Monthly Archives: October 2016

“[T]he species may not actually need to land for sleep”

NPR – The Two-Way: This Bird Can Remain Airborne For 10 Months Straight.

“Scientists have long suspected that the common swift remains airborne for extraordinary amounts of time during its annual migration.
Now, a team of scientists in Sweden has proved that these birds fly for tremendously long periods of time. They affixed data loggers onto a total of 19 of the master fliers in 2013 and 2014, and recaptured the birds months or years later. Researchers found that the birds can spend almost their entire 10-month nonbreeding period on the wing.”

170 Years Until Gender Equality

Deutsche Welle: Study: Economic gender gap to persist until 2186. “Prospects for workplace gender equality have slipped back to 2186 after a dramatic slowdown in progress, the WEF stated in its latest report on the issue. But some developing and emerging markets have made progress.”

William Shakespeare didn’t work alone

Deutsche Welle: Big data reveals Shakespeare co-authored 17 of his plays. “Shakespeare got help in writing 17 of his world-famous plays – including from his supposed arch rival Christopher Marlowe. The mixed authorship was revealed in a new edition of his works that relied on big data.”

“It’s a good place to be a woman“

The Guardian: Why Iceland is the best place in the world to be a woman. By Noreena Hertz, 24 October 2016.

“Since 1975, the Nordic country has blazed the trail in gender equality and now, from infancy to maternity, women and girls enjoy a progressive lifestyle. But how did they achieve it?”

Link via dangerousmeta.rocks.

“It’s not her success that seems to arouse ire, but the act of campaigning itself.”

Quartz: America loves women like Hillary Clinton–as long as they’re not asking for a promotion. By Sady Doyle, February 25, 2016.

“It’s hard to remember these days, but just a few years ago, everybody loved Hillary Rodham Clinton. When she stepped down as US secretary of state in January 2013 after four years in office, her approval rating stood at what the Wall Street Journal described as an “eye-popping“ 69%. That made her not only the most popular politician in the country, but the second-most popular secretary of state since 1948.
The 2012 “Texts from Hillary“ meme, which featured a sunglasses-clad Clinton scrolling through her Blackberry aboard a military flight to Libya, had given rise to a flood of think pieces hailing her “badass cool.“ The Washington Post wanted president Barack Obama to give vice president Joe Biden the boot and replace him with Clinton. Taking stock of Clinton’s approval ratings, Nate Silver noted in a 2012 piece for the New York Times that she currently held “remarkably high numbers for a politician in an era when many public officials are distrusted or disliked.“ “