Maybe you’re like us. We’re the folks who are on our smartphones almost all the time, even when we’re with others. We know it annoys a lot of people, but we do it anyway. Why? Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have looked at why people in cafés pull out their...
In the early decades of televised news, Americans turned to the stern faces of newsmen like Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather as trusted sources for news of the important events in America and around the world, delivered with gravitas and measured voices. The rise of comedy-news programs, helmed by the likes of Jon...
The attack on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 was shocking, but no one following right-wing activity on social media should have been surprised. The attempt by President Donald Trump’s far-right supporters to violently stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote and formalizing Joe Biden’s election victory was consistent with their openly expressed...
Cuban artists and intellectuals want more rights – and, in an unusual show of dissent, they demanded the government sit down with them to negotiate. At 10:45 a.m. on Nov. 27, about 300 people gathered outside the Ministry of Culture in Havana to demand freedom of expression, an end to police harassment and the right...
Whether at a birthday party in Brazil, a funeral in Kenya or protests in Hong Kong, humans all use variations of the same facial expressions in similar social contexts, such as smiles, frowns, grimaces and scowls, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, shows. The findings, published in the journal Nature, confirm the...
A female-typical language style promotes the popularity of talks in the digital context and turns out to be an underappreciated but highly effective tool for social influence. This was shown by University of Zurich (UZH) psychologists in an international study in which they analyzed 1,100 TED Talks. A large part of social interaction nowadays takes...
Each year, as many as 10 million people travel to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, in what is believed to be the largest Catholic pilgrimage in the Americas. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the pilgrimage, which is due to take place on December 12, will instead be held online this year....
Harmful drinking among adults increases the longer they spend at home in lockdown, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. The research, based on a survey of nearly 2,000 over-18s in the US, is the first to highlight the relationship nationally between hazardous drinking and life stresses triggered...
Men perceive themselves as having less power in their private than in their public lives, a new study from Lund University has suggested. Furthermore, both men and women agree: power in your private life matters more than that in public life. Power is often associated with men who possess visible status and money. But it...
Seynab Haji Ali Siigaale, widely known as Baxsan, passed away on 19 October 2020 and was buried a day later in Sheikh Sufi Cemetery behind the Somali National Theatre building in the capital Mogadishu. Along with the likes of Halima Khalif Omar ‘Magool’, Baxsan was one of the most popular female Somali singers of all...
