The release of a documentary film in the Czech Republic earlier this year caused much controversy. It is about a dissident named Pavel Wonka who fought against the totalitarian regime in Communist Czechoslovakia…
Drawn directly from the flesh.
Public Domain Review/Flickr
December 31, 2014 marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of one of the most important figures in the history of medicine. He authored one of the most elegant and influential books in scientific history…
Apple is considered a leader in designing “experience” stores. Some of their retail outlets in Manhattan have become tourist destinations.
Shutterstock
Department stores and other brick-and-mortar retailers registered another lackluster holiday shopping season, while online sales have remained upbeat since Cyber Monday. As more consumers spend a larger…
Put a cork in it? Or maybe you prefer a screwcap?
clubvino
Most foods are best as fresh as possible. I remember picking peaches at my grandfather’s ranch in Northern California and eating them on the spot. What a taste! But the exceptions to this rule are the…
A modest change in an accounting rule is normally too much inside baseball to attract notice. But a proposal by the institutions that set accounting standards for publicly traded companies is prompting…
In The Gambler, Mark Wahlberg portrays Jim Bennet, a bored literature professor whose gambling debts spiral out of control.
POPSUGAR
“Life is a losing proposition,” explains Mark Wahlberg’s literature professor/compulsive gambler Jim Bennett. “You might as well get it over with.” Intent on doing just that, Bennett runs up massive debts…
Margaret Drain, The Conversation; Maggie Villiger, The Conversation; Maria Balinska, The Conversation; Jessie Schanzle, The Conversation; Bryan Keogh, The Conversation, and Nick Lehr, The Conversation
Holidays provide some time to hunker down for a good read, maybe by the fire if you live in the northern hemisphere; if not, then on a patch of warm sand by the sea. In case you’ve missed some issues…
What beverage has grown continuously in consumption for the past 20 years in America? Wine. According to the Wine Institute, in 1993 Americans only drank 1.74 gallons of wine per capita. In 2013 that figure…
Commemorating the dead of the revolution.
Radu Sigheti/Reuters
25 years after the beginning of the Romanian Revolution. I am standing in the University Plaza in Bucharest. My memory is channeling echoes of gun shots and student resistance; the smell of perspiration…
A woman sniffs a glass of wine during a tasting event in Beijing.
Reuters
China may not be poised for world domination in wine, but it’s industry has grown wildly in recent years, and it’s now producing some well-regarded vintages.
What was the celestial body the three wise men followed 2,000 years ago?
epSos.de
The wise men were likely accomplished Greek astrologers, watching the stars for signs of a king’s birth. Technical terms used in the Bible’s description point to a real astronomical event.
This may be the fight that started all the hoopla
Library of Congress/Prints & Photographs Division
In the 1920s American sports became big business, a billion dollar industry with “stars” created by the media and represented by professional agents and promoters. One of the pioneers of this new industry…
The cost of a degree just keeps rising. Is it still worth it?
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The early admissions deadlines for universities across the country have come and gone, and acceptance letters are on their way. But with the cost of a four-year college education rising an average of 5…
Nabila Rehman, 9, shows her drawing of a drone attack on her Pakistani village that killed her grandmother.
Jason Reed/Reuters
Jeff Bachman, American University School of International Service
On November 24, two weeks before the Senate Intelligence Committee released its “torture report,” Reprieve, a UK-based human rights NGO, published the results of its latest investigation into President…
Sometimes cameras are too small to be noticed
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
The mere presence or absence of a camera does not deter violent behavior. We know this through decades of research on CCTV demonstrating that video monitoring has little to no effect on violent crime and…
In a letter to the Abbe Morellet in 1779, Benjamin Franklin mused that the strategic location of the elbow is proof that God desires us to drink wine. After all, had God placed the elbow lower on the arm…
People do disgusting and disruptive things on airplanes. They show little regard or patience for fellow passengers and their needs. Inconsiderate behavior on the part of passengers can make air travel…
The debate over fracking in New York state was especially polarized.
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
Drilling in the Marcellus Shale, and in other unconventional oil and gas formations across the US, has led to a boom in domestic natural gas and oil production -– largely due to advances in high volume…
Russian President Putin blamed the West for his country’s economic troubles and collapsing ruble in a news conference.
Reuters
Russia’s currency is in free fall. Since mid-year, the incredible shrinking ruble has lost close to half its value, and it is anyone’s guess how much further it might go. Whatever happens, the geopolitical…
There’s a lot to be rebuilt in downtown Havana
Jane Landers
As an historian who grew up in the Caribbean and who has been researching and traveling to Cuba since it was still a Soviet dependent, I have been asked frequently in the last few days my impression of…
Is it ever okay to depict the assassination of living person?
KCNA/Reuters
Sony’s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release of its film The Interview is drawing harsh criticism from Hollywood’s elite. George Clooney is asking everyone to stand up against the cancellation…
Stephen Colbert created an extraordinary character: a right-wing, bloviating pundit who was both outrageous and adorable.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
If you were following politics over the last few election cycles, you were most likely getting some of your information from satire. In fact, research has shown that in today’s political climate, satire…
The author with his brother and father on the way to Florida
“Normalization” – that’s been the word of the week among Cubans and Cuba watchers. Set aside for the moment whether it’s really possible for a dictatorship and a democracy to have normal relations, since…
Whether kids play pickup sports or organized sports may have varying effects on their development.
Tony Baldasaro/Flickr
Youth sports are viewed as a rite of passage in a child’s development. If the clichés that permeate sports broadcasts and locker room speeches are to be believed, sports participation teaches children…