Pleas to tone down the heated political rhetoric in America tend to suffer the same fate as sensible-eating guidelines: endorsed in principle and ignored in practice. It’s clear enough why. The views of liberals and conservatives rest on fundamentally different foundations, making it difficult to locate common ground. Lacking a basic understanding of their opponents’ motivations, partisans view those on the other side of the ideological divide warily, often assuming the worst. In his essential new book, The Righteous Mind, psychologist Jonathan Haidt offers no easy way out of this ... Read More
Overcrowded Prisons Giving Old Inmates New Life
February 21, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Anthony Montoya has spent the past 32 years — more than half his life — in prison for burglary and second-degree murder. Based on his crimes and long institutional existence, it’s no surprise that a Colorado parole board has denied Montoya 11 times, and a corrections board has shot down early release three times. Last August, as the morning sun streaked through the windows of an 11th-floor conference room, the Denver Community Corrections Board considered Montoya, who is 57, for supervised discharge into a new county work-release program. “Anthony Montoya,” the chair of the ... Read More
Announcing Our New Name
February 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Miller-McCune was launched in 2008 to showcase some of the most intriguing academic research being produced in the world today. Our belief then, and now, is that it’s important to publish stories that are research-driven and fact-based, written by journalists, innovative thinkers, and leading academics. In the run-up to our fifth year, we’ve considered carefully where we’ve been and where we’d like to go. And we’ve thought long and hard about the benefits, and pitfalls, of publishing this magazine in California when most American magazines (a few gems notwithstanding) are produced on ... Read More
Airport to Nowhere: Spain’s Costly No-Fly Zone
February 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Six hundred thousand dollars is a lot to spend for eight ferrets. Administrators at Spain’s Castellón Airport announced the establishment of the ferret contract late last year. The job had been awarded to an animal handler, to control birds and rabbits that might endanger aircraft. The contract will pay the ferret wrangler 450,000 euros, or a little over $600,000. The money buys the weasels, plus a team of falcons, that will work six hours a day. The contract was to start as soon as planes start landing at the airport, which its operators predicted, at the time, would happen this April. ... Read More
Will Nigeria’s ‘Airport City’ Dreams Take Flight?
February 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
In Nigeria, an Islamic sect called Boko Haram — a name that roughly translates into “Western education is a sin” — is waging war against Christians in the country’s Muslim north, resulting in the deaths of hundreds. The group has stated that it intends to target hotels and restaurants frequented by foreigners for its attacks. In the country’s south, Christian militants continue to fight against the government and foreign oil companies. And kidnappings of Western businesspeople are common. Yet Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and has many untapped reserves. Its ... Read More