The Conversation

What is Eid and how do Muslims celebrate it? 6 questions answered

Written by Ken Chitwood, Ph.D. Candidate, Religion in the Americas, Global Islam, University of Florida

Muslim women at a prayer service at a mosque in Redmond, Washington, to mark the end of Ramadan and the start of Eid-al-Fitr in 2016.AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Editor’s note: Muslims all over the world are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, one of the religion’s principal festivals. In August, Muslims will celebrate Eid al-Adha. Ken Chitwood, a...

Angkor Wat archaeological digs yield new clues to its civilization's decline

Written by Alison Kyra Carter, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Oregon

Cambodia’s famous temple of Angkor Wat is one of the world’s largest religious monuments, visited by over 2 million tourists each year.

It was built in the early 12th century by King Suryavarman II, one of the most famous kings of the Angkorian civilization that lasted from approximately the ninth to 15th centuries. The structure is so...

Big tech surveillance could damage democracy

Written by Chase Johnson, Research Associate, Frank Church Institute, Boise State University School of Public Service, Boise State University

Companies use data to make a portrait of their users.ImageFlow/shutterstock.com

Data is often called the oil of the 21st century.

The more tech companies know about their users, the more effectively they can direct them to goods and services that they are likely to buy. The more companies know about their users, the more competitive they are in the...

Is Robert Mueller an antique? The role of the facts in a post-truth era

Written by Lee McIntyre, Research Fellow Center for Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University

In just a little over eight minutes – on the morning of Wednesday, May 29th – the post-truth era came to an end.

Or did it?

That’s when Special Counsel Robert Mueller took the podium and addressed only the facts concerning his two-year-long investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election as well as...

Getting poorer while working harder: The 'cliff effect'

Written by Susan R. Crandall, Director, Center for Social Policy, University of Massachusetts Boston

Average Walmart workers make twice the federal minimum wage but may still qualify for public benefits.AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Forty percent of all working-age Americans sometimes struggle to pay their monthly bills.

There is no place in the country where a family supported by one minimum-wage worker with a full-time job can live and afford a...

D-Day succeeded thanks to an ingenious design called the Mulberry Harbours

Written by Colin Flint, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Utah State University

To stage their invasion of Nazi-held France, Allied forces created floating harbors in the English Channel where ships could safely dock to send soldiers and supplies ashore.Royal Air Force

When Allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy, France on June 6, 1944 – a bold invasion of Nazi-held territory that helped tip the balance of World...

Pilots sleeping in the cockpit could improve airline safety

Written by Scott Winter, Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Airline pilots are often exhausted.christinarosepix/Shutterstock.com

Airline pilots are often exhausted. An extreme example happened in 2008, when a pilot and a co-pilot both fell asleep at the controls, missing their landing in Hawaii – earning pilot’s license suspensions as well as getting fired. More recently, overtired pilots came...

Hate crimes associated with both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have a long history in America's past

Written by Peter Gottschalk, Professor of Religion, Wesleyan University

At a 2016 Trump rally, a man holds up a sign, 'Islamophobia is not the answer.'AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar tweeted recently that “Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are two sides of the same bigoted coin.”

Her comments came in response to media reports that the suspect behind the shooting at a San Diego synagogue was also u...

The economic cost of devastating hurricanes and other extreme weather events is even worse than we thought

Written by Gary W. Yohe, Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, Wesleyan University

June marks the official start of hurricane season. If recent history is any guide, it will prove to be another destructive year thanks to the worsening impact of climate change.

But beyond more intense hurricanes and explosive wildfires, the warming climate has been blamed for causing a sharp uptick in all types of extreme weather events across...

To tackle climate change, immigration and threats to democracy, Europe's fractious new Parliament will have to work together

Written by Garret Martin, Professorial Lecturer, American University School of International Service

The European Parliament is more fragmented than ever in its history, which could lead to legislative paralysis.Shutterstock

The European Union has survived its latest contest between pro-EU and anti-EU forces.

Helped by high turnout, pro-EU centrist and leftist parties together won more than two-thirds of seats in the European Parliament elections...