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late December 2018 much of the planetary news came at the early-December AGU meeting limited time? read the best of late December: 1) Ultima Thule, Bennu, Ryugyu, Farout & Ceres: asteroids take over the news 2) Where have all the 'hot Neptunes' gone? 3) Neutron stardust: what's the heaviest element on Earth? 4) Prius or Pickup: red vs. blue, revisited 5) Facebook's very bad, no good, awful year 6) Making the rich richer |
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Ultima Thule: New Horizons arrived 1/1/2019 at 12:30 EST... first image: 10 am? Where, what, & how to watch (Space) beginning with a 12/31 2 pm EST press conference, followed by a Q&A (despite the partial government shutdown) NASA readies for rendezvous (Science) Preparing for Ultima Thule (Science News) and Dead Ahead (Sky & Telescope) by mission's Principal Investigator scientific expectations (Geophysical Research Letters) (paywall) --------------------- more asteroid news Why carbon-rich organics on Ceres is exciting (Earth & Sky) Why are Bennu & Ryugu shaped like spinning tops? (Science News) Farout: the most distant known member of the solar system (Carnegie Science) aka 2018 VG18, it's 120 au away, and ~500 km in diameter Dealing with 'Oumuamua (Scientific American) a test of the scientific process? asteroids, sort of Scrambling for the world's most coveted meteorite (Wired) When it rains Mars, the geologist to call (Quanta) an interview with a Mars meteorite expert -------------------- Happy winter solstice: 12/21, 5:23 pm EST (Vox) celebrate (and learn about) the shortest day(light) and what it tells us about indigenous people (The Conversation) How Uranus got its lopsided spin? (Washington Post) says a computer simulation and a video Goodbye to Saturn's rings? (Earth & Sky) they could be gone in 300 Myrs .... or sooner, due to ring rain published paper (Science Direct) How long has Earth's plate tectonics been going on? (NY Times) 1 Byr? 4.5 Byr? (the latter is silly, since there were no continents for the first 0.7 Byr) A water-ice-filled Martian crater (The Guardian) a mile thick in some places A cosmic snowman (Astronomy) what passes for 'astro-humor' (sadly) climate change climate physics Does tropical mountain-building set the global thermostat? (Science) global warming consequences What climate change will do, region by region (Grist) based on the just-released National Climate Assessment Winters are warming faster than summers (Vox) some cities in NC lost 70 below-freezing days... and why this could harm ecosystems, human health, & water resources Rising fears of a global flood (Science) is the recent collapse of W. Antarctica ice sheet a warning? climate solutions The best tech for fighting climate change (Scientific American) forests! climate consequences The Galapagos: another vanishing heritage (NY Times) wildlife, on the brink, face an evolutionary test energy and the environment Like toxic mercury? (NY Times) Trump's EPA has a new rule for you! Trump's war on wildlife (New York) a barely noticed scandal Trump's war on the environment (NY Times) and regulation: 5 stories How does your state make electricity? (NY Times) in NC, nuclear leads, but coal is close A coming mega- drought in the U.S. Southwest? (Atlantic) Canadian caribou: back from the brink? (Atlantic) thanks to First Nations people The vanishing of Arctic lakes (Scientific American) by the hundreds |
The unlikely stability of our Sun (Astrobites) metallicity, sunspots, and faculae conspire to cancel out variations Clues to isotope formation? (Nature) 13C, 15N, & 17O in a planetary nebula The remnant of the double-neutron- star merger has a jet (AAS Nova) How do stars get so massive? (Astronomy) blame the disks that made them Origin stories: caught-in-the-act type IA supernova (Science Daily) what's responsible?: a merger of white dwarfs or a giant companion dumping matter on a companion white dwarf What LIGO has taught us about black holes (Sky & Telescope) some about spins and masses, but not much about origins |
The birth, evolution, & death of planets (NASA) in 7 mostly-visual short chapters The escaping atmosphere of HAT-P-11b (Sky & Telescope) and Where did all the 'hot Neptunes' go? (Astronomy) turned into hot super-Earths, by proximity to an active star? Can interstellar sugar explain the origin of life? (Astronomy) providing the 'D' in DNA? |
A fossil cloud, uncontaminated since the Big Bang (Astronomy) an apparently metal-free cloud at z = 4.4 A new particle acceleration process around SMBHs (Stanford U) tangled magnetic fields create strong electric fields along their jets A novel, accurate method of tracing the dark-matter distribution in galaxy clusters (Eureka Alert) by tracing light from stars that escaped a galaxy, but are trapped by the dark matter's gravity potential ...work by Hubble |
The proton's mass (Science News) more than just the sum of its parts... only 9% comes from its quarks' mass Intermission at the LHC (NY Times) the past and future of particle detection can it be an 'intermission' if it lasts 2 years? Quantum communication is faster than classical (Quanta) says milestone experiment Another faux-time-travel article (The Conversation) for those of you with infinite mass Plans for next- generation collider dealt a blow (Nature) only Japan seems interested, and its own science committee questions the price tag |
Saudi strikes, American bombs, Yemeni suffering (NY Times) do Americans know -- or care? xmas history Why NORAD tracks Santa on xmas eve (Washington Post) since 1955 Why is xmas on December 25? (Washington Post) that star of Bethlehem look to the right -----> The first 'Silent Night' (Washington Post) 1818, Obendorf Austria Why xmas trees? (History Channel) since early 1500s 12 Days of Xmas (Vox) the story behind the most annoying xmas song What xmas looks like around the world (Atlantic) 5 international xmas stories (Fairytalez) --------------------- blue vs. red revisited Prius or Pick-up (Vox) or fluid views vs. fixed ones; a safe world vs. a dangerous one; a world to explore vs. living in fear The real roots of American rage (Atlantic) how anger became the dominant emotion in politics and our lives... is violence next? America's political map is changing (538) educated districts are moving left; white districts are moving right... & more in 5 charts It's the demographics, stupid (The Guardian) 2 book reviews Your view of reality shapes your politics (538) but facts still matter (well, to many people) Saving the rural economy? (NY Times) not happening --------------------- Trump's war on Europe (New Yorker) and Angela Merkel You can't serve both Trump and America (Atlantic) the Mattis resignation The Trump-Erdoğan phone call that led to Mattis's resignation (The Guardian) and why it was the last straw (Washington Post) Like voting? (Jacobin) thank a socialist Would human extinction be a tragedy? (NY Times) making the rich richer Gutting the IRS (NY Times) How billionaire mega-donors undermine democracy (Vox) are the priorities of Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg et al. those of America? The Republican tax cut: 1 year later (Vox) what it did and what it didn't do Budget deficit up; overall debt up; worker wages, not up (Washington Post) is that what the GOP tax fairy promised? Paul Ryan, fake conservative (Washington Post) his phony deficit reduction ------------------- trips Rome in ruins (NY Times) present-day Rome, that is Sights of Morocco (New York) Florida Keys (NY Times) 44 islands, 42 bridges Bhutan (NY Times) happiness and prayer wheels Ukiah (CA) (LA Times) The Dead Sea (NY Times) dying in beauty Decoding Rauschenberg (NY TImes) only by going to LACMA Ansel Adams' In Our Time (MFA Boston) Ansel Adams (Washington Post) is not boring |
'disheartening ...discouraging ...deflating' (Science) scientists brace for another shutdown breakdown, actually the sky About that 'star of Bethlehem' (Earth & Sky) a comet? a supernova? a planetary conjunction? actually, no idea Earthrise: 1968 (NY Times) the story behind the photo View of a lifetime (Wired) Apollo 8: orbiting was a greater leap than landing (Scientific American) 50 years ago Who gets to observe the universe? (Atlantic) gender & Hubble ---------------------- discoveries old & new Neutron stardust: what's the heaviest element found on Earth? (Nature) & other questions that celebrate the 150th anniversary of the periodic table a great read Honey, I shrunk everything (MIT) implosion fabrication, by a factor of 1000 Too early for fur & feathers? (NY Times) the battle over pterosaur fossils Mathematicians seal back door to breaking RSA encryption (Quanta) An undisturbed tomb found in Egypt (NY Times) of a 5th-dynasty royal priest, 4400 years old -------------------- school & learning Science vs. religion (The Conversation) yes, the difference is real Not sleepless in Seattle (Science) later school start times = better performance for high schoolers New life for old classics (NY Times) works that come into the public domain on 1/1/19 that Amazon will surely find ways to monetize UNC President Spellings went along and went away (Raleigh N&O) a perfect description The liberal arts committed suicide (National Review) another bizarre claim from the crazy right wing ------------------- tech behaving badly (sadly, here each week) FBook's bad news in the last 24 hours, ranked (Mashable) 12/19/2018, a day in the life Facebook shades the truth, again (NY Times) it gave private data to a slew of tech giants (and hid the truth of course) DC AG sues (Washington Post) over data scandal How Fbook, Google, & Twitter were used by the Russians to influence the 2016 election (Washington Post) 2 reports released and how the 3 platforms hampered the Congressional investigation (Vox) by providing incomplete information How Russia explouted racial tensions in 2016 (Vox) to suppress votes Clinton and help Trump... using Fbook & Twitter Civil rights groups: it's time for significant changes (The Guardian) Zuckerberg and Sandberg must go A holiday boycott of Amazon? (The Guardian) over working conditions A reckoning imminent for big tech after all? (New Republic) |
early December
2018
limited time? read the best of early December: 1) red vs. blue: two different views of the American divide 2) the paradox of American healthcare 3) OSIRIS-Rex @ Bennu 4) another climate report card, this one from the Arctic... and then there's Greenland and Antarctica 5) CRIPSR babies, out in the open at last 6) are there any viable solutions to climate change? |
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@ Bennu First surprises from OSIRIS-Rex at Bennu (Astronomy) it's porous (density is 1.2x water's); surface boulders are 5x larger than expected; hydrated water found and more here (Science News) about the surface Getting the dirt on creation?: first look at Bennu (Scientific American) well, eventually Twitter Q&A live: Tuesday, 12/11, 3 - 4 pm E.S.T., at December AGU meeting and from earlier in the month: OSIRIS-Rex 'arrives' at Bennu (NY Times) but still too far away to orbit... Press conference at AGU meeting, 12/10/2018 (YouTube) 50 minutes latest pictures (NASA) a reconnaissance timeline (Sky & Telescope) ---------------------- Comet 46P/Wirtanen has its closes approach early Sunday, 12/16/18 (Sky & Telescope) it will be then be 17 Mmi from Earth & magnitude, but the Moon will make it difficult also try here (Comet Wirtanen Observing Campaign) for much more info What Juno has learned so far (Astronomy) about Jupiter Starry eyes: NASA dreams big (Science) 4 giant telescopes for the 2030s... and an interactive Ceres: unexpectedly rich in carbon (Astronomy) 5x that of carbonaceous chondrites published article (Nature Astronomy) free to read, but not to save Voyager 2: into the void (Sky & Telescope) it's broken through the heliopause... check out its cosmic-ray data Triton, king of the Kuiper belt? (Starts with a Bang) not Pluto? (largest in size) nor Eris? (largest in mass) Looking for Neptune? (Sky & Telescope) it's a half-degree away from Mars... finder chart included... and look for the comet as well? The water in the Saturn system is much like Earth's (Astronomy) except for Phoebe, which formed much further out The woman who re-invented the Moon('s origin) (Nautil.us) and earned a MacArthur grant Preparing for the encounter with Ultima Thule (Sky & Telescope) or the asteroid formerly known as MU69 Mars InSight's workspace and its first selfie (NASA) climate change Arctic Report Card 2018 Arctic is in worse shape than we thought (Washington Post) the Arctic Ocean has lost 95% of its oldest, thickest ice and the Arctic's warmest 5 years on record (NY Times) are the last 5... is a 'rapid unraveling' next? the Report itself (NOAA) and means more bad news for caribou and reindeer (Vox) why are herds disappearing so fast? Unable to bury climate report, Trump & deniers launch an assault on science (Inside Climate New) a fact check Oil industry's covert campaign to rollback U.S. auto emissions progress (NY Times) that went beyond even what auto makers wanted you mean those fossil-fuel companies that get $26 billion in U.S. government subsidies? (National Resource Defense Council) -------------------- Greenland Greenland losing ice at fastest rate in 350 years (Vox) based on Greenland's ice melt has accelerated in the past 20 years (Nature) a 4-page article with startling graphs & data free to read, but not to save the Antarctic, too East Antarctica losing ice faster than thought (Nature) recently thought to be stable extreme climate Special issue on global-warming-caused 'extreme events' (American Meteorological Society) a dozen in 2018 and who has liability? (Science News) 50-minute press conference from AGU meeting 12/11/2018 (YouTube) carbon emissions peak Global carbon emissions reach record high in 2018 (Washington Post) yes, we are in trouble... .... which is why global warming is accelerating (Nature) time to ramp up de-carbonization (Nature) some reasons for optimism? climate consequences How a warming climate is threatening Americans' health (The Lancet) right now The Atlantic comments climate policy and solutions Americans believe in climate change (New York) just not climate action Time for states to lead the way (Washington Post) say governors of MD and VA or for mayors: What the IPCC report means for urban policy makers (Global Covenant of Mayors) Big investors to governments: you're not doing enough (The Guardian) at the COP24 in Katowice but instead Trump gives us coal for Christmas (New Yorker) Climate change: too big to solve? (Washington Post) and those climate goals.... (NY Times) falling further behind some good news: coal's bad week 2018 U.S. coal consumption: lowest in 30 years (Energy Information Administration) some good news! A major utility commits to clean energy (Vox) Xcel Energy Pacificorp admits that 60% of its coal plants are uneconimical (Utility Dive) as in more expensive than clean energy and the bad news Trump rolls back rule that restricted new coal plants (The Guardian) in favor of 'clean coal', an oxymoron ----------------- Put more carbon in the soil (Nature) 8 ways to make it happen French protests: part of a backlash against climate- change taxes? (Washington Post) Geoengineering: last hope for the planet? (Vox) otherwise, it's mitigation, adaptation, or suffering a test of sun-dimming starts this week (Nature) 15 takeaways from the National Climate Assessment (CNN) climate future How many billions climate change might cost us (Scientific American) A weak El Niño by next February? (Earth & Sky) includes a nice ESA video on the effects of El Niño and La Niña based on a WMO update Watch how climate could change in American cities by 2050 (Vox) it'll be like moving at least 1 state south (Durham's average summer high goes from 89.0 to 93.7 F) climate past We've seen rapid warming before (NY Times) it wiped out nearly everything, in the greatest extinction ever Rapid global warming wiped out 96% of marine species at end of the Permian (The Guardian) 252 Myrs ago Were volcanic eruptions the trigger that drove oxygen loss? (Science News) environment The monumental disaster at the Interior Dept (Scientific American) science suppression, climate-change denial, and staff intimidation and Science Under Siege at the Interior Dept (Union of Concerned Scientists) a new 38-page report American wilderness, at risk (The Guardian) the biggest elimination of public land protection in US history: 98% of US waters now unprotected from oil drilling; 240,000 mi2 of land now unprotected ( = land area of CA + WA combined) The Trump land grab: in 7 maps (Wilderness Society) ANWR: from pristine wilderness to a hunt for oil (NY Times) in the blink of Trump's eye The race for Alaskan oil (NY Times) 6 takeaways Screw the sage grouse! we need more oil! (NY Times) "We're losing the stars" (Nautil.us) the rapid growth of light pollution |
Did a nearby supernova cause one of Earth's mass extinctions? (Astronomy) 2.6 Myr ago Starspots (Astrobites) do all sun-like stars have them? Contrasting predictions for the next sunspot cycle (Earth & Sky) will it be weaker or stronger ? LIGO/VIRGO announce 4 new gravitational-wave events (LIGO) all stellar-mass, black-hole mergers, total now up to 10 (plus that 1 ns-ns merger) including the largest black-hole merger to date (Nature) and release first catalog of gravitational-wave events (LIGO) Bringing back black-hole mergers from oblivion (Quanta) |
What it was like when the first habitable planets formed (Starts with a Bang) what they needed: a long-lived star, a substantial atmosphere, & liquid water on the surface Rules for space colonization (Aeon) it's now or maybe never 100+ new planets from Kepler/Gaia (Earth & Sky) Pictures of worlds to come (Nature) changing the rules of planet building Are high levels of uv stripping He from exoplanet atmospheres? (Astronomy) The TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets (Earth & Sky) most/all like Venus, but maybe an Earth-like one, too WASP-69b, the planet that thinks it's a comet (Earth & Sky) it has a He tail How much SETI has actually been done? virtually none (arXiv preprint, to be published in Astronomical Journal) think a swimming pool compared to all the oceans... What to remember about Dyson spheres (Scientific American) because the original paper is still! paywalled |
SMBHs A mighty wind (Science News) reaches 0.25 million c-yrs away... is it representative? What surrounds a SMBH? (Astronomy) donuts or fountains? and A close-up of 3C273's SMBH (Earth & Sky) ----------------------- 22,000 globular clusters found in Coma's intergalactic medium (Earth & Sky) telltale evidence for galactic interactions.... or dark matter at work? the data is from Hubble, but their web site still can't tell a story Astrophysical high-energy neutrinos (Physics Today) multiple messaging provides clues to the most energetic events in the cosmos Measuring cosmic distances with standards sirens (Physics Today) gravitational waves from the merger of two compact objects encode their distance The aromatic universe (Physics Today) PAHs revealed (paywall) |
general relativity Botched satellite orbits provides confirmation of GR's gravitational- redshift predictions (American Physical Society) first improvements in 40+ years Are gravitational waves affected by gravity? (Starts with a Bang) why gravity is hard dark matter COSINE-100 data cast doubt on controversial DAMA dark-matter claim (Physics Today) but hasn't completely ruled it out (yet) New experiment constrains strength of interactions between dark matter and normal matter (Astronomy) quantum stuff A new quantum paradox (Quanta) clarifying where our view(s) of reality may go wrong Spooky quantum action passes yet another test (Scientific American, December 2018 issue) quantum entanglement isn't going away How to create a quantum internet, in just 5 easy steps (Science) but only the data and figures are free the rest is paywalled Simulating quantum field theory with a quantum computer (arXiv) maybe some day particle physics Brookhaven creates drops of quark-gluon plasma (phys.org) with different geometries Is a 4th neutrino out there? (Starts with a Bang) Upper limit to neutrino masses? (arXiv) 0.086 ev for lightest neutrino mass; 0.26 ev for the sum of all neutrino masses An unthruthful CERN marketing video? (BackReaction) trying to justify a new collider Long sought decay of the Higgs (Nature) into bottom quarks is finally seen reality Chaos makes the multiverse unnecessary (Nautil.us) not to mention so many other things Leonard Susskind speaks (and, therefore, read with caution) Black-hole interiors: growing forever? (Quanta) even without gaining mass.... says a new Susskind hypothesis 1-hour interview with Susskind (Y Combinator) on Feynman, the holographic principle, and unanswered questions in physics |
what is wrong with these people? All the President's investigations (NBC) 'I wasn't there', 'I don't know', 'I can't comment' (Washington Post) GOP sees no evil, hears no evil, speaks no evil A ruling on Obamacare and/or a conservative attack on democracy? (Vox) will it stand? Lists of abusive priests are being released by diceses (NY Times) finally and it's not just the Catholics.... Baptists, too (Raleigh N&O) Boycott Walgreens (NY Times) & Chase, Humana, Microsoft, and Dr. Pepper Snapple update: Microsoft and Walgreens speak up v. the WI power grab -------------------- great to be in NC NC GOP says new election is a must (Raleigh N&O) and the NC GOP always tells the truth No NC county has an income in the top 100 in the U.S. (Boston Globe) yet, ND, SD, WY, UT, IA, & AK do... why is that?... not to mention KS, IN, & NM thought-provoking articles The paradox of American health care (Vox) Medicare-for-all vs. disrupting job-provided health care What Cheney and Trump get wrong about American exceptionalism (Atlantic) Non-Hispanic white, and no college degree? (538) yep, you're a Republican: in 3 graphs red vs. blue, 2 opposing views Prius or Pick-up? (Indy Week) how the answers to 4 child-raising questions explain America's great divide It's still the economies (stupid) (Washington Post) red and blue America have very different ones or is it really just about contempt for the other side? (Politico) --------------------- foreign affairs How U.S. tax dollars are starving kids in Yemen (NY TImes) write/call your congress-people Why there are so many street protests in France (New Yorker) Why the French are in the streets (NY Times) 5 numbers Why are yellow- vests still protesting in France? (Washington Post) Macron: president of the rich the Trump circus "Proud to shut down the government" (LA Times) says an idiot What all Trump lies have in common (Washington Post) Russia, Russia, & Russia 7 theories of Trump-Russia (Lawfare) are we at 4 or 5? or worse? Mueller report "Totally clears the President" (Slate) says our alternate- reality President Trump directed Cohen to make illegal payments (Vox) aka felonies and 14 bottomless Pinocchios (Washington Post) only 14? "doesn't like to read", wants to do illegal things, undisciplined (Washington Post) and this is news? immigration A fair and forward-looking system (NY Books) reversing GOP rhetoric & policy How Trump changed U.S. immigration policy without a wall (538) at least 5 ways, and maybe 4 more but yet Trump employed undocumented workers for 5 years at his NJ golf course (NY Times) is anyone surprised? (Washington Post) sorry, rhetorical question In the valley of fear (NY Books) the labor shortage in the San Joaquin ----------------------- election hypocrisy: the NC mess What real election fraud looks like (Indy Week) irony in NC Why the NC absentee voting 'irregularities' are impossible to ignore (NY Times) Finally, a persuasive case for election fraud, and the GOP doesn't care (The Atlantic) because Republicans were the defrauders that crazy guy who said "North Carolina is no longer a democracy" (Politico) who's (not) sorry now? Republicans were upset at election fraud -- until it threatened their candidate (Washington Post) NC Republicans (finally) vote to require absentee voter IDs (Raleigh N&O) but only because of their election fraud last month all the N&O stories on the fraud GOP 'winning' candidate Harris owes $34,000+ to the fraudster (NY Times) for 'absentee- ballot' work but .... but .... but Harris is an "innocent victim" (Raleigh N&O) says exec director of NC GOP Meanwhile, the NC GA sends a voter-ID bill to the governor (NC Legislature) ---------------------- millennials, whining, and the future Are millennials different? (Federal Reserve) a 56-page report on how millennials affect the economy and vice versa and Millennials didn't kill the economy (The Atlantic) the economy killed millennials? sorry millennials, what's your excuse for not voting? you have only yourself to blame and more whining (Washington Post) The rise of the snowflakes (Scientific American) the damage that (some) millennials can do The future of work (Harpers) now bleaker than it's ever been? The future of everything (Quartz) college, water, work, food, & more -------------------- George H. W. Bush Remembering Bush (Weekly Standard) a quiet leader, and a good one Bush's (ignored) legacy (The Intercept) war crimes, racism, & obstruction of justice Whitewashed by recent history (New Republic) who doesn't look better compared to Trump? Why a great president won only one term (National Review) A presidential campaign not to be proud of (The Guardian) playing on racial fears & patriotism A tireless leader, an example to follow (Washington Post) hypocrisy, by a Trump lover No time for silence (New York) he failed people with AIDS ----------------------- USMCA = the new NAFTA (Vox) and how it's different from the old NAFTA voting fairness, yet again How the minority wins (The Atlantic) gerrymandering, voter suppression, legislative power grabs keep in mind that U.S. elections were rated in 2017 as the worst among all Western democracies (Election Integrity Project) as to being free and fair Don't use voter-id to making voting harder (Raleigh N&O) if only What's stronger than a blue wave? Gerrymandering! (NY TImes) NC and Ohio, embarrassments, once again -------------------------- art/trips All the Vermeers in the world (Google) in augmented reality, including the one stolen from the Gardner Last Seen (Boston Globe) a 10-part podcast on the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist Oceania: art of the islands (NY Books) ends 12/10/2018 at London's Royal Academy Chasing Copernicus in Poland (Scientific American) Mount Athos (The Guardian) retropolis Why Pearl Harbor happened? (Washington Post) looking in the wrong direction? |
the interesting humans & the sky 5 (human) myths about space? (Washington Post) who knew? Cave art.... or sky art? (Earth & Sky) decoding paleolithic art How humans kept track of changing star positions (Athens Journal of History) as far back as 40,000 yrs ago early humans 'Little Foot' hominin emerges (Nature) first walker? but some think it's not human (Science News) australopithecine, instead modern humans John Wheeler, the physicist who chased existence (Nautil.us) & revolutionized physics The most brilliant PhD thesis ever written? (Astrobites) Cecelia Payne (-Gaposchkin): the stuff of stars human decisions UNC TA's are on strike (Raleigh N&O) over Silent Sam decision Does it matter where you go to college? (Atlantic) perhaps, if you're not a rich white guy Justifying diversity (NY Books) not humans The Earth is alive! (Deep Carbon) an ecosystem larger than the oceans' lives below the surface or the octillions beneath our feet (NY Times) Tree of Life gets another branch (Quanta) a new kingdom Why is the octopus so smart? (NY Times) How industrial agriculture stole sex from bananas (Nautil.us) From the ground up? (Science News) how tornadoes form... probably How geckos walk on water (Science News) well, almost Kilauea's caldera collapse is unusual (Science News) but is its lull temporary or? NY Times comments math-ish The recent invention of zero (Vox) changed our world Prime equations (Quanta) are sort of like prime numbers The fluid mechanics of bubbly drinks (Physics Today) ------------------- bad humans education stupidity Misguided priorities in our education system? (NY Times) "technical and mechanical vocations"? which high-paying ones are those? What straight-A students get wrong? (NY Times) 'academic excellence doesn't correlate with career success' claims the author .... but check the readers' comments Why smart people are vulnerable to putting tribe before truth (Scientific American) science curiosity is as important as science literacy The rise of the snowflakes (Scientific American) the damage that (some) millennials can do Contract lecturers are a growing presence in higher education (Physics Today) the tenure-to-contract %s have gone from 45-55 to 30-70 in the past 40 years Duke's super- whiny coach lashes out again (Indy Week) the ultimate role model for petulance Wanting the benefits of science, yet still anti-science (Scientific American) our government's leaders ------------------- the worst: humans & tech CRISPR humans CRISPR babies? (Nature) 6 questions that remain but let's stop pretending this was never going to happen a scandal getting worse by the day? (Atlantic) Why scientists are so upset (NY Times) ------------------- Won't rule out a censored Chinese search engine (Recode) if it censors there, is here next? There are lots of reasons to worry about Google (Vox) Congress picked the wrong one -------------------- Facebook, still Don't fall for Facebook's China threat (NY Times) America requires competition, not monopoly Fbook's very bad month just got worse (New Yorker) The 'Facebook emails': a huge embarrassment (The Guardian) collecting phone data secretly; trading user data for cash; crushing its rivals NY Times piles on Facebook's fake quest to connect the world (Wired) Why are there more black people in an airport than at Facebook? (Guardian) hilarious Amazon The cities Amazon left behind (The Ringer) priming an economic system that increases inequality, monopoly power, & political polarization NC offered Amazon $2 billion to come to the RDU area (Raleigh N&O) whoever participated in this, fire them all! .... and where's that money going now? and the rest AI: a serious threat to humanity (Vox) explained Why start-ups aren't cool (and never were) (Atlantic) no personal savings; foreign competition; an economic downturn on the horizon Divide between Silicon Valley & Washington: a national security threat? (Atlantic) NYC sets minimum wage for Uber et al. (NY Times) because billion-$ companies really only love money |
late November 2018 limited time? read the best of late November: 1) National Climate Assessment Part II released 2) InSight Mars lands safely 3) the Cambrian explosion and the oldest fossils and where the mammoths went 4) Is something wrong with fundamental physics? 5) diet and health: a special Science issue 6) climate policies that could work and the new politics of climate change |
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How did Phobos get its grooves? (Earth & Sky) rolling boulders? Learning how to recognize alien life -- in the world's oldest desert (Atlantic) the Atacama Insight Mars lands Insight Mars probe lands safely (Sky & Telescope) first 2 picture returned The dawn of interplanetary geology (Atlantic) A robot geologist is now on Mars (Vox) pre-landing stories InSight Mars touches down on 11/26/18 (NASA) or is scheduled to, at 3 pm EST... watch it live will it land in 1 piece? (Washington Post) but Mars is littered with failed missions -------------------------- coming (satellite) attractions TESS overview or science & data (NASA) is hunting for Earth- sized exoplanets... & it's already found 2 New Horizons ramps up plans for 1/1/2019 encounter with the KBO 2014 MU69 (Johns Hopkins) first encounter with a Kuiper Belt object Parker solar probe has already had its first perihelion encounter with the sun (at 15 M miles) ... and its first Venus flyby (Johns Hopkins) and some fun science stuff to do e.g., making sun cookies GAIA is mapping our galaxy, one star at a time (Astronomy) how it does it Mars 2020 (Washington Post) returning rock samples that will answer all those life & water questions.... acrimonious landing- site battle is over..,, launch in ... 2020 Jezero crater: where the 2020 rover will roam (Washington Post) for its diversity? A Russian billionaire's plan to search for life on Enceladus (Earth & Sky) Yuri Milner, together with NASA? -------------------------- climate science 4th National Climate Assessment Volume II released: Impact, Risks,& Assessments Another day, another new devastating climate report (Washington Post) threatening both Americans' health and their pocketbooks NY Times commentary The 3 big takeaways (Vox) it's here; it's expensive; it's deadly The 3 most chilling conclusions from the climate report (Atlantic) A grave climate warning (Atlantic) buried on Black Friday Forecast Carolinas: 1500% increase in flooding, and more heat waves (Raleigh N&O) but is DC paying any attention? The report itself (Global Change USA) "We have wasted 15 years of response time." Chapter 1: The Overview report's Volume I (the science) is here -------------------------- How climate change fuels wildfires (NY Times) and vice versa and why is coal so hard to get rid of? (NY Times) production and consumption are both up this year Arctic-Antarctica warming link tied to shifting winds (Nature) during the most recent age Why extreme rains are getting worse (Nature) wetter and more erratic Extreme weather means a shrinking planet (Bill McKibben, in the New Yorker) A broad threat to humanity (Nature Climate Change) could that be any clearer? climate solutions Why prices for solar keep dropping (Vox) thank government policy Climate policies that (might) work (Vox) a 'simple' guide... book review Q&A with the author... with charts & graphs and a decent part of the book is online (Energy Policy & Solutions) and is the best medium-length summary you'll find climate politics How much does climate science really matter in the real political world? (538) Climate policy is stumbling world-wide (Atlantic) it's not just America Trump nominates ex-coal lobbyist as permanent EPA head (CNBC) woe is the planet The new politics of climate change (Atlantic) there is no perfect policy that is succeeding environment and you Air quality near CA wildfires: now the dirtiest in world (NY Times) masks & respirators are required ; UC-Berkeley, 150+-mi-away, cancels classes... not to mention the human toll How we humans made the California wildfires worse (Vox) at every single step A warming planet, and a changed Yellowstone (NY Times) a heritage lost to our children We're lighting up the nighttime (Science) and it's idiotic |
Apep: a massive star doomed for a gamma-ray burst .... and soon? (Science Alert) and only 80,000 light years away The rise of a new black-hole x-ray binary (Sky & Telescope) HD186302: a second solar twin/sibling? (Astronomy) separated at birth, 4.6 Byr ago Deciphering star- cluster evolution (Sky & Telescope) it's not only the age, it's also the rotation: the faster the spin,the longer the time on the main-sequence |
Another 'alien megastructure' star? (Scientific American) Earth & Sky has actual data for VVV-WIT-007, from 2010 to 2018 Where are those darn aliens? (arXiv) back to studying the solar system? The origin of the gaps in protoplanetary disks (AAS NOVA) planets or snowlines? |
Milky Way's star formation peaked at z ~ 2, 3 -4 Gyr A.B. (Science) (paywall) The origin of the Milky Way's globular clusters (Astrobites) or how they might have originated, according to simulations Glimpsing the heart of a quasar (Nature) Quasars: an unexpected vanishing (Quanta) why? Yep, SMBHs grow by feeding on gas & dust streams from other galaxies (Astronomy) a quasar caught in the act Galaxy mergers power mega black holes (Earth & Sky) not only in the past, but in our distant future |
A break in the quest for a cosmic speed limit (Quantum) is something wrong with fundamental physics? No new particles... no new dimensions... no new symmetries (Backreaction) the state of fundamental physics is not normal The end of physics... the rise of machines? (Not Even Wrong) or Does the Universe still need Einstein? (NY Times) 'physicists' are un-unified on unification (assuming you still think string theorists are physicists) and the absurd An AI physicist can derive the laws of nature of imagined universes (MIT Tech Review) so what? ------------------------------ for the physics semi-geeky (Inference-Review) Spontaneous symmetry breaking what it explains, and how it does it Quantum leaps the foundations of quantum mechanics and because it never hurts to be reminded: Physics on edge The case against the multiverse -------------------------- |
the state of America U.S. life expectancy declines again (Washington Post) opioids & suicide: the new normal? Opioid Nation (NY Books) a demand problem, and not a supply problem? Are women earning only 49% of what men for the same job? (Atlantic) yes, says a new study How lies become 'truth' in online America (Washington Post) is the Internet really a good thing for public policy? Chalk up another victory for capital (Washington Post) over labor Geographic political sorting: it's not on purpose? (Atlantic) a totally unconvincing opinion instead, waiting on the 'Next America' (NY Times) -------------------------- foreign affairs China rules (NY Times China Project) how China became a superpower Part 1: The nation that failed to fail Part 2: The American dream is alive -- in China Part 3: The world that China built (and the U.S. didn't) Part 4: How China's rulers control society opportunity, nationalism, & fear Part 5: The road to confrontation The true origins of ISIS (Atlantic) not as simple as the conventional wisdom CIA: Saudi Prince MBS ordered Khashoggi killed (Washington Post) what now, Jared? -------------------------- Why Democrats won Michigan, this time (Atlantic) being as unlike Hillary as possible voting fairness, still How to steal an election (Indy Week) thanks to gerrymandering, NC Democrats wasted 1.3 million votes... and it'll happen again.... and again.... but just a part of NC's democracy problem (Indy Week) A GOP vote-suppresor about to become a federal judge (Raleigh N&O) only in North Carolina ..... but wait, Tim Scott finally steps in Cyber experts warn of vulnerabilities in NC voting security (Raleigh N&O) America's election grid: a patchwork of vulnerabilities (NY Times) Voting should be ' a little more difficult' if you're liberal or a college student, or a Democrat (Washington Post) and this doesn't disqualify you from becoming an-almost-Senator-elect? (thank you for giving, MS) -------------------------- 2018 books... and holiday gifts Gifts that change lives (NY Times) forget the trinkets below 2018 holiday gift guide (NY Times) The Vox Holiday Gift Guide (Vox) Holiday gift guide (Rolling Stone) tech and gadgets for the musically inclined (49) Surprising & delightful gifts over $200 (New York) (50) Non-broing stocking stuffers under $25 (New York) but apparently not 'surprising' nor 'delightful'? -------------------------- Friendsgiving takes over the holiday (Vox) because friends are more important than family? Chess is back? (New Republic) the world championships: Caruana v. Carlsen (and. no. it's not back) Carlsen beats Caruana to retain world chess championship (The Guardian) 3-week deadlock finally broken as it happened -------------------------- the last undecided election California 10 D challenger now leads by 500+ votes -- and still more to be counted -------------------------- trips, real and virtual How to ruin national parks and wonders (NY Times) instagram and geotagging Himalayas (NY Times) on a budget Hunting Tintoretto (NY Times) 3 days in Venice, 150 paintings Shetland Islands (NY Times) scenery, sheep, and knitters 2018 Historic Photographer of the Year awards (The Guardian) |
diet and health (Science magazine special issue) A time to fast controlling meal size Our gut's microbiota and how to keep them healthy Swifter, higher, stronger sports nutrition (and no paywall!) school SAT/ACT: yes; GPA: maybe; Grit Potential: yes (Washington Post) says the President of Purdue U on relevant admission criteria Why college kids stay up all night (Atlantic) friendship & flirting, or just reliving the day's experience? 30% of college freshman don't make it to sophomore (NY Times) snowflake America or something else? More cops in NC schools.... are they safer? (Raleigh N&O) nope --------------------- science A universal law for river growth? (Quanta) it even works on Mars What lies beneath (Antarctica) (NY Times) a graveyard of lost continents life The oldest fossils: squished rocks? (Nautil.us) from 3.7 Gyrs ago Cracking the Cambrian (Science) what led to the flowering of animal life? How mammoths lost their place (Science News) hunting by humans didn't help ... nor did (warming) climate change The insect apocalypse is here (NY Times) Komodos are homebodies (NY Times) and not world conquerors ditto for capybaras (Atlantic) Why 300 million letters are missing from the human genome (Atlantic) Get your genome sequenced for free? (Scientific American) a contribution to medical research or a privacy disaster? Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in space-station toilet (Astronomy) uh-oh 536 A.D.: the worst year to be alive (Science) a volcano drops the temperature; breathing lead; and the plague 536 A.D.: the worst year to be alive (Science) a volcano drops the temperature; breathing lead; and the plague science, in theory There is no GMO debate (Science 2.0) except among the scientifically illiterate Science's replication problem (NY Times) badly designed studies and unrepeatable results (especially in those 'scientific' fields of psychology and economics) Science: less bang for the buck? (Atlantic) barely keeping up with the past, despite more money 2018's top 10 emerging technologies (Scientific American, Dec. 2018 issue) (paywall) How and why the kilogram was redefined (Scientific American) -------------------------- tech behaving badly and, sadly, always here The only currency worse than bitcoin is Venezuela's (Washington Post) Amazon & HQ2 continued Triangle dodges a huge bullet (Indy Week) Wake County was prepared to give the world's richest man $227 million (Indy Week) because? what else needs money? The profound alienation of the Amazon worker (New Republic) 'Seasonal Associate': fact or fiction? An inevitable Amazon oligarchy? (Rolling Stone) Amazon's long game is clearer than ever -------------------------- the continuing Facebook disaster Who will fix Facebook? (Rolling Stone) is there a more idiotic question? Sheryl Sandberg: dishonest, underhanded, and discredited (New Republic) but who cares as long as she's 'leaning in' what should happen Zuckerberg should resign as FB chairman (Washington Post) he's in over his head Yes, you have a moral obligation to quit Facebook (NY Times) unless you're fine with being responsible for disrupted elections, hate-mongering, and disseminating propaganda |
early November 2018 limited time? read the best of early November: 1) another Facebook betrayal of America 2) an election happened 3) origin of the Earth's water 4) did we learn anything from WW I? 5) widely circulated ocean-heat article and a partial retraction/correction 6) did Barnard's Star finally get its exoplanet? |
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Pluto's strange ridges (Astronomy) formed by ancient glaciers Earth's water An overlooked source of Earth's primeval water? (Astronomy) a hydrogen reservoir in the solar nebula Earth & Sky chimes in published article (J Geophys Letters) A Phaeton-Pallas connection? (Astronomy) sorting out asteroid families How the solar B field shapes comet tails (NASA) and dust too ocean worlds NASA's roadmap to exploring the ocean worlds (Earth & Sky) the short version the full published article (Astrobiology) Enceladus, Titan, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede (and others?) free to read & save Mars Was Mars' organic carbon created abiotically? (Earth & Sky) by 'natural' batteries Curiosity is on the move again (Earth & Sky) Ephemeral paleolakes were common for most of Mars's history (Astronomy) with a nice Earth- to-Mars timeline comparison and a map of the NE Hellas Basin (SETI) -------------------------- satellite status (Sky & Telescope) 'Dusk' for Dawn the NASA mission to Ceres Kepler already is but Hubble is back and OSIRIS-REx has its first close-up view of asteroid Bennu (Astronomy) -------------------------- Why does Dione have weird lines? (Earth & Sky) on its surface climate science A very grim forecast (NY Books) Bill McKibben reviews the new IPCC report 1.5 °C vs. 2 °C impacts (Carbon Brief) an interactive comparison a newly unearthed crater A climate-altering impact during human times?: a giant crater under Greenland's ice (Science) Can the meteorite impact explain the climate of the Younger Dryas? (Discover) based on the published article (Science Advances) free to read & save -------------------------- a major ocean study is published study -- and stands corrected original study and reporting: Have the oceans warmed much more in past 2 decades than the IPCC says? (NY Times) a new method of determining ocean temps says yes and with a somewhat different point-of-view (Washington Post) based on Quantification of ocean heat uptake (Nature) free to read but not print nor save but Science-Hub has it here corrections: Science blogger challenges original study (Judith Curry) claims: an inflated estimate of ocean heating; an underestimate of the results' uncertainty Key errors in ocean heat story acknowledged (Washington Post) a summary Resplady et al. (original authors) respond (Real Climate) revised press release (Scripps) revised paper submitted to Nature -------------------------- climate reporting Why isn't this the only story that matters? (Washington Post) our planet is on a fast path to destruction Drastic action needed (Earth Journalism) warns U.N. to avoid harm to the planet... is anyone listening? climate politics Big Oil vs. Earth: time to take a side (The Guardian) America voted. Climate lost. (New Republic) Fossil-fuel money crushes clean-energy iballot nitiatives (Vox) big losses: carbon tax, in WA; anti-fracking, in CO renewables, in AZ What the midterms mean for climate change (NY Times) 5 takeaways Is climate bipartisanship dead? (New Republic) A climate voters' guide to House and Senate races (Vote Climate PAC) with commentary (Vox) with climate heroes and climate zeroes Worry wards (Grist) how climate might affect 5 close congressional races Will Washington (state) be the first to have a carbon tax? (Vox) a ballot issue Governors decide climate change (Vox) the states to watch in the Nov. elections Where Americans mostly agree on energy & climate (NY Times) in 5 charts Trump administration enters Stage 5 climate denial (The Guardian) climate lawsuits NY sues Exxon-Mobil for climate fraud (NY Times) by downplaying dangers of warming Supreme Court gives procedural OK to young people's climate suit (Washington Post) back to local courts in Oregon climate and you Calculate your carbon footprint (Carbon Footprint) |
6 different ways to make a supernova (Starts with a Bang) 2 involve a white dwarf; 4, a massive star core collapse Holy Cow! The supernova still rocking astronomy (Nature) a 'central engine' (bh or ns?) has been agitating the remnant from the inside for months 59 numerical simulations of neutron-star mergers (Astrobites) and what they tell us about mass ejection and nucleosynthesis Speeding white dwarfs (AAS NOVA) evidence of past type IA SNs? A new, oldest star? (Earth & Sky) 1 generation removed from the Big Bang? 13.5 Gyr old Why is the sun's corona so hot? (Astronomy) still a mystery... nanoflares? Alfvén waves? 25 years of Supernova 1987A (Earth & Sky) a time-lapse of shock-wave torus |
Are metal-poor stars an unrecognized reservoir of exoplanets? (Astrobites) especially compact, multi-planet systems 2 more rogue planets, wandering the Milky Way (Astronomy) tip of the iceberg? a Barnard Star's exoplanet A key piece in the exoplanet puzzle (Nature) will it be the first exoplanet atmosphere to be explored? Haunted by history (Scientific American) and ditto, 50 years after van de Kamp, Barnard's Star yields a planet (Atlantic) a frozen super-Earth? Washington Post comments published article: A candidate super- Earth planet orbiting near the snow-line of Barnard's Star (Nature) free to read, but not to save Watch β Pictoris b orbit its parent star (Earth & Sky) in time lapse -------------------------- |
Antlia 2: A new 3rd-closest galaxy to us (U Cambridge) as large as LMC, bur far less mass and light preprint (arXiv) SMBHs Creeping up to the edge of the Milky Way's SMBH (Quanta) Closing in on the SMBH at the Milky Way's center (NY Times) but the story is mostly about the two rival teams studying it if it's science you want, go here (ESO) following orbiting gas flares just ~7 rs away A SMBH's magnetic field also feeds it (Astronomy) in Cygnus X-1 Black holes during the cosmic dawn (Astrobites) growing ones had a big influence -------------------------- Back in Time: finding theuniverse's most distant galaxies (Scientific American, Nov. 2018 issue) some are 97% of the way back to the Big Bang (paywall) How to find the most distant galaxies in the universe (Starts With a Bang) |
Can holography help solve quantum gravity? (Quanta) wait.... can a 4-minute video really explain anything (complicated)? How to interact with dark matter (Science 2.0) a short review |
11/11/18 11 am: World War I ends The day the guns fell silent (Washington Post) Courage and fear left indelible scars (NY Times) The legacy of WW I (The Guardian) victory and beyond The fading WW I battlefields (Atlantic) a photo tour The last great remembrance (The Guardian) Returning to the WW I western front (Washington Post) The National WW I Museum & Memorial (The World War) is in Kansas City, MO but none in DC? (WW I Commission) still in the planning World leaders gather (The Guardian) -------------------------- there's other news? 3 (non-partisan) ways to reform Congress (Atlantic) The crash that failed? (NY Books) the authoritative book of the financial crash of 2008 -------------------------- election, the aftermath Who voted for whom? (Pew Research) an electorate divided by gender, race, and education Pollwatcher: it's too hard to vote (Raleigh N&O) and with the new NC voter-id law, it's going to get harder, & the waits, longer The gender gap was huge (538) 23 points, highest ever? the urban-rural and young-old gaps may be even larger Women won big (NY Times) at least 100 women in the House, most ever Déjà Florida (Broward Sun Sentinel) poor ballot design, slow counting, & conspiracy theories The FL and GA (& maybe AZ) recounts (Vox) explained 4 ways the midterms changed conventional wisdom (Washington Post) Latinos voted; progressives busted; and more storm warnings ahead for Democrats America's small-town crisis [expensive healthcare, bad transportation, opioid crisis, chain-store economy] (NY Times) is also the Democrats' Will the left go to far? (Atlantic) as it has before Start building bridges instead of manning imaginary barricades (NY Times) the Resistance did not convert Think 2020 will be better for Senate Democrats? (NY Times) think again What Democrats need to do to defeat Trump (New Yorker) -------------------------- election results Complete election results (all states) (Politico) All North Carolina results (NC BoE) including judicial, amendments, legislative districts & analysis science, energy, climate & environment results Science takeaways from the election (Science) 7 (of 18) STEM candidates win; is Europa Clipper in danger? Fossil-fuel money crushes clean-energy initiatives (Vox) carbon tax loses in WA; anti-fracking, in CO renewables, in AZ America voted. Climate lost. (New Republic) What the midterms mean for climate change (NY Times) 5 takeaways -------------------------- An election in an a banana republic (Washington Post) foreign observers watch our election with surprise Thank the suburbs, Democrats (Washington Post) this time Election winners (Trump, gerrymandering) and losers (Vox) and a much longer, detailed list (Washington Post) America: divided by education (Atlantic) and the gap is growing The spirit of teacher walkouts lived on in the midterms (New Yorker) but, good & bad news in OK, KY, WV, and AZ climate results -------------------------- election day was here What to do if you're turned away at the polls (CNN) 5 scenarios for Election Day (Washington Post) scenario 1 happened The 4 types of counties that will decide the House (Atlantic) Blowing smoke: pundits & pollsters (Vanity Fair) they have no idea what will happen How to watch the midterms: an hour-by-hour guide by 538 by CNN NC legislative districts to watch on Election Night (Raleigh N&O) will the balance of power shift? How this election could change NC politics permanently (Atlantic) Why it takes so long to get results on election night (Vox) e.g., Durham Co. has a 100+-point checklist just to close the polls Trump has already won the midterms (Atlantic) he's changed the GOP and, what's worse, changed the tone of politics in the country. forever? A hopeless election (New Republic) it will only get worse 538 Forecasting the House average of forecasts: a 36-seat D gain Forecasting the Senate average of forecasts: a ½-seat R gain Forecasting the Governors more people will be governed by a D than an R -------------------------- vote Vote against the politics or racial and ethnic hatred (Washington Post) How to make America America again (NY Times) vote Democratic Boycott the Republican party (Atlantic) save conservatism There are no excuses now (Washington Post) our eyes should be wide open don't be like 12 young people who likely won't vote (New York) an embarrassment to the human race -------------------------- voting The vulnerabilities of voting machines (Scientific American) or has voting security improved? (Atlantic) Voting rights under siege (Vox) and not just in few states 4 ways to be a better voter (Scientific American) We need on-line voting (NY Times) no, we don't Geometry v. Gerrymandering (Scientific American, Nov. 2018 issue) using statistical forensics to identify districts that disenfranchise voters (paywall) -------------------------- The Science of Inequality (Scientific American, Nov. 2018 issue) (paywall, sadly) including The Rigged Economy by Joseph Stiglitz, NP 2001 Economics The Health-Wealth Gap how economic inequality causes biological harm The Environmental Cost of Inequality and the poor suffer the consequences -------------------------- |
science politics U.S. House science panel gets fresh start? (Science) with D's in charge... yet only 7 of 49 STEM candidates won Science restored?: Q&A with incoming chair of House science panel (Science) Eddie Bernice Johnson replaces anti-science Lamar Smith Whose science? (Science) Trump administration's 'reforms' are a clear interference with science -------------------------- anthropology & zoology Birds and bees during a total solar eclipse (Astronomy) what they did (and didn't) Peopling of America was very, very fast (Atlantic) say two new genetic studies NY Times story has a nice map A 40,000-year-old cow (Washington Post) rock painting found in Indonesia is oldest ever -------------------------- America is no longer attracting the top minds in physics? (Starts with a Bang) or is it just a one-year blip? 20 things to know before starting a PhD (Nature) tech behaving badly Facebook the evil What Facebook is really good at: delay, deny, deflect (NY Times) how Zuckerberg & Sandberg failed America .... again 6 questions from the NY Times' bombshell (Wired) Facebook's betrayal of America (New Republic) it promised to combat conspiracy theories ... it did the opposite The moral and ethical rot at Mark-and- Sheryl's Facebook (Washington Post) not to mention cluelessness 6 takeaways from the Times' investigation (NY Times) is there no end to their execs' dishonesty? (sorry, rhetorical question) Sheryl Sandberg: the emptiness of 'leaning in' (Washington Post) maybe she should have tried 'tell the truth' "Facebook threatens democracy" (The Guardian) Z's response: 'but, but, I didn't know' FB can't fix itself (Vox) it says it will do better .... but it never does Do you really want to work for Facebook? (NY Times) money vs. ethics? (not exactly a Hobson's choice) How to find out what FB knew (NY Times) about Russian interference The tech doomsayer (NY Times) Yuval Noah Harar, loved (but ignored) by techies Amazon HQ2 Not just shameful; it should have been illegal (Atlantic) What NY & DC are getting for the $2.8 billion they're giving Amazon (Washington Post) but why does Earth's wealthiest person need public money? winners & losers (Washington Post) the 'haves' get more Worsening America's 'great divergence' (Atlantic) -------------------------- getting around firewalls (there is something to be said for copyright laws, but when the underlying research has been paid with our taxes? sorry, no copyright for you) 5 ways to get around the great paywall of academia (WordPress) 7 ways to get around the paywall for WSJ, NYT, and more (Techtimes) Unpaywall (Unpaywall) for Firefox only -------------------------- |