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The unfinished Crazy Horse memorial in Custer County, South Dakota. Bernd00/Wikimedia Commons

Crazy Horse: leader, warrior, martyr … artist?

More than a century after he died, the Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, who famously fought General Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn, is thought of as transcendent force – attuned to the universe in a…
Faulty ignition switches like this one were at the core of the troubles at GM, which led to record recalls last year. Reuters

It seems little is certain in life but death, taxes and auto recalls

The US’s top auto safety agency last week fined Japanese car company Honda Motor a record US$70 million for failing to report hundreds of fatal accidents and injuries over the last 11 years. The unfiled…
Easier access to marijuana doesn’t necessarily lead to more addicts. Image of person smoking via Stanimir G.Stoev/Shutterstock

Will legal marijuana lead to more addicts? Probably not

At present, cannabis is fully legalized in Colorado and Washington and will soon be fully legalized in Oregon and Alaska. Additionally, medical cannabis is legal in 23 states. The writing is on the wall…
A depot used to store pipes for Transcanada Corp’s planned Keystone XL oil pipeline is seen in Gascoyne, North Dakota. Andrew Cullen/Reuters

How should we calculate the CO2 impact of the Keystone pipeline proposal?

Big energy infrastructure projects – power plants, coal mines, long distance transmission lines – take time, resources and, typically, some political muscle. They create highly visible if short-lived construction…
Prices of gas are approaching $2 a gallon. Does that make it a good time to raise the gas tax? Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Why hiking the US gasoline tax is back on the table

It is well known that the US has a major infrastructure problem with our national highway system. Many of our bridges are in a very poor state of repair and highway maintenance is not keeping up with needs…
Light of every hue. davidd

Light technologies illuminate global challenges

During these dark winter months, spare a thought for artificial lights. From strings of lights adding holiday cheer to artificial sunlamps alleviating seasonal affective disorder, they brighten our days…
But can the promise be delivered? President Obama at Pellissippi State College in Knoxville, TN Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Free access to community college benefits students but not the nation

Last week, President Barack Obama announced a proposal to guarantee that students could attend a community college for free for their first two years. The announcement was one in a series of previews of…
In states like Massachusetts, heroin overdoses have skyrocketed in recent years. vidguten/Shutterstock

Can medical marijuana curb the heroin epidemic?

In the 1930s, Harry J. Anslinger, the first head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, embarked on a fierce anti-marijuana campaign. Highlighted by the 1936 anti-marijuana film Reefer Madness – where marijuana…
Tourism isn’t just for sunshine and beaches. It can also be for unapproved medical interventions. IV via ARZTSAMUI/Shutterstock

Medical treatment not approved yet? No problem! Welcome to circumvention tourism

Medical tourism is the practice of seeking medical care across international borders. Countries with established medical sectors like the US, Europe, India and Thailand have been traditional destinations…
A demonstrator is held down during a simulation of waterboarding outside the Justice Department in 2007. Reuters

Outsourcing war and security: problems and solutions

The release of the CIA Torture Report in December re-opened the debate about using contractors to perform national security functions. Indeed, when Saturday Night Live mocks contractors for their role…
Laughter and violence have two things in common: they’re both non-verbal and they both occur when words fail. Cloud Mine Amsterdam/Shutterstock

What Charlie Hebdo says about laughter, violence and free speech

It should come as no surprise that comedians would feel threatened by the attack on Charlie Hebdo: the freedom to offend is the source of their livelihood, and many who have offended have been threatened…
A man holds a placard reading “I am Charlie” to pay tribute to the victims following a shooting by gunmen at the offices of weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Reuters

Prisons, Muslim memory and the making of a terrorist

The media spotlight on Cherif Kouachi’s life rekindles questions about prisons and radicalization. As an alleged participant of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Kouachi has seemingly led many lives. In one incarnation…
Solidarity with France and Charlie Hebdo in Taipei. Pichi Chuang/Reuters

We are all Charlie Hebdo – or are we?

In his 1998 novel, The Elementary Particles, Michel Houellebecq argued that Charlie Hebdo played a pivotal role in the redefinition of social values in post-1968 France. For self-appointed troublemaker…
Award-winning French author Michel Houellebecq is no stranger to controversy. kojoku/Shutterstock

Paris attack brings focus to French author Michel Houellebecq

When gunmen (thought to be radicalized Muslims) burst into the offices of Charlie Hebdo on the morning of January 7, the front page of the satirical newspaper’s most recent edition featured a caricature…
The movie Selma takes King – best known to Americans as an orator – and turns him into an organizer. Wikimedia Commons

How the movie Selma made MLK human again

It’s been almost 60 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. became a household name during the 1955-1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and some may find it astonishing that, until the recent release of Selma, he’s…
The power of image. Charles Plattiau/Reuters

The best weapon against terrorists: oblivion

In 2009, communications scholars Esra Özcan, Ognyan Seizov and I wrote an academic paper on the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy and its aftermath. We concluded that “visuals have to be taken more seriously…