Homework for Kids: Maybe Not Such a Big Load After All

You’ve probably heard the bad news about homework: kids are working longer hours than ever before, and it’s driving them nearly insane. At least one major book has made this argument, as have numerous news articles like this one and this one.

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Tweeting the World’s Longest Poem, 140 Characters at a Time

It’s the world’s longest poem — over 1.8 million words, containing over one hundred thousand verses and approximately ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined. And now India’s celebrated epic the Mahabharata, the writing of which began around 300 B.

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The CIA Scandals: How Bad a Blow?

The last thing the CIA needs right now is another scandal, let alone two. Allegations that the CIA chief in Algiers drugged and raped two women is going to hurt badly. The accusations that Harold Nicholson, a former CIA operative in federal prison convicted of spying for the KGB, continued his work from behind bars isn’t nearly as serious, but it won’t exactly help the agency’s reputation

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Afghanistan Vote: Threats, Anger, Empty Polling Stations

The streets of Kabul were eerily quiet on Thursday, as polls for Afghanistan’s second presidential election since the fall of the Taliban opened to little fanfare and even smaller crowds. Children, taking advantage of the trafficless streets, flew kites. Watermelon sellers languished in the shade of their carts waiting for a sale

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Journey to North Korea, Part II: The Packrat Dictatorship

In 2007 and 2008, photojournalist Tomas Van Houtryve visited North Korea by infiltrating a communist solidarity delegation. In the second story in his three-part TIME.com series, Van Houtryve describes the surveillance he was subjected to and the bizarre majesty of the mausoleum of Kim Il Sung. After dinner at the end of my second day, I was pulled aside by my guides

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Muslim Women Demand an End to Oppressive Family Laws

While Western governments have been worrying about bearded men with bombs in caves, a new jihad has quietly gained strength in the Muslim world: Islamic feminism. Earlier this week, 350 women and men gathered in Malaysia to launch Musawah — “Equality” in Arabic — a movement for justice in the Muslim family. Organized by the Malaysian Muslim feminist group Sisters in Islam, the conference, two years in the planning, is a kick-off to a campaign to enshrine Muslim women’s rights within an Islamic framework.

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Iran releases French woman, officials say

Iran has released a French academic from prison, though it’s not clear when Clotilde Reiss can return home, French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office announced Sunday. Reiss, 24, is the second French woman facing charges as part of mass trials in Iran who was released on bond.

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