Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Men Experience More Emotional Pain Than Previously Believed

Aadhityan A
-
0
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Men Experience More Emotional Pain Than Previously Believed

By Martin M Barillas

Psychologists have discovered that men, despite stereotypes, may suffer more emotional pain than women following breakups.

A team of psychologists and researchers conducted a “big data” analysis of people seeking help for relationship problems on the anonymous online forum Reddit.

“Most of what we know about relationship problems comes from studies of people in couples therapy, which includes a rather specific subset of people — people who have the time, money and motive to work on their relationship problems,” said Charlotte Entwistle, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

To uncover the most common relationship problems and who experiences them the most, the researchers used natural language processing methods to analyze the demographic and psychological characteristics of more than 184,000 people posting on the forum. The statistical data was examined to determine the most common themes. This allowed researchers to create what they term a “map” of such relationship problems.

Nearly one out of 5 people cited their struggles in discussing problems, making communication the most frequently mentioned issue. In one in 8 cases, trust issues were mentioned as a difficulty. And key gender differences emerged.

“As we were conducting the study, we realized that this was an important opportunity to put a lot of common ideas about gender differences in relationships to the test,” said researcher Ryan Boyd. “For example, are men truly less emotionally invested in relationships than women, or is it the case that men are simply stigmatized out of sharing their feelings?” Boyd asked.

Researchers found that the emotional pains involved, rather than the problems themselves, were the most common theme mentioned by the participants. “Heartache” was the most common topic mentioned, which included related words such as “heartbroken,” “regret,” “cry” and “breakup.”

A study of 184,000 people seeking relationship advice on Reddit found that men were more likely than women to talk about heartbreak. (Joanna Nix-Walkup/Unsplash)

Contrary to expectations, the team’s findings showed that men discuss heartbreak significantly more than women do. Thus, they found that the stereotype of emotionally restrained men may be inaccurate. “Notably, the fact that the heartache theme was more commonly discussed by men emphasizes how men are at least as emotionally affected by relationship problems as women,” study co-author Entwistle said.

The study found that men, rather than women, are more likely to seek help online when experiencing relationship problems. “Traditionally, women are more likely to identify relationship problems, consider therapy and seek therapy than are men,” researcher Boyd said. “When you remove the traditional social stigmas against men for seeking help and sharing their emotions, however, they seem just as invested in working through rough patches in their relationships as women,” Boyd added.

The stakes involved in romantic problems and breakups are high, according to the study.

“Interpersonal relationships are vital to our well-being, yet they are complex and often difficult to navigate. The centrality of relationships to our lives is underscored by the consequences that emerge from relationship problems,” the study authors wrote. “People going through relationship difficulties report higher rates of sleep disorders, worse academic performance and mental health issues. Perhaps unsurprisingly, romantic breakups are ranked as one of life’s most distressing events.”

Developing a better understanding of relationship issues is expected to aid professionals in helping patients avoid obstacles in romantic relationships. Researchers also hope the findings will help eliminate stigmas about seeking professional help by showing how common relationship problems really are.

Boyd said the study shows that researchers can produce an accurate depiction of relationship problems on the basis of online evidence. “This gives us serious hope that we can use help-seeking behavior to better understand all types of social and psychological issues and in a way that we simply cannot do using traditional research methods,” Boyd said.

Edited by Richard Pretorius and Kristen Butler



The post Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Men Experience More Emotional Pain Than Previously Believed appeared first on Zenger News.

VIDEO: Spider, Man: Scientists Use Night Vision And AI To Track Spiders’ Web-Building

Aadhityan A
-
0
VIDEO: Spider, Man: Scientists Use Night Vision And AI To Track Spiders’ Web-Building

By Martin M Barillas

Researchers used night vision and artificial intelligence to discover how spiders build their often intricate webs to capture prey.

Johns Hopkins University scientists found that the eight-legged little creatures use their sense of touch to build elegant net-like structures of geometric precision that are delicate but strong. Spiders are among the few animals, along with weaver birds and puffer fish, capable of creating such architectural works.

“After seeing a spectacular web, I thought, ‘if you went to a zoo and saw a chimpanzee building this, you’d think that’s one amazing and impressive chimpanzee,’” said behavioral biologist Andrew Gordus. Noting that a spider’s brain is but a fraction of a human brain, he said it was frustrating that more is not known about them.

“Now we’ve defined the entire choreography for web building, which has never been done for any animal architecture at this fine of a resolution,” said Gordus, a co-author of a new study on the behavior available at Current Biology.

To understand how spider architects can build complex webs, Gordus and allied scientists documented and analyzed the various motor skills and behaviors involved. Because of the challenges in capturing and recording the behaviors, this had never been done before.

In the case of the hackled orb weaver, scientists designed a laboratory environment where infrared cameras and infrared light were used to monitor and record six spiders nightly. While the spiders worked on webs, the scientists tracked millions of their leg movements with machine vision software designed specifically to detect limb movement.

Johns Hopkins University researchers discovered that spiders behaved similarly while making webs, enabling them to predict which part of a web a spider was working on from seeing the position of a leg. (Johns Hopkins University)

“Even if you video record it, that’s a lot of legs to track, over a long time, across many individuals,” said study co-author Abel Corver. “It’s just too much to go through every frame and annotate the leg points by hand. So we trained machine vision software to detect the posture of the spider, frame by frame, so we could document everything the legs do to build an entire web.”

The researchers discovered that spiders behaved similarly while making webs, thus enabling them to predict which part of a web a spider was working on from seeing the position of a leg. “Even if the final structure is a little different, the rules they use to build the web are the same,” Gordus said.

 Johns Hopkins University researchers have detailed the entire choreography for spider web building, something that had never been done so precisely for any animal architecture. (Johns Hopkins University)

This confirmed for him that spiders’ web-making rules are encoded in their tiny brains. “Now we want to know how those rules are encoded at the level of neurons,” he said.

The next step will involve researchers watching how mind-altering drugs may affect spiders building their webs. “The spider is fascinating,” Corver said, “because here you have an animal with a brain built on the same fundamental building blocks as our own, and this work could give us hints on how we can understand larger brain systems, including humans.”

Edited by Richard Pretorius and Kristen Butler



The post VIDEO: Spider, Man: Scientists Use Night Vision And AI To Track Spiders’ Web-Building appeared first on Zenger News.

 Not So Fruity: Plan To Pay More For Bananas

Aadhityan A
-
0
 Not So Fruity: Plan To Pay More For Bananas

By Edelmiro Franco V

Banana producers and exporters in Latin America warn the high costs of supplies and the low international price for the fruit are negatively impacting sustainability and competitiveness in the industry.

That has serious consequences, on various levels, for more than 800,000 families in the region.

The main banana associations in Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica make up more than 60 percent of the global banana production. They warned about the impact of high costs on the value chain at the Fruit Attraction Fair, the largest fruit and vegetable fair in the world, held from October 5 to 7.

“It’s crazy how the supply costs have gone up, mainly for fertilizers. It’s terrible. A bag of potassium costs $42, and urea costs $37, and they’re going to keep going up with the cost of oil,” Claudia Argote, a production engineer with 27 years in the banana industry, told Zenger.

Banana producers and exporters say supply-chain costs are impacting 150,000 Colombian families and 808,000 Latin American families. (Courtesy of Banafrucoop)

Producers don’t know “how to write up a budget because we don’t know how high fertilizers will go. Remember that fertilizer makes up 20 to 25 percent of our costs, so if this situation continues, it’s going to make everything cost more, which will mean a higher cost [for bananas],” she said.

The international price for the fruit “has gone way down, despite the deficit in containers. I thought the balance would get a little better, but not at all. There are a lot of bananas in the world. India is producing a lot, and that’s bad for the volumes exported from all the Latin American countries,” Argote said.

The COVID-19 pandemic is another factor behind the price hikes, given the protocols introduced throughout the entire production line.

A bus that transports workers from their homes to the plantations used to carry 48 people, but due to security measures, it’s now one-third of that number. “That was a huge hit for me in terms of costs,” said Argote, who has her banana company in Urabá, in Northwestern Colombia.

She said the solution lies in “an increase in price for the consumer. Bananas are the cheapest fruit by volume in the world, and they provide high levels of daily vitamins for children and for everybody; they’re great. I think the market can handle a price hike, and that’s where we’re headed.”

The president of the Magdalena Banana Producers Cooperative (Banafrucoop), Leónidas Jiménez, told Zenger that for the smaller producers, the greatest impact has to do with the cost of fertilizers.

“We’re all small producer and right now, we have a stable price. We’re certified with Fair Trade. It means we’re guaranteed a price year-round. The problem is we’re working at 65 to 70 percent productivity,” he said.

The biggest issue is the cost of fertilizers, said Leónidas Jiménez (Edelmiro Franco V./Zenger)

Jiménez said: “A 50-kilo (110 pound) bag of fertilizer costs about $21. What we use most is potassium, and that costs $32; it went up by 50 percent.”

“In this banana business we have to fertilize every month. When we stop, production really takes a hit,” said the president of Banafrucoop, a cooperative of small producers in the Magdalena region, on the Colombian Caribbean coast.

Jiménez said fumigation costs to fight endemic diseases, such as the black sigatoka mushroom on the plantations went up more than 50 percent.

The president of Banafrucoop believes the way to stabilize the cost of fertilizer is through government measures to control imports of the product, which is fundamental to banana production.

“Another issue is the certifications. There are new ones every day and that means high costs for small producers. The market is over-certified. We have to pay $6,615 a year for the certification,” Jimenez said.

Exporters and producers discussed these problems at the Fruit Attraction fair.

The industry leaders said there are higher costs to “implement security measures to keep containers from being contaminated with illegal substances. Because of the increase in maritime fleets, up to 62 percent, due to the global shortage of containers, the structure of operating alliances between shipping lines and the consolidation of that sector is impacted.”

They noted the price of bananas in 2021 suffered “the most catastrophic decrease in the last 10 years, falling to 10 euros ($11) for 18.5 kilos.”

The president of the Colombia Association of Banana Producers (Augura), Émerson Aguirre Medina, told Zenger: “Over the last two years, Colombia and Latin America’s agroindustry has faced a supply price increase in the value chain to such a degree that, even if the level of exports remains stable, the producers have not experienced this stability.”

The minister of Agriculture and Mining of the municipality of Apartado (a banana-producing area in Urabá), Wbeimar Ruiz, said the current exchange rate with the dollar might help balance things. (Edelmiro Franco V/Zenger)

The associations “are asking urgently for the international community and the supply-chain members to help, because it is necessary to implement all the measures to protect global food security and the employment that comes from Colombia’s banana exports — 150,000 families in the country, and 808,000 in Latin America,” said Aguirre Medina.

The director of Augura said: “Producing and exporting countries should not face these external factors on their own to protect the subsistence and future of the banana industry.”

The minister of Agriculture and Environment of the municipality of Apartado, Wbeimar Ruiz, said the current exchange rate with the dollar may help balance things.

“This is not the first time this has happened in Colombia. We once had an exchange rate at 1,500 pesos per dollar and the industry managed to survive. Now, with the rate above 3,700 pesos on average, it balances things in a way,” Ruiz told Zenger.

He says the “main business, which is banana production, is a stable business because of the supply contracts with habitual clients on the logistics chain in the international banana trade.”

Edited by Melanie Slone and Fern Siegel



The post  Not So Fruity: Plan To Pay More For Bananas appeared first on Zenger News.

Israel Now Open To Individual Tourists 

Aadhityan A
-
0
Israel Now Open To Individual Tourists 

By Abigail Klein Leichman

The time has come that travelers — and Israel’s tourism industry — have been waiting for, since the pandemic shut out much of foreign travel through Ben-Gurion International Airport in March 2020.

As of Nov. 1, Israel reopened for individual travelers from all countries, without the need to obtain an entry permit — only a negative PCR test taken up to 72 hours before departure, and an online Inbound Passenger Statement.

Each entering tourist also must present a vaccination certificate less than six months old, certifying that the bearer was vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, J&J, Sinovac or Sinopharm. Sputnik V will be recognized from Nov. 15.

Unvaccinated, recovered travelers may not enter Israel from the United States but can enter from the European Union with a digitized recovery certificate from the past six months (no such document currently is available in the United States).

Incoming travelers will no longer have to get a serological test to obtain an early release from quarantine. They will take a PCR test upon arrival at the airport, and may leave quarantine as soon as the negative result is received — normally within 12 hours.

Until now, individual tourists could enter Israel only under certain conditions, with special permission. Group travel restrictions were relaxed in recent months.

To understand the impact of the tourism slowdown, in September 2020 there were 15,100 tourists entries compared to 405,000 in September 2019. From January through September 2021, there were 243,500 tourist entries into Israel, compared to 782,700 in the corresponding period in 2020. A record 4.55 million tourists arrived in Israel in 2019.

Foreigners caught with forged documents will be refused entry to Israel for five years.

Foreigners who test positive for COVID on arrival or during their visit to Israel will be required to quarantine in a coronavirus hotel; those who refuse or who break isolation also will be refused entry for five years.

For further details and updates, check the websites of the Ministry of Health and the Population and Immigration Authority.

The Israel Ministry of Tourism restarted its tourist pilot program from Sept. 19, allowing organized tourist groups of five to 30 tourists from “green, yellow and orange” countries to visit Israel.

Orange countries, then including the United States and United Kingdom and most other countries, were considered at risk due to their COVID-19 statistics.

Israel, which has 63.3 percent of people fully vaccinated, had 41,888 new cases and 334 deaths in the past month, according to data from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

The United States, with 58.6 percent of the population vaccinated, had 2.3 million cases and 44,656 deaths in the past month, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Produced in association with Israel21C.



The post Israel Now Open To Individual Tourists  appeared first on Zenger News.

Smarter News Quiz: Crypto Crashes, Custody Conflicts and Climate Change

Aadhityan A
-
0
Smarter News Quiz: Crypto Crashes, Custody Conflicts and Climate Change

By Rachel McMahon


The post Smarter News Quiz: Crypto Crashes, Custody Conflicts and Climate Change appeared first on Zenger News.

How A Search For Clean Air Turned Into The World’s Favorite Pollution App

Aadhityan A
-
0
How A Search For Clean Air Turned Into The World’s Favorite Pollution App

By Diana Bletter

If you ask Siri, “What’s my air quality today?” its go-to source for information on air quality is BreezoMeter. The World Health Organization, Apple, Yahoo and others use its services. The United Nations named the company one of six high-tech companies changing the world for the better.

CEO Ran Korber is a cutting-edge entrepreneur who started the company that provides 400 million people around the world with the most comprehensive, real-time information about air pollution, wildfires and environmental hazards.

“I could speak forever about air pollution and environmental hazards,” Korber said, emphasizing that the environment is not something that is “out there — it’s very personal.”

Korber’s wife has asthma. In 2012, when she was pregnant with their first child, they wanted to find the healthiest place to live. Korber, an environmental engineer, was shocked to learn that local reports weren’t accurate, and pollution sensor units didn’t provide enough information.

Korber asked for help from his best friend, Emil Fisher, a software engineer who loved solving problems, and Ziv Lautman, who worked at the Environmental Protection Agency. The three men’s first assignment was developing an algorithm to calculate environmental factors in several locations.

Fast forward nine years, numerous awards, a visit to the White House and more than $15 million in funding from prominent investors.

Today, BreezoMeter’s advanced algorithms and machine learning can analyze data from satellites and thousands of sensors, incorporating information on dozens of different pollens and pollutants, wildfires, traffic jams and even Super Bowl games to provide real-time, accurate information on air quality around the world.

Air pollution, wildfires and COVID

Air pollution is increasing exponentially. Earth’s climate changes have caused an uptick in wildfires across the globe. Each year, the severity of these wildfires increases 10 times over the previous year. BreezoMeter’s recently launched live wildfire tracker provides vital information for individuals and businesses.

Studies show that people in areas with high levels of air pollution have higher blood pressure, more asthma, more obesity and exacerbated mental conditions. Where people live, their personal environment, has a huge impact on their wellbeing. Congress recently passed a bill to address the disproportionate adverse effects of environmental hazards on people in low-income communities.

At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, BreezoMeter’s researchers found higher levels of the disease in areas with more air pollution. People with preexisting health conditions are more susceptible to COVID, and as Korber says, “An area with severe air pollution is a preexisting condition.”

BreezoMeter CEO Ran Korber in London. (Courtesy of BreezoMeter)

Each year, air pollution kills approximately seven million people. And wildfires intensify that air pollution with dangerous smoke traveling up to 3,000 miles away.

In BreezoMeter’s conference room, Korber opens a map of California where at least two wildfires are raging, spreading air pollution to surrounding states. Until now, he said, people had little idea in which direction a fire is going and when it would be contained.

He points to Alisal, a huge fire raging near Santa Barbara, California. The BreezoMeter app lets drivers know of the range of the fire so they can avoid certain danger.

Measuring air quality

Temperature is easy to measure. But until BreezoMeter invented its Air Quality Index, BAQI, there was no worldwide standard for measuring air quality.

In Hong Kong, for example, the air quality range goes from 1 to 10+, with 10 indicating hazardous air conditions. In the United States, the range goes from 1 (best) to 500 (worst). The BAQI shows zero being the worst and 100 being the best.

BreezoMeter’s index includes ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide and four other major pollutants. People can’t see air pollution, Korber said, which is why it’s so dangerous. Yet you can see the number on the index and easily understand it.

Companies like Bosch, Dyson and AstraZeneca now use BreezoMeter’s forecasts to alert people to worsening air quality.

Someone with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, for instance, can start taking medication in advance because if it’s taken too late, it doesn’t work. Studies show that this forecasting has helped decrease the number of emergency hospital visits by 57 percent, which is good for everyone.

The company recently signed a deal with Volvo, known for its emphasis on auto safety, in which BreezoMeter’s information about air quality is included in all new cars’ standard features. If there is a sudden rise in air pollution, drivers can roll up their windows and turn on the air purifier system.

The most important mission

Korber said he has always been motivated to search for a way to contribute to the world.

Before attending the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 2004, he worked as a security guard at a chemical plant. Undecided about what to study, he asked the 500 people going in and out of the plant about their job. “Do you enjoy your job? Does it contribute to the world? Would you want your child to do the same kind of work?”

He found that 80 percent of the people were doing something they didn’t like. He even got up the nerve to pose the same question to the deputy CEO, who said that if Korber studied environmental engineering, the company would hire him. And that’s what happened.

Ran Korber speaking at his alma mater, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. (Courtesy of Ran Korber)

To start BreezoMeter, Korber and Fisher (who also suffers from asthma) quit their day jobs because they realized that “we had the most important mission, and we had to invest all of ourselves.

“The likelihood of being successful with your startup is about as high as winning the lottery,” Korber said.

And yet they were successful. The company has raised $45 million to date and has 80 employees, including atmospheric, environmental and brain scientists. The plan is to provide even more information, such as earthquake forecasts and radiation levels, and to reach one billion users in 2022.

‘Our thoughts have power’

Ran Korber holding the Technion’s centennial book in which he is highlighted. (Diana Bletter)

To celebrate its centennial next year, Technion is publishing a book highlighting 100 of its notable graduates — including Nobel Prize winners and Korber.

Korber not only gets to work with his best friend, Fisher, but also said that his office location is serendipitous. It’s in the building that houses a well-known restaurant where he proposed marriage to his wife.

Korber credits his success, in part, to the book, “The Secret”, about visualizing what you want manifested in your life.

“If you think about things, you will be directed to those things,” he said.

“It makes perfect sense according to quantum physics,” Korber said. “If e=mc2, if energy is connected to matter, then our thoughts have power.”

He also believes that developing positive habits can contribute to success. He said we need to “think about what we want to achieve, and not what we’re afraid of.”

BreezoMeter CEO Ran Korber in New York. (Courtesy of BreezoMeter)

Built to last

For Korber, finding the right work/life balance has been challenging but since the pandemic started, the company allows people to work remotely, giving employees flexibility.

With all their investors, Korber and his partners could already make a fast exit, but “we’re not just a startup, we’re a scale-up, built to last.”

Produced in association with Israel21C.



The post How A Search For Clean Air Turned Into The World’s Favorite Pollution App appeared first on Zenger News.

Youngkin Shows Narrow Lead In Polls One Day Before Virginia Gubernatorial Election

Aadhityan A
-
0
Youngkin Shows Narrow Lead In Polls One Day Before Virginia Gubernatorial Election

By Virginia Van Zandt

In the final hours leading up to Tuesday’s gubernatorial election in Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin has eked out a narrow 1.7 point lead over Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the latest poll from RealClearPolitics shows.

For days, the race has been neck-and-neck, as Youngkin, a political newcomer, gained the endorsement of former President Donald J. Trump.

Youngkin, who was with the Carlyle Group private equity firm for 25 years before becoming its CEO, stepped down last September to seek office. He called Trump’s endorsement this past spring an “honor,” and he has gained traction among independents and anti-Trump Republicans by appealing to all sides. Though Youngkin initially refused to accept the results of the 2020 general election, he eventually acknowledged Biden as the legitimate winner.

Youngkin would be the first Republican governor in the state since Robert McDonnell was elected in 2010 for a four-year term.

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin speaks at a campaign rally at the Chesterfield County Airport on Nov. 1, 2021, in Richmond. The Virginia gubernatorial election, pitting Youngkin against Democratic candidate, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, is Nov. 2. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

McAuliffe, who served as Virginia’s governor from 2014-2018, is on his third political campaign. He first ran for governor in 2009 and again in 2013. If McAuliffe wins, he would become the state’s first governor since Mills Godwin, who was last in office in 1978, to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Education at center stage

An Emerson College poll showed that 21 percent of Virginia voters placed education as the most important issue the commonwealth is facing, yet revealed disparity by political party. Twenty-three percent of McAuliffe voters said COVID-19 is the most important issue, while 34 percent of Youngkin voters chose education.

McAuliffe pledged a $2 billion education reform plan that he claims would increase teachers’ salaries, address racial inequalities, eliminate the achievement gap, invest in rural communities and support careers in education. The plan builds on McAuliffe’s actions during his previous term as governor, including the expansion of the Virginia Preschool Initiative to give at-risk children access to a quality preschool education.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe; Democratic candidate for attorney general, Mark Herring; and Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, Hala Ayala, finish speaking to supporters at a campaign event at Sweet Donkey Coffee on Nov. 1, 2021, in Roanoke. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Youngkin’s plan focuses on “schools, students, and studies,” with an emphasis on keeping high standards for educational metrics such as standardized test scores. He has placed transparency and accountability in public schools as a high priority. Appealing to parents may have boosted Youngkin’s polling numbers, according to a poll by Echelon Insights.

Critical race theory in schools’ curriculum has been one of the top issues in the campaign. Suburban Loudoun County made national headlines over the political turmoil between the school board and parents. Protests at school board meetings against teaching critical race theory have become commonplace over the last few months, prompting school officials to request additional security from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

The last school board meeting of the 2020-2021 school year in June ended with the board walking out after hundreds of angry parents protested a new transgender policy and argued against critical race theory, an academic concept “that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.”

Interim Superintendent Scott A. Ziegler said Loundoun County “has not adopted critical race theory as a framework for staff to adhere to.” He calls it an equity initiative to “provide a welcoming, inclusive, affirming environment for all students.”

Youngkin has called for the removal of critical race theory from Virginia’s public school curriculum. McAuliffe, for his part, said outrage against critical race theory is a “plan to divide people.”

A man waits for Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin to arrive at a campaign event at the Blue Ridge Cafe on Oct. 29, 2021, in Ruckersville, Virginia. Critical race theory in schools’ curriculum has been one of the top issues in the campaign. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Another Loudoun County school board meeting in June erupted as angry parents protested a proposed transgender policy Scott Smith claimed his ninth-grade daughter was sexually assaulted in the high school bathroom by “a boy wearing a skirt.” Smith was arrested when the meeting devolved into turmoil, and he was dragged outside in handcuffs. He was later convicted and given a suspended jail sentence.

Loudoun County Public Schools issued a statement saying the district “is aware of the media and social media reports concerning alleged sexual assaults at two of our high school campuses… . Consequently, members of the Loudoun County School Board were not aware of the specific details of this incident until it was reported in media outlets earlier this week.”

The issue has become another focal point of the gubernatorial campaign, with Youngkin siding with parents who claim the school district has tried to cover up the alleged assault.

McAuliffe called the allegations against the school board “Trumpian conspiracy theories.”

The two candidates squared off in the last gubernatorial debate on Sept. 28, with each accusing the other of being closely aligned with their presidential endorsers, Biden and Trump. Views on parental involvement in public education also featured in the debate.

Youngkin said “school systems refuse to engage with parents.”

McAuliffe’s stance is: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”.

Youngkin doubled down on his pro-parent position by putting out a TV ad featuring a Fairfax County parent who advocated for legislation that requires schools to notify parents when explicit reading material is assigned, a bill that McAuliffe previously vetoed. Laura Murphy pushed to have “Beloved”, Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel about a family of former slaves, banned from Fairfax County’s English curriculum in 2013.

McAuliffe responded by accusing Youngkin of “silencing the voices of black authors” in a campaign speech on Oct 26th.

Vaccine mandates a divisive issue

While 62 percent of Virginians have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (compared to 57 percent across the country), the issue of vaccine mandates has been divisive.

Youngkin said he encourages all Virginias to get the vaccine, but he opposes vaccine mandates and school mask mandates. “Youngkin has chosen to get the vaccine and believes that Virginians have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to get vaccinated based on their personal circumstances,” his website says.

McAuliffe has backed vaccine mandates and called Youngkin an “anti-vaxxer” for not supporting a mandate. McAuliffe has a “Virginia is for Vaccine Lovers” page on his campaign website, where he indicates a plan to “urge local school divisions to require vaccines for their personnel, and work to ensure health systems and nursing homes follow federal vaccine requirements.”

Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (right) campaigns during an event at Marymount University on Sept. 8, 2021, in Arlington. McAuliffe spoke at Marymount to highlight the school’s vaccination requirement for all students and staff. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Attack by the Lincoln Project

In an attack in October on Youngkin’s campaign, the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee, confirmed a stunt that posed five people as white supremacists holding tiki torches outside Youngkin’s campaign bus at a Charlottesville rally. The stunt evoked a tiki-torch march in 2017 at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville after a self-described neo-Nazi killed an anti-racism protester with his car.

The Lincoln Project claimed that Youngkin and the Republican Party embrace the values of the far-right Charlottesville demonstrators.

Far-reaching repercussions?

The results of this election may have implications beyond Virginia. Some believe Virginia serves as a bellwether state, a reliable indicator of midterm and presidential election outcomes. Virginia has voted for the winning presidential candidate 67.7 percent of the time between 1900 and 2020.

Although historically a “purple state” with a mix of Republican and Democratic voters, Virginia has become increasingly blue as Democrat voters move into suburban areas outside of Washington, D.C.

Political analysts question why this race is so close in a state that voted for Biden by 10 points. 

“What I’m interested to see is why Virginia looked so blue in the Trump era,” said J. Miles Coleman of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “It’s because the Democrats in this state made a lot of gains with college educated white voters. These would be these would be in your suburb and constituencies like Loudoun County up in Northern Virginia, Chesterfield County and the Richmond area.

“Whether it’s a close Youngkin win or a close McAuliffe win, that’s still not a good sign for Demcorats,” he said.

Edited by Judith Isacoff and Kristen Butler



The post Youngkin Shows Narrow Lead In Polls One Day Before Virginia Gubernatorial Election appeared first on Zenger News.

Tomb Of Doom: Grave Of Pharaoh Ramses’ Sacrifice Priest Unearthed

Aadhityan A
-
0
Tomb Of Doom: Grave Of Pharaoh Ramses’ Sacrifice Priest Unearthed

By Joseph Golder

An ancient Egyptian tomb belonging to a royal scribe who was in charge of sacrifices under Pharaoh Ramses II has been discovered.

The discovery took place at the Saqqara Necropolis, a huge burial ground for pharaohs and other important people, in Giza near the capital, Cairo, in northern Egypt.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement that the tomb of Batah-M-Woya, who was the head of the treasury in the era of King Ramses II, has been discovered by a Cairo University team chaired by Ola Al-Ajiz.

The statement said that Batah-M-Woya also held the position of “head of the divine clerics in the temple of Ramses II” in charge of sacrifices to deities at the temple of Ramses II in Thebes.

A look at the entrance to the tomb of Batah-M-Woya during excavation work at the Saqqara Necropolis in Giza, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Zenger)

The tomb was unearthed in an area that also houses the final resting places for other important people in the New Kingdom (1550 B.C. to 1070 B.C.), including that of Pharaoh Horemheb, who ruled Egypt from 1319 B.C. to 1292 B.C. He was also a notable military commander.

Archeologists so far have uncovered the entrance of Batah-M-Woya,’s tomb, which leads to a hall full of drawings that depict scenes of ritual processions featuring offerings for the gods.

Professor Ahmed Rajab, the head of the Faculty of Archeology at Cairo University, said experts had been digging at Saqqara since the 1970s.

 Human remains unearthed at the Kom al-Khaljan archeological site in the Nile Delta province of Dakahlia, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Zenger)
One of the ancient burial tombs with human remains uncovered in the Kom al-Khaljan archeological site, in the Nile Delta province of Dakahlia, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Zenger)

In April, it was announced that archeologists had also discovered more than 100 ancient tombs, some of which are at least five millennia old, at another site in northern Egypt. The 110 tombs were unearthed at the Kom al-Khaljan archaeological site in Egypt’s Dakahlia Governorate in the Nile Delta region.

Among the graves are 68 oval-shaped tombs, which have been dated back to Egypt’s Predynastic era from 6000 to 3150 B.C.

Thirty-seven rectangular tombs were also found at the site and are believed to be from the Second Intermediate Period from 1650 B.C. to 1550 B.C. when the Hyksos people of West Asia ruled the country.

More than one hundred ancient burial tombs were unearthed at the Kom al-Khaljan archeological site, in the Nile Delta province of Dakahlia, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Zenger)
One of the artifacts discovered at an ancient burial tomb unearthed in the Kom al-Khaljan archeological site in the Nile Delta province of Dakahlia, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Zenger)

The remaining tombs are oval-shaped and have been dated to the Naqada III or Protodynastic Period from 3200 B.C. to 3000 B.C., a time when the Egyptian language was first recorded in hieroglyphs.

Some of the tombs uncovered still contained the remains of adults and children as well as grave goods and pottery items.

Edited by Richard Pretorius and Kristen Butler



The post Tomb Of Doom: Grave Of Pharaoh Ramses’ Sacrifice Priest Unearthed appeared first on Zenger News.

VIDEO: Watch The Birdie: Parrot Plays Peekaboo With Highway CCTV

Aadhityan A
-
0
VIDEO: Watch The Birdie: Parrot Plays Peekaboo With Highway CCTV

By Lee Bullen

A parrot plays peekaboo with CCTV operators while sitting on a traffic camera on a busy Brazilian freeway.

The turquoise-fronted Amazon parrot, also called the blue-fronted parrot, was filmed peering into the traffic camera near the city of Curitiba, Brazil, on Oct. 29.

The CCTV system, operated by the road management company Arteris Planalto Sul, spotted the bird’s antics on the freeway and shared the footage on Twitter, where it has been viewed 262,000 times.

The state environment authority confirmed the bird’s species. While the parrot is a favorite pet in the United States, it is endangered in parts of Brazil and Bolivia, its natural habitat.

The colorful Amazon parrot measures 14 to 15 inches in length, head to tail tip, and weighs from 9.7 to 18 ounces. Its habitat is undergoing a decline, largely due to a conversion to agricultural use.

But the playful parrot is not the only bird to show an interest in CCTV highway cameras in Brazil in recent months.

The Turquoise-fronted Amazon parrot is found in Brazil and Bolivia.  He was spotted on a Brazilian highway camera on Oct. 29.  (Arteris Planalto Sul/Zenger)

Two toucans were filmed pecking at a freeway surveillance camera near the city of Campinas, Brazil, on April 18.

Footage from the traffic camera shows how the toucan appears on the railing next to the camera. About halfway through the footage, a second toucan ambles into view, and they take turns pecking at the camera with their long orange beaks.

This was the fifth such occurrence of birds being caught on traffic cameras in April, three of them taking place in Campinas, according to AutoBAn, which manages the roads.

In July, two toucans were filmed putting on a show for CCTV operators before one pecked at the camera with its beak.

The spectacle took place on the SP-348 freeway in the city of Sao Paulo on July 5.

It was remarkably similar to the previous scene involving two toucans in nearby Campinas, with one of the birds also trying to eat the camera.

Toucans are native to southern Mexico, Central America and northern and central South America. They are famed for their bright markings and large and often brightly colored bills.

They mostly live in forests, apart from the toco toucan, which is found in savannahs and open woodlands.

The toucans captured by the traffic camera appear to be toco toucans, the largest of the toucans, with their black bodies, white throats and chests and blue skin around the eye.

Given its preference for open habitats, the toco toucan has benefited from widespread deforestation in tropical South America.

Edited by Fern Siegel and Kristen Butler



The post VIDEO: Watch The Birdie: Parrot Plays Peekaboo With Highway CCTV appeared first on Zenger News.

VIDEO: Air TNT: Russia Puts West On Warning With Massive Show Of Anti-Air Attack Firepower

Aadhityan A
-
0
VIDEO: Air TNT: Russia Puts West On Warning With Massive Show Of Anti-Air Attack Firepower

By Peter Barker

Russia’s military says it has successfully put its missile-defense system to the test, by thwarting a simulated large-scale enemy aerial attack.

The military exercise was held at the Kapustin Yar range in the Astrakhan region in southern Russia. Footage of the drill was released by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on Oct. 29.

The exercise involved the use of large-scale air-defense units and anti-aircraft missile systems at long, medium and short ranges, the ministry said in a statement released a day earlier.

A large-scale simulated attack was neutralized by a layered air-defense system made up of a variety of complexes including the S-300V4, Buk-M3 and Tor-M2, the defense ministry said.

The simulated attack came from high-speed missiles, cruise missiles and attack helicopters.

The footage shows the moment the Russian weapons complexes respond to the threat and fire several rounds of anti-air missiles.

Large-scale air defense exercises involving S-300V4, Buk-M3 and Tor-M2 missile units took place recently in the Astrakhan region in southern Russia. (Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/Zenger)

The first layer of the defense system was made up of S-300V4 long-range anti-aircraft missile system battalions which took out aeroballistic missiles descending from an altitude of more than 150 kilometers (about 93 miles)

The S-300V4 missile-defense system is considered to be one of the most effective systems of its type in the world. It costs an estimated $300 million per unit and has been sold to several militaries, including China and Turkey.

The second layer of defense was composed of Buk-M3 medium-range air-defense systems and a Tor-M2 short-range anti-aircraft missile system battalion.

These two systems are designed to provide protection from enemy cruise missiles flying at very low altitudes.

The Russian defense ministry said more than 1,000 service members and 300 units of weapons and military equipment were involved in the missile-defense training exercise. (Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/Zenger)

The Buk missile system is a self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile system developed by the Soviet Union in 1980. It is capable of bringing down cruise missiles, smart bombs, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles. It has an operational range of 30 kilometers (roughly 18.5 miles).

The Tor missile system is a short-range surface-to-air missile system designed for destroying helicopters, airplanes, precision-guided cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Tor system “carried out combat launches against group air targets simulating the raid of a ‘swarm’ of unmanned aerial vehicles of a conventional enemy at a distance of up to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles),” the ministry reported.

At the back of the defense system, Typhoon armored vehicles from a Typhoon-Air Defense unit were positioned to take down targets at extremely close range of under six kilometers at altitudes below 3,500 meters (11,482 feet).

More than 1,000 servicemen and 300 units of weapons and military equipment were involved in the training exercise, and all targets were successfully hit, the ministry said.

Edited by Matthew B. Hall and Kristen Butler



The post VIDEO: Air TNT: Russia Puts West On Warning With Massive Show Of Anti-Air Attack Firepower appeared first on Zenger News.

1...343536...196Page 35 of 196