Stuff YOU Should Know
Prince Dies If you are on social media, or simply paying attention at all in the past couple of weeks, you are likely quite aware that the musician named Prince died. Tributes to the musician in the shape of massive dance parties across the country, cover songs by famous musicians on tours, and clips of the […]
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Russian Jet Crash Suspicious Last month, a Russian airliner exploded over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. All 224 passengers were killed. Unlike the Malaysian plane that disappeared over the Indian Ocean last year, however, the United States is not involved in the investigation. (There were no Americans on the flight, which would have given our […]
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The Impact of Defective Airbags Back in the summer, btw brought you a story regarding recalls, specifically citing faulty airbags manufactured by the Japanese company Takata. Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it has expanded its investigation of Takata. In addition to problems with front airbags affecting 19 million cars from […]
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Russian Air Strikes in Syria As ISIS continues to threaten in Syria, Russia has acted on its own with air strikes. A coalition against ISIS—which includes the U.S., France, Germany, Great Britain, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia—has publically opposed the military actions. The coalition nations say that the Russian have killed civilians and air strikes […]
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Zimbabwe Demonetizes Currency When the African country Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980 from British rule, its currency had the approximate value of $1.25 US dollars. The economy was strong. In the early 1990s, however, President Robert Mugabe implemented government-sponsored economic programs that ultimately had a devastating effect on the country’s economy. Designed to “correct […]
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Celebrating Pi (With Pie!) Do you like math? Do you like baked goods? If so, you hopefully celebrated both on International Pi Day on March 14. Pi–symbolically represented as π–is a “special number” (or mathematical constant) that is represented by the Greek letter for the letter P. Its approximate value is 3.14 (although it an […]
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Let’s Hear it for the Best Boy! Even if you didn’t watch the Oscars telecast this year, you were likely aware of the contenders. But how much do you know about who does what behind the scenes of a movie? In addition to screenwriters, costumers, and set designers, there is a whole army of movie […]
The Great Vaccination Debate
Last month, we brought you news of the recent resurgence of measles after more than a decade of being considered “eliminated” in 2000. This week, we dig deeper into the growing concern over the spread of the disease and look at both sides of the larger vaccination debate. A Brief History of Vaccination Smallpox, a highly […]
Year in Review: Science and Technology
It seems like there are always significant advances in how we view, approach, expand on, and apply what we know and understand about both natural and applied sciences. Here’s what we learned this year: Space Exploration–As we mentioned in the Year in Review: World News post, 2014 was a big year for exploring beyond our earthly boundaries. India […]
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U.S. and China Agree to Climate Regulations By now, you should be well aware of the many discussions centered around climate change. The big debate, however, continues to be over what steps should be taken to slow or reverse its effects. Earlier this month, President Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping co-announced a climate change […]