Unless something happens to boost Japan’s birth rate, its population will shrink by a third between now and 2060. One reason for the lack of babies is the emergence of a new breed of Japanese men, the otaku, who love manga, anime and computers – and sometimes show little interest in sex.
Month: March 2015
Inside the Power of the N.R.A.
It has been a year since the Newtown shootings. Federal gun laws haven???t changed. Here is why.
The people who challenged my atheism most were drug addicts and prostitutes
I’ve been reminded that life is not as rational as Richard Dawkins sees it. Perhaps atheism is an intellectual luxury for the wealthy
The Death of a Family, and an American Dream
His younger daughter was the last to go into the ground. Before her had gone her sister, her younger brother and the baby, William. Too small for his own coffin, he lay nestled beside their mother.
After American soil had covered his family???s coffins, Yilin Zhuo had nothing left to stay for. In early December, he abandoned his adopted home, Brooklyn, for the Chinese village he had come from two decades ago.
Debunking the ‘Virgin Birth’ Myth
A new study from North Carolina claimed to turn up 45 recent ‘virgin births’ in the U.S. Maybe the Virgin Mary wasn’t the only one?
The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder
Diagnoses have soared as makers of the drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have found success with a two-decade marketing campaign.
10 Novels to a Better You
Who really knows if reading will make you a better person? More to the point, why should it matter?
To Keep Teenagers Alert, Schools Let Them Sleep In
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Jilly Dos Santos really did try to get to school on time. She set three successive alarms on her phone. Skipped breakfast. Hastily applied makeup while her fuming father drove. But last year she rarely made it into the frantic scrum at the doors of Rock Bridge High School here by the first bell, at 7:50 a.m.
Then she heard that the school board was about to make the day start even earlier, at 7:20 a.m.
“I thought, if that happens, I will die,” recalled Jilly, 17. “I will drop out of school!”
That was when the sleep-deprived teenager turned into a sleep activist. She was determined to convince the board of a truth she knew in the core of her tired, lanky body: Teenagers are developmentally driven to be late to bed, late to rise. Could the board realign the first bell with that biological reality?
Factory meat, cruel and bad for us
ADHD: Diagnosis may be a distraction from the truth
Could ADHD be a myth? One expert believes so