The rising cost of health insurance is an ongoing concern in the United States. New research shows that increasing health insurance costs are eating up a growing proportion of worker’s compensation, and have been a major factor in both flattening wages and increasing income inequality over the past 30 years. In a study from the...
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What If Cows Could Talk?
By using acoustic data and machine learning to decipher cows’ vocalizations, Virginia Tech researchers hope to shed new light on the animals’ health, welfare, and environmental impact. You may not know it, but cows share information every time they burp, moo, and chew that speaks volumes about their health and welfare. Through the work of...
A Statewide Survey Shows the Digital Divide Narrowing in California, but Many Low-Income Residents Remain Under-Connected
Statewide broadband adoption remains high with 91% of households in California enjoying high-speed internet access at home, according to new survey results released today by USC, the California Emerging Technology Fund and the California Department of Technology. The overall findings are consistent with the 2021 results of the biennial Statewide Digital Equity Survey, which monitors Californians’ digital access. The...
On Medicalized Rape at CIA Secret Prisons, the ‘Medical Profession Should Not Stand Silent’
In a new JAMA viewpoint, Boston University School of Public Health researchers Sondra Crosby and Leonard Glantz denounce rectal feeding practices that occurred at these prisons, and call for medical officers who enabled this “medicalized rape” to be held accountable for violating ethical and legal standards. Nearly 10 years ago, a US Senate Intelligence committee report detailed for the first time the horrors of forced rectal...
How Should Boards Handle Visionary CEOs?
The recent firing and rapid rehiring of Sam Altman, the co-founder and CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, illustrates the delicate dance between visionary CEOs and the boards who oversee them. Some CEOs — often founders — are fueled by strong convictions about the strategic direction their companies should take. But their boards sometimes don’t share...
Scientists Have Come Up with a Technology to Recycle Used Clothes Rather Than Simply Burning Them
When you go running in the woods in your running tights, elastane is the reason they fit you so comfortably. Elastane is an elastic material that allows the fabric to stretch and adapt to your body. But when elastane fibres are mixed with cotton, wool, nylon or other fibres, as is the case in many...
Coca-Cola in Africa: a Long History Full of Unexpected Twists and Turns
A new book called Bottled: How Coca-Cola Became African tells the story of how the world’s most famous carbonated drink conquered the continent. It’s a tale of marketing gumption and high politics and is the product of years of research by critical writing lecturer Sara Byala, who researches histories of heritage, sustainability and the ways...
Ethiopia’s Quest for Access to the Sea: Success Rests on Good Relations with Its Neighbours
On 1 January, Ethiopia and Somaliland signed a memorandum of understanding granting Addis Ababa direct access to the Gulf of Aden. This strategic agreement paves the way for Ethiopia to establish commercial and military bases along the coast. Under the agreement, Somaliland will lease 20km of coastal land to Ethiopia for 50 years. Ethiopia commits...
ChatGPT Poem Regurgitation Raises Ethical Questions
Ask ChatGPT to find a well-known poem and it will probably regurgitate the entire text verbatim – regardless of copyright law – according to a new study by Cornell University researchers. The study showed that ChatGPT was capable of “memorizing” poems, especially famous ones commonly found online. The findings pose ethical questions about how ChatGPT...
College Applications Rose in States That Legalized Recreational Marijuana
Colleges in states where recreational marijuana became legal over the past decade saw a significant but short-term boost in applications from top-notch students. They also got more applications overall. Those were the key findings of a new study our team published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Contemporary Economic Policy. In the year that a particular...








