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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Kyiv’s L.G.B.T.Q. Community Found Shelter from the Russian Invasion</strong> - An advocacy group in Ukraine’s capital retools itself as a service organization. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-kyivs-lgbtq-community-found-shelter-from-the-russian-invasion">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Two-Pronged Test That Could Put Trump in Prison</strong> - As the January 6th hearings unfold, a former U.S. Attorney discusses the possibility of criminally prosecuting the former President. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-two-pronged-test-that-could-put-trump-in-prison">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Bipartisan Gun Deal Represents Slow, Painful Progress</strong> - After a generation of carnage and legislative inaction, the larger hope is that this agreement will open the way for future measures. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-bipartisan-gun-deal-represents-slow-painful-progress">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>When Baking and Real Estate Collide</strong> - Tartine, a beloved San Francisco bakery, wanted to grow. Partnering with a developer was one way to rise. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/when-baking-and-real-estate-collide">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jerome Powell Races to Catch Up with Inflation</strong> - In announcing a big rate rise, the Fed chief conceded that the challenge of arresting rising prices without causing a recession is getting harder. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/jerome-powell-races-to-catch-up-with-inflation">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Actually, maybe don’t learn to code</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Aerial view of a table with open laptops and hands on keyboards." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/K-P9dg4ZCg61WXazZKrRk0Kdq1E=/2144x0:5204x2295/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70982431/GettyImages_657110928.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Getty Images
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Schools that say they teach you to code often don’t.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A6LwxX">
On its face, the idea of a tech boot camp sounds pretty nice. You take a few months to learn coding or web development or user experience design or whatever, and voila, welcome to your “<a href="https://kenzie.snhu.edu/">future-proof</a>” career. Some boot camps only make you pay once you land that shiny new six-figure tech job, which, they say, you definitely will. They’ve got all sorts of facts and figures about placement rates and success stories of graduates who landed at Google or Apple or Facebook. Maybe don’t look too hard at the fine print, though.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JIVEQx">
Boot camps are intensive, immersive, programs meant to get students the skills they need to land a job in a tech field like software design or data analytics in a short period of time. If much of that promise sounds a bit too good to be true, that’s in part because it is. “Learn to code” is not as easy as it’s made out to be, nor is it a guaranteed path to a lucrative career. Boot camps work for some people, but not everyone, and the caliber of different schools can be a real your-mileage-may-vary situation. Some students wind up with thousands of dollars of debt they struggle to pay off, or they get <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/11/21131848/lambda-school-coding-bootcamp-isa-tuition-cost-free">stuck in income-sharing agreements</a> that cut into their paychecks for months and years — paychecks from jobs that are a far cry from the ones they were promised.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0IUh3c">
“The biggest problem with boot camps is that there are just numerous amounts of them, they’re all over, and there is no real quality control, so you don’t know what you’re getting into,” said Erin Mindell Cannon, the director of training and people development at Paradigm Strategy Inc., who spent more than a decade at Google. “It’s really hard for anybody to make a judgment call.”
</p>
<aside id="KqeH7I">
<div>
</div>
</aside>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VEDskq">
I had always assumed tech boot camps were providing bang for their buck — as a journalist, I am familiar with the “<a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/learn-to-code">learn to code</a>” Twitter replies that land whenever layoffs hit. But the reality is much more complicated. Boot camps sell a 21st-century version of the American dream — one where you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and into a Silicon Valley techy lifestyle in a short period of time.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="msVjpH">
It’s easy to see why the prospect is attractive. Despite the tech sector’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/23069110/tech-bubble-google-facebook-tesla-amazon-crypto-charts">recent woes</a>, it’s still an enticing arena. Traditional paths to tech jobs through higher education aren’t perfect, especially with <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22324143/student-debt-forgiveness-loan-cancellation-economy">student debt mounting</a>. It’s also easy to see why a career in tech is harder to get than boot camps would make you think. Programming is difficult and takes time to learn; the best you can do in a few month’s course is cram. These largely for-profit schools often target marginalized people who really can’t afford to fail, and then they fail them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UaCRrV">
“Not everyone wants to be a programmer, not everyone can be a programmer,” said Zed Shaw, a software developer and author of multiple books on coding. But “there’s money in selling the dream,” he said. And so the boot camps do.
</p>
<h3 id="d17G9O">
That thriving tech career is harder to get than advertised
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j7utra">
You do not have to look hard for examples of boot camps behaving badly. In 2017, New York’s attorney general <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2017/ag-schneiderman-announces-375000-settlement-flatiron-computer-coding-school">reached a settlement</a> with one school over operating without necessary licenses and making misleading employment and salary claims. Last year, former students of another coding academy <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/make-school-pbc-coding-sued-over-allegedly-predatory-student-contracts-161009450.html">sued</a>, alleging they were funneled into predatory income share agreements (ISAs). Just this month, Washington’s attorney general <a href="https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/ag-ferguson-files-lawsuit-shut-down-predatory-tech-sales-program-recover-money">sued</a> a tech sales program, alleging that students were “duped” into paying thousands of dollars for a supposed “guarantee you land a $60k+ job offer (from a tech company YOU choose).” The CEO of that boot camp, Prehired, <a href="https://protectborrowers.org/a-predatory-school-is-dragging-290-defrauded-students-into-court-in-the-latest-example-of-the-exploitative-state-of-the-income-share-agreement-market/">has filed hundreds of lawsuits</a> against former students demanding they repay defaulted student loans taken out for those guaranteed jobs they did not get.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="IULHlf">
<q>Boot camps sell a 21st-century version of the American dream</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gyrCxO">
Issues with coding boot camp Lambda School, which has since <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/16/lambda-school-rebrand-bloom-institute-of-technology/">rebranded</a> as BloomTech, have been <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/11/21131848/lambda-school-coding-bootcamp-isa-tuition-cost-free">well</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lambda-school-promised-lucrative-tech-coding-career-low-job-placement-2021-10"> documented</a>. (One person I spoke to for this story jokingly called it “Scambda.”) It has been accused of <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/lambda-schools-job-placement-rate-is-lower-than-claimed.html">inflating its outcome metrics</a> and sticking students with crummy ISAs. One former student, Krystyna Ewing, attended Lambda’s UX design program in 2019. Ewing, a veteran who describes themselves as a “jack of all trades,” hoped they’d get more remote opportunities from the program but dropped out midway through after finding the content lacking (the school <a href="https://www.bloomtech.com/article/an-update-on-the-status-of-our-ux-design-program">suspended</a> the program in 2020). They subsequently did another boot camp that did land them a job — but they were <a href="https://twitter.com/whatsupdangerrr/status/1482281663790993408?s=20&amp;t=6lZAdVGqYvzHHMeHR6tA8Q">still on the hook</a> for Lambda’s ISA. “I still have to pay them if I find a job,” they said, even though Lambda didn’t help them get it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W6HWQc">
If you do sign up for a boot camp, try to do some research ahead of time. Schools can inflate employment numbers by hiring a bunch of their graduates as teaching assistants, or qualify a lot of questionable jobs as “tech,” among other tactics. It’s a good idea to try to talk to alumni, look online for reviews and ratings, and see whether boot camps partner with companies you’d want to work at (and find out what those partnerships entail).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IP4NGm">
There are about 100 coding boot camps in the US, graduating about 25,000 each year and costing on average about $14,000, according to <a href="https://www.coursereport.com/reports/2020-coding-bootcamp-market-size-study">Course Report</a>, which helps match students with programs. There’s a lot of variety in the space, and not all boot camps are created equal, nor are they all shady in their tactics. Most boot camps aren’t accredited.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MPRthK">
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-12-06/want-a-job-in-silicon-valley-keep-away-from-coding-schools">They can work for some people</a>. I spoke with one graduate who did a self-paced boot camp so that she could advance within the progressive organization she works for. I talked to another graduate who successfully transitioned from tech consulting to software engineering. Both did have some advantages: Her job helped pay for her boot camp; he minored in computer science.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o2qAyR">
Chloe Condon, a senior developer relations engineer and former actress who went through a Hackbright boot camp in 2016 and now is a mentor, had someone in her life to help her navigate the industry. She says that getting a job post-boot camp is a grueling process. That’s why she emphasizes it “really is on the individual” to pick a program and achieve success.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MuAgrM">
But just how hard it can be to get a job after graduation is something schools are not always open about. Carolyn, whose last name has been withheld to protect her privacy, searched for a job for a year and a half after attending a 17-week boot camp aimed at women and non-binary people. Her tuition was eventually forgiven save the $3,000 she paid up front, but she took a big financial hit being out of work for a year. “Given the length of the program, how short it was, it was impossible to even scratch the surface of everything companies were expecting for the roles they’re trying to fill,” she said. It’s worth noting that some boot camps <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-07-12-unable-to-reach-a-sustainable-business-model-dev-bootcamp-will-shut-down-in-december">wind up closing</a> because the business model can be tough to figure out.
</p>
<h3 id="Bgf9EL">
The boot camp ploy works because a lot of other things don’t
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="js2rxX">
The appeal of a tech boot camp is entirely understandable. Higher education in America is costly and messy. According to <a href="https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing/highlights">the College Board</a>, a degree from a four-year institution can run from $11,000 to $38,000 per year. The job market is hard to navigate. Workers are getting some power and decent-ish raises right now, but then there’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22994731/inflation-rate-russia-gas-prices-jerome-powell">inflation</a>. If a <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2022/6/8/23158436/economy-inflation-recession-odds-stock-market">recession</a> comes, none of this is going to last. Boot camps position themselves as a way to hack a rigged system. It’s a romantic idea.
</p>
<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="XBt7Uj">
<q>“We are unwilling to grapple with the difficult questions of how you educate and pay for the education of a workforce”</q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P5VztY">
Ben Kaufman, director of research and investigations at the Student Borrower Protection Center, says boot camps are more broadly reflective of the country’s refusal to recognize education as a public good. Instead, it’s viewed as something people should pay — often quite a lot — to access. And when you couple that with a landscape of many dead-end jobs, well, there you go.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ao8BP7">
“We are unwilling to grapple with the difficult questions of how you educate and pay for the education of a workforce, and in the absence of that, regardless of whether people actually should learn to code, you have had people who have been ready and willing and very well-funded to fill in the void and to sell people the dream of being a big person in Silicon Valley,” Kaufman said. “We’ve put that on a pedestal for so long.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VNsNTf">
It’s a tricky situation: Tech companies can be elitist, and they’re not great at bringing in people from diverse backgrounds. There aren’t clear answers for how to improve the situation — multiple people I talked to for this story suggested people without computer science degrees should maybe try to learn programming on their own, which is, you know, also hard (albeit not super expensive), or see what’s available at a local community college.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZFg0By">
Boot camps “overpromise and underdeliver,” said Ben Sandofsky, an app developer and co-founder of the photography app Halide. He says that tech needs more diversity and people from different backgrounds, it’s just that the boot camp bootstraps approach may not be the best path. Career transitions can be hard and rare. “It tends to be a way of fooling people into things that are outside their means,” Sandofsky said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KoDJqv">
The people who need to be most careful about deciding whether or not to participate in a boot camp are people who are already underprivileged — who are the people they often target. “If you can’t afford to lose that money, then it’s not worth the risk,” Mindell Cannon said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vM7UTe">
What do you do when the path to one of the most attractive fields in the economy is long, winding, and filled with land mines? Of course people are going to seek out shortcuts, however imperfect they may be.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aMNCG2">
<em>We live in a world that’s constantly trying to sucker us and trick us, where we’re always surrounded by scams big and small. It can feel impossible to navigate. Every two weeks, join Emily Stewart to look at all the little ways our economic systems control and manipulate the average person. Welcome to </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-squeeze"><em><strong>The Big Squeeze</strong></em></a><em>.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NF25sR">
<a href="http://vox.com/big-squeeze-newsletter"><em><strong>Sign up to get this column in your inbox</strong></em></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fEmYHz">
<em>Have ideas for a future column? Something in the economy that’s just bugging you that you can’t quite put your finger on? Email </em><a href="mailto:emily.stewart@vox.com"><em><strong>emily.stewart@vox.com</strong></em></a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="veCPQs">
</p></li>
<li><strong>7 solar system mysteries scientists haven’t solved yet</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zEDwxGylRJ8Fg_2onkywEuvvvNg=/125x0:1354x922/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70982253/dust_ring_illo_final.0.jpeg"/>
<figcaption>
In this illustration, several dust rings circle the sun. These rings form when planets’ gravities tug dust grains into orbit around the sun.  | Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith/NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Why is our moon so weird? Was there ever life on Mars? Big cosmic questions lurk in our celestial backyard.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4Ifh3r">
The next time you look up at a bright full moon, think about this: No one knows, precisely, where the moon came from.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LJDydZ">
“We have no idea why the moon is here,” science writer Rebecca Boyle says on <a href="https://www.vox.com/unexplainable"><em>Unexplainable</em></a> — Vox’s podcast that explores big mysteries, unanswered questions, and all the things<strong> </strong>we<strong> </strong>learn by diving into the unknown. “I think for a lot of people [the moon] is taken for granted, it’s this sort of humdrum thing, and galaxies and nebula and stars and planets are more intriguing.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qf8omb">
It’s true that some of the most epic questions in science are found in the farthest reaches of space — how and when did the first galaxies form, what happens inside a black hole — but equally epic questions exist right here in our celestial neighborhood, in our own solar system.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kwKjIG">
To explore our own solar system — the moons and planets in it — is to better understand what’s possible in the farthest reaches of the universe. Anything we find or discover in our own cosmic backyard will help us understand what’s possible in the broader universe. If evidence of ancient life is found on a hostile world like Mars, we might better understand how common life might be in other solar systems. If we understand how a possibly once-vibrant world like Venus fell into ruin, we might understand how often similar planets around other stars die in an apocalypse.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BMCDrt">
The most provocative solar system mysteries help us understand why we are here, how long we might have left, and what we might leave behind. Here are some of the solar system mysteries we’ve encountered on <em>Unexplainable</em>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xUp8Qr">
<em>For more mysteries, listen to and follow </em>Unexplainable<em> </em><a href="https://pod.link/unexplainable"><em><strong>wherever you listen to podcasts</strong></em></a><em>.</em>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="biVDnw"/>
<h3 id="hgniHF">
What killed Venus?
</h3>
<div class="c-float-right">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pWZcXRZl5pN1mU-GEmlRSlcY6fg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23630254/PIA23791_fig2.jpeg"/> <cite>NASA</cite>
<figcaption>
The clouds of Venus captured in 1974 by NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uxoI8v">
“Hellscape” is the most appropriate word to describe the surface of Venus, the second planet from the sun. At 900 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s the hottest planet in the solar system, thanks to an atmosphere that’s almost entirely made up of carbon dioxide, which generates a really strong greenhouse effect. Clouds made of highly corrosive sulfuric acid are draped over a volcanic landscape of razor-sharp volcanic rock. The pressure on the surface of Venus is about 92 times what you’d feel at sea level on Earth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ab6e17">
Yet some scientists suspect Venus was once much like Earth, with a liquid water ocean like the ones that support life on our planet. This prompts an existential question for life on Earth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BEpyVz">
“Venus and Earth are planetary siblings,” says Robin George Andrews, volcanologist and author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/super-volcanoes-what-they-reveal-about-earth-and-the-worlds-beyond/9780393542066"><em>Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond</em></a>. “They were made at the same time and made of the same stuff, yet Venus is apocalyptic and awful in every possible way. Earth is a paradise. So why do we have a paradise next to a paradise lost?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wlh3qA">
There are two leading hypotheses. One is that the sun cooked Venus to death. The other is that volcanoes did.
</p>
<div id="zv4dEk">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eNJF2s">
<br/><em><strong>Further reading: </strong></em><a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22807575/venus-hot-hellscape-climate-change-earth">Venus could have been a paradise but turned into a hellscape. Earthlings, pay attention.</a>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="NNQtKZ"/>
<h3 id="3Rclyl">
Where the heck did the moon come from?
</h3>
<div class="c-float-left">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TNMVfW8YW4JpCLWQ6yxsyWSgKSc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23630261/GettyImages_1354421254.jpg"/> <cite>HUM Images/Universal Images Group</cite>
<figcaption>
This view from the Apollo 11 spacecraft shows the Earth rising above the moon’s horizon.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zZuXde">
Before the moon landings, scientists thought they knew how the moon formed. The prevailing theory was that it formed a lot like the planets did: bits of material left over from the formation of the sun, lumping together. But then, Apollo astronauts brought samples back from the lunar surface, and those rocks told a totally different story.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Y2qXox">
“Geologists had found that the moon was covered in a special kind of rock called anorthosite,” <em>Unexplainable</em> senior producer Meradith Hoddinott explains on the show. “Glittery, bright, and reflective, this is the rock that makes the moon shine white in the night sky. And at the time, it was thought, this rock can only be formed in a very specific way. Magma.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AtjJcA">
But magma means the moon must have formed in some sort of epic cataclysm. “Something that poured so much energy into the moon that it literally melted,” Hoddinott says. Scientists aren’t precisely sure how it all played out. But each scenario is a cinematic story of fiery apocalyptic proportions.
</p>
<div id="B3Pwea">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="foOz79">
<br/><em><strong>Further reading: </strong></em><a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/6/21/18677691/apollo-anniversary-moon-rock-lunar-sample-geology">How Apollo moon rocks reveal the epic history of the cosmos</a>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="px70yz"/>
<h3 id="Gr0Ut6">
Is there anything alive in the human poop left on the moon?
</h3>
<div class="c-float-right">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TPTG3di_J_WlVee1dW3u3B04C4w=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23630269/21473328149_edd472022d_o.jpeg"/> <cite>NASA</cite>
<figcaption>
A bag of astronaut detritus left on the moon in 1969.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T2JhXB">
During the Apollo moon missions, astronauts went to the moon and, to save weight for returning to Earth, they dumped their waste behind. Across all the Apollo missions, astronauts left <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/the-trash-weve-left-on-the-moon/266465/"><strong>96 </strong></a><a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/3/8/8163259/moon-objects-weird"><strong>bags</strong></a> <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/the-trash-weve-left-on-the-moon/266465/"><strong>of human waste</strong></a> on the moon, and they pose a fascinating astrobiological question.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8AlgWS">
Human waste — and in particular, feces — is teeming with microbial life. With the Apollo moon landings, we took microbial life on Earth to the most extreme environment it has ever been in. Which means the waste on the moon represents a natural, though unintended, experiment.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NRQ3AI">
The question the experiment could answer: How resilient is life in the face of the brutal environment of the moon? And for that matter, if microbes can survive on the moon, can they survive interplanetary or <a href="https://twitter.com/DrPhiltill/status/1098619425916362753?s=19">interstellar travel</a>? If they can survive, then maybe it’s possible that life can spread from planet to planet, riding on the backs of asteroids or other such space debris.
</p>
<div id="iYqv42">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jkx8Yr">
<br/><em><strong>Further reading: </strong></em><a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/3/22/18236125/apollo-moon-poop-mars-science">Apollo astronauts left their poop on the moon. We gotta go back for that shit.</a>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="iLJ47Z"/>
<h3 id="EUe7U1">
Was there an advanced civilization on Earth before humans?
</h3>
<div class="c-float-left">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oeOlnkPLlMS1jDDI5mq2TUf7SuQ=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23630260/GettyImages_1316974877.jpg"/> <cite>Science Photo Libra/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
Illustration of the supercontinent Gondwana, a landmass that was fully formed by around 550 million years ago and began to break up about 180 million years ago.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lgGJ1E">
Many scientists have long wondered: Is there intelligent life out in the deep reaches of space? But climate scientist Gavin Schmidt and astrophysicist Adam Frank have a different question: Was there intelligent life in the deep reaches of Earth’s history? Could we find evidence of an advanced non-human civilization that lived perhaps hundreds of millions of years ago, buried in Earth’s crust?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SBUnRL">
This is not strictly a “solar system” mystery, but it is cosmic in scope. At the heart of it, Schmidt and Frank are asking: How likely is an intelligent life form on any planet — here or in the deepest reaches of space — to leave a mark, a sign that they existed? And for that matter: Hundreds of millions of years from now, will some alien explorers landing on Earth be able to find traces of humans if we’re long, long gone?
</p>
<div id="mwNd90">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a3JtHt">
<br/><em><strong>Further reading: </strong></em><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-astrobiology/article/silurian-hypothesis-would-it-be-possible-to-detect-an-industrial-civilization-in-the-geological-record/77818514AA6907750B8F4339F7C70EC6">The Silurian hypothesis: would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record?</a>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="2geAwB"/>
<h3 id="DqzEiS">
Can we nudge an asteroid out of a collision course with Earth?
</h3>
<div class="c-float-right">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZNVHR3O4RHcIC10msGDmh7Rb1vg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23194102/GettyImages_1214628907.jpg"/> <cite>Tobias Roetsch/Future Publishing/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>
What if?
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d63IUQ">
Many disasters — volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes — are unavoidable. Scientists talk about <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/2/23/16974012/trump-pandemic-disease-response">when</a>, not whether, they’ll strike. Though humans <a href="https://www.vox.com/22616968/ipcc-climate-change-report-attribution-extreme-weather-heat-fire">make some calamities worse</a>, natural disasters have been happening since long before we were here. They’re a fact of life on Earth. But one kind of disaster need not be inevitable: a collision between an <a href="https://www.vox.com/a/asteroid-day">asteroid or comet and the Earth</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KqYI0B">
The problem is: We’ve never tried to deflect an asteroid, and don’t know if a plan to do so would work.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GT9Ear">
To help answer this question, last year, NASA launched the <a href="https://dart.jhuapl.edu/Mission/index.php">Double Asteroid Redirection Test</a> (DART), which is a car-size box outfitted with solar panels. It’s currently on its way to a 160-meter asteroid called Dimorphos. In the fall, DART will crash into Dimorphos at 24,000 kilometers an hour (about 15,000 miles per hour) in pursuit of a big question: Can the collision nudge the asteroid into a slightly different orbit?
</p>
<div id="f28wVR">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EV511v">
<br/><em><strong>Further reading: </strong></em><a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2022/1/26/22879970/nasa-asteroids-comets-dart-dont-look-up">The quest to avert an asteroid apocalypse is going surprisingly well</a>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="SlfVcL"/>
<h3 id="JsKHlB">
Was there ever life on Mars?
</h3>
<div class="c-float-left">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aJonwefmPxyo6V8vlLgh6q94QEA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23630396/1154_Cropped_closeup.jpeg"/> <cite>NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS</cite>
<figcaption>
The Perseverance Rover takes a selfie on Mars.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CSsydA">
Mars today is a desert, devoid of any obvious signs of life. But over the years, scientists have uncovered evidence of a lost Mars, long ago, that might have looked a lot more like Earth.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2MzaHJ">
“Mars is a very different place today than it was 4 billion years ago, but you can see evidence of what it was like,” says NASA astrobiologist Lindsay Hays. “You see things like the remnants of a huge river delta, which indicates not only did you have water flowing, but you probably had lots of water flowing over a long period of time that continued to deposit sediments.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DaoH3y">
And where there was water, there could have been life. Last year, a new rover landed on Mars, and it is our best shot at answering the question of “was there ever life on Mars?” If the answer is “yes,” it could change our understanding of how common life is in the universe.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qRy3qf">
<em>The</em> Unexplainable<em> episode on Mars airs June 22.</em>
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pOOSMS">
<em><strong>Further reading: </strong></em><a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/7/29/21340464/nasa-perseverance-ingenuity-launch-live-stream-how-to-watch-science-life-on-mars">NASA’s latest rover is our best chance yet to find life on Mars</a>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="fZ2xbL"/>
<h3 id="EZINFS">
Is there a true ninth planet lurking in the darkness?
</h3>
<div class="c-float-right">
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="pluto july 13" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/n6duhD-uxYmEzIr2sYv5hAer81U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3871646/20150714_pluto-nh-ehealth1.0.png"/> <cite>NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI</cite>
<figcaption>
Sorry, Pluto, there may be a new ninth planet.
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QCUh3T">
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/pluto-not-a-planet/2021/08/23/ae8fd57c-fbb8-11eb-8a67-f14cd1d28e47_story.html">voted to change</a> the definition of what constitutes a planet, and Pluto didn’t make the cut. No longer were there nine official planets in the solar system, but eight.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aDrzxD">
But then “we started getting these hints that there really is something else out there — and a real giant planet that we think is still now lurking well beyond Neptune, waiting to be found,” astronomer Mike Brown says on <em>Unexplainable</em>. Astronomers have yet to detect this planet, but they suspect it is there: Other objects far out in the solar system seem to be impacted by its gravity.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zXs5AL">
Could these hints lead us to a true, new ninth planet? Maybe. But it will be hard to find.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kgrg0J">
”It‘s kind of like taking a little black grain of sand and throwing it on the beach,” Brown says of the search. “That’d be a little hard to find that one in the sea of all the rest of them. And that’s the problem with Planet Nine.”
</p>
<div id="tjp0VB">
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4YEkAZ">
<br/><em><strong>Further reading: </strong></em><a href="https://longreads.com/2019/01/22/the-hunt-for-planet-nine/"><em>The hunt for planet 9 </em></a>
</p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="j58q9i"/>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JBgAgK">
If you have ideas for topics for future shows, send us an email at unexplainable@vox.com.
</p>
<div>
<div id="ZksWsS">
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lODIwV">
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HHa8PV">
</p></li>
<li><strong>The pandemic’s invisible influence over the midterm elections</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XpGWtkFCymMP-fYQK363g6pc19U=/195x0:3395x2400/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70982205/GettyImages_1396929906.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
The US flag flies at half staff at the Capitol in Washington, DC, as a memorial to the one million American deaths from the coronavirus on May 12. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Politicians don’t want to talk about Covid-19 anymore. But it’s still influencing voters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2I5JnM">
As Democrats and Republicans vie for control of Congress in the midterms in November, <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">Covid-19</a> will likely be both everywhere and nowhere.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PnX2WO">
On the surface, the pandemic seems to be far from the minds of voters and the lips of candidates right now. Two years after it helped sink Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2022/key-issues-voting-2022-midterms/">few voters</a> name it as a top priority; candidates aren’t focusing on it either. Even though the United States passed <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covids-toll-us-reaches-1-million-deaths-unfathomable-number-rcna22105">1 million reported Covid-19 deaths</a> while the primary season was kicking off in earnest <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/us/elections/midterm-elections-calendar.html">in early May</a>, the virus has seemingly lost its salience as a political issue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Nxd2d">
Democrats generally aren’t boasting about their Covid-19 responses or the rollout of vaccines under the Biden administration. If they are talking about the pandemic, they tend to focus more on helping the country move on from it. Republicans don’t want to talk about Covid either, as their base doesn’t take it as seriously. If they do, it’s typically to criticize the public health institutions that have taken center stage during the last two years.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qxR0B8">
But if you look closer, the pandemic is still having enormous, if subtler, influence on American politics. Inflation — a crisis that began with supply-chain and workforce issues caused by Covid-19 and was likely amplified by some aspects of the US relief legislation — is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/13/1091883946/inflation-michigan-7th-congressional-district">the No. 1 issue for US voters</a> right now. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/17/briefing/violent-crime-ukraine-war-week-ahead.html">Murders</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/health/drug-overdose-deaths-2020/index.html">drug overdose deaths</a> began rising during the pandemic, souring the public’s mood <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html">on the country’s future</a> and presaging a difficult campaign for the party in power.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xw4LOO">
“It’s been so extensive that you just don’t notice it,” John Gasper, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied the effect of prior natural disasters on political behavior, said. “People are sick of blaming Covid for a lot of things. Politicians don’t want to keep talking about Covid.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="05dE8i">
Both sides arguably have reason to leave Covid-19 out when they take to the stump or produce their campaign videos, Neil Malhotra, a political economist at Stanford University, told me. President Joe Biden and Democrats have been in power for two years and the pandemic is still ongoing. Much of the Republicans’ voter base has been skeptical of Covid-19’s significance for a while, giving their candidates little reason to focus on it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dKUbZD">
The exception is the hard-right candidates who oppose public health interventions to slow down the pandemic. <a href="https://whnt.com/news/politics/republican-gubernatorial-candidates-advocate-against-mask-mandates-in-schools-adph-official-disagrees/">Certain Republicans</a> continue to make clear their opposition to mask or vaccine mandates and other measures, even though those restrictions have been lifted almost everywhere.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D0AZl1">
That bizarre reality — in which the pandemic that killed 1 million people is being most effectively politicized by the people who opposed the response to it — reflects the unusual nature of Covid-19 as a political event. It started as something akin to a natural disaster: disruptive, but not something that sticks in voters’ memory. But, unlike most hurricanes or tornados, the pandemic wasn’t over within a relatively short time. It lasted years — long enough to evolve into a political wedge issue that candidates use to stir up their most strident supporters.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DnHu5P">
“Covid has transformed from a disaster to … fodder or kindling for the ongoing culture war,” Gasper said. “It’s one more thing to stoke the fire in order to feed your base.”
</p>
<h3 id="GbLYXi">
Why Covid-19 feels — mostly — invisible in the midterm campaigns
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gUl7sE">
Covid’s decline as an overt political issue has been precipitous. In January, in the thick of the omicron wave, it was one of the top answers in <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx">Gallup’s poll</a> asking Americans to name the most important problem facing the country. But three months later, in April, the share who still put the pandemic as the No. 1 issue had dropped from 20 percent to 4 percent; it was trailing Russia and fuel prices among people’s concerns.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UbGbXO">
Inflation and the state of the economy in general have become the dominant issues for voters. Those problems have their origins in the pandemic, but they are complicated by other events like the war in Ukraine.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tOypFa">
Over time, voters typically have less tolerance for politicians blaming the same thing for all the problems in the world, even if there is some truth to it. It’s old news. So candidates are responding to that apathy in the 2022 campaigns. Democratic politicians, in particular, tend to be very reactive to voters’ attitudes, Malhotra said, and voters right now are done with Covid-19.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L24Ipn">
“They’re really trying hard to see where voters are, trying to reach what the median voters believe,” he said. “The mass voting base in this country is over Covid. They just are. That is the truth.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rd4Zcm">
The example of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in Colorado, who is up for reelection this year, is telling. Polis has positioned himself as more libertarian on the pandemic response, in a state that leans toward Democrats but where Republicans can still win in the right political environment.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8lfx4Qckd1fFmkrxiP9jJ3LQVMY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23631667/AP21301790769955.jpg"/> <cite>David Zalubowski/AP</cite>
<figcaption>
Colorado Governor Jared Polis, right, heads into a news conference about Colorado offering Covid-19 vaccinations to children on October 28, 2021.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m2nO4h">
Polis ended Colorado’s state of emergency in July 2021. During the omicron wave this winter, he would not tolerate calls for new mask mandates. He has <a href="https://www.colorado.gov/governor/news/7321-polis-administration-releases-colorados-next-chapter-our-roadmap-moving-forward">framed</a> his policies on Covid-19 as “moving forward.” And he <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/10/1085838500/colorados-governor-treated-covid-differently-than-many-democrats-it-may-pay-off">has been rewarded</a> with one of <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2022/04/28/governor-approval-ratings-2022-election/">the highest approval ratings</a> of any Democrat seeking reelection this year.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YBtbnC">
Kyle Kondik at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics noted that even in deeply Democratic Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser is seeking in her campaign to <a href="https://murielbowser.com/issues/leading-the-fight-against-covid-19/">strike a balance</a> between touting the city’s mitigation efforts while also taking credit for its schools reopening.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gdFngV">
In Republican campaigns, Covid-19 is either invisible or the government response is the subject of ridicule. The Nevada GOP candidates looking to challenge Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in a key gubernatorial race all stressed their opposition to mask and vaccine mandates as well as business closures. Tellingly, in the GOP primary for the Pennsylvania US Senate election, candidates Dave McCormick and eventual winner Mehmet Oz <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pennyslvania-gop-senate-covid-masks-dave-mccormick-mehmet-dr-oz_n_62616846e4b041ee2651c428">took hard-right turns during the campaign</a>. Oz had previously been supportive of pandemic interventions before he then campaigned against mask mandates because masks “don’t work.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lrMBNf">
Such sentiments are as powerful as anything in Republican politics right now. As CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/31/politics/trump-candidates-covid-vaccines/index.html">noted earlier this year</a>, even though Trump himself tried to counter vaccine skepticism, many of his favored candidates have continued to run very publicly on their opposition to not only vaccine mandates but to getting vaccinated at all.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ow1Gdi">
It fits into the general themes of distrusting experts and institutions that have been a hallmark of Republican campaigns for a long time now, most notably during Trump’s rise to the presidency. Those anti-establishment attitudes are now taking on a Covid framing after two years of living through the pandemic.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YWvddz">
“I think that comes out in being critical of the Covid mitigation techniques that public health authorities have suggested,” Kondik said. “So it may be that Republicans place themselves in opposition to such experts as a way of indicating they are on the side of their own voters.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gn5doy">
In that sense, Malhotra told me, part of Covid’s apparent invisibility is a byproduct of it largely serving to reaffirm people’s preexisting beliefs. It didn’t change the trajectory of America’s recent political polarization, which has sorted high-income and lower-education voters into the GOP camp and low-income and higher-education voters to the Democrats.
</p>
<h3 id="jy7Z8w">
How Covid-19 will influence US politics in the future
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T653Ew">
Still, the pandemic has already toppled one sitting president, a rarity in recent American elections. All of the experts I spoke with credited Trump’s loss in 2020 with, at least in part, his not taking Covid-19 seriously enough and failing to marshal an effective response.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="51PPFa">
So we can’t say that it hasn’t affected American politics at all. But whether our political character is altered in a more fundamental way as a result of the last two years remains to be seen.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pt1kKS">
In the past, natural disasters have tended to not have a major or lasting effect on voting behavior or political attitudes, according to the research conducted by scholars like Gasper and Malhotra. Their immediate impact is too concentrated and too fleeting to change how tens of millions of people feel about the government and its leaders.
</p>
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Covid-19 is already different, given the much longer timeline on which the pandemic has unfolded. As long as we are living with runaway inflation and the other secondary effects of the virus, it will leave a mark — perhaps subtly but detectable — on people’s politics.
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Amy Walter, editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report, told me there may be some political benefit to be found in opposing the pandemic response now. But she added that politicians coming into office are also being tasked with fixing the resulting problems: economic uncertainty, rising crime, and the other public health crises in drug abuse and mental health that were exacerbated by Covid-19. And if they fail to act, they may end up paying the price down the road.
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“A politician may be able to win today by being opposed to the public health establishment’s response to Covid,” she said. “But that same politician will likely be dealing with the downstream challenges that Covid has wrought on our society. And, if they are deemed as insufficiently addressing those issues, they could be vulnerable in a re-election bid of their own.”
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We are all living in a world irreversibly altered by the pandemic experience. So while the virus might be fading as an object of media attention or voter concern, that does not mean the US is the same country it was before Covid-19 arrived.
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The consequences of the pandemic for US politics have been subtle and even surprising. But they are still there, if you know where to look.
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ravishing Form, Siege Perilous, Triple Wish, Dedicated Boy, Del Mar and Imperial Power please</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Easy like Sunday morning</strong> - Baseball is the only field of endeavour where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer: Ted Williams</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Badminton | Sameer, Ashwini-Sikki lose in Indonesia Open</strong> - Sameer Verma, a former world no. 11, went down 10-21 13-21 to sixth seeded Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the second round of the Indonesia Open</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NBA | As player or coach, Warriors boss Steve Kerr is champion material</strong> - The Golden State Warriors lead the NBA Finals series 3-2 against the Boston Celtics and just need one more win to clinch the title for the fourth time under coach Steve Kerr. Game 6 is on Friday</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Premier League announces 2022-23 season fixtures</strong> - In the Premier League opening week, Manchester City travel to West Ham, Liverpool play newly-promoted Fulham, Chelsea take on Everton, London derby for Arsenal at Crystal Palace and Manchester United play Brighton</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Security forces engage with militants in south Kashmir’s Anantnag and Kulgam</strong> - One unidentified militant killed in Kulgam’s Mishipora; IED weighing 15 kg recovered in Pulwama</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>West Bengal Assembly speaker revokes suspension of seven BJP MLAs</strong> - Clashes had broken out in the Assembly on March 28 between the legislators of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP, following which the speaker suspended Mr. Adhikari and the four other MLAs</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A ward to promote yoga</strong> - Krishnaraja MLA S.A. Ramdas reveals plans for his constituency</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Special children allegedly sexually exploited in NGO home in Andhra Pradesh, one arrested</strong> - Collector orders probe, victims sent for medical examination</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>On visit to Kashmir, Rajnath credits armed forces, CRPF and police for decline in terrorism</strong> - Defence Minister says Pakistan continues its policy of ‘bleed India with thousand cuts’</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘The Russians said beatings were my re-education’</strong> - Ukrainian citizens have told the BBC they were punched and electrocuted before being allowed to leave Mariupol.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Moroccan’s death sentence being ignored, sister says</strong> - Brahim Saaudun and two Britons were captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>British men in Greek court over cocaine smuggling</strong> - Almost 300kg of the drug was found in a shipment of bananas, Greek police say.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gazprom: Germany accuses Russian gas giant of pushing energy prices up</strong> - Russian giant Gazprom says it will cut the amount of gas it sends to Germany by more than half.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EU eyes Israeli natural gas in deal with Egypt</strong> - EU nations seeking to rely less on Russian gas may soon be able to source supplies from Israel instead.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ancient Roman soldier carved a phallus with a personal insult in this stone</strong> - The carving also included a crude personal insult directed at someone named Secundinus. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1861071">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Moderna, Pfizer vaccines for under 5s overwhelmingly endorsed by FDA advisers</strong> - Children under 5 may finally get FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1861162">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tsunami of junk traffic that broke DDoS records delivered by tiniest of botnets</strong> - The DDoS arms race shows no signs of slowing down. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1861137">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Senate bill would ban data brokers from selling location and health data</strong> - “Data brokers gather intensely personal data” without consent, bill summary says. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1861115">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An astrophysicist explains the often-misunderstood nature of dark energy</strong> - “When it comes to dark energy, we’re just, well, we’re in the dark, right?” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1861108">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<li><strong>A farmer buys a young cock.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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As soon as he gets home it fucks all of his 150 hens. The farmer is impressed. At lunch, the cock again screws all 150 hens.
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Next day it’s fucking the ducks and the geese too.
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Sadly, later in the day the farmer finds the cock lying on the ground half-dead and vultures circling over its head. Farmer yells , “You deserve it, you horny bastard!”
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The cock slowly opens one eye, looks up at the sky and whispers , " Shhhhhh, They’re about to land!!!"
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Remarkable-Youth-504"> /u/Remarkable-Youth-504 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vdb88q/a_farmer_buys_a_young_cock/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vdb88q/a_farmer_buys_a_young_cock/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A fortune-teller told me that in 10-15 years, I would suffer the most terrible heartbreak any man has ever faced. I was so upset over learning this.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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I decided to cheer myself up – I adopted a puppy, and I’ve never been happier!
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/sjbluebirds"> /u/sjbluebirds </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vd4ss0/a_fortuneteller_told_me_that_in_1015_years_i/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vd4ss0/a_fortuneteller_told_me_that_in_1015_years_i/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A judge was interviewing a woman regarding her pending divorce</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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A judge was interviewing a woman regarding her pending divorce, and asked, “What are the grounds for your divorce?”
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She replied, “About four acres and a nice little home in the middle of the property with a stream running by.”
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“No,” he said, “I mean what is the foundation of this case?”
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“It is made of concrete, brick and mortar, your honour” she responded.
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“I mean,” he continued, “What are your relations like?”
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“I have an aunt and uncle living here in town, and so do my husband’s parents.”
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He said, “Do you have a real grudge?”
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“No,” she replied, “We have a two-car carport and have never really needed one.”
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“Please,” he tried again, “is there any infidelity in your marriage?”
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“Yes, both my son and daughter have stereo sets. We don’t necessarily like the music, but the answer to your questions is yes.”
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“Ma’am, does your husband ever beat you up?”
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“Yes,” she responded, “about twice a week he gets up earlier than I do.”
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Finally, in frustration, the judge asked, “Lady, why do you want a divorce?”
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“Oh, I don’t want a divorce,” she replied. "I’ve never wanted a divorce. My husband does. He says he just can’t communicate with me!!
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MarionScott"> /u/MarionScott </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vdigjl/a_judge_was_interviewing_a_woman_regarding_her/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vdigjl/a_judge_was_interviewing_a_woman_regarding_her/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>15% of women admit to having used vibrators.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The other 85% said they bought them new.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/bobparlo"> /u/bobparlo </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vdhrr3/15_of_women_admit_to_having_used_vibrators/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vdhrr3/15_of_women_admit_to_having_used_vibrators/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><strong>A lady walks into a drug store and tells the pharmacist she needs some cyanide.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The pharmacist said, Why in the world do you need cyanide? The lady then explained she needed it to poison her husband.
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The pharmacist’s eyes got big and he said, Lord have mercy, I can’t give you cyanide to kill your husband! That’s against the law! I’ll lose my license, they will throw both of us in jail and all kinds of bad things will happen! Absolutely not, you can NOT have anycyanide!
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Then the lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist’s wife.
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The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, “Well now, you didn’t tell me you had a prescription………………………………………………………………………..
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/stickshift220"> /u/stickshift220 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vdjshh/a_lady_walks_into_a_drug_store_and_tells_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/vdjshh/a_lady_walks_into_a_drug_store_and_tells_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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