Where Generations Of Soldiers Healed, And Moved On

On a recent morning, John Pierce walked across the sprawling hospital campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. On the lawn, he spotted people who have come to define the place in recent years. “[They were] having physical fitness-type tests,” Pierce says. “There were people with notebooks and things, like they record when you [...]

Think You’re An Auditory Or Visual Learner? Scientists Say It’s Unlikely

We’ve all heard the theory that some students are visual learners, while others are auditory learners. And still other kids learn best when lessons involve movement. But should teachers target instruction based on perceptions of students’ strengths? Several psychologists say education could use some “evidence-based” teaching techniques, not unlike the way doctors try to use [...]

Farrow Draws Attention To Plight Of African Refugees

In the Horn of Africa, 12 million people are in need of food aid because of the drought. The people of Somalia, facing both famine and war, are some of the hardest hit. Many of those fleeing Somalia seek refuge in the southwest, at Kenya’s giant Dadaab refugee camp. The settlement is about 50 miles [...]

What Makes A School Good: Not The Finger Painting

You’ve made it through those first years, through myriad decisions: breast feeding or bottle? Mounted safety gate or removable? Overpriced organic or pesticide-grown strawberries? But just when you’re ready to look at your baby and say, “Job done!” you’re faced with the most challenging problem of all: How to get him or her best education [...]

A Filmmaker On The Complexities Of ‘Debt’

English movie director John Madden has made a name for himself with quirky literary history (Shakespeare in Love) and mathematical intrigue (Proof). But his latest, The Debt, is a very different kind of film — an intense thriller about a group of young Israeli Mossad agents in the 1960s whose mission is to track down [...]

There’s No Room For Nostalgia In The Tech Business

I still remember the first cell phone at my house. An early Motorola, it came in a bag about the size of a Kleenex box that held the battery. A few years earlier, I had typed my first computer commands on the keyboard of an Apple IIe. I still have a cassette tape that stored [...]

In Afghanistan, Building Up Means Scaling Down

Rex Goodnight went to Afghanistan last year to volunteer on construction projects, but came back frustrated. Goodnight, chief of engineering with the Kansas City district of the Army Corps, saw a lot of planning but not much actual constructing. When something was being built, it was usually made out of clay and straw. “The Corps [...]

Online Review Too Good To Be True? Sometimes It Is

From local plumbers to luxury hotels, just about everyone selling a service these days has an online reputation. Increasingly, that reputation is shaped by online reviews. Customer ratings on sites such as Yelp and Urbanspoon can, for example, make or break a new restaurant. It’s no wonder, then, that some businesses are trying to fake [...]

Now A Tropical Storm, Irene Pounds New York City

(This live-blog is being updated throughout the day. Scroll down for our latest posts.) Hurricane Irene made its second landfall near Little Egg Inlet, N.J. around 5:35 a.m. That means New Yorkers woke up to howling winds and pounding rain. By the time Irene made landfall, it was barely a hurricane but it has already [...]

Hiring Of Sharpton By MSNBC Follows Larger Trend

This past week, the cable news network MSNBC chose civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton as their new host. Sharpton will begin hosting the network’s 6 p.m. hour, starting Monday. The hiring came after weeks of speculation, while Sharpton had been guest hosting in that time slot. The decision has been about as controversial as [...]