January hurricanes are extremely rare events. But this year, two have already formed – Alex in the northeastern Atlantic last week, and Pali in the central Pacific, south of Hawaii, a few days earlier. The last hurricane to form in January in the Atlantic did...

What’s motivating the armed protesters who occupied Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last week?

A local sheriff explained it this way: they came

claiming to be part of militia...

Each year the military discharges over 240,000 veterans to reintegrate into civilian society. It’s a professional...

In December 1950, Woody Guthrie signed his name to the lease of a new apartment in Brooklyn. Even now, over half a century later, that uninspiring document prompts a double-take.

Below all the legal jargon is the signature of the man who had composed “This Land Is...

We have heard a lot of talk about MOOCs, or massive online open courses, over the last couple of years. On the plus side, MOOCs often draw enormous enrollments and are easy to sign up for and use; all you need, it seems, is an Internet connection and an interest to learn.

On the down side, they have...

The year 2015 has proven to be another year of temperature records. Data released by NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) show that in 2015, the global mean surface temperature – the...

Hollywood loves a good bad guy.

From ruthless mobsters to drug kingpins to serial killers, evil characters are often plucked from real-world events. As human trafficking has garnered more attention, it was inevitable that the issue would hit the big screen. Traffickers, after all, are...

Europe’s refugee crisis neither began nor ended when the body of a Kurdish boy was found washed up on a Turkish beach in September.

In all, he was just one of 3,770 people who lost their lives in 2015 as over a million people crossed into Europe fleeing wars in...

Let’s face it: gossips get a bad rap.

Smugly looking down from a moral high ground – and secure in the knowledge that we don’t share their character flaw – we often dismiss those who are obsessed with the doings of others as...

Plunging Chinese stocks have been sending worsening ripples across global markets all year, prompting fears of spillovers and recessions.

China’s Shanghai Composite Index lost 8 percent last week alone and is down more than 20 percent since a recent high in December, putting it in bear-market territory. That slide...