PONDERWALL | Magazine of Science & Culture

THE SCIENCE OF FOREST THERAPY

TRANSFER DEADLINE MEDICALS – HOW INACCURATE TESTS MAY LEAD TO CLUBS MAKING THE WRONG DECISIONS ABOUT PLAYERS

Sports

Premier League clubs paid £217m in wages to injured players in 2017-2018. So financially, football clubs need to ensure a footballer can actually play.

HOW WOULD ENGINEERS BUILD THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE TODAY?

Technology

Engineers have suggested reconstructing the Golden Gate Bridge in a way that would limit ongoing maintenance and operation bills.

SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS WILL SOON BE UNRECOGNISABLE – TIME FOR AN URGENT PUBLIC CONVERSATION

Politics

Face recognition highlights bigger questions around which types of surveillance cameras and systems are acceptable to society.

TO UPGRADE OR NOT UPGRADE? THAT IS THE ALL-TOO-FREQUENT QUESTION

Technology

The question of whether or not to go for the upgrade or stick with the devil you know is an increasingly common contemporary dilemma

GREEN BAY PACKERS FANS LOVE THAT THEIR TEAM DOESN’T HAVE AN OWNER – JUST DON’T CALL IT COMMUNISM

Politics

Wasn’t the principle virtue of the Green Bay Packers based in a communist idea: collective ownership of the means of production?

WHEN WORLD LEADERS THOUGHT YOU SHOULDN’T NEED PASSPORTS OR VISAS

Politics

In 1914, France, Germany, and Italy made passports mandatory. The passport conference of 1920 wanted to restore the pre-war freedom of movement regime.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA’S SHOWDOWN WITH THE BIGGEST ACADEMIC PUBLISHER AIMS TO CHANGE SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING

Science

The high stakes standoff between Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of scholarly research, and the University of California.

GAMERS USE MACHINE LEARNING TO NAVIGATE COMPLEX VIDEO GAMES – BUT IT’S NOT FREE

Technology

Some video games track your activity as you play. The aim is to create systems that can learn about the game, and coach you to become a competent player.

FURTIVE LOOKS, NERVOUSNESS, HESITATION: HOW NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION INFLUENCES THE JUSTICE SYSTEM?

Politics

Pauses in answers, body movements, elusive or angry looks, confusion, anxiety — the facial expressions and gestures made by witnesses matter in court.

SPIDER GLUE’S STICKY SECRET REVEALED BY NEW GENETIC RESEARCH

Science

The glue has the potential for many unique applications and is biodegradable, water soluble and stays sticky for months or even years.

WHAT THE TORONTO RAPTORS HAVE TAUGHT US ABOUT RESILIENCE

Sports

The Toronto Raptors have won their first NBA title in franchise history, and their star player, Kawhi Leonard, was crowned the most valuable player.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WANTS TO DISMANTLE THE AGENCY OVERSEEING 2 MILLION FEDERAL WORKERS

Politics

The Trump administration wants to dismantle the agency overseeing 2 million federal workers – and weaken safeguards against partisanship.

LIBRA: FOUR REASONS TO BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS ABOUT FACEBOOK’S NEW CURRENCY

Technology

Facebook has unveiled libra, a controversial cryptocurrency that will enable users to make international payments over Messenger and other group platforms.

U.K. PROPOSAL TO ‘BCC’ LAW ENFORCEMENT ON MESSAGING APPS THREATENS GLOBAL PRIVACY

Politics

The proposal’s function is to give law enforcement power to listen in on encrypted apps communications (like those on WhatsApp, for example).

REWILDING: AS FARMLAND AND VILLAGES ARE ABANDONED, FORESTS, WOLVES AND BEARS ARE RETURNING TO EUROPE

Geography

Large parts of Europe have been passively rewilding for decades as people have moved out of rural areas toward urban conglomerations.

COUNTERFEIT ALCOHOL, SOMETIMES CONTAINING JET FUEL OR EMBALMING FLUID, IS A GROWING CONCERN FOR TOURISTS ABROAD

Politics

Counterfeit alcohol brings a new level of risk, as it may include added ingredients, such as methanol, known to be extremely harmful to health.

THE FUTURE OF PERSONAL SATELLITES TECHNOLOGY IS HERE – ARE WE READY FOR IT?

Science

How can we be sure that hobbyists aren’t launching their own “spy” satellites, or deploying low-cost CubeSat networks that could be used nefariously?

FIVE OPTIONS FOR BREXIT TRADE EXPLAINED

Politics

Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, a no-deal Brexit, staying in the customs union, staying in the single market, and the so-called Common Market 2.0 idea.

CHINA’S SPONGE CITIES AIM TO RE-USE 70% OF RAINWATER – HERE’S HOW

Politics

China’s sponge city initiative has an ambitious goal: by 2020, 80% of urban areas should absorb and re-use at least 70% of rainwater.

WHY THE U.S. REJECTS INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE: LOOKING BACK AT NUREMBERG

Politics

Faced with U.S. rejection of international criminal justice, supporters of the ICC usually invoke the precedent of the Nuremberg Trials.

AUSTERITY HAS PUSHED THE UK’S POOREST HOUSEHOLDS FURTHER INTO DEBT – HERE’S HOW

Politics

Debt is a growing problem for people on low incomes and it has been made worse by the austerity policies that followed the 2007-08 financial crisis.

BACKGROUNDER: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT INDONESIA’S 1965 ANTI-COMMUNIST PURGE

History

In less than 48 hours, Suharto had roundly defeated the 30th September Movement. At about the same time, the abductees’ bodies were found in an old well in an area known as Lubang Buaya (Crocodile Hole) in east Jakarta.

EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY, BUT IT’S NOT THE FOURTH OF JULY

Misc

The Fourth of July can be a miserable day for dogs. That’s because dogs are hardwired to be afraid of sudden, loud noises.

FROM MINIATURE SATELLITES TO GIANT SUN SHIELDS – THE EXTREME TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMING SPACE ENGINEERING

Technology

While Apollo was an example of engineering on a heroic scale, future space ventures can deliver lasting societal benefits beyond flags and footprints.

NEOLIBERALISM HAS TRICKED US INTO BELIEVING A FAIRYTALE ABOUT WHERE MONEY COMES FROM

Politics

There is nothing natural about money. There is no link to some scarce essential form of money that sets a limit to its creation.

I BUILD MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMS THAT COULD DISCOVER THE DRUGS OF THE FUTURE

Science

Discovering a new drug is one of the most challenging tasks in biology. It takes over 10 years and about US$2.6 billion to bring an average drug to market.

THE GUTS OF AN APPLE IPHONE SHOW EXACTLY WHAT TRUMP GETS WRONG ABOUT TRADE

Technology

The guts of an Apple iPhone show exactly what Trump gets wrong about trade The components of an iPhone add up to a different cost than the phone itself. Poravute Siriphiroon/Shutterstock.com Jason Dedrick, Syracuse University;

US POVERTY STATISTICS IGNORE MILLIONS OF STRUGGLING AMERICANS

Politics

Those who may have some income but lack other key necessities, like health insurance and quality education, are invisible in official poverty data.

LONG HOURS AT THE OFFICE COULD BE KILLING YOU – THE CASE FOR A SHORTER WORKING WEEK

Politics

UK employees have the longest working week in the European Union. But this does not make the UK a more productive nation.

BASEBALL TEAMS NEED TO PROTECT FANS FROM FOUL BALLS

Sports

Injuries occur much more frequently than many may realize. A 2014 analysis found that more than 1,750 fans are hurt each year by batted balls at MLB games.

WHY CREDIT RATING AGENCIES ARE STILL GETTING AWAY WITH BAD BEHAVIOR

Politics

The dominant credit rating agencies – S&P, Moody’s and Fitch – have been accused of faults including: false ratings, flawed methodology, and political bias.

WITH CRYPTOCURRENCY LAUNCH, FACEBOOK SETS ITS PATH TOWARD BECOMING AN INDEPENDENT NATION

Technology

“Like all enterprise DLT it is blockchain in name only and an monopoly to extract massive seignorage from billions of users. A monopoly scam” says Roubini.

HOW QUEBEC GOT 80 PER CENT OF FATHERS TO TAKE PATERNITY LEAVE

Geography

Today, 80 per cent of Quebec fathers stop working when a child arrives so they can help care for their little one for several weeks.

RORY STEWART: SPIES HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF BECOMING POLITICIANS

Politics

One of the surprises of the contest to become leader of the Conservative Party – and with it prime minister – has been the candidacy of Rory Stewart.

MOST OF US DRUG ARRESTS INVOLVE A GRAM OR LESS

Politics

Roughly two out of every three arrests by state and local law enforcement target small-time offenders who are carrying less than a gram of illegal drugs.

STATISTICS RUINED BASEBALL BY PERFECTING IT

Sports

Since sportswriter Henry Chadwick popularized the box score in the 19th century, baseball fans have had a love affair with statistics.

SOVIET-ERA TREATMENT COULD BE THE NEW WEAPON AGAINST ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

Science

Every year an increasing number of health tourists are travelling to Eastern bloc countries to receive an old Soviet medical treatment.

AI DEVELOPS HUMAN-LIKE NUMBER SENSE – TAKING US A STEP CLOSER TO BUILDING MACHINES WITH GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

Technology

In a new study, a deep neural network was trained for simple visual object detection spontaneously developed this kind of number sense.

CHELSEA IS USING OUR AI RESEARCH FOR SMARTER FOOTBALL COACHING

Sports

Researchers are working with Chelsea football academy to develop a system to measure decision-making skills using artificial intelligence (AI).

LEE HARVEY OSWALD’S RADIO INTERVIEWS OF AUGUST 1963 ON THE WDSU RADIO

History

Oswald had two interview on the New Orleans radio station WDSU. The first program took place on August 17, 1963. The second on August 21, 1963.

TESTING OF BACKLOGGED RAPE EVIDENCE LEADS TO HUNDREDS OF CONVICTIONS

Politics

Hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits, also known as sexual assault kits (SAKs), languish in evidence storage facilities across the U.S.

HACKERS SEEK RANSOMS FROM BALTIMORE AND COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE US

Technology

The people of Baltimore are under an electronic siege that has prevented residents from obtaining building permits and business licenses.

THE WAR ON WOMEN COACHES

Sports

In 1972, more than 90% of female collegiate athletes were coached by women. Today that number hovers around 42% at the NCAA Division I level.

D-DAY SUCCEEDED THANKS TO AN INGENIOUS DESIGN CALLED THE MULBERRY HARBOURS

History

When allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy on June 6, 1944, they were using a remarkable and entirely untested technology: artificial ports.

THE NEXT CYBERATTACK COULD COME FROM SOUND WAVES

Technology

Researchers from the University of Michigan have found a new way of using sound to interfere with devices containing accelerometers.

GETTING POORER WHILE WORKING HARDER: THE CLIFF EFFECT

Politics

There is no place in the country where a family supported by one minimum-wage worker with a full-time job can live and afford a 2-bedroom apartment at the average fair-market rent.

U.S. LAWS PROTECT POLICE, WHILE ENDANGERING CIVILIANS

Politics

U.S. Laws Protect Police While Endangering Civilians. The ritual of an unnecessary police killing with no real accountability has become painfully familiar.

A FEW DAYS WITH LENIN AND TROTSKY IN 1920

History

A Few Days With Lenin And Trotsky In 1920 By the American cartoonist Ellison Hoover.

HOW UK POPULATION WILL LOOK LIKE BY 2061 UNDER HARD, SOFT OR NO BREXIT SCENARIOS

Politics

What the UK population will look like by 2061 under hard, soft or no Brexit scenarios DeymosHR/Shutterstock Nik Lomax, University of Leeds; Paul Norman, University of Leeds; Philip Rees, University of Leeds, and Pia Wohland,