CNN 10 9/7/2020 ~ 9/11/2020

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Monday, September 7,  2020

Happy Labor Day!

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Wildfires in California have prompted states of emergency in 5 different counties where 3 different fires are burning record-breaking amounts of land. Over 2 million acres have burned in the state, and the dry climate isn't helping. This weekend, temperatures also broke records, and the official wildfire season doesn't even start until October. The state of emergency will help get relief to those affected by the fires. The US election is coming up on November 3rd. There are many concerns that mail-in voting and COVID-19 concerns could delay the vote counts and keep Americans in suspense for weeks, like in the famous 2000 Florida recount. The two Voyager missions were launched in 1977, and they're still out there. They cost 2 billion dollars after calculating for inflation, and they are now farther from us than Pluto. They also carry information about human life in the 1970s should any alien species pick it up, but that isn't expected to happen.

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

There is a virus coming along - and it's not the coronavirus. It's the flu. Flu season is coming up soon, and many of its symptoms are similar to that of COVID-19. The guidelines for both diseases are the same; stay at home. There are also suggestions that coronavirus safety protocols like masks and social distancing may help prevent the influenza virus from spreading. But many people have expressed concern that getting a vaccine may be unsafe. However, most hospitals and drug stores have safety measures in place, and getting the flu shot is your best bet at preventing the disease. Also due to the coronavirus, a record number of young adults are now living with their parents, 52% to be exact. The last time it was that high was during the end of the Great Depression. Scientists know that when astronauts go into space, microgravity causes muscle loss. Now, rodents with muscle enhancing drugs have been sent into orbit to determine how efficient the drugs are and if there are any adverse side effects. The mice are now back on Earth, and researchers are examining what happened. Yesterday, we talked about the heat waves scorching across California. In the Rockies, the opposite is happening. After temperatures were in the upper 90s for most of the weekend, a sudden cold jet stream from Canada dropped temperatures near freezing, leading to one of the earliest major snowstorms for the region.

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Los Angeles County has banned trick or treating. It has also banned most group activities except for those conducted from inside cars. More than 500,000 kids have been infected with COVID-19, and even though they are less affected by the virus, officials say they should still be cautious. Another age group that is less severely impacted by the coronavirus: College students. Many universities have gone virtual, but some have reopened only to close down again. 37,000 cases have resulted from in-person college learning, mostly from off-campus parties that have been banned. Many colleges have suspended or even expelled students for doing so, and officials recommend testing every 2 days. There are two types of tests. The viral test checks for active diseases, and the antigen test checks for antibodies from a previous infection. PCR, or polymerase chain reaction testing checks for the genetic material of the virus and takes a couple days to process. Rapid tests are what they sound like - they are much faster, taking just 20 minutes, but are more prone to false positives and false negatives. Mr. Trash Wheel is a trash wheel that sits in the rivers leading to the Baltimore Harbor. It cleans up to 2.5 tons of trash from the water every day.

Friday, September 11, 2020

Today is the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It all began on a clear Tuesday morning at 8:45 a.m. A plane flew into the World Trade Center's north tower. Minutes later, at 9:03, a second plane flew into the south tower. Transportation into and out of New York and New Jersey was cut off, and President George W. Bush announced that the US was under a terrorist attack, closing all airports in the US in an unprecedented move. Then at 9:43, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon's fifth corridor. Just after 10:00 a.m., the top of the north tower fell down. The Pentagon soon followed, and a fourth hijacked jetliner crashed near a Pennslyvania airport. Government officials and the UN were evacuated, and America virtually froze to watch what was happening as first responders rushed to the scene. At 10:28, the second World Trade Center fell, and the destruction was over. In the days that followed, the President condemned those who had planned and assisted the attacks, and it was revealed that Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, was behind 9/11, and that Afghanistan's Taliban government had harbored them. 2,977 people died that day, more than the number who died on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Patriot Day was established in remembrance of those deceased in a unanimous vote by both the House and Senate. Both President Trump and Democratic nominee Biden are expected to attend a memorial ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the planes crashed. There will also be memorial services where the other planes crashed. Watch the video for a tour of the National September 11th Museum.

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?

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.

The New Yorker: Who gets to vote in Florida?

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.