The Beachcomber offers this weekly collection of stories from everywhere but Washington D.C., for readers looking to climb out of the rabbit hole for a moment and re-connect to the world.
TO BOLDLY GO…
TRAPPIST-1, constellation Aquarius: The biggest news of the past week comes from about 235 trillion miles away, with the announcement of the discovery of seven earth-sized planets orbiting the dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 — three of which are in the so-called habitable zone. This piece at Quartz ponders what life might be like for our newly discovered extraterrestrial neighbors, should they exist.
… AND TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES
Smithsonian: For your visual pleasure, The Atlantic has a lovely preview of some of the finalists for Smithsonian Magazine’s 2016 photo contest, which also includes a link to the contest page featuring all 70 finalists chosen from the 48,000 submissions they received. Voting is currently open to all for the Readers’ Choice winner.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Female Digital Assistants Aren’t Programmed to Stand Up to Sexual Harassment: If you’ve ever said something questionable to Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana or Google’s Home just to see how they would respond, you’re not alone. In fact, some makers of these bots have noted that measurable percentages of the interactions with their products are sexually explicit. Leah Fessler writes about this in a thought provoking piece for Quartz that suggests sexism is inherent to the notion of the female assistant, and the normalization and acceptance of the sexual harassment that results should be addressed by the companies that make and program them.
SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO
Can you change the way someone thinks? This is a question that has likely crossed the minds of many recently and this two-part conversation on Love + Radio with musician Daryl Davis — a black man who has made it his life’s mission to befriend white racists — makes for fascinating listening as he talks about what so many years of arguing has taught him about changing people’s points of view.
OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE ELECTIONS TOO
France: Elsewhere in the world, other countries have their own election dramas to deal with and at the moment, France is at the top of the list with far-right Front National candidate Marine LePen currently leading in the polls there. Independent centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron might just have turned the tide, however, with the announcement of his surprise alliance with François Bayrou — veteran of three previous presidential elections — who sacrificed a potential candidacy of his own to support the young Macron against LePen’s “threat and major danger for our country and Europe.” The Guardian has the story here.
BEES CAN TEACH EACH OTHER SPORTS … AND ARE STARTLED WHEN THEIR FRIENDS BUMP INTO THEM
Bees: This video of bees learning and teaching each other to play “soccer” is exactly what you didn’t know you needed right now (SPOILER: Bees are really smart). Also, scientists have recorded honey bees making a “whoop” noise when they bump into each other. New Scientist has the story and audio recordings here.
INGENIUS OR ENABLING?
Bodegraven-Reeuwijk, Netherlands: A dutch town has installed traffic lights in the pavement in a trial effort to prevent accidents with pedestrians who walk while looking down at their smart phones. Business Insider has reported the story with some help from the BBC and The Guardian.
