no imageAn e-mail exchange to remember
Over the year, we receive many emails and comments from readers, some complimentary, some not-so-complimentary, some downright nasty. As... (Read more)
12 / 30 / 2021
Opinion archive
Letters to the Editor, Opinion columns, Editorials
Showing 12/30/2021 to 8/24/2021
no imageno imageHow effective are vaccines against omicron? An epidemiologist answers 6 questions
The pandemic has brought many tricky terms and ideas from epidemiology into everyone’s lives. Two particularly complicated concepts are... (Read more)
12 / 28 / 2021
no image‘Twas the night before Christmas’ helped make the modern Santa – and led to a literary whodunit
The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” better known by its opening line “‘Twas the Night before Christmas,” has... (Read more)
12 / 25 / 2021
no imageWhy spending $2 trillion on child care, health care and fighting climate change won’t make inflation any worse than it already is
One of the main concerns raised by critics of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan is that it... (Read more)
12 / 22 / 2021
no imageManchin killed Build Back Better over inflation concerns – an economist explains why the $2 trillion bill would be unlikely to drive up prices
One of Sen. Joe Manchin’s main concerns in deciding to pull his support for President Joe Biden’s Build Back... (Read more)
12 / 21 / 2021
no imageHow Christmas became an American holiday tradition, with a Santa Claus, gifts and a tree
Each season, the celebration of Christmas has religious leaders and conservatives publicly complaining about the commercialization of the holiday... (Read more)
12 / 19 / 2021
no imageWhy is inflation so high? Is it bad? An economist answers 3 questions about soaring consumer prices
Consumer prices jumped 6.8% in November 2021 from a year earlier – the fastest rate of increase since 1982,... (Read more)
12 / 12 / 2021
no image#Giving NEWS Day – Are you with us?
Unless you live totally off the grid, you’ve probably received at least one or two appeals for #GivingTuesday (what... (Read more)
11 / 30 / 2021
no imageThe first Thanksgiving is a key chapter in America’s origin story – but what happened in Virginia four months later mattered much more
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving in New England. Remembered and retold as an allegory... (Read more)
11 / 25 / 2021
The metamorphosis of Connecticut’s transportation network is underway
Don’t look now, but we’re making history. The changing forces now at work in our society, including our transportation... (Read more)
11 / 23 / 2021
no imageNational Native American Heritage Month
The Norwalk Board of Education is proud to recognize November as National Native American Heritage Month. National Native American... (Read more)
11 / 21 / 2021
A veteran’s odyssey after hanging up the uniform in an America he doesn’t recognize
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending... (Read more)
11 / 11 / 2021
no image$1.2T infrastructure plan offers lucrative target for fraud
Lawmakers passed the US$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on Nov. 5, 2021, with negotiations still ongoing over Democrats’ $1.75... (Read more)
11 / 11 / 2021
no imageWhat Big Oil knew about climate change, in its own words
Four years ago, I traveled around America, visiting historical archives. I was looking for documents that might reveal the... (Read more)
11 / 7 / 2021
no imageWhy taxing US billionaires’ wealth – as Biden tried to do – will never work
The speed with which a tax on billionaires came and went as a means to pay for President Joe... (Read more)
11 / 5 / 2021
no imageWe aren’t in this for the money
Dear Readers, Today we launch our annual year-end fundraiser, with help from NewsMatch. This year, NewsMatch will only match... (Read more)
10 / 31 / 2021
no imageThe biggest nonprofit media outlets are thriving but smaller ones may not survive
Richard Tofel, ProPublica’s president and founding general manager, likes to say the U.S. nonprofit news site was “born on... (Read more)
10 / 17 / 2021
ADHD is a serious disorder, but there’s hope
ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is more than the child who cannot sit still in his seat or remember... (Read more)
10 / 6 / 2021
no imageA giant space rock demolished an ancient Middle Eastern city and everyone in it – possibly inspiring the Biblical story of Sodom
As the inhabitants of an ancient Middle Eastern city now called Tall el-Hammam went about their daily business one... (Read more)
9 / 25 / 2021
no imageColumbus Magnet School student Skye Martin named a National Invention Convention winner
The Norwalk Board of Education is proud to recognize Columbus Magnet School Student Skye Martin for having placed first... (Read more)
9 / 18 / 2021
no imageA volcanic eruption 39 million years ago buried a forest in Peru – now the petrified trees are revealing South America’s primeval history
In the hills outside the small village of Sexi, Peru, a fossil forest holds secrets about South America’s past... (Read more)
9 / 5 / 2021
no imageDanish children struggle to learn their vowel-filled language – and this changes how adult Danes interact
Denmark is a rich country with an extensive welfare system and strong education. Yet surprisingly, Danish children have trouble... (Read more)
9 / 3 / 2021
no imageMelting Mongolian ice reveals fragile artifacts that provide clues about how past people lived
In the world’s high mountain regions, life needs ice. From the Rockies to the Himalayas, glaciers and other accumulations... (Read more)
9 / 2 / 2021
Dinosaurs were already in decline before the asteroid wiped them out – new research
Some 66 million years ago, on the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico, a 12 kilometre-wide asteroid crashes to Earth. The impact... (Read more)
9 / 1 / 2021
Global evidence links rise in extreme precipitation to human-driven climate change
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Human activities, such as burning... (Read more)
8 / 31 / 2021
no imageThe ocean is full of tiny plastic particles – we found a way to track them with satellites
Plastic is the most common type of debris floating in the world’s oceans. Waves and sunlight break much of... (Read more)
8 / 30 / 2021
no imageFar more adults don’t want children than previously thought
Fertility rates in the United States have plunged to record lows, and this could be related to the... (Read more)
8 / 28 / 2021
no imageWhat is ISIS-K? Two terrorism experts on the group behind the deadly Kabul airport attack and its rivalry with the Taliban
An attack on a crowd gathered outside Kabul’s airport Thursday has left at least 60 people dead, including at... (Read more)
8 / 27 / 2021
no imageWhile debate rages over glyphosate-based herbicides, farmers are spraying them all over the world
As North America enters its peak summer growing season, gardeners are planting and weeding, and groundskeepers are mowing parks... (Read more)
8 / 26 / 2021
no imageWhat is Pegasus? A cybersecurity expert explains how the spyware invades phones and what it does when it gets in
End-to-end encryption is technology that scrambles messages on your phone and unscrambles them only on the recipients’ phones, which... (Read more)
8 / 24 / 2021