Author: TheConversation

By Doug Jacobson, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University These days, cars are computer centers on wheels. Today’s vehicles can contain over 100 computers and millions of lines of software code. These computers are all networked together and can operate all aspects of your vehicle. It is not surprising, then, that car theft has also become high-tech. The computers in a vehicle can be divided into four categories. Many computers are dedicated to operating the vehicle’s drive train, including controlling the fuel, battery or both, monitoring emissions and operating cruise control. The second category is dedicated...

By John Rennie Short, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County The hollowing out of U.S. cities’ office and commercial cores is a national trend with serious consequences for millions of Americans. As more people have stayed home following the COVID-19 pandemic, foot traffic has fallen. Major retail chains are closing stores, and even prestigious properties are having a hard time retaining tenants. The shuttering of a Whole Foods market after only a year in downtown San Francisco in May 2023 received widespread coverage. Even more telling was the high-end department store Nordstrom’s decision to close...

By Raymond Scheppach, Professor of Public Policy, University of Virginia Many people believe governors make good presidents. In fact, a 2016 Gallup Poll found that almost 74% of people say that governing a state provides excellent or good preparation for someone to be an effective president. As a result, many political commentators have tried to explain why Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is stumbling in his campaign for president. Some say it is because he is stiff or awkward on the campaign trail, or his path to the nomination is not really to the political right of former President Donald...

By Colin Kohlhaas, Doctoral Candidate, History, Binghamton University, State University of New York In recent years, the United States has seen a surge of White Supremacist mass shootings against racial minorities. While not always the case, mass shooters tend to be young White men. Some journalists and researchers have argued that class and ideals of White masculinity are partly to blame. This argument is not surprising. Throughout U.S. history, White men’s anxieties over their manhood and social class help explain many violent attacks on Black people, whom the perpetrators blame for denying them their rightful privileges. Such was the...

By Ozgur Ozkan, Visiting Professor of International Studies, Tufts University From the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Türkiye has performed a delicate balancing act, portraying itself as an ally to the warring sides while reaping economic and political benefits from its relationship with both. Türkiye has condemned Russia’s invasion and extended diplomatic and material assistance to Ukraine’s war efforts. At the same time, the country’s leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has pointedly opted not to join the Western-led sanctions against Russia or cut ties with Moscow. But Türkiye’s neutrality in the Ukraine conflict is seemingly meeting with growing impatience...

By Kateryna Shynkaruk, Senior Lecturer of International Relations, Texas A&M University During a meeting with the nation’s diplomatic corps, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave Ukraine’s ambassadors their marching orders for the rest of the year: Work to help secure Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. Zelenskyy also told the ambassadors to focus on helping Ukraine secure bilateral agreements for security guarantees between Ukraine and individual G7 countries, including the United States. “The task of ambassadors to NATO countries is to work to consolidate all the capitals of the Alliance around common security priorities,” he...