According to international terrorism expert Max Abrahms, the military intervention “will be a restrained response by the West.” “It’s in order to preserve the international taboo over using WMDs.” The United Nations envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said Wednesday that evidence of a “substance” that may have killed more than 1,000 people was found. The […]

Sepulveda struggles to get assigned as many shifts per week as possible, but even if she had the chance to work 40 hours per week (a rarity), that would at most equal $15,080 per year. In other words, the CEO of McDonald’s makes 580 times more than Nathalia Sepulveda. But no one can seriously think […]

The 13 members of the jury of military officers took less than two hours — lightning speed by courtroom standards — to reach a unanimous verdict that Maj. Nidal Hasan should be executed for his 2009 rampage at the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas that left 13 dead and 31 more wounded. My sense, […]

Fifty years ago today, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington (video below). The “Let Freedom Ring” commemoration today on the National Mall in Washington marked the anniversary with speeches and performances by people including President Obama, civil rights leaders and members of the King family (full video here). […]

There were temporal trends too. “The saddest was Hunter College High School,” says Bar-Yam. “It turns out that we collected data just after they came back from vacation.” Alan Mislove of Northeastern University in Boston says that using Twitter for such analysis has positives and negatives. On one hand, it gives researchers access to a large […]

Dan Lebowitz, executive director of Sport in Society at Northeastern University, joined NECN to look at the more widespread issue of hazing. “You would think that there would be a sense of collective community and sort of a concept of teamwork that works throughout a team,” said Lebowitz. “In some ways, it’s so awful and […]

A young state representative from Brookline named Michael Dukakis was one of 20 Massachusetts leaders who signed a statement in support of the march, which read in part: “This historic demonstration represents a turning point in our nation’s development — the point at which we finally begin to honor our Constitution and moral heritage.” Dukakis […]

James Monaghan, a biologist at Boston’s Northeastern University, began studying axolotls during a grad school project and stuck with them since. “If they’re paralyzed in the back they can recover the functions of their legs … They can make all new neurons and new connections that allow them to use their legs again, which is […]

Those of us who gathered on the Washington Mall 50 years ago felt the winds of change at our backs. We sensed across that long, hot day — as we walked tightly together, then rested, then listened, then sang — that what was happening was epochal. We knew we were embracing a new generation of […]

But Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, said it is hard for low-wage workers to win significant concessions without a collective voice. And in an industry with high turnover and a mostly part-time workforce, he said, efforts to organize employees prove daunting. “A lot of people are there […]

To collector Steve Soboroff, his prized vintage typewriters—once owned by the likes of Ernest Hemingway and John Updike—hold a talismanic power. “The idea that geniuses sat there and accomplished what they accomplished on these typewriters… it gives me the chills,” Soboroff says. But to Northeastern University art director Bruce Ployer, curator of the newly opened […]

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8dce5862-0419-11e3-8aab-00144feab7de.html#ixzz2dHGln1Ws Scott Shane, a prolific writer on entrepreneurship, postulates that genetic factors are powerful determinants of whether someone will develop a successful business. His […]