The problems of diversity are deeply rooted, extending beyond an annual awards show.'Oscar' via www.shutterstock.comIn what’s becoming an annual occurrence, we’re in the midst of a highly publicized debate over the lack of diversity among the Oscar-nominated performers and filmmakers. Outside groups, including the NAACP, are up in...
Read more: Behind the curtain of the Academy's old boys' club
Netflix is fighting an uphill battle against international copyright regulations -- and against graffiti artists tagging its headquarters.Nick Travis/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SAIn mid-January, Netflix announced a ban on the use of proxies, unblockers and virtual private networks (VPNs) – all technical work-arounds to view movies and TV...
Read more: Netflix’s VPN ban cannot cure TV studios’ chronic headaches
It was clear that something unusual was happening when both The Nation and the Wall Street Journal denounced the Polish government.
Since taking power after elections last October, Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, or PiS) can claim at least one undeniable accomplishment: they have brought...
In “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” the soaring and chilling speech he delivered the day before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. ponders the thought of life in other places and times.
Among other eras in history, he considers the prime of classical Athens, when he could have enjoyed the company of luminaries “around...
Read more: Martin Luther King Jr. in dialogue with the ancient Greeks
What will change with the new SAT?Student image via www.shutterstock.comStarting in March 2016, students will be taking a new version of the SAT. The redesigned SAT claims that it will,
remove barriers to college, making it possible for more students to own their future.
The redesigned SAT also claims to be returning to its original 1901 purpose,...
The Republican civil war reached a new level of intensity on Thursday night when Donald Trump shocked the political world by boycotting the Fox News presidential debate. Instead of joining his fellow GOP candidates on the debate stage in downtown Des Moines, Trump hosted an event for veterans at nearby Drake University.
Trump’s boycott...
Bloodletting was treatment for infection in the past. Wellcome Library, London, CC BYThe development of antibiotics and other antimicrobial therapies is arguably the greatest achievement of modern medicine. However, overuse and misuse of antimicrobial therapy predictably leads to resistance in microorganisms. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as...
Read more: In a world with no antibiotics, how did doctors treat infections?
When it comes to democracy, the kids aren’t all right.
Research recently presented by Roberto Foa and Yascha Mounk shows growing disillusionment with democracy – not just with politics or campaigns, but with democracy itself.
This growth is worldwide, but it is especially strong among young Americans. Fewer than 30 percent of Americans...
Why do immigrant kids perform poorly in school?Michael_swan, CC BY-NDImmigrant students in the United States consistently perform worseacademically than nonimmigrant students. This achievement gap is evident as early as preschool and only grows as immigrant students advance through high school.
But, what causes the achievement gap?
One notion that...
Lining up potential pitfalls: nonexperts and computers may misinterpret the vertical line in this image as a natural feature rather than a result of a mosaic compilation of multiple satellite images.Google Earth, CC BY-NCThe Islamic State group destroyed a sixth-century Christian monastery in Iraq in 2014, a fact confirmed last week by studying...
Read more: In sea of satellite images, experts' eyes still needed