Research on men's birthrates have so far been rather a blind spot. Max Planck researchers have now calculated the missing age data for men using statistical methods. Their figures show that men on average have less children than women and have them later in life. Differences are especially strong in eastern Germany, where men set a new world record for low fertility.
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Saturday 31 December 2016
Friday 30 December 2016
How to Become a Famous Media Scholar: The Case of Marshall McLuhan
Jefferson Pooley on the unlikely career of Marshall McLuhan, and the Luddite message of “The Mechanical Bride.”
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On the trail of the Man in the Iron Mask
Trying to discover the identity of the man in the iron mask. By David Coward.
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Maragaret Thatcher planned to spray cocaine plants with deadly bugs
Secret plans to sabotage cocaine production abroad by introducing plant-destroying pests were discussed as the Government waged war on drugs, newly released official files reveal. Margaret Thatcher described the idea, which was proposed by Lord Victor Rothschild in July 1989, as a “characteristically brilliant” and “intriguing” way of tackling the growing “crack problem”.
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Thirty things you didn't know about the EU referendum
A review of five of the best EU referendum books offers up some surprising insights into the campaigns and landmark vote. By Andrew Sparrow.
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Your App Isn’t Helping The People Of Saudi Arabia
On March 15, 2002, 15 Saudi girls burned to death inside their school in Mecca. They were not trapped by fallen debris, or unaccounted for by firefighters. The mutaween, Saudi Arabia’s religious police, would not allow the girls to leave their burning school because they were not covering their hair or wearing their abayas... By Felix Biederman.
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Trans-Siberian Railway: a view from Moscow to Vladivostok – a photo essay
On a 9,288km journey inspired by the centennial anniversary of the railway’s completion in 1916, photographer Annie Ling captures life onboard the Trans-Siberian Railway, and beyond the carriage window.
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Thursday 29 December 2016
Welcome to America. Now, what’s your Twitter handle?
Privacy advocates condemn US immigration asking for visitors’ social media account names
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The Underground Railroad’s Troubling Allure
What do stories about the anti-slavery effort teach us—and spare us from learning—about ourselves and our nation? By Kathryn Schulz.
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Why Politicians Are to Blame for Most Terrorist Attacks
European political leaders are making the same mistake in reacting to the massacre at the Christmas fair in Berlin, in which 12 died, as they did during previous terrorist attacks… By Patrick Cockburn.
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Obama under pressure to prove Russian interference in election
President Obama has ordered the intelligence community to produce a complete review of its findings before Trump takes office.
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As North Carolina continues its sharp right turn, some feel abandoned
North Carolina attracted legions of new workers on the promise of a progressive lifestyle in the New South. But they feel betrayed by a dramatic political shift.
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The Time 19th-Century Paleontologists Punched It Out
Famous fossil hunter E. D. Cope got into a fistfight over a matter of tarnished honor. By Brian Switek.
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Wednesday 28 December 2016
Tuesday 27 December 2016
No Man Will Shake Me From This Land
Dr. Bones makes the case why no election will drive him from the shores of this continent…
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Why the 'Small Guys' are Putting Nova Scotia on the World Alcohol-Making Map
Nova Scotia is fast becoming known for something other than lobster and lighthouses. Distillers are also making alcohol such as whisky and rum that are being recognized as some of the best in the world.
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Last Live Concert in Bolshoi 2016
Alexandrov Russian Army Song and Dance Ensemble
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The Pinball Punk of Montreal
When musician Adam Kiesler tried to get pinball back on the street, he uncovered the game's seedy past – and the archaic laws that banned it.
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Hunting for Gooseneck Barnacles
Spanish fisherman Santi Diaz Mosquera knows every journey down the treacherous Galician rocks in search of a handful of prized gooseneck barnacles could be his last.
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The Meat and Three Is the Ultimate Southern Food Experience
Meat and threes are foundational to Southern cuisine.
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What you can find Mudlarking on the Thames Foreshore in London
Throughout early modern times, the Thames was essentially a massive garbage dump where people and its industries threw away their unwanted items.
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The Wintry Elegance of Hasui Kawase’s Woodblock Prints
Hasui Kawase (1883-1957) was a prominent landscape artist in 20th century Japan who travelled extensively throughout the Western regions of the country. Known for his poetic renderings of snow, rains and moonlight, he created elegant prints of Kyoto temples covered in snow, as well as dark and quiet landscapes.
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NYC’s best new architecture of 2016, from Governors Island to the Oculus
From epic public works to affordable developments in the outer boroughs, 2016 was a banner year for New York City architecture. By Amy Plitt.
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A Lesson In Hate
Before Sayyid Qutb became a leading theorist of violent jihad, he was a little-known Egyptian writer sojourning in the United States, where he attended a small teachers college on the Great Plains. Greeley, Colorado, circa 1950 was the last place one might think to look for signs of American decadence. Its wide streets were dotted with churches, and there wasn’t a bar in the whole temperate town. But the courtly Qutb (COO-tub) saw things that others did not.
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Everyone connected with the abomination in Aleppo will pay a heavy price
Some 70 months ago, unarmed, ordinary Syrians rose peacefully against a regime whose incompetence and corruption they had come grudgingly to accept. It was their rulers’ detention and beating of children that provided the tipping point. The same regime seeks now to capitalize on a bloody victory in Aleppo, where children again have been targeted
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Monday 26 December 2016
Why I Still Don't Buy the Russian Hacking Story
The latest evidence tying the DNC breach to Russian intelligence is not convincing. By Leonid Bershidsky.
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Why Are You So Smart? Thank Mom and Your Difficult Birth
The fact that so many women die in childbirth outside the context of modern medicine is a sign of how important intelligence is for our species. By Jim Davies.
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When the Standardization of Time Arrived in America
It used to be that each town kept its own time, and chaos reigned. [Podcast]
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Ash Tree Genome Sequenced for First Time
UK scientists have decoded the genome of the ash in the fight against a devastating plant disease.
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Sunday 25 December 2016
Must Everyone Write English?
English is the universal language, but at what cost?
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N.Y. Times’ Fake News That Electoral College Was Created to Protect Slavery
“Yet, the Times falsely asserts that “a direct popular vote would have disadvantaged the Southern states.” But the two largest states, Virginia, which had almost 300,000 slaves, and Massachusetts, which had none, both favored the Virginia Plan in the early days of the convention.” By Steve Byas.
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Saturday 24 December 2016
Bored, Broke and Armed: Clues to Chicago’s Gang Violence
The young men who call themselves Gangster Disciples skirted by an empty lot. They marched past a “Stop the Violence” mural painted on a corner store, coming to a halt when they saw members of a rival gang, the Black Disciples. It was late September on a busy South Side intersection, and now tensions were escalating, gang members who were there recalled. There were glares, they said. Then words. “You’re a rat,” a Black Disciple said to one of the Gangster Disciples who he believed had given the police information about him.
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Friday 23 December 2016
Aleppo tweeter Bana al-Abed meets Turkish president Erdogan
Bana al-Abed, the Syrian girl whose Tweets from eastern Aleppo captured the world’s attention, meets with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his palace in Ankara.
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The assassination of the Russian ambassador is the latest sign Turkey is becoming weaker
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking to extend his authoritarian rule but his country beset by problems both home and abroad. By Patrick Cockburn.
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Join dementia research - register your interest in dementia research.
'Join dementia research' is a national service that enables you to register your interest and be matched with suitable research studies.
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Thursday 22 December 2016
Why archaeology needs to come out of the cave and into the digital age
Far from being stuck in a stuffy past, the unifying message of modern archaeology is vital for steering us towards a positive future
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Where Does the Waste Go? A Day in the Life of a Scientist
Join a group of Antarctic scientists as they build the world's coldest porta-potty, known as the "waste tent." It's no surprise that they can't stop laughing because this one stinks to high heaven.
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India's federal bank just can't make up its mind on demonetization
Reserve Bank of India or Reverse Bank of India?
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Wednesday 21 December 2016
Making Green: The history of New York's Christmas tree market
For many, the Christmas holiday in New York City finally comes to life when the sidewalks sprout evergreens.
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East Icelanders tell TV weatherman to stop standing in front of their region
People in the eastern part of Iceland are feeling overshadowed. And they're blaming it all on TV weatherman Sigurður Jonsson.
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Tuesday 20 December 2016
Ice Rafts
The water currents in the Missouri River create ice rafts, or pods of frazil, as the freezing water swirls while flowing downstream.
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The Paramedic Murderer of Narrowsburg, N.Y.
A small town upstate, a Queens ambulance veteran, and a murder. By Nina Burleigh. (Apr. 10, 2014)
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The surprising origins of famous Christmas carols
The familiar tunes never fail to get us in the festive mood – but many of them have remarkably un-Christmassy roots, writes Mark Forsyth.
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A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief
A reporter’s credit card was stolen, so he counted all the video cameras in stores where it was used afterward. And then he included the data from the Uber rides. By Quentin Hardy.
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Monday 19 December 2016
The sub-Antarctic islands are home to strange 'megaherbs'
On New Zealand's Campbell Island near Antarctica, some plants grow surprisingly large despite the inhospitable conditions. We may finally know how they do it.
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Adorable New Peacock Spiders Will Rock Your World
The team that brought you Sparklemuffin and Skeletorus has introduced even more additions to the dancing arachnid clan.
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Aesthetic consumerism and the violence of photography: What Susan Sontag teaches us about visual culture and the social web.
Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. It is mainly a social rite, a defense against anxiety, and a tool of power. It seems positively unnatural to travel for pleasure without taking a camera along. Photographs will offer indisputable evidence that the trip was made, that the program was carried out, that fun was had.
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Sunday 18 December 2016
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