In 1962, the first spacecraft humans ever sent to another planet — Mariner 2 — went to Venus. The first planet on which humans ever landed a probe — also Venus! But since then, Mars has been the focus of planetary missions. NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel makes the case for why humans should reconsider visiting to Venus.
For more science reporting and stories, follow Geoff on twitter @gbrumfiel. And, as always, email us at shortwave@npr.org.
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NBN Book of the Day - Andrew Jewett, “Science Under Fire: Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern America” (Harvard UP, 2020)
Americans today are often skeptical of scientific authority. Many conservatives dismiss climate change and Darwinism as liberal fictions, arguing that "tenured radicals" have coopted the sciences and other disciplines. Some progressives, especially in the universities, worry that science's celebration of objectivity and neutrality masks its attachment to Eurocentric and patriarchal values. As we grapple with the implications of climate change and revolutions in fields from biotechnology to robotics to computing, it is crucial to understand how scientific authority functions--and where it has run up against political and cultural barriers.
Science Under Fire: Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern America (Harvard UP, 2020) reconstructs a century of battles over the cultural implications of science in the United States. Andrew Jewett reveals a persistent current of criticism which maintains that scientists have injected faulty social philosophies into the nation's bloodstream under the cover of neutrality. This charge of corruption has taken many forms and appeared among critics with a wide range of social, political, and theological views, but common to all is the argument that an ideologically compromised science has produced an array of social ills. Jewett shows that this suspicion of science has been a major force in American politics and culture by tracking its development, varied expressions, and potent consequences since the 1920s.
Looking at today's battles over science, Jewett argues that citizens and leaders must steer a course between, on the one hand, the naïve image of science as a pristine, value-neutral form of knowledge, and, on the other, the assumption that scientists' claims are merely ideologies masquerading as truths.
Claire Clark is a medical educator, historian of medicine, and associate professor in the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine. She teaches and writes about health behavior in historical context.
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The NewsWorthy - Trump’s Last Day, “Moment of Unity” & Jackpots Up Again- Tuesday, January 19th, 2021
The news to know for Tuesday, January 19th, 2021!
We have updates about:
- President Trump's final full day as the nation's leader
- how the process to get the next president's team in place is underway
- the country coming together tonight to remember lives lost to COVID-19
- travel companies adding new rules ahead of tomorrow's Inauguration Day
- what cause inspired an anonymous donor to give $40 million
- historic jackpots growing larger
Those stories and more in just 10 minutes!
Head to www.theNewsWorthy.com or see sources below to read more about any of the stories mentioned today.
This episode is brought to you by BlueNile.com and MunkPack.com (Listen for the discount code)
Thanks to The NewsWorthy INSIDERS for your support! Become one here: www.theNewsWorthy.com/insider
Sources:
More Trump Pardons Expected: NY Times, Reuters, WSJ, Axios
First Lady’s Farewell Message: USA Today, FOX News, White House
National “Moment of Unity” Ceremony: NBC News, Axios, Biden Inaugural
“We Are One” Event: AP, Deadline, Biden Inaugural
Biden Cabinet Confirmation Hearings: Axios, WaPo, CBS News
Militia Members Charged for Capitol Invasion: WaPo, WSJ, NY Times, CBS News
COVID Deaths Rise in 30 States: AP, NBC News, CNN, Johns Hopkins, CDC
Parler Back Online: Reuters, Ars Technica, Fox News, Parler
Expedia, Vrbo Tighten Security: USA Today, Fox Business, Expedia
Facebook Blocks New Events Around Capitals: TechCrunch, Facebook
Anonymous Donor Gives $40 Million to NAACP: NPR, AP, Marshall Motley Program
Lottery Jackpots Rise Again: USA Today, NBC News, Mega Millions, Powerball
Critics Choice Awards Nominations: Variety, Deadline, USA Today
What A Day - Executive Order Up
Over the weekend, Biden’s team announced the president-elect’s agenda for the first ten days of his term, plus a dozen or so executive actions Biden intends to sign on Inauguration Day. We discuss.
Tomorrow's inauguration will have a massive security presence, with tens of thousands of National Guard troops headed to DC. Across the country, authorities continue to arrest people who participated in the January 6th attack, and states remain on high alert for any violent demonstrations.
And in headlines: misinformation down on social media following Trump’s ban, Samsung’s chief is headed to prison again, and a pandemic-defining relationship comes to an end as Affleck and de Armas break up.
The Daily Signal - Trump Made Foster Children a Priority. That Shouldn’t Change Under Biden.
“Every child deserves a family,” begins President Donald Trump’s executive order last June on “Strengthening the Child Welfare System for America’s Children.”
The Trump administration made foster children a priority, working with state and local groups to place children in loving homes more quickly and to ensure that fewer children are entering the system to begin with.
Lynn Johnson, assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, joins the show to discuss how that executive order last summer has improved the foster care system and why it’s so important for the incoming Biden administration to continue to make vulnerable children a priority.
We also read your letters to the editor and share a "good news story" about a young woman who found a way to use horses to inspire a love of reading in students.
Enjoy the show!
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Python Bytes - #217 Use your cloud SSD for fast, cross-process caching
Topics covered in this episode:
- diskcache
- TOML is 1.0.0 now.
- * pyqtgraph*
- Parler + Python = Insurrection in public
- Best-of Web Development with Python
- * Assorted*
- Extras
- Joke
The Stack Overflow Podcast - What exactly does it mean to be a “senior” software engineer
Joocelyn hosts the Git Cute podcast, which you can find here.
She's working on a book about seniority in the software industry, which you can pre-order here.
You can follow her on Twitter at javavvitch.
Our lifeboat badge goes to LMc for explaining how one can: Count the Letter Frequency in a String with Python
Read Me a Poem - “You, Andrew Marvell” by Archibald MacLeish
Amanda Holmes reads Archibald MacLeish’s poem, “You, Andrew Marvell.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
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Opening Arguments - OA457: Lin Wood Smacked Down by Judge; Interview with Jamil Favors!
More consequences! This time it's for Lin Wood, absolute clownhorn and terrible attorney responsible for some of the worst election suits. A judge in Delaware issued him quite the smackdown, by lawyer standards. Then we talk with Jamil Favors, who you will remember from our Georgia Election Fundraiser! Jamil was the Deputy Voter Protection Director for the DSCC. We talk about how election night went for him and also what the future holds. Which state might be the next Georgia?
Links: Page sues Oath, Inc, Wannabe Biglaw Firm Closes Its Doors, Dallas-Based Attorney To Represent Kenosha Shooter, Lin Wood Argues Kenosha Shooting Was Justified By … Second Amendment?, Delaware Judge sua sponte order, Judge glorious smackdown
Chapo Trap House - 490 – Meet Me in NEOM feat. Séamus Malekafzali (1/18/21)
We discuss new developments around Saudi Arabia’s increasingly bizarre utopian megacity NEOM with writer Séamus Malekafzali. We then preview this week’s Biden inaugural ceremony, talk dem messaging around checks and wages, and examine one of the Trump administrations final acts of general bizarreness in its Statue Garden of American Heroes.
Check out Séamus’ substack here: https://malekafzali.substack.com/
And subscribe to the damn youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chapotraphouse