Tag: offers

Six Benefits That The Metaverse Offers To Colleges And Universities
EDUCATION, IN OTHER NEWS

Six Benefits That The Metaverse Offers To Colleges And Universities

Even though it’s unclear what exactly the metaverse is and whether it even exists, colleges and universities have jumped onto the metaverse bandwagon. They have augmented in-person and remote video learning with features such as gamified interactive virtual worlds, virtual reality and mixed reality. In one of the largest efforts thus far, 10 U.S. colleges and universities have teamed up with U.S. technology company Meta and Irish virtual reality platform Engage to create 3D digital versions of their campuses, known as a metaversity. Students will engage in learning wearing immersive virtual reality headsets. In my recent research, I have examined the metaverse and how it affects organizations and societies. I see six benefits that the metaverse offers to colleges. 1. Makes educational ...
For Terrorists And Extremists The Metaverse Offers A Future Full Of Potential
TECHNOLOGY

For Terrorists And Extremists The Metaverse Offers A Future Full Of Potential

The metaverse is coming. Like all technological innovation, it brings new opportunities and new risks. The metaverse is an immersive virtual reality version of the internet where people can interact with digital objects and digital representations of themselves and others, and can move more or less freely from one virtual environment to another. It can also involve augmented reality, a blending of virtual and physical realities, both by representing people and objects from the physical world in the virtual and conversely by bringing the virtual into people’s perceptions of physical spaces. By donning virtual reality headsets or augmented reality glasses, people will be able to socialize, worship and work in environments where the boundaries between environments and between the digital an...
At 20 The International Space Station Offers Hope And A Template For Future Cooperation
SCIENCE

At 20 The International Space Station Offers Hope And A Template For Future Cooperation

On Nov. 2, 2020, the International Space Station celebrated its 20th anniversary of continuous human occupation. With astronauts and cosmonauts from around the world working together, the ISS has demonstrated humankind’s ability to not only live and work in space but cooperate with one another. This remarkable achievement is significant as countries and companies around the world look to expand space exploration beyond Earth orbit. The path to this anniversary was not easy; like most things done in space, the cost and the difficulty were high. Supported by the Reagan administration as part of the Cold War competition with the Soviet Union, the ISS began its life in the 1980s. Following the Challenger disaster in 1986, planning fell by the wayside as costs increased. Facing delays and cost ...
A restart of nuclear testing offers little scientific value to the US and would benefit other countries
SCIENCE

A restart of nuclear testing offers little scientific value to the US and would benefit other countries

July 15, 2020 marks 75 years since the detonation of the first nuclear bomb. The Trinity Test, in New Mexico’s Jornada del Muerto desert, proved that the design for the Nagasaki Bomb worked and started the nuclear era. The U.S. tested nuclear bombs for decades. But at the end of the Cold War in 1992, the U.S. government imposed a moratorium on U.S. testing. This was strengthened by the Clinton administration’s decision to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Although the Senate never ratified the treaty and it never entered into force, all 184 countries that signed the test ban, including the U.S., have followed its rules. But in recent weeks, the Trump administration and Congress have begun debating whether to restart active testing of nuclear weapons on U.S. soil. Some cons...
Birthed by HBCU students, this organization offers important lessons for today’s student activists
SOCIAL JUSTICE

Birthed by HBCU students, this organization offers important lessons for today’s student activists

April 15, 2020 marks 60 years since the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, perhaps better known as SNCC, and usually pronounced as “snick.” SNCC became one of the most important organizations to engage in grassroots organizing during the modern civil rights movement and radically transformed youth culture during the decade. Jelani Favors, an associate professor of history and author of a book on how historically black colleges and universities ushered in a new era of activism and leadership, discusses SNCC’s legacy and what lessons it can offer today’s activists. What role did SNCC play in the civil rights movement? The founding of SNCC in April 1960 represented an important paradigm shift within the modern civil rights movement. SNCC encouraged black youth to defia...
Love in the time of the coronavirus: Do you turn your back when someone offers you a hand, a kiss or a hug?
LIFESTYLE

Love in the time of the coronavirus: Do you turn your back when someone offers you a hand, a kiss or a hug?

The toll of the coronavirus grows, with California under a state of emergency, and more than 150 cases and 11 deaths reported in the U.S.. Also, more than 300 million school children worldwide are facing closures of their schools. What does this mean for you in your personal life? We asked Brian Labus, professor of public health at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, about what kinds of physical contact are safe while COVID-19 is spreading. We are exposed to numerous viruses from our day-to-day interactions with other people all the time. However, our risk of being infected by a simple greeting usually isn’t in the forefront of our minds. The spread of COVID-19 has changed that. Conferences have banned handshakes, churches have changed their worship services, and even politicians have ch...
HEALTH & WELLNESS, TECHNOLOGY

As Abortion Access Dwindles, This App Offers Safe, Discreet Options

Obtaining medically accurate information about abortion can be difficult yet dire for pregnant people desperate for answers. Each year, 25 million unsafe abortions are performed around the world. The rate of unsafe abortions is higher where access to skilled providers and effective contraception is limited or unavailable, or where sexual education is lacking. Accessing medically accurate information about abortion can be a sensitive pursuit for people desperate for answers; it’s particularly dire if they’re pregnant without wanting to be. Decisions based on misinformation can lead to disability—and even death. Earlier this year, Hesperian, a Berkeley, California-based nonprofit that develops and publishes health information on a range of global issues, created the Safe Abortion ap...
Journalism

Social Media Offers a New Teaching Tool for Black History

Race Women on Instagram spotlights generations of Black women trailblazers. Have you heard of Rosetta Douglass Sprague? I hadn’t. Then I came across a black-and-white photo on Instagram of a stately yet solemn-looking Black woman who lived during the 19th century that made me stop scrolling through my feed. It’s Black History Month, and here’s an image of someone, although similar to those of which I’m familiar—Ida B. Wells, Phillis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth—I’d never seen. As I read the post, I learned that she was the daughter of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. But she was also a trailblazer of U.S. history in her own right. Although her name is rarely, if ever, mentioned, Sprague was a founding member the National Association of Colored Women, the largest federation...
Journalism

New Book Offers Hope to Anyone Struggling With Adversities

In her new memoir, Strengthening Your Identity While the Shadow Is in Front of You, Mwati Mwila shares her life story of experiencing diversity, finding her identity, and learning how to be strong in the face of turmoil, including being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Mwati is a true citizen of the world, and readers will be fascinated by and possibly envious of her many global adventures. Born in Zambia, Mwati moved, while still a young child, with her parents, two older sisters, and younger brother to Australia and New Zealand where she attended school. Even at a young age, she was aware that she was different from her classmates because of her skin color, and at times, she experienced racism and prejudice as a result. These experiences led her to question what it meant to be African w...