Saturday, May 18

IMPACT

Here’s What I learned About Big Ben And Online Information Overload When I Went Down The ‘Rabbit Hole’ To Debunk Misinformation
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IMPACT

Here’s What I learned About Big Ben And Online Information Overload When I Went Down The ‘Rabbit Hole’ To Debunk Misinformation

Big Ben was stolen from Palestine. So claimed an elderly woman, in Arabic, in a retweeted clip I received recently. Yes, that Big Ben: the great bell in the iconic clock tower of London’s Palace of Westminster. The British took it, she said, from a tower they demolished at Hebron Gate in Jerusalem in 1922. The claim pulled me up short. It seemed so outlandish. Who would invent something so easy to refute? And why? The woman spoke with great conviction, but could she really believe what she was saying? And if this was a hoax, then who was perpetrating it on whom? These questions sent me down a Big Ben rabbit hole. A matter of seconds Before I share what I discovered, let’s pause here for a moment, where many would have shrugged and moved on. You’d have to have some prior interest in the...
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What Our ‘World After Coronavirus’ Might Look Like – I Spoke To 99 Big Thinkers – This Is What I Learned
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IMPACT, IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

What Our ‘World After Coronavirus’ Might Look Like – I Spoke To 99 Big Thinkers – This Is What I Learned

Back in March, my colleagues at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University thought that it might be useful to begin thinking about “the day after coronavirus. Adil Najam, international relations professor at Boston University, interviewed 99 experts about what the post-pandemic future will bring. Pardee Center/Boston University, CC BY-SA For a research center dedicated to longer-term thinking, it made sense to ask what our post-COVID-19 world might look like. In the months that followed, I learned many things. Most importantly, I learned there is no “going back to normal.” My season of learning The project took on a life of its own. Over 190 days, we released 103 videos. Each was around five minutes long, with one simple question: How mig...
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New Study Finds Undocumented Immigrants May Actually Make American Communities Safer – Not More Dangerous
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IMPACT

New Study Finds Undocumented Immigrants May Actually Make American Communities Safer – Not More Dangerous

Undocumented immigration does not increase the violent crime rate in U.S. metropolitan areas. In fact, it may reduce property crime rates. These are the key findings from our recently published article in the Journal of Crime and Justice, co-authored by Yulin Yang, James Bachmeier and Mike Maciag. Research shows that the American communities where immigrants make their homes are more often improved by their presence than harmed by it. Immigrants bring social, cultural and economic activity to the places they live. That makes these places more vital and safer, not more dangerous. Why it matters People from all social groups and backgrounds commit crimes. But undocumented immigrants, and immigrants more generally, are often baselessly blamed for increasing crime rates – including, repeatedl...
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The Shapes Of Recessions And Recoveries – Will It Be A ‘V’ Or A ‘K’?
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The Shapes Of Recessions And Recoveries – Will It Be A ‘V’ Or A ‘K’?

Recessions – typically defined as two consecutive quarters of declining economic output – are always painful in terms of how they affect our economic well-being. Like all bad things, fortunately, they eventually end and a recovery begins. But not all recoveries or recessions look the same. And economists have a tendency to compare their varying paths with letters of the alphabet. For example, during the current situation, you may have the heard the direction the recovery might take compared with a “V,” a “W” or even a “K.” As a macroeconomist, I know this alphabet soup can be confusing for a lay reader. So here’s a guide to some of the most commonly used letters. ‘V’ for victory While recessions are never a good thing, the “V-shaped” recovery is deemed the best-case scenario. In a reces...
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Remembering Nobel Prize-Winning Chemist Mario Molina, Who Pushed Mexico On Clean Energy, Face Masks
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Remembering Nobel Prize-Winning Chemist Mario Molina, Who Pushed Mexico On Clean Energy, Face Masks

Dr. Mario Molina, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who died on Oct. 7 at age 77, did not become a scientist to change the world; he just loved chemistry. Born in Mexico City in 1943, Molina as a young boy conducted home experiments with contaminated water just for the fun of it. But Molina came to understand the political importance of his work on atmospheric chemistry and ozone layer depletion, which won him the Nobel in 1995, along with Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland. Getting that surprise call from Sweden completely changed how he saw his role in the world, Molina said in 2016. He felt a responsibility to share his knowledge of clean energy, air quality and climate change broadly and to push decision-makers to use that information to protect the environment. As a Mexican, Dr...
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Why Steve Bannon faces fraud charges: 4 questions answered
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IMPACT

Why Steve Bannon faces fraud charges: 4 questions answered

Federal prosecutors in New York have arrested former senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon and three other men, and charged them with allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors to an online fundraising campaign to build portions of wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a University of Notre Dame law professor who researches nonprofits, explains what’s going on and what the consequences could be. 1. Who is accused of what, exactly? Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, has accused Bannon and the founder of the “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign, Brian Kolfage, of lying to donors about how their gifts would be used. Two other men, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea, are also accused of participating in this alleged s...
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Federal executions to resume, posing a new test for lethal injection
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IMPACT

Federal executions to resume, posing a new test for lethal injection

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear four inmates’ challenge to the specifics of the lethal injection process, federal executions are expected to resume next week. In July 2019, Attorney General William Barr declared an end to a federal moratorium on executions that had been in effect since 2003. The inmates alleged that the Justice Department’s execution instructions, which call for the use of a single dose of pentobarbital, a barbiturate that is normally used as a sedative, violates the Federal Death Penalty Act. They claimed that the law requires federal executions to be carried out “in the manner prescribed by the state” in which the prisoner was convicted. Pentobarbital is not used in Arkansas, Iowa or Missouri, the pertinent states in their cases. They were hoping th...
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Supreme Court upholds American Indian treaty promises, orders Oklahoma to follow federal law
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IMPACT

Supreme Court upholds American Indian treaty promises, orders Oklahoma to follow federal law

Land in eastern Oklahoma that the United States promised to the Creek Nation in an 1833 treaty is still a reservation under tribal sovereignty, at least when it comes to criminal law, the Supreme Court ruled on July 9. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority, “Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.” The eastern part of Oklahoma, about half of the state’s total land, was granted by Congress to Native American tribes in the 19th century, and is still under tribal sovereignty, the Supreme Court has ruled. Kmusser, based on 1890s data/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA To most Americans, it may seem obvious that a government should live up to its word. But the United States has regularly reneged on the promises that it made to American Indian nations in the ...
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Why soldiers can’t claim conscientious objection if ordered to suppress protests
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IMPACT

Why soldiers can’t claim conscientious objection if ordered to suppress protests

President Trump’s order that National Guard should “dominate” the streets of Washington, D.C., during recent protests troubled at least a few of the men and women compelled to do the dominating. Most of the 84,000 Guard members activated in 33 states between May 29 and June 13 escorted ambulances and protected businesses from being damaged. Those in Washington, however, were instructed to use aggressive tactics to clear protesters. National Guard troops serving in the District dispersed a peaceful demonstration in Lafayette Park by buzzing the crowd with a Black Hawk helicopter and marching in lockstep with police who sprayed demonstrators with rubber bullets and tear gas. One D.C. Guard member later told reporters that, “We didn’t join the military to kill our fellow citizens.” Another...
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What are the ‘reopen’ protesters really saying?
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IMPACT, VIDEO REELS

What are the ‘reopen’ protesters really saying?

The “anti-lockdown” and #Reopen protests in the U.S. have powerful and secretive backers, but there are real Americans on the streets expressing their opinions. As an ethnographer – someone who studies cultural participation – I’m interested in who those Americans are, and why they’re upset. I spent the last week in what you might call an online road trip, studying 30 posts of protest footage from events in 15 cities. I found some shared themes, which don’t fit well with popular narratives about these protests. Protesters object to handouts, but want work. 1. Poverty is taboo, but work is ‘essential’ Despite the economic toll the lockdowns are taking on America’s poor, no protesters put their own poverty on display, such as posting signs asking for help. Instead, they held signs with mo...
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