“This is a highly organized, methodical and selective act,” said Jack Levin, a professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University in Boston. “The victims were stalked so the killer could wait for the optimal moment to strike without being identified.”

Criminologist James Fox of Northeastern University said mass killers are impossible to spot until after the fact. “The irony is that these mass killings are the very kind of crimes that are least preventable by the kind of gun legislation we’re seeing today,” Fox said.

“I’ve looked through J.C. Penney’s financials, and they’ve had the same number of stores – 1,100 – for the last five years,” said Bruce Clark, a professor of marketing at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business. “Some of them are really old and really sad. I’m having a hard time believing all these stores are valuable.”

GUEST MENTOR, Frederick G. Crane, executive professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Northeastern University D’Amore-McKim School of Business: There are three basic ways to go about setting a price for your product or service: cost-based, competitive-based or customer-based. Many startups are tempted to start with a cost-based approach, which in my opinion is the worst possible option. Why? Because basing […]

Laurie Edwards: Watching so much slip away from my parents made my time with my daughter that much more sacrosanct. It also made nurturing her relationship with her grandparents that much more important. (deflam/Flickr) I never expected to be initiated into the “sandwich generation” of care-giving at age 30, but my daughter’s birth two years […]

Physicist Albert-László Barabási’s network theory merges with a fundamental need of researchers and clinicians. Since the mapping of the human genome, the amount and structure of the data we’re getting means we have to think differently about biological systems and disease pathologies. Enter the human diseasome. This is all the diseases of an individual or […]

Because weapons can be easily carried across state lines, states that try to impose tight controls on gun purchases can be undercut by other states that are more permissive, analysts say. “There’s no metal detectors at the borders,” said Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox. “Any state’s ability to deal with the gun problem is […]

Would-be serial killers often admire other mass killers and will even try to mimic theirstyles, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston. But given that Quick allegedly stabbed people with a utility knife without killing or eating anyone points to someone who may have been more obsessed with notoriety than true […]

James Alan Fox: Gun control or carry permit won’t stop mass murder If one thing is predictable about mass shootings, however, is that they will spark arguments from gun control advocates and gun rights groups alike. Both sides of the gun issue will probably view this tragedy [shooting at Aurora, Colorado] as one more example […]

A team of Northeastern University students has come up with a way to alleviate the traffic woes that plague the intersection of Routes 1, 1A and Elmwood Street – installing a roundabout. The roundabout, which could be constructed within the existing roadway, would be near the junction of Park and North Washington streets. Cars would […]

We obviously love our gadgets around here. But, as worked up as we get for things with octa-core processors and 4K displays, what really excites us about technology is its ability to improve people’s lives. And while having an endless repository of information at your fingertips 24/7 certainly qualifies, we’re more interested in the people […]

Twenty-two ventures came into Northeastern’s Husky Startup Challenge with nothing but an idea. After three months of guidance and support from the University’s Entrepreneurs Club, however, they were able to turn those ideas into minimum viable products ready to be demoed in front Boston’s startup community on Monday night. “It’s incredible how far they’ve come in a semester,” […]