Sunday, December 22

Tag: there

UFO Sightings Aren’t Persuasive – But I’m An Astronomer And I Think Aliens May Be Out There
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IN OTHER NEWS, SCIENCE, VIDEO REELS

UFO Sightings Aren’t Persuasive – But I’m An Astronomer And I Think Aliens May Be Out There

If intelligent aliens visit the Earth, it would be one of the most profound events in human history. Surveys show that nearly half of Americans believe that aliens have visited the Earth, either in the ancient past or recently. That percentage has been increasing. Belief in alien visitation is greater than belief that Bigfoot is a real creature, but less than belief that places can be haunted by spirits. Scientists dismiss these beliefs as not representing real physical phenomena. They don’t deny the existence of intelligent aliens. But they set a high bar for proof that we’ve been visited by creatures from another star system. As Carl Sagan said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” I’m a professor of astronomy who has written extensively on the search for life in the...
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Wildfire Smoke Is Laced With Toxic Chemicals – Here’s How They Got There
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SCIENCE

Wildfire Smoke Is Laced With Toxic Chemicals – Here’s How They Got There

When you breathe in smoke from a wildfire, you’re probably inhaling more toxic chemicals than you realize. Pollution from power plants and vehicles, pesticides, fertilizers and chemicals in waste can all make their way into trees and plants. When those trees and plants burn, chemicals are released along with health-harming particulate matter in the smoke, gas and ash. Millions of people have been breathing that smoky air this year as the western U.S. experiences another extreme fire year. More than 4 million acres had burned in the West by Oct. 1, California had nearly doubled its previous record for acreage burned, and several weeks of wildfire risk were still ahead. As an engineer and scientist who studies air pollution, I have been looking into how those chemicals compound the health...
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There are many leaders of today’s protest movement – just like the civil rights movement
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POLITICS, SOCIAL JUSTICE

There are many leaders of today’s protest movement – just like the civil rights movement

The recent wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism has inspired numerous comparisons with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Commentators frequently depict the charismatic leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in sharp contrast with the decentralized and seemingly leaderless nature of the current movement. Despite the efforts of activists and historians to correct this “leaderless” image, the notion persists. Such comparisons reflect the cultural memory – not the actual history – of the struggle for Black equality. Heroic struggle led by charismatic men Through collective remembering and forgetting, societies build narratives of the past to create a shared identity – what scholars refer to as cultural memory. The civil rights movement is...
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There’s a history of white supremacists interpreting government leaders’ words as encouragement
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

There’s a history of white supremacists interpreting government leaders’ words as encouragement

White supremacist and militia organizations are exploiting the government’s chaotic response to the coronavirus for recruitment efforts. Whatever his intention, these groups interpret President Donald Trump’s tweets to “LIBERATE” states and calling armed protesters “very good people” as support for their cause. Recent research by the Tech Transparency Project into social media accounts of white supremacists, a nonprofit that researches “the influence of the major technology platforms” on politics, policy and people’s lives, found that “some members of private … Facebook groups reacted to the president’s rhetoric (about lockdown protests) with memes of celebration.” The white supremacists’ response reflects the United States’ history of local, state and national political leaders encoura...
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There’s a name for Trump playing down the threat and failing to take action against the virus: Institutional betrayal
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

There’s a name for Trump playing down the threat and failing to take action against the virus: Institutional betrayal

U.S. intel agencies issued dire, classified warnings to President Trump in January and February about the dangers posed by the coronavirus, according to revelations reported in The Washington Post. For weeks, U.S. communities coast to coast sounded the alarm. They didn’t have enough tests to diagnose, track and limit the spread of COVID-19. Meantime, federal and some state officials downplayed the need for a coordinated response. There’s a name for situations when systems that are supposed to take care of others do harm: institutional betrayal. As trauma psychologists, we see that betrayal by the Trump administration, and we offer some lessons from behavioral science to guide the government response to this global health crisis. Traumatic events involve death, or the threat of death, ser...
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Gabby Giffords: There is Only One Side When It Comes to Gun Violence
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Journalism

Gabby Giffords: There is Only One Side When It Comes to Gun Violence

  The former Congresswoman on what keeps her fighting for gun safety laws, despite the challenges of injuries she sustained in the shooting on January 8, 2011. Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat from Arizona, retired from Congress after she was shot in the head at point-blank range during a congressional event in her district in 2011. Six people died and 12 others were injured. She and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, founded the organization Americans for Responsible Solutions [now known as Giffords] to fight gun violence and support gun-sense candidates for office. In this interview by KK Ottesen, from Activist: Portraits of Courage, Giffords describes what gives her strength to continue her work in public service. After college, I took a job in New York C...
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Love beer? We’ve got 10 recipes that will have you hopping (see what we did there?) into the kitchen now
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WHAT'S GOOD

Love beer? We’ve got 10 recipes that will have you hopping (see what we did there?) into the kitchen now

There is something about the idea of falling leaves that makes me want to cook with beer. I have no clue what that's all about, but whenever the temperatures even hint at dropping a few degrees, I want to bust out a six-pack of lager style beer and start making chili. If I'm being honest however, I just enjoy beer period. Whether in a beergarita or in place of a light-bodied white wine in my mussels, I believe that beer is one of the most underutilized tools in any must have seasoning kit. There are just so many endless flavor profiles not to mention amazing craft beer being produced right here in the South. Adding beer to your cooking routine not only helps to tenderize and flavor your recipe, it also allows for you to sneak a few sips here and there. From grilled meats to savory stews...
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Journalism

Shop Here, Not There: Science Says Reducing Inequality Is Almost That Simple

New research shows that shuttling even 5 percent of consumer transactions to poorer neighborhoods can reduce income inequality by up to 80 percent. Imagine heading out to run errands at all your usual places, and your phone’s “equity app” has a better idea. Siri might say: “Buy your groceries at one of these other stores, just as close as your regular store.” Or: “There are three coffee shops within 2 miles. You haven’t tried this one before.” We already get shopping suggestions when we bring up Google Maps, especially when our smartphones are transmitting our GPS coordinates. A similar type of computation is happening behind the scenes at Facebook and Twitter, whose targeted ads can sometimes be scarily on point. But what if, instead of just boosting sales, those suggestions coming fr...
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Why Aren’t There More Black Women in Fiction?
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Why Aren’t There More Black Women in Fiction?

Growing up, I read like crazy. My book lust was so overwhelming that I actually wanted to be the protagonists. And since I never saw myself reflected in these heroines, I'd picture myself as the black version of my favorite characters. In my head, I was a black Ramona in Beverly Cleary's classic children's books (with a cuter hairdo). I was a sexy, ruthless Lucky Santangelo (yes, I hid Jackie Collins novels under my mattress). I was a black Scarlett O'Hara, breaking Civil War–era hearts in Gone With the Wind (several layers of problematic, but I was 11!). It was weird. I was surrounded by fascinating black girls in real life. But reading most of American fiction, you'd think we were invisible. Source: Why Aren't There More Black Women in Fiction?
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