Why Climate Change Is So Hard to Tackle: Our Stubborn Energy System
Gamergate Comes to the Classroom ; The Polymer That Goes Poof ; and More Picks
Gamergate Comes to the Classroom ; The Polymer That Goes Poof ; and More Picks 8/28
Harvard Freshman Says He Was Denied US Entry Over Friends’ Social Media Posts (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Between October and July, U.S. Customs and Border Protection deemed 235,467 people to be inadmissible at U.S. borders. … Harvard spokesman Jason Newton said Tuesday that ‘the university is working closely with the student’s family and appropriate authorities to resolve this matter so that he can join his classmates in the coming days.’”
Maria Soto Was Born in the US, Yet the Trump Administration Won’t Giver Her a Passport (Chris)
The author writes, “Maria’s parents were migrant workers. They took her to Mexico as a baby to be cared for by her grandparents. Growing up, she always knew she was a United States citizen. She regularly returned to the United States to visit family, showing her original birth certificate each time she crossed the border. When Maria turned 18, she returned to the United States and settled in southern Oregon. She soon sponsored her husband for his green card — an immigration process that required that she prove her citizenship to the federal government. She would prove her citizenship to the federal government two more times, submitting immigration petitions for her mother and her brother.”
Falwell Steered Liberty University Land Deal Benefiting His Personal Trainer (DonkeyHotey)
From Reuters: “Around 2011, [Jerry] Falwell [Jr.], president of Liberty University in Virginia, and his wife, Rebecca, began personal fitness training sessions with Benjamin Crosswhite, then a 23-year-old recent Liberty graduate. Now, after a series of university real estate transactions signed by Falwell, Crosswhite owns a sprawling 18-acre racquet sports and fitness facility on former Liberty property.”
Gamergate Comes to the Classroom (Russ)
The author writes, “In the five years following Gamergate, sites like YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter shifted the power dynamics between student and teacher. The harassment-campaign-turned-online-culture-war paved the way for how abusers coordinate and systematically target victims. … New York Times writer Charlie Warzel sums it up succinctly: ‘Gamergate’s DNA is everywhere on the internet … its most powerful legacy is as proof of concept of how to wage a post-truth information war.’”
Disappearing Act: Device Vanishes on Command After Military Missions (Gerry)
From Phys.org: “‘This is not the kind of thing that slowly degrades over a year, like the biodegradable plastics that consumers might be familiar with,’ says Paul Kohl, Ph.D., whose team developed the material. ‘This polymer disappears in an instant when you push a button to trigger an internal mechanism or the sun hits it.’ The disappearing polymers were developed for the Department of Defense, which is interested in deploying electronic sensors and delivery vehicles that leave no trace of their existence after use, thus avoiding discovery and alleviating the need for device recovery.”
