In an age of democracy via social media, platforms are struggling to combat visual mis/disinformation such as 'spliced' images and deepfakes. Digital media literacy has never been so important.

We've discussed in the past Yochai Benkler's excellent book "Network Propaganda," (and had Benkler on our podcast) showing (with a ton of data) how the inclination many have to immediately blame social media for the spread of...

Amid thousands of racial justice protests nationwide since George Floyd's death, over a hundred drivers have plowed into crowds marching in roadways. Those included 8 cops. Prosecutors determined that 43 of the incidents were malicious, and have charged 39 drivers.

Find out why Lewis Hamilton is on this year’s list

We, as adults, have not given children the tools to grow up healthy in our society.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine called for the abolishment of seasonal time changes last week

We all have been there. Cheating in a test, cheating in a UNO match, and whatnot. But while those innocent instances of cheating usually reflected our innocence, as we grew up, the word cheating took on a much more severe form. It was no more about asking someone an answer to a question in our exam. Instead, it became more about breaking someone’s heart or betraying someone’s trust.

Following his March visit to the Greater Philadelphia Boat Show, Gary Kleinschmidt decided, with a mixture of guilt and enthusiasm, that it might be the right time to replace his 22-foot bow rider with a slightly larger boat. Surely, he thought, in the midst of all the unemployment and financial uncertainty unleashed by COVID-19, boat owners and dealers would be desperate to make a deal.

In Ask Culture it's OK to ask for anything at all, but you gotta realize you might get no for an answer. In Guess Culture, you avoid putting a request into words unless you're pretty sure the answer will be yes.

Dr. Joshua Bell is a self-described people-person. It’s why he transitioned from archaeology to cultural anthropology when he realized he was more interested in the people around him than the objects he was excavating. So it’s no surprise that while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bell misses daily interactions with his colleagues at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Companies and programmers are reexamining how technical terms are used amid Black Lives Matter protests. But some worry the changes are empty symbolism.

There's a slightly bizarre Letter on Justice and Open Debate that Harper's Magazine is publishing, signed by a long list of famous people (many of whom I respect, and plenty of whom I think are terribly entitled wannabe...

The fight to liberate humanity from oppression, exploitation, butchery and madness is really a fight to expand consciousness.

Update: An interesting discussion around this started in hacker news

Because there seem to be a lot of people out there who refuse to acknowledge that the colour of their skin has benefitted them in any way.

I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were. Wrestle with this for a minute: if all of someone’s material needs were met and all the members of their community were fed, clothed, housed, and dignified, why would they need to join a gang? Why would they need to risk their lives selling drugs or breaking into buildings? If mental healthcare was free and was not stigmatized, how many lives would that save?

Scientist Peter Turchin's work suggests that the next state of upheaval in the US is set to hit in 2020 based on historical violence cycles.

For many Americans, it goes without saying that the police help maintain public safety. But many others — especially black Americans — see the police as more of a threat than a protective force.

In the 1980s, The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), an organization co-founded by Tipper Gore and the wives of several other Washington power brokers, launched a political campaign against pop music, hoping to put warning labels on records that promoted Sex, Violence, Drug and Alcohol Use.

The crayons will be wrapped in a gradient skin tone label with the color name in English, Spanish and French, and a realistic color name — such as Light Golden, Deep Almond and Medium Deep Rose.