gleans at 10:30 PM MT, 05/21

Have the Humanities Become an Unaffordable Luxury?

by Lane Wallace  "The liberal arts are particularly good at teaching how different arguments on the same point can be equally valid. Get comfortable with the ambiguities inherent in a liberal arts education, and you're far better equipped to face the ambiguities in a complex world." read more

 

Detroit tries to turnaround failing school system

DETROIT - Just like the auto companies that fuel this city, struggling Detroit schools are undergoing a painful restructuring to avoid complete failure and bankruptcy.

 

Poll: Vast majority of college students feeling stressed

 

 

Stocks are pounded by worries over jobs, UK debt

 

 

SKorea fires up anti-piracy patrol with kimchi

 

Has the work of Masters and Johnson reduced a complex cloud of desires and preferences to questions of blood flow and hormone levels? ... [more]

 

Created languages, whether Esperanto or Klingon, have a lot to tell us about the evolved communication systems, natural languages, that all humans speak ... [more]

 

A superbly researched, wittily written and eminently sane book explodes conspiracy theories by the dozen, while pointing out how dangerous they can be to society ... [more]

 

Read the fascinating, maddening Drunkard's Walk, but be warned, it may take a few days for your brain to return to its original, upright position ... [more]

 

Democritus's atomic theory and Aristarchus's heliocentric model are proving a suprise delight for audiences at Cannes ... [more]

 

At the Bridge Table, Clues to a Lucid Old Age

By BENEDICT CAREY

A study of people aged 90 and older without a trace of dementia has begun to alter understandings of the aging brain.

 

Life could be even older than we think ... [more]

 

Venom, not bacteria, lies at the heart of the dragon's bite ... [more]

 

Blue whales heading back to northern waters ... [more]

 

Did we eat Neanderthals to extinction? ... [more]

 

Losing weight rapidly late in life seems to signal a greater risk of experiencing some form of dementia ... [more]

 

Bacteria hold clues to cloud formation ... [more]

 

What has caused the deaths of hundreds of penguins, millions of sardines and about 2,000 baby flamingos in the past few months? ... [more]

 

U.S. defense chief lauds soldier in pink boxers

 

Computer virus strikes US Marshals, FBI affected