One of us (Paul) had the opportunity last week to speak to Richard Susskind’s conference in Scotland on the future of law, enjoying one of the great expressions from Richard: “Most clients would rather have a guardrail at the top of the hill rather than an ambulance at the bottom.” While that’s undoubtedly true of clients, […]

But academics who study terrorism pointed to the changing rhetoric emanating from the White House as a positive sign for U.S.-Chinese relations. While governments ought to take care in branding activities “terrorist” given the license for violent response that such a word implicitly conveys, in this case the term would appear to apply, some suggested, […]

Bureo skateboards look like fish because they are made from old fishing nets. They started out as garbage — fishing nets discarded in the waters off Chile. About 640,000 tons of these nets clog the world’s oceans, and that’s only a tenth of the world’s debris. According to a report from the Coastal Conservancy, in […]

Q: Does the Boston Globe disclose that John Henry owns the paper whenever it reports on one of his other business interests? Or does it omit that information, leaving less-savvy readers in the dark? A: Yes. Tuesday was a case in point. On page one, the Globe’s Brian MacQuarrie reported that the Stop Handgun Violence billboard on Lansdowne […]

General Motors Co.’s (NYSE:GM) problems have gotten so bad that this year it has recalled more vehicles than it’s sold since the company’s 2009 bankruptcy, raising questions about whether the century-old carmaker has made any progress under U.S. taxpayer support. The last time GM had a recall even close to this year’s 13.7 million vehicle […]

There seems to be no shortage of myths about family business, but they all seem to start with one. This myth has been written and repeated so many times for so many years – by leading experts in the field, no less – that an alarming number of people accept it as fact. That myth […]

I bet that, like me, when you’ve donated to charity you’ve had a slightly queasy feeling. You probably wrestled with questions like: Will my donation do any good? Is the charity well run? Is this the most effective way I can help a cause I care about? I’m actually now feeling more confident about being an effective […]

The popular advice now for women who want to succeed in the workplace is to “lean in.” But this week, former New York Times editor Jill Abramson learned the hard way that while that approach can take you to the top, it can also bring you down.

Memorial Day in the United States was established not long after the Civil War as a way for the nation to honor members of the military who lost their lives in service. Amid other traditions that have sprung out of the holiday – parades, picnics, and concerts on the lawn – people still pay solemn […]

Northeastern University was using traditional metal keys for about half its dorm rooms, with an offline access system—using swipe cards that communicate only with designated locks—for the rest three years ago, when officials there began looking into alternatives. This summer the university will install about 2,400 online locks in its residential facilities, in addition to […]

Janet Napolitano gave the Northeastern University commencement speech.

North­eastern University has appointed entrepreneur Nick Ducoff to the newly created position of vice president for new ventures. Ducoff comes to Northeastern from Boundless Learning Inc., an education technology firm based in Boston’s Leather District that provides open source digital learning content such as textbooks and customizable teaching platforms for students and educators. Ducoff has led the […]