Monthly Archives: July 2020
Best New Fiction 2020: “The Decameron Project – The New York Times Magazine”
AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SWEPT THE WORLD, WE ASKED 29 AUTHORS TO WRITE NEW SHORT STORIES INSPIRED BY THE MOMENT. WE WERE INSPIRED BY GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO’S “THE DECAMERON,” WRITTEN AS THE PLAGUE RAVAGED FLORENCE IN THE 14TH CENTURY. 
Top New Travel Videos: “Bangkok – Thailand”
From longtail canal boats to intimate dinner cruises along the river, professional local guides ensure you will see the unique sights and sounds that make up Asia’s most vibrant city.
Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, is a large city known for ornate shrines and vibrant street life. The boat-filled Chao Phraya River feeds its network of canals, flowing past the Rattanakosin royal district, home to opulent Grand Palace and its sacred Wat Phra Kaew Temple. Nearby is Wat Pho Temple with an enormous reclining Buddha and, on the opposite shore, Wat Arun Temple with its steep steps and Khmer-style spire.
Top Topics Podcast: Chief Justice Roberts And Court Rulings, Airlines
Over the last few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court has handed down multiple setbacks to President Trump and conservatives on cases ranging from abortion to LGBTQ discrimination. Chief Justice John Roberts’ record shows he’s not siding with the left. Instead, he’s slowly but surely moving the court in a more conservative direction.
- Plus, the airline industry suffers a gut punch. United Airlines warned thousands of employees to prepare for layoffs in October as air travel demand remains tepid.
- And, the Black Lives Matter movement has gone global among sports teams.
Guests: Axios’ Sam Baker, Joann Muller and Kendall Baker
TOP TRAVEL VIDEOS: “AERIAL AMERICA – NORTH CAROLINA” (SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL)
North Carolina is home to mysteries, giant industries, and coastal beauty. It’s where gold was first found in America, and where an entire colony of settlers vanished. Experience the history of the Tar Heel State.
From the Series: Aerial America: North Carolina http://bit.ly/2zWNzeC
Top New Science Podcasts: Megatrials For Covid-19 Treatment & Blood Benefits Of Exercise
Contributing correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt talks with host Sarah Crespi about the success of a fast moving megatrial for coronavirus treatments. The United Kingdom’s Recovery (Randomized Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy) trial has enrolled more than 12,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients since early March and has released important recommendations that were quickly taken up by doctors and scientists around the world.
Kupferschmidt discusses why such a large study is necessary and why other large drug trials like the World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial are lagging behind. Also this week, producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Saul Villeda, a professor in the Department of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, about transferring the beneficial effects of exercise on the brain from an active mouse to a sedentary mouse by transferring their blood.
New Adventures: “Parks, Peaks & Prairies Bicycle Route” – Yellowstone To Minneapolis (1,374 Miles)
The Parks, Peaks, and Prairies Bicycle Route fulfills the request of so many cyclists visiting the ACA headquarters in Missoula for a northern connector between the TransAmerica Trail and the Northern Tier Bicycle Route — one that strings together the iconic American parks of Yellowstone, Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, and the famous Black Hills of South Dakota.
But don’t expect the connection to come easily! Located nearly smack dab in the middle are the compact, yet formidable Black Hills. This small mountain range exhibits a network of rollercoasting, winding roads that can frequently rise to 10% grades for short durations.
Many of these same roads are very popular for motorcyclists, especially in August for the world’s largest motorcycle rally centered in the nearby town of Sturgis. Roads and crowds notwithstanding, the Black Hills offers scenery and grandeur on a scale that may be surprising to the conventional out-of-state visitor.
The route begins in the gateway community of West Yellowstone, Montana and ends in the “City of Lakes” — Minneapolis, Minnesota. After riding 2.3 miles in Montana, the route enters Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park, which is renowned as America’s first national park. The route meanders past numerous geothermal hotspots, plunging waterfalls, and idyllic valleys teaming with wildlife.
TOP JOURNALS: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM SCIENCE MAGAZINE (JULY 10, 2020)
Health: “Making Sense Of Coronavirus Data” (Video)
Public health organizations track the spread of coronavirus and use graphs and charts to visualize the data. WSJ’s Brianna Abbott explains what to look for in the data to understand how the virus is impacting your community.
Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann/WSJ
New Science Podcasts: Satellite Navigation, World Wide Web & Neolithic Genomics (BBC)
BBC Radio 4 ‘Inside Science’ talks about satellite navigation in the UK; the science of the World Wide Web and Neolithic genomics.
Is the UK losing its way when it comes to satellite navigation? There’s GPS from the US, but other countries and regions, including Russia, China, India and Japan, either have, or are building, satellite navigation systems of their own. The EU has Galileo, but with Brexit, Britain is no longer involved. The Government has announced that it’s just acquired a satellite technology company called OneWeb. It’s primary role is enhanced broadband, but there’s talk of adding in a navigation function to the constellation of satellites. But how feasible will that be?
In an era of cyber-crime, misinformation, disinformation, state-sponsored attacks on rival countries’ infrastructure, government-imposed internet shutdowns in places like Eritrea and Kashmir, the World Wide Web is an increasingly dark and troubled place. Making sense of how the internet has changed from the democratic, sharing, open platform it was designed to be, and predicting what’s next, are the web scientists. Professor Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and a co-founder of the whole field of web science, is hosting an online, annual conference this week. The theme this year is ‘Making the web human-centric’.
Communal burial sites tend to suggest an egalitarian society, where everyone is considered equal. And this is what we expected the Neolithic societies that spread across Europe with the birth of agriculture around 6000 years ago would be. But DNA evidence from a single human, NG10, buried in 3200 B.C.E in the vast tomb of Newgrange, 25 miles north of Dublin, in Ireland, shows very strong inbreeding. Couple this with the fact the body was buried and not cremated and placed in a highly adorned chamber. Does this indicate an elite ruling class where marrying one’s close kin was the order of the day? Dr. Lara Cassidy, palaeogeneticist at Trinity College Dublin, decoded NG10’s DNA and she tells Adam Rutherford the story.
Presenter – Gareth Mitchell
Producers – Fiona Roberts and Beth Eastwood
Boomers Daily 