Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, in a major speech on August 8 outlining his economic plan for the country, made what has been treated as almost an off-hand remark (at 24m48s): “We have the lowest labor force participation rates in four decades. 58% of the African-American youth are either outside of the labor force or […]
Young people interested in traditional scouting that emphasizes outdoor activities and interaction with nature had few opportunities if they felt excluded by policy from more widely known scouting organizations. The Baden-Powell Service Association (BPSA) seeks to remedy that by opening its membership without discrimination on the basis of religious views, sexual orientation or gender, aiming […]
[See main article: motifri.com/gmofood] Surprisingly, the first and hardest problem of talking about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is defining them. Advanced biotechnology since the 1990s makes possible direct modification of cellular genetic material through genetic engineering, but the results are distinguishable only by their precision from traditional breeding techniques used for millennia with plants and […]
[See sidebar: motifri.com/gmoguide] Food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) made by genetic engineering (GE) has been in the news recently following the May release of results from a major study conducted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS), a private non-profit corporation funded entirely by the federal government and originally chartered by […]
Children are resilient; in the bombed-out rubble of Europe after World War II, children found ways to do amidst the ruins what they were naturally inclined to do – play. It has been indisputably known for decades that the single most important way children learn about the world around them is through play, but what […]
The decline and fall of a civilized society from ancient greatness to modern mediocrity has been the subject of much of British literature for centuries, ranging from William Blake and Lord Byron to Rudyard Kipling and J.R.R. Tolkien. Jerusalem takes place entirely at the ramshackle caravan abode of Byronic anti-hero “Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron” (David Tessier) […]
The Man from Earth is a rare stage play that raises challenging intellectual questions usually only seen in the best science-fiction, reminiscent of Twilight Zone and Star Trek. This is no coincidence, as it is the final dramatic work by playwright Jerome Bixby who was responsible for several episodes of both series in the 1950s […]
In a world premiere, Contemporary Theatre playwright-in-residence Andy Hoover imagines a virtual reality combat game, “Triad,” played by teams of three seated at their respective computers, the objective of which is to confront and defeat various incarnations of “leviathans,” computerized monsters with almost unlimited variations of forms and capabilities. Fairly accurately modeling air combat, each […]
Blues for Mister Charlie is an angry play from an angry time. The “Mister Charlie” of the title is a euphemism for “cracker,” a pejorative racial epithet for white people that has etymological roots in the slave driver of the antebellum South who literally cracked a whip. Trinity Rep deserves enormous credit for putting on […]
George Orwell was one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century and Animal Farm is his most widely read book, but that is because it is short rather than because it is good. Orwell was primarily an essayist: His journalism and non-fiction, although no longer commonly read, demonstrated remarkable prescience and ability. His […]