Is your iPad being a literal pain in the neck? The answer is likely yes — especially if you’re a young adult or a woman. “iPad neck” — persistent pain in the neck and upper shoulders caused by slouching or bending into extreme positions while using tablet computers — is a growing problem among Americans,...
Author: sp (sp )
Popular Streaming Playlists Can Boost a Song’s Revenue by Up to $163k
Artists lucky enough to find their song on ‘Today’s Top Hits’, a Spotify playlist with over 20 million followers, could see a boost in popularity worth between $116k and $163k in additional streaming revenue. Playlists also have a big influence on the success of new artists and new songs. Getting to the top of Spotify’s...
Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About Vaginal Dryness (Or Doing Anything About It)?
It’s a common problem that only gets worse during the menopause transition; yet, no one wants to talk about it, and even fewer women are doing anything to correct it. A new study identifies those factors that contribute to the taboo problem of vaginal dryness. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of...
Liberals Do Drink More Lattes, but Maybe Not for the Reasons You Think
The term “latte liberal” has been a popular way to disparage American progressives as uppity and out of touch, but does a person’s coffee preference really say something about his or her political ideology? According to a new study, it does. Liberals do drink more lattes, but it’s not because they’re liberals. Liberals, the research...
Why Stereotypes of Sexy Women Fans Persist at the World Cup
Globally, women’s football fandom is on the rise, with women comprising around 40% of worldwide television audiences for the 2014 men’s football World Cup. Couple this with the growing prominence of the women’s World Cup – to be held again next year in France – and it’s clear that football mega-events are no longer just...
Anthony Bourdain’s Window into Africa
Anthony Bourdain might have been a celebrity chef, but viewers of his Emmy Award-winning travel show, “Parts Unknown,” didn’t tune in for curry and noodle recipes. Cooking was simply the conceit Bourdain used to have a conversation about the culture, politics, struggles and triumphs of people around the world. As a human geographer, I was...
Religion Is Uniquely Human, but Computer Simulations May Help Us Understand Religious Behavior
When disaster strikes, people often turn to religion for comfort and support. A powerful recent example of this comes from a study called “Faith after an Earthquake,” by prominent New Zealand religion and society researchers Chris Sibley and Joseph Bulbulia. They document an uptick in religious service attendance in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand,...
I Visited the Rohingya Camps in Myanmar and Here Is What I Saw
Myanmar recently claimed to have repatriated its first Rohingya refugee family. But, as an official from the United Nations noted, the country is still not safe for the return of its estimated 700,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees, who fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to escape an ongoing state-sponsored military campaign and persecution from Buddhist neighbors. Indeed,...
Trump’s Presidency Marks the First Time in 24 Years That the Federal Bench Is Becoming Less Diverse
President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate are pushing through nominations for federal judges at an unusually fast pace ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. That’s when the GOP could lose its majority and end the easy path to confirmation for Trump’s nominees. As political scientists who study diversity and the federal...
Trump Could Be Using Advanced Game Theory Negotiating Techniques – or He’s Hopelessly Adrift
The latest G-7 summit, held June 8 to 9 in Quebec, was one of the most contentious in years. That’s because Donald Trump and his counterparts from six other industrialized countries have been at loggerheads over the president’s aggressive but unstable trade policy. Trump’s renunciation of the Iran nuclear deal, his efforts to renegotiate NAFTA...