Magazine Posts

From picturesque Mediterranean isles to New York’s bustling harbor, strategically placed oyster colonies are depolluting the sea with ease. Read more  -   Photo credit: Peter Yeung

"Generations of Americans made incredible sacrifices, and we’re going to throw fits about putting a mask over our mouth and nose?"......."Many people told me that the Constitution gives them rights, but not responsibilities. They feel no duty to protect their fellow citizens.".... Read the full article

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore - Licensed under Creative Common License 2.0

A new form of trade is reshaping our world, and it’s driven by the movement of bits and bytes, not goods, around the globe. Read more

"Inspectors repeatedly found manufacturing and device quality problems with the HeartWare heart pump. But the FDA did not penalize the company, and patients had the device implanted on their hearts without knowing the facts." Read Article

Opinion:  A patient should have easy access to accurate and timely information relating to the risks associated with the major decision about to be made; instead of blindly relying on a  "regulatory system which generally serves patients well" and believing that “most companies are well intentioned.” If nothing else, intentions are not facts. 

Wage theft is one of the most prevalent crimes in the United States, affecting millions of low-wage workers. It can take many forms and yet, it goes largely unreported. Read the full article 

Do you keep putting things off when you know you shouldn’t? Get going by understanding the psychology of irrational delay - Read more

"So many of us have been raised to see strangers as dangerous and scary. What would happen if we instead saw them as potential sources of comfort and belonging"? Read more

..."The government's definition of working poor refers to the federal poverty line. But MIT's Living Wage Calculator suggests a family needs to earn double or even triple that to afford the very basic necessities of life. The data below are for various household sizes for Rochester, New York, which is about the national average for cost of living. Annual incomes are based on average wages and 2,080 hours of work a year."..... Read the full article on The Conversation

A "breaker boy" was a coal-mining worker whose job was to separate impurities from coal by hand in a coal breaker in the United States and also in the United Kingdom. Breaker boys were primarily children. The use of breaker boys began in the mid-1860s in the United States and the United Kingdom.  Although public disapproval of the employment of children as breaker boys existed by the mid-1880s, the practice did not end until the 1920s.

Lewis Wickes Hine - (1874-1940) was an American sociologist, photographer and humanist.  He used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing child labor laws in the United States.
Hine began photographing subjects in New York in 1903, including, immigrants at Ellis Island, and immigrants as they settled in America. In 1909, Hine took photographs of child labor practices for the National Child Labor Committee, At the end of World War I, Hine was sent abroad by the American Red Cross to photograph relief activities. After the war, he continued to photograph the workingman and industry, such as the construction of the Empire State Building in 1931. A collection of his industrial photographs were published in 1932 in the book "Men at Work".  Read more about Lewis Wickes Hine

Credit: National Archives

The bill-signing ceremony, took place at the Truman Library in honor of former President Harry S. Truman, who had first proposed national health insurance in 1945. The former President was enrolled as Medicare’s first beneficiary and received the first Medicare card.
For 50 years, these programs have been protecting the health and well-being of millions of American families, saving lives, and improving the economic security of the nation.

A handful of powerful companies control the majority market share of almost 80% of dozens of grocery items bought regularly by ordinary Americans, new analysis reveals.

A joint investigation by the Guardian and Food and Water Watch found that consumer choice is largely an illusion – despite supermarket shelves and fridges brimming with different brands. Read Full Article

“It’s no secret that aerobic exercise can help stave off some of the ravages of aging. But a growing body of research suggests that swimming might provide a unique boost to brain health. Read the full article on The Conversation