The New York Times abruptly replaced its first female executive editor, Jill Abramson, on Wednesday and named managing editor Dean Baquet as the first African American at the top editorial post. Abramson’s departure was announced by the US daily’s publisher Arthur Sulzberger, and the paper’s own report said: “The reasons for the switch were not […]

I am sure we have all calmed down from the frothy excitement of this year’s NFL draft. Wasn’t it just thrilling when Commissioner Goodell announced each pick as if it were a “pick six” — an interception for a touchdown? The draft is a deadly dull exercise in economics. Any association of businesses that would […]

On Saturday nights, Davis Square bustles with the young and fashionable. They’re seeing an independent film at the restored movie palace or taking in a comedy show down the street. They’re slurping ramen at a Japanese restaurant, sipping a beer at a sidewalk table, or people-watching on the busy central plaza. Tucked into a corner […]

Mounting evidence of the impact of contemplative practices like meditation (which we now know can, quite literally, rewire the brain) are finally bringing modern science up to speed with ancient wisdom. Mindfulness and compassion — the practices of cultivating a focused awareness on the present moment, and extending a loving awareness to others — are […]

As summer approaches, many schools across Massachusetts are winding down youth sports leagues for the season. But, for many kids, that doesn’t mean they’ll stop playing. They’ll go to training camps, sign up with private coaches and elite summer leagues. Many kids beg for these extra programs. But often it’s the parents — trying to […]

Tacked on to the appendix of a British government health report in 1858, a rose-shaped diagram presented a striking finding: during the Crimean War, far more soldiers died of disease in hospitals than of wounds on the battlefield. The diagram’s author, famed mother of nursing Florence Nightingale, had a talent for statistics. Today, her rose […]

The recent arrest of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in Northern Ireland has academics reviewing their responsibilities in recording history. The arrest renewed questions about a supposed confidential audio archive at Boston College, known as the Belfast Project. It contained recorded interviews with people directly involved in the violent, three-decade-long Troubles in Northern Ireland. The […]

Most academics would view a post at an elite university like Oxford or Harvard as the crowning achievement of a career—bringing both accolades and access to better wine cellars. But scholars covet such places for reasons beyond glory and gastronomy. They believe perching on one of the topmost branches of the academic tree will also […]

In the Terminator movies, fully autonomous robots wage war against humanity. Although cyborg assassins won’t be arriving from the future anytime soon, offensive “Terminator-style” autonomous robots that are programmed to kill could soon escape Hollywood science fiction and become reality. This actual rise of the machines raises important strategic, moral, and legal questions about whether […]

{Video} As any regular viewer of Beat The Press knows, it’s a rough time to be in the media. With a broken business model, lousy job prospects, and public antipathy, you’d think the profession would appeal only to the most retrograde masochist. Well, a new survey suggests there actually might be some truth to that. […]

I distinctly recall the moment when I first learned the word boko, now notorious as half the name of the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram. (“Haram” means “forbidden” or “sinful.”) I was living in a remote, rural borderland straddling the border between northern Nigeria and Niger Republic in the early 1980s, conducting research as a […]

Successfully starting and running a business is about many things: hard work, determination, innovation, human relationships and management. And numbers. You can’t manage what you can’t see. When it comes to business basics, processes and results, numbers count, literally and figuratively. However, you can waste a lot of time obsessing over things that don’t count. […]