Peter Daszak is part of the World Health Organization’s 14-member team investigating the origins of the coronavirus. This weekend on Twitter he described “explaining key findings of our exhausting month-long work in China” to journalists — only to see team members “selectively misquoted to fit a narrative that was prescribed before the work began.” Daszak was responding to a New York…
Tag: Family
Happy birthday to Galileo, born February 15
One of our greatest astronomers, Galileo Galilei, was born February 15, 1564. His discoveries with the improved telescopes he made changed the way we view the universe – and got him in trouble with the church. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/galileos-birthday-feb-15-1564…
Celebrate the 91st anniversary of Pluto’s discovery
The I Heart Pluto Festival 2021 is a free event running from February 13 – 18 hosted by Lowell Observatory. Join in with nightly virtual events! Source: https://earthsky.org/space/i-heart-pluto-festival-2021-virtual-events-91st-anniversary…
Facebook will start showing some of its users less political content
Facebook will start reducing the amount of political content users see while scrolling their primary feeds. From a report: The social media platform will “temporarily reduce the distribution of political content in News Feed for a small percentage of people” in Brazil, Indonesia and Canada this week, it said in a blog post on Wednesday. The changes will be applied to…
Millie Hughes-Fulford, trailblazing astronaut, dies at 75
Millie Hughes-Fulford, a trailblazing astronaut and scientist who became the first female payload specialist to fly in space for NASA, died following a yearslong battle with cancer, her family said. She was 75. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-millie-hughes-fulford-trailblazing-astronaut-dies.html…
Robinhood Sued By Family of 20-Year-Old Trader Who Committed Suicide
Robinhood was sued Monday for wrongful death by the family of Alex Kearns, a 20-year-old customer who took his life last summer after believing he had racked up big losses on the millennial-favored stock trading app. CNBC reports: “This case centers on Robinhood’s aggressive tactics and strategy to lure inexperienced and unsophisticated investors, including Alex, to take big risks with the…
How the NSA’s Hubris Left America Vulnerable
A new book promises “the untold story of the cyberweapons market — the most secretive, invisible, government-backed market on earth — and a terrifying first look at a new kind of global warfare.” Its author — a New York Times cybersecurity reporter — shares the book’s story about David Evenden, a former National Security Agency analyst who later worked in Abu…
Bimeronium: A new member of the topological spin textures family
Topological spin textures in magnetic systems are intriguing objects that exhibit exotic physics and have potential applications in information storage and processing. The most fundamental and exemplary topological spin texture is called the skyrmion, which is a nanoscale circular domain wall carrying a nonzero integer topological charge. The skyrmion texture in magnetic materials was theoretically predicted in the late 1980s, and…
Myanmar Blocks Facebook as Resistance Grows To Coup
Myanmar’s new military government blocked access to Facebook as resistance to Monday’s coup surged amid calls for civil disobedience to protest the ousting of the elected government and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. From a report: Facebook is especially popular in Myanmar and is how most people access the internet. The military seized power shortly before a new session of…
Hundreds of ‘highly cannibalistic’ spiders invade teen’s bedroom in Australia
Extreme heat in Australia can send spiders scurrying for indoor shelter, and one family found themselves with a few hundred new roommates. Source: https://www.livescience.com/huntsman-spiders-babies-bedroom.html