Culture

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on University of Washington. The legalization of marijuana for Washington state adults may be thwarting a steady downward trend in teen marijuana use, according to new research from the University of Washington. The longitudinal study of more than 230 teens and young adults finds that teens may be more likely to use marijuana following legalization — with the proliferation of stores and increasing adult use of the drug — than they otherwise would have been. “When we think about marijuana legalization, a worry is that underage use may go up,” said Jennifer Bailey, the study’s lead author and principal investigator with the Social Development Research Group in the UW School of Social Work. “Early use and heavy use during ad...

Am 9. August finden in Belarus Präsidentschaftswahlen statt. Es sind Wahlen, die keine sind. Langzeitautokrat Alyaksandr Lukaschenka räumt Gegenkandidaten keine fairen Chancen ein, häufig werden sie bereits im Vorfeld verhaftet, Proteste werden nicht erlaubt oder gestört, Medien attackiert oder kurzzeitig lahmgelegt, Aktivisten willkürlich verhaftet. Es ist seit Jahren ein ähnliches Ritual. So auch diesmal. Und doch ist etwas anders. Am Tag der Verhaftung des Bankenmanagers Viktor Babariko, dem mit über 400.000 gesammelten Unterschriften populärsten Kandidatenanwärter für die Präsidentschaft in Belarus, fanden sich tausende Menschen in Minsk und anderen Städten spontan zu kilometerlangen „Ketten der Solidarität“ zusammen. Als am 14. Juli die Zulassungen für die Präside...

Piotr Marcinski/Getty Images/EyeEm Piotr Marcinski/Getty Images/EyeEm Consider this list of names for hamburgers that are now, or have been, on the market: Thickburger, Whopper, Big Mac, Big Boy, Chubby Boy, Beefy Boy, Super Boy. Notice a pattern there? Writer Carol J. Adams does. This list comes from her book Burger, published last month. As the hamburger business gradually grew over time, Adams explains, so did the size of the hamburger — and the gender associations. Burger is a small book with a big punch. It's the latest in the Object Lessons series from Bloomsbury Publishing "about ...

About a dozen years ago, as I was preparing to leave Cambridge, Mass., for Berkeley, Calif., I took to carrying around a small camera on my walks to and from work and home. I was hoping to capture something about the place and my time there before setting off for the West Coast. What I ultimately carried away with me wasn't a set of artistic or nostalgic photos — it was an appreciation for the value of framing things just right. It's one thing to walk down a striking street of prim row houses with cherry trees just coming into bloom; it's another to appreciate the juxtaposition of elements, to think about their meaning, and to compose something that goes beyond that single moment. I kept taking mental pi...

We named our science and culture commentary 13.7: Cosmos & Culture when it launched nearly nine years ago. At the time, the universe was believed to be 13.7 billion years old. But according to data released from the Planck satellite since, it took a bit longer: 13.8 billion years from the Big Bang to this blog. Here's how it (the commentary, not the Big Bang) came to be: In the Fall of 2009, my friend and colleague, astrophysicist Adam Frank, was visiting Dartmouth. I had invited him to give a talk to promote his then new book, The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate. Walking back from lunch, we were discussing how science was wrongly perceived by many (most) as being disengaged...

This post is my last for 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. For 6 1/2 years, I have had the privilege and the pleasure of writing commentaries — about 50 every year — for NPR on animals, anthropology, human evolution, nature, gender and higher education. The blog's science and culture commentary is being discontinued by NPR — and, so, it's time to say goodbye. I'm full of gratitude to my blogging colleagues Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser and Tania Lombrozo, and my editors, Meghan Collins Sullivan and before her, Wright Bryan. I've learned an incredible amount from each of them about communicating science and culture to a wide readership. It's really to you — my readers — that I address this farewell. The inter...

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took this image of southern Scandinavia, showing the northern lights aurora, just before midnight under a full moon on April 3, 2015. NASA hide caption toggle caption NASA Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took this image of southern Scandinavia, showing the northern lights aurora, just before midnight under a full moon on April 3, 2015. NASA ...

The Story Behind TIME’s ‘America Must Change’ Cover For this week’s cover, TIME turned to Atlanta-based artist Charly Palmer, who recently created the cover art for John Legend’s album Bigger Love. His painting In Her Eyes shows a girl faced with both the injustice of today and America’s historical role in it. Palmer tells TIME: “For the past 25 years, I have been on a mission through my art to sound the alarm. I hope that this cover reflects that concern.”  “In my 60 years on this earth, so much has changed; however all too much has remained the same,” says Palmer, who was born in Fayette, Ala., and went on to study at the American Academy of Art and School of Art Institute in Chicago. “As a Black child of the mid-’60s, my parents did all they could to shield me from the h...

The first artificial intelligence “actor” in the lead role. Born in Japan, the humanoid Erica will make her first cinema appearance in the anticipation film ‘ b’. A first for the industry according to the film crew. As the film industry seeks to resume filming while respecting barrier gestures, “a film has cast an actress immune to Covid-19,” announced The Hollywood Reporter . And the reason is simple, it is a robot named Erica . Originally designed to present the news in Japan , the android imagined by roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro is now taking its first steps in the cinema in this featured film. The producers of the $70 million film, claim it is the first with an artificial intelligence “actor” in the lead role. AI headlines The science fiction film, estimated to cost $ 70...

The 1920s decadence meets the modern facet in New York in a new visual identity by LMNOP Creative. Designed for The Deco, a carefully-curated food hall space in the Garment District, the branding connects with various elements of the interiors to create an authentic, cohesive visual feel. Inspired by art deco linework, custom-made wallpapers adorn the walls. It was created in close collaboration with interior designers from Carpenter + Mason whose architectural vision permeates the visual identity. Vintage typography was complemented with a modern signet in the shape of an exclamation mark, setting the direction for the wayfinding system inside The Deco. Splashed with bold color combos and livened up with impeccable photographs, the visual identity marks an ultimate expression of f...