Losing bidder goes to court to block comutter rail deal Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., which lost its bid to continue running the state’s commuter rail network, plans to file a request Thursday asking a judge to stop the winning bidder, Keolis Commuter Services, from taking over, arguing that the award process was skewed by favoritism. The conflict threatens to disrupt the scheduled July 1 […]
PBS NewsHour Why obsessing over economic indicators may hinder economic improvement The monthly jobs report is big news on the first Friday of every month, swaying the financial markets and prompting immediate analysis. But should these numbers matter so much? A new book, “The Leading Indicators,” argues we overvalue data like the GDP and inflation. Economics correspondent Paul Solman talks to author and analyst Zachary Karabell. […]
Emotions may not be so universal after all Our current understanding of facial expressions could be specific to Western cultures. From a very young age, infants have a way of making their feelings known – contorted faces and howls indicate their displeasure with a meal or a damp diaper, a gummy smile their contentment, and a furrowed brow their puzzlement over a new […]
Online commenting: a right to remain anonymous? A revolution is at hand, and the consequences could fundamentally change the identity of the Internet — or, more precisely, your identity within it. Websites and social networks are increasingly changing the structure of their comments sections in an attempt to breathe civility back into what many see as the Wild West of the Web. […]
College Board drops essay portion of SAT The College Board unveiled a sweeping redesign of the SAT test on Wednesday that scraps the essay requirement and ushers in other changes aimed at making the test more relevant to what students study in college and less susceptible to gaming through expensive test-prep courses that favor the wealthy. Starting in the spring of 2016, […]
When it comes to chronic illness, college campuses have a lot to learn I recently received e-mails from a frustrated graduate student with chronic disease who was tired of administrative roadblocks at her particular school, and a distraught parent of a college student who was about to withdraw from another school because of her health. Both e-mails sought commiseration and advice, and both speak to the same issue: […]
Boston Globe opens its website paywall while GateHouse puts some up for first time This has been a busy week of website news for the state’s two biggest news organizations: The Boston Globe is opening up the wall around its site, while GateHouse Media is putting up paywalls on some of its local sites for the first time. The shift at the Globe to what’s known as a metered […]
SF Gate Study finds some truth to ‘gaydar’ concept A new study by Northeastern University finds that the concept of “gaydar” (that gays and lesbians are better able to detect someone’s sexuality on first meeting) has some truth to it. An all-female study found that women who identified as lesbians were in fact more accurately able to identity another woman’s sexuality than their heterosexual […]
Gizmodo Flytenow is the airplane rideshare service you can actually afford Admit it: You’ve always wanted to ride in a private plane. Imagine stretching out your legs and listening to music without headphones. What luxury! Too bad, you probably can’t afford it. But, with Flytenow, you just might. Think of it as a Lyft for airplanes. Flytenow aims to connect pilots looking to rack up hours […]
CommonWealth Magazine Walsh’s legislative skills needed on transportation A new mayor provides an opportunity for new thinking about Boston-area transportation. And since state participation is a must when it comes to the transportation policies that would create the most benefits for city residents, the fact that Boston’s new mayor, Marty Walsh, happens to have 17 years of Beacon Hill experiences and relationships under […]
Northeastern student’s motivation-focused startup became profitable in 2 weeks Lars King’s startup focuses on collecting the best online videos to inspire people to be more motivated — a quality he never really lacked himself, at least not when it came to making money. King, a sophomore at Northeastern University, started his entrepreneurial career at age 12 selling herbs from his parents’ garden to neighbors. […]
The tenuous science of facial recognition The eyes may be windows into the soul, but can we really garner that much information from staring into someone’s face? Research suggests maybe not. A whole business has developed out of training computers to recognize our facial expressions, with companies like Emotient and Affectiva selling facial recognition software that supposedly reveals how focus groups […]