The Conversation

Kids' fitness is improving, but they still aren't as fit as their parents were

Written by Grant Tomkinson, Professor, University of North Dakota

Kids' aerobic fitness declined for several decades but shows signs of improving in some countries.stockforce/Shutterstock.com

Physical fitness is important for success in sports and athletics, but it is also important for good health. If you are generally fit, you probably have a strong heart, brain, muscles and bones, all of which help you to...

Babe Ruth in a kimono: How baseball diplomacy has fortified Japan-US relations

Written by Steven Wisensale, Professor of Public Policy, University of Connecticut

Tokyoites watch Hideo Nomo pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers at Sony Plaza on June 30, 1995.Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Photo

On Feb. 9, 2001, an American submarine, the USS Greenville, surfaced beneath the Ehime Maru, a Japanese ship filled with high school students who were training to become fishermen. The ship sank, and nine students and teachers died....

Congress left a little something for waiters and dishwashers in its $1.3 trillion budget

Written by Nicole Hallett, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Lawmakers have been generous. Trudy Wilkerson/Shutterstock.com

While federal workers were breathing a sigh of relief that Congress managed to avoid a government shutdown, another group of workers also had reason to cheer. That’s because hidden deep in the US$1.3 trillion budget deal that President Donald Trump signed on March 23 was a measure...

The countries that trust Facebook the most are also the most vulnerable to its mistakes

Written by Bhaskar Chakravorti, Senior Associate Dean, International Business & Finance, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Every month, over two billion people worldwide log into Facebook.hxdbzxy/shutterstock.com

The latest shoe has dropped on Facebook: Private data on 50 million users found its way to a shadowy research outfit, Global Science Research, and then on to Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm launched by former White House adviser Steve Bannon.

Zu...

The everyday ethical challenges of self-driving cars

Written by Johannes Himmelreich, Interdisciplinary Ethics Fellow, Stanford University McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society

Decisions made by engineers today will determine how all cars drive.Grendelkhan, CC BY-SA

A lot of discussion and ethical thought about self-driving cars have focused on tragic dilemmas, like hypotheticals in which a car has to decide whether to run over a group of schoolchildren or plunge off a cliff, killing its own occupants. But those sorts of...

Culture of trust is key for school safety

Written by Calvin Morrill, Stefan A. Riesenfeld Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley

Tight security measures in schools erode cultures of trust, researchers contend.Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

When we first visited the school that is the focus of our forthcoming book, “Navigating Conflict: How Youth Handle Trouble in a High-Poverty School,” back in 1995, students were free to move about campus during lunch and...

Self-driving cars can't be perfectly safe – what's good enough? 3 questions answered

Written by Nicholas G. Evans, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Is it going to stop?marat marihal/Shutterstock.com

Editor’s note: On March 19, an Uber self-driving vehicle being tested in Arizona struck and killed Elaine Herzberg, who was walking her bike across the street. This is the first time a self-driving vehicle has killed a pedestrian, and it raises questions about the ethics of developing and...

Los 'juegos' políticos con el agua del que son víctimas los mexicanos

Written by Veronica Herrera, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Connecticut

Las inundaciones ocurren con bastante frecuencia en Nezahualcoyotl, una ciudad mexicana cerca de la capital.AP Photos/Eduardo Verdugo

Cuando Ciudad del Cabo reconoció en febrero que se quedaría sin agua en unos meses, Sudáfrica se convirtió repentinamente en un ejemplo de modelo global de la mala gestión de este...

A return to earmarks could grease the wheels in Congress

Written by Diana Evans, Professor of political science, Trinity College

Members of Congress debated a government spending bill into the early morning on March 20. AP/J. Scott Applewhite

Congress passed a US$1.3 trillion spending bill last Thursday, March 22 – only narrowly averting a third government shutdown this year. President Trump signed the bill into law on Friday.

Congress’s inability to pass...

Betsy DeVos said Common Core was 'dead' – it's not

Written by Nicholas Tampio, Associate Professor of Political Science, Fordham University

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In a speech in Washington earlier this year, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos called the education standards known as the Common Core a “disaster” and proclaimed: “At the U.S. Department of Education, Common Core is dead.”

The reality, however, is that the Common Core is still very much alive. As indicated in a...