A community’s social capital – the level of trust and cooperation among residents – is conventionally associated with the likes of higher SAT scores and less youth violence. But a new study drawn from Payment Protection Program (PPP) and U.S. Census data shows that the same metric also correlates positively with business development. When the...
Prosecution of child sexual abuse (CSA) serves an important purpose beyond providing a penalty to a guilty party: It can offer an avenue to justice for survivors of abuse and their families, protect potential future victims, and send a message to the community that sexual abuse of children is taken seriously and that justice for...
Republican-leaning counties saw a sharp rise in birth rates compared to Democratic-leaning counties after Donald J. Trump’s surprise win in the 2016 presidential election, reveals a forthcoming study from the University of California San Diego. Democratic counties, on the other hand, experienced a baby slump. The paper’s authors find that this difference between Republican versus...
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, acquired Twitter in a US$44 billion deal on April 25, 2022, 11 days after announcing his bid for the company. Twitter announced that the public company will become privately held after the acquisition is complete. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for his initial bid for...
Utopia literally means an imaginary ideal place that in principle can never be realised. However, in practical regional development, utopia-likeness is needed, because it promotes, involves and inspires social reforms, says Mikko Karhu, Licentiate of Administrative Sciences, who is defending his doctoral dissertation at the University of Vaasa on 22 April. Mikko Karhu’s doctoral dissertation...
At least for now, there is no reason for the traditional meat industry to have much of a beef with producers of plant-based burgers and other meat alternatives, new research suggests. The study showed that while sales and market share of new-generation plant-based meat alternatives have grown in recent years, those gains haven’t translated into...
New research from the University of Warwick, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Reichman University, Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the Barcelona School of Economics challenges the conventional theory that the transition from foraging to farming drove the development of complex, hierarchical societies by creating agricultural surplus in areas of fertile land. In The Origin of the State:...
We’re all familiar with the classic “look” of a movie bad guy: peering through narrowing eyes with a sinister sneer (like countless James Bond villains, including Christopher Walken’s memorable Max Zorin in A View to a Kill) or pumped up to cartoon-like dimensions (like the Soviet boxer Drago who growls “I must break you” to Rocky...
Plant-foliage-derived gases drive a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon over the Amazon rainforest, according to a recent study by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The findings have important applications for atmospheric science and for climate change modeling. “The tropical Amazon rainforest constitutes the lungs of the Earth, and this study connects natural processes in the forest to...
Ancient Japanese art of kirigami guides artificial intelligence (AI) technique for durable, wearable electronics. Kirigami is the Japanese art of paper cutting. Likely derived from the Chinese art of jiǎnzhǐ, it emerged around the 7th century in Japan, where it was used to decorate temples. Still in practice today, the kirigami artist uses one piece of paper...