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A revelation about trees is messing with climate calculations

A revelation about trees is messing with climate calculations

Wired reports: Every year between September and December, Lubna Dada makes clouds. Dada, an atmospheric scientist, convenes with dozens of her colleagues to run experiments in a 7,000-gallon stainless steel chamber at CERN in Switzerland. “It’s like science camp,” says Dada, who studies how natural emissions react with ozone to create aerosols that affect the climate. Clouds are the largest source of uncertainty in climate predictions. Depending on location, cloud cover can reflect sunlight away from land and ocean that would otherwise absorb its…

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Progress in the long fight against mosquito-borne disease

Progress in the long fight against mosquito-borne disease

The New York Times reports: Five decades ago, entomologists confronting the many kinds of suffering that mosquitoes inflict on humans began to consider a new idea: What if, instead of killing the mosquitoes (a losing proposition in most places), you could disarm them? Even if you couldn’t keep them from biting people, what if you could block them from passing on disease? What if, in fact, you could use one infectious microbe to stop another? These scientists began to consider…

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Evelyn Fox Keller argued that science imposed a narrow masculine framework that distorted inquiry

Evelyn Fox Keller argued that science imposed a narrow masculine framework that distorted inquiry

The New York Times reports: Evelyn Fox Keller, a theoretical physicist, a mathematical biologist and, beginning in the late 1970s, a feminist theorist who explored the way gender pervades and distorts scientific inquiry, died on Sept. 22 at an assisted living home in Cambridge, Mass. She was 87. Her children, Jeffrey and Sarah Keller, confirmed the death. They did not specify a cause. Dr. Keller trained as a physicist and focused much of her early work on applying mathematical concepts…

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‘No turning back’: How the Ukraine war has profoundly changed the EU

‘No turning back’: How the Ukraine war has profoundly changed the EU

Patrick Wintour writes: “The EU has changed. There is no turning back. We have turned out the lights behind us and there is basically only one way.” The words of the Danish politician and EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager at a conference in May neatly reflect the mood among the Brussels elite, taken aback at their own ability to shed EU bureaucratic torpor, defend Ukraine, embrace enlargement and move closer to fulfilling Ursula von der Leyen’s ambition for the EU to…

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Fulton County court: The first domino falls in RICO case. How many more defendants might flip?

Fulton County court: The first domino falls in RICO case. How many more defendants might flip?

The Daily Beast reports: [A] plea agreement puts [Scott] Hall [the former Fulton County Republican poll watcher and bail bondsman] on probation for five years in exchange for a guilty plea on the five misdemeanors. He will also pay a $5,000 fine, issue a letter of apology to Georgia voters, serve 200 hours of community service, and agree to avoid activities related to polling or administering elections. Perhaps most crucially for his 19 co-defendants, he also agreed to testify truthfully…

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Trump’s attack on Milley fuels special counsel’s push for a gag order

Trump’s attack on Milley fuels special counsel’s push for a gag order

Politico reports: Special counsel Jack Smith’s office argued Friday that Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Gen. Mark Milley and one of their own newly appointed prosecutors bolster their case to put a gag order on the former president ahead of his trial in Washington, D.C. In a 22-page filing, senior assistant special counsel Molly Gaston said prosecutors rejected Trump’s claims that their proposed gag order was an attempt to silence him on the campaign trail. Rather, she said, it was…

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Trump calls for summary execution of store robbers

Trump calls for summary execution of store robbers

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump called for shooting store robbers on Friday in a bleak speech to California Republicans –and warned “this country will die!” if Joe Biden remained president. During the address to GOP members, Trump also railed that wealthy Beverly Hills residents smell because of water denials, and repeated election fraud lies, according to the Associated Press. “We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect…

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How to stop AI deepfakes from sinking society — and science

How to stop AI deepfakes from sinking society — and science

Nicola Jones writes: This June, in the political battle leading up to the 2024 US presidential primaries, a series of images were released showing Donald Trump embracing one of his former medical advisers, Anthony Fauci. In a few of the shots, Trump is captured awkwardly kissing the face of Fauci, a health official reviled by some US conservatives for promoting masking and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was obvious” that they were fakes, says Hany Farid, a computer scientist…

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How NASA brought an asteroid to Earth

How NASA brought an asteroid to Earth

David W. Brown writes: On a brisk day in February, 2004, Dante Lauretta, an assistant professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona, got a call from Michael Drake, the head of the school’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. “I have Lockheed Martin in my office,” Drake said. “They want to fly a spacecraft to an asteroid and bring back a sample. Are you in?” The two men met that evening with Steve Price, then a director of business development…

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When Nietzsche said ‘become who you are’, this is what he meant

When Nietzsche said ‘become who you are’, this is what he meant

Ryan A Bush writes: In 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche published The Gay Science, a work he referred to as ‘the most personal of all my books’. It came after a series of setbacks in his life, including the weak reception of his previous work, a soured friendship, and his declining health, which caused severe migraines and vomiting, forcing him to resign from his professorial position. Yet it strikes a surprisingly cheerful tone. It’s in this book that the philosopher first penned the…

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Milley says the military doesn’t swear oath to a ‘wannabe dictator’ in apparent swipe at Trump

Milley says the military doesn’t swear oath to a ‘wannabe dictator’ in apparent swipe at Trump

CNN reports: In an impassioned and at times furious speech, departing Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley defiantly proclaimed that the US military does not swear an oath to a “wannabe dictator.” It was a bitter and pointed swipe that appeared unmistakably targeted at former President Donald Trump, who has in recent days accused Milley of “treason” and suggested that he should be put to death for his conduct surrounding Trump’s bid in 2021 to remain in office despite losing…

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Trump’s campaign machine is bleeding cash for legal expenses

Trump’s campaign machine is bleeding cash for legal expenses

Reuters reports: Donald Trump’s political operation has helped pay the legal expenses of more than a dozen people contacted by prosecutors investigating the former president, tying up millions of dollars that otherwise could be used for his 2024 White House bid. Reuters has identified 13 potential witnesses or co-defendants who were represented by law firms that received payments from a political group run by Trump, based on interviews and a review of court records and campaign finance disclosures. The payments…

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Twitter fires election integrity team ahead of 2024 elections

Twitter fires election integrity team ahead of 2024 elections

Rolling Stone reports: Next year will see dozens of elections around the globe, but X (formerly Twitter) has seemingly abdicated responsibility for protecting users from misinformation during these democratic processes. Several European staffers working on a threat disruption team for the social platform, including senior manager Aaron Rodericks, have been fired this week, according to a report in the tech publication The Information that cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Site owner Elon Musk confirmed the termination of the…

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Elon Musk attacks German support for migrants and promotes support for far-right extremist party

Elon Musk attacks German support for migrants and promotes support for far-right extremist party

Insider reports: Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, attacked Germany’s center-left governing coalition for supporting migrants on Friday and boosted a call for the German people to support a far-right extremist party instead. Earlier this month, Germany’s foreign ministry announced it was dispersing funds to two nonprofit organizations that assist asylum-seekers, including a group that conducts search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Already this year, more than 2,500 people have died or gone missing while trying to…

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