Life News (Popular Culture)

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The 2014 Winter Olympics are underway and athletes from around the world are getting ready to take to the ice in speed skating, figure skating, ice dancing and hockey. Today’s skaters have the advantage of being able to practice year-round in indoor rinks, but what did 19th-century athletes do to stay competitive? They used the Volito.

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In response to CVS deciding not to sell tobacco products, Pennsylvania physicians ask CVS to keep electronic cigarettes off shelves too.

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It was a time when slaves scrabbled for whatever food they could find, grow or collect from their white owners, a time when spirituals held coded messages for fugitives, a time of dangerous escapes to the North for freedom via the Underground Railroad. A Baylor University seminary has written a cookbook/history book sharing the legacy of her ancestors.

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Mount Holyoke alumna Esther Howland (1847) created the first American Valentine's Day card, launching what is today a multi-billion-dollar industry.

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first performance by the Beatles in the United States. Musician and Beatles scholar John Kimsey teaches “The Beatles and the Creative Process” and is an associate professor in DePaul University’s School for New Learning. He’s an expert in popular music.

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They say sex sells, but when it comes to Super Bowl ads, a researcher begs to differ. He says it's all about the storytelling. Shakespeare's kind of storytelling.

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The rocker’s impact on the music and legal side of the industry still raves on today.

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One of the nation's top dance bands will perform at The Julep Ball, an Official Event of the Kentucky Derby®.

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The Black Gospel Music Restoration Project -- a search-and-rescue mission launched by a Baylor University researcher to save little-known recordings from yesteryear's Golden Age of black gospel --will become a permanent feature of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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Popular culture Expert David Allan, Ph.D. '99, with Saint Joseph's University's Haub School of Business is wrapping up a 10-year study of popular music in Super Bowl commercials this year. Through his research, Allan will illustrate the frequency in which advertisers employ popular music to market and relate with consumers.

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Feb. 9 marks the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the moment that launched the British Invasion and a transformation in international youth culture. Pop culture historian Chad Martin of the University of Indianapolis is available for interview.

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What do Hollywood moguls holding their breath this week for an Oscar nomination have in common with the influence peddlers on K Street in Washington, D.C.? More than you might imagine, suggests new research by two UCLA sociologists.

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A team of researchers led by Michael Zimmer of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies has created a digital archive of all public statements made by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

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A five-day festival in Bloomington will help kick off the nation's centennial birthday celebration of author, essayist, painter and spoken-word performer William S. Burroughs. "The Burroughs Century," Feb. 5 to 9, will feature a number of events on the Indiana University campus and in the Bloomington community. The unique collaboration unites the local academic, artistic and cultural communities to honor the artist who transcended boundaries between literature, painting, music, film and experimental art.

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A Louisville couple known for their support of health care and education causes have been named honorary chairs of The Julep Ball, benefiting the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville.

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The creator of MTV's "16 and Pregnant" and "Teen Mom" said the shows have been called "one of the best public service campaigns to prevent teen pregnancy." A new Indiana University research study finds the opposite to be true. The paper accepted for publication in the journal Mass Communication and Society presents findings that such teen mom shows actually lead heavy viewers to believe that teen mothers have an enviable quality of life, a high income and involved fathers.

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Wellesley College professor Guy MacLean Rogers studies the leadership of Alexander the Great, seeking what lessons can be learned from the enigmatic warrior. Rogers, a world-renowned classicist, researches the leadership of history’s greatest warrior, and sees many similarities for the struggles of national leaders today.

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For many people, the holidays are a time for family, travel, gifts, food, stress -- and romance (for better or for worse). Mid-December through mid-February is considered a peak period for online dating, said Justin Garcia, scientific advisor for the international online dating site Match.com and faculty member at Indiana University's Kinsey Institute and Department of Gender Studies.

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Small talk is far from "small" or trivial, says psychology professor and shyness expert Bernardo J. Carducci. It is the salve of a disconnected society -- the "cornerstone of civility." "Small talk is really, really important. It helps us connect with people, and not just at holiday gatherings," said Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. "If you make connections with people, it makes it much more difficult for you to treat them in an uncivil way. If you think about being kind to and connecting with people, people you engage in conversation, you're going to open a door for them, you'll let them step in front of you in line. You'll engage in more acts of kindness and fewer acts of rudeness."

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Cornell Climate Center uses half century of data to predict best cities for a White Christmas and a dry New Year’s Eve

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A review paper in the January 2014 issue of Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) reveals some interesting statistics about the history of the following popular ethnic foods in the United States.

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Whether it’s “A Christmas Story,” “The Santa Clause” or “Elf,” dads play a vital role in recent popular Christmas media. In real-life holiday scenarios, fathers do as well…and that’s true whether dads are merry makers or Christmas curmudgeons.

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“Quingo,” a game launched in September by local startup Game It Forward for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, today, just in time for the holidays, released a new “Winter Wonderland” question pack. For $3.99, players can receive 50 holiday and winter-themed questions.Six Seattle-based charities receive funds from the game, which combines the fun of bingo with the challenge of trivia questions.

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