Time: South Korean President Moon Jae-in Makes One Last Attempt to Heal His Homeland

By Charlie Campbell

    2018 was a year in which the Korean peninsula stepped back from the brink of war and entered into negotiations for the first time in years. After threats of "fire and fury" from Trump, South Korean President Moon Jae-in invited a North Korean delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, and a total of 5 summits were held. However, after Singapore, progress stalled. Talks in Hanoi ended with no agreements, and things escalated pretty quickly from there, with Trump focusing more on domestic issues and North Korea once again becoming antagonistic. Because Moon is barred from serving more than one term, he knows that now is the time to act. Now, this picture has played out several times since the cease-fire of the Korean War: talks will stall, the sides will part, and any agreements will soon be ripped up by an incoming administration. In addition, North Korea has said it will only make concessions once sanctions are removed, which is a leverage point Washington is not willing to give up easily.

    So what will become of this last chance? Biden recently met up with Moon and the pair signed several new deals, as well as releasing a statement that they will continue to coordinate in matters concerning the DPRK. Considering that both Seoul and Washington have progressive leaders in office, it could also be an opportunity for North Korea, and they seem to have recognized this, the state-run media releasing a report that Kim Jong-un is preparing for dialogue.

    But even as President Moon looks to leave his legacy, it also seems to be deteriorating. A recent poll showed that his approval ratings are down, and his fixation on foreign affairs seems to have drawn supporters away. Many are concerned that he is trying too hard to be close to the North Korean dictator, and South Korea's vaccination rates are faltering.

    People have tried and failed for 3 decades to solve the issue. "That might, after all, be Moon’s true legacy—the grim realization that if he couldn’t fix things, perhaps nobody can."

National Geographic: Astronomers identify the stars where any aliens would have a view of Earth

By Nadia Drake

    The transit method has long been a common way to figure out where planets are. It identifies little blips that appear to move across the surface of a star, because those could be planets moving past the stars they orbit. But could aliens have identified us using the same method?

    Of course, the conditions would have to be right for this to occur. With the transit method, only planets that can be seen passing a start from the angle of another planet can be identified, leaving many others unnoticed. Researchers recently conducted a study to determine when certain planets would be able to see us. They concluded that in the 10,000 year period ranging from 5,000 years ago to 5,000 into the future, planets orbiting over 2,000 nearby stars could potentially have identified Earth, should there be living organisms there. They also estimated that around 29 planets are habitable and could have picked up stray radio signals from us.

    These planets are all in the Earth transit zone or the plane that is aligned with the Sun and Earth. These planets, if habited, could have seen us in the past, be looking at us now, or see us in the future. They could not only use radio waves that humans produce but, over the span of hundreds of thousands of years, see the composition of the atmosphere changing.

Time: How Republicans Have Packed the Courts for Years

By Jackie Calmes

    While the Republicans have been accusing Democrats of wanting to "pack" the Supreme Court, they have quietly been doing the same thing for years at all levels of the federal judiciary system. The most obvious effect of this is the 6-3 conservative majority in the Supreme Court, which is set to see some challenges to past liberal rulings like abortion and same-sex marriage. While the Democratic Party is in control of the Senate now, Republicans have sworn to stop Biden nominees should they retake the majority in 2022 or 2024.

    The GOP, specifically Mitch McConnell, has sworn to stack the judiciary with as many conservatives as they can, because judges serve for life, while laws are more volatile. Democratic Presidents have left more than 100 vacant seats at various levels because most nominees were blocked by a Republican-held Senate. The most notable stiff-arming was seen in 2016, when McConnell refused a confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, claiming that the next president should choose a nominee while forcing Amy Coney Barrett's hearing through the Senate just weeks before the election in 2020.

    During his presidency, Trump appointed nearly 300 judges to the federal bench, and 3 justices - only one of whom was legitimate. It seems that McConnell's strategy to "transform the federal judiciary" will only continue during the Biden years. He has pledged to block all Biden nominees in 2024 should he regain control of the Senate in 2022, and has yet to say anything about 2023.

National Geographic: Whales don’t spray water from their blowholes and other myths, debunked

By Melissa Hobson

    There are a variety of myths out there about whales, ranging from them blowing water from their blowholes to swallowing humans. However, most of these are wrong.

    Whales have hair: Though they don't look furry, whales actually have hair, and some are even born with whiskers that fall out because they serve no purpose underwater. Hair follicles are an evolutionary trait present in all whales since whales are mammals.

    Whales can't breathe underwater: Whales have lungs just like we do, and need to breathe in order to survive (though they do last much longer on one breath than we do). Their blowhole(s) are like our noses.

    Whales expel air from their blowholes: Whales breathe, and their blowholes serve as an air intake. When they surface, they blow air out, and the hot air from their lungs condenses when it collides with cold air outside. Water and other particles that were covering the blowhole are also expelled.

    Not all whales sing: You've probably heard about whale songs - predictable sequences of sound that travel through the ocean. However, only certain baleen whales exhibit this behavior. Toothed whales use echolocation, which emits high-pitched clicks to identify objects. 

    Whale sharks are not a type of whale: While whale sharks might be called whales and grow as large as one, they are a type of fish, not a mammal. Like all sharks, they are cold-blooded, have gills, and have a skeletal system comprised of cartilage. In addition, their fins move side to side, rather than up and down.