The Conversation

Why the inflation rate doesn’t tell the whole story – all it takes is a spike in a category like used cars to cause consumer prices to soar

Written by Richard S. Warr, Professor of Finance, North Carolina State University

A big increase in use car prices drove the inflation rate higher in April.AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Markets, economists and policymakers have been fretting about inflation for months, worried that the trillions of dollars being spent in recent and future government stimulus programs could overheat the economy and send prices soaring.

On May 12,...

Another dangerous fire season is looming in the Western U.S., and the drought-stricken region is headed for a water crisis

Written by Mojtaba Sadegh, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Boise State University

Just about every indicator of drought is flashing red across the western U.S. after a dry winter and warm early spring. The snowpack is at less than half of normal in much of the region. Reservoirs are being drawn down, river levels are dropping and soils are drying out.

It’s only May, and states are already considering water use restrictions...

Apple threatens to upend podcasting's free, open architecture

Written by John Sullivan, Professor of Media and Communication, Muhlenberg College

Creators will now have the option to require a payment for audiences to access their content on Apple's platform.Ramyr_Dukin/Getty Images

Back in 2005, an ebullient Apple CEO Steven P. Jobs announced the integration of podcasting into Version 4.9 of its desktop iTunes software, calling podcasting “TiVo for radio.”

Sixteen years later,...

Free speech wasn't so free 103 years ago, when 'seditious' and 'unpatriotic' speech was criminalized in the US

Written by Eric P. Robinson, Assistant Professor (media law and ethics), University of South Carolina

Eugene Debs, at center with flowers, who was serving a prison sentence for violating the Espionage Act, on the day he was notified of his nomination for the presidency on the socialist ticket by a delegation of leading socialists.George Rinhard/Corbis Historical/Getty Images

Just over a century ago, the United States government – in the midst...

Refugee camps can wreak enormous environmental damages – should source countries be liable for them?

Written by Leonard Hammer, Director of Outreach and Development, Human Rights Practice Graduate Programs, University of Arizona

Tents in a Rohingya refugee camp cluster on a muddy hillside in Bangladesh.Saleh Ahmed, CC BY-ND

While it may seem that much of the world has been locked down during the past pandemic year, more than 80 million people are currently on the move – unwillingly.

Facing conflict in Syria, human rights violations in Myanmar and violence in Eritrea,...

Scientists at work: Helping endangered sea turtles, one emergency surgery at a time

Written by John Thomason, Associate Professor of Small Animal Internal Medicine, Mississippi State University

Kemp's ridley sea turtles are an endangered species that live and nest in the Gulf of Mexico.National Park Service/WikimediaCommons

“Help! I’m fishing and just caught a huge sea turtle. She’s completely swallowed my hook.” We are two veterinarians, Debra Moore, who specializes in sea turtles, and John Thomason, who...

Why is the FDA funded in part by the companies it regulates?

Written by C. Michael White, Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

Exterior of the Pfizer World headquarters building. Pfizer produced the first COVID-19 vaccine to gain emergency use authorization. Sam Aronov/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration has moved from an entirely taxpayer-funded entity to one increasingly funded by user fees paid by manufacturers that are being...

Protests by Palestinian citizens in Israel signal growing sense of a common struggle

Written by Maha Nassar, Associate Professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Arizona

GettyImages

The world’s attention has turned again to deadly scenes of Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the launching of rockets by the militant group Hamas into Israel. It follows two weeks of protests in East Jerusalem against attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Israeli police raids on...

Faith in numbers: Is church attendance linked to higher rates of coronavirus?

Written by Ryan Burge, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Eastern Illinois University

Church closures were among the most contested measures brought in to fight COVID-19Mario Tama/Getty Images

The lockdowns that almost every state went into in order to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 interrupted nearly every aspect of Americans’ lives. Businesses were shuttered, schools closed and social groups stopped...

Here’s how much your personal information is worth to cybercriminals – and what they do with it

Written by Ravi Sen, Associate Professor of Information and Operations Management, Texas A&M University

The black market for stolen personal information motivates most data breaches.aleksey-martynyuk/iStock via Getty Images

Data breaches have become common, and billions of records are stolen worldwide every year. Most of the media coverage of data breaches tends to focus on how the breach happened, how many records were stolen and the financial and...