California is implementing a plan to release about 6,500 inmates over the next year, under a state law that starts today. In an effort to reduce prison overcrowding and save money on the state budget, the plan calls for inmates deemed low-risk offenders to earn early release credits by completing rehabilitation and education programs. The state also will stop monitoring low-level offenders after release, meaning they are less likely to return to prison for minor parole violations. Opponents of the plan argue that it threatens public safety. How much money will this plan save the state? And is the approach sensible?
While immortality may always be out of reach, how far will anti-aging treatments go? In a multi-billion dollar industry, pharmaceutical giant Glaxo has paid $750 million for a single experimental anti-aging compound. But how does one separate dubious products from legitimate scientific research? In his book, “Eternity Soup: Inside the Quest to End Aging,” author and health commentator Greg Critser explores modern medical entrepreneurship and the desire to live forever. How much older can we—should we—get?
It's been nearly two weeks since a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. Aid supplies are rolling in and the United States military has been there since the day after the quake, but are things getting any better? Are supplies reaching the people who need them most? As celebrity charities air on American television, what's happening on the ground in Haiti and what needs to happen next?
It's widely accepted by psychotherapists that sexual abuse is a traumatic experience for children, causing emotional repercussions that last well into adulthood. But in her controversial new book, The Trauma Myth, memory and trauma expert Susan Clancy posits that children, with their limited understanding of sexual matters, aren't traumatized by these experiences. Clancy interviewed over 200 child abuse victims and was surprised to learn that in the majority of cases, subjects recalled feeling merely "confusion" – not shock, terror or pain. Reprocessing such events later in life, Clancy says, leads to an adult interpretation more damaging than the actual experience.
