Learning
A Ferocious Predator of Its Day: T. Rex’s Short Arms May Have Lowered Risk of Bites During Feeding Frenzies
In a new paper appearing in the current issue of the journal Acta Palaeontologia Polonica, paleontologist Kevin Padian floats a new hypothesis: The T. rex’s arms shrank in length to prevent accidental or intentional amputation when a pack of T. rexes descended on a carcass with their massive heads and bone-crushing teeth. A 45-foot-long T. rex, for example, might have had a 5-foot-long skull, but arms only 3 feet long — the equivalent of a 6-foot human with 5-inch arms. “What if several adult tyrannosaurs converged on a carcass? You have a bunch of massive skulls, with incredibly powerful jaws and teeth, ripping and chomping down flesh and bone right next to you. What if your friend there thinks you’re getting a little too close? They might warn you away by severing your arm,” said Padian, distinguished emeritus professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a curator at the UC Museum of Paleontology (UCMP). “So, it could be a benefit to reduce the forelimbs, since you’re not using them in predation anyway.” more »
Sexual Assault: DOD and Coast Guard Should Ensure Laws Are Implemented to Improve Oversight of Key Prevention and Response Efforts
Sexual assaults in the military continue to increase, although Congress, the Department of Defense, and the Coast Guard have taken actions to prevent and address them. Congress passed 249 statutory requirements between 2004 and 2019 to improve how the military: helps sexual assault victims; prevents sexual assaults; manages and oversees prevention efforts; investigates cases and conducts judicial proceedings. DOD and the Coast Guard have met most of these requirements but not all of them. Also, they don't have enough oversight to know whether some of their efforts are effective. Our 23 recommendations address these and other issues. more »
CDC’s First Nationally Representative Survey of High School Students During the Pandemic Can Inform Effective Programs
Findings highlight that a sense of being cared for, supported, and belonging at school — called “school connectedness” — had an important effect on students during a time of severe disruption. Youth who felt connected to adults and peers at school were significantly less likely than those who did not to report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness (35% vs. 53%); that they seriously considered attempting suicide (14% vs. 26%); or attempted suicide (6% vs. 12%). However, fewer than half (47%) of youth reported feeling close to people at school during the pandemic. “School connectedness is a key to addressing youth adversities at all times – especially during times of severe disruptions,” said Kathleen A. Ethier, PhD, Director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health.
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Chicago History Museum, Pullman Women at Work: From Gilded Age to Atomic Age
"The goal was to offer women work that would be in line with a domestic role and 'not interfere with their primary maternal duties." Pullman centralized the laundry operations and built a new facility on Florence Boulevard (now 111th Street), where in 1892, more than 100 women washed “soiled bed linens, tablecloths and napkins.” In 1899, a Chicago Tribune article marveled at the laundry’s machines that could wash and iron “30,000 pieces in a day” and the “young women” who fed pieces through the tumbler and the mangler, folded them, and tied them in bundles. The encyclopedic 1893 book, The Town of Pullman, described the laundry facility in even more gushing terms: a structure “supplied with every modern convenience for the comfort of employes [sic],” rooms buzzing with “busy girls, all wearing white caps and white aprons while attending to their multifarious duties” and spotlessly clean linens that 'when handled by the girls, [were] sweet and clean.'" more »