Learning

Can I create my own filter? Some people buy or create masks with a pocket inside to hold a filter, such as a coffee filter. When using other materials to make your own filter, such as unused vacuum cleaner bags, HEPA furnace filters, HVAC anti-allergy filters or other air filters, make sure you sandwich the filter between at least two layers of fabric to cut down on the risk of inhaling potentially harmful fibers from these materials. There are not yet conclusive data on whether or not filters provide added protection, but studies are underway. Please make sure that you can breathe easily when wearing the mask, and do not use a filter if it makes you feel short of breath. more »

Recently added to the National Archives Catalog includes a digitized portion of the Army’s personality index titled 111-PX: Index to Personalities in the U.S. Army Signal Corps Photographic Files (111-SC, 111-P, 111-PC, 111-C), 1940 – 1981, covering World War II and the Korean War time period. The index can be useful for locating Army service members as well as notable personalities. more »

School choice sounds good, but is it really? Suitts says that understanding its racist roots illuminates its monochrome consequences. The Court eventually ruled that it was not permissible to create racially specific schools, even though they were technically private, not public. The schools switched to virtual segregation, which is another name for token integration. A few non-whites (not always black) were allowed in. Private schools remained overwhelmingly white, and not just in the South. Suitts concludes that shifting more resources from public to private schools, by whatever rationale, won’t result in a better education for those who need it most. To find out more about what happened and why, read this book. more »

Can we really tell male and female dinosaurs apart? Scientists worldwide have long debated our ability to identify male and female dinosaurs. Researchers analysed skulls from modern-day gharials, an endangered and giant crocodilian species, to see how easy it is to distinguish between males and females using only fossil records. Male gharials are larger in size than females and possess a fleshy growth on the end of their snout, known as a ghara. The research teamstudied 106 gharial specimens in museums across the world. They found that aside from the presence of the narial fossa in males, it was still very hard to tell the sexes apart. more »