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Monday, September 28, 2020
Monday, September 28, 2020
CNN 10 9/28/2020 ~ 10/2/2020
Saturday, September 26, 2020
CNN 10 9/21/2020 ~ 9/25/2020
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Monday, September 21, 2020
Time: Honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Trailblazing Jurist Leaves a Vital Legacy
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, at the age of 87 due to cancer complications. Before becoming a Supreme Court Justice, she led a campaign against sexism as a lawyer. She extended the 14th Amendment equal-rights clause so that women could get equal Social Security benefits, military housing allowance, administer estates, and serve on juries. She also implemented new terms, such as gender, "(so as not to distract male jurists with the word sex)".
Ginsburg grew up in Brooklyn in 1933 and went to Cornell as a top student. There, she met Martin Ginsburg, her future husband, and the first man who "cared that [she] had a brain". After graduating, they both went to Harvard Law school. Unfortunately, Martin was called up to active duty, so she worked for the Social Security Administration in Oklahoma and even got demoted for working while pregnant. When they returned to Harvard, Martin came down with a type of testicular cancer, so Ginsburg had to write both their papers all while raising a child and being scorned by the dean for taking up a man's role. After her husband graduated, he got a prestigious job in New York, so she went with him to finish her degree at Columbia. It was this discrimination that influenced her future life as a lawyer.
In 1993, President Clinton had a Supreme Court seat to fill, and although she wasn't at the top, Ginsburg made the list. She was not Clinton's first choice because of the fact that many women didn't see her as a feminist anymore - she did not make bold statements, instead slowly wearing down laws, and she was considered the stuff of yesterday. Luckily, Martin was great at publicity - he tirelessly worked to change her image and convinced the women that she was an adamant supporter of overcoming the patriarchy. She was confirmed in a 96 to 3 vote.
Over time, she gained fame for her dissents - when the court tilted right, she read her dissents out loud in hopes that they would see their errors. Eventually, she gained recognition for everything she had done - memorials and merchandise were made for her, and she was awarded an honorary degree from Harvard Law.
"Over the decades, Ginsburg quietly persisted—through discrimination, through Marty’s 2010 death, through more illness and debilitating treatments than any one person should have to endure—without complaint, holding on and out, until sheer will was no longer enough."
Sunday, September 20, 2020
The New Yorker: The Man Who Refused to Spy
By Laura Secor
In 2017, just after a US travel ban on Iran, an Iranian materials scientist named Sirous Asgari received a call for approval of his visa request to visit his children in the States. Upon his arrival, he was arrested by the FBI on charges of stealing trade secrets and violating sanctions.
On a previous visit, he had been contacted by a laboratory at Case Western, which had transmission electron microscopes. Asgari had always been fascinated with these, and the one in Tehran, where he worked, was missing parts due to US sanctions. The head of the lab told him that he would request Asgari's visitor visa to be changed to an H1B work visa. A few months later, his request was denied, and he got ready to return to Iran. Before he left, he was contacted by FBI agents, who offered to pay him for his work at Case Western if he would be an informant on the Iranian government. Asgari denied.
Now, he finally understood. They were using the law to force him to cooperate. FBI agents had gotten wiretaps to his Gmail dating back several years and found many pieces of flimsy, circumstantial evidence to indict him. They claimed he had stolen trade secrets about low-temperature carburization and assisted the Iranian military in violating sanctions with his contacts in the US.
In fact, the techniques which had been emailed to him were already patented and published, an idea for one that had been emailed to him by a student at his university in Tehran was completely different, and his sector of material science had no relation to illegal activity at all. His lawyers got him exonerated, but upon the end of his case, he was detained by ICE. When he was arrested by the FBI months ago, they had taken his passport and given him a visa that was only valid while he was on trial. That had now expired. For the next several months, he would spend his time in disgusting detention centers, even catching coronavirus as a result of neglect. Eventually, he returned to Iran in a prisoner exchange, which he refused to politize, for he knew he had done nothing wrong. However, he still loves the US. He says the freedoms he had in imprisonment - being able to talk to the press, protest for better conditions - weren't available everywhere.
Monday, September 14, 2020
CNN 10 9/14/2020 ~ 9/18/2020
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Monday, September 14, 2020
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Friday, September 18, 2020
Sunday, September 13, 2020
TedEd: A brief history of plastic
A TedEd by the TedEd team
Plastics are endemic to society. But they first came from a round object that wasn't even made of plastic - billiard balls. Billiard balls used to be made from elephant tusk ivory. But overhunting led to a decline in elephant populations, and ball manufacturers posted huge rewards for a new material. In 1863, American scientist John Wesley Hyatt decided to try. For 5 years, he worked to create celluloid, made from a compound in wood and straw called cellulose. Unfortunately, celluloid wasn't heavy enough and didn't bounce the right way to replace ivory in billiard balls. But it could be tinted and patterned to resemble other materials. Plastics are polymers - long molecules made of repeating parts. Plastics are soft and can be easily molded. The first plastic, celluloid, was unfortunately highly flammable, making it less useful. In 1907, Bakelite was created from a mix of phenol and formaldehyde. Since phenol came from the remnants of coal tar, it was cheaper to make, and it was less flammable. In the decades that followed, many other plastics came out, and polyethylene, developed in 1933, is still very commonly used. Injection molding was also created, and it allowed for plastics to be formed in the same mold over and over, opening up an array of possibilities. Surprisingly, plastics were first widely used in World War II, when they were used to make a variety of equipment, rather than to make consumer products. After the war, the factories began making consumer products like furniture and packaging. Unfortunately, the new ease and low costs also came with massive environmental impacts because plastics use many nonrenewable resources and take a very long time to decompose. Scientists today are working on more renewable materials and recycling what we already have.
Time: An American Nightmare: How the U.S. Succumbed to Complacency and Let 200,000 People Die of COVID-19
By mid-September, more than 200,000 people will have died from COVID-19 in the US. This is despite the fact that just 45 days before the first coronavirus infection, the US was ranked first out of 195 countries in its ability to handle a disease outbreak. They failed to take into account the political polarization and the fracturing within the country over the past few years. Had the United States used its vast resources to prepare for the virus and done extensive testing and contact-tracing instead of lulling the people into a false sense of security and ridiculing experts, we might be in a different situation. In fact, some much less prosperous countries have had no cases or gotten their outbreaks under control.
At the top, the leadership continually downplayed the severity of the virus and refused to follow proven scientific guidelines. Because America is so fractured down party lines today, the division was clear for all to see. A majority of Republican-leaning voters thought masks were not important, while a majority of Democrats said masks are important. Similar results were seen for questions about medical professionals. The President also failed to test effectively, often decreasing the number of tests and blaming testing for increases in cases. Individual states have been left to fend for themselves, and few have succeeded.
The pandemic has also dredged up the country's racist past. Because Blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos were systematically persecuted for so long, the socioeconomic gap remains, and it is reflected in their higher COVID infection and death rates.
Then there is the fact that most Americans are self-centered, according to a Pew survey. This is especially bad now when we need to be united against this virus and sacrifice some pleasures for the group.
But all is not lost yet. A vaccine, the magical fix that lawmakers are hoping for might be here by the end of the year (although many people have said they might not take it), and we can still improve. Adequate amounts of PPE should be produced and distributed, and we need to listen to scientific experts. Most of all, we should stay home and sacrifice some things from normal life. "...some 200,000 Americans have already died, and many more may do so before a vaccine emerges unless America starts to implement and invest in the science-based solutions already available to us. Each one of those lives lost represents an entire world, not only of those individuals but also of their family, friends, colleagues and loved ones. This is humbling—and it should be. The only path forward is one of humility, of recognition that if America is exceptional with regard to COVID-19, it’s in a way most people would not celebrate."
Saturday, September 12, 2020
The Joy Luck Club
By Amy Tan
4 Chinese American women comprise of the Joy Luck Club, each of them with painful memories of their past in China. The Club was started by Suyuan Woo, and she plays mahjong every week with her friends An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair. Each woman has a daughter and the daughters have a difficult time understanding things that their mother does.
First, Suyuan and her daughter Jing-mei's story. Suyuan had to flee her home in China during the war with the Japanese. She couldn't carry her two babies and left them on the road with her babies, praying that someone would find and take care of them. For years, she searched with her second husband, Jing-mei's father (her first husband, a military officer, was killed in the war). She couldn't find them and eventually came to the US. Soon after her death, the rest of the Joy Luck Club receives news that they were found by a mountain-dwelling couple long ago. They couldn't read the Chinese that was on the back of a card left with the babies, so she only figured out who they were recently. Even then, she couldn't find the family because the house had been bombed and replaced by a factory. By chance, an old friend of Suyuan found the sisters, now grown women, and told them of their mother. Jing-mei doesn't understand much of this, and only remembers a mother who tried so hard to make her a prodigy, like her friend Waverly. Finally, she can't take it and tells her she wishes she was dead, which the two supposed the abandoned girls were. But as she learns what happened, Jing-mei comes to an understanding. In the final chapter of the book, Jing-mei has a tearful reunion with them and the rest of her Chinese family.
Lindo Jong was forced into an arranged marriage with a spoiled husband and a harsh mother-in-law. By her own wit, she escaped and made it to the US, where her daughter Waverly was born. As a child, Waverly was a chess prodigy, but she somehow lost her skill after a spat with her mother. Later on, Waverly constantly feels as if her mother's judgment controls her actions, but later comes to terms with it after a divorce and learning that her mother's criticism was just taken the wrong way.
An-mei's mother was widowed, then raped by a rich man and forced to become his concubine. An-mei watched her mother suicide from an opium overdose, then came to America and had many children. Her daughter was married to Ted, and after her divorce, she is devastated. After getting over it, she learns to create her own identity instead of hiding in Ted's shadow.
Ying-ying St. Clair grew up in a rich family and married a man she thought she loved. But after she became pregnant with his son, he began cheating on her, so she aborted and left. She lived in poverty for years, working as a salesgirl, when she catches the eye of an American, Clifford St. Clair, and marries him. She left behind her spirit, but she finds it again to help her daughter, Lena. Lena is married to an architect, who she works for in a company she helped him make. He insists on splitting all their expenses equally while he makes much more money than her. She eventually divorces him and starts to make her own decisions.
Note: This was really hard for me because the book was sectioned with the story going back and forth between EIGHT different people.
The Princess Bride (abridged)
By William Goldman, original book by S. Morgenstern
Buttercup is a young girl living on a farm with a farm boy named Westley who always says "As you wish" at a command. She is also one of the 20 most beautiful people on Earth, but she doesn't really care about that. One day, the Count and Countess come to take a look at the supposedly high-quality cows on the farm. When she sees the Countess flirting with Westley, she is overcome with a fit of sudden jealousy and falls in love with him. She tells him so that night and is afraid she has ruined everything when Westley shows up to tell her he is leaving. He says he is going to go to America to make a new life there and will send for her when he is ready. They share a heartfelt goodbye, and from that day on, Buttercup starts to fuss over personal hygiene so much she becomes the most beautiful person alive. But one day, she receives news that his ship was captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who kills all captives. She vows never to love again.
For the next few chapters, we learn about Prince Humperdinck, prince of Florin, Buttercup's city. He is an excellent hunter and spends lots of time in his Zoo of Death, where he keeps all sorts of creepy animals to kill. His father, King Lotharon, is getting old, and it is about time for Humperdinck to find a wife. So he invites the princess of Guilder, their rival neighbor city, but discovers that she is bald. His closest lieutenant, Count Rugen, leads him to Buttercup, whom he demands as his bride. Buttercup says she can't love him, but Humperdinck tells her there will be no love involved, so she agrees.
Friday, September 11, 2020
The New Yorker: The Crisis in the Skies of San Francisco
By Anna Wiener and my personal experience
Over the past few days in the Bay Area and up and down the West Coast, this has been the view outside the window. A reddish haze that looks like it's out of some Martian movie. People who have lived here their entire lives say they've never seen this. It's all because of the record-breaking California fires.
Fires were already burning more than 2 million acres last weekend when temperatures broke records, and more fires broke out. Then, the temperature suddenly dipped again, creating what is called a marine layer - a kind of dense, humid air that usually becomes fog. The smoke from the fires was lifted on top of that, creating an odd sky but leaving the air quality moderately okay. Then, as the smoke drifted down, ash came with it. Checking the air quality became a part of everyday life, just like masks, and a grayish film dusted everything.
The Washington Post: On 9/11, a temporary pause in presidential hostilities
Today is the 19th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Over 2,000 civilians and first responders died that day, and I wish the families who lost loved ones well.
Both incumbent President Trump and Democratic nominee Biden visited Shanksville, Pennslyvania, where the final plane that was headed tower the Capitol was crash-landed by its brave civilian passengers. In a rare moment, the two put aside politics and exchanged greetings.
After a ceremony and moment of silence, they consoled and talked to the small gathering of family members. The Vice President and Senator Harris also visited fire stations to commend the first responders to saved lives that day.
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
CNN 10 9/7/2020 ~ 9/11/2020
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Monday, September 7, 2020
Happy Labor Day!
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Thursday, September 10, 2020
Friday, September 11, 2020
Monday, September 7, 2020
TedEd: The beneficial bacteria that make delicious food
A TedEd by Erez Garty
Have you ever wondered where cheese and bread get their holes, and how wine and vinegar are made? They are all made from microscopic organisms that eat the sugar inside the food. Yeast is a unicellular fungus that requires carbohydrates to function. It is used to make bread, wine, and beer, and has two ways to process the carbohydrates. The aerobic pathway requires oxygen, whereas the anaerobic method does not. The latter is also known as fermentation, which is what yeast usually uses first when making bread. This process creates CO2 and ethanol. The aerobic process creates both CO2 and water, and the ethanol evaporates while the CO2 makes the little bubbles in bread that give it its fluffiness. When wine is made, oxygen levels are lowered so that yeast ferments to produce alcohol, and the CO2 is either released or concentrated for carbonated beverages. Wine also uses other types of bacteria to turn tart grape juice into the signature taste of red wines and chardonnays. However, a different type of bacteria, which produces acetic acid from the ethanol in wine in the presence of oxygen. This turns the wine into vinegar. Milk is inoculated with another type of bacteria to create cheese; the bacteria turn lactose into lactic acid, which causes milk to curdle. An enzyme called rennet can speed up the process, and the curdles become curds, which are squeezed to remove water and become cheese. In some cheeses, mold is added.
The New Yorker: Is Russian Meddling as Dangerous as We Think?
By Joshua Yaffa
In recent years, there has been much discussion over Russian meddling in US politics through social media. But could our reaction be making their attacks more potent?
Russia has been running disinformation campaigns since the Cold War. But the effects of their propaganda is hard to gauge. For example, just one Trump tweet or interview can do what thousands of fake social media accounts can't do. For example, after the President touted the use of disinfectant inside the body, poisoning rates went up in several states.
On the other hand, many Russian attempts at dismantling our democracy are obscure, often with very few views compared to mainland news and politicians. But they can disrupt everything simply by making it look as if they are doing something. It's like when the body over-reacts to a pathogen - we can do more damage to ourselves than the pathogen actually does to us.
Of course, there are ways we can counter this. Studies have shown that people who don't know how the government functions are more likely to believe conspiracy theories about the government. Although the US cannot combat Russian misinformation with our own misinformation, we can craft the truth to be more coordinated and compelling, making more people believe in it.
Sunday, September 6, 2020
The New Yorker: Who gets to vote in Florida?
By Dexter Filkins
Florida is often a key election state. In 2000, it was the center of a controversy that ended in a month of recounts and the Supreme Court eventually handing the state and presidency to George W. Bush. But there are many other underlying factors that made this possible.
Florida was one of the states with the harshest Jim Crow segregation laws that kept Black voters out of the polls decades after the Reconstruction was over. More recently, Republican legislators have tried to keep the predominantly Black and young Democratic voters, whom they perceived as a threat, away from voting booths.
For example, the state imposed laws saying that former felons couldn't vote, which was later revised to a requirement of thousands of dollars in fines to former felons who wanted to vote. Furthermore, the number of early voting days and voting booths on college campuses was reduced, making it harder for those people to vote. Lists of ineligible voters have been fraudulent as well. The state has been flooded with thousands of lawsuits over eligibility claims.
This year, the governor is one who has been trying to make voting harder for years and a Trump supporter. Although he has distanced himself from the President in his recent rants about the Postal Service and calls from constituents for better voting laws, many still believe he wants to deliver victory to the President. Many analyses have said that Florida is a must-win for Trump, making the controversy more tangled.
TedEd: Why people fall for misinformation
A TedEd by Joseph Isaac
A misconception is something that is commonly believed by largely incorrect, for example, the taste map discovered by David Hänig in 1901. The simplified versions printed in many books and newspapers were incorrect. There are two common types of misconceptions. One is disinformation, which is fake information designed to mislead people. However, misinformation is more common, and it is inaccurate information that is unintentionally created. So why do we fall for misconceptions so easily? Misinformation often occurs from human error in transmission, like a game of telephone, which is what happened to Hänig's taste map. It was written in German and academic language, so it was hard to understand for most people. So, newspapers began reporting that certain flavors were imperceptible on certain parts of the tongue, whereas Hänig's research showed that flavors were present on all parts of the tongue and the areas he identified were only slightly more sensitive to certain flavors. Another factor in the spread of this misconception was the simplification of Hänig's complicated diagram, which was more approachable and fits our ideal of being able to understand the world. However, science is often more complicated than that, and a good story is often hard to ignore. So the next time you see some amazing fact, make sure you know it's really true.
Saturday, September 5, 2020
The Trials of Apollo: The Dark Prophecy
By Rick Riordan
Read in 7th grade
*Read previous Rick Riordan Greek myth books for context
Book 2 in series
Book 5 (coming soon)
Apollo has found the Grove of Dodona...and it didn't leave good memories. Meg ditched him because he was afraid her father, Nero, would be mad, and he just got a horrible prophecy with a talking arrow to boot. As the next part of Apollo's quest, he heads to Indianapolis with Leo and the newly-freed Calypso. Upon arrival, they are immediately attacked by Commodus's army of blemmyae. These monsters have faces across their chests and must behave with the utmost manners. Commodus is the next emperor they will face, and he is known as the New Hercules. He has a special vendetta against Apollo, for Apollo killed him when he became too violent in ancient times.
Air and Space: How the RV-8 Became One of the Most Popular Kitplanes of All Time
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By Ken Scott
Richard "Van" VanGrunsven has one of the most successful kit airplane companies. Since 1972, he has sold about 4 planes every week, with a total of 10,700 planes build by people all over the world. And the RV-8 is one of the most popular. One of the company's earliest designs, the RV-4, was popular up to the 1990s when complaints about its tight quarters caused sales dips. So, the company switched to a side-by-side seating design in the RV-6, which sold very well, so well that many called for the RV-4 to be ended. However, VanGrunsven wasn't ready to let go of tandem seating.
He designed the RV-8 with tandem seating and a sleek design with higher horsepower. Now, for years many people have bought and built this kit plane. All of them have come out with smiles on their faces, and some professional pilots have endorsed it as well. Making it even better for hobbyists is its rugged landing gear, allowing grass landings. It also has a higher total seat width than the RV-6.
Thursday, September 3, 2020
National Geographic: The robot revolution has arrived
Robots are becoming more and more integrated into society. Of course, they aren't the human-like thinking, living robots we once imagined. But they can do predetermined tasks quickly and efficiently. This is caused concern that robots will steal human jobs. However, this isn't the case. Many people who have worked with robots actually say it makes their work easier and faster. Of course, it is true that working with robots may require retraining, which could be problematic for some. But the applications of robots are vast. They are already cleaning, assessing inventory, and defusing bombs.
Recently, more human-like robots have served as partners and even performed religious ceremonies. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased demand since better digital communications and cleaning systems are required. Plus, they can fill in where people have been unwilling to work due to safety reasons.
Robots may not be entirely safe yet, though, in crowded environments. Like I said above, they are good at preprogrammed actions, not responding to sudden things that can happen in the factory. And they are still far behind humans as well oiled machines. In the end, we will decide when and how they are used.
Tuesday, September 1, 2020
TedEd: The fish that walk on land
A TedEd by Noah R. Bressman
A walking catfish can jump out of the water if it wants to go somewhere new. Of course, many dangers come with this. Death by dehydration, physical dangers, and predators are all in the mix. This may seem odd, but there are actually hundreds of species of fish that are amphibious or can live on land and in the water. Some types only do this when necessary, while it is a part of life for others. Some fish come out of the water when it is too hot and stay moist in the shade. The walking catfish comes out to eat bugs, and California grunion comes ashore to mate. Normally, fish use gills to breathe, which are feathery organs filled with blood vessels that absorb the oxygen in the water. However, the gills collapse when outside the water. So, some fish have oxygen-absorbing parts inside their bodies or actual lungs. Fish also have thin skin that nutrients can pass through, which makes them dry up outside water. So, some fish flop around in the mud, while others coat themselves in mucus and go deep into the earth. The fins of amphibious fish are extra-strong, enabling them to move around on land. But how do they navigate? Some fish look for reflective surfaces, while others move downward in hopes that water will be downhill. More sophisticated animals like the walking catfish have a lot of taste buds on their whiskers, which it uses to detect prey, water, and harmful areas. So while amphibious fish may have a hard time out of the water, they have evolved ways to solve this over time to become the amazing creatures they are today.
Side note: This actually ties into what I am learning at school, evolution and natural selection.
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