top story in April-May 2008
An Activist Manual for the Davos Crowd
The “megacommunity” approach to problem solving, with a dose of consultant-speak.
Policy-Heavy Play
‘Fatworld’ shows video games can tackle (urp) weighty issues.
Rising Storm
Documentary journalism takes on a new multimedia format at its extraordinary new home, MediaStorm.org.
Big Laugh at a Big Wheel
A look at some current research that merits a raised eyebrow or a painful grin.
Braking Up Is Easy to Do (In Traffic)
Quick hits from the professoriat: That’s the brakes for those caught in traffic, it’s a grand old (subliminal) flag, and Amber Alerts get a yellow light.
Light Unto the Developing World
A Massachusetts architect and a personal solar power system — Portable Light — bring comfort and better medical chances to South African TB patients.
Why Miller-McCune and Why Now?
Noted journalist James Fallows helps us explain our new magazine and Web site.
Turning a New Leafy Green
Sterilizing the family farm may not be the best way to keep E. coli out of your salad.
Clean the Tax Code
If we taxed corporations on the profit they report to shareholders, they’d lose the incentive to buy billion-dollar tax breaks from Congress.
archive
The Shining City, Rebuilt
How America can retake the high moral ground and defend against terrorism.
Absent Ballots
Long on promise, short on action, Latinos have never been a definitive force at the polls. Will immigration rhetoric and an unprecedented voter-outreach program make 2008 different?
The Bottom Line for Nonprofit News
Across America, nonprofit Web sites are trying to keep public interest journalism alive at the local level. But to provide what print newspapers increasingly do not, these digitized nonprofits must overcome the challenge facing every startup: Eventually, they have to break even.
Caution: NAFTA at Work
How Europe’s trade model could solve America’s immigration problem.
A Really Inconvenient Truth
The climate problem can be solved. But tackling it is going to be a lot harder than you’ve been led to believe.
No Easy Solution
A flood of ideas has brought unacknowledged progress toward a ‘new’ New Orleans, but big business still has to be persuaded to invest.
related to April-May 2008
politics
- SOPA Debate Highlights Congress’s Ignorance
- Would Debt-Ceiling Circus Occur With Women in Charge?
- Community Broadband Battles Private Telecom
- Family Planning Subsidies Save Taxpayer Money
- The Government Internet ID Proposal’s Pros and Cons
business
- Gender Wage Gap Skewed By Survey Flaws
- Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
- Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely
- Does Black History Need More Than a Month?
- Bitter About Your Life? Blame Facebook
science
- Does This Make My Antenna Look Big?
- Academic Research Does Not Take Holidays Off
- A Spicy Way to Keep the Weight Off?
- Lessons From the Reverse Engineering of Nature
- The Enduring Mystery of the Higgs Boson
culture
media
- Bitter About Your Life? Blame Facebook
- Pop Charts Still Dominated by Men
- PBS to Show ‘Where Soldiers Come From’
- Civil Rights Groups’ Surprising Net-Neutrality Bedfellows
- Culturomics 2.0 Aims to Predict Future Events
legal affairs
- Civil Rights Groups’ Surprising Net-Neutrality Bedfellows
- Deadbeat Dad Policy Needs Renewed Scrutiny
- Cybercop Fights Organized Internet Crime
- Expecting Justice and Hoping for Empathy
- Court Decision Could Lead FCC to Redefine Internet
environment
- Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
- Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely
- Solving Eco-challenges With Today’s Data
- Reconnecting Children and Nature
- Botanist Brings Trees to the Israeli Desert
health
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from the source
Gender Wage Gap Skewed By Survey Flaws
The wage gap between the sexes in America has been closing much faster than anyone realized, but that’s tempered by learning it’s been much wider than measurements had shown.
‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks
An effort to identify five performing orcas as slaves failed in part, argues one scholar, because there’s no legal precedent establishing them as persons.
The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor
New research finds listeners judge symphonic music differently when they’re told the conductor is a woman.
House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire
Transportation used to be one of the few guaranteed areas of agreement when ideology trumped pragmatism in D.C. But that’s no longer the case.
Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity
New research suggests less-creative people do more innovative thinking when they are told individualism is the norm, and instructed to conform.
Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads
A lot of people say they watch the Super Bowl mostly for the ads. But it turns out a good game surrounding those ads makes them seem better.
Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting
After decades of obstacles hindering the voting process, new laws will allow overseas and military voters to submit their votes in time for the 2012 election.
Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected No More?
World health leaders announce coordinated push to eradicate or control neglected tropical diseases.
Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
A survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment.
Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely
Rather than moaning about too many cars on the road, the Ridesharing Institute says the real key to battling traffic congestion and pollution is filling empty passenger seats.
Hall of fame
Slugging — The People’s Transit
In Washington, D.C., commuters have taken thousands of cars off highways via a homegrown rideshare system known as “slugging.” Can the government create more slugs — without stepping on any?
Bacteria ‘R’ Us
Emerging research shows that bacteria have powers to engineer the environment, to communicate and to affect human well-being. They may even think.
A New Take on Political Ideology
An evolutionary psychologist proposes a new framework for understanding the root causes of our political beliefs.
The Real Science Gap
It’s not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It’s a lack of job opportunities. Americans need the reasonable hope that spending their youth preparing to do science will provide a satisfactory career.
Triumph of the Cyborg Composer
David Cope’s software creates beautiful, original music. Why are people so angry about that?
