All posts tagged: alarming

Scientists find alarming “storm in your brain” caused by air pollution

Scientists find alarming “storm in your brain” caused by air pollution

Published by José

Breathing polluted air, whether from city smog or wildfire smoke, is known to harm the lungs and heart. Now, new research sheds light on how these airborne toxins negatively impact the brain, potentially contributing to conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and autism. Scientists have discovered a process by which harmful substances can disrupt the normal function of brain cells, hindering their ability to connect and communicate, ultimately leading to cell damage. Their findings have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Previous research had already established a link between air pollution and conditions like asthma and heart disease. Epidemiological studies, which look at patterns of disease in populations, had also suggested that exposure to air pollution could increase the risk of developing brain conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and autism. However, the precise biological mechanisms behind this connection remained unclear. Scientists wanted to understand exactly how breathing in polluted air could translate into harm within the brain. They aimed to uncover the specific chemical reactions that might be involved in this process, hoping …

Female leaders face a harsher reality—new study highlights alarming risks

Female leaders face a harsher reality—new study highlights alarming risks

Published by José

Despite some progress, women remain seriously underrepresented in politics globally. As of 2023, women held only 26% of parliamentary seats and 15.8% of the positions as heads of state or government. My new research with colleagues raises one possible factor in this representation that goes beyond discrimination in selection procedures. It is simply more dangerous for women to pursue careers in politics than men. They are far more likely to become targets of violence. In Italy, where we conducted our study, elected female mayors are approximately three times more likely to experience an attack than their male equivalents. The reasons behind women’s ongoing underrepresentation in the corridors of power are multifaceted. Research has explored factors from political parties sidelining women and voter discrimination, to cultural norms and traditional familial expectations. Political violence might be part of the story. Although there is evidence suggesting that women are disproportionately targeted by political violence, researchers have yet to determine whether this relationship is truly causal. The main obstacle lies in data quality. Much of the research relies on …

Harvey Weinstein rushed to hospital after ‘alarming blood test’ | US News

Harvey Weinstein rushed to hospital after ‘alarming blood test’ | US News

Published by skeptic

Harvey Weinstein has been taken to hospital after an “alarming blood test result”, his lawyers have said. The 72-year-old required “immediate medical attention” following the test and was taken from the Rikers Island jail complex to Bellevue Hospital in New York City, according to his lawyers. Weinstein’s lawyers said: “Harvey Weinstein, who has been suffering from a lack of adequate medical care and enduring deplorable and inhumane conditions on Rikers Island, has been transported to Bellevue Hospital for emergent treatment due to an alarming blood test result that requires immediate medical attention. “It is expected that he will remain there until his condition stabilises.” They added: “His deprivation of care is not only medical malpractice, but a violation of his constitutional rights.” The former movie mogul is awaiting a retrial over his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction, which was overturned by New York’s highest court in April. The case is set to be retried in 2025. Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing. Last month his lawyers filed a legal claim against New York City alleging …

NSS: MPs call for new blasphemy laws “deeply alarming”

NSS: MPs call for new blasphemy laws “deeply alarming”

Published by skeptic

The National Secular Society has expressed concerns following an MP’s call for religious texts and “Abrahamic” prophets to be legally protected from ‘desecration’. Questioning Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley Tahir Ali asked that he “commit to introducing measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions”. Responding, Starmer committed to tackling “Islamophobia in all its forms”, describing “desecration” as “awful” and urging it to be “condemned across the house”. The NSS said Ali’s “deeply alarming” call amounted to a demand for the reintroduction of blasphemy laws. It added that MPs should “uphold” values like free speech which are foundational to the UK’s democratic society, not “seek to dismantle them”. The NSS said it was “concerned” by Starmer’s response, which “offered no defence” of free speech. Ali’s question referenced a decision by the UN Human Rights Council, who last year voted in favour of a resolution for “deliberately and publicly” burning the Quran or “any …

Russia’s Ballistic Missile Attack on Ukraine Is an Alarming First

Russia’s Ballistic Missile Attack on Ukraine Is an Alarming First

Published by skeptic

The Oreshnik missile launched Tuesday apparently took off from Russia’s Kapustin Yar rocket base roughly 800 kilometers from Dnipro, well away from intense fighting. This is the first time any IRBM has been used in combat. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, ratified by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1988, banned ground-launched IRBMs. The US pulled out of the treaty in 2019 under the first Trump administration, citing noncompliance from Russia. At the time, US officials noted that China, which was not a signatory to the treaty, possessed more than 1,000 IRBMs in its arsenal. Putin said Western air defenses are not capable of destroying the Oreshnik missile in flight, although this claim can’t be verified. He said Russia would provide warnings to Ukraine in advance of similar missile attacks in the future to allow civilians to escape danger zones. The Oreshnik missiles strike their targets at speeds of up to Mach 10, or 2.5 to 3 kilometers per second, Putin said. “The existing air defense systems around the world, including those being …

Climate Change Is Drying Up All the World’s Rivers at an Alarming Rate

Climate Change Is Drying Up All the World’s Rivers at an Alarming Rate

Published by José

“Water is the canary in the coal mine of climate change.” River Runs Through It The world’s rivers are drying up at rates faster than ever before thanks to climate change — and last year was the driest on record. In a new report, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that river levels around the world have continued to plummet over the past five years. In 2023, more than 50 percent of all river watersheds experienced abnormal conditions, and most were at a deficit. Coinciding with that year being the hottest ever on record and extreme weather causing major floods among other disasters, the WMO says that there’s a clear link between climate change and low river levels. “Water is the canary in the coal mine of climate change,” WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo told The Guardian. “We receive distress signals in the form of increasingly extreme rainfall, floods, and droughts which wreak a heavy toll on lives, ecosystems, and economies.” Rising temperatures have accelerated the planet’s natural hydrological cycle, Saulo noted. “It has also become more erratic …

An Alarming New Trend in Hurricane Deaths

An Alarming New Trend in Hurricane Deaths

Published by skeptic

A week after Hurricane Helene ripped through the American Southeast, it has careened into a terrible category of natural disasters: By some measures, it is now the third-deadliest storm to make landfall in the United States, after Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Katrina. More than 200 people have now been reported dead. Over half of the fatalities so far occurred in North Carolina’s mountainous western region, where entire towns were crushed beneath the weight of relentless rains and crumbling earth. And the death toll is expected to keep rising. Hurricanes can be extraordinarily lethal. Winds can send trees lurching into living rooms and debris hurtling through the air. Fallen power lines can cause electrocutions. Historically, storm surge—the treacherous rise of seawater as hurricane winds push waves toward shore—has been the deadliest hurricane hazard. But Helene, which did most of its killing far from the reach of the sea, is an emblem of a new trend in fatalities. From 2013 to 2022, drowning from rainfall flooding, not storm surge, was the top cause of tropical-cyclone deaths, according …

Scrapping admissions cap signals alarming lurch towards religious privilege

Scrapping admissions cap signals alarming lurch towards religious privilege

Published by skeptic

The government is planning to abolish the rule requiring faith-based free schools in England to offer half their places without any reference to religion. This means that for the first time, religious groups will be able to receive 100% state funding for schools with 100% faith-based admissions. Many faith schools, known as voluntary aided (VA) schools, can already select all pupils based of faith. But while the running costs of a VA school are fully state funded, the religious body that runs the school usually owns the land and buildings. However, the Government’s new reforms will secure total taxpayer funding for faith schools that religious leaders can prevent your child from attending. The policy shift comes at the behest of Catholic bishops who have disingenuously argued that not allowing the schools they run to admit children from exclusively Catholic backgrounds unfairly discriminates against Catholic students. This is untrue – there is no way the 50% cap could result in a child losing a place at a Catholic school because they are raised Catholic. Faith schools …

Apple trying to fix iPhone’s alarming problem | Science & Tech News

Apple trying to fix iPhone’s alarming problem | Science & Tech News

Published by skeptic

Apple is trying to fix a problem which caused some iPhone alarms to not go off. TikTok users have been complaining they were getting unwanted lie-ins. “This has probably been the third or fourth day in a row that my alarm clock has not gone off,” said one TikTok user Reid Manning. Another, Alyssa Sarracco, missed classes after taking a cheeky midday nap even though she set “five alarms”. “This is not me,” she said in a video that has amassed 3.7 million views. “I am not the problem here.” Apple told NBC News it is “aware of an issue causing some iPhone alarms to not play the expected sound” and said “the company is working on a fix”. Read more from Sky News:FKA Twigs reveals she has created an AI cloneGoogle appears to add ‘audio emoji’ feature – including a fart button Some people are blaming the phone’s “attention aware” feature which lowers the sound of alerts if its user is looking at the device. By switching the feature off, some users say they …