Storm-chasing for science can be exciting and stressful – we know, because we do it. It has also been essential for developing today’s understanding of how tornadoes form and how they behave. In 1996, the movie “Twister” with Helen Hunt brought storm-chasing scientists into the public imagination and inspired a generation of atmospheric scientists. With the new “Twisters” movie hitting theaters, we’ve been getting questions about storm-chasing – or storm intercepts, as we call them. Here are some answers about what scientists who do this kind of fieldwork are really up to when they race off after storms. Scientists with…
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“Management can be taught,” says Nazia Lodhi, (pictured), a senior policy advisor for the Armed Forces Pensions Schemes at the Ministry of Defense (MoD). The team leader and chair of the MoD Civilian Muslim Network was among the first civil servants to do the Management: Practitioner Programme which was launched in 2023. Her experiences on it convinced her that anyone can learn to be a better manager and that good management is most definitely a skill that can be taught. Practical sessions “The programme was a great learning curve,” she said. “Learning was not just from books and theories but…
MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) We will start the Japan-U.S. 2+2 joint press conference. We will start with initial comments by Foreign Minister Kamikawa, Defense Minister Kihara, Secretary of State Blinken, Secretary of Defense Austin in this order, followed by Q&A. Minister Kamikawa. FOREIGN MINISTER KAMIKAWA: (Via interpreter) Welcoming Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin here in Tokyo, we held the Japan-U.S. 2+2 meeting after one and a half years since the last time. We were able to have some very productive discussion at the ministerial level. The international community is increasingly deeply divided. Developments that shake the free and open international order based on…
When milliseconds can mean the difference between silver and gold, endurance athletes in sports like marathon running, cycling, rowing and swimming optimize every aspect of their physiology for a competitive edge. Many of these efforts result in enhancing the performance of mitochondria, the tiny but mighty energy-generating powerhouses within your cells. Carefully calibrated doses of exercise combined with beneficial stress – altitude, cold and heat – and optimized recovery in the form of nutrition, meditation and sleep, positively affect the number and health of mitochondria in the cells of your muscles, heart and brain. But there is another aspect of…
Movies can be effective media for spreading health information. Indian cinema, encompassing various regional film industries, holds sway over public perceptions and societal norms. Movie reviewers and caregiving advocates also note the influence of films on the perception of dementia. Health researchers have also explored dementia in Indian cinema, and highlighted how these films can be a medium to understand cultural issues related to dementia. Dementia, a complex condition affecting memory, cognitive functions and behaviour, often carries stigma and misunderstanding in many communities, including South Asian communities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. It involves parts of…
Upon the release of her debut novel The Country Girls she was vilified in Ireland for her depiction of the sex lives of het young female protagonists. Book burnings followed – but her greatness as an arwtist long outlived that poisonous response. “Edna was a fearless teller of truths,” the President said. The great Irish novelist Edna O’Brien has died. She was aged 93. Widely regarded as one of Ireland’s greatest writers of hte modern era, she made her initial breakthrough with her debut novel The Country Girls, published in 1960. It was enormously controversial in Ireland, moving way beyond…
Among U.S. adults ages 50 and older who never had children, majorities say achieving certain things in life – such as having a fulfilling life, or a successful career – don’t have much to do with whether someone has children. At the same time, many say not having children has made some aspects of life easier for them. General impact of not having children Majorities of adults ages 50 and older who don’t have children say a person’s ability to do each of the following doesn’t have much to do with having kids: Have a fulfilling life (66%) Have a…
DALLAS – In one of the largest recoveries of its kind, the U.S. Department of Labor has recouped more than $1.5 million in unpaid overtime wages and damages from a heating, ventilation and air conditioning company that deprived 430 technicians of their rights, protections and benefits under law by misclassifying them as independent contractors.The recovery follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found C&G HVAC LLC in Dallas owed the affected technicians $756,158 in unpaid overtime wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. “C&G HVAC denied these technicians their full wages, hurt taxpayers by not paying related…
Lawmakers and others were quick to condemn the news on X, with IPAC Executive Director Luke de Pulford tagging China’s foreign ministry and writing: “You don’t get to decide the travel plans of foreign politicians. Please leave us alone. Thanks.” “The CCP [Communist Party of China] believes that it can use pressure and coercion to stop democratically elected legislators from gathering,” Slovakian MEP Mariam Lexmann, who co-chairs IPAC, wrote in a post on X. “We will not be deterred, nor will our commitment to working with our partners to defend freedom and democracy waver.” IPAC is a group of hundreds…
Humans are interacting more than ever with artificial intelligence (AI) – from the development of the first “social robots” (a robot with a physical body programmed to interact and engage with humans) like Kismet in the 1990s to smart speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa. But this technology is changing how humans relate with it – and with each other. Our new research looked at how humans experience interacting with AI social robots or digital avatars – AI virtual chatbots designed to look and interact like a human on a device. These are designed to increase human interaction with them. Social…