Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, March 22, 2016
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time. Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - respect is due.
This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: If It Makes You Happy by Sheryl Crow
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Top News |
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HIV Genes Successfully Edited Out of Immune Cells
By George Dvorsky
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Researchers from Temple University have used the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool to clear out the entire HIV-1 genome from a patient’s infected immune cells. It’s a remarkable achievement that could have profound implications for the treatment of AIDS and other retroviruses.
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Not only did this remove the viral DNA, it did so permanently. What’s more, because this microscopic genetic system remained within the cell, it staved off further infections when particles of HIV-1 tried to sneak their way back in from unedited cells.
The study was performed on T-cells in a petri dish, but the technique successfully lowered the viral load in the patient’s extracted cells. This strongly suggests it could be used as a treatment. However, it could be years before we see that happen. Still, the researchers ruled out off-target effects (i.e. unanticipated side-effects of gene-editing) and potential toxicity. They also demonstrated that the HIV-1-eradicated cells were growing and functioning normally.
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This technique for snipping out alien DNA could have implications for related research, including treatments for retroviruses that cause cancer and leukemia, and the suite of retroviruses currently affecting companion and farm animals. As noted by Excision BioTherapeutics’ CEO and President Thomas Malcolm, “These exciting results also reflect our ability to select viral gene targets for safe eradication of any viral genome in our current pipeline of gene editing therapeutics.”
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Fertilizer applied to fields today will pollute water for decades
By (ScienceDaily)
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Nitrogen fertilizer applied to farmers’ fields has been contaminating rivers and lakes and leaching into drinking water wells for more than 80 years. The study, published this week in a special issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters, reveals that elevated nitrate concentrations in rivers and lakes will remain high for decades, even if farmers stop applying nitrogen fertilizers today.
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Professor Basu and her group analyzed long-term data from over two thousand soil samples throughout the Mississippi River Basin to reveal a systematic accumulation of nitrogen in agricultural soils. In many areas, this accumulation was not apparent in the upper plow layer, but instead was found from 25-100 cm beneath the soil surface
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Since the 1970s, farmers and policymakers alike have worked hard to reduce the amount of fertilizer leaking from agricultural fields to groundwater and nearby lakes and streams. Yet in some rural areas, nitrate levels have been found to be more than ten times the drinking water standard.
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Why Don't Millennials Vote?
By Kevin Drum
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Millennials in 2016 are significantly less likely to vote or try to influence others vote than were the ’80s generation in the 1987 survey, or the first wave of postwar baby boomers in 1967. But millennials display about the same level of political interest as the youngest generation did in 1987....At the same time, a widening age gap in participation occurs at both ends of the life cycle....Older Americans in the two later surveys are significantly more active than seniors were in 1967.
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The widening participation gap between the less involved youth and the very involved elders in 2014 might not mean that millennials — or “kids these days” — don’t care. Rather, it could be that the long slope of differences by life stage is getting steeper, with less involvement in youth and more involvement in later life. And even this widening participation gap is largely based on millennials reluctance to vote, while remaining engaged in other ways.
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I dunno. I think Dalton protests too much. The political engagement gap is genuinely huge, regardless of whether millennials say they're interested in politics. And no argle bargle about the "long slope of difference by life stage" explains this. Voting isn't all that big a chore, and if millennials don't do it, it means either that their political engagement really is low or that they simply don't believe that voting makes any difference. But which is it?
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Student loan garnisheeing topped $176M in three months
By Cory Doctorow
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The latest figures on government-backed student loans are in, and with them, the news that the US government took $176 million out of ex-students paychecks and Social Security in the last three months of 2015.
That's up $6M from the previous three months.
In addition, ex-students who'd gotten behind on their payments coughed up $1.7B in "rehabilitation" payments and $82.9 in "voluntary" payments.
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“These are people who can’t afford to pay their student loans and they’ve garnished $176 million in three months from them,” Hicks said. “You have to wonder what conditions people are living in when they’re seeing that much of their wages garnished.”
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International |
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Trudeau seeks increased spending to boost Canadian economy
By (BBC)
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The budget called is a departure from former the Conservative government's austerity policies.
Dropping oil prices and currency values have contributed to a weakened economy.
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"Some believe we must choose between a strong economy and a clean environment. They are simply wrong," he said.
Also notable in the budget is C$8.4 billion allocated over five years for the country's aboriginal population, with nearly half the money to be spent on education. The allocation is a significant increase from the Conservative budget under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
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USA |
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White House enlists private sector for $4bn upgrade to water infrastructure
By Oliver Milman
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The first White House water summit, to be held on Tuesday, will see more than 150 businesses and other organizations, including GE, commit funding to upgrade “critical infrastructure”, including dams, canals and water pipes.
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“There is a clear need for infrastructure investment to tackle the challenges we face, including plugging leaking pipes,” said Ali Zaidi, associate director for natural resources at the office of management and budget. “To achieve that objective we’re going to galvanize public and private sectors. The private sector is stepping up to the plate and we know there is an important role for the federal government to play as well.
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Snyder, who is facing calls to quit over his alleged failure to deal with the Flint crisis, has also proposed replacing all of Flint’s lead water pipes. Such an undertaking on a national scale would require major investment, with a recent estimate putting the price at $275bn.
The EPA has instead focused on updating its lead and copper rule, as well as reminding water authorities to not downplay the amount of lead in water samples through well-established techniques that exploit loopholes in the 25-year-old law.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
What are your earliest memories of music?
My mom and dad were in a swing band. My earliest, most vivid memories are of them coming home with their friends and playing records – Stan Getz, Stan Kenton, Ella Fitzgerald – and me and my sisters sleeping out on the stairs so we could hear them.
What was your big breakthrough?
I've had two. The first was singing a jingle for McDonald's while I was teaching in Missouri. It took 45 minutes, but I made more money than I had in two years of teaching. The second was landing the backup singer gig for Michael Jackson in 1987.
. . .
How has the position of women in music changed in the course of your career?
Very little. When I made my second record (4), no women were producing their records. I wound up producing it by default because my producer left after one day. By the grace of God, that record did well, and opened doors for women. But I still see very few women in the highest positions at record labels. And very few women programme radio playlists. It's pretty depressing.
Back to what's happening:
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Environmental |
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Apple says you can “feel really good” about buying its products. Don’t believe them.
By Katie Herzog
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According to Jackson, this means that “every time you send an iMessage or make a FaceTime video call or ask Siri a question, you can feel really good about reducing your impact on the environment.” You can almost hear Steve Jobs patting himself on the back from the great Apple Store in the sky on the brand going green. But how much good is Apple really doing? Sure, 93 percent renewables is about 93 percent better than most giant corporations, but Apple puts a whole lot of crap into the world that we don’t really need. It’s called planned obsolescence, and it means that the constant release of new products makes your iPhone seem as unwieldy and slow-moving as a landline after a couple of years.
That’s the real problem here: It doesn’t matter how much Apple recycles or how many acres they save if they keep dumping new products into the market, as Andrew Freedman wrote for Mashable, “By constantly rolling out new products and encouraging consumers to trade in their not-so-old phones for new, upgraded ones, Apple is contributing to a consumerism that may be difficult to ever neutralize from a carbon standpoint.” Apple may construct their products in factories powered by the sun, as Freedman points out, what happens from there is hardly green: They ship these products from factories in China on planes and charged in places where coal powers the grid.
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Science and Health |
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LGBT Physicists Face Discrimination, Exclusion, Intimidation
By Elizabeth Gibney
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More than one in five physicists from sexual and gender minorities in the United States report having been excluded, intimidated or harassed at work in the past year because of their gender or sexual identity or expression, a survey has found.
According to the American Physical Society (APS) report LGBT Climate in Physics, published on March 15, transgender physicists and physics students faced the most hostile working environment, with almost half of the 37 surveyed reporting having experienced exclusionary and harassing treatment in the past year.
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The survey comes at a time when one of the world’s most prominent physics institutions—the European particle-physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland—is in the limelight over the experiences of its LGBT community. Physics World reported in depth on March 3 on the long-running attempts of the lab’s LGBT group to gain official status, as well as about how posters raising awareness about the group had been defaced, torn down and, in one case, adorned with biblical scripture—reports that were later picked up widely by newspapers including the UK's Sunday Times.
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Technology |
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Facebook's 'ethnic affinity' advertising sparks concerns of racial profiling
By Alex Hern
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Universal Studios was able to show completely different trailers for Straight Outta Compton, the biopic of rap group NWA, to different racial groups on Facebook, thanks to a little-known feature on the social network called “racial affinity targeting”.
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But while Universal was happy with the ability to advertise differently to different audiences, Facebook is at pains to point out that the tools, which are currently only available to the US, don’t allow advertisers to segregate by race. Instead, the company lets advertisers pick who to advertise to based on “ethnic affinity”; bundling people who like similar racially-coded pages together, and letting advertisers sell to them.
Liking BET or Essence, or being a member of the African American Chamber of Commerce group, for instance, indicates membership of the African American affinity group, while setting the site’s language to Spanish might indicate membership of the Hispanic group.
. . . In a statement to Ars Technica, a Facebook spokesperson specifically addressed what it would mean to be identified as park of the African-American ethnic affinity group: “They like African-American content. But we cannot and do not say to advertisers that they are ethnically black. Facebook does not have a way for people to self-identify by race or ethnicity on the platform.”
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Cultural |
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Far-right German politician thanks refugees for rescue
By (BBC)
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Two Syrian nationals provided first aid to National Democratic Party (NPD) member Stefan Jagsch who was injured in the accident in Hesse state, DPA news agency said.
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However, regional NPD official Jean Christoph Fiedler praised the two refugees for "a very good, humane act", the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported.
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The NPD's anti-immigrant stance is part of widespread German anxiety about the influx of non-EU migrants, many of them Muslim Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans fleeing war and human rights abuses.
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already.