Resilience News

A few days ago, I found a note from my upstairs neighbors. Having never talked to them before, I took one look at the hastily scribbled writing and immediately assumed something was very, very wrong. “Oh no,” I thought. “They’ve got COVID-19.” And they’re so sick, I told myself, that all they could do was scribble a last-ditch warning and throw it down the stairs.

You have to feel sorry for kids today. Who do they look up to – who are their heroes? In my youth, we had plenty of heroes. We had parents who’d either fought in the war, or who’d worked at home to supply the guys winning the war. We had a President – Ike – who’d led the Allies’ to victory against the Nazis. We had the Splendid Splinter – the last to hit .400 in a season – who also flew combat missions in Korea. We had Bobby Clemente who tragically died delivering supplies to the victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua. We had great lawyers like Joseph Welch, who dared to call out the mighty Tailgunner Joe McCarthy for his lack of decency. We had legendary journalists like Edward R. Murrow, and Huntley and Brinkley, who gave us the news without inserting their own political views.

In Amazon’s new grocery store, there are no registers, and you can walk out as soon as you’ve grabbed what you need. The catch? All the information about your purchase lives in sensors, computers, and the cameras hanging from the ceiling.

Online connectivity touches each facet of modern life. As such, the rise of the fifth domain has transformed the manner in which societies approach education, financial services, exchange of material goods, in addition to basic social interactions. In spite of these positive developments, innovators and policymakers alike fail to acknowledge the threats people are exposed to while roaming the internet. For this reason, pinpointing simple solutions for practicing good cyber hygiene -- the steps taken by users to maintain system health and security -- is a worthy topic for discussion.

Liberian citizens are experiencing firsthand the devastating consequences of cascading failures resulting from mismanaged interconnected man-made systems. On February 13th, 2020, the United States Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs issued a security alert, warning travelers of possible congestion and delays due to a scarcity of commercially-available gasoline in Liberia.

It looks more and more likely that the novel form of coronavirus will do meaningful economic damage to the United States. Stock and bond prices already suggest that the outbreak could halt the longest expansion on record and even send the nation into recession.

Since the era of Barack Obama’s presidency, social media platforms have served as a testing ground for politicians to market themselves, reach out to voters, and generate online buzz. And it seems, the more they’re willing to spend, the more experimental they can afford to be.

Jet fuel-guzzling Delta Air Lines and fossil fuel-pumping BP are vowing to go carbon neutral. Microsoft and Ikea, behemoths of tech and furniture, have pledged to go further and actively reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The financial giant Blackrock promises to put climate at the heart of its decisions.

President Donald Trump recently issued a number of federal pardons, including to former Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich, raising questions about clemency power and how it can be used on the federal and state levels. WGBH News' Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with Northeastern University law professor and WGBH News legal analyst Daniel Medwed about how clemency works in Massachusetts specifically. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.

The most striking thing about Jeff Bezos' new climate philanthropy is the size. A close second is the information void…

The management lecturer at the University of Sheffield studies ways that large organizations can operate more sustainably. And he decided early in his career that he needed to embody what his research recommends.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court holds oral arguments in appellate cases from September to May and issues opinions in those cases throughout the year. WGBH Morning Edition fill-in host Aaron Schacter spoke with Northeastern University law professor and WGBH News legal analyst Daniel Medwed about one of the cases that stood out. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.