Month: October 2020

Future astronauts on the moon might have easier times finding water or ice on the moon.

The New York Times published in an article that a team of scientists found evidence of water on parts of the moon where the sun shines according to a paper that was published in Monday’s Nature Astronomy.

Paul Hertz, the director of NASA’s astrophysics division, said during a news conference on Monday, “This discovery reveals that water might be distributed across the lunar surface and not limited to the cold shadowed places near the lunar poles.”

That water might be difficult to collect, but these small ice water deposits could be a “real game changer,” according to Paul O. Hayne, a professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado, who led that research.

Trump Attacks Dr. Fauci (Headline in NBC News Broadcast 10.19.2020) vs Trump closes his campaign by insulting Fauci for telling the truth (Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN)

The broadcast story is incredibly short. It is 22 seconds long which is hardly enough time to give much information. The newspeople have to talk quickly and concisely, but also clearly. The lead is short and gives the very basic information of the story. This is followed by a bit more information, but no real background information that might have helped the audience to understand what’s actually going on. Just like most written articles, the story had an inverted pyramid structure. The first bit of information was basically a short description of the actual story, the rest is not necessarily as “vital” information. Sources aren’t mentioned and there were no quotes in this story. Instead, there would always be fitting videos or pictures in the background, depending on what information was being given in that specific moment. The newspeople weren’t on screen anymore after they introduced the story with the lead.

The written article, on the other hand, gives a lot more information. It goes a lot more into depth. The beginning of the article is about the actual story. While Fauci is mentioned several times, the last part of the article is not really about the actual story anymore but rather about the “general Trump situation”. The story is inserted in the big picture (I don’t know if that sentence makes sense to anyone but me). The article is also split up into the lead and three parts that focus on different aspects of the story and the situation. The lead here holds a lot more information than the broadcast’s lead and I personally prefer the shorter lead. It’s easier to understand and more direct. The article is also structured like an inverted pyramid. There are a few quotes and pictures in the article.

Liverpool’s Van Dijk Needs Surgery, a Cruel Twist in a Tough Year by Rory Smith (The New York Times)

In short, the article is about Premier League players’ injuries and how these affect teams. The Dutch National Team and Liverpool player Virgil van Dijk injured himself in the last game that he played with Liverpool. The consequences of the loss of a player like him on the team are described afterward. Other similar examples of important players who injured themselves are mentioned later on. Towards the end, the article mentions the controversy about VARs and the lack of punishment of Pickford, a goalkeeper who appears to be the reason for Van Dijk’s injury.

I find it interesting how the first paragraph of the article doesn’t sound like it’s written for a news article but rather a novel. I actually really like this approach, even though I don’t know if something like that belongs in an article. Other than that, the article is structured like an inverted pyramid and there are no quotes in the article. I don’t know if that has something to do with the pandemic. Instead, there are a few social media posts and pictures inserted in the article in the beginning and between paragraphs.

I had to help a student today. She had to do a project for her statistics class. She had originally planned to do it with another student. They did half of the project, but the other student finished it alone. She ended up trying to figure everything out by herself, but she couldn’t. The project was due yesterday. She texted me today and asked for my help.

When I came, she was obviously nervous and in a hurry; there was an urgency in her voice that she usually doesn’t have. She just wanted to get done with the assignment as quickly as possible. There was a lot of writing that she had to do for each question. She kept mistyping and misspelling words, sometimes without noticing it afterward. Although she is an international student, her English is generally good, but some of her sentences just didn’t make any sense, because they Grammarly completely wrong or she just forgot words. She sometimes even used wrong words.

The project was stressing her out a lot. She couldn’t sit still for longer than a minute and she was sweating a little more than usual. She was additionally under pressure, because she had a team meeting in an hour, and she had to get done before the meeting. She kept hitting the keys on her laptop lightly when she wasn’t typing and gave me the computer whenever I needed to read something. It almost seemed like she wanted to make me read faster by doing that. After we finished, she kept thanking me until she left the room.

French Soccer Roiled by Claims of Toxic Workplace Culture by Tariq Panja and Romain Molina (The New York Times)

This article is about difficulties and problems in the Fédération Française de Football (F.F.F.). There have been complaints about bullying, misbehavior and sexism. Their longtime president brought in an outside expert trained in repairing broken businesses. The rest of the article goes more into detail about specific incidents and staff members. These problems have been hidden behind the last two successful years when the men’s team won the World Cup in Russia and hosting the most successful Women’s World Cup in history.

The article starts with the most important information in the beginning and goes more into detail afterwards. So the article is structured like an inverted pyramid. I also like the lead, because it actually mentions the most important information of the article and says what it’s about.

International students experience a mixture of panic and confusion as they try to come to the US while colleges do their best not to create panic and provide frequent, accurate information. 

Lillian J. Lopez, Head in the Accounting and Business Administration Department at Morningside College, explained that there were very strict travel bans this year which didn’t allow international returners to come back to the United States until very late in summer. New students had additional difficulties, because they couldn’t get their visas to come here.

Embassies and consulates were closed all over the world which meant that students couldn’t get appointments for their visa interviews. Without an interview, the US government doesn’t grant visas, which are a necessity to get into the US.

Anna Ljulijic, a freshman from Germany, described that she was in Greece when the embassies in Germany opened. “Then so quickly going to Berlin, getting the Visa, and flying two days later was horror”, she said.

In addition, Lopez explained each embassy thinks differently. While they announced on their websites that they were opening, the Department of State which is the agency that supervises embassies, didn’t publish anything which resulted in a lot of confusion.

Jil Hellerforth, another freshman from Germany, had to get a new passport which she couldn’t pick up, because her local courthouse was closed from February until the end of May. She couldn’t get her appointment without it.

“I was amazed at how many students managed to get visas and get in an airplane in such a short period of time. We ask students if you can return come as soon as possible and we’ll do our best to help you out. When I saw the first two international students, I went home and cried, because I just couldn’t believe that the students came back after all this disaster”, Lopez said with a sad smile.

Most international students at Morningside College are from Western European countries, mainly Germany. Some are also from South America Australia, the Bahamas and Mexico.

Two students from South America are still not in the US. One of them is a student from Brazil. There are complete travel bans right now and there is no information on changes.

The other student is a freshman from Peru. The country doesn’t allow any international flights right now, although there are rumors that commercial travel might resume in two weeks, according to Lopez.

She explained that the situation is mostly out of the college’s control. These are government regulations and rules that the college can’t change. The most important thing for her is not to create panic and provide frequent, accurate information.

“I think our responsibility is to be ethical, to communicate in an accurate manner and then to be available to answer questions, but there is nothing I can do to change government regulations”, she summarized.

Lopez said she tried to reassure students that the college and professors will work with them and change or adjust schedules and classes for them. Both students who couldn’t come to the US for this semester had their schedules adjusted so they can have online classes from home and get their degrees as planned.

However, there were some international students who made the decision that it was not financially feasible for them to return to the US. Some were concerned, because the amount of cases in the whole country and in the state of Iowa were going up. Hellerforth complained, “[Americans] stand and sit at McDonald’s like sardines.” 

A Deep Pool of Soccer Talent Is Drying Up. Why? by Rory Smith (The New York Times)

The article gives some examples in the beginning of Argentinian players who went oversees to play in Europe. Most of them went right after they won youth world cups. Then the article, is about reasons why Argentinian players are not recruited to Europe that much anymore. Those include that scouts can’t get into stadiums in the country to watch players and the fact that European countries do now have their own talent.

I don’t know if there was a better way to structure this article than how Smith has done it. Introducing the problem or topic with some examples was a good and easy way to explain the issue and to get people interested in the article. People like reading about people they know and the players that are mentioned here are very famous.

“I was amazed at how many students managed to get visas and get in an airplane in such a short period of time”, Lillian Lopez stated.

Lillian J. Lopez, a professor in the Social Sciences Department and Interim Department Head in the Accounting and Business Administration Department at Morningside College, explained that there were very strict travel bans this year which didn’t allow international returners to come back to the United States until very late in summer. New students had additional difficulties, because they couldn’t get their visas to come here.

Embassies and consulates were closed all over the world which meant that students couldn’t get appointments for their visa interviews. Without an interview, the US government doesn’t grant visas which are a necessity to get into the US.

Anna Ljulijic, an international freshman from Germany, described that she was in Greece when the embassies in Germany opened. “Then so quickly going to Berlin, getting the Visa, and flying two days later was horror.”, she said.

In addition, Lopez explained that each embassy thinks differently. While they announced on their websites that they were opening, the Department of State which is the agency that supervises embassies didn’t publish anything which resulted in a lot of confusion.

Jil Hellerforth, another international freshman from Germany, had to get a new passport which she couldn’t pick up, because her local courthouse was closed from February till the end of May. She couldn’t get her appointment without it.

“I was amazed at how many students managed to get visas and get in an airplane in such a short period of time. We ask students if you can return come as soon as possible and we’ll do our best to help you out. When I saw the first two international students, I went home and cried, because I just couldn’t believe that the students came back after all this disaster.”, Lopez said with a sad smile.

Most international students at Morningside College are from Western European countries, mainly Germany. Some are also from South America Australia, the Bahamas and Mexico.

Two students from South America are still not in the US. One of them is a returner from Brazil. There are complete travel bans right now and there is no information on changes.

The other student is a freshman from Peru. The country doesn’t allow any international flights right now, although there are rumors that commercial travel might resume in two weeks, according to Lopez.

She explained that the situation is mostly out of the college’s control. These are government regulations and rules that the college can’t change. The most important thing for her is not to create panic and provide frequent, accurate information.

“I think our responsibility is to be ethical, to communicate in an accurate manner and then to be available to answer questions, but there is nothing I can do to change government regulations.”, she summarized.

Lopez said that she tried to reassure students that the college and professors will work with them and change or adjust schedules and classes for them. Both students who couldn’t come to the US for this semester had their schedules adjusted so they can have online classes from home and get their degrees as planned.

However, there were some international students who made the decision that it was not financially feasible for them to return to the US. Some were concerned, because the amount of cases in the whole country and in the state of Iowa were going up. Hellerforth complained, “They [Americans] stand and sit at McDonald’s like sardines.” 

Thunberg challenged climate change negotiators accusing them of only doing things that make them popular and not caring and doing enough.

Greta Thunberg is speaking for her generation, saying, “We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again.” Instead, she preached that they have run out of excuses and they are running out of time, announcing that, “[w]e have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people.”

She criticized that world leaders aren’t treating the situation as a crisis. Instead, they leave that burden to their children which they say that they love them above anything else.

According to her, the only reason why politicians talk about environment and climate is because they are “scared of being unpopular.”