Saturday, December 21

Tag: source

A City’s Best Source Of Climate Change Data Are It’s Residents
No Comments
ENVIRONMENT

A City’s Best Source Of Climate Change Data Are It’s Residents

Cities across the U.S. are looking to citizen science for data on heat waves and other climate impacts. On very hot days, Victor Sanchez makes sure to leave his home in the afternoon. “The sun just pours in,” he said of his top-floor, west-facing apartment in Harlem, where he has two fans but no air conditioner. Sanchez usually finds a shaded bench in nearby Morningside Park, sees a film, or rides his bike to the beach, returning home after the relentless sun has begun to set. “It’s just dangerous to stay inside,” he said. In 2016, Sanchez, who is 67 and works in public media, helped scientists quantify just how dangerous it is to stay inside during a heat wave. That summer, he and 29 of his neighbors placed sensors in their apartments to collect temperature and humidity data as part of...
Read More
In 1953, ‘Queen-Crazy’ American Women Looked To Elizabeth II As A Source Of Inspiration – That Sentiment Never Faded
No Comments
POLITICS

In 1953, ‘Queen-Crazy’ American Women Looked To Elizabeth II As A Source Of Inspiration – That Sentiment Never Faded

In the spring of 1953, women from across the United States traveled to Britain – for many, it was their first time abroad. The impetus for the trip was Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, held in Westminster Abbey on a rainy June 2 of that year. Among those making the journey were Peggy Webber, who traveled all the way from Iowa, and Geneva Valentine from Washington, D.C. For both women, whom I learned of while researching the monarchy and gender, the coronation provided an unprecedented opportunity to be part of a momentous occasion in which a woman was at the center of the story. For almost 70 years, there has been a long-standing affection for Elizabeth from across the Atlantic, especially among women. It may be of a less showy variety than the attention lavished on other, potentially mo...
Read More
Sarah Baartman’s Hips Went From A Symbol Of Exploitation To A Source Of Empowerment For Black Women
No Comments
SOCIAL JUSTICE

Sarah Baartman’s Hips Went From A Symbol Of Exploitation To A Source Of Empowerment For Black Women

Rokeshia Renné Ashley, Florida International University In “BLACK EFFECT,” a track from Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s 2018 collaborative album “EVERYTHING IS LOVE,” Beyoncé describes a quintessential Black female form: Stunt with your curls, your lips, Sarah Baartman hips Gotta hop into my jeans like I hop into my whip, yeah The celebration of Sarah Baartman’s features marks a departure from her historical image. Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman was an African woman who, in the early 1800s, was something of an international sensation of objectification. She was paraded around Europe, where spectators jeered at her large buttocks. With celebrities like Beyoncé recognizing Baartman’s contributions to the ideal Black female body – and with the curvaceous posteriors of Black women lauded on TV and celebrat...
Read More
COVID-19 vaccines: Open source licensing could keep Big Pharma from making huge profits off taxpayer-funded research
No Comments
IN OTHER NEWS, SCIENCE

COVID-19 vaccines: Open source licensing could keep Big Pharma from making huge profits off taxpayer-funded research

An international, multi-billion-dollar race is underway to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, and progress is moving at record speed, but with nationalistic, competitive undertones. If and when an effective vaccine is invented, its production will require an unprecedented effort to vaccinate people across the globe. However, for the country that invents a safe and effective vaccine, at least in the urgent short term, it will be politically difficult to export vaccines before their own population is immunized. “The only solution,” vaccine development scientist Sandy Douglas told The New York Times, “is to make a hell of a lot of vaccine in a lot of different places.” But how? Having the public sector fund contracts with vaccine makers is a key component to meeting this future, unprecedented, dis...
Read More