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823 lines
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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>17 August, 2021</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Return of the Taliban</strong> - Their comeback has taken twenty years, but it is a classic example of a successful guerrilla war of attrition. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-return-of-the-taliban">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Does the Great Retreat from Afghanistan Mark the End of the American Era?</strong> - It’s a dishonorable end that weakens U.S. standing in the world, perhaps irrevocably. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/does-the-great-retreat-from-afghanistan-mark-the-end-of-the-%20american-era">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The U.N.’s Terrifying Climate Report</strong> - Scientists predict hotter heat waves and worse flooding in the decades ahead, but the catastrophe is evident everywhere this summer. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/23/the-uns-terrifying-climate-report">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is It Time to Break Up Big Ag?</strong> - Renewed attention to antitrust has been focussed on Big Tech, but concentration in agriculture may be an underlying source of rural America’s pro-Trump political backlash. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/is-it-time-to-break-up-big-ag">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>State Republicans Are Gambling with the Delta Surge</strong> - G.O.P. leaders are sticking to an anti-science message that equates some of the most routine public functions with tyranny. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/state-republicans-are-gambling-with-the-delta-surge">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Who are the Taliban now?</strong> -
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<figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9fFy9AFTewpQrYjMMvT-
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ufoFTdw=/206x0:2873x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69735729/AP21227740995379.0.jpg"/></p>
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<figcaption>
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Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on August 15. | Zabi Karimi/AP
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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How the Islamic militant group has — and hasn’t — changed in 20 years.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="416HC0">
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wMPdjA">
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Nearly a year and a half before the Taliban <a href="https://www.vox.com/22618215/afghanistan-news-taliban-advance">swept through Afghanistan</a>, seizing control of the country for the first time since 2001, it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/u-s-taliban-peace-
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deal/7aab0f58-dd5c-430d-9557-1b6672d889c3/">reached a peace deal</a> with the United States in Doha, Qatar.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CADRre">
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That process gave the ideologically strident Islamist militant group a public venue to appear as<strong> </strong>“very well-dressed people, with smartphones, speaking very diplomatically in front of the international media,” said Sher Jan Ahmadzai, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha. For the Taliban, it offered a glimpse of international legitimacy, something that it lacked when the group <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/taliban-afghanistan-79476354">took over Afghanistan in the late 1990s</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cxuMBC">
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But in recent weeks, the Taliban completed a rout through Afghanistan, taking <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/15/22626082/kabul-capital-fall-afghanistan-government-taliban-forces-
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explained">districts without so much as a bullet fired</a> and entering the capital of Kabul Sunday, culminating with the group declaring <a href="https://twitter.com/business/status/1427097306508185601?s=20">the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan</a>. And then the reports began to trickle out: <a href="https://twitter.com/OliverStuenkel/status/1426956240136114178?s=20">of executions</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghans-tell-of-executions-forced-marriages-in-taliban-held-areas-11628780820">of women and teenage girls being forced into marriages with Taliban fighters</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCYaldaHakim/status/1426563984195473410?s=20">of female students being turned away from school</a>. It harkens back to the Taliban’s repressive rule of the 1990s and raises the question of exactly who the Taliban are today, seizing power 20 years after they were driven from it.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kfA1DeSr81XsdfVS8MWgchvtKMo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22786341/GettyImages_1234046287.jpg"/> <cite>Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Leader of the Taliban negotiating team Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (center) seen during the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, on July 18.
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</figcaption>
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</figure></li>
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</ul>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/jZzuocjSCJOzpLZXRW06n4ptWmw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22786349/GettyImages_1234633762_1.jpg"/> <cite>Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
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<figcaption>
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Head of the Taliban delegation Abdul Salam Hanafi (right) is accompanied by Taliban officials (from second right to left) Amir Khan Muttaqi, Shahabuddin Delawar, and Abdul Latif Mansour during peace talks in Doha on August 12.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sqMiEi">
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Experts said the Taliban have changed, in that the leadership has learned from the past decades — its rise, fall, and rise again. The group has become more pragmatic, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/22/yes-taliban-has-changed-its-gotten-much-better-pr/">it has become much better at public relations</a>. But that does not mean the Taliban have altered their worldview, or their goals, and their victory this week may reinforce that.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Da95EO">
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“At its core — its ideology, the way it sees Islam, the way that it sees the imposition of religious law on society — [the Taliban] has not fundamentally changed as a movement,” said Vali R. Nasr, the Majid Khadduri professor of Middle East studies and international affairs at Johns Hopkins University.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fNESrk">
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In many ways, the Taliban remain opaque, and there are likely divides between their leadership and the soldiers on the battlefield. That makes it hard to predict exactly what Afghanistan’s future might look like under possible Taliban rule. But there is also a reason Afghans <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSun/status/1427304142536536067?s=20">are clinging to US military planes</a>, desperate to get out of the country at any cost.
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</p>
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<h3 id="7eVpAJ">
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The Taliban have sought more international legitimacy. But they’re still the Taliban.
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gbvtL1">
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The Taliban have adapted, politically and militarily, since they were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/11/world/nation-challenged-military-campaign-taliban-defeated-pentagon-asserts-
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but-war.html">ousted in December 2001</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZsFO5A">
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During their preceding five years of running Afghanistan, the group, led by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/world/asia/mullah-muhammad-omar-taliban-leader-
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afghanistan-dies.html">Mullah Muhammad Omar</a>, never had full control over all of the country. But where it did,<strong> </strong>it imposed strict Sunni fundamentalism that brutally oppressed many in Afghanistan, especially women, who were barred from attending school or working. The Taliban persecuted minorities,<a href="https://minorityrights.org/minorities/hazaras/"> particularly Shia minorities in Afghanistan</a>. The group also gave sanctuary to al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, who planned the 9/11 attacks within the country’s borders. That, ultimately,<strong> </strong>would lead to a US- and NATO-backed force toppling their regime months later.
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</p>
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<div class="c-wide-block">
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<figure class="e-image">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/zMYpZnMSYqzP7Zc83hbTlYu_t9c=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22786390/GettyImages_521735564.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite></p>
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<figcaption>
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Unidentified armed Taliban soldiers ride on a pickup truck outside Kabul in the late 1990s.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kz7Aq0">
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The Taliban’s leaders fled after their defeat, but the group did not disband; instead, it regrouped to wage a decades-long insurgency against the US-backed government in Kabul. In that time, the Taliban did change. They became more battle-tested, and so they began to wage a more successful insurgency, with carefully plotted attacks and better coordination and intelligence-gathering. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-taliban-are-
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megarich-heres-where-they-get-the-money-they-use-to-wage-war-in-afghanistan-147411">They got richer.</a> They got a bit more pragmatic: As Nasr pointed out, part of the reason the Taliban so swiftly retook Afghanistan in recent weeks — in a way they hadn’t even in the 1990s — is because they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/15/afghanistan-military-collapse-taliban/">cut deals with lots of local officials</a>; they were willing to “wheel and deal.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kcxMgg">
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A lot of this came from the Taliban reflecting on the failures and missteps and humiliations of the past. Asfandyar Mir, an analyst on Afghanistan, told me that much of the political echelon of the Taliban is still dominated by people who were instrumental to the Taliban’s movement in the 1990s. The sting of the 9/11 aftermath has not faded for them.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xq0ulO">
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“They had a really strong sense of humiliation — that we had the government and this was our right and this right was taken away from us forcefully, and so we have to assert ourselves, we have to restore our credibility, which was forcibly taken away,” Mir said. “It’s those scars of the post-9/11 months, which I think continues to really guide and shape the overall calculus of organization.” It explains, in part, the unrelenting march toward Kabul, as the Taliban reclaimed the country by force.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QTZxaf">
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At the same time, experts said, the Taliban also deeply understands the need for international legitimacy and recognition. “Not only because of its normative value, but also because of access to foreign funds which, for a larger part of its history, Afghanistan’s state has been dependent on,” Kaweh Kerami, a researcher at SOAS University of London, said in an email.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L36LaU">
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This meant going beyond Pakistan. The Taliban, in recent years, have built ties with Iran and regional neighbors, along with countries like <a href="https://cepa.org/careful-
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what-you-wish-for-russia-and-afghanistan/">Russia</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-
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taliban-1e40c629c150505a107b2e05c3a9b0cc">China</a>. The United States <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-envoy-warn-taliban-bet-afghan-takeover-79375076">has said it will continue to isolate a Taliban government</a>, but the Taliban cultivated other possible partners. They know they cannot go it alone if they want to retain power in Afghanistan.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fma5Br">
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As part of this strategy, the Taliban’s political leadership has tried to present itself as a much more rational entity. It is a touch more cautious in its rhetoric, a kind of attempt at a rebrand of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58224559">backward, brutal force</a> it had been portrayed as. The Taliban sat down not just for peace talks but peace talks that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/opinion/afghanistan-taliban-peace-talks.html">women participated in</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ISOBJZ">
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Afghanistan’s possible<strong> </strong>new leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, embodies this. The Taliban’s current supreme leader is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/some-key-leaders-afghanistans-
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taliban-2021-08-11/">Haibatullah Akhundzada</a>, but he hasn’t been seen in years and <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/taliban-officials-deny-report-that-top-leader-died-from-coronavirus/30648768.html">he may or may not be dead</a>. Mullah Baradar, though, is the political leader and a co-founder of the Taliban movement, a close associate of the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-last-days-of-taliban-head-mullah-
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omar-11552226401">deceased Mullah Omar</a>. In 2010, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/world/asia/16intel.html">Baradar was captured in Pakistan by a joint US- Pakistani intelligence operation</a> and imprisoned. He was released from prison in 2018, around the time the Trump administration began peace talks in earnest with the Taliban. (There are reports that <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/25/afghan-taliban-founder-mullah-baradar-released-by-pakistan">his release was negotiated as a condition for the talks</a>.) Baradar, ultimately, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/middle-
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east/pompeo-meets-afghan-taliban-negotiators-qatar">led those peace talks</a> in Doha.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<pre><code> <img alt="QATAR-US-DIPLOMACY-POMPEO-TALIBAN" src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">cdn.com/thumbor/FieoGbTsKzbxBpL3rTr3Zg20JL4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22786631/1229710043.jpg" /> <cite>Patrick Semansky/AFP via Getty Images</cite></p>
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<pre><code> <figcaption>US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) meets with Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in the</code></pre>
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Qatari capital, Doha, on November 21, 2020.
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="68HmCK">
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Kerami told me that because Baradar understands that the Taliban’s survival as a government depends on diplomacy and regional aid, he appears to be comparatively less strict on social issues, including women’s issues.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="seTWr2">
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But Kerami and other experts remain skeptical. There are a lot of reasons to doubt that Baradar and the Taliban’s political leadership is suddenly open to, say, allowing women to work or hold office. In June, Baradar said that women and minorities would be protected based on <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/taliban-insists-islamic-system-only-way-to-women-rights-
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what-does-it-mean-101624181875381.html">“the glorious religion of Islam.”</a>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3GqQLI">
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“They never really clarified what that means,” Mona Tajali, an associate professor at Agnes Scott College and executive board member with Women Living Under Muslim Laws, said. “And if you’re someone who works on gender, and women’s rights within the Muslim world, you know that that’s basically a warning sign.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KKWyPD">
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Tajali said most women’s rights activists she works with Afghanistan never believed the Taliban moderated, no matter how good they’ve gotten at public relations.
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</p>
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<div id="NS2Hib">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
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Young and educated Afghan women tell me they are burning their degree certificates and diplomas, so that they won’t be targeted by the Taliban fighters going door to door. This is beyond heartbreaking.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">— Amruta Byatnal (<span class="citation" data-cites="amrutabyatnal">@amrutabyatnal</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/amrutabyatnal/status/1427282620929302537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2021</a></p>
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</blockquote>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v4nWTg">
|
|||
|
|
Reports from Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan suggest that <a href="https://twitter.com/CombatJourno/status/1427168479246000128?s=20">people and organizations</a> are changing behaviors — <a href="https://twitter.com/CombatJourno/status/1427168479246000128?s=20">for example, reports that media organizations are taking female anchors off-air</a> — over the expectation that the Taliban will begin to implement its repressive policies once again. <a href="https://twitter.com/CombatJourno/status/1427168479246000128?s=20">As the AFP reported</a>, some directives are more explicit, with women again being told they can’t work or study or leave the house without a male escort.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5YnHej">
|
|||
|
|
Many experts said the Taliban political leadership ultimately may make some overtures to appease the international community — like leave some media organizations open, or allow younger girls to attend schools — but there is a real reason to question how deep or serious this commitment is. And, again, recent reports from <a href="https://twitter.com/Amie_FR/status/1427236192186208260?s=20">Kabul </a>and elsewhere in Afghanistan suggest the commitment<a href="https://twitter.com/amrutabyatnal/status/1427282620929302537?s=20"> is chillingly shallow</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CBVIop">
|
|||
|
|
“There’s a gap between what they say and what they do,” Mir said. “It’s a political attribute of sorts — that they’re able to engage the international community with polite words, by creating the impression that they are open to politics. But in the end, they remain a strident military machine, unwilling to compromise.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kiR0cH">
|
|||
|
|
And in a lot of ways, they have very little incentive to compromise — after all, they just rolled through Afghanistan and retook Kabul, as the United States, the occupying force they set out to defeat, <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/u-s-embassy-shredding-burning-documents-in-case-taliban-
|
|||
|
|
wins/">scrambled to burn paperwork and evacuate staff at its embassy</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XvThbj">
|
|||
|
|
But for the Taliban, it may be a lot easier to retake the country than govern it. Which is why Afghanistan’s future under Taliban rule is still so uncertain.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="HODjq9">
|
|||
|
|
Can the Taliban govern? Will it restart ties with terrorists? The big questions that still loom over Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VfGgoF">
|
|||
|
|
There are still a lot of unanswered questions about whether and how the Taliban can run Afghanistan. Even before the US invasion, they struggled to be a government in the 1990s — to control all the territory and, most important, to deliver services to people. Whether they can do better this time will depend a lot on whether their efforts for international legitimacy pay off.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OaHp5Y">
|
|||
|
|
Another outstanding question is how well this political leadership — particularly those involved in international negotiations — will work with the militants on the ground. “To what extent [is] this new quote-unquote, Taliban statesman that we sat across from in Doha able to influence and discipline and control the local people?” Nasr, of Johns Hopkins, said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7hITw9">
|
|||
|
|
The political leaders of the Taliban have schooled themselves in world affairs. They recognize they need to talk about respecting rights, because they want that international recognition. But there are thousands and thousands of Taliban commanders and foot soldiers on the ground, who may not necessarily share that view. As Ahmadzai, of the University of Omaha, said, these different layers of the Taliban have different priorities, and it will be difficult to predict if they will stand in line. “There are Taliban who claim that we are victorious, we defeated the great power, we have the right to do whatever we want, because we have given sacrifice.”
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fzpu0z">
|
|||
|
|
“It’s yet to be seen,” he added. “There will be ideological splits.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
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|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/mjZ-i-MxmMjGCU1ISsTglRG_Xk4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22786404/GettyImages_1234688528.jpg"/> <cite>AFP via Getty Images</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Taliban fighters in Jalalabad province on August 15.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<pre><code> <img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-</code></pre>
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/DLJcBAX8j9DVk7Trd63HZ6Uaiyw=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox- cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22786403/GettyImages_1234713245_copy.jpg" /> <cite>Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Thousands of people mobbed Kabul’s airport trying to flee the Taliban’s hardline brand of Islamist rule on August 16.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9qyo4G">
|
|||
|
|
Other divisions might emerge as well.<strong> </strong>A lot about the Taliban’s organization remains opaque, but there are different factions, many with a lot of power and potentially competing interests. As experts pointed out, the US has tried to create wedges between these different Taliban factions in the later years of the insurgency — some of these you’ve probably heard of before, <a href="https://www.dni.gov/nctc/groups/haqqani_network.html">like the infamous Haqqani network</a>. But ultimately, the Taliban have stayed, at least on the battlefield, a pretty cohesive group.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1fOvOB">
|
|||
|
|
The question now is whether the absence of the US will succeed where US government policy failed. In other words, once the Taliban loses the external threat of the US, will possible power struggles or competing factions emerge?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Un4ZJC">
|
|||
|
|
That also leads to another gap about this Taliban, which is to what extent they will grant terrorist organizations safe haven within their borders. In the US-Taliban peace deal, the primary condition for US withdrawal was the Taliban’s pledge not to harbor terrorists that might stage attacks against the US. Despite this, there is a lot of evidence and reporting, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/taliban-keep-close-ties-al-qaeda-despite-promise-u-
|
|||
|
|
s-n1258033">including from the United Nations</a>, that Taliban leadership has kept close ties with al-Qaeda.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NpB1Hn">
|
|||
|
|
Experts told me there are likely splits within the Taliban here, too, ones that may generate tensions as the Taliban takes a foothold. Many fighters, especially younger generations, may believe in an international jihadist movement and want to lend support. But others in the movement might see those ties as too risky, as those ties ultimately dislodged the Taliban from power.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lSUDMw">
|
|||
|
|
Still, the Taliban’s victory, and the symbolism of the group retaking power, could offer a boost to terror groups everywhere, whether in Afghanistan or elsewhere. “When [the Taliban] can topple a government supported by the whole international community — what kind of message does that send to the rest of the extremist groups for the world?” Ahmadzai said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="oUitp5">
|
|||
|
|
What does this all mean for the people of Afghanistan?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qqoTpT">
|
|||
|
|
The Taliban took Afghanistan by force. The organization is not democratic, and never will be, but experts said whether Afghans see the government as legitimate will depend on how it governs.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yzlUup">
|
|||
|
|
The Afghan government and US intervention ultimately failed, and built up a lot of resentment during its two decades. A whole generation of Afghans, born after 2001, lived under the threat of ongoing war. But that same generation, at least in major urban areas, did not live under the Taliban’s oppression.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kuBAoD">
|
|||
|
|
The 20 years has meant more journalists, activists, artists, educators, and politicians, many of them women. Millions of girls and women have gone to school. “Many of them are fleeing right now, and particularly those that have the opportunity are fleeing right now,” Tajali said. “But there’s there’s just so many of them. That’s basically the main force that we’re thinking, ‘How will the Taliban try to repress at such an extensive level?’ I don’t know if it can.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HP8785">
|
|||
|
|
Even if the Taliban, in a quest for international standing, rolls back some of its harshest policies, there is little hope that it will truly moderate. “They’re going to govern exactly as they did before,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, an expert on civil-military relations in South Asia <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff117140.php">who’s written extensively on the region</a>. Their ideology defines them. “The idea of thinking that the Taliban has changed is so incorrect,” Siddiqa added.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cNmQuR">
|
|||
|
|
The reports coming out of Afghanistan, so far, suggest that the worst is unfolding. There are reports of the Taliban going door to door in Kabul, <a href="https://twitter.com/Amie_FR/status/1427236192186208260?s=20">seeking out women who worked for the government and media</a>. In Kabul, store owners reportedly took down signs <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3x5bj/photos-of-
|
|||
|
|
women-are-being-erased-in-kabul-as-taliban-seize-power-in-afghanistan">with women models</a>. Some TV channels changed <a href="https://twitter.com/FinancialTimes/status/1427278031941406729?s=20">from soap operas to Islamic programming</a>. Afghans who worked with US or international forces are terrified, and in hiding, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/16/world/taliban-afghanistan-news">for fear of reprisal.</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GMLlMT">
|
|||
|
|
The Taliban may have attempted to remake their image. But many in Afghanistan have no illusions about who they really are.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-wide-block">
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/niqXidY604AQb1j4NtNzGSPg9oM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22786417/GettyImages_1234713632.jpg"/> <cite>Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A family rush to the Hamid Karzai International Airport as they attempt to flee Kabul on August 16.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CiufsP">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g3SedO">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TWvtGu">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Pesticides can amplify each other. Bees have become the victims.</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/_fiSSkoDvjVh7DWTHlX6i0i3Reg=/136x0:3696x2670/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69735696/GettyImages_468840748.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Bees and other insects are in decline. Mixtures of pesticides, some of which can amplify the toxicity of one another, are part of the problem. Here, a worker loads pesticides into a machine that sprays them on almond trees in Firebaugh, California. | David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
To save insects and help ourselves, experts say we have to rethink the regulation of poisonous chemicals.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FIWMF1">
|
|||
|
|
<em>This story is part of </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth"><strong>Down to Earth</strong></a><em>, a Vox reporting initiative on the science, politics, and economics of the biodiversity crisis.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8o2rpl">
|
|||
|
|
Open your pantry. What do you see?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qupzx7">
|
|||
|
|
A third or more of the food before you likely depends on natural pollinators like bees. Without them, foods like apples, almonds, and squash wouldn’t exist. Neither would certain kinds of coffee, chocolate, or <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41055-016-0003-z">the majority</a> of the world’s 100 top crop varieties.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MLol3N">
|
|||
|
|
That’s one reason why insects are so important, and why we should be concerned that <a href="https://entomology.rutgers.edu/graduate/docs/papers/Wagner2020InsectDeclinesAnthropocene.pdf">they’re in decline</a>. One <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636">recent review</a> found that over 40 percent of insects are threatened with extinction. Meanwhile, beekeepers in the US and Europe have been <a href="https://research.beeinformed.org/survey/">reporting</a> high rates of colony collapse for years.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0uxzns">
|
|||
|
|
Scientists have long known that pesticides are part of the problem. These chemicals are literally designed to kill insects and we spray <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/oki-water/science/pesticides">a billion pounds</a> of them across the US each year. Now researchers are learning that they may be having an even larger impact on the natural world<strong> </strong>than previously known.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KhR9pu">
|
|||
|
|
When different pesticides mix together, as they often do on farms, they can amplify the effect of one another, according to a new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03787-7">study</a> published in the journal <em>Nature</em>. In deadly combination, they can be even more damaging to bees. <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/pesticide-
|
|||
|
|
mixtures-deadly-synergy-salmon">Previous research</a> has found that these “synergies” can harm fish and other creatures, too.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0HA12Q">
|
|||
|
|
What’s most troubling is that regulators in the US and elsewhere don’t take the dangers of these interactions fully into account — even though they’ve long been aware of them. The Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees pesticides in the US, effectively ignored a recommendation to determine which chemicals farmers most commonly mix together, and what risk those combinations pose to bees. Europe is making more progress, but its regulations still fall short, experts say.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Wxic-HJyATNxf6Lu62thDKyH7nI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22777180/GettyImages_1035431346.jpg"/> <cite>Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Buckfast honey bees flying near a beehive in Marengo, Illinois, in 2018.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption></figure></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dGPIAO">
|
|||
|
|
“We know that these pesticides interact, we know that they’re used together, and we know that bees are exposed to them in combination,” said Harry Siviter, an entomologist at the University of Texas at Austin and the study’s lead author. Yet those interactions “aren’t really looked at,” he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gbTM0n">
|
|||
|
|
The pollination benefits of bees and other insects<strong> </strong>are worth an estimated <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800908002942">$180 billion a year</a>, not to mention the many other benefits they provide, from controlling pests to feeding other organisms. To protect them, a number of scientists are calling for a sea change in the regulation of agrochemicals.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="7NJEsG">
|
|||
|
|
“Death by a thousand cuts”
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NMcWzs">
|
|||
|
|
In <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorder">late 2006</a>, a large number of US beekeepers began noticing something alarming: Worker bees were mysteriously disappearing from hives in huge numbers, causing their colonies to collapse. That winter, beekeepers lost <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorder">as much as 90 percent</a> of their hives due to what became known as colony collapse disorder.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1SsX24">
|
|||
|
|
Today, a smaller percentage of hives suffer from colony collapse, but keepers are still losing <a href="https://research.beeinformed.org/survey/">about a third</a> of their hives each year and find it increasingly difficult to keep them alive, according to Aimée Code, who leads the pesticide program at Xerces Society, a nonprofit focused on invertebrate conservation. That’s to say nothing of native wild bees — bumblebees, miner bees, and the like — which have suffered <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/csp2.80">steep population declines</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/ygi7OFNUUMXWQIAvN8RmxUhlQwc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22778511/1_s2.0_S0006320718313636_gr3_lrg.jpg"/> <cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636#f0015" target="_blank">Francisco Sánchez-Bayoa and Kris Wyckhuys/Biological Conservation</a></cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
The proportion of insect species in decline or locally extinct. “Vulnerable” indicates a decline of more than 30 percent and “endangered” means a decline of more than 50 percent. “Extinct” means that the species has not been recorded for at least 50 years.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IXbAGY">
|
|||
|
|
Ultimately, scientists determined there was no one culprit behind colony collapse disorder. Instead, it was likely fueled by a combination of several factors, including disease, habitat loss, and various pesticides. The same can be said for the decline of insects more broadly — it’s “death by a thousand cuts,” as <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/2/e2023989118">one scientific paper</a> put it. Which is to say that the plight of insects isn’t about one stressor, but about how they fit together.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="MVYBUM">
|
|||
|
|
Pesticides are more harmful<strong> </strong>than the sum of their parts
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J7CSk4">
|
|||
|
|
So how<strong> </strong>exactly do things like pesticides and parasites interact to harm bees?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0HdjoV">
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Siviter and his co-authors answered that question through a meta-analysis, which is essentially a study of studies. First, they combed scientific literature about how multiple stressors affect bees, ultimately turning up 90 papers that had relevant data. They then pooled the results in a large analysis in their own paper that shows which combinations are most deadly.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lH1d1Z">
|
|||
|
|
The analysis revealed especially bad news about pesticides. When present together, multiple chemicals can amplify the effect of one another, the analysis found, making them more deadly than you’d expect if you just added up the sum of their individual effects. (Pesticides, which include<strong> </strong>insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides, work in a variety of different ways; many insecticides target insects’ immune systems.)
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bi552P">
|
|||
|
|
You can think about it like this: If on its own, one chemical kills 10 percent of a bee population, and the other kills 20 percent, a synergy of pesticides is one that kills more than 30 percent, Siviter said. The researchers found that combinations of other stressors, like parasites and a lack of nutritious food, were more likely to have a simpler “additive effect” — meaning, equal to the sum of each individual effect.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/fx9PLKZdSVRNOrtWVexwbbtWKZo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22777145/GettyImages_1162747483.jpg"/> <cite>Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Beekeeper Del Voss looks at a beehive from his apiary above his garage in Washington, DC.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
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|
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</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ey0ZAF">
|
|||
|
|
One example of how these synergies can play out comes from a <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2019.0433">2019 study</a> on the relatively new insecticide flupyradifurone, which is sold as Sivanto by the pharmaceutical giant Bayer. Bayer <a href="https://www.cropscience.bayer.us/products/insecticides/sivanto">says</a> the compound can help “safeguard beneficial insects,” but the researchers found that its lethal toxicity quadruples when it’s<strong> </strong>used in combination with the common fungicide propiconazole — which can “impair bee survival,” the paper says.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mmVd6z">
|
|||
|
|
Propiconazole and other similar fungicides, it turns out, inhibit bees’ natural ability to detoxify, experts say — in roughly the way that a drug that disrupts your liver might make you more likely to get alcohol poisoning. That means they have a harder time flushing agrochemicals from their system.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TsHA6H">
|
|||
|
|
The <a href="https://s3-us-
|
|||
|
|
west-1.amazonaws.com/agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/Sivanto_200_SL_Label1d.pdf">label</a> for Sivanto warns farmers against mixing the chemical with fungicides in the same family as propiconazole while crops are in bloom. Yet the study points out that bees can encounter both kinds of chemicals even if farmers don’t mix them together.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B95Glg">
|
|||
|
|
In a statement to Vox, Bayer said “pollinator health has been a focus for Bayer for decades,” and that it’s aware of the kind of synergies between fungicides and insecticides that the study reported. The company said it has implemented “restrictions” for using Sivanto with fungicides like propiconazole. Bayer added that regulators review studies of chemicals “under practical field conditions, which look at entire honeybee and bumblebee colonies,” and questioned whether the results from the 2019 study, which were based on lab work, would apply in the real world.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VekFYV">
|
|||
|
|
Simone Tosi, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Turin in Italy and the lead author of the study, said that lab studies offer more control over various environmental variables, compared to field studies, “and can thus capture pesticide effects that would be missed in the field.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sAT74ovlu6Mx8TztcmyLfvExWHs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22777195/GettyImages_1171715468.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Monarch butterflies are among the organisms that could be harmed by pesticide mixtures.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mXD84H">
|
|||
|
|
Bees aren’t the only animals harmed by these kinds of synergistic interactions. They’re almost certain to impact other invertebrates like beetles, butterflies, and wasps, experts say. Scientists have also known for over a decade that they can harm fish. In a <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/pesticide-mixtures-
|
|||
|
|
deadly-synergy-salmon">2009 study</a> by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), researchers looked at how various combinations of five common pesticides in the Pacific Northwest harm coho salmon, a threatened species. Many of the agrochemicals defied the researchers’ expectations by amplifying each other’s effects.
|
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|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3m5nbW">
|
|||
|
|
“This deadly synergy made those particular pesticide combinations more harmful than the sum of their parts,” NOAA <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/pesticide-mixtures-deadly-synergy-salmon">wrote at the time</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="Icz0Z0">
|
|||
|
|
Why these interactions are such a big problem
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FbAaH0">
|
|||
|
|
All of this matters so much because study after study finds that insects are exposed to more than one chemical at a time. “When we look for pesticides, whether it’s in our water or on our pollinator plants, we’re finding them in mixtures,” Code said.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9xR5mu">
|
|||
|
|
A <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28968582/">study from 2018</a>, for example, found as many as seven pesticides per sample of pollen collected by honeybees in Italy, while other research has found residue from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749121001445">more than 20 chemicals</a> in US hives. Scientists have also <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2020.00162/full">detected dozens of pesticides in plants</a> that at-risk species, like the iconic monarch butterfly, rely on for their development.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="BItBlP">
|
|||
|
|
<q>“When we look for pesticides, whether it’s in our water or on our pollinator plants, we’re finding them in mixtures” —Aimée Code</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="u15dC6">
|
|||
|
|
This won’t surprise people familiar with farming or ecology. Farmers commonly mix multiple pesticides together in a tank before applying them to the field. Even if they don’t, chemicals can drift from one farm to another, or mix together in local streams or wetlands as runoff, Code said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CkkjaI">
|
|||
|
|
The root of the problem may be bureaucracy, not biology. Regulations in the US and Europe have been slow to consider the impacts of pesticide mixtures on pollinator health. To register a chemical, companies typically don’t have to test how it might interact with other compounds found on a farm or in the environment, experts say. “A farmer or even a backyard gardener can use dozens of chemicals in any given growing period and the potential impact of these numerous uses is not part of registration — even if we’re only talking about additive effects,” Code said. In fact, companies aren’t necessarily required to test the full mix of compounds that make it into their commercial products, Siviter said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EV5J9P">
|
|||
|
|
Code pointed out that when doctors prescribe medicines, they’re carefully attuned to the ways that different drugs could interact. “We would not accept a doctor who didn’t understand the impacts of mixing those medicines,” she said. “We shouldn’t accept it for our pesticides either.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B6FW5x">
|
|||
|
|
In a statement to Vox, an EPA spokesperson said the agency “recognizes that synergistic effects of pesticides to wildlife is an evolving issue that will benefit from further studies and evaluation.” For all new active ingredients, “EPA reviews a search of patent claims to determine whether there are any claims and supporting evidence of these greater than additive effects.”<strong> </strong>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9cl4LP">
|
|||
|
|
When a company files a patent for a pesticide, it may include claims about how chemicals in the product interact to enhance one another — in other words, synergies.<strong> </strong>This information actually <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/pesticides_reduction/pdfs/Toxic_concoctions.pdf">helps</a> the company’s case for patent protection. “There are a large number of US patents with assertions of interactions,” <a href="https://downloads.regulations.gov/EPA-HQ-OPP-2017-0433-0002/content.pdf">according to a publicly available EPA memo</a>. That means that in at least some cases EPA will be able to evaluate synergistic effects before approving a chemical — assuming it’s included in existing, patented pesticides.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rA3bQf">
|
|||
|
|
Companies, however, aren’t required to report those harmful interactions when they patent a product, so experts suspect that<strong> </strong>regulators overlook many of them.<strong> </strong>And even when evidence of harmful interactions is available, there’s no mandate that the EPA reviews it, Siviter added.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q8wgGJ">
|
|||
|
|
In a follow-up statement to Vox, an EPA spokesperson said the agency doesn’t have information “on the extent to which such interactions may be underreported” in US patents.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/BZU0LQ3QBv-0WuF4e10938_gUIg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22777169/GettyImages_685380648.jpg"/> <cite>Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A farmer in Malden, Illinois, replaces an insecticide container while planting corn seed, in 2017.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tbkLjV">
|
|||
|
|
The European Union, meanwhile, has stricter pesticide regulations. “EU legislation on pesticides is one of the strictest of the world,” said a spokesperson for the European Commission, who pointed to EU legislation that requires risk assessments to consider known synergies. Companies also need to do risk assessments for their commercial products (and not just on individual active ingredients), the spokesperson said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pJGi21">
|
|||
|
|
Then again, harmful interactions — some of which may be unknown — are still largely unaccounted for, said Tosi, who led the 2019 study on Sivanto and the 2018 paper that detected pesticide residue in pollen. “Often synergies are not tested because of lack of data or methods,” said Tosi, who’s studied bees for many years.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="WVPvIK">
|
|||
|
|
The pharmaceutical industry could be a model for pesticides
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="c12Xlt">
|
|||
|
|
This is not an easy problem to solve, but experts highlighted a few things that could help.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nx4LwU">
|
|||
|
|
At a minimum, regulators should require companies to test the mixture of ingredients in their products that end up on shelves, Siviter said. Even inactive ingredients — such as adjuvants, which are designed to make pesticides more effective — can impact the toxicity of chemicals, Tosi added. (In its follow-up statement, EPA said that for some risk assessments it does test the mixture of chemicals in “end-use” products, which includes both active and inert ingredients.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zWCzqe">
|
|||
|
|
Beyond that, regulators could pinpoint the most common pesticide combinations that insects are exposed to, for example, by asking farmers what they’re mixing in their chemical<strong> </strong>tanks. “We should have a clear idea of the most common combination in the field, and those that can cause the greatest synergistic effect,” Tosi said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="TvHNl3">
|
|||
|
|
<q>Once pesticides are licensed, “that’s it — they’re out there” —Harry Siviter</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j0zHfH">
|
|||
|
|
The most important thing regulators could do, Siviter told Vox, is to<strong> </strong>add another phase to the approval process, making it more like the way the Food and Drug Administration regulates prescription drugs. Once pesticides are licensed, “that’s it — they’re out there,” Siviter said — whereas pharmaceuticals go through a long-term safety monitoring process, called pharmacovigilance, once they’ve been licensed. That helps determine how they act in the real world, and on a large scale.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RL3JeT">
|
|||
|
|
“Important insights into how pesticides can be better regulated come from the regulation and monitoring of pharmaceuticals,” authors of a 2017 <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6357/1232?ijkey=Xd8BxJQXd/WFI&keytype=ref&siteid=sci">perspective</a> in the journal <em>Science</em> wrote. “An essential step for pesticide regulation in the future is to develop an equivalent to pharmacovigilance — perhaps called pesticidovigilance.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="Aa6TcC">
|
|||
|
|
The US has been slow to change
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2G0NL4">
|
|||
|
|
The EPA<strong> </strong>has not acted on some of these recommendations, though it has known about them for years. In 2016, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-16-220-highlights.pdf">recommended</a> that the EPA should identify pesticide mixtures that farmers commonly use on their crops, to “determine whether they pose greater risks than the sum of the risks posed by the individual pesticides.” The EPA agreed with that recommendation, according to the report — but four years later, the agency had yet to make any relevant changes, a GAO official told Vox.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Pmprls">
|
|||
|
|
The importance of testing chemical mixtures was also raised by NOAA many years prior. “Regulators may need to further consider multi- chemical effects when setting exposure standards,” wrote the authors of the 2009 study on salmon. When asked if anything had changed in the time since, a NOAA spokesperson said, “Tests to evaluate potential ecological responses from exposure to pesticide mixtures are not a requirement for pesticide registration with EPA.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/pTGKkViF1V8ujwByfmqTvw5ENTU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22777203/GettyImages_139821042.jpg"/> <cite>Getty Images</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A European honeybee, the world’s most common honeybee (and the species found in most US commercial hives).
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J0rEfx">
|
|||
|
|
European agencies have been making more progress. Earlier this year, the European Food Safety Authority, which advises the European Commission, <a href="https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/j.efsa.2021.6607">proposed</a> a new way to monitor the impacts of interacting stressors on bee health that sounds a lot like “pesticidovigilance.” It would use high-tech sensors to gather data inside and outside hives over time, which would then feed into computer simulations of honeybee colonies. “It would provide additional feedback to risk assessors that may use its results in their work,” said Tosi, who helped develop the framework. (The spokesperson for the European Commission also pointed to an <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/food/system/files/2021-03/pesticides_mrl_cum-risk-ass_action-plan.pdf">action plan</a>, published in February, for considering the risks posed by pesticide mixtures to human and environmental health.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZtRPN8">
|
|||
|
|
This kind of monitoring is essential, experts say. Ultimately, results from individual toxicity tests, whether from the lab or the field, don’t reveal much about what actually happens on farms, or in the complex ecosystems around them. Plus, companies on their own will never be able to test interactions between all the different chemicals used in agriculture.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L1wvTH">
|
|||
|
|
“We need to have a feedback loop,” Code said, “where what’s actually being used on the landscape is what we’re evaluating.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Astronomers were skeptical about dark matter — until Vera Rubin came along</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CEStGHbWQKxiw3FxVhcVf-
|
|||
|
|
rNUyw=/0x0:1849x1387/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69735576/630671744.0.jpg"/></figure></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Vera Rubin in 2010, at her office in Washington, DC. | Linda Davidson/The Washington Post via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She built a bulletproof case for exploring the concept.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qV5JqW">
|
|||
|
|
Vera Rubin didn’t “discover” <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/21537034/dark-matter-unexplainable-podcast">dark matter</a>, but she put it on the map.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aSr4Rf">
|
|||
|
|
Dark matter is a wild concept. It’s the idea that some mind- boggling percentage of all the matter in the universe may be invisible, and wholly unlike the matter that makes up Earth. Rubin is celebrated because she forced much of the astronomy community to take it seriously.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5IltQ6">
|
|||
|
|
That reckoning moment came in 1985, when she stood in front of the International Astronomical Union and walked the audience through some of the data she had collected.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kfbg9E">
|
|||
|
|
Her data showed that stars at the edges of multiple galaxies were moving in ways that didn’t make sense, according to the rules of physics. One possible explanation for this strange phenomenon, Rubin suggested, was the existence of a mysterious “dark matter” at the edges of the galaxy. In the decades since that talk, research into dark matter has exploded, revolutionizing astronomy.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I1v1TQ">
|
|||
|
|
In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Galaxies-Dark-Matter-Beyond/dp/0262046121"><em>Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond</em></a>, a new biography of Rubin, science journalist Ashley Yeager explains how Rubin, who died in 2016, grew from a young researcher whose bold ideas were initially ignored into the kind of scientist who could change an entire field. In 2020, we interviewed Yeager for <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-
|
|||
|
|
health/21537034/dark-matter-unexplainable-podcast">an episode of the <em>Unexplainable</em> podcast</a> about dark matter. A transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.
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</p>
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<div id="1g10Ni">
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<div style="width: 100%; height: 232px;">
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</div>
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</div>
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<h4 id="Sishr5">
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Noam Hassenfeld
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZYtXjE">
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When did Vera Rubin first get interested in astronomy? What’s her origin story?
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</p>
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<h4 id="eVEDmW">
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Ashley Yeager
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4inNid">
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About the age of 11 is when she started to look at the stars. Vera and her sister, Ruth, shared a bedroom in their Washington, DC, townhouse. And Ruth remembers Vera constantly crawling over her at night to be able to open the windows and look out at the night sky and start to track the stars. So clearly, Vera was captivated by the night sky. And that stuck with her.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fytSgQ">
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She then went to Vassar, where she studied astronomy. [While at Vassar, she met a mathematician named Robert Rubin.]<em> </em>They ended up getting married. And that drove one of the biggest decisions in Vera’s life, because she wanted to go to graduate school for astronomy.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9xTVgo">
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She’d gotten into <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/vera-rubin-forced-the-cosmological-theorists-to-think-again-1483110002">Harvard</a>, but Robert Rubin was at Cornell. He was well into his graduate studies. They had to make a choice, and Vera said, “Let’s stay together. I’ll come to Cornell with you and I’ll do my master’s in astronomy while you finish your PhD in physics.”
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</p>
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<h4 id="wGX2MN">
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Noam Hassenfeld
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FjUh2Q">
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Isn’t that kind of a wild choice? To choose Cornell based on a husband?
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</p>
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<h4 id="Q8SMSW">
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Ashley Yeager
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aBpIEd">
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It’s the late 1940s. And Vera, in some ways, was very traditional, even though she was nontraditional in other ways. She felt that she was expected to get married by the end of her four years at Vassar. That was still something that was societally kind of expected.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xbh70n">
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And I actually think it set her up to be more successful than maybe she would have been, had she gone to Harvard or Princeton or somewhere else, just because of the exposure that she got. There was intellectual freedom she had at Cornell, to be able to probe into different questions in astronomy that she probably would have been pushed away from, had she been in a more structured graduate program.
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</p>
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<h4 id="0Qesfv">
|
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Noam Hassenfeld
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5RYSJg">
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So she’s at Cornell. She’s probing into questions. She’s got a lot of intellectual freedom. What are the big questions that are occupying her mind?
|
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</p>
|
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<h4 id="dBX28H">
|
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|
|
Ashley Yeager
|
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</h4>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JAOm8r">
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The biggest one, which becomes her master’s thesis, is really the idea of “Does the universe rotate?”
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</p>
|
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<h4 id="5yigf5">
|
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|
|
Noam Hassenfeld
|
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JRQWBc">
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Wait<em>, does</em> the universe rotate?
|
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</p>
|
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<h4 id="bXRYWm">
|
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Ashley Yeager
|
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</h4>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MKzLTw">
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So, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/65882-does-the-universe-rotate.html">probably no</a>. This was a question posed by a very eccentric astronomer named George Gamow. Vera’s husband actually showed Vera this paper that George Gamow had written about this idea. And she thought, “Well, why would we not try to answer that question?”
|
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</p>
|
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<h4 id="udLtQz">
|
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Noam Hassenfeld
|
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</h4>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T28csh">
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The kind of question that, if she were at another university, maybe she wouldn’t have had the freedom to dive into?
|
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</p>
|
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<h4 id="vLgYDS">
|
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|
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Ashley Yeager
|
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</h4>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A51kQs">
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I think so. I get the sense, reading through the literature and looking through the history, that she probably would have been guided to a more traditional question.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LMQp5H">
|
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And as she started to look through the data, the numbers started to suggest that there was this odd, sideways motion that perhaps could be interpreted as a universal rotation. She presented her idea to her master’s thesis adviser, William Shaw.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jIp705">
|
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He says, “Your conclusion is really good. I want to present it under my name at this upcoming astronomy conference.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RV2HZP">
|
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And Vera is like, “No! I might not be a member of this society yet. But you’re not presenting my data for me. I’m going to present it under my own name, come hell or high water.”
|
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</p>
|
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<h4 id="MW7JWd">
|
|||
|
|
Noam Hassenfeld
|
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</h4>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MGXamr">
|
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|
|
So does she?
|
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</p>
|
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<h4 id="0y6Ixu">
|
|||
|
|
Ashley Yeager
|
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|
|
</h4>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4BlrTn">
|
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|
Yes. She goes to this meeting. Apparently, the drive from New York to Pennsylvania, where the meeting was, was harrowing. It was the winter, snowy. They had a newborn in the car. Her dad was actually driving because he was the only one with a car at the time.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RyO3Y6">
|
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|
But she gives the presentation, and the reaction is less than great. There are some heavy critics in the room. A lot of scoffing. She does have one person, <a href="https://pr.princeton.edu/news/97/q2/0411schw.html">Martin Schwarzschild</a>, who encourages her. He says, “This is really interesting. But we need more data to be able to make this conclusion.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DqiKAu">
|
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|
And that’s a criticism that really sticks with her throughout her career. Later on, she really tries to have or collect as much data as possible to support her conclusions, just because of that experience.
|
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</p>
|
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<h4 id="rHz6us">
|
|||
|
|
Noam Hassenfeld
|
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</h4>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A9JdN1">
|
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|
What happens next?
|
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|
</p>
|
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<h4 id="BBN966">
|
|||
|
|
Ashley Yeager
|
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</h4>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UffwlW">
|
|||
|
|
She takes a little bit of a break, because she really has this strong sense of wanting to set up a home and start a family. There’s this moment in the early 1950s, when she’s at the playground with her son. She had been reading astrophysical journals to stay connected with what was going on in astronomy.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KqP2WK">
|
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|
So her son’s playing in the sandbox and she’s reading the journal, and she just breaks into tears because she misses doing research so much. She misses that curiosity of asking questions and searching for data, and really trying to figure out the answers to how the universe works.
|
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|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zzYs0T">
|
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|
|
It’s at that point that her husband says, “You need to go back to school. It’s time. We’ll figure out child care. We’ll figure out how to get dinners made. But let’s do it.”
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="32uXwm">
|
|||
|
|
Noam Hassenfeld
|
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</h4>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CmDpkC">
|
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|
|
So she goes back into astronomy. And eventually she starts doing research at <a href="https://m.espacepourlavie.ca/blogue/en/file/3242">Kitt Peak National Observatory</a>, right? What’s that like?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="8ITGMC">
|
|||
|
|
Ashley Yeager
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fU4iFF">
|
|||
|
|
We’re talking late 1960s. This is a 84-inch telescope, very large. Vera is at the telescope with Kent Ford, her collaborator. They’re looking at this galaxy called Andromeda, which is our nearest neighbor. They’re looking at these really young, hot stars on the edge of the galaxy, and they’re trying to get the speeds of these stars — how fast are these stars going around Andromeda?
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3Y8ch7">
|
|||
|
|
So they’re looking at the data, and they’re going, “Oh my gosh, this is not what we expected.” The assumption was that the stars closer in would fly around the sun fast, and the stars farther out would go super slow. But these stars were moving faster than they expected.
|
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|
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</p>
|
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yWZLcv">
|
|||
|
|
The only way for those stars far out in the galaxy to move that fast is [that] there’s got to be something happening out there that we don’t understand.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="4wEf3J">
|
|||
|
|
Noam Hassenfeld
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sfODqZ">
|
|||
|
|
What does she think is going on?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="uSaPj0">
|
|||
|
|
Ashley Yeager
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YM0euZ">
|
|||
|
|
Well, she’s not really sure. And again, she doesn’t like to make assumptions or speak without data. So she and Kent Ford, and a couple other people, they really start to do a systematic study of galaxies.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Vrs7iw">
|
|||
|
|
She does 20 galaxies, and then 40, and then 60. And they all show this bizarre behavior of stars, these stars out far in the galaxy, moving way, way too fast. So at that point, you know, the astronomy community is like, “Okay, we have to deal with this.”
|
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</p>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jv2MnJ">
|
|||
|
|
In 1985, Vera Rubin <a href="https://www.iau.org/static/publications/ga_newspapers/19851101.pdf">gives this talk at the IAU</a>. She says, “Nature has played a trick on us. That we have been studying matter that makes up only a small fraction of the universe. The rest of the universe is stuff that we don’t understand, and we can’t see it.”
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WSgpek">
|
|||
|
|
And I think because she did this in so many galaxies — we’re talking 60 galaxies — there was really no denying it. It was really her work that pushed the community over the edge, to say we have to accept the idea that dark matter exists.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="BVrATF">
|
|||
|
|
Noam Hassenfeld
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qm8a3n">
|
|||
|
|
It sounds like if you really want to upend our entire conception of the universe, you have to come with some data.
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="CC5sun">
|
|||
|
|
Ashley Yeager
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JMl5q7">
|
|||
|
|
Yeah, absolutely. Because she held onto that criticism of her master’s and PhD work — she would just go after the data, and really make sure that the story she told from that data rang true.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lq0SCV">
|
|||
|
|
One of the things that made her a remarkable scientist is her perseverance. She did face a lot of roadblocks, especially because she was a woman in science in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s. She had to really persevere. Unfortunately, she will never get to see or know what dark matter is. But I don’t know that she had a problem with that. She would take pride in the fact that she opened a whole new realm of astronomy and physics.
|
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|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j06XHJ">
|
|||
|
|
She basically created more questions than answers, and I think that’s the mark of a remarkable scientist: when you open up these questions that no one ever thought of before. When you create a whole new generation of scientists who can go and answer them.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
|
<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>You are all winners and role models, PM Modi tells Tokyo-bound para athletes</strong> - Paralympics will be held between August 24 to September 5</p></li>
|
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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>India to open T20 WC campaign against Pakistan on October 24</strong> - The tournament’s first round kicks off on October 17 in Oman</p></li>
|
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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>Tendulkar, Warne hail India’s Test win against England at Lord’s</strong> - ‘The resilience and grit that the team displayed in difficult situations is something that stood out for me,’ Tendulkar said</p></li>
|
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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>Root admits to committing tactical blunders, says underestimated Indian lower-order</strong> - England were in a dominant position before they lost control during a chaotic unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 89 between Shami (56 not out) and Bumrah (34 not out) on the final morning at Lord’s.</p></li>
|
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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>Archery | Push to prepare for Paris Games reason for success: Sanjeeva</strong> - Sports science support crucial for continued good show</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>IITs making efforts to help out Afghan students currently stuck in Afghanistan</strong> - “In the event that students are unable to come to the campus, we will offer them opportunities to continue their programs online.”</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>No proposal to reduce tax on petrol: CM</strong> - Tamil Nadu, which had earlier increased tax on petrol by ₹7 a litre, announced last week that it would reduce the amount by ₹3</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>Simhachalam Devasthanam will not accept Jersey calves as donation, says EO</strong> - Simhachalam Devasthanam Executive Officer M.V. Suryakala has said that the male calves, donated by devotees to the temple, as per their vows to the de</p></li>
|
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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>Set up mental health unit in prison: HC</strong> - Directive issued in a suo motu case on the basis of media reports on plight of mentally ill prisoners</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>BJP leader shot dead in south Kashmir</strong> - A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was shot dead by suspected militants in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Tuesday, second such incident in the</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</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>France wildfire: Thousands evacuated as blaze rages near Riviera</strong> - Firefighters clear campsites in the Var region as some 5,000 hectares are destroyed by fire.</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>UK looking at bespoke Afghan refugee scheme - Dominic Raab</strong> - The foreign secretary says the UK is a “big-hearted nation” and full details will be set out soon.</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>Polish law on property stolen by Nazis angers Israel</strong> - A new law will make it harder for people to recover property lost in World War Two.</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>Peter Karlsson: The painful verdict on Swedish ice hockey player’s 1995 killing</strong> - Peter Karlsson was stabbed to death in the street. His killer said he was protecting himself - via the so-called ‘gay panic’ defence.</p></li>
|
|||
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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>Ebrar Karakurt: Supporters rally around Turkish volleyballer after abuse</strong> - Ebrar Karakurt was abused online after posting a photo with her girlfriend on Instagram.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
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<ul>
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID boosters reportedly may start in Sept. Here’s the latest data [Updated]</strong> - As delta rages, Americans reportedly advised to get booster 8 mos after vaccination. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1787625">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>T-Mobile has been hacked yet again—but still doesn’t know what was taken</strong> - Data reportedly includes SSNs, driver license numbers, and more for 100 million people. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1787685">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>MIT scientists reveal why water drops move faster on a hot, oil-coated surface</strong> - Twist on the “Leidenfrost effect” could one day be used in microfluidics applications - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1787403">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Here’s why Blue Origin thinks it is justified in continuing to protest NASA</strong> - Bezos: " The thing that slows things down is procurement." - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1787516">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>T-Mobile apparently lied to government to get Sprint merger approval, ruling says</strong> - T-Mobile ordered to prove it didn’t lie to Calif. agency about network-shutdown plan. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1787524">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>My wife is an economist and I am an engineer.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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I was watching my wife make her breakfast one morning, and noticed that she made way too many trips to get each of the items she needed. So I said in my best engineer voice, “Hey sweetheart, why don’t you utilize the load maximization principle and carry all the items you need in one trip, thereby minimizing total distance travelled?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Well don’t you know, she loved my suggestion!
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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It used to take her 11 minutes to make her breakfast… now I do it in 5.
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</p>
|
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/upandattem"> /u/upandattem </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p5rahu/my_wife_is_an_economist_and_i_am_an_engineer/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p5rahu/my_wife_is_an_economist_and_i_am_an_engineer/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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<li><strong>How is a push-up bra like a bag of chips?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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As soon as you open it, you realize it’s half empty.
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/chasers710"> /u/chasers710 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p5uff4/how_is_a_pushup_bra_like_a_bag_of_chips/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p5uff4/how_is_a_pushup_bra_like_a_bag_of_chips/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
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<li><strong>An atheist goes to heaven</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Baffled and full of questions he is being shown around by God.
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Why am I here? I am an atheist.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“That does not matter, all good people end up here.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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As they pass by a gay couple kissing the atheist wonders
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
“Isn’t that a sin?”
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
“That does not matter, all good people end up here.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
They come by a Buddhist Monk, silently meditating.
|
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|
</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
"Wait, so you even take in people who believe in other religions?
|
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|
</p>
|
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
“That does not matter, all good people end up here.”
|
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|
</p>
|
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
Surprised, but intrigued the atheist looks around - when one last question comes to his mind
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
“But where are all the Christians?”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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|
“In hell”
|
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|
</p>
|
|||
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|
</div>
|
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|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/sdric"> /u/sdric </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p60tbb/an_atheist_goes_to_heaven/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p60tbb/an_atheist_goes_to_heaven/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>So a man was sued for libel and slander…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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|
The judge asked, “What’s the defendant accused of saying?”
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
The plaintiff’s attorney replied, “He called my client an, and I quote, ‘incompetent motherfucker’, your honor.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The judge nodded, “And what does the defense plea?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The defendant’s attorney rose, “Not guilty as charged, your honor.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The judge looked at his papers, “So, counsel, apparently, there were thirty witnesses to the alleged statement, are you sure you’re going to plead not guilty?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The defendant’s attorney nodded, “Truth is an absolute defense, your honor. We would like to call the plaintiff’s mother as our first witness.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Warpmind"> /u/Warpmind </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p5oc1n/so_a_man_was_sued_for_libel_and_slander/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p5oc1n/so_a_man_was_sued_for_libel_and_slander/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A biker stops at a young girl who’s just about to jump off a bridge. He says to her, “why not give me your last kiss before you jump?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She quietly accepts and gives him one of the deepest kiss ever.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
When she’s finished, the biker says, “Wow! That is the best kiss I ever had! It would be a real waste of your talent to jump. Why are you committing a suicide?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She replied, “my parents don’t like me dressing up like a girl.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ReasonableGator"> /u/ReasonableGator </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p5l399/a_biker_stops_at_a_young_girl_whos_just_about_to/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/p5l399/a_biker_stops_at_a_young_girl_whos_just_about_to/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
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|
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|
|
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