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Just about anybody in America can officiate a wedding, thanks to the internet – and one determined preacher

  • Written by Dusty Hoesly, Postdoctoral Researcher in Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
imageWho did the honors: clergy, a justice of the peace or just a friend? More and more weddings are performed by someone ordained online. Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Wedding season is here again, and my calendar is filling up – not just as a guest.

Over the past 15 years, I have officiated over 20 weddings for friends and family,...

Read more: Just about anybody in America can officiate a wedding, thanks to the internet – and one determined...

Alabama is not the first state to defy a Supreme Court ruling: 3 essential reads on why that matters

  • Written by Howard Manly, Race + Equity Editor, The Conversation US
imagePolice officers patrolling the front of the Supreme Court building.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

In its 5-4 Allen v. Milligan decision on June 8, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state of Alabama to redraw its congressional voting districts and consider race as it made up the new districts. The court had found that the state’s...

Read more: Alabama is not the first state to defy a Supreme Court ruling: 3 essential reads on why that matters

Federal government is challenging Texas's buoys in the Rio Grande – here’s why these kinds of border blockades wind up complicating immigration enforcement

  • Written by Jean Lantz Reisz, Co-Director, USC Immigration Clinic and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law, University of Southern California
imageBuoy barriers are shown in the middle of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 18, 2023. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The Rio Grande is only about 328 feet, or about 99 meters, wide. But the waterway dividing Texas from northern Mexico is deceptively dangerous and routinely claims the lives of migrants who try to cross it, but get caught in...

Read more: Federal government is challenging Texas's buoys in the Rio Grande – here’s why these kinds of...

Your genetic code has lots of 'words' for the same thing – information theory may help explain the redundancies

  • Written by Subhash Kak, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oklahoma State University
imageThe same amino acid can be encoded by anywhere from one to six different strings of letters in the genetic code.Andrzej Wojcicki/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Nearly all life, from bacteria to humans, uses the same genetic code. This code acts as a dictionary, translating genes into the amino acids used to build proteins. The universality...

Read more: Your genetic code has lots of 'words' for the same thing – information theory may help explain the...

I've taught in prisons for 15 years – here's what schools need to know as government funding expands

  • Written by Nicholas De Dominic, Associate Professor of Writing, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
imageIn the U.S., almost 2 million people are in prison.Rizky Panuntun/Moment via Getty Images

In spring of 2023, I taught a class on memoir at the California Institution for Women, a medium-security facility, in Chino.

The course focused on autobiographical writing. Each week, students were asked to draft narratives focused on their life story and its...

Read more: I've taught in prisons for 15 years – here's what schools need to know as government funding expands

Hypocrisy penalty: Investors especially hate companies that say they're good then behave badly – unless the money is good

  • Written by Brian L. Connelly, Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, Auburn University
imageInvestors don't like it when companies do one thing and then say another. Adam Gault/Photodisc via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

Stock investors punish companies caught doing something unethical a lot more when when these businesses also have a record of portraying themselves as...

Read more: Hypocrisy penalty: Investors especially hate companies that say they're good then behave badly –...

Progressives' embrace of Disney in battle with DeSantis over LGBTQ rights comes with risks

  • Written by Steven Gerencser, Professor of Political Science, Indiana University
imageIs Disney really a 'woke' corporation? AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack

The battle between The Walt Disney Co. and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over LGBTQ rights and whether those rights should be acknowledged – let alone taught – in schools has spurred an unlikely alliance between progressives and one of the world’s biggest entertainment...

Read more: Progressives' embrace of Disney in battle with DeSantis over LGBTQ rights comes with risks

Deaf rappers who lay down rhymes in sign languages are changing what it means for music to be heard

  • Written by Katelyn Best, Teaching Assistant Professor of Musicology, West Virginia University
imageRapper Beautiful The Artist performs in the music video for the dip hop song 'DEAFinitely Lit.'Beautiful The Artist/YouTube

In April 2023, DJ Supalee hosted Supafest Reunion 2023 to celebrate entertainers and promoters within the U.S. Deaf community.

The event included performances by R&B artist and rapper Sho’Roc, female rapper Beautiful...

Read more: Deaf rappers who lay down rhymes in sign languages are changing what it means for music to be heard

4 factors driving 2023's extreme heat and climate disasters

  • Written by Michael Wysession, Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
image2023's weather has been extreme in many ways.AP Photo/Michael Probst

Between the record-breaking global heat and extreme downpours, it’s hard to ignore that something unusual is going on with the weather in 2023.

People have been quick to blame climate change – and they’re right, to a point: Human-caused global warming does play...

Read more: 4 factors driving 2023's extreme heat and climate disasters

Hunter Biden's plea agreement renegotiation is rare – a law professor explains what usually happens

  • Written by Lorna Grisby, Senior Politics & Society Editor
imageHunter Biden arrives at federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, to review a plea deal on misdemeanor tax charges.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images News via Getty Images

The highly anticipated July 26, 2023, federal court appearance in Delaware by President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, ended in a completely unanticipated way.

Hunter Biden was there to...

Read more: Hunter Biden's plea agreement renegotiation is rare – a law professor explains what usually happens

More Articles ...

  1. Sen. Tuberville's blockade of US military promotions takes a historic tradition to a radical new level – and could go beyond Congress' August break
  2. As witchcraft becomes a multibillion-dollar business, practitioners' connection to the natural world is changing
  3. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts uses conflicting views of race to resolve America's history of racial discrimination
  4. Where the government draws the line for Medicaid coverage leaves out many older Americans who may need help paying for medical and long-term care bills – new research
  5. Do smartphones belong in classrooms? Four scholars weigh in
  6. In search of the world's largest freshwater fish – the wonderfully weird giants lurking in Earth's rivers
  7. How well-managed dams and smart forecasting can limit flooding as extreme storms become more common in a warming world
  8. Women can now undertake Islamic pilgrimages without a male guardian in Saudi Arabia, but that doesn't mean they're traveling alone -- communities are an important part of the religious experience
  9. Horse health research will help humans stay healthy, too, with insights on reining in diabetes and obesity
  10. Laughter can communicate a lot more than good humor – people use it to smooth social interactions
  11. As contentious judicial 'reform' becomes law in Israel, Netanyahu cements his political legacy
  12. Decades of public messages about recycling in the US have crowded out more sustainable ways to manage waste
  13. Will I ever need math? A mathematician explains how math is everywhere – from soap bubbles to Pixar movies
  14. Massachusetts is updating its sex education guidelines for the first time in 24 years
  15. Blame capitalism? Why hundreds of decades-old yet vital drugs are nearly impossible to find
  16. How book-banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians – they now need to learn how to plan for safety and legally protect themselves
  17. This year's debate over defense spending threatens to disrupt a tradition of bipartisan consensus-building over funding the military
  18. A sculptor of wind explains how to make fiber dance far above city streets
  19. Women's World Cup will highlight how far other countries have closed the gap with US – but that isn't the only yardstick to measure growth of global game
  20. Global diabetes cases on pace to soar to 1.3 billion people in the next 3 decades, new study finds
  21. First contact with aliens could end in colonization and genocide if we don't learn from history
  22. What is a target letter? 3 things to know about how the Justice Department notifies suspects, like Donald Trump, ahead of possible charges
  23. Targeting Trump for prosecution – 4 essential reads on how the Jan. 6 investigation laid the groundwork for the special counsel
  24. Exercise may or may not help you lose weight and keep it off – here's the evidence for both sides of the debate
  25. Registering refugees using personal information has become the norm – but cybersecurity breaches pose risks to people giving sensitive biometric data
  26. 175 years ago, the Seneca Falls Convention kicked off the fight for women's suffrage – an iconic moment deeply shaped by Quaker beliefs on gender and equality
  27. Using green banks to solve America’s affordable housing crisis – and climate change at the same time
  28. 'Zombie fires' in the Arctic: Canada's extreme wildfire season offers a glimpse of new risks in a warmer, drier future
  29. China needs immigrants
  30. FTC probe of OpenAI: Consumer protection is the opening salvo of US AI regulation
  31. Returning to the Moon can benefit commercial, military and political sectors – a space policy expert explains
  32. Actors are demanding that Hollywood catch up with technological changes in a sequel to a 1960 strike
  33. A 1-minute gun safety video helped preteen children be more careful around real guns – new research
  34. Events that never happened could influence the 2024 presidential election – a cybersecurity researcher explains situation deepfakes
  35. Why people tend to believe UFOs are extraterrestrial
  36. What do astronomers say about Moon landing deniers? Batting down the conspiracy theory with an assist from the 1969 Miracle Mets
  37. What the US can learn from affirmative action at universities in Brazil
  38. International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., pays new respect to the enslaved Africans who landed on its docks
  39. Religion shapes vaccine views – but how exactly? Our analysis looks at ideas about God and beliefs about the Bible
  40. Impunity over Wagner mutiny signals further degradation of rule of law in Russia
  41. Democrats revive the Equal Rights Amendment from a long legal limbo -- facing an unlikely uphill battle to get it enshrined into law
  42. How I learned to stop worrying and love the doll – a feminist philosopher's journey back to Barbie
  43. As a summer heat wave pummels the US, an expert warns about the dangers of humidity – particularly for toddlers, young athletes and older adults
  44. Hollywood on the picket line – 5 unsung films that put America’s union history on the silver screen
  45. A US-Russia prisoner swap for reporter Evan Gershkovich could be tricky: 3 essential reads on the recent history
  46. Corals are starting to bleach as global ocean temperatures hit record highs
  47. Curing America's loneliness epidemic would make us healthier, fitter and less likely to abuse drugs
  48. Drugs and religion have been a potent combination for millennia, from cannabis at ancient funerary sites to psychedelic retreats today
  49. Is the US being hypocritical in taking years to destroy its chemical weapons, while condemning other nations for their own chemical weapons programs? A political philosopher weighs in
  50. Female physicists aren't represented in the media – and this lack of representation hurts the physics field