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Why bad customer service won't improve anytime soon

  • Written by Anthony Dukes, Professor of Marketing, University of Southern California
Bad customer service is increasingly good for companies who use it.Sichon/Shutterstock.com

Some of the most hated companies in the U.S. are also the most profitable.

Much of this consumer resentment may stem from poor customer service. In fact, most Americans have fought with phone menus, desperately seeking a live service agent to seek a refund.

In...

Read more: Why bad customer service won't improve anytime soon

How old would you want to be in heaven?

  • Written by Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Resident Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University
Our cult of youth continues into the afterlife.Denis Simonov/Shutterstock.com

Many religious faiths propose different versions of heaven as a location: There are walled gardens with streams, flowers, pleasing scents, pretty angels, rapturous music or delicious accessible food.

But what about us – the once-mortal – who will go on to...

Read more: How old would you want to be in heaven?

Giving pregnant women antibiotics could harm the lungs of preemies, according to study in mice

  • Written by Kent Willis, Assistant Professor of Neonatology, University of Tennessee
Premature infants are at higher risk for lung diseases.Sarahbean/Shutterstock.com

Born after just 23 of the normal 40 weeks of pregnancy, the extremely preterm baby is small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and weighs just one and a quarter pounds. I am a neonatologist, a physician that cares for these preterm babies in intensive care. Most of...

Read more: Giving pregnant women antibiotics could harm the lungs of preemies, according to study in mice

Should you avoid meat for good health? How to slice off the facts from the fiction

  • Written by Dariush Mozaffarian, Dean of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University
Meat is a very popular food for most Americans. Its nutritional value is a topic of much debate.puhhha/Shutterstock.com

More than half of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions resolve to “eat healthier.” If you’re one, you might be confused about the role meat should play in your health.

It’s no wonder...

Read more: Should you avoid meat for good health? How to slice off the facts from the fiction

Nonprofits that empower leaders of color are more apt to do something about racial inequality

  • Written by Brad R. Fulton, Assistant Professor, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
Nonprofit leaders aren't particularly diverse.Djomas/Shutterstock.com

The U.S. is becoming more racially diverse. Since 2010, 96% of all U.S. counties registered an increase in their percentage of nonwhite residents. Yet the people who lead nonprofits in the U.S. remain disproportionately white.

This mismatch can make it difficult for such...

Read more: Nonprofits that empower leaders of color are more apt to do something about racial inequality

A real-life deluminator for spotting exoplanets by reflected starlight

  • Written by Supriya Chakrabarti, Professor of Physics, University of Massachusetts Lowell
An artist's conception of WASP-18b, a giant exoplanet that orbits very close to its star.X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/I.Pillitteri et al; Optical: DSS

Perhaps you remember the opening scene of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” that took place on Privet Drive. A bearded man pulled a mysterious device, called a deluminator, from his...

Read more: A real-life deluminator for spotting exoplanets by reflected starlight

The holidays remind us that grief cannot be wished away

  • Written by Heather Servaty-Seib, Professor and Associate Dean of Counseling Psychology, Purdue University
The holidays for many are not always about joy. Grief is a significant part of the holidays for those who have lost loved ones in the past year.Smileus/Shutterstock.com

The year-end holidays are a time of social gatherings, traditions and celebrations. They can also be a time of revisiting and reflection.

According to the Centers for Disease...

Read more: The holidays remind us that grief cannot be wished away

Democratic presidential hopefuls are promising to ramp up funding for public schools

  • Written by David Knight, Assistant Professor of Education Finance and Policy, University of Washington
Sen. Elizabeth Warren would make universal preschool a federal priority.AP Photo/Keith Srakocic

Democratic presidential candidates are proposing bold new approaches to the federal government’s role in public education. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Cory Booker want to triple the US$15 billion spent annually on T...

Read more: Democratic presidential hopefuls are promising to ramp up funding for public schools

5 ways chess can make you a better law student and lawyer

  • Written by Mark Kende, Professor of Law, Drake University
Legal battles require the same skills seen at the highest levels of chess.Elnur/Shutterstock.com

Paul Morphy was a 19th-century New Orleans chess prodigy who was the de facto world chess champion during much of his short life. He rarely lost when he played throughout Europe and the United States. He was also a lawyer who graduated from what is now...

Read more: 5 ways chess can make you a better law student and lawyer

Here's how you can be nudged to eat healthier, recycle and make better decisions every day

  • Written by José Antonio Rosa, Professor of Marketing and John and Deborah Ganoe Faculty Fellow, Iowa State University
Were you subtly encouraged to make that menu choice?Supavadee butradee/Shutterstock.com

Every day, you make important choices – about whether to feast on fries or take a brisk walk, whether to spend or save your paycheck, whether to buy the sustainable option or the disposable plastic one.

Life is made up of countless decisions. The idea of...

Read more: Here's how you can be nudged to eat healthier, recycle and make better decisions every day

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  2. Alcoholic? Me? How to tell if your holiday drinking is becoming a problem
  3. Can Congress hold Trump accountable? 4 essential reads on a historic power struggle
  4. The Madrid climate conference's real failure was not getting a broad deal on global carbon markets
  5. How Crisco toppled lard – and made Americans believers in industrial food
  6. Tracking your heart rate? 5 questions answered about what that number really means
  7. 150 cooks, servers and dishwashers almost shut down a Democratic debate, showing unions' growing clout in the party
  8. Think presidential debates are dull? Thank 1950s TV game shows
  9. Parents of medically fragile children and their kids could use help, understanding year-round
  10. 7 reasons to learn a foreign language
  11. 7 science-based strategies to boost your willpower and succeed with your New Year’s resolutions
  12. My team uses crossbows and drones to collect bacteria from whales – and the results are teaching us how to keep whales healthy
  13. Feeling sick is an emotion meant to help you get better faster
  14. When a chief justice reminded senators in an impeachment trial that they were not jurors
  15. The science of gift wrapping explains why sloppy is better
  16. Planetary confusion -- why astronomers keep changing what it means to be a planet
  17. How can we make sure that algorithms are fair?
  18. 3 lessons for today's teachers and students from coach Vince Lombardi
  19. 6 charts that illustrate the surprising financial strength of American houses of worship
  20. Catholic activism, not repentance for sexual abuse, is what forces clergy to resign
  21. Evangelical gangs in Rio de Janeiro wage 'holy war' on Afro-Brazilian faiths
  22. Transgender homeless Americans find few protections in the law
  23. Why Congress would keep working during a government shutdown
  24. US-China trade deal: 3 fundamental issues remain unresolved
  25. In impeachment spotlight, dueling views of professionalism appear
  26. Impeachment is better than exile
  27. Kids aren't getting enough exercise, even in sporty Seattle
  28. Memo from a historian: White ladies cooking in plantation museums are a denial of history
  29. When Trump calls someone a dog, he's tapping into ugly history
  30. Margaret Morse Nice thought like a song sparrow and changed how scientists understand animal behavior
  31. Butterfly lovers become citizen scientists by logging sightings on eButterfly
  32. Uber's data revealed nearly 6,000 sexual assaults. Does that mean it's not safe?
  33. Asking people with memory loss about past holidays can help them recall happy times
  34. As rural Americans struggle for health care access, insurers may be making things worse
  35. The Earth needs multiple methods for removing CO2 from the air to avert worst of climate change
  36. 'Organic' label doesn't guarantee that holiday ham was a happy pig
  37. The dangers of depicting Greta Thunberg as a prophet
  38. Why are whales big, but not bigger?
  39. How old should kids be to get phones?
  40. ‘Richard Jewell’ is only the latest film to depict a female journalist trading sex for scoops
  41. Supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy may have a friend
  42. Winter is coming: 5 essential reads about snow and ice
  43. Myths around mental illness cause high rates of unemployment
  44. Slave life's harsh realities are erased in Christmas tours of Southern plantations
  45. School resource officers aren't arrested often – but when they are, it's usually for sexual misconduct
  46. Myanmar charged with genocide of Rohingya Muslims: 5 essential reads
  47. Examining how primates make vowel sounds pushes timeline for speech evolution back by 27 million years
  48. USMCA: The 3 most important changes in the new NAFTA and why they matter
  49. Mexican Mennonites combat fears of violence with a new Christmas tradition
  50. Like 'Little Women,' books by Zitkála-Šá and Taha Hussein are classics