International Business Times France’s war against ISIS could create homegrown terrorists, experts say According to Max Abrahms, a professor at Northeastern University whose work has been published in dozens of scholarly journal articles regarding terrorism, previous attempts by Western governments to stomp out terrorist threats in the Middle East have done more harm than good. “One of the ironies about the coalition against the Islamic State is that […]
Science Friday The long quest to make machines talk As early as the 1700s, scientists built speaking machines that, through various combinations of reeds, bellows, and pipes, simulated the sounds of the human voice. Then, in 1939, Bell Labs debuted its “VODER” (Voice Operation DEmonstratoR), which simulated the physics of speech with electrical circuits—in a decidedly robotic tone. Today, of course, we have the […]
Alaska Airlines and Delta are unveiling new economy-class sections this spring Harlan Platt, a finance professor at Northeastern University, says that, from a customer-experience point of view, the Delta remodeling is largely “cosmetic.” “They fail to touch on the big three concerns of most passengers: legroom, access to bins, and fair prices and fees,” he says. “Like most oligopolistic industries, this is what we can expect […]
International Business Times With transfer of detainees, Al Qaeda’s Guantanamo Bay recruitment tool is becoming less valuable, experts say The attacks in Paris last week that killed 17 people and wounded dozens were inspired by al Qaeda in Yemen, the group’s leaders officially claimed Wednesday, but one of the main tools used to recruit the attackers, the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, is becoming less valuable, experts say. Jihadi leaders from al Qaeda […]
WGBH Getting Boston.com Out From Behind The Eight Ball I have an idea for how to fix Boston.com, whose executives on Wednesday found themselves apologizing yet again — this time for some juvenile humor about House Speaker John Boehner’s alleged drinking problem following a death threat against him. The screw-up has gotten widespread coverage from, among others, Politico, the Boston Herald (where the story […]
Parcel for sale: Plenty of space. Very quiet. Light? Well… The military designed the missiles and the bunkers that housed them with the utmost urgency, working at a moment when the concern over national security was so severe that it bordered on panic, said Gretchen Heefner, a history professor at Northeastern University in Boston and author of the book “The Missile Next Door.” “They had […]
Elsen has raised $400K to speed up financial computing at hedge funds Boston startup Elsen is looking to accelerate the speed of computer processing at hedge funds and other financial institutions—and now has some funding of its own. The company, founded in 2013 by threeNortheastern University grads, on Wednesday planned to announce that it’s raised $400,000 from local angel investor Bret Siarkowski and Atlas Venture’s Boston Syndicates […]
Is a Boston Olympics a good idea? Reactions from the web “To win the public’s approval, however, those who would lead this project must show the permanent payoff. How will the T be improved? How about infrastructure improvements? How will Boston in 2034 be a better place because of the Olympics of 2024?” — Roger I. Abrams, Richardson Professor of Law, Northeastern University, via HuffPost Sports
Rhode Island Public Radio This I believe Rhode Island: Brotherhood The kindness of strangers. How wonderful it is when, out of the pure goodness of their hearts, complete strangers step in to rescue us in moments of peril. When it occurs, unvarnished altruism is remarkable. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will […]
CNBC Signs of optimism among family-owned businesses The survey found family-owned businesses with solid, formal succession plans are scarce. Nearly 75 percent said they do not have a documented succession plan in place for senior roles in the company, PwC said. This maybe because many businesses think succession plans are a long, drawn-out process, said Ted Clark, executive director of the Northeastern […]
Will Dzhokhar Tsarnaev take the stand? Daniel Medwed, a professor of criminal law at Northeastern University School of Law, told BostInno he doesn’t expect Tsnaraev to take the stand. There’s a higher chance he will during the sentencing phase of the trial, but not during cross-examination. “The cross-examination would be withering,” said Medwed. Of taking the stand during the sentencing phase, he said […]
CBC Radio Boko Haram largely ignored but some say a threat on par with ISIS When Abubakr Shenkau’s Boko Haram followers killed an estimated 2000 people in 16 communities last week, few of us barely noticed. Our attention riveted instead on acts of terror in Paris. Today we look into that collective blind spot when it comes to Nigeria’s terror and ask about the parallels between ISIS and Boko Haram.