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On Thin Ice: Brutal Cold of Canada’s Arctic Was Once A Defense, But Warming Climate Changed That (Maria)
The author writes, “In early February, during the depths of winter, Twin Otter aircraft belonging to the Canadian military flew over the vast expanse of the western Arctic looking for sea ice. Below, sheets of white extended beyond the horizon. But the pilots, who were searching for a suitable site to land a 76,000-pound Hercules transport plane a month later, needed ice that was 5 feet thick. They could not find any. … For generations, the intense cold of the Arctic has served as the bulwark of a military defense of the north. But a rapidly changing climate, defined by extreme shifts in temperature in both directions, threatens to unspool that defense.”
4-Year-Old Migrant Girl, Other Kids Go to Court in NYC With No Lawyer: ‘The Cruelty Is Apparent’ (Dana)
From Gothamist: “In shelters across New York, migrant children sit in front of computer and TV screens, appearing virtually in real court proceedings. They swivel in chairs, walk in circles and play with their hair — while immigration judges address them on the screens in front of them. ‘The reason we’re here is because the government of the United States wants you to leave the United States,’ Judge Ubaid ul-Haq, presiding from a courtroom on Varick Street, told a group of about a dozen children on a recent morning on Webex. … The parties included a 7-year-old boy, wearing a shirt emblazoned with a pizza cartoon, who spun a toy windmill while the judge spoke. There was an 8-year-old girl and her 4-year-old sister, in a tie-dye shirt, who squeezed a pink plushy toy and stuffed it into her sleeve. None of the children were accompanied by parents or attorneys.”
Democrats Plan to Back Some Young Challengers — But Not Nancy Pelosi’s (Reader Steve)
From the San Francisco Chronicle: “Leaders We Deserve, a left-leaning youth-led group, is planning to spend $20 million in next year’s midterm elections against incumbent Democrats in safe blue districts — escalating the party’s ongoing tensions over its aging leaders. But the targets will not include 85-year-old Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who has drawn a young, progressive challenger much like those the group is backing.”
National Science Foundation Cancels Research Grants Related to Misinformation and Disinformation (Russ)
The author writes, “Late on Friday afternoon, hundreds of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation got emails with bad news: their grants or fellowships had been cancelled. Elon Musk’s DOGE — the questionably constitutional initiative that shares a name with a meme coin — celebrated that the NSF had cancelled at least 402 grants as part of the cuts. The cuts were made to awards ‘that are not aligned with NSF’s priorities,’ according to an announcement on the NSF site, ‘including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation/disinformation.’”
Our DNA Is at Risk of Hacking, Warn Scientists (Mili)
The author writes, “Next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) — the same technology which is powering the development of tailor-made medicines, cancer diagnostics, infectious disease tracking, and gene research — could become a prime target for hackers. A study, published in IEEE Access, highlights growing concerns over how this powerful sequencing tool — if left unsecured — could be exploited for data breaches, privacy violations, and even future biothreats.”
Majority of the World’s Population Breathes Dirty Air (Laura)
From the AP: “Most of the world has dirty air, with just 17% of cities globally meeting air pollution guidelines, a report Tuesday found. Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database IQAir analyzed data from 40,000 air quality monitoring stations in 138 countries and found that Chad, Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India had the dirtiest air. India had six of the nine most polluted cities with the industrial town of Byrnihat in northeastern India the worst. Experts said the real amount of air pollution might be far greater as many parts of the world lack the monitoring needed for more accurate data. In Africa, for example, there is only one monitoring station for every 3.7 million people.”
Scientists Create Sound That Can Curve Through a Crowd and Reach Just One Person (Sean)
From Futurism: “Consider, for your listening pleasure, the next frontier in sonic miracles: so-called ‘audible enclaves,’ where only you can hear a sound without disturbing anyone else in open space — no headphones required. As developed by a team of researchers at Penn State, whose findings are published as study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this technology can create pockets of sound isolated from their surroundings that can be targeted at a specific location, potentially picking someone out in the middle of a crowd. Crucially, the sound waves — specifically, ultrasound waves — used to create the audible enclaves can’t be heard along the path they travel and can even be bent to avoid obstacles. Only when they reach their destination are the sound waves picked up by human ears.”
