Traditional nonprofits help ensure aid gets to 'hidden' populations like the homeless. ReutersA recent article in The Atlantic highlighted a growing trend in economic aid of giving money directly to the needy, often without strings attached. It’s being fueled in part by the spread of smartphones, which make it a breeze to offer a few dollars...
As Donald Trump knows all too well, sensationalism sells.Rick Wilking/ReutersAnyone curious about the state of American democracy should simply tune into the GOP debate series, whose next episode airs Tuesday night on Fox Business Network.
If the first two debates are any indication, advertisers will be clamoring to buy up commercial spots,...
Read more: How ratings-driven presidential debates are weakening American democracy
Numbered days of the print form of scholar's book?quattrostagioni, CC BYThe print-format scholarly book, a bulwark of academia’s publish-or-perish culture, is an endangered species. The market that has sustained it over the years is collapsing.
Sales of scholarly books in print format have hit record lows. Per-copy prices are at record highs....
Read more: Academic print books are dying. What's the future?
US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter observes the destroyer USS Lassen in the South China Sea. US NavyUS defense officials are open about the fact they sent a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese artificial island in the South China Sea on October 27.
In response, Chinese President Xi Jinping asserted “islands in the...
Read more: US and Chinese tempers rise in the South China Sea
Upon purchasing a product, many consumers will sign contracts that contain gag clauses in the fine print.'Zipper' via www.shutterstock.comIn late September, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against two marketers of weight-loss supplements – Roca Labs, Inc and Roca Labs Nutraceutical USA, Inc.
According to the FTC, Roca...
What would an environmental economist do? iip-photo-archive/flickr, CC BY-NCIn announcing the State Department’s decision to reject the permit application for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama focused on how this decision fits into the broader context of international negotiations on climate change.
With this decision made,...
Read more: If the US had price on carbon, would Keystone XL have made sense?
Crucial to Paris is a system to monitor and verify countries' pledges to reduce emissions.Kacper Pempel/ReutersThe United States, like many other countries, has been participating in negotiations in the lead-up to the United Nations' conference on climate change in Paris. The goal is to craft a policy framework that is going to engage all...
Read more: As the US heads to climate talks, it seeks a plan to 'trust but verify'
Behavioral research shows that federal employees are more likely to click on an email if it's sent at lunchtime.ReutersBack in September, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that marked a major turning point in the role that behavioral science plays in helping the federal government achieve policy goals.
The order, which directs...
Read more: How the science of human behavior is beginning to reshape the US government
What difference can a teaching assistant make?https://www.flickr.com/photos/vandycft/, CC BY-NCFrom 1995 to 2012, the rate of college completion in the United States has steadily fallen relative to other developed countries. Over this short period of time, the US went from having the highest young-adult college completion rate among OECD countries...
Read more: Teaching assistants like me? Here's what could change
Computer... or black box for data?US ArmyReproducibility is one of the cornerstones of science. Made popular by British scientist Robert Boyle in the 1660s, the idea is that a discovery should be reproducible before being accepted as scientific knowledge.
In essence, you should be able to produce the same results I did if you follow the method I...
Read more: How computers broke science – and what we can do to fix it