Author: Lance Garrison
Dr. Deborah Heaney was enjoying a vacation in the Caribbean when she was struck with a sudden, debilitating illness. It took her days, a flight home and some luck before she was finally diagnosed with dengue fever.As temperatures rise globally, mosquito-borne tropical illnesses are spreading, and our medical systems are failing to keep up. In this audio essay, Dr. Heaney argues that the medical community must do a better job of incorporating education on diseases like dengue into their practice.(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)Thoughts? Email…
Lukianoff: I would say the biggest debate over Jan. 6 was whether or not it constituted Brandenburg incitement. That may sound kind of unsexy, but it matters because Brandenburg was kind of the resolution of cases that came out of World War I that originally fell upon the idea that speech can be stopped only if it’s a clear and present danger. Brandenburg got you to a stage where it has to be imminent lawless action that is also likely to happen, that you help happen — essentially standing in front of the mayor’s office saying, “Let’s go burn down…
For more than a week, I’ve been walking around my yard at night with a UV flashlight, looking for the white glow of cicada nymphs emerging from their exoskeletons. I walk around again in the morning looking for their spent shells clinging to a tree or a stalk of pokeweed. I look for the gentle creatures themselves, their new wings shining in the sunlight. And all the time I am thinking about the turning of the earth, the passing of the years. To think about periodic cicadas is necessarily to contemplate time.These insects live underground as nymphs for 13 years…
Every Monday morning on The Point, we kick off the week with a tipsheet on the latest in the presidential campaign. Here’s what we’re looking at this week:This week, in Manhattan, Donald Trump’s trial will continue. He will also be campaigning, a little unusually, in New Jersey on Saturday, near Cape May.Cease-fire talks regarding Israel and Gaza are continuing, and that remains front and center for national politics, particularly for President Biden. Also, as she is doing quite often, Vice President Kamala Harris will be doing a campaign event on Wednesday focused on abortion in Pennsylvania.Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has…
Gail Collins: Bret, much serious stuff to talk about today, but I want to get my canine issues out of the way first. Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota is publishing a new memoir she presumably hoped would help her chances of being named as Donald Trump’s running mate.Bret Stephens: An instant literary classic, albeit of the inadvertent variety.Gail: In it she brags about having killed her dog, Cricket, for a string of bad behavior. Will it hurt her prospects? After all, Trump is not what you’d consider an animal lover.Bret: When I first heard about this, I thought there…
The amygdala is a pair of neural clusters near the base of the brain that assesses danger and can help prompt a fight-or-flight response. A prolonged stress response may contribute to anxiety, which can cause people to perceive danger where there is none and obsess about worst-case scenarios.America’s collective national body is suffering from a chronic case of China anxiety. Nearly anything with the word “Chinese” in front of it now triggers a fear response in our political system, muddling our ability to properly gauge and contextualize threats. This has led the U.S. government and American politicians to pursue policies…
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was first performed exactly 200 years ago Tuesday and has since become probably the work most likely to be embraced for political purposes.It was played at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin; it was performed in that city again on Christmas 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Leonard Bernstein replaced the word “Joy” in the choral finale with “Freedom”; the European Union adopted the symphony’s “Ode to Joy” theme as its anthem. (These days the Ninth is being played in concert halls worldwide in commemoration of the premiere. The classical music world…
To the Editor:Re “Electric Cars Are Boring,” by Ezra Dyer (Opinion guest essay, April 13):If E.V.s are boring, I guess I am OK with being bored. As an E.V. owner, I no longer have to stop at the gas station to fill up in all kinds of (Chicago) weather. No more oil changes, no more antifreeze concerns, no muffler or fuel pump problems. Boring is good.No key or fob to carry, and I can preheat or precool my E.V. in various types of inclement weather.Now for full disclosure. I bought my first E.V. 10 years ago when I was 73.…
This time of year, college campuses like the one where I live fill up with high school seniors preparing to make what feels like a momentous choice. The first imperative is to find a school that they can afford, but beyond that, many students have been advised to find one where they can see themselves. Too often, they take this to mean finding a place with students like them, even students who look like them — a place where they will feel comfortable. I can’t tell you how many families have described driving many hours to a campus somewhere and…
While it’s become fashionable to dump on the aging social media platform Facebook, I quite enjoy using it. Many of my high school and college friends use it to celebrate birthdays and share news of their children and their travels. Eight years ago, I reconnected with a college housemate on the platform, and last year we got married. Thanks, Facebook.But like many people, I wish I had more control over how Facebook delivers my friends’ updates to me. Facebook’s inscrutable feed algorithm, which is supposed to calculate which content is most likely to appeal to me and then send it…