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…
How much longer will both flags fly over the Acropolis?
Reuters
For faithful followers of the European economy, it feels like déjà vu all over again. Turmoil in Greece is raising doubts about the country’s continued membership in the eurozone. The specter of a “Grexit…
Keep your brain active.
Dog via Soloviova Liudmyla/Shutterstock
Every 67 seconds someone in the United States is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and new estimates suggest that it may be the third leading cause of death of older people. Alzheimer’s disease is associated…
Families can fill up on more than food when they dine together.
Dining image via www.shutterstock.com.
As a family therapist, I often have the impulse to tell families to go home and have dinner together rather than spending an hour with me. And 20 years of research in North America, Europe and Australia…
This is the area that holds strategic importance
Reuters/Balazs Koranyi
In a few short months the United States assumes Chair of the Arctic Council (AC). This is a two-year long opportunity to shape the future of the Arctic, an opportunity that will likely not come around…
The UN at 70 - over the hill or still in its prime?
UN
2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. Like all anniversaries, this is an occasion for profound reflection. To put it politely, the list of global challenges that the UN…
The picture is awesome… but am I risking my health?
Steve Marcus/Reuters
Earlier this week, The Conversation reported that, “The future is bright, the future is … quantum dot televisions.” And judging by the buzz coming from this week’s annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES…
For Google, the map is not the end product.
Lee Bennett/Flickr
Google has managed to map most of the world. Recently, the company offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how it’s built the Google Maps application using a combination of technology (the Google Street…
Caesars Entertainment argues the credit default swap market is giving at least one holder of its debt a perverse incentive to seek its default.
Shutterstock
In 2009, US trucking company YRC Worldwide faced ruin as it struggled to restructure its debt. With tens of thousands of jobs at stake, the Teamsters union, led by James Hoffa, accused some YRC bondholders…
Congressman Henry Waxman: relieved to be going after 40 years?
Gary Cameron/Reuters
An era has ended. The last of the “Watergate Babies” has left the Congress. The nickname was applied to the class of House Democratic freshmen elected in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal. There…
Air travel can turn epidemics into pandemics.
Bobby Yip/Reuters
More than 8,000 people have died from Ebola in West Africa since February 2014 and it has spread beyond the three countries initially affected. So, it’s an epidemic, right? Or is it an outbreak? What about…
US and Venezuela meet in Brazil
Reuters photographer
The Obama administration announced the intention to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba the same week that Congress approved sanctions against Venezuela for human rights violations. The timing was coincidental…
Molecular genetics did what traditional breeding couldn’t.
Dan Ng
Growing winegrapes may be the most backward form of horticulture that exists. The vast majority of the world’s production uses only about 20 cultivars out of thousands of available grape varieties. The…
Just one of the Great Society programs: the Civil Rights Act
Cecil Stoughton
Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society speech marks a key moment in U.S. history: it called on government and citizens to create a more equal and humane society in ways that still guide our political debates.
Paper folding may look like art, but it’s all about the math.
Mina
Origami is the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. One uncut square of paper can, in the hands of an origami artist, be folded into a bird, a frog, a sailboat, or a Japanese samurai helmet beetle. Origami…
How can doctors manage drug shortages ethically?
IV via drpnncpptak/Shutterstock
Four years ago, just before Christmas, my hospital ran out of cytarabine, an essential drug used to treat and cure certain kinds of acute leukemia. This drug was suddenly in short supply across the nation…
To Tolkien, the machine represents a means to attain power over others. His orcs – deformed and ugly creatures, whose hands are sometimes replaced with weapons – embody this lust for power.
LOTR Wikia
My grandfather was a carpenter, and I don’t think he ever developed much of a sense of trust in machines. I remember him laboring away at our home one summer, transforming our screened-in porch into a…
Ethan Zuckerman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
This is part of our Foundation Essay series, longer articles that take a wider look at key issues affecting society. Apple’s product launches are covered with breathless enthusiasm usually reserved for…
How well this lot can get along may depend most on the growing group of politicians hoping to sit in the president’s chair in two years.
Reuters
Given the contentiousness of recent fiscal negotiations, the prelude to the budget passed by the Senate last month was surprisingly placid. Will a uniquely unproductive Congress be followed by a more conciliatory…
Today over 700 evangelical US churches now integrate MMA into their ministry programs.
Vivek Prakash/Reuters
“Can you love your neighbor as yourself, and at the same time knee him in the face as hard as you can?” American Christian Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champion Scott “Bam Bam” Sullivan wonders in an interview…
Direct negotiations between top leaders may be the best and only way to get significant trade deals done, which requires fast-track authority.
Reuters
With the resounding Republican victory in November’s midterm elections, most pundits are despairing that Congress and President Barack Obama will find any areas for cooperation in the coming two years…
Watch your head.
Soccer players via Wallenrock/Shutterstock.
This fall, the deaths of three high school football players were linked to direct head injuries on the field of play and one collegiate football player’s death has been potentially attributed to unresolved…
Bianca Rodriguez, one of nation’s nearly 600,000 homeless at a Chicago underpass.
Andrew Nelles/Reuters
This year marks the 51st anniversary since Lyndon Johnson launched his War on Poverty and made poverty reduction the centerpiece of his Great Society domestic agenda. Whether we won this war, however…
OK you can trust this food label. But calories? Forget it.
Bryan Kennedy
Food labels seem to provide all the information a thoughtful consumer needs, so counting calories should be simple. But things get tricky because food labels tell only half the story. A calorie is a measure…
Marcus Aurelius (121-180CE) was emperor of Rome at the height of its influence and power. One can only imagine the pressures that a person in his position might have experienced. The military might of…