Sixty-six million years ago, a huge celestial object struck off the coast of what is now Mexico, triggering a catastrophic “impact winter” that eventually wiped out three-quarters of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs. A pair of astronomers at Harvard say they have now resolved long-standing mysteries surrounding the nature and origin of the “Chicxulub impactor.” Their analysis suggests it was a comet that originated in a region of icy debris on the edge of the solar system, that Jupiter was responsible for it crashing into our planet, and that we can expect similar impacts every 250 million to 750 million years. The duo’s paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports this week, pushes back against an older theory that claims the object was a fragment of an asteroid that came from our solar system’s Main Belt. “Jupiter is so important because it’s the most massive planet in our solar system,” lead author Amir Siraj told AFP. Jupiter ends up acting as a kind of “pinball machine” that “kicks these incoming long-period comets into orbits that bring them very close to the sun.” So-called “long-period comets” come from the Oort cloud, thought to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the solar system like a bubble that is made of icy pieces of debris the size of mountains or larger. The long-period comets take about 200 years to orbit the sun and are also called sungrazers because of how close they pass. Because they come from the deep freeze of the outer solar system, comets are icier than asteroids, and are known for the stunning gas and dust trails that they produce as they melt. But, said Siraj, the evaporative impact of the sun’s heat on sungrazers is nothing compared to the massive tidal forces they experience when one side faces our star. “As a result, these comets experience such a large tidal force that the most massive of them would shatter into about a thousand fragments, each of those fragments large enough to produce a Chicxulub-size impactor, or dinosaur-killing event on Earth.” Siraj and co-author Avi Loeb, a professor of science, developed a statistical model that showed the probability that long-period comets would hit Earth that is consistent with the age of Chicxulub and other known impactors. The previous theory about the object being an asteroid produces an expected rate of such events that was off by a factor of about 10 compared to what has been observed, Loeb told AFP. ‘A beautiful sight’ Another line of evidence in favor of the comet origin is the composition of Chicxulub — only about a tenth of all asteroids from the Main Belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, are made up of carbonaceous chondrite, while most comets have it. Evidence suggests the Chicxulub crater and other similar craters, such as the Vredefort crater in South Africa that was struck about two billion years ago, and the million-year-old Zhamanshin crater in Kazakhstan, all had carbonaceous chondrite. The hypothesis can be tested by further studying these craters, ones on the moon, or even by sending out space probes to take samples from comets. “It must have been a beautiful sight to see this rock approaching 66 million years ago, that was larger than the length of Manhattan Island,” said Loeb, “though ideally, we’d like to learn to track such objects and devise ways to deflect them, if necessary.” Loeb added he was excited by the prospect of the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile becoming operational next year. The telescope might be able to see tidal disruption of long-period comets “and will be extremely important in making forecasts for definitely the next 100 years, to know if anything bad could happen to us,” he said. Though Siraj and Loeb calculated Chicxulub-like impactors would occur once every few hundreds of millions of years, “it’s a statistical thing,” said Loeb. “You say ‘on average; It’s every so often,’ but you never know when the next one will come.” “The best way to find out is to search the sky,” he concluded.
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Day: February 16, 2021
“Our Big Chief told us he doesn’t want us out there this Mardi Gras because of COVID,” Aaron “Flagboy Giz” Hartley told VOA. “He said it wasn’t safe for our members or for the public watching us.”Until this year, Hartley took part in a festive New Orleans tradition dating back to the 1800s, the Mardi Gras Indian. In a unique intermingling of African American and Native American cultures, scores of Black paradegoers don colorful renditions of some elements of Native American garb.”There’s nothing like it in the world,” said Hartley.February 16 is Fat Tuesday, which literally translates to “Mardi Gras.” For Catholics in many parts of the world, the day represents one final celebration before the more solemn six-week period known as Lent.A festively-dressed dinosaurs greets visitors at this home in New Orleans. (Matt Haines/VOA)Perhaps no place in the world celebrates the day more raucously than New Orleans. In a normal year, you’d find Mardi Gras Indians like Hartley with their elaborate suits made of beads, feathers and sequins. You’d find colorful, thematic floats the size of small buildings rumbling down oak-lined avenues as masked “Krewe” members toss beads, cups, decorative coins (and just about everything else you can or can’t imagine) to hundreds of thousands of screaming, costumed onlookers packed on the street.You’d see and hear dozens of marching bands high stepping behind the floats, and you’d be delighted by a smattering of dance krewes — comprised of members of all ages and skill levels — with playful and often sexually suggestive names.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put all of that on pause, to the sorrow of countless locals. “It’s the dopest [best] part of the richest culture in the culture in the country,” said Hartley. “We gotta do something. You can’t just cancel Mardi Gras.”Parades canceled On November 17, citing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans due to the coronavirus, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell announced all parades in the city would be canceled. Last year’s Mardi Gras took place days before COVID-19 cases grabbed the public’s attention and those festivities are believed to have made New Orleans an early hotspot for the virus.This year, after several large gatherings on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street — fueled to some degree by visitors — the mayor announced she was also closing the city’s bars during one of their busiest times of the year.”I understand the decision,” said Cole Newton, owner of local bar Twelve Mile Limit. “People would have gotten sick and died, and no amount of temporary economic boost would have been worth it.”While New Orleanians acknowledge that holding Mardi Gras as usual could lead to a public health catastrophe, the economic hit is painful for service industry workers like bartender Kristin Boring. “It makes my stomach drop to lose more money,” Boring said. “But I understand it’s for the best. It’s just a tough situation.”A different kind of Mardi Gras “The thing about Mardi Gras is that it’s not put on by a single person or organization,” said New Orleans resident Laura Plante. “It’s organized by individual people. That’s what makes it special.”In the wake of the decision to cancel parades, residents almost immediately began proposing new, safer ways to celebrate.Megan Boudreaux, a 30-year-old insurance adjuster with no Mardi Gras leadership experience, was one of those people. A few days after the mayor announced the cancellation of parades, she tweeted a joke that if revelers weren’t allowed to ride floats and throw beads at stationary onlookers, she would just decorate her home like a float and throw beads at random passersby. What started as a joke has grown into a phenomenon. Approximately 3,000 homes — mostly in the New Orleans area, but with a few as far away as Saudi Arabia and Australia — have been decorated as Mardi Gras parade floats. The movement, called “Krewe of House Floats,” has transformed the city.”It went way beyond anything I imagined it could be months ago,” Boudreaux said, “and every time I think it’s peaked, a new house float pops up and becomes a new favorite.”Octopus tentacles burst through the windows of this New Orleans home. (Photo courtesy of Kristin Boring)Walking through the city’s many neighborhoods, onlookers will find everything from modest houses with Carnival float-themed flowers and beads, to mansions with massive octopus tentacles seemingly busting through the home’s many windows. Other houses in the liberal-leaning city are decorated with less-than-flattering images of former President Donald Trump, while others are focused on more fantastical elements — like swooping dragons or Harry Potter.When asked why so many have rallied behind the unusual idea instead of just waiting for next year’s Mardi Gras, Boudreaux pointed to the difficult year.”This holiday has meant so much to so many people for hundreds of years,” she said. “This year especially we’ve lost so much and so many people. I think folks were desperate for something positive to direct their energies toward. They yearned for some connection and house floats gave them that.” New traditions “New Orleanians take Mardi Gras fun seriously,” explained Chaya Conrad, owner of Bywater Bakery, where she makes some of the city’s most celebrated king cakes — a Mardi Gras confection with a several-thousand year history.”We all have our own role to play in Carnival,” she said, “and I think this year we’re creating new traditions for this unique moment that could be celebrated for years to come.”Some — like Devin De Wulf, founder of the Hire a Mardi Gras Artist initiative — are also working tirelessly to protect old traditions in danger because of the pandemic.”Every Mardi Gras parade you watch is the work of countless float makers, artists, costume designers and musicians,” De Wulf said. “We admire the parades, but we don’t think about who’s behind them. This year those people are out of work.”Through Hire a Mardi Gras Artist, he has raised more than $300,000 to pay 48 New Orleans artists to create 23 house floats. Mardi Gras artist Rene Pierre works on a piece of a house float, in New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of Rene Pierre)Rene Pierre is a Mardi Gras artist, too. He would typically begin working on floats 10 months before the parades and that work is an essential part of his income. But this year, because of the uncertainty around COVID-19, work was scarce.Because of initiatives like Hire a Mardi Gras Artist and Krewe of House Floats, though, Pierre said he has been commissioned to produce 64 house floats since December.”I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “Personally, it was my family’s ticket out of a really tough financial situation. And as a city, it restored our morale in a big way.” Coming home Laura Renae Steeg visits a New Orleans home decorated to honor local legend Big Freedia. (Photo courtesy of Laura Renae Steeg)That restoration of morale extends beyond those currently living in New Orleans. Laura Renae Steeg loves the region so much she named her daughter Magnolia after the Louisiana state flower.”I get a daily reminder of this place I love,” Steeg said.Her husband’s job moved the family to Maryland nearly a decade ago, but she has returned to New Orleans every year for Mardi Gras — except the year Magnolia was born.Steeg had planned to skip the trip this year until tragedy struck. Her father unexpectedly passed away in January.”It was a really dark time for me, and then I saw all of these house floats popping up in New Orleans,” she said. “This has been a dark year for a lot of people, and it reminded me that beauty can emerge during terrible times, too. I needed to see it.”Steeg created a travel plan to limit the risk to herself and others and drove 1,800 kilometers from Maryland to Louisiana. She visited a drive-thru parade of some of Mardi Gras’ most famous floats and someone threw beads into her car. The moment, the music and the people overwhelmed her and she broke down crying in her car. “It just struck me that, like this city, we’ve all been through so much. It’s been through hurricanes, pandemics and so much more — but it always perseveres just like it will this time. It just struck me that you can’t beat spirit as strong as Mardi Gras. New Orleanians won’t allow it.”
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The European Space Agency (ESA) said Tuesday it is recruiting new astronauts for the first time since 2008 and encouraging women and people with disabilities to apply.The announcement Tuesday came in a virtual news briefing that included ESA Director General Jan Worner and current agency astronauts. Worner said while ESA still has astronauts from the last selection process, it needs new astronauts to “secure a continuity” and ensure a smooth transfer of knowledge from one class to another.Worner said the agency is looking to add up to 26 permanent and reserve astronauts. And it is strongly encouraging women to apply, as well as people with disabilities to its roster to boost diversity among crews. The agency has launched a “parastronaut” program designed to examine what is needed to get disabled astronauts onto the International Space Station.ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti said if technology can allow other humans to work and thrive in space, it can do so for the disabled as well. “When it comes to space travel, we are all disabled. You know, we all have a disability because we were just not meant to be up there. So, what brings us from being, you know, disabled, to go to space to being able to go to space is technology.”Requirements for an astronaut job at ESA include a master’s degree in natural sciences, engineering, mathematics or computer science and three years of post-graduate experience. But the agency says it is looking for “all-arounders,” not specialists.The application process begins March 31 with all details available on the ESA website. The period will run until May 28 of this year with the outcome expected to be announced in October 2022.
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The World Health Organization and other aid agencies are moving quickly to try to gain control over a new outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Guinea. Guinea is one of three countries that was affected by the 2014 West African outbreak, the largest in history.The outbreak in Guinea was detected February 14, just one week after a new outbreak of Ebola was identified in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The two outbreaks are unrelated, but the World Health Organization says both face similar challenges and both can benefit from new treatments and recent experiences. The WHO reports seven family members who attended a burial ceremony in the town of Goueke, Guinea were infected with the virus and three have since died. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris says 115 contacts have been identified and the majority have been traced. “We are confident with the experience and expertise built during the previous outbreak that the health team in Guinea are on the move to quickly trace the cause of the virus and curb further infections. But it certainly will be a big job. And WHO is supporting the Guinean authorities to set up testing, contact tracing, treatment structures and to bring the overall response to full speed,” said Harris.Harris says WHO offices in surrounding countries have been contacted and preparedness plans are being put in place. The 2014 West African Ebola outbreak began in Guinea and quickly spread to neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia. By the time the epidemic ended in 2016, 28,000 people had been infected with the disease and more than 11,000 had died. Harris says many lessons have been learned from previous outbreaks to keep the virus from spreading. She says it is important to have a strategic response plan, get it into action early and to coordinate all aspects of the operation. “What is critical is decentralizing the operations to the lowest levels, making sure your operations are with the community now and that the community owns the operations — that your work is community centered and that you work with the community. A one size fits all approach to community engagement is not effective,” she said.Turning to the other Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization has confirmed four cases, including two deaths in the city of Butembo in DRC’s North Kivu province. The WHO reports nearly 300 contacts have been identified and tracing is underway.
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“Our Big Chief told us he doesn’t want us out there this Mardi Gras because of COVID,” Aaron “Flagboy Giz” Hartley told VOA. “He said it wasn’t safe for our members or for the public watching us.”Until this year, Hartley took part in a festive New Orleans tradition dating back to the 1800s, the Mardi Gras Indian. In a unique intermingling of African American and Native American cultures, scores of Black paradegoers don colorful renditions of some elements of Native American garb.”There’s nothing like it in the world,” said Hartley.February 16 is Fat Tuesday, which literally translates to “Mardi Gras.” For Catholics in many parts of the world, the day represents one final celebration before the more solemn six-week period known as Lent.A festively-dressed dinosaurs greets visitors at this home in New Orleans. (Matt Haines/VOA)Perhaps no place in the world celebrates the day more raucously than New Orleans. In a normal year, you’d find Mardi Gras Indians like Hartley with their elaborate suits made of beads, feathers and sequins. You’d find colorful, thematic floats the size of small buildings rumbling down oak-lined avenues as masked “Krewe” members toss beads, cups, decorative coins (and just about everything else you can or can’t imagine) to hundreds of thousands of screaming, costumed onlookers packed on the street.You’d see and hear dozens of marching bands high stepping behind the floats, and you’d be delighted by a smattering of dance krewes — comprised of members of all ages and skill levels — with playful and often sexually suggestive names.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put all of that on pause, to the sorrow of countless locals. “It’s the dopest [best] part of the richest culture in the culture in the country,” said Hartley. “We gotta do something. You can’t just cancel Mardi Gras.”Parades canceled On November 17, citing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans due to the coronavirus, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell announced all parades in the city would be canceled. Last year’s Mardi Gras took place days before COVID-19 cases grabbed the public’s attention and those festivities are believed to have made New Orleans an early hotspot for the virus.This year, after several large gatherings on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street — fueled to some degree by visitors — the mayor announced she was also closing the city’s bars during one of their busiest times of the year.”I understand the decision,” said Cole Newton, owner of local bar Twelve Mile Limit. “People would have gotten sick and died, and no amount of temporary economic boost would have been worth it.”While New Orleanians acknowledge that holding Mardi Gras as usual could lead to a public health catastrophe, the economic hit is painful for service industry workers like bartender Kristin Boring. “It makes my stomach drop to lose more money,” Boring said. “But I understand it’s for the best. It’s just a tough situation.”A different kind of Mardi Gras “The thing about Mardi Gras is that it’s not put on by a single person or organization,” said New Orleans resident Laura Plante. “It’s organized by individual people. That’s what makes it special.”In the wake of the decision to cancel parades, residents almost immediately began proposing new, safer ways to celebrate.Megan Boudreaux, a 30-year-old insurance adjuster with no Mardi Gras leadership experience, was one of those people. A few days after the mayor announced the cancellation of parades, she tweeted a joke that if revelers weren’t allowed to ride floats and throw beads at stationary onlookers, she would just decorate her home like a float and throw beads at random passersby. What started as a joke has grown into a phenomenon. Approximately 3,000 homes — mostly in the New Orleans area, but with a few as far away as Saudi Arabia and Australia — have been decorated as Mardi Gras parade floats. The movement, called “Krewe of House Floats,” has transformed the city.”It went way beyond anything I imagined it could be months ago,” Boudreaux said, “and every time I think it’s peaked, a new house float pops up and becomes a new favorite.”Octopus tentacles burst through the windows of this New Orleans home. (Photo courtesy of Kristin Boring)Walking through the city’s many neighborhoods, onlookers will find everything from modest houses with Carnival float-themed flowers and beads, to mansions with massive octopus tentacles seemingly busting through the home’s many windows. Other houses in the liberal-leaning city are decorated with less-than-flattering images of former President Donald Trump, while others are focused on more fantastical elements — like swooping dragons or Harry Potter.When asked why so many have rallied behind the unusual idea instead of just waiting for next year’s Mardi Gras, Boudreaux pointed to the difficult year.”This holiday has meant so much to so many people for hundreds of years,” she said. “This year especially we’ve lost so much and so many people. I think folks were desperate for something positive to direct their energies toward. They yearned for some connection and house floats gave them that.” New traditions “New Orleanians take Mardi Gras fun seriously,” explained Chaya Conrad, owner of Bywater Bakery, where she makes some of the city’s most celebrated king cakes — a Mardi Gras confection with a several-thousand year history.”We all have our own role to play in Carnival,” she said, “and I think this year we’re creating new traditions for this unique moment that could be celebrated for years to come.”Some — like Devin De Wulf, founder of the Hire a Mardi Gras Artist initiative — are also working tirelessly to protect old traditions in danger because of the pandemic.”Every Mardi Gras parade you watch is the work of countless float makers, artists, costume designers and musicians,” De Wulf said. “We admire the parades, but we don’t think about who’s behind them. This year those people are out of work.”Through Hire a Mardi Gras Artist, he has raised more than $300,000 to pay 48 New Orleans artists to create 23 house floats. Mardi Gras artist Rene Pierre works on a piece of a house float, in New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of Rene Pierre)Rene Pierre is a Mardi Gras artist, too. He would typically begin working on floats 10 months before the parades and that work is an essential part of his income. But this year, because of the uncertainty around COVID-19, work was scarce.Because of initiatives like Hire a Mardi Gras Artist and Krewe of House Floats, though, Pierre said he has been commissioned to produce 64 house floats since December.”I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “Personally, it was my family’s ticket out of a really tough financial situation. And as a city, it restored our morale in a big way.” Coming home Laura Renae Steeg visits a New Orleans home decorated to honor local legend Big Freedia. (Photo courtesy of Laura Renae Steeg)That restoration of morale extends beyond those currently living in New Orleans. Laura Renae Steeg loves the region so much she named her daughter Magnolia after the Louisiana state flower.”I get a daily reminder of this place I love,” Steeg said.Her husband’s job moved the family to Maryland nearly a decade ago, but she has returned to New Orleans every year for Mardi Gras — except the year Magnolia was born.Steeg had planned to skip the trip this year until tragedy struck. Her father unexpectedly passed away in January.”It was a really dark time for me, and then I saw all of these house floats popping up in New Orleans,” she said. “This has been a dark year for a lot of people, and it reminded me that beauty can emerge during terrible times, too. I needed to see it.”Steeg created a travel plan to limit the risk to herself and others and drove 1,800 kilometers from Maryland to Louisiana. She visited a drive-thru parade of some of Mardi Gras’ most famous floats and someone threw beads into her car. The moment, the music and the people overwhelmed her and she broke down crying in her car. “It just struck me that, like this city, we’ve all been through so much. It’s been through hurricanes, pandemics and so much more — but it always perseveres just like it will this time. It just struck me that you can’t beat spirit as strong as Mardi Gras. New Orleanians won’t allow it.”
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A slew of attractive toy robots on the market today are teaching children important language and science, technology, engineering and math skills, while keeping them entertained. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.Producer: Julie Taboh/Adam Greenbaum
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For the first time, wild camels have been sold on Australia’s leading online livestock auction. Australia has the world’s largest herd of feral camels that were introduced in the 1840s. Auctioneers in Australia weren’t sure if the group of 93 Arabian camels would sell online, but they all sold for as much as $230 each. Most were bought to keep prickly weeds under control on farms, and there was interest from domestic meat traders. The animals had been rounded up, or mustered, by helicopter on a remote property in Queensland. Scott Taylor is a selling agent who helped arrange the auction. He says it took two days for all the wild camels to be caught. “They came in, I think it was probably about 60 kilometers back to the yards. They were mustered in over a two-day period. Yeah, they just came straight in out of the bush and into the yards, and it is surprising how quickly they settled down once they get into captivity, for being a feral animal,” Taylor saidAlmost 100 animals were sold on AuctionsPlus, an online service that normally trades in cattle, sheep and goats. It is estimated there are at least 300,000 feral camels in central Australia. They can often compete with livestock for scarce supplies of water. Thousands been killed by farmers. They have been declared agricultural pests by state authorities, including Western Australia. Wild herds are also considered to be a health and safety risk to isolated indigenous communities. The animals were imported from South Asia and elsewhere in the mid-19th century. They were used in colonial Australia as transport, but when they were superseded by motor vehicles, many were released into the wild or escaped. They have, like other invasive species, adapted to Australia’s harsh conditions. Australia has had a long and disastrous record of importing animals that have become uncontrollable feral pests, including cats, foxes, pigs and cane toads.
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The information technology giant Google has agreed to pay an Australian media company to host news material ahead of a planned mandatory bargaining code. Google’s deal with Seven West Media, which publishes the Perth-based West Australian newspaper and other titles, is the first of seven such arrangements the tech giant is expected to make in Australia. A law being introduced this week in federal parliament in Canberra would require large technology companies to pay to use Australian news stories. The legislation would make Australia the first country to force big tech firms to pay for news content. Google, which had called the law unworkable, and Facebook have threatened to downgrade their services to Australians or even walk away. They have argued that by using stories from other publishers they generate more internet traffic for the websites run by traditional media outlets. But in an apparent softening of that stance, Google has reached an agreement with Seven West Media, reportedly worth $23 million a year. Belinda Barnett is a lecturer in media at Swinburne University of Technology, a public research university based in Melbourne. She believes it is a good result for the Australian company. “It does sound like they have come up with a fairly lucrative deal for them, around AUD$30 million, but that figure has not been confirmed yet. Seven West owns quite a lot of regional outlets as well. So, it has the potential to benefit the regional news outlets that it owns and the journalists employed by them,” Barnett said.The Australian government said a deal with Facebook was “very close.” As their advertising revenues collapsed, traditional broadcasting and publishing companies have for years complained that social media platforms have benefited from their quality reporting without paying for it.
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Colombia is set to begin immunizations against COVID-19 after receiving its first shipment of vaccines on Monday. President Ivan Duque and his health minister accepted the first 50,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and said frontline health care workers and the elderly will be the first to get their shots. Colombia has a contract to buy 10 million doses from Pfizer and it expects to soon receive 1.6 million doses from other laboratories. The government says it intends to vaccinate 35 million people this year, including hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants and refugees. Colombia is one of the last countries in Latin America to start vaccinations, behind Ecuador, Panama and Chile. President Duque said his administration was hesitant to start immunizations until it had assurance of getting a steady supply of vaccine to battle the novel coronavirus. The president also said the arrival of vaccines does not end the use of masks and social distancing. Colombia has more than 2,198,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 57,786 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center.
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Parler, a social media service popular with American right-wing users that virtually vanished shortly after the U.S. Capitol riot, relaunched on Monday and said its new platform was built on “sustainable, independent technology.”Known as an alternative to Twitter, Parler has struggled after Amazon stripped it of its web-hosting services on January 11 over Parler’s refusal to remove posts inciting violence. Citing the same reason, Google and Apple also removed the Parler app from their stores. In a statement announcing the relaunch, Parler said it had appointed Mark Meckler as its interim chief executive, replacing John Matze who was fired by the board this month. Despite the relaunch, the website was still not opening for many users and the app was not available for download on mobile stores run by Apple and Alphabet-owned Google. While several users took to rival Twitter to complain they were unable to access the service, a few others said they could access their existing account.Parler, which asserted it once had over 20 million users, said it would bring its current users back online in the first week and would be open to new users in the next week. Founded in 2018, the app has styled itself as a “free speech-driven” space and largely attracted U.S. conservatives who disagree with rules around content on other social media sites. On Monday, Parler said its new technology cut its reliance on “so-called Big Tech” for its operations. It’s unclear what company was hosting Parler. “Parler is being run by an experienced team and is here to stay,” said Meckler, who had co-founded the Tea Party Patriots, a group that emerged in 2009 within the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement and helped elect dozens of Republicans. It is also backed by hedge fund investor Robert Mercer, his daughter Rebekah Mercer and conservative commentator Dan Bongino.
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The deaths of two Colorado men caught in avalanches and a third in Montana over the frigid Presidents Day weekend show how backcountry skiers and others in the Rocky Mountain wilderness risk triggering weak layers of snow that have created the most hazardous conditions in a decade, forecasters say. At least 25 people have been killed in avalanches in the United States this year — more than the 23 who died last winter. Typically, 27 people die in avalanches in the U.S. annually. Avalanche forecasters say they have rarely seen the danger as high as it is now — and it will grow as more snow moves into the Rockies, adding weight and stress on a weak, granular base layer of snow that’s susceptible to breaking apart and triggering especially wide slides on steep slopes. The main culprit is that ground layer of snow that dropped in October. A dry November weakened it, which is anywhere from several inches (centimeters) to several feet (meters) thick, and despite more snow falling, it’s stayed the consistency of granular sugar, said Dave Zinn, an avalanche forecaster for the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in southwestern Montana. “That layer consists of large, sugary crystals that don’t bond together well. It’s impossible to make a snowball from it. And when it becomes weighted down, it becomes fragile and breaks,” bringing down the heavier layers on top of it, Zinn said. “It’s the weakest link in the chain. When you pile on more snow, there’s always one spot that’s going to break,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. This aerial photo provided by Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center shows a ground team approaching the area of an avalanche in the Gallatin National Forest, Mont., Feb. 14, 2021.On Sunday, backcountry skier Craig Kitto, 45, of Bozeman, Montana, was fatally injured when the forest slope he and a companion were climbing cracked without warning, collapsed and swept him downhill into a tree. The other person wasn’t hurt. Similar conditions may have led to the death of 57-year-old David Heide, a backcountry skier whose body was found in an avalanche debris field Sunday in central Colorado’s Clear Creek County. In neighboring Grand County, an avalanche carried a snowmobiler onto a frozen lake Sunday, and his body was found buried in snow. A coroner is investigating. On February 6, Utah saw its deadliest avalanche in about 30 years when four backcountry skiers in their 20s died. Another four dug themselves out of the 1,000-foot (300-meter) slide east of Salt Lake City. Several factors are at play in the rash of deaths: The snowpack, which can be affected by windstorms shifting and piling snow atop weak layers; weather conditions that can change rapidly in the high altitudes of the Rockies; and the availability of public lands in the U.S. West, where people often take advantage of easily accessible national forest. In contrast, ski areas have long ensured their slopes are groomed, potential avalanches in their areas are triggered, and nearby backcountry areas are closed before the first customers hit the lift lines. It’s not uncommon for skiers at Colorado’s Loveland Ski Area to hear an occasional howitzer targeting danger-prone areas on wind-blown peaks approaching 13,000 feet (3,950 meters) along the Continental Divide. “The ski patrols do lots of work to mitigate hazards,” Zinn said. “But in the backcountry, we have to be our own avalanche experts.” Avalanche centers in Colorado, Montana and Utah, as well as the U.S. Forest Service National Avalanche Center, issue daily advisories on conditions and risk levels, as well as safety and training resources. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center issued a special advisory Monday, warning that “large, wide and long-running natural and human-triggered avalanches are likely.” Are people getting the message? “That’s a hard one to answer,” Greene acknowledged Monday. “Yesterday was tragic, a horrible thing. We don’t know how many got the messages and pursued some other type of recreation. We don’t know how many made it out safely.” Taking precautionsForecasters emphasize standard precautions before heading into the backcountry: * Have rescue gear: A beacon, a probe to check snow conditions, a shovel. Know how to use them. * Check daily forecasts. * Keep an eye out for recent avalanche activity. * Take a guided tour. * Don’t go it alone if possible. Make sure only one person in your party is in exposed terrain at any given time. “The bottom line is that partner rescue is the only way we have positive outcomes in the backcountry,” Zinn said. Record cold temperatures in much of the Rockies “reduce your margin for error,” Zinn added. “If you have an accident, minor injuries become serious ones, and serious ones become deadly with the compounding factor of hypothermia.” Greene said that while there’s adventure in the wildest parts of public lands, “having the freedom to go where you want comes the responsibility of taking care of yourself.”
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College and university students are low on the list to receive COVID-19 vaccines, according to recent estimatesUnless students are classified as essential workers — such as medical, nursing, medtech or student teachers — or have a health condition — such as human immunodeficiency virus or cancer — they are not likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccine until at least April, Imani Bell, a senior at the University of Delaware. (Courtesy of Bell)“I hope that the rollout starts to pick up and that everyone has access,” said Bell. “It doesn’t make sense that we’ve been in this pandemic for a year and it’s still taking so long. It’s frustrating to me that there are [few] companies making the vaccine when it could go so much faster.” More Universities to Close After Thanksgiving Colleges tell students to stay on campus or go home, but not both While it would “be ideal,” Taylor said, to have campus-based vaccinations, vaccinating students near campuses would suffice. “And I would hope that schools will do a good deal of advertising about where those locations are, make them convenient for students and also give a lot of information about the vaccine,” she said. Taylor argues that vaccinating students before they leave campus and travel home would be a huge help to stopping the spread of the coronavirus by college students who routinely go between school and home into the community. Colleges Closing Quickly as COVID-19 Cases Rise Thanksgiving will end the semester for more schools “We all, students included, still have to pay strict attention to wearing masks, physically distancing, avoiding crowds and washing hands, all of those public health measures that we have had in place throughout still need to be put in place,” she said. There have been nearly 400,000 coronavirus cases on more than 1,900 college and university campuses since the start of the pandemic more than a year ago, according to the most recent tracking data from the New York Times. At least 90 students have died of coronavirus-related complications. Joshua Goodart, a 22-year-old student at University of New Haven in Connecticut, died from coronavirus on February 6, the Hartford Courant reported. While Goodart had asthma, he was not considered high-risk for COVID-19 complications.But some college students say they’re wary of coronavirus vaccinations. A study conducted at Eastern Connecticut State University of 592 graduate and undergraduate students showed that about half of students surveyed said they would get the vaccine, and half would not or remained uncertain. Institutions of higher education are debating whether to require students to be vaccinated before returning to school, raising legal questions. “Many colleges and universities can and do require that students be vaccinated against certain diseases,” such as human papillomavirus (HPV) and meningococcal disease, said Suzanne Rode, a counsel at Crowell & Moring, a law firm in San Francisco. “The COVID-19 vaccines differ in that they have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration under an Emergency Use Authorization, making the vaccines available sooner than they normally would due to the current public health emergency,” she explained. Other challenges for not getting the vaccine might include “valid medical, disability, and sincere religious reasons can serve as a basis for declining the vaccine,” said Rode. International students will be eligible for the vaccine as other students in their priority group, former Surgeon General Jerome Adams confirmed in December. Specific vaccination guidelines for those living, working and studying in the U.S. can be found on the government websites of the states where they reside. Some international students are deciding whether to receive the vaccine in the U.S. or in their home countries. Nogués plans to get his dose of the vaccine wherever it becomes available first. “From what I know, it is very likely that I will get it in the U.S. before I get it in Spain because the rollout in Spain has been slower than a lot of European countries,” Nogués said. Benjamin Ola. Akande, president of Champlain College in Vermont, says that college and university leaders have a duty to protect the health of international students on campus during this pandemic.“Coming to the college in the U.S. today is a life and death decision, and we need to recognize that,” said Akande, who came to study in the U.S. from Nigeria in 1979. “It’s a very conscious decision and therefore, there’s a responsibility on leaders of academies to ensure the safety and health care of students.”
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