Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover
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    Why All Immigrant Children Should Have Access to Health Care

    A group of U.S. pediatricians makes the case.


    By Andrew Seaman

    Why All Immigrant Children Should Have Access to Health Care

  • Human Rights Watch’s Take on Obama’s Drone Speech Is Worth Reading

    Did you miss the president’s important speech about the War on Terror? Here’s the one response you should make some time for.


    By Marc Herman

    Human Rights Watch’s Take on Obama’s Drone Speech Is Worth Reading

  • The Power of the Creative Arts

    A recent analysis of past studies highlights the health benefits of music, dance, and art therapy, which are now being used to ease cancer-related anxiety and pain.


    By Genevra Pittman

    The Power of the Creative Arts

MICHAEL TODD

You Can Help Net a Fluttering of Data Points

Making science fun: There's a network of butterfly researchers who eagerly want to know what species you've seen flitting about.

Major Lessons From the Minor Leagues

There is a measurable economic boost from hosting a minor league baseball team, a newish study finds. What might happen if we mixed in some DNA from English football?

Study: Consensus on Climate Still Means Consensus

Next time someone tells you there isn't a scientific consensus on man's role in climate change, trot out this new study. But acknowledge its source....

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TOM JACOBS

Compassion Can Be Cultivated

New research suggests training designed to increase feelings of compassion can lead to more altruistic behavior.

How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

New research suggests that, contrary to common belief, ticket buyers are not particularly hostile toward contemporary compositions.

Female Professionals of 1970s Face Higher Risk of Breast Cancer

New research finds a surprising link between high-status occupations among American women in the 1970s and later episodes of breast cancer.

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RYAN O’HANLON

Without an Apostrophe, I No Longer Exist

If we eliminate apostrophes from language, what will happen to all the people with the tiny marks in their names?

Will Anyone Care About New York City’s New Soccer Team?

New York City already cares about soccer, but will they actually support a team? The new team's success isn't a sure thing.

Is Your Greek Yogurt Destroying the Earth?

The production of greek yogurt creates acid whey, which can be toxic to the environment.

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MICHAEL FITZGERALD

Are Babies Healthier in North Korea or Northeast Ohio?

Depending on the neighborhood, maybe North Korea.

The Deluge Continues

Innovative drilling techniques, as explored in our March/April print issue, are remaking the geopolitical map in unpredictable ways.

How Etsy Got Over Middle-School-Cafeteria Syndrome

In the year after declaring diversity one of their core values, Etsy watched their female engineers drop to four out of 85.

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SETH MASKET

Why Haven’t Obama’s Scandals Hurt His Approval Ratings?

More Americans approve of his performance now than did so a week ago.

Our Political Parties Have Polarized, But They Have a Lot Further to Go

There are still plenty of moderate congressional districts represented by officials who vote with their constituents in mind—but that could soon change.

Members of Congress Are Elected to Represent, Not to Get Along

Why attempts to characterize President Obama as a leader unable to cajole and intimidate our other elected officials are profoundly misguided.

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JIM RUSSELL

Geography of Aspiration

Try to replicate it with development schemes all you want, but you're overlooking what makes New York City—and other places of ambition—so great.

Migration Economies and Portland

Most people don't move to Portland for the usual reason—employment. The City of Roses attracts talent with a focus on urban amenities and regional planning. But that strategy is easy to replicate elsewhere.

Era of Dying Places

For many, population is the only metric that matters. But what does it mean when a city's population is declining while its workforce is growing—in both size and smarts?

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MARC HERMAN

Human Rights Watch’s Take on Obama’s Drone Speech Is Worth Reading

Did you miss the president's important speech about the War on Terror? Here's the one response you should make some time for.

Do (Cheap) Mid-Century Schoolhouses Worsen Disasters Like the Moore Tornado?

At least seven children died in Oklahoma this past week when two elementary schools were destroyed. Is shoddy construction to blame?

A Survivor of the Deadliest Tornado in U.S. History Tells Her Tale

At 70, Lela Hartman believed we would one day use technology to prevent disasters like the Tri-State Tornado she witnessed as a small child. Are we getting any closer?

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MATT NOVAK

How to Conjure a Ghost to Get a Murderer to Confess

All you need is a projector and a willing prisoner.

The Google Maps of 1917

Before Mapquest and Google, there was the "electric directory."

Were There Robot Librarians in the 1950s?

No, there were not. Here's how we know.

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LISA MARGONELLI

The Environmental Defense Fund Is Pissing Off Fellow Environmentalists

Has the large advocacy group allowed itself to be “co-opted by industry interests"?

Nikola Tesla Would Not Approve of Your Online Viewing Habits

Collectively, we've spent more than 50 years watching the Tesla vs. Thomas Edison rap smackdown that went viral on YouTube.

How the Trailer Park Could Save Us All

A healthy, inexpensive, environmentally friendly solution for housing millions of retiring baby boomers is staring us in the face. We just know it by a dirty name.

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MARIA STRESHINSKY

The Last Mile

Introducing the May/June 2013 issue of Pacific Standard.

My Vote for Most Inventive Way To Manage Stress

In the multi-tasking world we live in, it's safe to say many of us are looking for either more hours, or better ways to manage our stress and workload.

A Private Bear

This, from the animal behavior files, tickles me all over again, and it seems like a mental health break is in order.

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Most Recent Stories

Geopolitics of Talent: United States v. Brazil

May 25, 2013 • By

An international trade war is brewing between the United States and Brazil. No, I'm not talking about the US sugar cartel and the demise of our beloved Twinkies.  The issue is talent and how Brazil ... Read More

sad-apostrophe

Without an Apostrophe, I No Longer Exist

May 24, 2013 • By

First, it was The End of Two Spaces Between Periods. Then it was The End of Email Sign-Offs. And now it's The End of Apostrophes. Written by Matthew J.X. Malady, Slate's latest English language/human ... Read More

fracking-red

The Environmental Defense Fund Is Pissing Off Fellow Environmentalists

May 24, 2013 • By

The battle over hydraulic fracking of oil and natural gas has pitted land owners against each other. It has also creating divides between neighboring states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. ... Read More

nsf-building

The Congressional War on the Social Sciences

May 24, 2013 • By

In March of this year, Congress voted to eliminate National Science Foundation funds for political science research, except for grants certified by the NSF director as “promoting national security ... Read More

new-york-broadway

Geography of Aspiration

May 23, 2013 • By

Places have ambition. In this urban hierarchy, you aim to be New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. In the part of the Rust Belt west of the Cuyahoga River, Chicago is the city of dreams. In any ... Read More

terrorist-centerfold

Terrorism’s Centerfolds

May 23, 2013 • By

Michelle Legro runs a website called My Daguerreotype Boyfriend, a Tumblr where readers can submit photos of really attractive and long dead men. One of the men featured is this guy. That’s Louis ... Read More

NYCFC

Will Anyone Care About New York City’s New Soccer Team?

May 23, 2013 • By

Two days ago, the New York Yankees, Manchester City, and Major League Soccer told us that New York was getting its own soccer team. They’ll be called New York City Football Club (NYCFC), which makes ... Read More

gallium-nitride

How Gallium Nitride Could Help Power the World

May 23, 2013 • By

Umesh Mishra thinks day in and day out about power conversion—the trillions of adjustments in voltage, frequency, and current made daily to deliver electricity from wall outlets to computers, TVs, ... Read More

portland-park

Migration Economies and Portland

May 23, 2013 • By

Migrants moving into a region stimulate economic growth. Newcomers demand more housing and local services, to name a few ways the inbound impact the economy. Over the course of the 20th century, the ... Read More

substance-use-problems

Now That the ‘DSM-5′ Is Out Can We Start Talking About the Effect It Will Have?

May 23, 2013 • By

Editor's Note: The post originally appeared on The Fix, a Pacific Standard partner site. The newest edition of psychiatry's "bible" of diagnosis, the DSM-5, made its long-awaited appearance on May ... Read More

salt-mountains

Don’t Pass on the Salt

May 23, 2013 • By

No salt, low salt, salt free, heart-healthy salt substitution–any added salt will hurt your constitution. It reads like some bizarre, Seussian tale. Excepting that we’ve heard it not from the good ... Read More

moore-tornado

Do (Cheap) Mid-Century Schoolhouses Worsen Disasters Like the Moore Tornado?

May 22, 2013 • By

Over the past 24 hours, focus has turned to everything from Oklahoma's economy to its geology to its plains culture to explain why the devastated suburb of Moore didn't have "safe room" shelters in ... Read More

compassion-findings

Compassion Can Be Cultivated

May 22, 2013 • By

Can people be taught to act more altruistically? Newly published research, measuring both brain activity and behavior, suggests the answer just may be yes. “Our findings support the possibility ... Read More