Today we honor the first all female space walk. Space walks were done with women but they are always accompanied by a man. But this morning that changed. It’s hard to believe that it has only been thirty-five years since the first America woman walked in space.
Image Via New York Post
Footage of Christina Koch and Jessica Meir starting their walk can be viewed here
It is still live so, I highly encourage you guys to check it out. It’s so cool to see more positive female role models for children. Koch and Meir’s knowledge, expertise and achievements, also promotes women and girl in STEM which is essential for young people still in school. It’s absolutely inspiring to see this.
Way back in the first century, Mt. Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii. In the process, a library of ancient scrolls was carbonized by the extreme heat of the ash coming from the volcano.
Nearly two millennia later, a group of scientists say there might be a way of reading what was locked away in those scrolls during the eruption. Using high-energy x-rays and artificial intelligence, they may be a way to observe the texts without having to risk opening them. Professor Brent Seales, the Computer Science chair at the University of Kentucky, is leading the research:
image via the Guardian, From left to right: Jens Dopke, Brent Seales, Francoise Berard, Robert Atwood, Christy Chapman, and Thomas Connolley.
Some experts have tried to open some of the Pompeii scrolls before. However, many have been destroyed in the process, and exposing the ancient ink to the air run the risks of fading it completely. So this time, Seales is using the power of machine learning, using algorithms to discern subtle differences between the inked and blank areas in the x-ray scans of the scrolls.
A fragment of a Herculaneum Scroll, via Andrew Brookes/Diamond Light Source Ltd
What do Seales and his team of scientists think they’ll find if they succeed?
“For the most part the writings [in opened scrolls] are Greek philosophy around Epicureanism, which was a prevailing philosophy of the day,” said Seales. Classical libraries typically had both a Greek and a Latin section, the scrolls from the Herculaneum villa could also contain some Latin text.
Dr. Dirk Obbink, another researcher and papyrologist working on the process, had this to say:
A new historical work by Seneca the Elder was discovered among the unidentified Herculaneum papyri only last year, thus showing what uncontemplated rarities remain to be discovered there.
Six years ago, Edward Snowden shocked the world when he revealed the U.S. government was secretly implementing a plan to collect and monitor every phone call, text message, and email. Now, he’s telling how he helped create this system of mass surveillance and why he chose to expose it in his memoir, Permanent Record.
Image via Amazon.com
The book’s release is not without its controversies, though. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit Tuesday, Sep. 18, alleging that the whistleblower’s memoir violates a non-disclosure agreement he signed while working for the CIA and NSA. Strangely, the lawsuit does not seek to prevent distribution of the Permanent Record.Rather, the DOJ asks the court to seize the financial proceeds from the book. G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement:
Intelligence information should protect our nation, not provide personal profit.
Typically, government employees with access to sensitive information have to submit any published work to their agency for review. Permanent Recordcontains no secrets that haven’t already been published by other news organizations. Snowden did not submit the book to the government for review prior to publication, preferring to publish his uncensored story. Ben Wizner, an attorney for Mr. Snowden who runs the American Civil Liberties Union’s speech, privacy and technology project commented on the circumstances of the lawsuit:
Had Mr. Snowden believed that the government would review his book in good faith, he would have submitted it for review. But the government continues to insist that facts that are known and discussed throughout the world are still somehow classified.
It is hard to think of a greater stamp of authenticity than the US government filing a lawsuit claiming your book is so truthful that it was literally against the law to write.
It’s understandable why the U.S. government might want to stifle Permanent Record‘s release seizing its profits. The story he leaked in 2013—of the government’s vast surveillance network capable of monitoring the activity of every person on the Internet—is still shocking today. In a section of the book describing the XKEYSCORE system which is “perhaps best understood as a search engine that lets an analyst search through the records of your life,” Snowden writes:
It was, simply put, the closest thing to science fiction I’ve ever seen in science fact.
But perhaps the lawsuit will have the opposite effect, driving more attention to it than it originally attracted. Anyway, Permanent Record is set to be one of the most important political books of the year. Still living in exile in Russia, this is Snowden’s chance to tell his story truthfully.
With the start of September comes a new semester of school. Not the most exciting time of the year, unless you’re Hermione Granger. Good on you if you’ve made the leap to educate yourself. It is indeed something many people desire to one extent or another, but for some, it is an absolute necessity due to a severe lack of intellect. To speak in layman’s terms, for those of you who don’t understand, some people are pretty dumb.
In honor of the start of school, we are counting seven literary characters who are very much in need of a good education.
Without question, Malfoy’s lackeys are in desperate need of schooling, together. The two would surely have to go to classes together as they are so lacking in intelligence separately they’d have to combine their minds, either figuratively or literally via magic, to pass any of their classes.
The man had goals, but not the wits to catch one particular whale. With a little more to learn, Ahab could greatly benefit from learning more about whales in Biology. That or he could go for his teaching license in Whaling. You know what they say, “if you can’t do, teach.”
Finding your place in the world is a huge part of school, especially in high school and college. At the very least with education being the central focus, it’ll prevent you from making undersea deals with strange old hags and running away from home for some pretty boy—or so we hope. Ariel could certainly learn about stranger danger if she enrolls now.
With an inclination toward mischief and violence, the twins would give any teacher a hard time. However, if separated and placed in the right classes, their bad habits could be turned around. Have them involved in a sport like football or volleyball, and on the side, fostering their apparent interest in poetry could help them to express themselves in more productive ways. Then again, going back to the chaos of Wonderland it would take much longer to find progress, unless they dorm that is.
School could have literally saved Ophelia’s life in Hamlet. When you’re with a really great teacher, you can be tested to think for yourself. Granted, in Medieval Times women were expected to follow the men, Ophelia being swayed left and right is a tragedy in itself. If she was given an education, then maybe she’d be more logical in thinking with her heartbreak over Hamlet. At the very least she could have benefited from swimming classes.
In spite of how smart of a scientist he was before his grave-robbing began, Dr. Frankenstein realized only at the end how much of a fool he was to try and play God. Even then, he still did not understand that he is no hero in this tale of horror.
Victor may not need to go back to the basics of Science, but he ought to register in several classes on Ethics as soon as he can.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Watson is a Doctor, he’s already gone through years of school. Not enough when he keeps being schooled by Sherlock. Maybe Dr. Watson should go back to Elementary.
So good on you for making the smart choice of an education! *Cough* Hope it’s not a waste of money. *Cough*
As for this bunch, they definitely need to be making the choice to go to school. It’s still not too late for them to apply, but they’re probably too stupid to know that.
Whether you’re being considerate of your partner by reading with the lights off, trapped with a book during a blackout, or simply trying to save your what’s left of your eyesight, a portable book light might be something to consider. Here are some recommended book lights to suit your (lit)erary needs.
Not everyone wants to read on their iPads and consume more of that notorious blue light than necessary. This light panel has much less of it, looks cool, and looks like something straight out of Star Wars. However, unlike a lightsaber, this light panel won’t burn the pages of your book.
Kindles have a pleasing aesthetic because they don’t have an obnoxious amount of light radiating from their screens. The only downside is that they don’t have a whole lot of light radiating from their screens. If your Kindle needs a boost in light during the nighttime hours, then be sure to do a good deed for your eyes with this purchase.
You already know how good it feels to finish an entire book during a vacation or trip. The first couple of days are spent being jet lagged, you find yourself waking up at awkward hours of the night, and then you open that book you didn’t quite finish on the plane. This handy reading lamp is easy to pack, easy to use, and all around convenient.
USB ports are everywhere—on the bus, on the street, in a Starbucks, on a plane, and even on the portable charger you carry around just in case your phone decides to die. The point is that you will always have an opportunity to plug in this book light and read away no matter where you go.
Last week, we celebrated the birthday of Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived will forever be a legend, but even his glasses weren’t magical enough to light up—but yours will. You can show off these glasses to your fellow Harry Potter fans or treasure them in the privacy of your own Harry Potter shrine (it’s okay to admit it). They’ll be there for when you re-read your favorite Harry Potter book during those tranquil evenings.
Image Via New York Post![Women in Space: 23 Stories of First Flights, Scientific Missions, and Gravity-Breaking Adventures (Women of Action) by [Gibson, Karen Bush]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5130rnnIEdL.jpg)
