The Conversation

Beer and wine helped develop civilization and shaped culture and landscapes over millennia. Today, craft breweries, which are by definition small and independent and thus focus their production on innovative, small-scale methods rather than industrialized, mass-produced ones, are still playing that role.

One year in the next five will almost certainly be the hottest on record and there’s a two-in-three chance a single year will cross the crucial 1.5℃ global warming threshold, an alarming new report by the World Meteorological Organization predicts.

Woodie Guthrie had a lot to say about Congress in general and how it handled the national debt in particular. In his early version of “This Land Is Your Land,” he ended it with his narrator surveying a line of hungry people lined up “by the relief office” and then asked, “Was this land made for you and me?”

It’s not clear whether Ned Ludd was a real person, or simply a figment of folklore invented during a period of upheaval. But his name became synonymous with rejecting disruptive new technologies – an association that lasts to this day.

Of the long list of lyrical tributes to mothers that rap artists have recorded over the past 50 years, perhaps none has had as an enduring impact as Tupac Shakur’s “Dear Mama.”

Anti-abortion groups are looking for new ways to wage their battle against abortion rights, eyeing the potential implications of a 150-year-old law, the Comstock Act, that could effectively lead to a nationwide abortion ban.

While one top U.S. education official described the scores as “alarming,” the decline actually began nearly a decade ago. From the perspective of education reform and policy, the latest history and civics test scores were a predictable outcome.

The Trump attorneys’ line of questioning reinforced common myths about sexual assault that have been perpetuated in other high-profile sexual assault cases, such as those of comedian Bill Cosby and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Dog ownership has several benefits for people’s psychological and physical health. However, relationships with dogs are complex and can involve some conflicts. Undesired dog behaviors such as aggression and barking are the leading reason people give up their dogs.

Even as Israeli society tears itself apart and investors pull their money from the country in response to the proposed overhaul of the justice system, many members of the government remain ideologically committed to neutering the courts – no matter the cost.

Much of the rising intolerance to speech has a common thread: Instead of using speech or protest to counter the speech or expression that critics dislike, people on the right and the left appear to want to prevent ideas they don’t like from entering the conversation.

Serfs lost stability in their everyday lives as they were thrust into a new economic system. Precarity, debt and a lack of stability are again the dominant themes in today’s digital economy. The gig economy, in which people can juggle two or three part-time roles to make ends meet, is largely to blame.

Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon had become potential threats to the networks’ audience shares and advertising revenue. And rather than a victory for women or truth, these firings are an effort to sustain and grow corporate profits for CNN and Fox.

For decades, the white power movement has gained steady momentum in the U.S. The movement has long included men, women and children; felons and religious leaders; high school dropouts and holders of advanced degrees; civilians and veterans and active-duty military personnel.

A decline in traffic to the site seems to have been caused by a drop in referrals from feeder sites such as Facebook. This was itself caused by a switch to its users watching and sharing more video on sites like TikTok.

When a powerful storm flooded neighborhoods in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in April with what preliminary reports show was 25 inches of rain in 24 hours, few people were prepared. Even hurricanes rarely drop that much rain in one area that fast. Residents could do little to stop the floodwater as it spread over their yards and into their homes.

A strain of sorrow and pessimism underlies all of Kurt Vonnegut’s fiction, as well as his graduation speeches. He witnessed the worst that human beings could do to one another, and he made no secret about his fears for the future of a planet suffering from environmental degradation and a widening divide between the rich and the poor.

Each year on April 28, Canadians remember and honor those who have been killed or suffered injuries or illness at work. This day, known as the National Day of Mourning, was established by the Canadian Labour Congress in 1984 and made official in 1991. The United States has no such equivalent, though Workers Memorial Day is now worldwide.

Our apparent national impasse points to a lack of “epistemic humility,” or intellectual humility – that is, an inability to acknowledge, empathize with and ultimately compromise with opinions and perspectives different from one’s own. In other words, Americans have stopped listening.

Assessing Willie Nelson’s legacy is challenging because there are so many Willies to assess. There is historical Willie Nelson, child of the Depression. There is iconic Willie Nelson, near embodiment of Texas myth. There is outlaw Willie Nelson, revolutionizing the country music industry. There is activist Willie Nelson, Farm Aid’s co-founder and biofuel pioneer. There is Willie Nelson the songwriter of rare and poignant gifts, and more Willie Nelsons yet to be named.

Carlson’s departure came on the heels of Fox News’ US$787.5 million settlement of the lawsuit lodged by Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s promotion of misinformation about the 2020 election. Dominion had cited claims made on Carlson’s program as well as on other shows as evidence of defamation.

How to make sense of what four federal court decisions mean for the FDA’s authority to approve drugs – and where that leaves access to medication abortion, which is used in more than half of all abortions today.

America’s love affair with guns and lethal self-defense is replete with laws that selectively shield citizens from criminal responsibility when they use force and claim self-defense. Since their Florida start in 2005, these “stand your ground” laws have spread to around 30 states, transforming the United States’ legal landscape.

Throughout Thomas’ tenure he has pushed the Supreme Court to revisit prior decisions that embraced robust rights for society’s most vulnerable, and to replace Marshall’s vision with one more amenable to the powerful than the powerless.

Globally, efforts to end violence against children, including corporal punishment, have been underway for half a century. To date, 65 countries and states worldwide have banned corporal punishment. Unfortunately, Canada and the United States, including Florida, are not among them.

2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop. People around the world are taking time to reflect on and celebrate hip-hop’s accomplishments. Educators are not only remembering the obvious ways hip-hop has influenced language and fashion or provided the soundtrack to our study sessions and sports events, but we are also acknowledging how hip-hop has changed education.

There’s an almost mythical belief that baseball doesn’t change over time. When this assumption is challenged, accusations of blasphemy result. But baseball has changed, and so have the rules.

One decision cites no evidence – because there is none – that mifepristone alone causes complications. Further, it cites no evidence that access to mifepristone through the mail, or up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, increased the rate of complications.

The proposal would require a huge change in production and consumer choice. To put it in perspective, in 2022 about 6% of U.S. passenger vehicle sales were all-electric. But U.S. automakers are already ramping up to meet the California rules, as well as aggressive requirements in Europe and China.

Blocking access to TikTok by filtering traffic destined for addresses believed to be owned by TikTok is possible but would be difficult to accomplish. Server addresses can be changed and a TikTok ban could devolve into a game of cat and mouse.

Researchers at the UCLA School of Law Critical Race Studies Program have created a new database to track attempts by local and state government to outlaw the teaching of the theory, which holds, among other things, that racism is not just expressed on an individual level, but rather is deeply embedded in the nation’s laws and policies.

More home runs might sound exciting, but that boost in homers is also a visible sign of the much larger problems facing sports and people worldwide as the planet warms.

A federal judge in Texas’s ruling would eliminate free coverage for many basic preventive care services and medications. The federal government appealed the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Scientists who monitor the formation of sargassum in the Atlantic Ocean say that 2023 could produce the largest bloom ever recorded. That’s bad news for destinations like Miami and Fort Lauderdale that will struggle to clean their shorelines.

A former prosecutor and law professor who studies the American criminal justice system provides three key points to understand in the Trump indictment and the challenges that lie ahead for the prosecution of the former president.

Jacinda Ardern’s resignation as prime minister in January was a courageous and pragmatic decision for herself, her family and her party. Although many said she’d done a great job as leader, she rightly reminded us that a great leader is “one who knows when it’s time to go”.

Trump got what he wanted, as he, according to recent media reports, wanted to be the center of attention and create a spectacle. His detractors also got what they wanted, which was a visual record of Trump officially submitting to authorities, five days after he was indicted for 34 alleged felonies related to business fraud and a hush money payment to a porn star.

Deceptive image and text generators are now available to millions of people and don’t require technical knowledge to use. Given the potential for widespread harm as technology companies roll out these AI systems and test them on the public, policymakers are faced with the task of determining whether and how to regulate the emerging technology.

While this may anger some people and some groups, a balance in points of view is what any good library finds essential. Occasionally, some offended person asks to have a title withdrawn from being used, which is called a “challenge”; occasionally, these challenges are successful.

Presidents and prime ministers aren’t just anyone. They are chosen by a nation’s citizens or their parties to lead. They are often popular, sometimes revered. So judicial proceedings against them are inevitably perceived as political and become divisive.

The Constitution does not require that the president be free from indictment, conviction or prison. But an indictment, conviction or both – let alone a prison sentence – would significantly compromise a president’s ability to function in office. The Constitution doesn’t provide an easy answer to the problem posed by such a compromised chief executive.