Commentators link America’s declining birth rate to a number of factors: a lack of support for mothers in the workplace, expensive child care, delayed marriage and a rising cost of living. But…
Author: cwbnb
What America’s first board game can teach us about the aspirations of a young nation
Board games are booming: In 2023 alone, the industry topped US$16.8 billion and is projected to reach $40.1 billion by 2032. Classics like “Scrabble” are being refreshed and transformed, while newer inventions…
Palestinian writers have long explored the horrors of amputation
Words fail as 2,000-pound bombs shred lives and limbs. The sheer number of children killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza is devastating – at least 13,000 children in the first six months…
‘Hidden mother’ photos don’t erase moms − rather, they reveal the labor and love that support the child
Collectors relish so-called “hidden mother photographs” as historical oddities. These 19th-century images contain very young children held still by half-obscured adults who crouch behind chairs or lurk at the margins of pictures,…
I analyzed 3,356 signs to see how language use is changing in three Latino neighborhoods in Philly
Signs written in Spanish are becoming less common along North Philadelphia’s Golden Block, or El Bloque de Oro – which runs along North Fifth Street from Lehigh Avenue to Allegheny Avenue and…
Revolutionary work of art has spawned two centuries of joy, goodwill and propaganda
In early 1824, 30 members of Vienna’s music community sent a letter to Ludwig van Beethoven petitioning the great composer to reconsider his plans to premiere his latest work in Berlin and…
Gen Zers and millennials are still big fans of books – even if they don’t call themselves ‘readers’
CC BY-ND. Identifying with an activity is different from actually doing it. For example, 49% of Americans play video games, but only 10% identify as gamers. According to a recent survey we…
College administrators are falling into a tried and true trap laid by the right
Interrogations of university leaders spearheaded by conservative congressional representatives. Calls from right-wing senators for troops to intervene in campus demonstrations. Hundreds of student and faculty arrests, with nonviolent dissenters thrown to the…
From shrimp Jesus to fake self-portraits, AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam
If you’ve spent time on Facebook over the past six months, you may have noticed photorealistic images that are too good to be true: children holding paintings that look like the work…
The luck of the puck in the Stanley Cup – why chance plays such a big role in hockey
The NHL playoffs are almost like a second season – two months of bruising, relentless play, as the top teams compete for the chance to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup. The 16 hockey…