News and reports from North, Central and South America.
As toys from China are recalled over safety fears, US universities are encouraging students to design their own trinkets… Two US colleges, the Fashion Institute of Technology and Otis College of Art and Design, offer toy design as a major. With her classmates looking on, Laura Mansdorf pushed around a plastic turtle on wheels. The […]
Continue ReadingWhat language, invented in 1930, is still used by missionaries, airplane repairmen and the Voice of America? The answer is simple… What do the words “genocide,” “suicide,” “embryo” and “visa” have in common? This year, all four were added by the Voice of America to the language it calls Special English, which is also known […]
Continue ReadingMany find fruit labels a sticky nuisance but collectors exist worldwide. Now a new technology may stamp out the stickers and their hobby… It started innocently enough. Five years ago, before chomping into an apple or peeling a banana, members of the Slusarek family began detaching the little labels from the fruit and sticking them […]
Continue ReadingHigh schools nationwide are adopting American Sign Language as an alternative for students who need a foreign language to graduate… The classroom at Bronx Leadership Academy II was silent as Arsenio Merced, 17, stood in the front of the room and told a story. When he finished, his fellow students, instead of clapping, held up […]
Continue ReadingAs technology revolutionizes the sleepy world of transcription, the traditional clicking of court reporters on their stenographic machines may disappear… Melissa Macaluso transcribes 200 words per minute without ever lifting a finger. She is a court reporter, but instead of typing the proceedings, she repeats the testimony word for word into what looks like a […]
Continue ReadingAir travel is plagued by delays, security procedures and carry-on restrictions. As more items are confiscated and a record number of bags go missing, a traveler’s loss is a bargain hunter’s gain… Having to fork over possessions at airport security checkpoints has become a common nuisance for travelers carrying liquids or objects sharp or heavy […]
Continue ReadingOne person’s garbage is another’s creative inspiration. Artists and artisans are using old methods with a new material-the plastic grocery bag… Like any good New Yorker, Kristin Leigh Jordan cleans up after her dog, Daisy. To help with that task, she recycles plastic grocery bags. But after Earth Day this year, Jordan thought of another […]
Continue ReadingProject Censored announces its pick of the top 25 news stories to be spiked in the last 12 months… Each year since 1976, hundreds of student researchers, faculty, and volunteer members have presented the most important news stories that were under-covered, glossed over or ignored by the US’s major media outlets. Their 25 stories this […]
Continue ReadingNumber avoidance has measurable economic and even medical consequences. Developers build around it. Businesses avoid it. Even the U.S. Navy refuses to launch boats on Friday the 13th… Jerry Seagel, a realtor in Baton Rouge, La., was on the verge of selling an expensive house a few years ago when the young couple threatened to […]
Continue ReadingChristian schools in the US are performing Communion, prompting a discussion about how much church and school should intersect… Marie Correia, a spry 10-year-old, stood in a line recently with 20 other fifth graders dressed in white shirts and black pants. The group left a pew and walked to a wooden table where they retrieved […]
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