Julia Sneden writes: Nowadays, when I have to learn something new, it seems to take forever, and when I take notes, I lose them almost as quickly as I have written them down … which drawer did I put that in? Which drawer in which desk/table/bureau? In which room? What color was the paper I wrote them down on (this is more likely to stick in my brain, and helps if there’s a pile of other bits of paper wherever it was that I put it ...)

Listen and view North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitcamp's questions and a witness stating the difficulty in finding teachers for the Indian community schools. Is catching up with middle-class children's vocabulary impossible or is early childhood intervention a reachable goal for the children of Indian country? In another hearing, VHA administrative data sources show a similar pattern of findings in that Military Sexual Trauma is significantly associated with risk for suicide for both women and men.

An Introduction to Marine Science and Conservation, a new MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) from Duke University taught by David W. Johnston, Asst. Prof, Marine Conservation & Ecology, will encourage students to use the papers in the Collection to gain a deeper understanding of marine life and how scientists study the ocean.   

The Government Accountability Office examined: (1) the trends in and status of marriage and labor force participation in American households, (2) how those trends have affected spousal benefits and retirement savings behavior within households today, and (3) the implications of these trends for future retirement security. From 1960 through 2011, the percentage of women aged 62 and older receiving Social Security benefits based purely on their spouse's (or deceased spouse's) work record declined from 56 to 25.

Adrienne G. Cannon writes: I can look at my monthly calendar and plan trips that accommodate only my schedule. I don’t have to worry about matching up my dates with any one else's. And there is no reason not to make travel plans one month after another. My friends will say, "You travel a lot!" And I can smile with pleasure and not feel guilty because somebody is waiting for me at home. Yet this scenario is poignant as I return to my empty apartment.

The 90-minute television presentation tells the epic, inside story of the collapse of the Benedict Papacy — and illuminates the extraordinary challenges facing Pope Francis as he tries to reform the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, root out corruption, and chart a new course for the troubled Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers.

According to Stanford Professor Joshua Landy, literature plays on our emotions instead of giving us rational reasons to adopt new beliefs, so we can easily be manipulated by it. Getting people to change their beliefs based on emotions is not an unambiguously positive thing: "When I do it, it's called persuasion. When you do it, it's called rhetoric. When they do it, it's called propaganda."  Does reading literature make you more moral? Scholars speaking at a Center for Ethics in Society event say the answer depends on who's reading. By Justin Tackett…

Jill Norgren reviews: Miss Anne in Harlem expands our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance. It is a story about female independence, race, and most of all unconventional lives — lives, Carla Kaplan writes, that are by definition the most difficult ones to live — and to judge. The book commands attention because it joins other memoir, biography, and political works that give us insight into the personalities and power.

As the US economy gains strength and states are in their best financial position in years, governors are proposing tactics to create jobs, especially in health care and high-tech. In crafting their proposals, many governors are trying to respond to a common complaint from employers: They are ready to hire, but can’t find workers with the right skills.

Museum visitors will learn how Sherlock Holmes, a scientific expert ahead of his time, used seemingly trivial observations of clues others missed to solve some of his era's most mysterious crimes. The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes features original manuscripts and period artifacts, investigative tools influenced and used by Sherlock Holmes, and interactive crime-solving opportunities.

"What are the major sources of conflict in a typical marriage? Communication. Wives often feel they’re emotionally alone in the relationship and husbands feel that their wives think they can’t do anything right. The other big point of disagreement is how to raise the children. There are crisis events, such as tension over finances or betrayals, but those are more scattered, more temporary."

Elaine Soloway writes: Today is my mother Min Shapiro’s birthday. If she were celebrating at an earthly venue, she'd be 102. "Any age?" I asked as we Face Time-ed on our iPads. (I have the 2. She has 3. They get them first up there.) "Why not some time in your 20's when you were a hot chick?"

From a new Pew report - Tech as a source of tension: 25% of cell phone owners in a marriage or partnership have felt their spouse or partner was distracted by their cell phone when they were together. 8% of internet users in a committed relationship have had an argument with their spouse or partner about the amount of time one of them was spending online. 4% of internet users in a committed relationship have gotten upset at something that they found out their spouse or partner was doing online.

It isn’t snowing everywhere. In one town over it is only raining. It seems weird that weather systems have edges. These are known as weather fronts. It is the boundary between two air masses. One side can be dry and cold while the other moist and warm. Perhaps if we see boundaries as places to connect rather than divide, we will be able to appreciate that edge – even if it means more snow. And aren’t snowflakes beautiful?

From Mumbai to Menlo Park, Facebook is swamped with complaints about "inappropriate" posts, each of which must be manually reviewed by an employee. Yet rather than take down the offending content, the social network has tapped the emotional intelligence of UC Berkeley psychologists, among other top minds, to resolve disputes over posts that don’t clearly violate the company's community standards.

"How are law enforcement personnel and partners in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry being trained to identify potential trafficking situations – not just child sex trafficking, but that of adults as well? These are questions governments should be grappling with every day, and especially when a major gathering is on the horizon. And these are some of the specifics we’re watching for as we approach additional major sporting events."

Julia Sneden writes: We love to watch falling snow, or, on a clear night, the moonlight and shadows in our whitened yard. Bright winter sun in the morning reveals that the birdfeeder wears a toboggan cap of snow, which doesn’t bother the voracious finches and cardinals and chickadees perched on nearby branches, taking turns driving one another away from the feeding ports. But winter comes with a fine balance of plusses and minuses. I have a friend who has recently begun treatment for a condition called "Seasonal Affective Disorder," sometimes referred to as SAD.

Janet Yellen took office as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 3, 2014. She and her Nobel Prize-winning husband, wrote a paper on the fair wage-effort hypothesis, in that workers proportionately withdraw effort as their actual wage falls short of their fair wage. Such behavior causes unemployment and is also consistent with observed cross-section wage differentials and unemployment patterns.

"These men — and women — worked to protect Europe's cultural heritage at the height of World War II, ensuring its safety in the aftermath and returning works, when possible, to their rightful owners once peace and security were restored." Edith Standen dug up an antique bronze cannon with her own bare hands. ""It had been taken from the Musée de l'Armée. It went back to the Musée de l'Armée." David Finley in his office at the National Gallery of Art. Finley was director of the Gallery from 1938-1956, and vice chairman of the Roberts Commission. National Gallery of Art,…

The accumulation of age-associated changes in a biochemical process that helps control genes may be responsible for some of the increased risk of cancer seen in older people, according to a National Institutes of Health study. "On your 50th birthday, you would have 50 of these sites that have acquired methyl groups in each cell," Xu said. "The longer you live, the more methylation you will have."

Henri Matisse was 60 years old when he began to create original illustrations for livres d’artiste (artists' books). By the time of his death, 25 years later, he had produced designs for 14 fully illustrated books, several of which are considered 20th-century masterpieces of the genre.

As the Tuebingen researchers in a new study note, it is impossible to tell if the mind’s information processing capacities do in fact decline with age if you don’t measure the information the mind processes, or how it changes over time. In every one of the cognitive tests in which the team measured this information, no evidence of any change in our minds’ processing capacities was found. The researchers simply found that the tests required older adults to make more effort as they sorted through the larger stores of knowledge they had acquired from experience.

Susan Milligan writes: Female workers don't need to be told what numerous studies have concluded: Women, on average, are paid less than men, even when they are doing the same job. But where workers live also makes a difference. Female workers in Wyoming earn just 65.5 percent of what men earn, worst of any state. In the nation’s capital, women fared best and are nearly at parity, making 94.8 cents on the male-earned dollar.