Culture & Religion

#14. The greatness of Thanksgiving is that it doesn’t aspire to greatness, but only to the shared experiences that make living worth living for each one of us.

“People as old as 90 who actively acquire new interests that involve learning retain their ability to learn. But if we stop taxing the nucleus basalis, it begins to dry up.”

In addition to its humor, quality drawing, and thoughtfulness, the thing that separated the strip and its maker was the refusal to license and merchandize the work.

Tesco plans to install the technology at its 450 gas stations so that it can deliver customized ads — based on age and gender — on a nearby screen. Not surprisingly, privacy advocates are concerned.

First instituted over 60 years ago to help care for war orphans, the schools eventually began to attract a more moneyed clientele. Today, supporters say they promote independence, while critics say they leave some kids feeling abandoned.

From Aeroflot to McDonald’s and many other businesses in between, a new wave of service training aims to change the country’s famously infamous treatment of customers.

Researchers have designed a type of laser technique that is able to distinguish the bad — specifically, the proteins responsible for Alzheimer’s and similar diseases — from the good. Simply locating them could make removing them much easier.

Using brain scans, Finnish researchers discovered that infants who listened to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in utero recognized the melody up to four months after birth. It’s the first study to measure how long fetal memories last.

Oxford University researchers are currently testing the device, which captures images and puts them on transparent LED displays, on people who retain some ability to perceive light and motion.

It’s the first European country to allow parents to specify “X,” giving them time to decide whether to have their child undergo sex-reassignment surgery. Some say the new law doesn’t go far enough to address issues faced by intersex adults.

Test subjects were asked to rate paintings before and after receiving a mild amount of current in a portion of their brain. Paintings that depicted realistic scenes earned higher ratings after the zap.

New research suggests that the “automaton-like” nature of the typical immersive video game avatar can desensitize players to their own pain and that of others, regardless of the level of violence in the game.

Have you ever noticed how long people look at a painting in a museum or gallery? Surveys have clocked view times anywhere between 10 and 17 seconds. The Louvre estimated […]

Vancouver is now home to a machine that accepts and dispenses only cash and Bitcoin account data. The goal, say its owners, is to make the virtual currency easier to buy and sell.

Several studies note that people working in a particular environment — the classroom, the office — can be affected by the sounds and smells around them. Now researchers and others are investigating ways to use this information for the public good.

The Chinese Characters Dictation Competition invited students to test their knowledge of written Chinese at a time when some say technology is eroding language skills. A nationwide audience tuned in for last Friday’s finale.

The financial crisis may be one reason executives are flocking to classes and seminars to learn what the great Western philosophers had to say about such concepts as respect, authority, and ethics.

New research shows that variations in a particular genotype can make a person more likely to participate in “prosocial” acts, such as rescuing someone from drowning.

A new study claims that Facebook users are separated from each other by an average of just under four people. Interestingly, those that are in self-contained professions are more separated from each other than are Facebook users on the whole.

Scientists put an interactive robot in an enclosure inhabited by 16 chimpanzees. Their reactions were surprisingly similar to those of humans, opening up potential new ways to observe them without humans being present.

The decision rescinds a 2009 court order that originally allowed a Malay-language Catholic newspaper to use the word to refer to God and instigated a wave of church attacks across the country.

Obsessively searching the Internet for fixes to real or perceived health problems creates more anxiety in those who have a lower tolerance for uncertainty, says a Baylor University researcher.

A cross-cultural study involving employees at multinational corporations in nine countries confirmed that cultural attitudes affect how absenteeism is viewed. What does this mean for an increasingly mobile and global workforce?

More tests are needed, but if the chemical can be made into a drug, it could represent a powerful weapon in the fight against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis.

Avegant’s wearable goggles work by projecting images directly onto the user’s retinas, allowing the eyes to relax in a way that focusing on a screen doesn’t.

Last week, moviegoers at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea saw the debut of a 30-minute spy thriller using a new technology, ScreenX, that includes the theater side walls as screens.

A secondary school in Hangzhou is one of several throughout China that have implemented rules designed to keep teens’ focus on the books and off each other. They have been met with outrage from social media users.

A wearer viewing a sign through NTT Docomo’s Intelligent Glasses will see a translated image of the characters. The prototype currently works for Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English.

Scheduled to air live November 3 — on YouTube — the 90-minute show will feature performances from those who gained fame on the video platform as well as those, such as Eminem, who became famous via more old-fashioned routes.

Not only are such spaces — including a proposed park and bank — on the increase, demand for them is increasing as well. Opponents say that they represent a step backwards.