Contributor Posts

"You’ve probably seen ads promoting gas and oil companies as the solutions to climate change. They’re meant to be  inspiring and hopeful, with scenes of a green, clean future to climate change.
But shiny ads are not all these companies do to protect their commercial interests in the face of a rapidly heating world. Most also provide financial support to industry groups that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on political activities, often to thwart polices designed to slow climate change."  more at The Conversation

When you use supermarket discount cards, you are sharing much more than what is in your cart—and grocery chains like Kroger are reaping huge profits selling this data to brands and advertisers.  More at The Markup ➜

"Much like love itself, St. Valentine and his reputation as the patron saint of love are not matters of verifiable history, but of faith".Read more

“Worried that technology is ‘breaking your brain’? Fears about attention spans and focus are as old as writing itself."  Read more

Until the early 1900’s, chickens were primarily raised on farms for their ability to lay eggs, not for their meat. In 1923. a woman in Delaware named Cecilia Steele. ordered 50 chicks for her backyard flock. Due to an error, she received 500. She kept them, raised them and 16 weeks later sold them for 63 cents a pound. Her story spread rapidly helping create the poultry industry.
Now, the industry is controlled by a handful of large corporations. The larger ones own the birds and contract with local farmers to raise them. With the corporations providing the feed and medical care. More at Vox ➜ 

Many of the patients left in the lurch have life-threatening digestive disorders that render them unable to eat or drink. They depend on parenteral nutrition, or PN — in which amino acids, sugars, fats, vitamins, and electrolytes are pumped, in most cases, through a specialized catheter directly into a large vein near the heart..... Read full article at KHN

"In Greenville, students can specialize in engineering beginning in kindergarten. Some critics worry the push for career education at young ages is putting business priorities before those of students and school systems" ..."Greenville is now introducing the idea of a career path to students in elementary school and giving students the option to follow those programs to middle and high schools, hoping by eighth grade they will have a better understanding of what they want to do after high school and what it will take to get there." More at The Hechinger Report

The Hechinger Report, is a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

Get the facts - Understand the size and state of the American people with this Census Bureau data. Track population changes by region of the country and by age and how much the US population grows year after year. Dig into the educational level of American adults, how many young adults live at home, even how the average family size has changed since the 1940s.

More at USAFacts ➜

A team of archaeologists in London recently uncovered a stunning 1300-year-old gold and gemstone necklace. This necklace is believed to have been crafted in the Anglo-Saxon period and is said to be a "once-in-a-lifetime" find. It is thought to have been a symbol of high status and wealth. It probably belonged to an elite woman who wanted to “show off” her new Christian identity"........ Read more

"Effective altruism is an intellectual and charitable movement that aspires to find the best ways to help others. .... relying on evidence and rational arguments to identify what can be done to make the most progress toward solving the world’s most pressing problems, such as reducing malnutrition and Malaria while increasing access to health care".....More at The Conversation ➜

As part of a growing national dialogue around hospice abuse, trade groups and government watchdog agencies are pushing regulators to make changes.
Last week, the four largest hospice trade associations jointly sent a detailed memo of policy proposals to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulates the end-of-life care benefit. Their 34 recommendations, which span eight pages, directly address the alarming business practices outlined by a recent ProPublica-New Yorker investigation...... Read more

"...Research shows that there is little evidence to support the use of detox diets and that they are not needed anyway. The body is well-equipped to eliminate unwanted substances on its own"...... Read more