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Sweat-Wicking, Radiative Cooling: Can New Fabrics Make Extreme Heat Bearable? (Maria)
The author writes, “This year is on track to be the hottest in recorded history. With rising temperatures and more intense and frequent heat waves, keeping cool in summer will get harder. Air-conditioning can only go so far. … Wearing light, loose-fitting clothing is well recognized health advice to beat the heat in sweltering temperatures, especially important given [the fact that] heatwaves kill more people than any other extreme weather event. But increasingly, researchers and fashion brands are turning to clothes that claim to make people physically cooler. [Can] new fabrics that take the heat off the wearer [and] purport to cool the body and reduce energy bills make living in extreme heat more bearable?”
Meta Eliminates Fact-Checking in Latest Bow to Trump (Reader Jim)
The authors write, “Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday announced changes to content moderation on Facebook and Instagram long sought by conservatives. Incoming President Donald Trump said the new approach was ‘probably’ due to threats he made against the technology mogul. The move to replace third-party fact-checking with user-written ‘community notes’ similar to those on Trump backer Elon Musk’s social platform X is the latest example of a media company moving to accommodate the incoming administration. It comes on the four-year anniversary of Zuckerberg banning Trump from his platforms after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
The Incredible, World-Altering ‘Black Swan’ Events That Could Upend Life in 2025 (Sean)
From Politico: “2024 often felt manic, with assassination attempts on Donald Trump, war in the Middle East, and the implosion of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. But there’s no reason to think 2025 will be any calmer. That’s not just because Trump is likely to preside over a volatile second term in the White House. Based on his first term, that is to be expected. But there will also, undoubtedly, be unexpected shocks that no one can predict in advance. So we asked an array of thinkers — futurists, scientists, foreign policy analysts and others — to lay out some of the possible ‘Black Swan’ events that could await us in the new year: What are the unpredictable, unlikely episodes that aren’t yet on the radar but would completely upend American life as we know it?”
Heritage Foundation Plans to ‘Identify and Target’ Wikipedia Editors (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “The Heritage Foundation plans to ‘identify and target’ volunteer editors on Wikipedia who it says are ‘abusing their position’ by publishing content the group believes to be antisemitic, according to documents obtained by the Forward. Employees of Heritage, the conservative think tank that produced the Project 2025 policy blueprint for the second Trump administration, said they plan to use facial recognition software and a database of hacked usernames and passwords in order to identify contributors to the online encyclopedia, who mostly work under pseudonyms. It’s not clear exactly what kind of antisemitism the Wikipedia effort, which has not been previously reported, is intended to address. But in recent months some Jewish groups have complained about a series of changes on the website relating to Israel, the war in Gaza, and its repercussions.”
Are Abortion Bans Across America Causing Deaths? The States That Passed Them Are Doing Little to Find Out (Mili)
From ProPublica: “The same political leaders who enacted abortion bans oversee the state committees that review maternal deaths. These committees haven’t tracked the laws’ impacts, and most haven’t finished examining cases from the year the bans went into effect.”
The Panama Canal’s Newest Voyagers: Fishy Intruders From Two Oceans (Russ)
The author writes, “The Panama Canal has for more than a century connected far-flung peoples and economies, making it an essential artery for global trade — and, in recent weeks, a target of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s expansionist designs. But of late the canal has been linking something else, too: the immense ecosystems of the Atlantic and the Pacific. The two oceans have been separated for some three million years, ever since the isthmus of Panama rose out of the water and split them. The canal cut a path through the continent, yet for decades only a handful of marine fish species managed to migrate through the waterway and the freshwater reservoir, Lake Gatún, that feeds its locks. Then, in 2016, Panama expanded the canal to allow supersize ships, and all that started to change.”
How Do You Keep Monkeys From Making Mischief? (Dana)
From NPR: “Krishna, a skinny 12-year-old, waits near a Hindu temple packed with pilgrims. He hears a yell — that’s his cue. He zigzags between motorbikes and honking tuk-tuks, elbows his way through the crowd, and finds a man waving wildly at a monkey. The monkey, perched on a high ledge, has stolen the man’s spectacles — by jumping on the man’s shoulder and grabbing them. Now it is trying them on. Krishna knows what that monkey really wants. He swiftly flings a box of mango juice. The monkey catches the box with one hand but goes back to toying with the glasses. Krishna flings up another juice. Satisfied, the monkey flings the stolen glasses back — straight into an open sewer.”
