Culture & Religion

On sale today, the updated “Life in the United Kingdom” study guide, traditionally used as the basis for the written citizenship test, has replaced practical questions with cultural ones.

Recent research on what motivates friendship in human and animals societies has challenged theories of evolutionary biology which suggest reciprocal bonds are formed simply to survive. 

The government announced on Thursday that it’s launching a Start-Up Visa program this spring to encourage entrepreneurs to immigrate. Included in the deal: Immediate access to investors.

Peter Brook’s The Suit, in residence at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is another reminder from the master director that theater is more capable than any other art form of inducing empathy.

Forget about teaching English abroad: China and other Asian countries are struggling to meet increasing demand for Spanish-language instruction, according to a new report.

Not for the first time, health-conscious Recep Tayyip Erdogan attempts to influence citizens’ eating habits by recommending that the popular staple be replaced with whole wheat bread.

Sadly, much of the passion and intimacy of new love is bound to fade. Still, there are concrete ways to maintain positive feelings and warmth in long-term relationships, say psychologists. 

The ability of food to affect all of our senses, and recent technological developments that have made cooking a more precise exercise, have caught the attention of the professional art world. 

Never mind remembering creative strings of data: Google is researching small devices — a USB card, a wireless “smart ring” — that will automatically log you into a Web site or database.

An algorithm developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University easily deciphers long passwords that make grammatical sense.

A paper’s authors say that contrary to several decades’ worth of movie images, space travelers would see a steady bright light rather than streaks of stars.

Texas’ Bexar County residents would have access to thousands of e-books both online and at a physical site to be built, says the county judge who’s behind the proposal.

The group Sexual Minorities Uganda is taking advantage of a 1789 law that “allows foreigners to sue Americans for civil damages for civil…damages for acts committed abroad.”

Some worry that the new American standard for mental illness diagnostics, the DSM-5, actively seeks to pathologize normal human behavior, making sanity as unachievable as being a supermodel. 

A theory of mind called compartmentalization argues that the brain is much like an iPhone, loaded with a host of apps to meet different needs. Not all the apps cooperate, however. 

New research with children in Germany confirms similar research in other countries: Extracurricular music study — more so than similar study in other subjects — improves verbal memory.

Now that restrictions have been placed on which businesses can sell beer and when, Russian citizens are of two minds about the matter.

One of the country’s most conservative religious parties sets the record straight after a statement was made on Christmas asking non-Muslims not to use the word.

Today at the Stone, Stephen Asma brings some post-holiday season grinchitude to bear on the concept of universal love. The call to love all the world’s citizens as oneself is […]

As of January 1, underweight models are prohibited from working in runway shows and appearing in print ads. Supporters hope the law will help reverse the growing problem of eating disorders among women and girls.

Data gathered from American students over almost 50 years shows increased levels of self-esteem coupled with increasingly unrealistic expectations about their future success.

Most people can recognize changes in their personality and core beliefs from past to present, but not acknowledge or predict the possibility of changes from their present selves, according to a study.

Writer Brian Profitt discusses what the country’s recent law requiring real names for Internet use could mean from a political and a marketing perspective.

It stands to reason that conservative parents would be more inclined to propagate the Santa myth, and not only because they tend to be more religious than liberals. Deception for […]

For most Americans, the holiday week represents about half of the time off we will enjoy all year long. 

In the country with the highest murder rate in Europe, a movement that barely existed a year ago makes its case for liberalizing gun laws.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Claude Debussy’s birth. Falling into the impressionist camp, the French composer is able to capture the essence of a feeling perhaps better than anyone else. 

When writer Carolyn Briggs insisted that her children observe a more traditional Christmas, she was left isolated at a time of togetherness. This year, she will value her presence more highly. 

Here is the story of how far the argument against marriage equality has come, and how feeble it has become, in three steps.

If errors are inevitable in the pursuit of anything worthwhile, then our most important decisions are inevitably made in their aftermath.