Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Articles”
With General John Campbell’s tour of duty in Afghanistan finished, a new commander has taken over. Admittedly, things did not go well during Campbell’s year and a half heading up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) there, but that’s par for the course. In late 2015, while he was in the saddle, the Talibantook the provincial capital of Kunduz, the first …
“Completely and Utterly Fail in an Earthquake” The Fukushima story you didn’t hear on CNN On the Fifth Anniversary of the meltdown, the con continues I’ve seen a lot of sick stuff in my career, but this was sick on a new level. Here was the handwritten log kept by a senior engineer at the nuclear power plant: Wiesel was …
Consumption of broccoli has increased in the United States over the last few decades as scientists have reported that eating the vegetable three to five times per week can lower the risk of many types of cancer including breast, prostate, and colon cancers. A new study from the University of Illinois reports that including broccoli in the diet may also …
“Sustainable development” is a claim to virtue. The word “development” used in this sense is a lie. The word “develop” means “to grow,” “to progress,” “to become fuller, more advanced.” Some synonyms are “evolution, unfolding, maturation, ripeness,” and some antonyms are “deterioration, disintegration.” And here is a real usage example from a dictionary: “Drama reached its highest development in the …
Earlier today Phil and I wrote about a new survey of Israeli attitudes by the Pew Research Center. The poll response that is generating the most attention is the finding that almost half of Israeli Jews agreed with the statement “Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel”: Israeli Jews are divided on the question of whether Arabs should be allowed to live …
Regardless of the outcome of the American presidential primaries, or even the result of the general elections next November, a frightening phenomenon is under way. The US has decidedly moved to the Right, in fact the Ultra-Right; class differences are more pronounced than ever before, thanks to decades of neoliberal policies, the kind of capitalism that has concentrated the wealth …
The other night on John Oliver’s HBO program, I saw a funny montage of President Obama repeatedly stating his intention to close Guantanamo. In the beginning, the youthful president was unequivocal. But with each successive news clip—and as his hair became increasingly grayer—Mr. Obama became less emphatic. He was practically conciliatory in his last public statement about closing the offshore …
Collective motion can be observed in biological systems over a wide range of length scales, from large animals to bacteria because collective systems always work better for adaptation than those which are singular. Individual bacterial cells have short memories. But groups of bacteria can develop a collective memory that can increase their tolerance to stress. This has been demonstrated experimentally …
This winter was the warmest on the record for the continental U.S., new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows, as average temperatures climbed nearly 5 F above normal. How temperatures compared to long-term averages across the contiguous U.S. during the winter of 2015-2016. Photo credit: NOAA Every state in the lower 48 saw temperatures at least 1.7 F above average. New England …
A UT Dallas researcher says there’s a smart way for children and parents to disagree—and it doesn’t involve casting blame. Dr. Jackie Nelson, assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, said parents and children who focused discussions on future-oriented planning, rather than accusations and culpability, were more likely to reach a compromise in which both parents’ and children’s goals …
