play opens with the scene of a sign installed in a suburb, which reads:Jean Aguerra, the tyrant.

In the Mesh, in all, is a very insightful play, though it is one of Sartres lesser-known works. It is about a wealthy city that has oil fields and all of the necessities for a blossoming economy, as well as a a productive and satisfied society. Still, the city hands its government over to one tyrant after another. Jean Aguerra, the latest in the chain of the citys leaders, is a bright and thoughtful intellectual, who truly desires what is best for his city and its people. However, he ends up following precisely the same path as each of the tyrants that preceded him.

Jean Aguerra hopes to eradicate poverty, and he also believes that each person should have the same degree of privilege as every other person. For him, the ideal of equality of outcome is so obvious and intuitive that he has a hard time imagining how anyone could possibly oppose that objective. However, as soon as Jean Aguerra establishes his government, he realizes that the other members of his team do not perfectly share his worldview. Even his closest allies have aspects of their own agenda that they hope to implement in the city. And, over time, corruption and mismanagement arise, which, in turn, undermines the unity of his government, giving rise to lies and schemes that permeate each level of the administration. However, Jean Aguerra remains rigid in his worldview, believing inveterately that the other members of his government are clandestine enemies seeking to destroy his masterplan for equality and prosperity.

In response, Jean Aguerra begins to order mass imprisonments, tortures, and killings. He hopes that when all of his enemies are gone that his fantasy for a perfect society will finally be reachedand that his people will, as a result, be happy and grateful. Yet, before long he is, himself, brought to be executed by a firing squad by a band of revolutionaries. Only five years prior, he was the leader of a group of revolutionaries who had executed the previous tyrant, and, within a short time, he had become what he had once existed to replace. The play suggests that this cycle will repeat ad infinitum, as each band of revolutionaries, over time, becomes the very evil that it had once existed to defeat.

The play, thus, shares some elements withThe Myth of Sisyphus, the 1942 philosophical essay written by Sartres friend and later rival Albert Camus. However, in the case of In the Mesh, there is the additional dimension. The play also examines what happens to those who box themselves into a corner with a certain ideology; no matter how grand or noble their intentionsbefore longtheir single-mindedness leads down the path towards tyranny.

Matt McManus and Conrad Hamilton repeatedly in their writings assert that the Left, as they see it, is all that is great and high. For them, the problems of our society can be explained by tyranny that comes from the Right. They incessantly critique Jordan Petersonor anyone else for that matterwho even slightly brings up ideas that contradict their views of what makes for a just society. McManus and Hamiltons critiques, most of the time, are nothing short of relentless. And there is no one they attack more unfairly than Jordan Peterson. As Tony Senatore, Fred Hammon, and others have argued in Merion West, Jordan Peterson is someone who truly helps people; he is not just a conservative ideologue. Yet, McManus and Hamilton even continue their endless criticisms of Jordan Peterson as the man fights for his life, dealing with the most serious and trying of health problems.

Most recently, McManus and Hamilton have each written exceedingly unfair reviews of Jim Prosers recent bookSavage Messiah: How Dr. Jordan Peterson Is Saving Western Civilization. For the value that Peterson brings, look no further than Prosers own recent words about his subject:

I was in a very bad period of personal suffering, having lost my wife to cancer just prior to beginning the writing of the book. So, I was very deep into my own personal suffering, and I appreciated the advice to accept suffering as a gateway to finding a deeper meaning in my life, rather than just re-living the mindless and random catastrophes of the past. Rather than accepting it as just a random lot in existence, I actually found a deeper meaning to it that would propel me to a life of greater understanding and greater compassion.

Matt McManus and Conrad Hamilton, in the vein of Slavoj iek and other luminaries of the Left, argue for various versions of equality of outcome. A brief look at history reminds us that efforts to pursue that end have had the same result every time throughout history: tyranny, brutality, and suppression. Todays Left, when faced with questions about such miseries, tends to put forward a version of the same argument: But that was not true socialism. Bernie Sanders just articulated that very argument in a recent town hall.

Matt McManus and Conrad Hamilton are, no doubt, smart and well-read men. Yet, they should pay more careful attention to how repressive, totalitarian-inclining governments so often arise in welfare states. They also ought to give a detailed and close readingnot like the job they did with Prosers bookto the 1997 bookThe Black Book of Communism, which chronicles the horrors that have taken place in collectivist states. Page after page (and chapter after chapter) tells the story of how people with enormous powernominally acting in the interest of equality for allbecame horrible little tyrants of their own, from China to Ethiopia. Maybe then McManus and Hamilton would be more open-minded towards thoughtful critics of their aims, such as Jordan Peterson.

The story told in The Black Book of Communism, after all, is the same one as that of Jean Aguerraand the many real life leftists he represents. Dreamworlds belong in fantasy books, where they can entertain and charm their readers. However, in the actual world, sweeping sentimentalities about equality rarely engage with the questions of How? and At What Cost? But, then again, when it comes to many of these leftist schemes, the answers are hardly attractive.

Kambiz Tavana is an Iranian-American journalist and writer.

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Understanding the Viciousness of Jordan Peterson's Critics - Merion West

Did you know getting counted in the U.S. Census has huge political and financial benefits for your community?

If the government doesnt know the number of people living in an area, that area wont receive as much funding, which will affect parks, schools, churches and more, says the President of Temples Black Public Relations Society Lauryn Edmondson, Class of 2020.

This semester, Lauryn and four of her public relations classmates are mobilizing the Temple-area community as part of a national competition designed to get college students and members of other undercounted groups to participate in the 2020 Census.

We asked Lauryn to share what shes learned through her Census outreach activities.

What is the U.S. Census?The U.S. Census is conducted every 10 years and is actually mandated by the Constitution. The Census aims to count everyone once, only once, and in the right place, and can now be completed by phone, mail orfor the first time in historyonline at2020census.gov.

Why is completing the Census so important?The Census determines how billions of dollars in funding is given to support communities across the country. It determines the number of seats each state will have in the House of Representatives, which is then used to draw congressional and state legislative districts.

When is the deadline?April 1 is officially Census Day nationwide. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the deadline to complete the questionnaire has been extended to August 14, 2020. Its available now at 2020census.gov.

How are college students being counted in the Census? Where should I file?The Census asks you to fill out the questionnaire with information on where you live and sleep most of the time. Students affected by college and university closures should still be counted where they live while theyre at school.

If you live off campus in an apartment with three friends, you can complete the Census for your apartment, including your three friends.For students who live on campus, (i.e. residence hall or dorm), you will be counted through the university staff directly as a part of their Group Quarters count.

Learn more about being counted through the university.

Is there a citizenship question on the Census?No! The Census does not ask about citizenship in its questionnaire.

What is a good way to remind friends and family to complete the Census form on time?Tell them about it! Remind them to go online to 2020census.gov to fill it out. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete. In our outreach campaign, weve used the hashtag #10minutesfor10years to help spread the word, and the U.S. Census Bureau also has active YouTube and social media profiles @uscensusbureau where you can get more information.

Andrew Lochrie

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How to get counted in the U.S. Census - Temple University News

Editors note:In the wake of the NCAAs decision to cancel the 2020 tournament, The Athletic will be celebrating the best NCAA Tournament game played on each day over the course of the next three weeks.You can read the rest of the stories here.

Before he became His Airness, before he changed the athletic apparel industry, before he revolutionized the game of basketball, Michael Jordan was a freshman at North Carolina. And on March 29, 1982, the Tar Heels needed a bucket.

James Worthy, the teams leading scorer and consensus first-team All-American, was on the floor. So was second-team All-American Sam Perkins.

In the waning seconds of the championship game, though, the shot went to the skinny freshman whom coach Dean Smith wouldnt even allow to appear on the preseason Sports Illustrated cover.

Trailing Georgetown 62-61, senior guard Jimmy Black found Jordan near the corner, whose shot from 17 feet didnt even graze the rim.

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This Day in Madness: When Mike became Michael Jordan - The Athletic

Merion West is an online news source that dubs itself a journal where all perspectives are welcome. They tout the fact that they have been rated by Media Bias/Fact Check as a Least Biased source.

Generally, their articles seem to have deeper analysis than you will find in much of the mainstream media. For example, recent headlines include, The Fraught Relationship Between Religion and Epidemiology, The Critics of Social Justice, from Jonah Goldberg to Jordan Peterson, and Hannah Arendts Concept of Impotent Bigness. They regularly interview newsmakers, and authors often include professors in relevant fields and others well qualified to comment.

Articles are explicitly labeled by viewpoint: left, center, or right. This makes for interesting reading. To date, I havent seen much about evolution and intelligent design on the site, but there is a recent article entitled When We Oversimplify Darwin. I was curious to see what Merion West would say. The article is labeled as representing a View from the Center.

It is too concerned with trying to make peace between all sides. Interestingly, the author, artist Chris Augusta, acknowledges that there is scientific debate over evolutionary theory. Thats a plus. The article links to last years Hoover Institution-sponsored discussion Mathematical Challenges to Darwins Theory of Evolution among Stephen Meyer, David Gelernter, and David Berlinski, led by Peter Robinson, and to a Socrates in the City conversation between Dr. Meyer and Eric Metaxas.

Augusta argues that Darwin was confused about the nature of reality and didnt come to firm conclusions regarding the existence of a designer or a central role for chance. Augusta, whose website includes some weird and spooky Art of Evolution, advocates for paradoxical reality:

Charles Darwin, that greatest of empiricists, bears witness to the raw spectacle of paradoxical nature. He sees clearly manifestations ofdesign,and he sees clearly manifestations ofchance. Reading Darwins letters to Asa Gray reveals a man transfixed by the blinding spectacle of contrary forces. Darwin is a deer in the headlights: He cant move forward; he cant move backward.

I find this conclusion absurd. Darwin clearly derived from his theory a materialistic view of the world. He wrote in his Autobiography, There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows. Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws. For Darwin, this had sinister implications. In a poignant Evolution News article, science historian Michael Flannery noted, Writing to William Graham (1839-1911) on July 3, 1881, Darwin saw the march of human progress in blatantly racist terms. Civilization would advance even at the cost of inevitable racial extermination. Darwin wrote:

Lastly I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilisation than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risks the nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is. The more civilised so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilised races throughout the world.

We may dispute what Darwin felt or thought in the privacy of his study but the bulk of his writings fall clearly into advocating for one perspective: naturalism. Why else would atheist Daniel Dennett have written that Darwinism was a universal acid that eats through just about every traditional concept? Dennett was not wrong. That does not sound too paradoxical to me.

Augusta says poets too grapple with this paradoxical reality and then goes on to liken science to poetry. He offers comfort to those who, unlike Darwin and poets, are intimidated by paradox but gently points out that our insistence on resolving these paradoxes through Christianity or militant atheism la Percy Shelley is childlike. Pardon me, Augusta, I think I might vomit.

Needless to say, poetry is very different from science. It operates by entirely different rules. We dont let poets (or artists) make rules for us; I dont think they were consulted about how to respond to the coronavirus. Poets and artists dont have that kind of power, and its probably a good thing.

As part of his closing, Augusta notes that the universe is better described as creative than created. Really? Actually, lets take a look at that whole paragraph:

This materialistic Darwinism has dominated for more than a century-and-a-half, but its own explanatory power may be waning. Proponents of Intelligent Design insist that the very complexity of life cannot be explained by essentially random mechanistic processes. But Intelligent Design is perhaps a poor choice of words that tends to shift attention away from the thing (or event) observed to some pre-existing designer. You do not have to introduce the notion of an Intelligent Designer to acknowledge the existence of order and pattern in nature. The universe may be apprehended, as it was by Albert Einstein among many others, as embodyingintelligenceinsofar as the human mind can apprehend order and harmony. For Einstein, doing science was nothing less than an attempt to understand this intelligence. Sticking to what we actually experience, the universe is better described ascreativerather thancreated.

I am at a loss. In what way is the universe creative? To be sure, materialists have mounted strained defenses against the evidence of cosmic design. But the multiverse hypothesis is bankrupt truly a fantasy. String theory is a delusional apparition. Stephen Meyers forthcoming The Return of the God Hypothesis makes these things clear.

Augusta seeks to encourage tolerance and agreement. What he has written, though, is a mess. Im baffled to see that Merion West thinks this is centrist.

Photo credit: JJ YingviaUnsplash.

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An Artist Examines Evolution - Discovery Institute