Up For Discussion

Please, No, Not a Water-Related Fact!

Californians Know Next To Nothing About the Gazillions of Gallons Of H2O They Consume. What Single, Unfamiliar Fact Should They Learn?

Where does your water come from? Ask many Californians that question, and the most common answers will be the tap or the bottle. Surveys show we know very little about our major sources of water­­­—the Colorado River, the Hetch Hetchy Valley, and especially, the threatened Bay Delta. In advance of a Zócalo/Occidental College event in San Francisco, “How Can San Francisco’s Bay Delta Be Saved?” we asked experts: What is one thing every Californian should know about water (but probably doesn’t)?

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Assessing Uncle Rupert’s Schlocky Empire

Rupert Murdoch Did a Lot to Change Journalism. What Was His Biggest Impact?

Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire is vast, stretching across five continents to include film studios, newspapers, magazines, TV stations, and networks. For years, questions have swirled around the tycoon: How …

Go Ahead: Rename an L.A. Street

So Many Of Our Thoroughfares Are Ripe For New Names. What Would You Choose?

Is there any place in the world that talks about and obsesses over its streets as much as L.A.? The names of our roads have been immortalized in film titles …

Nine Years Old and Stumped By Words on Paper

We’ve Experimented a Lot To Get Children To Read By Third Grade. Why Don’t We Have More to Show For It?

This year, Arizona joins 13 other states by implementing a law to hold back third-grade students who haven’t yet learned to read. Supporters of the law feel it prevents children …

Sum Up Iran In Two Words

We’re Beyond the Era Of “Great Satan,” “Axis of Evil,” and Other Nasty Nicknames. So What’s a Good Two-Word Description Of Persia Today?

Back when relations between the United States and Iran were really bad, not just kind of bad, the Ayatollah Khomeini called the United States the “Great Satan” and a “wounded snake.” Today, …

Pick a Saint, Any Saint

We All Want Someone Upstairs Looking After Us. Which Patron Saint Would You Choose?

It’s the week of Halloween, that legacy of All Hallows’ Eve, and sainthood is thus in the air. Many of us have role models. Some of us also have (we …


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