I distinctly recall the moment when I first learned the word boko, now notorious as half the name of the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram. (“Haram” means “forbidden” or “sinful.”) I was living in a remote, rural borderland straddling the border between northern Nigeria and Niger Republic in the early 1980s, conducting research as a […]

Successfully starting and running a business is about many things: hard work, determination, innovation, human relationships and management. And numbers. You can’t manage what you can’t see. When it comes to business basics, processes and results, numbers count, literally and figuratively. However, you can waste a lot of time obsessing over things that don’t count. […]

This is an exciting time of year for America’s young people. Nearly 4 million people will receive an accredited degree from an academic institution in the United States this year, according to the US Department of Education. Regardless of how long it took them or where they studied, these young men and women should feel […]

Hip hop legend and actor LL Cool J never graduated from high school or college after signing with Def Jam Records as a teenager in 1984. But last week, the rapper born James Todd Smith received an honorary doctorate degree from Northeastern University. The moment became even more special because he shared the experience with […]

Got a job? Count your blessings. Got one that uses your skills and pays you for them? Wow. The U.S. employment picture is definitely brightening. An unforeseen surge in jobs gained helped drop the jobless rate to 6.3 percent in April. The Federal Reserve thought we wouldn’t get there until the end of the year. […]

The sharing economy or collaborative consumption is a vast market existing everywhere around us, but is not readily apparent. Instead, it is a by-product of the everyday inefficiencies of life — the person with an extra seat in their car, extra room in their house, or with extra time to spare. Anyone who has used […]

I once silenced a seatmate on a transatlantic flight who threatened to be overly chatty by (truthfully) telling him that I was traveling to London to speak about the history of the patent examiner. Horrified I might tell him about it, he quickly returned to his own, apparently more interesting reading. One glance at the […]

This July marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The landmark law, spearheaded by President John F. Kennedy and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, opened the doors of liberty and equality for millions of Americans since then. But paying tribute to this momentous occasion also requires us to think […]

The national report on climate change that ripped through the headlines this week offers Georgians some solace, ample cause for anxiety and, of course, endless fodder for debate.

Daniel Medwed, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law who opposes the death penalty, said he believes it is unlikely the defense will sway the judge in this case. But he said they are likely throwing down a marker now, preserving this as potential fodder for later appeal. “This is a long-term play,” Mr. […]

{Video} The end of the school year means that many schools across the country are preparing for prom, and the ways that some teens are inviting their dates is getting very elaborate. Jared Chin, director for training and curriculum at Northeastern University’s Center for Sport in Society joined us for more on the subject. He […]

{Video} One of the authors of the White House report on climate change said Tuesday Massachusetts and the northeast are seeing far bigger increase in precipitation than the rest of the country. “Extreme precipitation events have been increasing here much faster than they have in other parts of the country,” said Dr. Matthias Ruth from […]