The Conversation

Why privatizing Puerto Rico's power grid won't solve its energy problems

Written by Arturo Massol-Deyá, Professor of MIcrobial Ecology, University of Puerto Rico - Humacao

Puerto Rico's power utility, PREPA, has been decimated by years of scarcity and bad management. But will privatizing it really turn the lights back on for Puerto Ricans?AP Photo/Carlos Giusti

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Perhaps nothing is clearer to Puerto Ricans right now than the importance of having a good power grid. Hurricane Maria battered the...

La privatización de PREPA compromete el desarrollo energético de Puerto Rico

Written by Arturo Massol-Deyá, Professor of MIcrobial Ecology, University of Puerto Rico - Humacao

¿Privatizar la generación energética de Puerto Rico ayudará a que esto no vuelva a pasar?AP Photo/Carlos Giusti

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Si algo se ve claro ahora en Puerto Rico es la importancia de un sistema energético fuerte y resiliente. Tras el Huracán María, que azotó la isla en septiembre 2017,...

Estate planning for your digital assets

Written by Natalie Banta, Associate Professor of Law, Drake University

Digital documents are not nearly as easy to retrieve.Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com

What will happen to your Facebook account when you die? What about all your photos shared on social media, your texts with loved ones, or documents on cloud-storage systems? In just the two-year period from 2012 to 2014, humans produced more data than in all of...

Suicide isn't just a 'white people thing'

Written by Kimya N. Dennis, Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Studies; Creator and Coordinator of Criminal Studies program, Salem College

Research suggests that suicides by racial and ethnic minorities are undercounted. Joseph Sohm/shutterstock.com

As a sociologist and criminologist, I often do community outreach on mental health prevention. I urge organizations and programs to avoid “one size fits all” approaches. There are many ways that mental health issues can impact...

What's the difference between sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape?

Written by Sarah L. Cook, Professor & Associate Dean, Georgia State University

The terms “sexual abuse,” “sexual assault,” “sexual harassment” – and even “rape” – crop up daily in the news. We are likely to see these terms more as the #MeToo movement continues.

Many people want to understand these behaviors and work to prevent them. It helps if we are consistent and...

Are traffic-clogged US cities ready for congestion pricing?

Written by John Rennie Short, Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Times Square traffic jam.bk, CC BY-SA

New York is the latest city to contemplate congestion pricing as a way to deal with traffic problems. This strategy, which requires motorists to pay fees for driving into city centers during busy periods, is a rarity in urban public policy: a measure that works and is cost-effective.

Properly used, congestion...

The Cleveland Indians' Chief Wahoo isn't going away anytime soon

Written by Kelly Michael Young, Associate Professor of Communication, Wayne State University

Though Chief Wahoo won't appear on uniforms, there's no reason to think that the mascot won't endure on signs, clothing and memorabilia. Arturo Pardavila III, CC BY

At the end of January, the Cleveland Indians announced that their mascot, Chief Wahoo, will no longer appear on players’ jerseys beginning with the 2019 Major League Baseball...

How childhood experiences contribute to the education-health link

Written by Shanta R. Dube, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Georgia State University

A teen looking out of a window. Research shows that traumatic events in childhood can affect children as they mature and limit their education, which in turn can harm their health.Jan Andersen/Shutterstock.com

The interconnection between education and health is well established.

Take, for example, smoking. Smoking continues to be the leading cause...

Black Americans mostly left behind by progress since Dr. King's death

Written by Sharon Austin, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of African American Studies, University of Florida

How much has really improved for black people in the U.S. since 1968?Ted Eytan, CC BY-SA

On Apr. 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while assisting striking sanitation workers.

That was almost 50 years ago. Back then, the wholesale racial integration required by the 1964 Civil Rights Act was just beginning...

If football is so deadly, why did 103 million people watch the Super Bowl?

Written by John Affleck, Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society, Pennsylvania State University

A hit from Malcom Jenkins sidelined the Patriots' Brandin Cooks for the night.AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

During the second quarter of Super Bowl LII, the party stopped, if just for a second.

Tom Brady found Patriots wide receiver Brandin Cooks downfield with a 23-yard completion. Cooks spun around then got laid out by the Eagles’ Malcolm Jenkins,...