Word: phenomena
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Holmes and Grandin share the habit of putting everyday phenomena under the kind of scientific scrutiny usually reserved for giant squid and black holes, which causes them to notice things that regular civilians wouldn't pick up on in a lifetime. For example, Holmes points out that even though humans are covered in hair follicles--we have more of them than chimpanzees do--most of our fur grows in an "extravagant topknot" on our heads. In the context of the wider animal kingdom, this is a bizarre, even perverse evolutionary innovation. We also have more sweat glands than any other...
...infectiousness of happiness is only the latest in a series of similar phenomena Christakis and Fowler have studied. In 2007 they published a paper showing that obesity travels across webs in a similar way, with individuals having a 57% greater risk of being overweight if they have an obese friend. The same holds true for quitting smoking, with success 30% more common among friends of quitters than among friends of smokers...
...economic slowdown that threaten its slim one-seat majority in Parliament. "For the past five years, Greek citizens have realized that they live in an insecure environment, both socially and financially," said center-left opposition leader George Papandreou. "We must address responsibly the deeper causes of these phenomena." (See pictures of the recent riots in Belgrade...
...course, some have pointed out that contemporary governments shouldn’t meddle in history, that the confirmation and evaluation of historical phenomena should be left to historians. However, Congress has a strong precedent of politically recognizing historic events. In recent years, it has passed resolutions commemorating the anniversaries of the Holocaust, the founding of the Republican Party, and even Napa Valley’s victory in a 1976 Paris wine-tasting competition. No one objected to these commemorations...
...urban cores would benefit from incisive new methodological approaches, and the Obama administration should be commended for taking these problems seriously. It is unclear, however, whether this is possible if we continue to index cities’ troubles as strictly “urban” phenomena. Instead of an Office of Urban Policy, what the federal government needs is an Office of Regional Policy, recognizing that a holistic approach to environmental, demographic, and development planning lies at the center of solving the reciprocal blights that afflict urban and non-urban places alike...