top story in October 2008
The Court(s) and the Election
In light of Justice David Souter’s retirement plans and speculation that a female jurist will replace him, we’re revisiting this October 2008 story that details the effect women judges can have on a panel.
The VA Brush-Off
The Department of Veterans Affairs routinely delays disability claims by wounded soldiers for months and years, often shunting them into homelessness. But there’s a simple way for the government to get disabled veterans the help they deserve. It can trust them.
Path to a Pathway
ImmigrationPAC hopes to leverage the Hispanic faith community and help elect federal candidates who support “an earned pathway” to citizenship for undocumented migrants.
To Kill, or Not to Kill
Soldiers of Conscience, a PBS documentary, examines the ethics and emotional cost of killing on the battlefield.
The New New Media
At the end of the fossil fuel era, America’s premier journalism schools have staked out their place in the Digital Age. It’s called News21, and it provides what may be the best multimedia coverage of the election season.
Takin’ It to the Web
The surveys make it official: Today’s collegians may not protest in the streets, but the networked generation is as anti-war and political as students in the ’60s.
How a Race About Race Could Be Less About Race
Inevitably, some voters will cast votes against Barack Obama because he is black. But research suggests he has options for reducing prejudiced voting in November.
A New Stones Age
The EPA acknowledges, finally, that climate change will have public-health implications, increasing the incidence of heart disease, allergies, asthma, tropical diseases and … kidney stones.
The Future Is Not Plastics
Letters to the editor: Decompartmentalizing right whales, vinclozolin, bisphenol A, krill and a few other things.
archive
Market Failure
Two professors explain why small government, loose regulations and an over-reliance on markets eventually cost taxpayers.
Mother Nature’s Sum
Scientists are working to put economic value on the natural world, hoping to create ecosystem-services markets that protect the environment. But are they really just putting out a contract on Mother Nature?
Innocent Until Reported Guilty
The simple prescription for reducing wrongful convictions: better journalism about crime and punishment.
Clean Start
Joanne Goldblum saw poor people reusing disposable diapers and had to do something. Her nonprofit, The Diaper Bank, now gives 150,000 diapers a month to people in need.
Evidence of a Need for Change
How likely is it that you will receive treatment the medical literature says is best? Flip a coin. Evidence-based health care can improve those odds, save lives and cut health care costs dramatically.
A Free and Fair Market
How do we protect the markets from their own overexuberance? By signaling that future failures won’t get government bailouts.
Do They Take Their Brollies With Them?
The Cocktail Napkin: A look at some current research that merits a raised eyebrow or a painful grin.
related to October 2008
politics
- Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting
- Supreme Court Calls For New Try on Texas Districts
- Obama’s Military Strategy Follows Our Predictions
- Brams: Use Approval Voting in Presidential Primaries
- Righting the Voting Income Gap
business
- Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity
- Learning to Read When a School System Falters
- Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads
- Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting
- Women Eye Dance Moves to Find Thrill Seekers
science
- Why Robot Maids Won’t Do the Dishes
- A Light Bulb Moment in the Brain
- CSI: Wildlife — Solving Mysterious Animal Deaths
- Researchers Re-Open Their Minds to Psychedelic Drugs
- Wording Change Softens Global Warming Skeptics
culture
media
- PBS to Show ‘Where Soldiers Come From’
- ‘If a Tree Falls’ Revisits the Earth Liberation Front
- How Google Disrespected Mexican History
- Welcome to Shelbyville: Loving, Fearing Thy Neighbors
- ‘State of Minds’ Puts Research in the Spotlight
legal affairs
- California’s Medical Marijuana Morass
- LAPD Cracks Cold Cases With Science, Grit
- Lee Baca Wants to Educate L.A.’s Prisoners
- For Some, Might Torture Be Its Own Reward?
- ‘Courts and Kids’ Argues for Equal School Funding
environment
- Returning Warriors Go to Work, in the Fields
- Reconnecting Children and Nature
- CSI: Wildlife — Solving Mysterious Animal Deaths
- Solar Showdown: Are New Solar Power Projects Anti-Environmental?
- Wording Change Softens Global Warming Skeptics
health
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Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
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Casual Sex: Men, Women Not So Different After All
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Prop Planes: The Future of Eco-Friendly Aviation?
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Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity
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Japan's Earthquake: Deciphering the Fury
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The Real Science Gap
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Learning to Read When a School System Falters
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The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor
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?
