Every year, we look back at our research to select the most memorable facts that illustrate important trends shaping our world. At Pew Research Center, the topics we analyze range from the specific subjects of video gaming and family caregivers to broader areas like political attitudes, global climate change and religious affiliation. It’s a hard task to select just 15, but here are some of o [...]

Syria has endured another year of devastating civil war and strife. However, thousands of civilians in Damascus have been trying to live as normal a life as possible, celebrating Christmas and giving them some respite from the chaos. [...]

Legal prostitution can lead to unusual laws. Driving instructors in the Netherlands may now legally accept sex as payment for their lessons. “Ride for Ride,” is the name of a newly introduced Dutch law allowing any student over 18 years old learning to drive a car, motorcycle, truck, or bus to offer his or her body in exchange for the accredited lessons, Metro reported Saturday. [...]

Ami on the Street: Do we really need the 1st Amendment? Ami visits the Yale University campus with a petition to repeal the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Surely they will laugh him off of campus...right? US political satirist and filmmaker Ami Horowitz approached the students at one of the most prestigious universities in the world asking its attendees to sign a petition in favor of [...]

Some years ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a multicultural society is an illusion, but she is doing everything to bring about this multicultural society, which is why I can’t believe her, says Hansjorg Mueller of the Alternative for Germany party. [...]

From our bed to yours — follow these sleep tricks, and you’ll be nodding off in no time: Chug all of the lattes you want — but make sure you gulp your last venti before 2pm. It takes your body up to 10 hours to get rid of 75% of the caffeine in your system. If you get your Starbucks fix any later, and it could keep you up at night. [...]

Patrick Schmidt was unemployed and living in California when he bought an old school bus for $4,500 in March. He drove it to Vegas where he and his father renovated it into a home on wheels. They spent $9,000 to turn the bus into a house, before Patrick took it for a spin all the way to Florida, traveling through 30 states. [...]

After photographing the new, enormous and undoubtedly sinister building of the US embassy in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, I was driven by a local left-wing politician towards the mountains. We agreed to have lunch; simple, good local food. In front of the restaurant, which my friend selected, was parked an indescribable monster: a white double-decker ‘extremely stretched’ limousine wi [...]

Millennials are disillusioned about the American dream, don't trust the government and don't think much of the current presidential candidates. They also want more boots on the ground to fight Islamic State… but they want other Americans to serve. Americans ages 18 to 29 ‒ nicknamed the millennial generation ‒ account for 23 percent of the US population, or 73 million people. As such, t [...]

A good night’s sleep has traditionally been touted as beneficial – but you may want to set your alarm an hour early tomorrow. A new study says that longer sleeping times combined with sitting for too long are actually linked to higher mortality rates. [...]

A not inconsiderable flaw of modern Western civilization is that it has never fully absorbed Article IV of France’s 1789 Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen, that we all have the same natural rights, and that our rights end where others’ begin. Too often we neither acknowledge nor observe these rights, even though they are a cornerstone of democratic life, insofar as they are “inali [...]

In the muddled midst of last week’s mass killing in San Bernardino, California, a few words skittering across my Twitter feed gave me pause. “On this awful shooting: Is U.S. culture evil? Enemy of our civilization? Must all Americans apologize? Should we bar U.S. tourists as dangerous?” asked Simon Kuper, a columnist with the Financial Times. [...]

The Mexican Supreme Court has ruled by a 4 to 1 vote that banning the consumption and cultivation of the cannabis plant violates fundamental human rights. The world is slowly but surely turning the page on one of the most fundamental rights we have on this Earth — the right to consume, cultivate and possess a plant. [...]

What is the connection between the US Empire’s contempt for law and truth-telling and neo-liberalism? And how is it that citizens can be so passive in the face of evident government prevaricatio… Deciphering the meaning of Neo-liberalism as a historical force and societal form requires the energies and know-how of a sagacious sleuth like Hercule Poirot. Wendy Brown, a philosophy professor a [...]

Days before this talk, journalist Naomi Klein was on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, looking at the catastrophic results of BP's risky pursuit of oil. Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new financial instruments and more ... and too often, we're left to clean up a mess afterward. Klein's question: What's the backup plan? In her latest work, Naomi Kle [...]

Switzerland says it will risk the legal collapse of its trade, security and free travel agreements with the EU, if Brussels cannot stop uncontrolled migration into the country. The government is preparing a law that will impose quotas for incomers, starting from 2017. "If there is really no solution, we would be ready for a suspension of a part or all of the bilateral agreements," said Foreign [...]

The world's first anti-aging drug, Metformin, could be ready as soon as 2016. A recent revolutionary breakthrough in medicine could raise the life expectancy of humans to 120; next year an anti-aging pill will undergo human trials. Late onset Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, both progressive neurodegenerative diseases which affect the elderly — would reportedly become a thing of the past, if scie [...]

Under the radar of corporate media and general public, a "dangerous proposal" is bubbling up in state legislatures throughout the country—one that could trigger "political chaos that would make past upheavals like the Watergate scandal and the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton seem tame by comparison." "We're sounding an alarm. This is a national train wreck that must be stopped."—Mi [...]

By this point, photos of tiny houses are everywhere. I’d be surprised if you haven’t seen at least one pint-size abode that made you pause to imagine how simple your life might be if you lived in such an efficient little space. I’ve done more than my fair share of imagining, having watched Kirsten Dirksen’s We the Tiny House People documentary and leafed through Lloyd Kahn’s alternati [...]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would win the 2016 U.S. presidential election against all top Republican candidates, with scores that make him more electable in the general than even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his main rival for the Democratic nomination, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. [...]

About 14,000 illegal migrants, who were awaiting deportation, simply disappeared off the radar, Swedish police told local media, adding they “don’t know where these asylum seekers are.” At the end of October, Swedish police asked to enforce deportation of at least 21,748 people. Of these, 14 140 people registered by police as 'wanted' have vanished, police told Swedish Aftonbladet tablo [...]

It’s been said, sometimes you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s taken away. So today, especially in light of the mayhem and confusion borne of continuous mass lies and deception from mainstream media, I am thankfully awake. Anyone who is awakened to the worldwide horrors the US, ISIS and their allies are imposing on the rest of humanity knows that the thing that makes these horror [...]