A series of urban uprisings in Iran that began on Dec. 28 in its second-largest city shocked the country’s Islamic regime, as well as much of the world. Although the Mashhad protests were spearheaded by conservative opponents of President Hassan Rouhani to discredit his economic policies, the organizers lost control of the crowd. Protesters angrily...
When my mother was in her final months, suffering from a heart failure and other problems, she called me to her bedside with a pained expression. She took my hand and asked plaintively, “How do I get out of this mess?” As a physician, I dreaded the question that might follow: Would I help her...
The sting of the premature death of 27-year-old Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, is still fresh. On Christmas Eve, Erica Garner suffered a massive heart attack which caused extensive brain damage. She died on Dec. 30. This latest loss emphasizes something we have known: Black women are dying from the trauma of police violence...
A decade after the global economic collapse, urban development is booming. This is good news for architects. Indeed, 2018 promises to be a favorable year for the profession: A spectacular array of sleek museums, posh hotels and some of the world’s tallest towers are slated for completion. But income inequality is on the rise in...
Rural areas across the United States are increasingly offering telehealth services to improve access to quality healthcare for residents who are unable to visit a hospital due to cost or accessibility. In St. Robert, a town of 5,000 in southern Missouri, the telehealth network has been connecting patients to healthcare providers since the 1990s. Improved...
Defense Secretary James Mattis said last Thursday that the United States will continue to work with Pakistan to coordinate military supply routes needed to combat terror networks in Afghanistan, despite the Trump administration’s earlier remarks that it would suspend funds for security assistance to Pakistan until the country takes action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani...
Software developers are working to release fixes and updates to protect computers and mobile devices from two security flaws discovered by a team of researchers from Google Project Zero working with academia and cybersecurity firms. The flaws, known as “Meltdown” and “Spectre” affect computing devices with chips from Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and...
$1 That’s what it cost 14-year-old me to get into the 1977 Star Wars premiere. $10 That’s how much I eventually stole from my mom so I could see it again and again. I’m not ashamed to admit, as a 14-year-old boy, I was hooked. Standing along side Luke and Obi-Wan, I left this world....
Whether you get mesmerised by Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night or Albert Einstein’s theories about spacetime, you’ll probably agree that both pieces of work are products of mindblowing creativity. Imagination is what propels us forward as a species – it expands our worlds and brings us new ideas, inventions and discoveries. But why...
Volunteer tourism, or voluntourism, is an emerging trend of travel linked to “doing good”. Yet these efforts to help people and the environment have come under heavy criticism – I believe for good reason. Voluntourists’ ability to change systems, alleviate poverty or provide support for vulnerable children is limited. They simply don’t have the skills....
