When people talk about harmful stress — the kind that can affect health — they usually point to big, life-changing events, such as the death of a loved one. A growing body of research suggests that minor, everyday stress — caused by flight delays, traffic jams, cellphones that run out of battery during an important […]
Perspective
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Writing's power to deceive
When I was researching and writing my new book, “The Gist of Reading,” I wanted to explore long-held assumptions about reading and how we process what we read. Some of these assumptions have changed through time. For example, as novels became popular in the 18th century, many warned that they were dangerous and had the […]
advertisement
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Amid a flood of plastic, big companies try to clean up image
LONDON — Once a month, accountant Michael Byrne pulls on his rubber boots and makes his way to a spot on the banks of the River Thames. He carefully marks out a one-square meter (11-square foot) patch and, with gloved hands, catalogues each bit of plastic he finds, meticulously reporting the data to the environmental […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Trump's protectionism continues long history of US rejection of free trade
Free traders have vilified President Donald Trump as a pernicious protectionist because of policies such as hiking tariffs, abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership and saying he’s prepared to walk away from the North American Free Trade Agreement. They fear his policies will hurt the U.S. economy by restricting access to foreign goods. But are these policies […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
After Trump clears the way, GOP states move to charge poor for health care
Gregory James Tuck Sr., a former chef in Indianapolis who is now homeless, says he has been turned away by six different doctors over the past four months while seeking treatment for high blood pressure, insomnia and, most recently, the flu that has been coursing through “the street people community.” “I haven’t signed up for […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Bad bedside manner: Bank loans signed in the hospital leave patients vulnerable
Laura Cameron, three months pregnant, tripped and fell in a parking lot and landed in the emergency room in May. She was flat on her back — scared, in pain and attached to a saline drip — when a hospital representative came by to discuss how she would pay her bill. Though both Cameron and […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
How best to treat opioids’ youngest sufferers? No one knows
CHICAGO — Two babies, born 15 months apart to the same young woman overcoming opioid addiction. Two very different treatments. Sarah Sherbert’s first child was whisked away to a hospital special-care nursery for two weeks of treatment for withdrawal from doctor-prescribed methadone that her mother continued to use during her pregnancy. Nurses hesitated to let […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Some college classes need warning labels
Last week at Princeton University, a gaggle of students went to a class, then quickly scurried out. It wasn’t a fire drill. It wasn’t one of those active-shooter cases that we have seen far too many times on college campuses. No, in this case, several — but not all — students walked out of an […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Prehistoric wine discovered in inaccessible caves forces a rethink of ancient Sicilian culture
Monte Kronio rises 1,300 feet above the geothermally active landscape of southwestern Sicily. Hidden in its bowels is a labyrinthine system of caves, filled with hot sulfuric vapors. At lower levels, these caves average 99 degrees Fahrenheit and 100 percent humidity. Human sweat cannot evaporate and heat stroke can result in less than 20 minutes […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
DC graduation scandal shows how chronic absenteeism threatens America's schools
Each year in the United States, approximately 5 to 7.5 million students in the nation’s K-12 schools miss a month or more of school. That means 150 to 225 million instructional days are lost every school year. The problem is more pronounced in low-income urban communities throughout the country. In elementary school, for example, students […]