Amazing Aquatic Phenomenon, Data on Social Welfare, Journalists under Fire, and More in Saturday’s News Wrap
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Wrapping up this week’s news on a Saturday afternoon. This week’s stories include some amazing science finds and facts. I’ve also gathered some links to resources and data that may help you better understand our changing world and its challenges.
March 18, 2017 We made it to the weekend.
Science is Awesome
A Rare Natural Phenomenon Has Left Eerie Zig-Zag Patterns on a lake in Iceland
Bizarre pictures have been coming out of Iceland’s Thingvellir National Park, where other-worldly zig-zag patterns have appeared on the frozen surface of Lake Thingvallavatn.
Dazzling bioluminescent event lights up the sea (video)
Crowds gathered to experience the dazzling glow of a bioluminescence event that lit up beaches in Tasmania, Australia. Details: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-15/bioluminescence-event-lights-up-northern-tasmanian-beach/8355912
Imgur: Uploaded by LadyLuckie. Boaty McBoatface is on his adventure!
NOAA Ocean Explorer: NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer: Live Video
From March 7 – 29, 2017, NOAA and partners will conduct a telepresence-enabled ocean exploration expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to collect critical baseline information about unknown and poorly known deepwater areas…
How a new tool can predict coastal flooding in Nova Scotia down to the metre
As concerns increase about flooding along the province’s shoreline, and billions have already been spent dealing with similar problems on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, a group at the Nova Scotia Community College has researched a way to better prevent damage and save lives.
And SciTech
Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the Moon, has launched a virtual reality movie detailing his plan to get humans to Mars. The film – Cycling Pathways to Mars – lasts just under 10 minutes…
Google Glass Didn’t Disappear. You Can Find It On The Factory
Remember Google Glass? They’re the headsets that look like regular glasses but have a small computer on the side to speak to and access the Internet. If that’s not ringing a bell, it…
At Brown University, researchers in Stefanie Tellex’s lab are working on a more social approach to helping robots more accurately interact with humans.
Researchers in China have developed Graphene solar panels that can generate energy from raindrops. The solar panels with a respectable 6.53 percent solar-to-electric conversion efficiency…
Sales soar: Raspberry Pi British board beats Commodore 64
Recent Raspberry Pi sales figures show that the humble board is, in fact, the world’s third best-selling general purpose computer.
The US Air Force’s most secretive plane, the X-37B, is just eight days away from breaking the record for longest orbital mission undertaken by a space plane.
Art is Awesome, Too!
Today, the Whitney Museum of American Art opens its 78th biennial exhibition. The exhibition, which is the oldest of its kind, has been receiving positive reviews all week.
The British Museum is currently showing an exceptional display of landscape watercolours selected almost entirely from its own collection.
A panel of leading political cartoonists discuss how they are responding to the new administration.
I’m Matt Wuerker, Politico’s cartoonist.
AMA about making hand-crafted memes for the masses.
(Reddit from live chat that took place on Thursday, March 16th)
Journalism Under Fire
BBC tries to start a conversation about persecutions for blasphemy, but things go awry in the Twitterverse.
This is the moment a Sky News crew narrowly avoids a suicide bomb blast as they run from sniper fire on the front line of the Iraqi offensive against Islamic State in Mosul.
“In effect, it would equate journalists with spies, and its threat to press freedom could not be more stark. It would not so much chill investigative journalism as freeze it altogether.”
Concerns of the World
BORJURI, India –
Since 2002, the center has raised and released 14 rhino calves, along with young from other species including elephants and wild buffalo.
Raising these vulnerable animals requires years of painstaking effort.
What If We Could Deal With Landfills By Turning Them Into Clean Energy?
WThe World Bank projects the global municipal waste stream to hit 2.2 billion tons per year by 2025, up from about 1.3 billion tons now.
A Punjab farmer is now owner of a train after winning land compensation case against Railways
Since the Railways delayed the compensation, the court handed over the Swarna Shatabdi Express to Singh. The train runs between New Delhi and Amritsar every day.
Israel’s High Court of Justice has recognized the special ties of Jerusalem-born Palestinians to their city – a precedent-setting ruling that could help protect their residency rights.
Spain: Eta militant group ‘to disarm fully by 8 April’
The militant group Eta has resolved to disarm fully by 8 April, sources close to talks between the Basque separatists and Spanish government have said.
Ben Stiller joins YouTube stars to raise nearly $1 million to fight famine in Somalia
French Vine and Snapchat star Jerome Jarre has nearly reached his goal of raising $1 million to fly food and aid to Somalia after just 19 hours thanks to the power of social media.
Canada to give $119M in aid to Middle East and African countries suffering food crises
Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen told reporters in Toronto on Friday that the money will go toward those in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen who are facing extreme food insecurity.
An eastern Idaho sheriff says he’s investigating after a cyanide trap placed by federal authorities to kill coyotes injured a 14-year-old boy and killed his dog.
News.Az – Istanbul, Rotterdam can ‘no longer be sister cities
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the Turkey’s Istanbul and the Netherlands’ Rotterdam can no longer be sister cities following last week’s Dutch blockade of Turkish ministers,…
A Norwegian fund that manages government employees’ pensions has decided to remove its investments from the companies behind the Dakota Access Pipeline…
Exclusive: Oil company pulls out of uncontacted tribes’ land under pressure from interest group
Canadian corporation pulls out of uncontacted land in the Peruvian Amazon with immediate effect, after Survival campaign
Armed men kidnapped Balochistan Higher Education Secretary Abdullah Jan in Quetta on Wednesday morning, police sources said.
Health and Welfare
These six charts illustrate the great divide between rural and urban America
Editor’s note: We’ve all heard of the great divide between life in rural and urban America. But what are the factors that contribute to these differences? We asked sociologists, economists, geographers and historians to describe the divide from different angles. The data paint a richer and sometimes surprising picture of the U.S. today.
Who Are the 7 Million Nonelderly Adults with Disabilities in Medicaid?
Through Medicaid, nonelderly adults with disabilities have access to regular preventive care as well as medical care for illnesses and chronic conditions. States must provide certain minimum services…
5% of Americans Say Free Market Competition Offers “Better Way” to Provide Affordable High-Quality Health Care
Security breach of over 26 million NHS patients feared
Patients would not have been told their records were available in this way, and information could be accessed for malicious reasons, or fall in to criminal hands, privacy experts warned.
EPA makes it official, sends $100 million to Michigan for Flint Water System
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a $100-million grant to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to fund drinking water infrastructure upgrades in Flint,…
Multnomah County offers incentives for homeowners to house homeless in backyards
With more than $300,000 and volunteer homeowners, Multnomah County has a new idea to fight homelessness: Build tiny houses in people’s backyards and rent them out to families with children.
‘Teaching Empathy to People Who Aren’t Marginalized Is Hard
The administration has launched a multiyear racial and socioeconomic diversity plan, but a lot of students aren’t pleased. Understanding the opportunity and achievement gaps in U.S.
In order to better understand how virtual reality can shape anti-anxiety treatments, a group of digital storytellers have come together under the umbrella of a VR native media company called StoryUP.
Experts say the initiatives Pittard implemented at Fort Bliss demonstrate exactly the types of programs required for the Army to turn back its high rate of suicide. But four years after Pittard was transferred, many of the reforms he installed at Fort Bliss have been discontinued…
Study: More than Half of College Football Athletes Have Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Muscle Injuries
“Although our study looked at high performance athletes, it’s probably a good idea for anyone engaging in athletic activities to give some thought to vitamin D,” Dr. Rodeo said.
An algorithm based on levels of metabolites found in a blood sample can accurately predict whether a child is on the Autism spectrum of disorder (ASD), based upon a recent study.
Indigenous South Americans With Healthiest Arteries of Any Population Ever Studied Offer Healthy Lifestyle Clues
Three years ago, the primarily physician HORUS team joined with the Tsimane Health & History Project anthropology team to evaluate the degree of atherosclerosis in a population living an ancient lifestyle.
Courts, Congress and Politics
This video is very cool! Real-time graphical representation of the flow of US immigration for the last two hundred years, from each country that added to the population.
…it pits leading legal minds against each other on one of the biggest issues of the day: the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s immigration orders.
Supreme Court, C-SPAN asked polling company Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) to learn more about the public’s interest in our third branch of government.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas lawmakers gave final approval Friday to legislation removing Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
South Dakota’s governor vetoes loosening of concealed carry gun law
South Dakota’s Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard on Friday vetoed a pair of bills that would have loosened restrictions on carrying concealed guns in the state, after saying current laws…
PHOENIX – The state’s new higher minimum wage is here to stay. Without comment late Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rebuffed a bid by business groups to void the law.
Justice Department Files Brief Arguing CFPB’s Structure is unconstitutional
WASHINGTON-The Justice Department on Friday took the unusual step of opposing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a major court case, arguing the structure of the independent agency is violates the constitution.
NC judges find state elections board and ethics commission unconstitutional
A three-judge panel issued a ruling late Friday afternoon finding the revamp of the state elections board and ethics commission to be unconstitutional. The judges also ruled against the new…
Pope Francis: Shady business deals that lay workers off are a sinning
Employers who make business deals that threaten people’s livelihood commit a sin that robs men, women and their families of their dignity, Pope Francis said. “Whoever-because of economic…
Tech Security and Privacy
Almost a third of companies have suffered either data loss or a security breach because their employees use mobile technologies to work. This is according to a new report by Apricorn.
Instead of scanning the code for malicious software, Fairplay follows the trails that malicious users leave behind when fraudulently boosting their ratings.
US-CERT, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, published an advisory after a recent survey showed that HTTPS inspection products don’t mirror the security attributes of the original connections between clients and servers.
Nuclear Insecurity
Covert agency responsible for moving nation’s most lethal cargo
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) – The unmarked 18-wheelers ply the nation’s interstates and two-lane highways, logging 3 million miles a year hauling the most lethal cargo there is:
As a new form of missile defence, cyberwarfare seems to offer the possibility of preventing nuclear strikes without the firing of a single nuclear warhead.
But as with many things involving nuclear weaponry, escalation of this strategy has a downside: United States forces are also vulnerable to such attacks.
Business Tips and Resources
…requires a person to file a notification with the banking agency and receive its approval prior to obtaining “control” of a bank or bank holding company.
Asking and Answering
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