TECHNOLOGY Beyond the Pistol Print-Out This week a 25-year-old law student made international headlines when he used a 3-D printer to “print out” a functional .38-caliber pistol. It was a demonstration that not only sparked a lively debate on gun control, but also threw a spotlight on a vibrant, fast-developing manufacturing technology that could change the shape of the future. In this video, former teacher … Continue reading Beyond the Pistol Print-Out
GEOGRAPHY Oakland: Robbery Capital of the U.S. Oakland, California, endures more robberies than other American cities. However, law-enforcement experts discourage reliance on such crime statistics. Why? Discussion Ideas: Oakland, California, is the “robbery capital of the United States.” Robbery is less invasive than burglary, where criminals enter a person’s home or business. It is less violent than murder or assault. After reading the Oakland Tribune … Continue reading Oakland: Robbery Capital of the U.S.
SCIENCE Linguists Identify 15,000-Year-Old Words Researchers have come up with a list of about two dozen words that have survived, fundamentally unchanged, for 150 centuries throughout Europe and Asia. Discussion Ideas: The Washington Post article explains how research into “proto-Eurasiatic” language focused on comparing words in different language families. Language families are not the same as languages. A language family is group of languages with … Continue reading Linguists Identify 15,000-Year-Old Words
ENVIRONMENT Shark Attack! People kill about 100 million sharks every year. (Actually, that number may be closer to 63 million. That’s right, 63 million.) Sharks kill about 12 people every year. Discussion Ideas: This spectacular infographic compares the number of people killed by sharks in 2011 (the last year reliable data was available) with the number of sharks killed by people every hour. Why do … Continue reading Shark Attack!
WORLD Saudi Arabia Launches Powerful Campaign Against Domestic Violence Saudi Arabia, a country not exactly known for progressive attitudes toward women, has launched its first major campaign against domestic violence—its latest effort to embrace some civil rights reforms. Discussion Ideas: No More Abuse is not a government program. It is an awareness campaign sponsored by a powerful nonprofit organization, the King Khalid Foundation. The campaign … Continue reading Saudi Arabia Launches Campaign Against Domestic Violence
