Conspiracy theories run rampant on Facebook. Why? Well, sometime between posting that umpteenth puppy picture and sharing just another photo of their adorable newborn nephew, your friends read a headline and automatically assume it’s true, sharing the story in outrage before taking the time to dig deeper. People fluent in satire like Andy Borowitz, or […]

Overlooking the valley, mighty Mount Rainier has been dormant since its last eruption around 1100 AD. But its activity – combined with its proximity to Seattle and Tacoma – makes any eruption there one of the most dangerous in the world, according to the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior’s Decade […]

In theory, a missing, fully operational commercial airliner in the wrong hands could be really dangerous. But this is one threat that America is prepared to handle. Decades of Cold War anxiety about incoming nuclear weapons have translated into closely monitored U.S. air space. You can’t fly a big plane into U.S. skies without the […]

In theory, a missing, fully operational commercial airliner in the wrong hands could be really dangerous. But this is one threat that America is prepared to handle. Decades of Cold War anxiety about incoming nuclear weapons have translated into closely monitored U.S. air space. You can’t fly a big plane into U.S. skies without the […]

First came the musicians; now, here come the writers, dancers, and actors. Sorry, tech types: The arts and humanities keep crashing your innovation party. In just the last two months, Berklee College of Music, Northeastern University, and Emerson College all have unveiled initiatives that sound as if they belong in the computer science labs of […]

The Boston Herald has lost a libel suit brought by a woman who charged the paper had falsely claimed she engaged in “sexual acts” while visiting an inmate at Bridgewater State Prison in 2009, David Frank of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly reports. Lawyers Weekly has posted the jury’s verdict form, as well. The plaintiff, Joanna Marinova, […]

Are you the person who sees the cup half full or half empty? This has been an age old question to determine our outlook on life – one of optimism or pessimism. One might say that optimists are always positive, choosing to see the best in all situations, where pessimists are always negative, opting to […]

“It’s a kickass time to be a journalist right now.” And Jeff Howe, an assistant professor of journalism at Northeastern, wants to prove it, with the help of a $250,000 grant from the Knight Foundation and a new media innovation graduate program at the University. The track, announced Tuesday, will go toward tailoring the Master’s […]

In a 2013 report summarizing global challenges, the World Economic Forum singled out “massive digital misinformation” as “one of the main risks for the modern society.” Social networks may be structurally optimized for sharing; their structures, however, don’t tend to distinguish between good information and bad. Which means that sites like Facebook aren’t just a […]

I am locked in a quiet, carpeted room, listening to a robotic voice on my iPhone. When the voice pauses, I repeat after it: “Jo’s gentlemanly demeanour amused and set him at his ease.” This rather odd sentence, along with a few hundred others, form part of a test for a new phone app that […]

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Let’s start with the obvious. Edward Snowden doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in Moscow or even Ecuador, Brazil or the other havens he has unsuccessfully pursued. He wants to come back to America—and we need him here. The Obama administration cringes at his every public appearance, and the intelligence community has […]