Midterm elections in American politics are akin to a reset button and on November 4, 2014 the American people pushed that reset button in a big way. The Founders of the American Constitution set up an…
Better antimicrobial stewardship could curb infection rates.
Global Panorama/Flickr
Going to the hospital can save your life, but it is not without risks. Patients can be exposed to dangerous infections while receiving treatment. In the United States, health care-associated infections…
Carolina Muñoz Marin, an amateur kickboxer from Costa Rica, is featured in “Meet the Mormons.”
Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
In October the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released its new documentary Meet the Mormons to wide theatrical distribution. The film depicts the lives of six individuals – two women and four…
Private equity is eyeing smaller investors.
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com
Private equity is becoming much less private these days. But it is still not clear who will benefit from this new-found openness and accessibility. Not so long ago, private equity operated largely outside…
Square away your personal philosophy now; proof of life beyond earth is coming.
Stargazing image via www.shutterstock.com
Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets and the hunt is on for life beyond Earth. Once biological neighbors are identified, our planet’s philosophies and religions will need to adapt.
Is California ready for prison reform?
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
On November 4, 2014, Californians will vote on Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. The measure would change many crimes from felonies, which generally require prison terms, to misdemeanors…
Worry feeds worry.
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Anxious people tend to perceive their world in a more threatening way. That is, the more anxious a person is, the more likely they are to notice threatening things around them. This is called the threat…
Comedian Stephen Colbert at the 2010 Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
Reuters
John Oliver’s new program Last Week Tonight is the most recent addition to the parody news genre. Like its predecessors, the show frequently mocks American politics; for example, an attention-grabbing…
There are two quiet trends that might very well transform the structure of work in the near future. First, a majority of today’s employees expect to work beyond the traditional retirement age of 65, with…
A green anole, clinging to a palm frond with nicely silhouetted toepads.
Yoel Stuart
Invasive species colonize and spread widely in places where they are not normally found. Invasives often affect native species by eating them, out-competing them and introducing unfamiliar parasites and…
Polls are open. Which campaigns’ ground games will outlast the election?
AP
In the final Election Day push, more and more focus is being shifted to the “ground game,” or the effort campaigns make to identify and turn out voters. From Massachusetts to Alaska, New Hampshire to Colorado…
Russians protesting murder of crusading journalist Anna Politkavskaya.
Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
A few weeks ago, a colleague of mine stood talking before an attentive group in a hotel conference room when the doors burst open and six stern-faced government agents strode in and demanded he halt the…
This image was captured moments before SpaceFlightTwo exploded and crashed to Earth.
Reuters
This week, I can predict with a high degree of accuracy that more than 50,000 car accidents will occur in the US, over 500 of which will involve fatalities. Last week was no different. Is social media…
You might not be getting a great deal….
Online shopping image via www.shutterstock.com.
People have a mental model of shopping that is based on experiences from brick-and-mortar stores. We intuitively understand how this process works: all available products are displayed around the store…
Pills ok during pregnancy? We can’t know if we don’t study them.
Medications image via www.shutterstock.com
Imagine being pregnant while having a chronic health condition such as diabetes, hypertension, depression or asthma, or being diagnosed with an illness while pregnant. Amazingly, your doctor may not know…
A study found that sports teams with too many stars are susceptible to hierarchical disputes and deteriorating performance.
KeithAllison/Flickr
On October 28, journalist Matt Taibbi resigned from First Look Media, a fledgling news organization only ten months old. According to an article published on The Intercept: Taibbi and other journalists…
Lending standards are so tight that even former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, center, who until recently was one of the most powerful people in the world, can’t refinance his mortgage.
Reuters
It’s clear mortgage standards have gotten too tight when even a former Federal Reserve chairman who makes as much as US$250,000 per speech cannot refinance his home. Ben Bernanke complained about his inability…
Your odds of winning are greatly improved if you own a casino.
Gambling is good business, or at least a profitable one. According to the American Gaming Association, in 2012 the 464 commercial casinos in the US served 76.1 million patrons and grossed $US37.34 billion…
A specter continues to haunt the Arab world – the specter of regionalism. The idea that illogical national boundaries, drawn by colonial overlords divided what should have been a pan-Arab region has been…
La Llorona Durmiente, oil on canvas, 2012
Hector Garza
For more than 500 years, she has wandered, weeping and searching without rest. A ghostly woman in white who is said to have murdered her children, she is doomed to roam the earth, searching for their lost…
With a few lines of code, cyber criminals and governments have able to infiltrate the security of banks and retailers and steal hundreds of millions in customer records.
Shutterstock
JPMorgan Chase early last month disclosed that cyber thieves pilfered account data on 76 million households and seven million small businesses over the summer, one of the biggest breaches ever and only…
It’s that time of year again - the end of daylight savings and the beginning of the dark season. While many of us look forward to seasonal festivities, millions can also expect feelings of depression…
World record holder – but for how long?
Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters
This fall Dennis Kimetto set a new world record in the marathon, clocking 2:02:57 at Berlin. He is the first man to run those 26.2 miles in under 2:03 and his time sparked speculation about when the two-hour…
A chicken and egg problem: more women will stand for office once more women win.
Larry Downing/Reuters
A common complaint about American’s representative democracy is that it is not representative. Across all levels of office, most elected seats in the US continue to be occupied by white, non-Hispanic men…
A prime driver of human progress has been trade, in both goods and ideas. Isolation, in contrast, leads to stasis, suspicion, even regression. As Matt Ridley described in The Rational Optimist, when the…