CNN 10 8/31/2020 ~ 9/4/2020

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Monday, August 31, 2020

Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has stepped down over health concerns. He first took office in 2006 before stepping down the following year. He was re-elected in 2012 and has been PM since. He is stepping down due to ulcerative colitis, an incurable bowel disease, which is also why resigned in 2007. His party is in control of both houses of Japan's parliament, so they should have no trouble selecting the next prime minister. As Abe leaves office, his record is mixed. He stopped an economic decline but failed to boost the economy, and his diplomacy has reportedly been similar. In the US Gulf Coast, Lousiana is assessing the impacts of Hurricane Laura, the category 4 storm that passed through the area last week. Power lines and grids are out in many areas; entire neighborhoods have been washed away. President Trump visited the area to take a look and console devastated families. 75% of universities in the United States have moved to virtual learning. So many of them are using AIs to monitor cheating on a test, to mixed results. Students report that they are uncomfortable being recorded and many are skeptical of the performance of AIs; at least some professors report that they are faulty and report all students as suspicious. Still, the test monitoring industry is booming. Another experiment took place in Leipzig, Germany. Study participants were allowed into a concert (with prior COVID testing) to determine the effects of a large gathering on the transmission of the virus. For many, it was a welcome reprieve from pandemic life.

Air and Space: Dragonfly Is the First Airplane Built for the Outer Solar System

By Tim Wright

    The Dragonfly is the latest innovation for extraterrestrial flight. While it will not be the first to fly on another planet (that honor going to the Ingenuity helicopter scheduled to fly on Mars next year), it will be the first with advanced instruments and the first to go to the outer solar system. It will be equipped with various systems to help it land on one of Saturn's moons, Titan, and look for life there.

    Titan is covered in a haze of prebiotic material that was uncovered a decade ago with the Cassini mission. Scientists believe that the moon may have water, along with the other requirements for biological life here on Earth.

    The fact that Titan has a thick atmosphere made the design easier. This is because the rover needs to generate less lift to get off the ground, and therefore requires less energy. The recent innovations with multi-rotor drones also helped because controlling a drone is easier. Also, a drone works by generating more or less lift with different amounts of rotor speed. Because of this, a drone can continue to work even if a rotor malfunctions. For power, the Dragonfly will use the plutonium that is commonly used for deep space missions along with a massive battery just in case. The Dragonfly mission is set to depart in 2026 and arrive on Titan by 2034.

National Geographic: Revisiting the tangled legacy of Theodore Roosevelt National Park

National Geographic: Revisiting the tangled legacy of Theodore Roosevelt National Park

By Robert Earle Howells

    President Theodore Roosevelt was known as the "conservation president." Originally, he was a hunter, traveling to many places and the North Dakota area that he later became the namesake of. Entranced by the natural beauty, he returned many times throughout his life and once stated "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it […] What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you." He instated many national monuments, among them the Grand Canyon, which was later designated a national park with the creation of the National Park Service. But what happened to the people who were on this land?

    President Roosevelt's conservationism apparently stopped at American Indians. Although he preserved many natural places, he drove many of its former inhabitants off their ancestral lands. There is also evidence of racism toward African Americans. During his presidency, he was the first to invite a Black person to the White House, but after taking criticism from Southerners, he stopped.

    So does Roosevelt's racism wipe out his legacy of conservationist and progressive policies? No, but both sides of his story should be told - both the protected land and racist policies.

The New Yorker: Did Pangolin Trafficking Cause the Coronavirus Pandemic?

The New Yorker: Did Pangolin Trafficking Cause the Coronavirus Pandemic?

By David Quammen

    Pangolins are the scaly, anteater-like creatures shown in the image. They aren't actually related to anteaters and are frequently consumed by people in rural areas where meat is scarce. More recently, they have become an expensive delicacy in the mainstream market and used for Chinese medicines. Because of their steadily declining numbers, the species has been put on the endangered species list. But new evidence suggests that they might not be as innocent as they seem.

    When the COVID-19 pandemic first broke out in Wuhan, researchers believed that it originated in a wet market where live animals were sold and that the disease transferred over from bats. But after at least a few people were found to have had no contact with the wet market and the bat virus not a close enough exact match to the human one, a study made a few months ago about pangolins came up. Pangolins being transferred in captivity were reportedly crying and having respiratory problems. When samples from these animals were tested, they were a 99% positive match to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

    In the context of the frequent consumption of pangolins, this makes a lot of sense. Many researchers have hypothesized that the HIV virus transferred to humans when chimpanzee blood containing the chimp variation of the disease got into an open wound on a human hunter, where the monkey virus evolved into the human version. Since many people in Asia and Africa kill pangolins for meat and skins, the pangolin virus could easily have traveled to a human and made its way to the Wuhan wet market. Scientists still don't know if this new theory is right, but one thing is for sure: There are many animal viruses out there just waiting to infect us. We need to be ready.

TedEd: What was so special about Viking ships?

A TedEd by Jan Bill

The Vikings had few of the typical markers of successful civilizations. They had no centralized government or money and came from one of the most inhospitable places on Earth in Scandanavia. Their secret? Ships. Although it began as a typical hollowed out canoe, the Viking longship became one of the greatest in the world. They had always used ships because the mountainous terrain and dense forests of Scandanavia made overland travel difficult. However, there were plenty of waterways to travel on. The first log boats began their evolution when planks were added to the base in the clinker, or "lapstrake" technique in which the planks are overlapped and were connected at their edges. Some Scandanavians also served in the Roman army and brought back the technology of Roman war and merchant ships. The log bottom was abandoned for a keel plank, an interior framework was added with the use of nails, and the oars were fastened. Still, their ships were light because they depended on a strong shell rather than the interior. They also didn't have any sails because those were expensive and unnecessary at that point. However, after the collapse of the Roman empire, trade routes were extended to Scandanavia, and chieftains needed sailing ships to effectively control these money-making routes. So by the 700's, sails were added to go further and faster. By the end of the 9th century, the Viking ship most people know today was created. These longships could land on beaches and go upriver, and there were smaller and larger versions for various amounts of cargo on trade expeditions. With these new innovations, the Vikings traveled where no one from Europe had ever gone - North America.

TedEd: Should you trust unanimous decisions?

A TedEd by Derek Abbott

Many of us are inclined to believe unanimous decisions. But although they seem very strong, they aren't as infallible as we think. Much of our society relies on majority consensus, which can be a good thing sometimes. But at a certain point, getting closer to consensus gets us farther from the actual results. This is the Paradox of Unanimity. In cases with an obvious answer, unanimity is normal. But when there is some natural variance, there should also be some varied distribution. For instance, a bunch of coin tosses is expected to come up heads around 50% of the time. But it would be suspicious if they started nearing 100%, and you might suspect tampering with the coin. In fact, a study in the 1990's showed that nearly half of witnesses pick the wrong suspect. This is because our short term memory is only so good, and our brain automatically fills in gaps. There can also be systemic errors aside from human judgement; for example, accidental contamination of cotton swabs used by police led to the same DNA being found in many different crime scenes. And, of course, there is outright fraud itself, often occurring in politics. Still, unanimity is useful in situations with low variation, just not in ones with high probability of variation. In the latter, there is probably an external influence.

TedEd: Is the weather actually becoming more extreme?

A TedEd by R. Saravanan

In the past 40 years, the number of extreme weather events has been steadily increasing. But the question is, are these just bad weather patterns, or deeper changes to our climate? First, we should define the differences between weather and climate. Weather is defined as the atmospheric conditions at a specific point in time and a place. Right now, we can get fairly accurate weather predictions for about a week. Climate is the atmospheric condition in a region over a much longer period of time. Climate forecasts predict average weather patterns over time instead of specific types of weather. These two things are forecasted using different data sets. For weather, the conditions used are current precipitation, air pressure, humidity, and wind speed and direction. Twice a day, weather balloons with devices called radiosondes are released into the air to measure these conditions and transmit them to weather stations. Meteorologists can use this data in models that generate the forecast you see. The reason they are sometimes inaccurate is that weather is a chaotic system that is very sensitive to tiny details that are near impossible to have. Within just weeks, small changes in conditions can change weather patterns, like the butterfly effect. Climate forecasts are different, partially because they take an average of weather patterns and because they base their data on the range of possible outcomes. These boundary conditions constrain the possible weather and climate patterns. We can average these to get accurate climate models for years to come. The catch is that small changes to boundary conditions can make affect the chaotic weather systems. For example, the 1 degree celsius that the Earth's temperature has increased by has had the effect of 1M nukes in our atmosphere. These shifts do, in fact, increase the amount of extreme weather on our planet. This is what climate change is, but we can help combat it by examining changing boundary conditions and figuring out how to reverse our effects on the planet.

TedEd: Why can't you divide by zero?

A TedEd by the Ted team

In the mathematical world, one of the unbreakable rules is that you can't divide by zero. But why? Usually, dividing by increasingly small numbers results in bigger and bigger quotients (try it). So, if we keep getting bigger numbers by dividing with smaller numbers, it seems that dividing by 0 should become ∞, the largest number possible. However, we do not necessarily know this. All we know is that as the divisor gets closer to 0, the quotient gets closer to ∞, which is different from knowing x/0 = ∞. What really is division? If we say x/y, we can say how many times must we add y to get x, or y*z=x. Any time we multiply x by y to get z, we can see if there is a number that we can multiply z by to get back to x. That number is also known as the multiplicative inverse. The product of any number and its inverse is always 1. To divide by 0, we must first find its multiplicative inverse, which is 1/0. 1/0 would have to be 1 when multiplied by 0. However, x*0 is always 0, so 0 has no multiplicative inverse. But what if we broke some rules and defined 1/0 as ∞? Then, 0*∞=1, and (0*∞)+(0*∞)=2. We can rearrange the second equation to 0*∞=2. But we already defined 0*∞=1, so this is impossible. Now, we could define have all real numbers equal to 0, but that is pretty useless.

CNN 10 8/24/2020 ~ 8/28/2020

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Monday, August 24, 2020

Last week, the Democrats held their National Convention, mostly online of course, and had their chance to promote their agenda. This week, the Republicans will hold their convention Monday through Thursday. Incumbent President and Vice President Donald Trump and Mike Pence will be nominated. In California, hundreds of fires are burning throughout the state after temperatures peaked and lightning hit multiple areas. Thousands of Cal Fire firefighters are attempting to contain the fire, but they need lots of help, more than they're getting. In fact, some residents decided to take matters into their own hands and prevent their homes from catching fire. COVID-19 has put many schools in a dilemma. Many of them are going virtual or hybrid, and colleges are being scrutinized over asking for full tuition fees. There have also been multiple cases of the virus due to sports or off-campus parties. Two asteroids have passed by Earth recently. One passed by at just 2000 miles, the closest ever, but NASA didn't know until it was gone. The most recent one is also pretty close, but the chances of it hitting us are less than a percent, and it won't do much damage.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By Rebecca Skloot

    In 1951, and African American woman named Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins hospital to get a pain in her cervix checked out. She apparently had cervical cancer, which was treated by radium at the time. Her tumor faded, and she went home. However, a cell culturist named George Guy had collected her cells without her consent - typical medical procedure at the time. And her cells became HeLa, the first ever immortal human cells. It eventually killed her, but the cells grew and grew - far beyond what her normal cells had ever grown to - and they were used for vaccines and other research, leading to huge advances in science. They were also a problem. They grew so fast and were so hardy that they contaminated many other cell lines, causing a minor medical crisis because that meant some studies were nullified. This all happened without her family knowing.

    After her death, her husband, Day, had signed some form that asked if "John Hopkin" could do an autopsy and collect some cells. He had no idea what that meant, but he signed it. Leading to a generation of hardship. The Lacks family eventually found out about the cells from a scientist friend who had been using them for a long time. They were infuriated that people had made money off the cells and they had never gotten a share. The men in the family tried to get money out of Johns Hopkins, but Deborah, whom the author of this book spoke to, just wanted to know about her mother and sister.

Time: By embroiling the Postal Service in controversy and shaking Americans’ confidence in mail voting, the President wins

Time: By embroiling the Postal Service in controversy and shaking Americans’ confidence in mail voting, the President wins

By Haley Sweetland Edwards and Abby Vesoulis

    President Trump has frequently used his presidential powers to further his own political agenda. The USPS is no exception. After a strike in 1970, Congress decided to remove the Postmaster General from the Cabinet and have the agency pay its own budget. As the Internet began its rise, first class mail, the USPS's biggest money maker, dropped in half, and it began to rack up debt. Making things worse, Louis DeJoy, a Trump supporter, was appointed Postmaster General by the Board of Governors. Normally, this board would be bipartisan, as Governors serve 7 year terms. However, the Republican Senate refused to appoint any of Obama's appointees, leaving it open for Trump to fill with his allies. DeJoy has moved along Trump's path of turning the agency into a privatized company with radical cuts.

    Recently, the USPS sent out letters in 46 states saying that it may not be able to deliver election ballots on time. The White House has repeatedly refused to provide any additional funding during the pandemic and election, although increased pressure has caused DeJoy to halt his reforms. Another problem is that a large number of Democratic voters vote by mail. If on Election Night, the race is in Trump's favor then begins to lean toward Biden, Trump has set the stage to blame the Postal Service.

    "It’s not hard to imagine the damage that a hung election, like the 2000 Bush-Gore debacle, could exact in the era of Trump-fueled disinformation. Democracy, after all, is not unlike flying in Peter Pan’s world; if you stop believing in it, it ceases to work."

TedEd: How to spot a pyramid scheme

A TedEd by Stacie Bosley

In 2004, a start-up called Vemma Nutrition claimed to provide an easy way to earn lots of money for just part-time work. To be eligible, one simply had to buy a $500 nutrition kit and recruit 2 more people for the program. Vemma became a huge company, taking in more than 30,000 people per month at its highest point. The only problem was that most participants were actually losing money. Eventually, the company was charged with a pyramid scheme, which is a common type of fraud where each person gets a share of the money from each new member they recruit, with a part of the money eventually ending up with the founder. This differs from a Ponzi scheme in which the founder uses the money from new members to pay existing members. In a pyramid scheme, it gets increasingly harder for the newest members to make money. This is because the number of employees increases exponentially, because every person recruits the same amount of people. If each person had to recruit six more, then by the 12th round, 13 billion new people would have to be recruited, which is impossible as it is larger than the entire world population. Although this is banned in most countries, they can easily disguise themselves and be hard to spot. In particular, they may be presented as multi-level marketing companies, which are different because people make money from selling a product. Pyramid scheme companies hide by creating a product to make themselves look like multi-level marketing companies. Recruits are also encouraged to report good work experiences before being paid, so that their friends will do it, too. The victims of such schemes are often too embarrassed to speak out, thinking that it's their fault that they didn't work hard enough. There are ways to spot this, however. Time restrictions and huge sums of money are one thing, and a legit company shouldn't require payment to join.

The Unwanteds

The Unwanteds
By Lisa McMann

Book 1 in series

    Alex Stowe and his twin brother Aaron Stowe await their fates on the day of the Purge, the annual selection of Wanteds, Necessaries, and Unwanteds in the authoritarian state of Quill. Alex knows he is going to be Unwanted and Aaron will be Wanted. He has shown creativity many times, which is banned in Quill. Aaron, on the other hand, has been a model citizen - most of the time. Many years ago, Alex got Aaron to try drawing in the mud. Their father caught them, but he mistook Aaron for Alex and Aaron went along with it to keep his record clean.
    Alex gets on the bus to the Death Farm while Aaron goes to the University. On the bus, Alex sees Samheed and Meghan, and meets a girl named Lani, who later turns out to be a governor's daughter. At the gates of the Death Farm, all the Unwanteds are dropped off. The Eliminators come out to take them to the Lake of Boiling Oil. But then, the strangest thing happens. A man named Mr. Today emerges from a shack, and the wasteland turns into a colorful, bountiful world beyond imagination. The Eliminators become girrinos, guardians of Artimé. Mr. Today is the head mage, for inside this hidden land, the Unwanteds thrive and learn magic, which only creative people can learn. Meghan even meets her Unwanted brother, Sean. Only Samheed isn't receptive to the new world. The children live in a huge, magical mansion with a giant stone cheetah named Simber (displayed on cover) and an ebony warrior named Florence.

Air and Space: They Said It Wasn't Possible to Escape the Space Shuttle. These Guys Showed It Was.

Air and Space: They Said It Wasn't Possible to Escape the Space Shuttle. These Guys Showed It Was.

By Mark Betancourt

    In the aftermath of the Challenger space shuttle accident, NASA scrambled to find an escape method should the space shuttle ever malfunction again. Although the general consensus was that such a method wouldn't have helped the Challenger astronauts and would be useful in only a handful of scenarios, something was better that nothing.

    But first, could the pilots actually get out of the escape hatch? A scaled simulation with a wind tunnel and dummies showed that it was. The next problem was to figure out how to get them beyond the reach of the wings, because they escape hatch would be on the side of the spacecraft. Many solutions were proposed, but some resulted in limbs being torn off, and scientists finally arrived at a curved pole design that would extend out of the hatch. Astronauts would climb along this, attached by a lanyard, until they let go at the end.

    The finally step was making a parachute backpack. Not only would this need parachutes, but it would need to auto deploy like an ejection seat in case someone was unconscious, have a raft and life vest along with emergency rations, and all fit into a one-size-fits-all backpack. Navy elite skydivers tested these systems, and NASA eventually settled on one with adjustable straps.

    The shuttle Discovery was the first to be equipped with these new features, and was sent off on the return-to-service flight. Although they were never used, it's always better to be safe than sorry.

TedEd: Why doesn’t anything stick to Teflon?

A TedEd by Ashwini Bharathula

Teflon was used for Apollo-era spacesuits, Manhattan Project pipes, and in non-stick pans in your kitchen. So what is this solid, and why is it so slippery? Teflon is the DuPont brand name for Polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE. In 1938, Roy Plunkett was trying to create a non-toxic refrigerant for DuPont, a chemical company, when he created PTFE instead. The substance he created was chemically inert, or didn't interact with other substances. It also had a low coefficient of friction, so other materials slid off of it easily. This means Teflon is useful for anything water resistant, chemically resistant, or slippery. Teflon is a polymer, which is made of long chains of repeating atoms. The center atoms are carbon, each with 2 fluorines attached. The fluorine atoms wind tightly around the carbon, creating a sort of armor. They react so strongly to each other that all the other chemical properties that make atoms stick together don't work. So how does PTFE, which doesn't stick to anything, end up on a pan? The pan is made so that there are rough surfaces on it, then coated with a top-secret glue formula. This is then coated with Teflon and ultra-heated so that it becomes a slick surface. Teflon is usually safe, but it starts to release bad fumes at temperatures over 500 degrees Fahrenheit, so you should be careful. There may also be risks in the manufacturing of the material. DuPont and its subsidiary face charges over exposing employees and the environment to a toxic substance called PFOA used in Teflon.

The New Yorker: What Happens If Donald Trump Fights the Election Results?

The New Yorker: What Happens If Donald Trump Fights the Election Results?

By Eric Lach

    First, could he do it? He's already set the stage. He has been simultaneously saying that the USPS might not get all absentee votes in while trying to defund the agency. An election dispute has happened, in 1876. The Republican party was falling apart after a failed Reconstruction, while the Democratic party was almost sure to win. But the Republicans couldn't give up yet. They called their party's election officials in southern states and told them to disqualify votes that supported the Democratic candidates. The three states in which this happened sent in reports to Congress saying that the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, had won the state. But the Democratic elector sent in a different report, saying that the Democratic candidate, Samuel Tilden, had won. Congress battled in a heated debate over who won for months, up to the then-March inauguration date. Days before the inauguration, the Democratic House and Republican Senate came to a consensus. The Democrats would cede the presidency if the Republicans ended the Reconstruction and anti-segregation.

    So, could Trump dispute results or have Republican electors rig the election? A think tank ran simulations of a game where dice rolls determined the moves that Biden or Trump would make. In one scenario, Trump initially looked to be in the lead, but Biden eventually won. The key was that Biden won in what is know as the blue shift. This occurs because many Democratic voters vote by mail, whereas Republicans typically vote in person. This could allow Trump to dispute the election results by claiming that the postal service did something, which led to a scenario with no President in January. Or, Republican electors in swing states could send in conflicting vote counts, potentially leading to another 1876 scenario.

    The President himself has not officially said anything, saying in an interview that he would decide when the time comes. His campaign, meanwhile, has continued to assert that in any fair election, Trump would win.

TedEd: When is water safe to drink?

A TedEd by Mia Nacamulli

Water is essential for life. But is it always safe to drink? Ten percent of all people cannot be certain that their water is safe because of improper sanitation, hygiene, and protection of water sources. This creates sewage contaminated water, leading to growth of bacteria and viruses. This is very dangerous; diarrheal disease from contaminated water is the main cause of death for children under the age of 5, and microbial disease kills more people than war. However, sanitization can prevent this in 3 steps: sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection. Sedimentation is when water is allowed to sit so that heavier particles drop to the bottom. Then, filtration puts the water through layers of sand that trap small particles in them. Finally, water is disinfected with a combination of chlorine and ozone, which kill pathogens and sanitize the water pipes. However, too much chlorine can result in byproducts that corrode the pipes, releasing metals into the water, so its use is highly regulated. These types of contamination can lead to long-term health effects, which are very hard to identify. Water with high amounts of turbidity, organic compounds, or metals are unsafe to drink. Most of these can't be seen without tests, but odd coloration or odor are indicators that you might need to check. Water contamination tests can help you make sure, and point-of-use filters can help you solve any water contamination. These devices often use ionization and activated carbon filters to clean water. They are also easy to install and move around. Hundreds of millions of people don't have access to clean water. But implementing and repairing systems can help alleviate the strain.

Time: How the Postal Service Became Donald Trump's for the Taking

Time: How the Postal Service Became Donald Trump's for the Taking

By Alana Abramson

    In the light of the election, the controversy over Trump's appointments to the USPS is growing. The USPS is overseen by a Board of Governors, who are appointed by the President, approved by Congress, and serve 7 year terms. It is designed so that it will be nonpartisan. However, terms for all but one of the governors ended during the Obama administration, and Congress repeatedly struck down his appointees. So, President Trump arrived in office with a mostly empty Board, which he promptly filled. The Board now has 4 Republicans and just 2 Democrats.

    Recently, they appointed Louis DeJoy, a Trump supporter, to Postmaster General. He has since been a proponent of massive cuts, much to the dismay of Democrats, who have recently accused him of trying to delay service for mail-in voters. In response, he has delayed all funding cuts until after the election, but that has not yet satisfied the Democrats.

TedEd: What causes insomnia?

A TedEd by Dan Kwartler

Why do you stay awake at night? There might be many quickly resolved reasons, but there is a type of stress that causes continued sleeplessness. Insomnia is stress about not being able to sleep, which seems like an endless loop. There are many common reasons like pain and emotions that may keep you awake, and longer sleeplessness that is caused by jet lag when your circadian clock is off. Usually, fatigue puts us to sleep. But sometimes, underlying conditions can prolong this, and the bedroom becomes associated with the stresses of insomnia. This causes the brain to produce hormones that are normally produced when in danger, causing you to become hyper. In this state, you are constantly looking for threats, so even the slightest thing becomes major to you. So even when you do get some sleep, you do not get good sleep. Usually, your metabolism slows to conserve glucose, which the brain needs. But PET scans show that insomniacs increase metabolism, draining glucose and making them tired. When this lasts months, it becomes chronic insomnia, which may also cause anxiety and depression. Fortunately, there are treatments. You can relieve stress, make sure there are no distractions in your bedroom, and try to make yourself tired with relaxing activities. You should also sleep on schedule to keep your biological circadian rhythm in place. Of course, insomnia-like symptoms can also be caused by genetics. Some people have circadian clocks that last longer than 24 hours, making it seem like they can't sleep, but they can get sleep, too - just on their own schedule.

The New Yorker: The Therapeutic Power of Gardening

The New Yorker: The Therapeutic Power of Gardening

By Rebecca Mead

    As Britain began enforcing COVID-19 lockdowns, purchases of gardening supplies began going up. The British have long had private and public gardens. But studies have found that gardening can also have a calming effect.

    This may be in part because of the perpetual growth of plants during this uncertain time. Growing plants has also been found to have been helpful to soldiers in trenches during World War II and those with PTSD. Even rats have been observed to be more energetic around nature rather than typically cage fixtures.

TedEd: How the world's first metro system was built

A TedEd by Christian Wolmar

In 1863, many people were losing faith in the London Underground project, which aimed to establish an underground railway to ease above ground traffic congestion in London, the then-biggest city in the world. The project cost 100 million dollars in today's money, and many believed it wouldn't work. But on January 10th, as the first ever subway in the world opened, thousands traveled underground to ride on it. The Metropolitan Railway first traveled across a 4 mile stretch and quickly expanded. Charles Pearson was the first to come up with the idea in the 1840's but was met with lots of resistance because people thought it was impractical. Of course, there was the problem of digging an underground tunnel inside a city. To solve this problem, workers dug into existing roads, then made a tunnel from brick archways, then covered it back up. However, this was very destructive, and sometimes, work was stalled due to flooding. Suburbs and stores soon began growing around stations. Soon, as the original method of tunneling began taking too long, a device called the Greathead Shield greatly reduced the amount of work and time needed to dig. The lines dug with this machine were called tubes, and were much deeper than the old lines, so they could go anywhere. Today, cities around the world have subway lines, all thanks to the ingenuity of Charles Pearson.

TedEd: What’s that ringing in your ears?

A TedEd by Marc Fagelson

Have you ever heard that constant ringing noise when there is nothing making noise? Tinnitus is the presence of a buzzing or ringing sound when there is nothing making it, and approximately 1 out of every 7 people have it. It has plagued everyone from Da Vinci to Darwin. Normally, sounds cause vibrations in your ear that cause the cochlea to send signals to your brain, allowing you to hear the sound. However, most tinnitus induced sounds don't go through your ear. Instead, they are created internally inside your central nervous system. Why? Silence creates a baseline for your brain so that it can detect when it changes and identify that sound is being generated. But loud noises, diseases, and age can damage your ear, affecting the baseline noise. As cochlear cells are lost, they become less sensitive and create less vibration, making it harder to hear things. To compensate, the brain pays extra attention to sound, like you might do when adjusting the radio. This is supposed to help you hear weak noises, but it can also raise the baseline noise, making silence seem not-silent. This type is called subjective tinnitus. This usually doesn't have bad effects, but in people with traumatic memories, they can seem worse, leading to bothersome tinnitus. This second type can have more significant impacts, increasing PTSD, insomnia, and depression. There is no cure, but doctors can help patients come to terms with their illness. This involves sound therapy, where patients listen to soothing tones, or ones that are similar to the ringing.

CNN 10 8/17/2020 ~ 8/21/2020

Go to cnn.com/cnn10 for latest video

Monday, August 17, 2020

CNN 10's fall season is back! For the first time ever, political conventions are being held virtually. Conventions are usually held by the major political parties to formally nominate their candidates and gives them a chance to define their goals. Traditionally, the party that doesn't currently hold the White House goes first, so the Democratic National Convention will be held online through Thursday, with a small delegate gathering in Milwaukee. Former Vice President Joe Biden will be nominated. The Republican convention will be next week, with incumbent President Trump being renominated. This year will be an extra challenge as parties will have to get people to the polls without in-person meetings. Conventions have undergone many changes over the years. Conventions were first held to provide more transparency to the democratic process in the 1800s. The delegates were hand-chosen by their respective parties and could vote for whomever they wanted, often leading to rowdiness. Eventually, today's system of the voters choosing who the delegates vote for was instituted. They are now also used to boost their candidates before the election and have often provided increases in the polls. Schools have reopened, some virtually, others in person. But both have created concerns. Thousands of kids accessing the same learning portals at once has crashed servers and invited in hackers. In-person learning has led to anxiety for kids as well as parents, along with resigning teachers over COVID rules not being enforced.

Time: The next frontier of personalized medicine: your inner clock

Time: The next frontier of personalized medicine: your inner clock

By Mandy Oaklander

    For years, scientists have said that everyone needs 8 and a half hours of sleep. Those who have gotten less have been labeled as insomniacs - even if they personally feel more energized with less sleep. Now, new research has shown that there isn't really a one size fits all sleep schedule. In fact, "...short sleepers may actually have an edge over everyone else...Fu has found that besides being more efficient at sleep, they tend to be more energetic and optimistic and have a higher tolerance for pain than people who need to spend more time in bed."

    Your inner circadian clock creates a rhythm that your organs operate upon. Sleep discrepancies occur because not everyone's circadian rhythm is the same, and no one really understands how different they are yet. This also influences treatments and tests. If your body produces more of a certain protein at a certain time, then a doctor might test you at that time and get abnormal results, prescribing unnecessary medicine. On that note, medicines can also be more effective if taken at the time that your organs metabolize that medicine best. Note: Exercise is great medicine no matter the time.

    Finding out more about circadian rhythm could be the key to personalized medicine. Doctors would know your biological time, and be able to diagnose things much better.

National Geographic: If you unbuild it, they will come—the fish, that is

National Geographic: If you unbuild it, they will come—the fish, that is

By James Prosek

    Alewives are a type of fish that travel downstream from their birthplace to the ocean, then travel back up to breed, like salmon. They live on the East Coast and were missing for hundreds of years due to dams. But as the state of Maine is taking dams down for environmental and upkeep reasons, they are returning to the rivers again.

    The millions of fish that swim up river in the springtime run also serve as food for many animals, among them bears, raccoons, and skunks. They are also important to many fishermen. When the alewives were missing, many of them used frozen Atlantic herring, which wasn't as good as using fresh alewives. Plus, "...they feed us spiritually. Nature’s show of resilience at Mill Brook this year seemed especially poignant amid all the uncertainty and worry about the COVID-19 pandemic."

TedEd: Why don't perpetual motion machines ever work?

A TedEd by Netta Schramm

In 1159 A.D., an Indian mathematician created one of the earliest designs for a perpetual motion machine. It consisted of a wheel with curved compartments full of mercury. When it turned, the mercury would always be at the bottom, making that side heavier and causing the wheel to turn forever. A perpetual motion machine is a machine that can generate energy forever without external assistance. For example, a lightbulb that produced enough energy to keep itself running, or a windmill that made its own wind. This is intriguing because such a machine could be used to support human life indefinitely. Unfortunately, these machines are currently impossible because of the Laws of Thermodynamics. The 1st law states that energy is neither created nor destroyed. That means the amount of energy coming out is the same as the energy going in. That means all practical uses of perpetual motion machines are gone because they could never produce more than enough energy needed to run itself. There would be no excess. So how about machines that just run forever? Many ideas for these have been variations on the wheel with weights as counterbalance. But the weights also shift the wheel's center of mass, causing it to just swing back and forth like a pendulum before stopping. Robert Boyle proposed the different idea of using capillary action that draws water up through tubes to make a self-watering pot. But the capillary action would also prevent the water from falling out of the tube, getting it stuck there forever. For all of these, they need extra energy to keep themselves moving, breaking the 1st law. If an engineer developed a machine that didn't violate the 1st Law of Thermodynamics, the 2nd law would thwart it. The 2nd law states that energy tends to spread out through forces like friction. Any moving machine would have parts to create friction and lose little bits of energy through heat over time, eventually stopping it. But we don't have to give up hope yet. There might still be a form of matter out there that can be perpetual. 

The New Yorker: The Fall and Rise of Kamala Harris

The New Yorker: The Fall and Rise of Kamala Harris

By Dana Goodyear

    Joe Biden has fulfilled his pledge to choose a woman as his vice president, along with responding to many black women and the Black Lives Matter movement by choosing an African-Asian-American woman, the first ever on a VP ballot.

    This is just another first on Harris's list of firsts, starting from San Francisco all the way to state and Senate seats. In all of them, she was the first African American woman in her position. During the Democratic primary, she seemed confident that she could add presidency to her list as well. Unfortunately, her failure to provide a clear cut message to voters, along with her shaky record in the criminal justice reform movement, prevented her from getting voters. Her final moment of glory was in a Democratic debate when she grilled Biden over his opposition to buses in the 1970s, "That little girl was me." That left the two in an awkward position should she be considered for vice president.

    However, Biden's acceptance of that and choosing her anyway fit into his whole narrative of broadening perspectives, and it worked out in the end.

Air and Space: How Many Drones Are Smuggling Drugs Across the U.S. Southern Border?

Air and Space: How Many Drones Are Smuggling Drugs Across the U.S. Southern Border?

By Tim Wright

    Recently, drones have become a large part of illegal drug trade. Smugglers once used boats and low flying planes to cater drugs across the US-Mexico border. They could carry larger payloads but were easy to find and track. Drones, however, go undetected by most radar systems and can use predetermined flight patterns to prevent tracing.

    The drug-smuggling drones are called narcodrones and have only recently entered the picture as companies started selling commercial drones to the general public. Previously, they couldn't take much payload, but the new ones by companies like DJI can carry much more.

    Most radars operate on L and S frequencies which are fine for tracking big planes at high altitude. But these waves are too big to catch the small drones. To detect drones, X band frequencies must be used. But the problem with that is that they don't reflect well off non-metal objects, which is a problem as drone parts are replaced with cheaper composites.

    Furthermore, drones can sit and watch the border with cameras for hours until it is safe to go across. So what is the plan for stopping them? Jamming and spoofing, as well as drone shooting or collisions, which are regularly used by the military, are banned because the drones fly over civilian populations, and it could cause mayhem. The department in charge of the border actually doesn't have any plans right now, and this is a quickly evolving battle.

National Geographic: Nano needles. Facial recognition. Air travel adapts to make travel safer

National Geographic: Nano needles. Facial recognition. Air travel adapts to make travel safer

By Jackie Snow

    Airports and airlines were already looking into high tech devices to make air travel better. Now, the coronavirus has sped that up. Robots that would have wandered around airports for several hours using water and disinfectant have now incorporated UV-C light to kill the virus. This is also good for the human staff because it lets them go to other places that require sanitization. There are also more complex robots that use Roomba like systems to map their routes and avoid obstacles.

    Touchless technology sped up lines. Now, they can help prevent virus transmission by reducing the number of times you have to take out your identification and show it to someone. Face recognition that uses unique facial features can identify people even with a mask on, but there are security concerns over the technology. Mobile apps can also be used to help enforce social distancing and do remote check ins.

    Health screening with those no-touch thermometers are becoming standard. But because these don't detect non-symptomatic people, there are more advanced technologies that can detect respiration rates and heart rate. They aren't COVID-19 tests, but they are better than the traditional thermometers. Some Chinese airports also have a negative pressure pod that does a 40 second treatment with "'nano needles,' photocatalyst technology, and a sanitizing spray."

    Plus, flight attendants have new PPE uniforms. However, many airlines still treat uniforms as a sort of fashion, drawing criticism that valuable supplies are being wasted.

TedEd: The last living members of an extinct species

A TedEd by Jan Stejskal

Nájin and Fatu, who live in the savannahs of Kenya, are the last remaining members of their species, the northern white rhinoceros. Unfortunately, they are both female, meaning the species is functionally extinct because they cannot reproduce. But what if we could still save them? About 50 years ago, poachers began illegally killing thousands of these animals for their horns. The northern white rhino population quickly shrank, and panicked researchers tried to breed them in captivity. Nájin and Fatu are the last two remaining from the total of 4 bred in captivity. Neither can have a calf due to medical issues. In 2018, Sudan, the last male of their speices, died. The only hope is artificial breeding from stored semen. First, eggs would have to be removed from a sedated rhino in a procedure that takes up to 2 hours. Then, the cells would be used to create an embryo in a lab, which no one knew how to do. Then, a surrogate mother in another species would have to bear the calf. The southern white rhino, which is a closely related species that diverged from their northern counterparts a million years ago, could work. Researchers experimented with southern rhino eggs and discovered a way to create an embryo in an Italian lab. In 2018~19, Nájin and Fatu's eggs were sent there, and 3 viable embryos were created and frozen for later use. Researchers will continue taking eggs three times a year. When a good surrogate southern rhino mother is found, she would be injected with the embryo. It helps that the two species have similar pregnancy lengths. If this works, researchers hope to create a breeding population with genetic diversity from a century ago over the next few decades. This opens up more questions. Humans have driven many animals to the brink of extinction. Is it our duty to bring them back, and how far should we go to do it?

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

By Suzanne Collins

Book 4 in series

Book 1! The Hunger Games

Book 2! Catching Fire

Book 3! Mockingjay

    64 years before Katniss Everdeen entered the arena in the 74th Hunger Games...young Coriolanus Snow is chosen to mentor the female tribute of District 12 in the 10th Hunger Games. The Games looked very different back then, with tributes in the same decrepit arena every year with a selection of weapons. This is the first time mentors are allowed. Coriolanus's father was a Capitol general who was killed by Rebels in the war, and his family is now nearly broke. Performing well as a mentor and winning the prize at the Academy is his only chance to make it to the University.

    Coriolanus decides that even though Dean Highbottom appears to have pranked him with the supposedly worst tribute, he will play it up as much as he can. He meets his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, when she gets off the train, and somehow ends up in a cage with the tributes, which gets him great publicity. Lucy Gray is an odd character. She is apparently in a traveling band that was confined to 12 by the Capitol after the war. She wears a rainbow dress and is an amazing singer, enrapturing the audiences at the zoo. (That's where tributes used to be kept). Coriolanus brings her food, and appears to be the only one building a relationship with his tribute.

National Geographic: Arctic summer sea ice could disappear as early as 2035

National Geographic: Arctic summer sea ice could disappear as early as 2035

By Alejandra Borunda

For years now, we have known that the Arctic ice as been disappearing rapidly. In the 1980's, summer ice covered an average to 3.8 million square miles. Now, that number has been reduced to just 2.8 million, having declined at about 27,000 square miles a year. In fact, a recent study found that as soon as 2035, the Arctic could become ice-less in the summer.

    The Arctic sees twice as much temperature increase as the rest of the planet, and climate change is also accelerating at the same time. This could affect everything. Ice shelves that protected the coast from erosion are gone, endangering many costal native villages. The cold of the Arctic compared to the heat of the equator also creates ocean and air circulation, and the white reflects the solar heat.

    This year, climate change caused an unprecedented heat wave in Siberia, sending temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. During this heat wave, Canada's last ice shelf melted. So when will there be no summer ice? We can use the Last Interglacial period to make an estimation. About 130,000 years ago, Arctic temperatures were around 7 degrees F above pre-industrial averages, with much higher sea levels. We have evidence that when ice first started to melt, the water eddies that formed absorbed heat, melting the remaining ice faster. Scientist Mario Guarino and her colleagues formed the model that predicted the 2035 date. This is much earlier than most models.

    So can we fix it? Even at record pace, it's probably too late to completely reverse the effects of climate change. But we can slow it, and prepare for the changed world.

Time: A New Global Depression Is Coming

Time: A New Global Depression Is Coming

By Ian Bremmer

As economies around the world tank, unemployment soars, and countries are rushing to produce working vaccines, many are trying to avoid what could be coming: a global depression. Many are hoping that when scientists find a vaccine, the world will simply rebound into what it once was, and life will go back to normal. But this won't be the case. Neither will the steady bounce-back of the 2008 economic recession. That's because a depression is much bigger. It is global, cuts deep into our lives, and is long lasting. "COVID-19 fears will bring lasting changes to public attitudes toward all activities that involve crowds of people and how we work on a daily basis; it will also permanently change America’s competitive position in the world and raise profound uncertainty about U.S.-China relations going forward."

    Today, the world is much more connected than it was in 2008. China has grown rapidly, and when it slows, everyone else does too. Social safety and healthcare providers are starting to feel the strain, and many will break. The Federal Reserve's June report said that this is the most severe downturn in economic activity since WWII, and that was before the most recent spike in coronavirus cases. Every time there is a new wave and we are forced to shut down again, more people will lose jobs. Even a vaccine won't be a cure all. Some will get it first, and others may choose not to get it at all.

    Governments will have to change they way they spend taxes, and temporary emergency measures won't be enough. These temporary bailouts and high hopes for a vaccine have kept stock markets afloat, but supply and demand have suffered major hits.

    So economic recovery will come in a series of short bursts. To make it faster, leaders could tell people to face reality, and team up globally to fight the virus. "Today’s lack of international leadership makes matters worse. If COVID-19 can teach world leaders the value of working together to avoid common catastrophes, future global emergencies will be that much easier to manage for the good of all. Unfortunately, that’s not the path we’re on."

TedEd: How to spot a counterfeit bill

A TedEd by Tien Nguyen

Out of every 10,000 US bills, 1 of them is counterfeit. Although that doesn't sound like much, it can add up to millions of dollars. It can cause a wide range of problems, from a few dollars out of your pocket to destabilizing national economies. But you can easily spot these fakes. The counterfeit detection pen is made of a solution of potassium iodide and elemental iodine. Real money is made of a mixture of cotton and linen threaded with tiny red and blue fibers. It is made by one secret company called Crane & Company which has been producing it since Paul Revere asked them to do it to fund the Revolutionary War. However, many counterfeits are made from printer paper strengthened with starch, which is what the pen detects. The starch is made of amylopectin and amylose molecules. Amylose is in a helical structure, which reacts with iodide and leaves a dark mark on the paper. If it is real, the mark will be bright yellow. Another way is using UV light. Since 1996, all bills have a polyester strip one millimeter wide. These will show the bill's value and USA on them in natural light, but shine under UV light. These work because the molecules absorb the amount of energy from UV light, then give off some as heat and the rest as light. There may also be visual clues. The portrait should be lifelike, the seal should have even sawtooth points, the border should be unbroken, and the serial number should be evenly spaced.

Air and Space: Will Space Tourists Finally Get a Ride?

Air and Space: Will Space Tourists Finally Get a Ride?

By Joe Pappalardo

Spaceport America is the place where future spaceflights with Virgin Galactic will take off - for $250,000 each. In the middle of the New Mexico desert, Richard Branson's company has been promising space tourism for years. They now have former test pilots and NASA astronauts for pilots, and two spaceships to make it work. A WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane a SpaceShipTwo passenger plane are going through final tests. The first official flight is expected to take off next June.

    For the hefty price, there is also a great deal of hospitality. A lounge is situated just off the run way where families can watch Future Astronauts (the rich people who get to ride) take off. Afterward, they will meet in here for celebratory champagne. The whole flight will take under 2 hours, with 5 minutes spent weightlessly in space.

The New Yorker: Why you can't just vote on your phone during the pandemic

The New Yorker: Why you can't just vote on your phone during the pandemic

By Sue Halpern

    Many people are concerned with going to the polls during the pandemic, and some have found state-run pilot programs for online voting on the Internet and social media. So why aren't we all just voting online?

    Three words: It's not safe. Pilot programs and last-second emergency online voting has shown that hackers can easily change a vote while it is traveling from the voter to the counter, all without leaving a trace. In fact, a government programmer demonstrated all the weak points in a video that can be found online.

    Now, we could send absentee ballots to people online, have them fill it out, print it, and mail it, but hackers could still gain access to what was input on the ballot, leading to the possibility of targeted political ads. However, there is great potential and many investors in this idea, and perhaps the future will see widespread online voting.

Time: What Kamala Harris Means For Joe Biden's Campaign—and the Democratic Party's Future

Time: What Kamala Harris Means For Joe Biden's Campaign—and the Democratic Party's Future

By Molly Ball

    Joe Biden has picked Kamala Harris as his running mate, putting the first Black and Asian American woman on a major party ticket. He has also symbolically appointed an heir to take the Democratic party into the future.

    Harris ran against Biden in the Democratic primaries, and although she has been in consideration for the Vice Presidential pick for a while, the recent Black Lives Matter protests have boosted her support. Biden's increasing age was also a consideration, with Harris being two decades younger than him. "In Harris, he saw someone who could accomplish three things at once: help him win the November election, help him govern through a national crisis, and help him pass the torch to a new and diverse generation of Democrats."

    Harris's race is very important, as low Black turnout cost the Democrats many votes in swing states in 2016. She also has an interesting political history, having often shown conflicting policies due to her political malleability. Although this helped her in state elections, her lack of direction left many supporters wondering in the presidential race, leading to her eventual dropout.

    One important issue is that Biden and Harris have a history. Harris openly attacked him during an early debate on a policy that affected her and he supported. Biden struggled to respond, leading to a temporary rise in the polls for Harris. Although she never apologized, Biden doesn't hold any grudges. But his advisors thought otherwise, worrying that she might not be a loyal running mate. In the end though, she was the best choice - a white VP might have seemed ignorant to racial injustices, whereas some other candidates were too inexperienced.

TedEd: Football physics: The "impossible" free kick

A TedEd by Erez Garty

In a 1997 soccer game between France and Brazil, Roberto Carlos set up for a 35m free kick with no direct path to the goal. Carlos kicked it wide of the players, seemingly out of bounds. But just before going out, it turned and went into the goal. How is this possible? Newton's 1st Law of Motion states that an object will move in the same direction and velocity unless a force is applied on it. So what force turned Carlos's ball? When he kicked the ball, he kicked it so that it turned on its axis. As the ball moved through the air, the air moved against the spin of the ball on one side while going with the spin on the other side. This created areas of low and high pressure, and the ball curved to the low pressure side, going into the goal. This is called the Magnus effect, first discovered in 1670 by Sir Isaac Newton while he was playing tennis. This can occur with other kinds of ball sports, and even frisbee. The type of kick is called a banana kick, and it is very hard. If you kick it too wide, it goes out; too far in, it won't get past the defenders. If it has too much spin, it won't go into the goal, and too little, it will go out. So is it possible to kick the ball so hard that it comes back? No, it will be slowed by the air, increasing its angle of deflection, and making it go in a perpetual spiral. And to do even that, you would need to give it 15 times as much spin as Carlos.

National Geographic: Fauci ‘seriously doubts’ the Russia vaccine is ready for widespread use

National Geographic: Fauci ‘seriously doubts’ the Russia vaccine is ready for widespread use

By Nsikan Akpan

Russia has just announced that it has approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. National Geographic interviewed NIAID director Anthony Fauci for his take on this development. He says that he seriously doubts whether Russia has in fact run all the trials to make sure the vaccine is safe and effective.

    Stage Three is when a vaccine is tested on human subjects. It is meant to measure how effective and safe it is, and how much should be administered. The Kremlin has claimed that it completed all the proper tests before President Putin's announcement, but other Russian officials insist otherwise. An executive financing the vaccine said that although tests began in several countries, no records of completion could be found in the country's Health Ministry.

    Fauci has also said that the US currently has half a dozen drugs in testing, and could roll them out to have no or even harmful effects as soon as next week. "But that's not the way it works."

CNN 10 8/12/2020 ~ 8/14/2020

Go to cnn.com/cnn10 for latest video

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

As kids prepare to go back to school, different parts of the country are learning in different ways. Some are doing in-person classes, while others are doing hybrid or distanced learning. And as the US surpasses 5 million coronavirus cases, the percentage of infected children is ticking up as well. This is probably because they have been staying home. After many schools closed in March and April, they have hardly had any outside contact, leading to the assumption that younger people are less likely to catch the disease. But as they head back outside, they are catching the virus. Luckily, they appear to suffer less severe symptoms. Russia has approved the first COVID-19 vaccine in the world. They say they have run all necessary tests and that this is an important milestone. Some have expressed concerns that human trials weren't conducted, but Putin said that nurses and teachers are being vaccinated first and that even his rarely seen daughter has been treated. Earlier this week, President Trump signed an executive order banning TikTok in the US unless its Chinese parent company sells its operations in the US to an American company. Lawmakers are concerned that the massive amount of data the app collects could be given to the Communist government of China. Finally, what will be the fate of stores? The retail crisis has only worsened, and Amazon is set to buy some spaces in malls for its warehouses. This isn't all bad, though, because some of the money could go to mall maintenance for the other stores, and brings Amazon products closer to people who need them.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

This year's election will take place on November 3rd. The two candidates for the major political parties are set. Neither has been formally nominated, but both have gained enough delegates to be all but set. For the Republicans, incumbent President Donald Trump is running for reelection with Vice President Mike Pence; the Democratic nominee is former Vice President Joe Biden, campaigning with California Senator Kamala Harris. Harris is the first Black woman on the VP ballot for a major party. Usually, the nominations would be made official at party conventions with many delegates present. However, due to COVID-19, these will be small, virtual events. College football has been postponed for BIG-10 and PAC-12 teams due to the pandemic. But the ACC and SEC doctors have told their leagues that they should play with proper precautions. Something that has come earlier because of coronavirus - Halloween candy. The industry makes billions of dollars every year, and with many people planning not to go out, producers wanted to make sure everyone gets their candy. A haptic baton could be a game-changer for many blind musicians. Because they cannot see the conductor, it is difficult for them to be part of an orchestra or band. This new device takes the movements of the conductor's arm and sends them to the player via a pulsing band in real-time, enabling them to be part of a larger group.

Friday, August 14, 2020

A state of environmental emergency has been declared in Mauritius. A Japanese oil tanker crashed into a reef of the East African island in late July, and its expanding cracks have been releasing oil. Workers are going around the clock to remove the oil with helicopters and smaller tankers. Its government has reported that all the oil that remained on the tanker was extracted, but Greenpeace says that 1000 metric tons of it are still in the ocean near two protected ecosystems. Many locals and charities have been helping, and the Mauritian government has asked for help from France to get the ship floating again. The US presidential election works on the system of Electoral College. It was set up by the Founding Fathers, and 538 electors currently cast each state's official votes for president. The number of electors each state gets is based on seats in Congress, so more populated states have more votes. The winner of a state gets all of its electoral votes, except in Nebraska and Maine, where it is based on statewide results plus the number of won districts. 270 votes win the election, and the House picks the president in case of a tie, with the VP pick going to the Senate. The system is a compromise that the Founding Fathers made, and it is rather controversial. Some say it allows people to become president without a majority of voters' support, while others say it makes sure small states matter. Electors are chosen by their parties, and they cannot hold office. An elector can ignore the popular vote, but this is very rare and in some states, illegal. Bones from a new type of dinosaur that is related to the t-rex have been found on the Isle of Wight. It probably lived about 115 million years ago and was 4 meters long. The future of space flight is nearly here. Virgin Galactic, which was supposed to have its first passenger space flight this year, has postponed it to next year due to the pandemic. But after a few more tests, it will be ready. It is designed to be a fully immersive experience, so it has 16 cameras to capture everything, windows all around, special seats and clothes, and a mirror so you can see yourself in space.

National Geographic: My generation grew up online. Endless ‘virtual life’ would be terrifying

National Geographic: My generation grew up online. Endless ‘virtual life’ would be terrifying

By Oliver Whang

The philosopher Frank Jackson once devised an interesting thought experiment. A very intelligent person has lived in a black and white room their entire life, with tons of information and knowledge that color exists. Only, they've never seen it. So when they go outside and see the world and touch things, do they learn anything new? Jackson claims that yes, there are things that we can only by living in the physical world, which he calls qualia.

    The latest generation has grown up online, and the pandemic seems to reinforce that maybe, we can simply do everything online. Along with the fear that the virus will not go away, the fear that this virtual life will not end has also come. The idea that perhaps, some may never come out of this quarantine, losing their connection with the world.