Brendan Szendro, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Governed by a changeable body of ‘basic laws,’ Israel never settled basic questions like the rights of religious minorities. These destabilizing issues will continue to fester under a new government.
Boys often mirror the habits, interests and values of their own fathers.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Fathers whose own dads were highly nurturing tend to have healthier levels of competition and be more emotionally open.
An engineer demonstrates a car phone five months before the historic first call on a competing company’s commercial mobile telephone service in 1946.
Bettmann via Getty Images
The ubiquity of mobile phones is a defining feature of the 21st century, but it’s been possible to place a phone call on the go since shortly after World War II.
Fossil fuel stocks haven’t kept up with the market in recent years.
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When big investors like Blackrock get worried about their returns, they have the power and incentive to make fossil fuel companies take action.
White Americans who hold racist attitudes are likely to prefer military action over diplomacy in foreign countries like Iran and, in particular, China.
Frank Rossoto Stocktrek via Getty
Analysis of US survey data finds that white people who hold racist views are more likely than others to favor military action over diplomacy in China and Iran, and to endorse the global war on terror.
Amid strong political pressure to pack the Supreme Court, President Biden formed a commission to study ways to reform the court.
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Presidents form commissions to study controversial problems and recommend solutions. President Biden created one while under pressure to pack the Supreme Court. Will a commission help him politically?
Stuffed bears in windows were a common sight during the early 2020 lockdowns.
Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images
Different people and groups have differing, and often opposing, goals that they value differently. That makes public discussion, compromise and agreement difficult.
For many, leaving religion does not mean leaving behind religious morals and values.
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Religion affects how people regard qualities like benevolence, kindness, conformity and fairness even after they stop practicing religion.
Graduates of Cal State Fullerton, one of many universities with nonwhite majorities that billionaire MacKenzie Scott is supporting.
Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images
By not attaching any strings to the money, championing representation and generally taking care to respect nonprofit leaders, she’s following five best practices.
Long misunderstood, snake tongues have fascinated naturalists for centuries.
reptiles4all/iStock via Getty Images Plus
A debate over whether President Biden’s views on abortion disqualify him from taking Communion serves to expose a rift between US bishops and the pope, and is a threat to the church itself.
Odysseus reuniting with his father, Laertes.
Leemage/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
On Father’s Day, a scholar of ancient Greek poetry explains how he came to understand the father-son relationship and his journey of loss and yearning through reading the epics.
Joe Biden, right, and his son Beau had a strong relationship until Beau’s death in 2015.
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Biden’s relationship with his father contrasts with perhaps every president in the last four decades, who either had absent or distant fathers or abusive or alcoholic fathers or stepfathers.
Food banks, with help from volunteers, scrambled to meet higher demand.
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Normally, giving declines when the economy contracts. But charitable donations grew anyway, two researchers explain.
Benjamin Netanyahu sits in the Knesset before parliament voted June 13, 2021, in Jerusalem to approve the new government that doesn’t include him,
Amir Levy/Getty Images
Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t ousted just for typical political reasons, such as other politicians’ ambitions or grievances. He was thrown out because he was seen as a threat to democracy.
Ford calls its all-electric F-150 Lightning “the truck of the future.”
Ford
Ford’s electric F-150 pickup won’t roll off assembly lines until early 2022, but the company has received thousands of preorders already for a vehicle aimed at the mass market, not eco-buyers.
Factory robots could soon acquire a range of skills, including the ability to choose how to make things.
studiostockart/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images
Custom fabrication involves taking measurements, choosing tools, deciding on sequences of steps and ordering from a menu of materials. AIs under development promise to take humans out of the loop.
It used to be spit balls, but now sticky baseballs are giving pitchers an advantage.
Tage Olsin
Pitchers in Major League Baseball have been striking out more batters than ever, and some people say it’s because they’re adding sticky stuff to the balls.
Summer schools need to address the emotional and academic needs of children.
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A recent Title IX lawsuit alleges discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation at religious schools. Two scholars argue that this might be a pivotal moment.
Since there’s no romantic relationship, judges are likely to default to ruling that platonic marriages are an attempt to game the system.
Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images
Because any two consenting adults can get married in the US, a platonic marriage could pretty easily be pulled off. Legally speaking, though, it’s a sham.
Colorado’s East Troublesome Fire jumped the Continental Divide on Oct. 22, 2020, and eventually became Colorado’s second-largest fire on record.
Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory
Scientists studied charcoal layers in the sediment of lake beds across the Rockies to track fires over time. They found increasing fire activity as the climate warmed.