NewsPronto

 

The Conversation

Purging daily demons: what's behind the popularity of exorcisms?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageAn exorcism being performed in Fafe, Portugal.Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuters

At Texas State University, I teach an honors course called “Demonology, Possession, and Exorcism.” It’s not a gut course. My students produce research papers on topics that range from the role of sleep paralysis in reports of demonic attacks to contemporary...

Read more: Purging daily demons: what's behind the popularity of exorcisms?

How children with disabilities came to be accepted in public schools

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageToday, kids with special needs can have access to education.Boy image via www.shutterstock.com

When Alan joined my class in September, I knew he needed help.

So did I.

Alan had lived in an orphanage ever since he was an infant and faced many challenges: he was older than the other kids and did not want to play with them. He didn’t use words...

Read more: How children with disabilities came to be accepted in public schools

Russia, Turkey and the US: between the terrible and the catastrophic

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageThe Turkish Embassy in Moscow under siege. Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

The downing of Russia’s plane by Turkish military forces over the skies of the Syrian-Turkish border has added yet another layer of complexity to the vortex of conflict in the Middle East.

Most of the prior concern had focused on the prospect of the US clashing with Russia...

Read more: Russia, Turkey and the US: between the terrible and the catastrophic

Locavore or vegetarian? What's the best way to reduce climate impact of food?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageLow food miles: a farmers market in Pennsylvania. Danny Jensen/flickr, CC BY-NC

This year’s Thanksgiving feast falls only a few days before the start of the global climate summit in Paris. Although the connections are not always obvious, the topic of food – and what you choose to eat – has a lot to do with climate change.

Our...

Read more: Locavore or vegetarian? What's the best way to reduce climate impact of food?

Passeth the cranb'rry sauce! The medieval origins of Thanksgiving

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageDutch painter Pieter Claesz's Still Life with Turkey Pie (1627) features a cooked turkey that's been placed back inside its original skin, feathers and all. Wikimedia Commons

How and why did the dishes served at Thanksgiving dinner come to be so fixed?

Many assume that most of them were simply eaten by the Pilgrims during the first Thanksgiving. For...

Read more: Passeth the cranb'rry sauce! The medieval origins of Thanksgiving

Machine learning and big data know it wasn't you who just swiped your credit card

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageWhose hand is on the card?Reuters/Issei Kato

You’re sitting at home minding your own business when you get a call from your credit card’s fraud detection unit asking if you’ve just made a purchase at a department store in your city. It wasn’t you who bought expensive electronics using your credit card – in fact,...

Read more: Machine learning and big data know it wasn't you who just swiped your credit card

Why do women need special laws to protect them from violence?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageA woman and a child walk amidst an art installation of 745 pairs of women's red shoes, put on display by Mexican visual artist Elina Chauvet to protest against gender violence and femicide, at La Constitucion Square in Malaga, southern Spain, June 12 2015. Jon Nazca/Reuters

November 25 marks the United Nations International Day for the Elimination...

Read more: Why do women need special laws to protect them from violence?

From the clinic to the street: how the explosion in prescription painkillers has created more heroin users

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageA man injects himself with heroin using a needle obtained from the People's Harm Reduction Alliance, the nation's largest needle-exchange program, in Seattle, Washington.David Ryder/Reuters

In the early years of my clinical practice as a psychologist treating heroin users, I commonly saw adolescents and young adults using heroin as their first...

Read more: From the clinic to the street: how the explosion in prescription painkillers has created more...

Why Thanksgiving tells a story of America's pluralism

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageWhat is the history of the Thanksgiving dinner?Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902, Library of Congress

Thanksgiving has been a focus of autumn grade-school curriculumfor a hundred years.

Because of its paradoxical combination of tradition and invention, its appeals to the past and to the future, its ancestor worship and its acceptance of diversity,...

Read more: Why Thanksgiving tells a story of America's pluralism

Why do American cops kill so many compared to European cops?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageNYC police prepare for Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, 2015. Andrew Kelly/REUTERS

Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first degree murder November 24 in the death of Laquan McDonald. A video released by police shows Van Dyke shooting the teenager 16 times.

Van Dyke is an extreme example of a pattern of unnecessary deadly force...

Read more: Why do American cops kill so many compared to European cops?

More Articles ...

  1. The Asian roots of umami -- the 'fifth' taste central to Thanksgiving fare
  2. Where are the voices of indigenous peoples in the Thanksgiving story?
  3. Is Black Friday a thing of the past?
  4. Expert roundtable: the psychological benefits of our Thanksgiving rituals
  5. Explainer: why does the price for turkeys fall just before Thanksgiving?
  6. Giving thanks, but to whom? Fewer Americans embrace organized religion
  7. Want to change perceptions of Muslims? Support students of all beliefs
  8. Is double-dipping a food safety problem or just a nasty habit?
  9. Why does culture sometimes evolve via sudden bursts of innovation?
  10. Climate change's hotter weather could reduce human fertility
  11. Despite recent victories, plights of many LGBT people remain ignored
  12. Brain connections predict how well you can pay attention
  13. Making the moral case on climate change ahead of Paris summit
  14. How fast can we transition to a low-carbon energy system?
  15. How the painting got its name
  16. Zero-based budgeting: everything old is new again
  17. Here's how history is shaping the #studentblackout movement
  18. In fight with ISIS, home front remains vulnerable
  19. As the Earth enters its third mass bleaching event, will corals survive?
  20. The rush to calculus is bad for students and their futures in STEM
  21. Paris climate summit: why more women need seats at the table
  22. Who should monitor homeschooling?
  23. How your genes influence what medicines are right for you
  24. What does China's role in Africa say about its growing global footprint?
  25. A warmer embrace of Muslims could stop homegrown terrorism
  26. Could the Hunger Games turn your teen into a revolutionary?
  27. ISIS attacks fueled by illegal guns and open societies we can't afford to lose
  28. Stronger work-family policies help women entrepreneurs build better businesses
  29. Toilet talk: meeting one of the world's grand challenges with innovation
  30. Gender equality comes one toilet at a time
  31. Why do public bathrooms make us so anxious, and why aren't we doing anything about it?
  32. Talking heads: what toilets and sewers tell us about ancient Roman sanitation
  33. Explainer: why transgender students need safe bathrooms
  34. Why 1904 testing methods should not be used for today's students
  35. Is Fiorina's tax proposal three sheets to the wind?
  36. With #OpISIS, Anonymous hacktivists contribute virtual boots on the ground
  37. NATO should invade ISIS-held territory
  38. Is Islam incompatible with modernity?
  39. Are Texas textbooks making cops more trigger-happy?
  40. Can Tesla's enthusiast customers help it sell the electric car for the everyperson?
  41. Paper or plastic? How disposable bag bans, fees and taxes affect consumer behavior
  42. Many small microaggressions add up to something big
  43. Islamic State versus Da'ish or Daesh? The political battle over naming
  44. Why Paris?
  45. The promise and perils of predictive policing based on big data
  46. Why have the demands of black students changed so little since the 1960s?
  47. Up close at the Democratic Debate in Des Moines
  48. How Islamic law can take on ISIS
  49. Paris attacks push progress at Vienna talks on Syria
  50. Paris: the war with ISIS enters a new stage