One-in-ten eligible voters in the 2020 electorate will be part of a new generation of Americans – Generation Z. Born after 1996, most members of this generation are not yet old enough to vote, but as the oldest among them turn 23 this year, roughly 24 million will have the opportunity to cast a ballot in November. And their political clout will continue to grow steadily in the coming years, as more and more of them reach voting age.
The coronavirus outbreak has taken the lives of nearly 100,000 Americans. Yet since the start of the outbreak, the death toll has been concentrated in a just a few places – mostly large metropolitan areas, especially the New York City area.
The places hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak – which have relatively large shares of ethnic and racial minorities and residents living in densely populated urban and suburban areas – are almost all represented by congressional Democrats.
A new Pew Research Center analysis of data on official reports of COVID-19 deaths, collected by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, finds that, as of last week, nearly a quarter of all the deaths in the United States attributed to the coronavirus have been in just 12 congressional districts – all located in New York City and represented by Democrats in Congress. Of the more than 92,000 Americans who had died of COVID-19 as of May 20 (the date that the data in this analysis was collected), nearly 75,000 were in Democratic congressional districts.
Historically, community college enrollment spikes during economic downturns.
This year, a public health crisis may draw even more students who don’t want to travel or live in a dorm.
The coronavirus crisis has already changed the way this year’s crop of high school seniors are thinking about higher education.
And community colleges across the country are preparing accordingly.
“Under the circumstances, families may turn to us as the gateway of opportunity, and we’ve been ready,” said Michael Baston, the president of Rockland Community College in Rockland County, New York.
Continue reading… “Community colleges could see a surge in popularity amid Covid-19”
We’re all chilling out, new research shows
One of the most widely accepted standard measurements of the human body, a normal temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, has declined gradually for more than 150 years in the United States by about 1.6% since the pre-industrial era, a new study published in the journal eLife finds. The cooling off owes largely to improvements in health and medicine and in part to increasingly cushy lifestyles, the study’s researchers think.
Many health practitioners are still using the old, inaccurate number of 98.6 F as the presumed norm, which was set by a German physician in 1851.
“Our temperature’s not what people think it is,” says Dr. Julie Parsonnet, a professor of medicine and health research at Stanford University School of Medicine and the senior author of the study. “What everybody grew up learning, which is that our normal temperature is 98.6, is wrong.”
Continue reading… “The average human body temperature is no longer 98.6 F”
Newsroom employment in the United States declined 23% between 2008 and 2019
Newsroom employment at U.S. newspapers continues to plummet, falling by around half since 2008, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. But a modest increase in jobs after 2014 in other news-producing sectors – especially digital-native organizations – offset some of the losses at newspapers, helping to stabilize the overall number of U.S. newsroom employees in the last five years.
The years covered in the current analysis predate the spread of the coronavirus in the United States. The economic effects of the virus have led to a fresh round of layoffs, pay cuts and other changes at U.S. media outlets, especially newspapers.
From 2008 to 2019, overall newsroom employment in the U.S. dropped by 23%, according to the new analysis. In 2008, there were about 114,000 newsroom employees – reporters, editors, photographers and videographers – in five industries that produce news: newspaper, radio, broadcast television, cable and “other information services” (the best match for digital-native news publishers). By 2019, that number had declined to about 88,000, a loss of about 27,000 jobs.
Continue reading… “U.S. newspapers have shed half of their newsroom employees since 2008”
The numbers represent “quads” or quadrillion BTUs, with the total consumption totalling 100.2. Conveniently, you can pretty much interpret the below numbers as a percentage of total US energy usage.
1. Overall energy usage declined by 1%
That’s significant. Compare to 2018 below and you can see: The biggest shock to most people is that over two-thirds of energy produced in the US is “rejected.” What does that mean?
Continue reading… “The most important US energy chart of the year is out: 8 big takeaways”
The new ‘smart toilet’ technology can look for signs of disease, scientists claim, from cancer to kidney failure.
Going to the loo may never be the same again thanks to scientists who claim to have invented a device that can be fitted on toilets to detect signs of various diseases in stool and urine.
The gadget, which fits inside the bowl, uses cameras, test strips and motion sensing technology to analyse the deposits and sends the data to a secure cloud server.
The researchers said their so-called “smart toilet” technology could be useful to individuals who are genetically predisposed to certain conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, prostate cancer or kidney failure.
Continue reading… “Smart toilet checks you’re healthy by analyzing you wees and poos”
A man in Bologna, Italy, chats online with his grandparents on March 19. A nationwide lockdown to control the spread of COVID-19 has been extended to at least Easter.
People in the United States and around the world are turning to the internet to do their work and stay connected with others as the COVID-19 outbreak forces people to stay home and away from the office and crowds. A median of 77% across 34 countries use the internet at least occasionally or own an internet-enabled smartphone, according to a spring 2019 Pew Research Center survey. But there are stark digital divides. Younger people, those with higher incomes and those in wealthier countries are more likely to be digital technology users. Many people surveyed also use social media, but social media usage is not ubiquitous, even in economically advanced nations like Germany and Japan.
Here are eight charts on digital connectivity worldwide.
Continue reading… “8 charts on internet use around the world as countries grapple with COVID-19”
Upgraded points is a trusted source for a wide variety of similar in-depth airline studies, as well as advice and pointers for travelers.
Upgraded Points recently released its newest targeted study featuring a survey based on questions given to airline travelers concerning the recent global pandemic. The study seeks to understand American travelers’ plans and concerns, helping to better illuminate the travel crisis as it unfolds; while also delivering important data about the American airline industry itself – which recently asked for and will receive a reported $50 billion bailout from the U.S. government. Upgraded points is a trusted source for a wide variety of similar in-depth airline studies, as well as advice and pointers for travelers.
“The airline industry is in a great deal of trouble again,” said Alex Miller, founder of Upgraded Points. “They’ve certainly seen their share of difficulty over the years: after 9/11, during the 2008 economic downturn, etc. But this is probably the worst crisis the industry has ever faced. Without millions of travelers on planes and in airports, the industry just can’t make the revenue it needs to survive. Whole countries are asking citizens to stay indoors, and that includes enforcing travel restrictions and closing borders. No one knows exactly when this global pandemic will peak and then begin to recede. So all we can do now is wait, and gather valuable data to help understand the situation as it happens. That is the goal of this particular study.”
A new study from the University of New Hampshire has troubling news for United States population growth. According to the study, deaths are at a record high, while the number of births are at their lowest since 1986. In almost half of all counties, there were more deaths than there were births, an almost 20% increase from just 10 years ago. Overall, U.S. population growth is at its lowest growth rate in over 100 years. Yet as Ronald Bailey at Reason pointed out, the only reason population growth was so low then, in 1919, was because of the Spanish Flu pandemic, which resulted in a massive population decrease.
The study reports that since the Great Recession, fertility is declining the most among younger women, without knowing if childbearing is being delayed or if they are skipping having children altogether. “This has significant implications for the future incidence of natural decrease,” Kenneth Johnson, the study’s author, said. Despite this, though, people are still encouraging the idea of population control, and arguing that America is too heavily populated. Polling has likewise found that a large number of Americans believe population is growing too fast, even as the population continues to plummet.
Overpopulation is a common excuse for many to push population control, especially in developing countries. People like Prince William, Melinda Gates, Joe Biden, Danish politician Ulla Tornaes, and more have all advocated for increased birth control and abortions, particularly in places like Africa, arguing that the birth rate needs to be decreased.
GENOA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 02nd April, 2020) The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will last for a relatively brief period, but will however change the course of history and the nature of leadership, global trend researchers and forecasters have told Sputnik.
On Wednesday, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he expected the global number of COVID-19 cases to reach 1 million in the next few days, and the death toll to rise to 50,000.
“Visionary thinking has always been a characteristic of great leaders. Now we will have to add a new dimension of incalculable probabilities. Thinking about the future and anticipating eventualities will be more in demand than ever. COVID-19 has demonstrated that we cannot ignore what is unknown,” John Naisbitt, an author and trends analyst said, adding that change is now “exploding exponentially in ways that we have never seen before in our lifetimes.”
According to Naisbitt’s spouse and internationally recognized speaker Doris Naisbitt, an old saying “he who hesitates is lost” is becoming increasingly relevant in the world of today and tomorrow.
Continue reading… “Post-Coronavirus era to require leaders Capable of anticipating unknown risks”
While governments, international bodies and the public health community scramble to arrest the COVID-19 virus, now a pandemic, and with states of emergency declared nationwide and in Massachusetts, medical experts are still trying to come up with vaccines that can do a better job against various strains of influenza that have sickened and killed people for many decades.
The experts say the effectiveness rate of flu shots should be at least 90% successful.
But data collected for nearly two decades by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention show effectiveness rates often hovers between 40 and 50%.
Data from the 2018-2019 flu season, the most recent set of complete information, first published in June, indicated that a flu shot to prevent influenza A, the H3N2 strain, was only 9% effective in preventing onset of the flu, among all age groups.
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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