Did you know that before British and U.S. governments created public schools, parents still placed a high value on education? That children got a better education each passing year? That schools were cheaper? That 95% of teenagers were literate? That teenagers were more literate without public schools than they are now, with them? Truth.
I recently …
This is just incredibly cool.
Dr. Prum and his colleagues took advantage of the fact that feathers contain pigment-loaded sacs called melanosomes. In 2009, they demonstrated that melanosomes survived for millions of years in fossil bird feathers. The shape and arrangement of melanosomes help produce the color of feathers, so the scientists were able …
Jon R. Gabel writes in the New York Times today, saying that we shouldn’t fear the cost of health care reform because the CBO has a long history of underestimating the savings from reforms.
In the early 1980s, Congress changed the way Medicare paid hospitals so that payments would no longer be based on …
Happy Birthday America. Let’s remember how it all began.
And here’s the best dramatic reading I’ve seen, of the entire Declaration of Independence.
Earlier today, the American Academy of Physician Assistants issued an urgent Action Alert:
In a speech before the American Medical Association today, President Obama once again restated his commitment to building America’s primary care workforce of ”physicians and nurse practitioners” – omitting PAs from the discussion.
Please contact President Obama today. …
Recently, UCLA confirmed my belief that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of America’s worst Presidents. He not only did more than any other politician to create interst group politics, he not only centralized and increased government power to an unprecedented degree, but he prolonged the Great Depression by at least 7 years. That was the …
One of The Economist’s recent blog entries reminds me of why I like the magazine as much as I do, notwithstanding its faults. Can you see any mainstream American newspaper making this comparison?
”IMAGINE Nazi rule in Germany surviving for decades, with Hitler undefeated in war and succeeded on his death in the …
If you haven’t heard yet, the horse-chestnut tree that gave famous Jewish refugee Anne Frank so much comfort in the early 1940’s has been condemned by the city. And I don’t mean ”condemned” in the sense that the U.N. ”condemns” things; I mean it’s going to be ripped out of the ground. The …
5000 years of religion in 90 seconds, that is. This is pretty cool.
How has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries, and where has it sparked wars? Our map gives us a brief history of the world’s most well-known religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. Selected periods of inter-religious bloodshed are …