All posts tagged: Americas

America’s Bird-Flu Luck Has Officially Run Out

America’s Bird-Flu Luck Has Officially Run Out

Published by José

Yesterday, America had one of its worst days of bird flu to date. For starters, the CDC confirmed the country’s first severe case of human bird-flu infection. The patient, a Louisiana resident who is over the age of 65 and has underlying medical conditions, is in the hospital with severe respiratory illness and is in critical condition. This is the first time transmission has been traced back to exposure to sick and dead birds in backyard flocks. Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency after weeks of rising infections among dairy herds and people. In Los Angeles, public-health officials confirmed that two cats died after consuming raw milk that had been recalled due to a risk of bird-flu contamination. Since March, the virus has spread among livestock and to the humans who handle them. The CDC has maintained that the public-health risk is low because no evidence has shown that the virus can spread among people, and illness in humans has mostly been mild. Of the 61 people who have so far …

The Crumbling Foundation of America’s Military

The Crumbling Foundation of America’s Military

Published by José

I. Supply and Demand Here, in the third decade of the 21st century, the most sought-after ammunition in the U.S. arsenal reaches the vital stage of its manufacture—the process tended by a young woman on a metal platform on the second story of an old factory in rural Iowa, leaning over a giant kettle where tan flakes of trinitrotoluene, better known as the explosive TNT, are stirred slowly into a brown slurry. She wears a baggy blue jumpsuit, safety glasses, and a hairnet. Her job is to monitor the viscosity and temperature of the mix—an exacting task. The brown slurry must be just the right thickness before it oozes down metal tubes to the ground floor and into waiting rows of empty 155-millimeter howitzer shells, each fitted at the top with a funnel. The whole production line, of which she is a part, is labor-intensive, messy, and dangerous. At this step of the process, both the steel shells and the TNT must be kept warm. The temperature in the building induces a full-body sweat in …

New research suggests highlighting shared values can bridge America’s political divide

New research suggests highlighting shared values can bridge America’s political divide

Published by José

A new study published in Social Psychological & Personality Science reveals that highlighting shared values between U.S. Republicans and Democrats can reduce perceived polarization and foster hope. Political polarization in the United States is often seen as deep and intractable. Surveys show that over 80% of Americans are worried about this divide. However, prior research suggests the extent of this polarization may be exaggerated, with Republicans and Democrats overestimating their differences on policies, engagement, and even support for violence. Lukas J. Wolf and Paul H. P. Hanel conducted this study to explore whether presenting overlapping distributions of shared values could counteract these misperceptions and increase hope about the country’s future. This research builds on evidence that values—central guiding principles in life—are often more similar across groups than typically assumed. Classic prejudice theories argue that perceived differences in values drive animosity. Recognizing shared values, the authors argue, could reduce partisan hostility and inspire optimism for societal progress. The research spanned three experiments with a cumulative sample of 2,529 U.S. participants, recruited via Prolific. Participants were required …

Trump and Musk’s Bromance Could Make America’s Space Policy a Wild Ride

Trump and Musk’s Bromance Could Make America’s Space Policy a Wild Ride

Published by José

The budding bromance between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and president-elect Donald Trump could have massive implications for the United States’ space program — assuming the volatile pair don’t flame out, as both have repeatedly done with other allies. That’s especially true when factoring in NASA’s current strategy of relying on the private space industry for initiatives ranging from getting to the surface of the Moon to building a space station in Earth’s orbit. As Durham University astropolitics associate professor Bleddyn Bowen argues in an essay for The Conversation, the unusual pair-up between the new president and the richest man in the world could see the US doubling down on its existing private industry-led space policy, while potentially supercharging an emerging arms race in the Earth’s orbit. In some ways, the Trump administration could simply continue where it left off four years ago, with an emphasis on the Artemis Moon landing program, which has continued under the current Biden administration. But the inclusion of Musk in Trump’s inner circle this time around could also shake up …

How Lucy Calkins Became the Face of America’s Reading Crisis

How Lucy Calkins Became the Face of America’s Reading Crisis

Published by skeptic

Until a couple of years ago, Lucy Calkins was, to many American teachers and parents, a minor deity. Thousands of U.S. schools used her curriculum, called Units of Study, to teach children to read and write. Two decades ago, her guiding principles—that children learn best when they love reading, and that teachers should try to inspire that love—became a centerpiece of the curriculum in New York City’s public schools. Her approach spread through an institute she founded at Columbia University’s Teachers College, and traveled further still via teaching materials from her publisher. Many teachers don’t refer to Units of Study by name. They simply say they are “teaching Lucy.” Explore the December 2024 Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. View More But now, at the age of 72, Calkins faces the destruction of everything she has worked for. A 2020 report by a nonprofit described Units of Study as “beautifully crafted” but “unlikely to lead to literacy success for all of America’s public schoolchildren.” The criticism became …

Donald Trump is likely to scale back America’s climate targets – will other countries follow suit? | Science, Climate & Tech News

Donald Trump is likely to scale back America’s climate targets – will other countries follow suit? | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by skeptic

After a year of ever more extreme weather and continually rising global temperatures, it’s no wonder this year’s UN climate summit has been called – once again – the “last-chance saloon”. Yet swaggering out through its swing doors goes president-elect Donald Trump. The timing of his election win, with its promise to withdraw the US from the global climate process, couldn’t be worse. Next year is forecast to exceed 1.5 degrees of warming for the first time – something the Paris Agreement is designed to prevent from becoming the norm. Despite that and nearly 30 years of talks, man-made emissions of greenhouse gases are still rising. Yet just a handful of nations have committed to cut them enough to prevent close to three degrees of warming by the end of the century. Read more from Sky News:British supermodel dies aged 46UK village had just 12 minutes of sunshine this month – here’s why So does America’s sudden departure, at this most precarious of moments, spell disaster? Under previous administrations, the US was a major diplomatic …

Louisville launches America’s first 100% electric garbage truck fleet

Louisville launches America’s first 100% electric garbage truck fleet

Published by skeptic

In what the city is calling a national first, Louisville, Colorado officials held a “ribbon cutting” last Tuesday to celebrate the launch of a new, all-electric residential recycling and waste collection fleet, which is already the city’s streets. Operating under heavy loads, in stop-and-go conditions, at low speeds, and on a predictable route, electric vehicles are well-suited to waste collection applications – especially in cities, where the average day’s work happens in well under 100 miles of driving. What’s more, their quiet operation means that residents like young kids and light sleepers are far less likely to be woken up at 0-dark-thirty by a rogue operator with a Jake Brake fetish. “We are so proud that Louisville will be the first city in the nation with a fully electric collection fleet,” said Mayor Chris Leh. “These innovative EV collection trucks will fulfill our trash, compost and recycling needs, reduce noise pollution, and include larger windshields to increase each driver’s field of vision and lower greenhouse gas emissions, making our neighborhoods quieter, safer and healthier.” It’s hard to argue with benefits like those, …

America’s First True Dictator – The Atlantic

America’s First True Dictator – The Atlantic

Published by José

Listen and subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate hundreds of workers across federal agencies if he becomes president again. Consolidating power and placing friends in key roles are textbook autocratic maneuvers, but they also are not new in the United States. This episode revisits the story of Louisiana Governor Huey Long, who sought to take over the apparatus of government in his state, just as illiberal leaders have done in other countries. This is the third episode of Autocracy in America, a new five-part series about authoritarian tactics already at work in the United States and where to look for them. The following is a transcript of the episode: Pomerantsev: Anne, one of the main features that I experienced when I lived under authoritarian regimes is this sense that the institutions of the state, the police, the tax services, the bureaucracy—they’re essentially these dangerous animals that are not working for you but working in the interests of the powerful. Applebaum: Right. As though they …

Tropical Storm Ileana weakens to a depression

Tropical Storm Ileana weakens to a depression

Published by Sam

MEXICO CITY —  Storm Ileana has weakened to a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. The tropical storm formed Thursday off Mexico’s Pacific coast as it moved ashore, making landfall on the coast of the Mexican state of Sinaloa on Saturday, a day after it pounded the resort-studded Los Cabos. On Sunday, wind speed dropped to 55 kph, NOAA said in an advisory, as Ileana was nearly 45 kilometers southwest of Los Mochis, Mexico, and moving west-northwest at 4 kph. It also forecasts the storm to become a remnant low — a post-tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds less than 34 knots. On Friday, a warning had been in effect for portions of the Baja California Peninsula, including Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. Juan Manuel Arce Ortega, from Los Cabos Civil Protection, said the municipalities of La Paz and Los Cabos had suspended classes in schools because of the storm. Authorities prepared 20 temporary shelters in San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, according to Los Cabos Civil Protection. …

In ‘Separated,’ a Tragic Trump Policy Meets One of America’s Toughest Filmmakers

In ‘Separated,’ a Tragic Trump Policy Meets One of America’s Toughest Filmmakers

Published by Sam

Errol Morris has made documentaries about some of the most consequential figures of American politics, from Robert S. McNamara (The Fog of War) to Donald Rumsfeld (The Unknown Known) to, more recently, Steve Bannon (American Dharma). He’s taken on global conflicts, biological warfare, and the horrific images and stories to come out of Abu Ghraib. But hearing the Oscar-winning filmmaker talk about his new movie, Separated (premiering Thursday at the Venice International Film Festival), one senses a particular emotional investment in the material. “It’s hard for me not to believe that these policies were motivated by meanness,” he says of the subject covered by the film. “There’s no pragmatic element in it at all.” Separated examines the origins, impact, and aftermath of the family separation policy instituted during Donald Trump’s presidency. To execute this extreme measure of immigration border control, as Morris explains, “parents were forced to betray their children.” The film—a coproduction between NBC News Studios, Participant, Fourth Floor, and Moxie Pictures—presents interviews with figures intimately involved with the policy, both those who regret …