society / Top Stories
Obama says insurers holding nation hostageThe US president, on a trip to western states to damp down opposition to healthcare reform, is targeting insurers for dropping customers who become ill or forcing patients to cover huge costs
FT Saturday, August 15, 2009Making sense of your retirement balance sheetLast week's column laid out a framework for creating a retirement balance sheet. It focuses on today's retirement assets, long-term debt and qualitative measures on items such as personal savings rate...
Canadastandard.com Saturday, August 15, 2009D.C. Student Test Scores Show Gains and LossesForty D.C. elementary schools logged double-digit gains in pass rates on the citywide spring math exams. But 19 had double-digit losses.
Washington Post Saturday, August 15, 2009Retailers See Slowing Sales in Back-to-School SeasonHalfway through the back-to-
school shopping season, predictions of the worst performance for stores in more than a decade are yet another sign that consumers are clinging to every dollar.
New York Times Saturday, August 15, 2009Hugh Grant 'seriously' considering retirementWashington, Aug 15 : Hugh Grant has revealed that he is seriously thinking of giving up acting - because he freezes up on camera.
Chicago Chronicle Saturday, August 15, 2009Less social activity 'speeds up motor function decline in elderly'Washington, Aug 15 : Older adults who spend less time socializing experience more rapid decline in motor function, a new study has found.
Canadastandard.com Saturday, August 15, 2009Oscar's 'Slumdog' Problem: Too Many NomineesNot because it didn't deserve to win, but because it was yet another art-house movie to walk away with the grand prize. The Academy decided this year to increase the number of best-film nominees from five to 10 because the smaller pool had been dominated by small films. And without any megahits in the mix (, ), the ratings for the Oscar telecast have continued to slide. Last February, they were down to a mere 36 million viewers-how humiliating! The theory is that opening the door wider will allow films such as to make the cut, and millions of fans will tune in to root for their fave. But this creates two possible problems. With more nominees, a film will need fewer votes to win. So a movie with a passionate following can tip the balance, even if, say, isn't anywhere close to being the best movie of the year. The second problem: could get an Oscar nomination.
Newsweek Saturday, August 15, 2009Universities Sell Rights to Out-of-Print BooksThe number of books in print in 2008 rose 38 percent from the year before (which itself was up 38 percent from 2006).
Newsweek Saturday, August 15, 2009U.S. Views on God and Life Are Turning HinduAmerica is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in
american history). Of course, we are not a Hindu-or Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan-nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.
Newsweek Saturday, August 15, 2009Evoking the romance of space travel, 1940s style(Credit: Raygun Gothic Rocketship) OAKLAND, Calif.--Want a trip back to the romanticism and innocence with which space travel was associated in the 1940s? Then get yourself to Burning Man, starting A...
Chicago Chronicle Saturday, August 15, 2009 1 2
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