Marriage is hard, but it’s even harder when you immigrate together
Canadian immigration policy has long emphasized family reunification. In fact, most of Canada’s 200,000 yearly newcomers migrate as a couple or a family unit. ⌘ Read more
Uber will offer gig work like AI data labeling to drivers while not on the road
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Does individual climate action distract from the big picture? New research has answers
New research suggests that trying to change people’s climate habits won’t hurt support for big picture solutions. ⌘ Read more
Millions of US Families Could Soon Go Hungry Thanks to Trump-GOP Government Shutdown
Brett Wilkins, Staff Writer - Common Dreams
_Stephan: As the organizational programs and agencies that have maintained the wellbeing of the United States are being dismantled by dictator Trump and his Republican Congress, funds are being cut, the healthcare system is in chaos, public education is becoming a disaster, and on and on. But now these MAGAT mo … ⌘ Read more
Step by awful step, Trump is using this 12-stage plan to seize total control
Thom Hartmann, Commentator - Raw Story
_Stephan: Thom Hartmann is correct in his description of what is happening to the United States. That is why the “No KIngs” nonviolent demonstrations are so important. The American people must rise up. The Republicans and their leader are going to do everything in their power to rig the election to keep themselves in power. The only … ⌘ Read more
US falls out of world’s 10 most powerful passports list for first time in 20 years
Marina Dunbar, Guardian U.S. Fellow - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: This report in the British Guardian, something you are unlikely to hear, see, or read in the American media, is important because it is another sign demonstrating how Trump and the Republican Party has caused America’s position and presence in the international community to decline.
 produce phytochelatins—tiny, cysteine-rich peptides that bind and neutralize toxic metal ions such as cadmium and arsenic. These molecules act as the plant’s natural detox system, sequestering harmful elements into vacuoles to prevent cellular damage. ⌘ Read more
Researchers’ autonomous system makes it easier to transport cargo on the moon
Autonomy algorithms developed by researchers at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) could one day make cargo transport on the moon safer and more efficient for astronauts. ⌘ Read more
ICE tickets Chicago man with legal residency $130 for not having his papers on him: ‘It’s not fair…I’m a resident’
Gregory Royal Pratt, Reporter - Chicago Tribune
_Stephan: Do you always have your papers on your person? If you immigrated from another country, even if you are a White person, it might be a good idea to do so. Like everything else dictator Trump is doing, having his Gestapo stop people and demanding t … ⌘ Read more
Trump Could Soon Make America’s Refugee Program a Tool for White Nationalism
Noal Lanard, Reporter - Mother Jones
_Stephan: Yet another story about the growing White supremacy racism of dictator Trump, who has always been a racist, his administration, and the Republican Party. Soon, we are going to see whether the fascist majority of the Supreme Court eliminates the Voting Rights Act. The United States has rejected 160 years of its history since … ⌘ Read more
‘Finances are getting tighter’: US car repossessions surge as more Americans default on auto loans
Edward Helmore, Reporter - The Guardian (U.K.)
_Stephan: You don’t hear much about the auto loan business, but I, and economists who study this, when something fundamental changes in a negative way, see it as a canary warning us about the state of the American economy. And it is getting harder and harder to work out what is actua … ⌘ Read more
Something Weird Is Happening to Earth’s Magnetic Field
Passant Rabie, Science Reporter - Gizmodo
Stephan: It isn’t clear to even scientists exactly what this change in Earth’s magnetic field is going to cause, but clearly it will be something dramatic.
_Swarm is a constellation of Earth observing satellites to unlock the mysteries of the planet’s geomagnetic force. … ⌘ Read moreChinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang dies at 103
Chinese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen Ning Yang, one of the most influential scientists in modern physics, died in Beijing on Saturday. He was 103. ⌘ Read more
The Unix Executable as a Smalltalk Method (and Unix-Smalltalk Unification) [pdf]
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Epigenetic changes help cells adapt to low oxygen levels, study reveals
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered how cells can adjust their gene activity to survive when oxygen runs low. The study, published in Nature Cell Biology, reveals that cells use a previously unknown mechanism to control which proteins are produced—and how quickly. ⌘ Read more
Southern Ocean’s low-salinity Antarctic waters continue absorbing CO₂ despite climate model predictions
Climate models suggest that climate change could reduce the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). However, observational data actually shows that this ability has seen no significant decline in recent decades. ⌘ Read more
Follow-up observations by Webb confirm GRB 250702B is most energetic cosmic explosion ever recorded
Considering the immense size of the universe, it’s no surprise that space still holds plenty of secrets for us. Recently, astronomers believe they stumbled upon a kind of cosmic blast never seen before, and it’s challenging what we thought we knew about how stars die. ⌘ Read more
The Racist Roots, and Racist Present, of Today’s Republican Party
Harold Meyerson, Commentator - American Prospect
_Stephan: I am a Virginian whose maternal family came to a land grant on the water that they were given by Queen Elizabeth I, in the early 1600s, and that my father bought back when I was a child. I suspect, but don’t know, some of my early family may have owned slaves, and as a boy, I knew a man who had been born a slave. In spite of that ancien … ⌘ Read more
This clear scale shows how American democracy is in terminal decline
Martina Moneke, Contributing Writer - Raw Story | Common Dreams
_Stephan: Day by day, as I watch the dismantlement of our democracy, and see aspiring dictator Trump’s revenge arrests and court cases against former colleagues, I realize that nothing is going to stop this except tens of millions of Americans nonviolently out in the street on Saturday, and every Saturday thereafter, and … ⌘ Read more
The Brutality Is the Message: Why America’s Violence Against Immigrants Isn’t About Immigration
Thom Hartmann, Commentator - The Hartmann Report
_Stephan: I think Thom Hartmann has it exactly right. This whole immigrant business is about creating an “other” just as the Nazis made the Jews the “other” and using the “other” to create fear and intimidation. Project 2025 is just a restating of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and the Republican … ⌘ Read more
Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Happen Soon
Deni Ellis Bechard, Senior Tech Reporter - Scientific American
_Stephan: Because AI has been allowed to develop to serve a tiny group of individuals whose motivation is their lust for greed and power, and it is subject to almost no government oversight, It is becoming almost impossible to know that anything you read, hear, or see is authentic and factually accurate. This is producing all manner o … ⌘ Read more
Exploring the power of plants to make drugs out of sunlight
Plants are consummate chemists, using the sun’s energy and carbon dioxide from the air, to conjure a dazzling array of complex natural products in ways that cannot be replicated synthetically in the lab. ⌘ Read more
10 Days of Humiliation When the Person Should Have Stayed in Bed
Humiliation is one of the most powerful human emotions. We never forget it when it happens to us, and when channeled effectively, it can help us to become the best versions of ourselves. However, humiliation is an extremely uncomfortable experience; we don’t like it when it happens to us, and we certainly don’t like to […]
The post [10 Days of Humiliation When the Person Should Have Stayed in Bed](https … ⌘ Read more
‘Less and less sea ice’: Brazil woman sails solo through Arctic
Brazilian navigator Tamara Klink told AFP she encountered “very little” sea ice on her solo sail through the Northwest Passage—a rare feat that would have been impossible without an icebreaker ship three decades ago. ⌘ Read more
Nearly 900 mn poor people exposed to climate shocks, UN warns
Nearly 80% of the world’s poorest, or about 900 million people, are directly exposed to climate hazards exacerbated by global warming, bearing a “double and deeply unequal burden,” the United Nations warned Friday. ⌘ Read more