Archived threads in /news/ - Current News - 136. page

>Some version of the South Dakota bill has been introduced into the state’s legislature for each of the past four years, but this is the first time it passed in the house in which it originated. The Senate approved it, 23 to 12. The state House is dominated by Republicans, so critics of the legislation are hoping they can stop it in the House Education Committee before it reaches the floor.

>Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit that defends the teaching of evolution and climate change, agrees with Wolf’s reading of the bill and said he is concerned that President Trump’s denial/questioning of man-made climate change and Vice President Pence’s denial of the theory of evolution could encourage state legislators to push through new anti-science legislation.

>“Also of concern is the influence that it might have at the level of the local school district or the local school,” he said in an email. “The prominence of science denial in the new administration may embolden creationists and climate change deniers to pressure their local teachers; even in the absence of such pressure, it may cause teachers to self-censor in order to avoid the possibility of conflict over these socially — but not scientifically — controversial topics.”

>The bill has been blasted by scientific and education organizations, including the South Dakota Department of Education, the School Administrators of South Dakota, the National Science Teachers Association, the National Association of Biology Teachers, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, the National Center for Science Education, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the National Council Against Censorship, the Associated School Boards of South Dakota and the South Dakota Education Association.

>The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota says the primary aim of the bill is to allow teachers to teach evolution as if it were a controversial theory — not as the organizing principle of modern biology, as the scientific community views it. Climate Parents, a national movement of parents, grandparents and families mobilizing for clean energy and climate solutions, called S.B. 55 the “alternative facts” anti-science bill and urged members to contact state legislators to reject it. Lisa Hoyos, director of Climate Parents, said that the bill “subverts science education.”

>The American Institute of Biological Sciences sent a letter on Jan. 26 to South Dakota’s legislative leaders that said in part:

>It is important to note that there is no scientific controversy about the legitimacy of evolution or global climate change. These scientific concepts have repeatedly been tested and grown stronger with each evaluation. Any controversy around these concepts is political, not scientific. Indeed, evolution is a core principle that helps to explain biology and informs the development of biology-based products and services, including pharmaceuticals, food, and biotechnology.

>If Senate Bill 55 is enacted, it is our understanding that it would allow science teachers to miseducate South Dakota’s students about any topics they deemed controversial, and would prevent state and local administrators from intervening.

>Needless controversy, or even litigation, is sure to result.

>As the nation endeavors to prepare our children for the jobs of the 21st century, we should be working to strengthen our science education system — not enabling the misrepresentation of science in the classroom.

>The Texas bill is the first anti-science legislation introduced in the state legislature since 2012, when a House bill promised to protect university students and professors who accept “intelligence design,” or creationist theory. There are different varieties of creationist theory, or intelligent design, but they all refer to the religious belief that God intervenes, or did intervene, in the physical world. That 2012 bill died in committee.

>The new Texas bill says:

(1) an important purpose of science education is to
inform students about scientific evidence and help students develop
critical thinking skills necessary to become intelligent,
productive, and scientifically informed citizens;
(2) the teaching of some scientific subjects required
to be taught under the curriculum framework developed by the State
Board of Education may cause controversy, including climate change,
biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, and human
cloning;
(3) some teachers may be unsure of expectations
concerning how to present information when controversy arises
concerning a scientific subject; and
(4) the protection of a teacher’s academic freedom is
necessary to enable the teacher to provide effective instruction
that serves the purpose stated in Subdivision (1) of this section.

>What does that mean?

>According to Branch’s nonprofit National Center for Science Education, the bill removes accountability from science education, making it impossible for administrators and school boards to restrain maverick teachers; is too vague and will spark conflict and litigation over curriculum; and is opposed by scientific organizations. The center also notes that evolution and climate change are not scientifically controversial topics.

They key, in my experience, to tricking people is not to reveal the nature of you trick.

I fear this level of exposure will have undone much of the magic.

This is how you get drive-by'd in the US.

>>114553
>Hairdryers
Why did I expect it to be a miata?

i wish they would stop using this newspeak

>Meyer said he blames President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on immigration, which he says eliminated due process.

>“She’s not a danger to the United States. She’s a mom,” Meyer said told ABC News on Wednesday. “We need to protect the community from Trump’s deportation machinery.”

>ICE spokesman Neudauer did not say if Vizguerra's request for an extension was denied due to a change in policy.

What I don't understand is how can you spend 20 years in a country without getting citizenship or whatever. Like, how do you not pursue this course of action, not once, over a period of 20 years? But she sure has time to get pregnant 3 times and be an immigrant rights activist.

>>112451
>eliminated due process

i mean, what

stop breaking the law, assholes

>>107543
It's all fun and games until -your- political viewpoint gets censored. The powers used against the /pol/tards can be used against you and I.

Tensions are high, it's only a matter of time...

>>107543
Weren't they doing a lot of doxxing?

Nice slanted headline, OP. Should have titled it
"150 anarchists give international attention whore what he craves in planned riot".

>>107457
>no true scotsman

>>107457
>150 anarchists

I heard the university say this, and while I can definitely see a bunch of rando anarchists showing up and doing this I wonder how they came up with that number.

>>115111
Well at least for his final act he made his clothes disappear.

>>115174
That's really insensitive. Apologize.

>Upper hand

>In one example, it turns out that Neanderthals may still be protecting some people from developing schizophrenia, as well as making them taller. A gene called ADAMTSL3 is a known risk factor for schizophrenia. But the way the gene is controlled by surviving Neanderthal DNA reduces risk and increases height, the team found.

>“Strikingly, we find that Neanderthal sequences present in living individuals are not silent remnants of hybridisation that occurred over 50,000 years ago, but have ongoing, widespread and measurable impacts on gene activity,” says Akey.

>Most genes can generate a variety of different proteins that do different jobs in different tissues of the body, depending on how sub-units of the protein are assembled. Akey’s study shows that the key contemporary impact of the Neanderthal remnants is in dictating which variant of a protein gets produced today.

>“The results add to increasing evidence that these effects are often the outcome of changes to the genetic switches,” says Tony Capra of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. His own results published last year revealed Neanderthal influences on a variety of human disorders, including depression and addiction.

>“The implication is that these variants that came into the human gene pool around 50,000 years ago are still affecting human biology,” says Sriram Sankararaman at the University of California at Los Angeles. “This study makes important progress in understanding how Neanderthal genes many of us carry in our genomes affect diverse human traits by dictating how genes are regulated.”
...

>Receding influence

>Elsewhere, however, the influence of our long dead cousins is receding, nowhere more so than in the brain and – unexpectedly – the testes. “Changes in gene regulation between modern humans and Neanderthals were greatest for these tissues,” says Akey.

>“The finding that these Neanderthal variants tend to have lower activity in brains and testes is intriguing, as it offers hints on which aspects of biology diverged most rapidly between Neanderthals and us,” says Sankararaman.

>Neanderthal control waned most in the cerebellum and the basal ganglia, brain regions vital for fine motor control and perception, that evolved further in humans to encompass advanced thinking, including language processing and behaviour.

>One gene with fading Neanderthal influence is NTRK2, key to neuron survival and the formation of brain connections. This illustrates the kinds of fine-tuning that may have allowed our ancestors to soar away intellectually.

>The differences in the testes, meanwhile, throw new light on how a species may eventually split by becoming sexually incompatible. One of the testes genes over which Neanderthal DNA lost control affects the formation of a sperm’s tail and, subsequently, its ability to penetrate and fertilise an egg.

>Akey and his colleagues speculate that once this control had been relinquished, neither Neanderthals nor Neanderthal-human hybrids could mate with humans any more. “Our results are consistent with reduced fitness of male hybrid offspring,” says Akey.

>Journal reference: Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.207.01.038

Neat

Hopefully, nobody is retarded enough to think that getting raped as a toddler is a pleasurable experience just because it was heterosexual and the perp was a woman.

>>109913

You'd be surprised.

There's the case of that one woman in New Zealand who filmed herself performing sexual acts on her own baby and then selling the footage to a pedophile via the internet (which is how the cops found out about it, when they raided the guy's home), and she didn't even get listed as a sex offender.

>>109915
I think he was saying hopefully there's no one here that would say "shiiiddd, I wish i was rabed as a kid :DD Where were all da cool gurls when i was young xD"

>While Democrats and Republicans' opinions of the law haven't changed much, independents seem to have grown more positive about the ACA, says Liz Hamel, Kaiser Family Foundation's director of public opinion and survey research.

>"They're most likely reacting to what they’re hearing in the news and the fact that more of the public discussion of late is about what people stand to lose if it is repealed," says Hamel.

>The new findings come as insurers and consumers are trying to figure out what to make of Internal Revenue Service guidance on how it would treat tax returns that that appeared to suggest taxpayers without health insurance won’t face penalties at tax time.

>In recent years, returns that didn't indicate whether the taxpayer had insurance or an exemption were processed, but that was set to change this year. Based on one of President Trump's executive orders, the IRS now plans to continue processing these returns and may follow up at a future date.

>"Legislative provisions of the ACA law are still in force until changed by the Congress, and taxpayers remain required to follow the law and pay what they may owe," the IRS said.

>The insurance industry trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans, is urging Congress to approve other incentives to keep people enrolled in insurance if the tax penalties are eliminated. If people aren't required to buy insurance, healthy people are more likely to wait to buy it when they are sick or injured and their premiums couldn't offset the costs of insuring those who need more health care.
...

>Other findings:

>• Nearly half of the public worry someone in their family will lose coverage if the ACA is repealed and replaced.

>• Substantial majorities say it is important that any ACA replacement plan continue to provide federal funds to states that expanded Medicaid under the law. This was true no matter where people lived or what political party they belong to.

>• About two thirds of people prefers status quo over such changes that would limit federal spending while giving states more flexibility to decide who and what to cover.

>Obamacare popularity highest in nearly seven years

Better end that shit quick.

>Saying “my heart fell” when he heard the news, the lead researcher, Professor Isaac Silvera, revealed this catastrophic failure had resulted in the loss of the sample.

>“I’ve never seen a diamond shatter like that. It was so powdered on the surface, it looked like backing soda or something like that,” he said.

>“I didn’t believe it was diamond, it was such a fine powder.”

>There are a number of possible explanations for the lack of any evidence of metallic hydrogen in the remains.

>It could be that the tiny sample is lost somewhere within the metal ‘gasket’ used to contain it between the crushing pressure of the diamonds.

>It might also mean that metallic hydrogen is unstable and turns into a gas when it is at room temperature and normal pressure, in what would be a major setback for any hopes of a new wonder material.

>But a number of physicists have also claimed that the sample was never actually created in the first place.

>Writing in the journal Nature, they claimed measurements of the sample’s reflective qualities were not conclusive proof of metallic hydrogen.

>However Professor Silvera, who has been attempting to create metallic hydrogen for decades, said the absence of metallic hydrogen “suggests nothing, it suggests we couldn’t find it”.

>“The sample is in the wreckage some place or it’s not meta-stable and it disappeared, it turned into a gas,” he said.

>“If it was meta-stable and if it could withstand the shock of a catastrophic failure, it would still be in the gasket.”
...

>He is due to speak about his research at an American Physical Society meeting the next few weeks.

>And, by then, Professor Silvera hopes to have reproduced the same result that saw people queuing up in his laboratory for a look at the first piece of metallic hydrogen on Earth.

>“We’ve got a pair of diamonds that we are now preparing for a run,” he said.

>“There were a few Doubting Thomases, so we decided we should just reproduce it [use the same method].”

>The controversy exists because Professor Silvera and fellow physicist Ranga Dias decided to keep the sample within the grip of the diamonds and study its properties, rather than risk removing it because of the danger that it was unstable and would be lost.

>This meant it could only be viewed through the distorting prism of the diamonds.

>And a sliver of aluminium had been used to protect the diamonds from the hydrogen, which can cause them to become brittle and break under pressure.

>So some experts suggested that the reflections used as evidence of metallic hydrogen could have actually come from the aluminium.

>Professor Silvera was adamant.

>“Right now we think we have enough evidence that there should be no doubt it is metallic,” he said.

>“I’m completely confident of the measurements we have made.”

>It is a competitive field with a number of teams around the world all striving for the same breakthrough.

>“There have been a number of attempts to make metallic hydrogen. There have been several claims of metallic hydrogen,” Professor Silvera said.

>“I’ve worked on this for many years. When I see a claim I examine it. I’ve written three or four papers when people make claims saying there’s evidence of metallic hydrogen.

>“We would not have published a paper if we weren’t confident that it was metallic, especially after having refuted several other people who had claimed to have made metallic hydrogen.”
...

>When the researchers' original paper in the journal Science was published, the congratulations had flooded in with even some from competitors.

>They decided to open the lab for three hours so anyone could come in and look through the microscope trained on the historic sample.

>“We said we would start it at 11am until 2pm. But someone came in at 7.30am and people were coming in all day long, just streaming in because it was something unique to see metallic hydrogen for the first time,” Professor Silvera said.

>And he expressed confidence the results of their experiment would be repeated when they try again in the next few weeks and an almost incredibly shiny piece of metallic hydrogen will be once again on show.

>“I’ll tell you what you will see with your eye because it will be reflecting like a mirror.”

>But ProPublica senior reporter Andrew Revkin in an interview with NPR said that NOAA might not be as well equipped to study climate change.

>"If they say—well, we're just going to shift [climate science] over to, let's say, NOAA, the oceanic and atmospheric administration, that doesn't really work well because NOAA doesn't necessarily have the skill sets to do some of the work that would be easier done at NASA," he added.

>Additionally, he highlighted how one of biggest proponents of scrapping NASA's climate science program is actually a lobbyist for rocket companies.

>"There was someone who was part of the Trump campaign who was pushing for, you know, moving all this climate science out of NASA—that doesn't need to happen there—and making sure NASA's focused on its missions to other planets and back to the moon or that kind of thing," Revkin said. "And of course, he is a lobbyist for companies that build rockets and stuff then."
...

>The GOP has previously waged war with NASA's research on our home planet. In 2015 and in 2016, Congressional Republicans sought deep cuts to climate research while favoring space exploration instead.

>Former Republican Rep. Bob Walker, who is a senior Trump advisor has been actively involved in deliberating the administration's space policy. Walker told the Guardian in November that NASA's earth science program amounts to "politically correct environmental monitoring."

>"We see NASA in an exploration role, in deep space research," he added. "Earth-centric science is better placed at other agencies where it is their prime mission."

>There are many reasons why de-funding NASA's climate change science would be a major mistake. As James Dyke at The Conversation pointed out, NASA organizations such as the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Jet Propulsion Laboratory have made significant contributions to our understanding of how humans are changing the Earth's climate.

>NASA also has more than a dozen satellites that orbit the Earth and remotely sense ocean, land and atmospheric conditions. Its research encompasses solar activity, sea level rise, the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans, the ozone layer, air pollution, and changes in sea and land ice.

>Despite the Republicans and the Trump administration's seemingly hostile feelings about the established science of climate change, NASA has been frequently posting tweets about the topic on its Twitter page.

>>113775
Fucking finally.

nothing of value was lost

>>114703
>Using Google for web searches.
Ditched those jews when they blocked rule 34.

>>114703
NaturalNews got blocked because it's tinfoil shit that prints Icke-tier lizardpeople nonsense.

>newstarget
What a coincidence. newstarget is owned by the same guy who owns NaturalNews.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/NaturalNews

Looks good.

>I have been collecting daily snapshots so that one day SPIDR would feature a timeline, would that be a feature worth of further development?

I think it would only be cool in about like 50 years or so. Reading news from half a century ago is interesting, reading what happened 2 summers ago... not so much

Basic feedback: I love this thing. WELL DONE.

Advanced: It's simple, easy to navigate on mobile (my primary use device for it), and does an excellent job of keeping up with events. It also seems to have the kind of automated lack of bias I like. And reveals how often "news" organizations just gone publish the wire. It's odd, but its quirks even give me an intuitive feel for news behind the news. Really, bravo.

Bet you a fiver they would rather those rainforests were farms and pastureland now.

I'm pretty sure the average inhabitant of a poor country spends their money on more necessary things than the ones from rich countries who spend it on "stupid" (check out http://theworstthingsforsale.com for several examples).

Venezuela's problem is that their government didn't make any productive investments (while, at the same, discouraged private investment) and instead used all its oil money on welfare, subsidies, nationalizations, buying armament from Russians and exporting their "revolution".

>>113383
Lack of developed land isn't what is ruining Venezuela, rampant political corruption and extremely polarized political parties are

>>114669
>I'm everyone's ice cream boy.
I had a good chuckle at this.

Prioritising the important stuff.

Pray from America.

>breitbart
......................................__................................................
.............................,-~*`¯lllllll`*~,..........................................
.......................,-~*`lllllllllllllllllllllllllll¯`*-,....................................
..................,-~*llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll*-,..................................
...............,-*llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.\.......................... .......
.............;*`lllllllllllllllllllllllllll,-~*~-,llllllllllllllllllll\................................
..............\lllllllllllllllllllllllllll/.........\;;;;llllllllllll,-`~-,......................... ..
...............\lllllllllllllllllllll,-*...........`~-~-,...(.(¯`*,`,..........................
................\llllllllllll,-~*.....................)_-\..*`*;..)..........................
.................\,-*`¯,*`)............,-~*`~................/.....................
..................|/.../.../~,......-~*,-~*`;................/.\..................
................./.../.../.../..,-,..*~,.`*~*................*...\.................
................|.../.../.../.*`...\...........................)....)¯`~,..................
................|./.../..../.......)......,.)`*~-,............/....|..)...`~-,.............
..............././.../...,*`-,.....`-,...*`....,---......\..../...../..|.........¯```*~-,,,,
...............(..........)`*~-,....`*`.,-~*.,-*......|.../..../.../............\........
................*-,.......`*-,...`~,..``.,,,-*..........|.,*...,*...|..............\........
...................*,.........`-,...)-,..............,-*`...,-*....(`-,............\.......
......................f`-,.........`-,/...*-,___,,-~*....,-*......|...`-,..........\........