Many people tell the truth because it’s the responsible thing to do. But should you ever tell the truth because it’s a lucrative thing to do?
Contestants on the controversial new TV show Moment of Truth say yes, motivated by the chance to win $500,000 in exchange for performing a kind of moral striptease in front of their families, spouses, and ultimately, millions of riveted viewers.... Read full article

At 7:30 on a Monday morning, a teenage girl holding a newborn baby approached a bus stop in Sacramento. The bus stop is only a few miles from the California state capitol building, where a law called the “SSB” was enacted—the safely surrendered baby law. The SSB allows a desperate mother to give up an unwanted baby within three days of birth, no questions asked, no prosecution for child abandonment, and hopefully no infant left in a trash dumpster, the kind of tragic scenario the law was designed to discourage.... Read full article

Soon after Paris Hilton’s 23-day jail stint related to DUI charges, she announced that she wanted to go to Rwanda to “help save some people’s lives.” The head of the charity group she was to accompany revealed that Ms. Hilton’s five-day African trip would be documented by a camera crew.... Read full article

Parental advisories abound these days. Toys are toxic. Cold medicine is dangerous. Sesame Street has an adults-only warning. Cowabunga! Is the letter of the day X, as in Rated?... Read full article

The golden hour strikes without warning.

The golden hour is the critical 60 minutes from the moment a life-threatening injury occurs to when the human body—if left untreated—starts shutting down on a trajectory toward death. Paramedics and other emergency responders encounter it as a matter of course.... Read full article

By the time British singer Amy Winehouse received five Grammy Awards for “Rehab”—her autobiographical ode to dodging detox—the song had become Hollywood’s newest soundtrack. In the week before Rehab was named record of the year and song of the year, news reports noted that the actresses Eva Mendes, Kirsten Dunst, and Sean Young had all entered rehab, and that Pat O’Brien—host of a tabloid TV show that routinely reports on the rehab struggles of others— was suddenly in rehab himself. All of which prompted one culture-chronicling website to ask: Is rehab the new black?... Read full article

If you want to send a message, the old saying goes, use Western Union. In Arizona, authorities who want to send a message to drunk drivers are using public humiliation, by posting the drivers’ photos on a website and on huge highway billboards with this scarlet letter taunt: Drive Drunk…See Your Mug Shot Here.... Read full article

On Valentine’s Day, we have a tradition of saying “I love you.” But do we ever have a responsibility to say “I forgive you?” Experts in the study of forgiveness say we do, and that the act of forgiving is a skill we can all learn.... Read full article

Being responsible can be life-changing. Profound. Noble. And annoying. What are we supposed to do when a stranger says Excuse me, can you…Watch my things?... Read full article

When adventurer Steve Fossett’s plane went missing over the remote Nevada desert in September 2007, there was no distress signal. But 50,000 people heard a call for help. Without knowing each other or the man they were looking for, they formed an altruistic army of volunteer searchers, unprecedented in size and extraordinary in method.... Read full article