The following op-ed was published in Alexandria’s Gazette Packet on May 2, 2013. Did you know:Alexandria’s currently has around 146,000 residents, 30% of whom speak a language other than English at home.Alexandria’s extraordinary arts community contributed $71 million in city economic activity, and 1,774 full-time equivalent jobs in 2010. One of Alexandria’s most recent community health assessments ranked obesity, tobacco use, ...
Why learn about the environment? The more obvious reason is that we, as human beings, depend on the environment for our survival. Endangering our environment ...
Why learn about terrorism? Clearly terrorism captures the public imagination, especially when terrorist acts occur. Some people believe that terrorism is inexplicable, and that to ...
Why does women’s history matter? Women comprise about half of the world’s population yet have been and remain to varying extents underrepresented in history and ...
Why does nutrition matter? Nutrition is the study of the relation between food and health. Given that food is essential to health, and food companies ...
This quiz addresses rates of birth, death, infant mortality, life expectancy and growth by continent. These population rates matter because they directly affect the health ...
Why do overweight and obesity rates matter? On an individual level, being overweight or obese puts a person at higher risk of a range of ...
Why do government acronyms matter? Acronyms are abbreviations of names, frequently the first letter of each word in a name (e.g., FBI is the acronym ...
The Learning Life hopefully teaches one not only how the world works, but also how to be a better person. That’s why professors teach ethics, right? Professional ...
Why learn about crime? Many people are fascinated by the worst of crimes and criminals. But learning about the full range of crimes, including their ...
Why learn about earthquakes and earthquake safety? Earthquakes are caused when accumulated stress causes sudden slips along fault lines in the earth’s crust. Even though ...
Why learn about animals? For those who love animals, the answer is easy: because animals are fascinating and in many cases adorable. But for those ...
Why does shopping science matter? Studying why and how people shop scientifically matters because businesses use that information to influence consumers to buy, and buy ...
Why learn about education, employment and income? Knowing more basic facts about education, employment and income, and the relations between these three is not only ...
Why do mortality statistics matter? National mortality statistics – that is, facts about who dies when and how in a given country – matter in ...
Why know about water? Besides the obvious – human beings and life generally requires water – it’s worth knowing more about water because it’s a ...
Why should anyone care about the living conditions of U.S. kids? Children are any nation’s future, and the conditions in which they live influence to ...
Why does energy matter? Energy matters because everything we have and do requires energy, from eating food and the foods we eat, to working and ...
Why does blood matter to disease? One of the ways that disease is spread is when the blood of a diseased person is unknowingly transfused ...
Why does American government matter? American government – at the federal, state, county, city/town and school levels — matters because it affects most aspects of ...
Why does the U.S. Constitution matter? The U.S. Constitution matters because it is the founding document of American government. It is also the oldest living ...
Why does the U.S. Supreme Court matter? The U.S. Supreme Court matters because it is the highest court in the United States, and it is ...
Why does food psychology matter? Food psychology matters because it studies what, when, how and why we as human beings eat. Better understanding the answers ...
Why does knowing about the racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. population matter? It matters because race and ethnicity influence American business, politics, culture ...
This quiz addresses population size. Population size matters because it helps determine people’s collective impact on the environment, as well as how much people pay ...