Authors: The Conversation
A change in the scales isn't likely to put a major dent in the growth in US exports to China.Yuan dollar via www.shutterstock.comNews that the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, changed its formula for calculating the reference rate of the yuan (RMB) prompted the currency to fall to a four-year...
Authors: The Conversation
Ouch.PROKris Fricke/Flickr, CC BY-NC-NDAnimal attacks have been in the news a lot. Late last year, a 22-year-old student in New Jersey was killed by a black bear he had been photographing. This summer, swimmers off the coast of North Carolina have suffered a record number of shark attacks, several of which resulted in...
Authors: The Conversation
Better policies could do a lot to help children orphaned by Ebola.UNICEF Guinea, CC BY-NCWhile the worst of the Ebola epidemic has passed, its impact is far from over for the orphans left behind. In Sierra Leone alone, a country of just over six million people, the Ebola epidemic has orphaned more than 12,000 children who...
Read more: Better policies are needed to support local adoptions for children orphaned by Ebola
Authors: The Conversation
The biopic Straight Outta Compton tells the story of rise and fall of Los Angeles rap group NWA.Automotive Rhythms/flickr, CC BY-NC-NDLast week, Dr Dre released Compton: The Soundtrack – his first album in 16 years – with cover art that features the iconic Hollywood sign transformed to read C-O-M-P-T-O-N.
The...
Read more: Compton commodified: NWA was always a blend of fiction and reality
Authors: The Conversation
It's all just data – how can it be prejudiced?Trey Guinn, CC BY-NC-ND“This program had absolutely nothing to do with race…but multi-variable equations.”
That’s what Brett Goldstein, a former policeman for the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and current Urban Science Fellow at the University of...
Read more: Big data algorithms can discriminate, and it's not clear what to do about it
Authors: The Conversation
And what are universities doing about it? Wolfram Burner, CC BY-NCThe myth has been shattered. The college campus, it turns out, is not always a sheltered sanctuary of peaceful, rolling green lawns and ivy-covered brick.
The reality of sexual assault at college has been brought home by recent investigations by the Office...
Authors: The Conversation
Bonn in June: just a few steps away from the big show in Paris later this year. unfccc/flickr, CC BY-SAAs the preparations for the global climate change conference in Paris in December heat up in parallel with the planet, negotiators in the United Nations climate talks recent released a proposed skeleton agreement. The...
Read more: Your brief to the Paris UN climate talks: how we got here and what to watch for
Authors: The Conversation
Amarion Allen, 11, stands in front of police in Ferguson, Missouri on Aug. 9, 2015. Rick Wilking/ReutersThe ongoing protests in Ferguson one year after the shooting of Michael Brown highlight the elevated risks that African Americans face when interacting with police in the US.
While the protests bring awareness to the...
Read more: Police should put away the military gear and build connections with young people
Authors: The Conversation
Black colleges and universities exemplify the American ideals of civil rights and equality. LloydGallman, CC BY-NC-NDTrayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Sandra Bland. Renisha McBride. Martese Johnson. And now Tyrone Harris.
All these names remind us how precarious black lives can be. Martin, Brown and Garner were...
Read more: Why historically black colleges and universities matter in today's America
Authors: The Conversation
According to some surveys, more than 90% of owners view their pets as members of the family.'Dog' via www.shutterstock.comIn the 1960s, I knew people who, before going on vacation, would take their dogs to a shelter to be euthanized. They reasoned that it was cheaper to have a dog euthanized – and buy a new one upon...