top story in September 2008
The Watchdogs of Academia
A call on the professorial classes to help check abuses of governmental power. And to start confronting the Alberto Gonzaleses of the world — before they wreak havoc.
Pardon Me?
Can a new administration help the world forget the sins of its predecessor? Should it?
Wonks of the World, Unite!
For your Labor Day weekend reading pleasure, we have crafted summaries of recent research papers focusing on unions, strikes and the attitudes of workers. Collectively a bargain, they come to you fresh off the Miller-McCune factory floor.
The Danger of Fat-Think
Believing you’re fat may be more emotionally damaging than actually being obese.
Dream Memo
The climate change memorandum we can only hope for.
The Catch-22 of Welfare to Work
The government provides billions of dollars in child care subsidies to help move welfare recipients into the work force. Here’s the catch: To get the subsidies, people transitioning off welfare need to have a job already.
The Inconvenient Alliance
Looking at the complex U.S.-Saudi relationship in a time of terrorism, rising oil prices and climate change.
AARP, Meet STD
Studies show the over-50 demographic needs AIDS education.
Boom Without End
Hey, man, this baby boomer retirement thing ain’t that big a deal. OK?
archive
Tribes of the 21st Century
An essay collection makes the case that, in the digital age, community is more a matter of ideas than of geography. Even if the idea is a Nigerian e-mail scam.
Death by Pink Slip
A film on a health care system that impoverishes and kills people, just because they lose their jobs.
Putting Corporations on the Carbon Scale
Mike Wallace helps climate-savvy investors determine whether companies will prosper or shrivel as carbon dioxide regulation becomes reality.
Burning Down the House to Keep Warm
Only a fool would support expanded domestic exploration — offshore or elsewhere — under the Bush administration’s dysfunctional energy policies. Here’s how those policies need to change for America to responsibly find the energy it needs.
Derailing the Boondoggle
A Danish professor promotes a cure for billion-dollar cost overruns in government megaprojects: Use past boondoggles as a baseline.
Bill of Goods: The World’s Biggest Boondoggles
As seen in our main story on a cure for billion-dollar cost overruns, here’s a look at some infamous public works projects and what went wrong.
A Future of Less
Here’s how government can help curb America’s seemingly endless appetite for “more.”
No Weighting
Oregon researchers develop counseling approaches that reduce anorexia, bulimia and obesity among young women — apparently for years.
Earthship Trooper
Michael Reynolds has been building his variety of low-consumption, off-the-grid housing for decades. Now, though, the Earthship is taking off.
Close Encounters of the Magnetohydrodynamic Kind
An engineering professor has submitted a patent application for a circular, spinning aircraft design … or flying saucer
related to September 2008
politics
- Pirate Party Docks at Berlin’s Parliament
- Who Owns Government-Funded Research Papers?
- Post-Gadhafi: What’s Next for Libya’s Government?
- An Army of Change
- U.S. Evaluating Government Programs More Than Ever
business
- EarthScope: A Seismic Shift in Data Gathering
- Five Orcas, Five Slaves or Five Persons?
- Pirate Party Docks at Berlin’s Parliament
- Does Black History Need More Than a Month?
- Who Owns Government-Funded Research Papers?
science
- EarthScope: A Seismic Shift in Data Gathering
- Teens Weigh Ethical Animal Research Dilemmas
- Animal Research’s Changing Equation
- Feds Put Chimp Experiments in Cage
- Beware of Science as Political Veneer
culture
media
- Analyzing Culture with Google Books: Is It Social Science?
- How Google Disrespected Mexican History
- ‘State of Minds’ Puts Research in the Spotlight
- Lessons From China and India’s Newspaper Boom
- The Third Way to Media Success
legal affairs
- Five Orcas, Five Slaves or Five Persons?
- The FCC and Indecency: Here We Go Again
- Pets, Vets and Stalking Horses
- Should Animals Be Considered People?
- Neo-Nazis and ‘Defensive Democracy’
environment
- A Discernible Human Influence: Schneider and Climate Change
- From Siberia to the Tropics with a Thermometer
- Crazy Weather and Climate: Do Dots Connect?
- Pricing Carbon to Reduce Emissions, Create Dividends
- Ten Ways the Feds Are Leading the Green Charge
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?
