Saving local news

From The New Yorker (to read later): “What to do about local-news erosion is more complicated. In an ideal world, every American would be getting quality journalism—news deserts would turn into lush sod for investigative reporters to muck around in. But the business model isn’t for the faint of heart, and, even on the nonprofit side of things, the reality of the marketplace comes to bear; not every place can sustain an outlet without major, and somewhat risky, investment.”

The story is here: Is There a Market for Saving Local News? | The New Yorker.

Experiment doubles fusion power record

From Nature: “A 24-year-old nuclear fusion record has crumbled. Scientists at the Joint European Torus (JET) near Oxford, UK, announced on 9 February that they had generated the highest sustained energy pulse ever created by fusing together atoms, more than doubling their own record from experiments performed in 1997.”

Read the story here: Nuclear-fusion reactor smashes energy record (nature.com).

Heart disease risk increases after COVID

From Nature: “Even a mild case of COVID-19 can increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year after diagnosis, a new study1 shows. Researchers found that rates of many conditions, such as heart failure and stroke, were substantially higher in people who had recovered from COVID-19 than in similar people who hadn’t had the disease.

“What’s more, the risk was elevated even for those who were under 65 years of age and lacked risk factors, such as obesity or diabetes.”

Read the story here: Heart-disease risk soars after COVID — even with a mild case (nature.com).

Mission to sabotage heavy water plant during World War II

This is about the tough, daring mission to blow up a heavy water plant in Norway during World War II and sabotage the Nazi Germany atomic bomb program: Inside the Daring Mission That Thwarted a Nazi Atomic Bomb (nationalgeographic.com).

Jan. 6 prosecution documents

Links to January 6 criminal prosecution documents:

Bookmarks: Stories about mRNA vaccines, SARS-CoV-2 roots, coronaviruses

Bookmarking this Nature article to read later about mRNA vaccines, which have been used against COVID-19 but could be used against other diseases as well: The tangled history of mRNA vaccines (nature.com).

Bookmarking this Nature Ecology and Evolution article to read later about SARS-CoV-2 roots: SARS-CoV-2 roots | Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Bookmarking this NIH article to read later about coronaviruses replication and pathogenesis: Coronaviruses: An Overview of Their Replication and Pathogenesis (nih.gov).

Guardian: Arizona Republicans introduce election subversion bill

From The Guardian: “Arizona Republicans have introduced a bill that would impose significant new voting restrictions and allow the state legislature to reject election results.

Read the story here: Arizona Republicans introduce election subversion bill | Arizona | The Guardian.

‘Maus’ tells powerful story of Holocaust survival

The “Maus” book cover is pictured above.

Since the McMinn County Board of Education unanimously agreed to pull “Maus” from its eighth-grade curriculum, I had to check out a copy from the library.

“Maus” was written by comic artist Art Spiegelman and published in 1986, and it received the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. It focuses on Art’s father Vladek and his family, including his wife Anja (Art’s mother). It starts in the mid-1930s and includes the couple’s early years, their internment in the Auschwitz concentration and death camp, and reunification after the war ended.

The story includes powerful, vivid descriptions of how Jews were treated by the Nazis and their collaborators; the fear, deprivation, brutality, terror, and death the Jewish people felt and experienced; and the occasional tale of survival and reunification.

I thought it was incredibly powerful, and it is a story that clearly should be shared. I think this might be the first account I have read from someone who survived one of Nazi Germany’s concentration and death camps in Poland and Germany.

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Clash between traditional, expert authority

I thought Dartmouth sociologist Brooke Harrington had a really enlightening thread about the clash between traditional authority and expert authority. It helped me make sense of a lot of what we are seeing politically, socially, and culturally. You can find a link to the thread below. It was in response to another thread about the clash between small business owners and large corporations.