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Editor's note
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It’s World Password Day, time for us all to lament how bad our passwords are and how little we’re inclined to make them better. Elon University’s Megan Squire explains why passwords are so bad, and discusses how easy they are to improve. Can we replace passwords with something better? Rutgers University’s Janne Lindqvist is exploring how we might doodle on our smartphones’ touchscreens
to unlock them. The University of Michigan’s Florian Schaub has helped build a system that would use emojis instead of letters and numbers. And Penn State’s Brian Lennon discusses the long history of passwords, dating back to the Bible, but notes they may not have much more of a future.
May 4 also marks the anniversary of the tragic shootings at Kent State in 1970. To commemorate the events, we’ve been looking at the state of campus protests – past and present. Philosophy professor Steven Fesmire examines the black-and-white, “us vs. them” mentality that marks much of student activism today. How does this kind of moral fundamentalism occur? And what can our colleges and universities do to combat it?
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Jeff Inglis
Editor, Science + Technology
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Top story
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How secure are you?
Rawpixel.com via shutterstock.com
Megan Squire, Elon University
The first line of cyberdefense is having a good password. What does research say about what that actually means?
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Education
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Steven Fesmire, Green Mountain College
When it comes to politics these days, it feels like everything is 'my way or the highway.' What can colleges do to end this moral fundamentalism and get students listening to each other?
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Politics + Society
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Richard Fogarty, University at Albany, State University of New York
What does it mean to be French? The two standing presidential candidates hope voters will agree with their version of the answer.
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Bruce Peabody, Fairleigh Dickinson University
The authors of a new book have data that show politicians and the media love talking about heroes, but ordinary people are much more reluctant. That difference could have political consequences.
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Environment + Energy
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Michelle Bryan, The University of Montana; Monte Mills, The University of Montana; Sandra B. Zellmer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Trump wants to scale back national monuments on federal lands in the name of boosting the economy. But this would undo decades of investments to manage our cultural and ecological resources.
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Economy + Business
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Sabith Khan, Georgetown University
Rules imposed after 9/11 and still on the books are getting in the way of delivering aid to conflict zones. In countries like Yemen and Syria, it could mean the difference between life and death.
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Health + Medicine
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Carol Caton, Columbia University Medical Center
About one in three homeless people has a significant mental illness. Providing housing for them has proved to be a boost not only to them and their communities, but also to budgets. Here's why.
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Bennett Allan Landman, Vanderbilt University
Project Baseline opens up new opportunities in health care, both for the researchers working with big data and for consumers who want more sophisticated ways to track their health.
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Science + Technology
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Janne Lindqvist, Rutgers University
A simple idea that's surprisingly secure: drawing your own unlock pattern on a touchscreen. Faster and easier to remember than a password, and much harder to guess or crack.
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Florian Schaub, University of Michigan
Useful for expressing moods, emotions and nuances in messages, emojis could have another use: as your next smartphone password.
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Brian Lennon, Pennsylvania State University
Going as far back as the Bible, and as widely known as the phrase 'Open, Sesame,' passwords are a textual link to our past. But they may not be around much longer.
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