| Why Walk on Water When You Can Jump on It? |
[09 Aug 2015|02:25pm] |
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http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2015/08/_insect_walk_and_jump_on_water_robot_shows_how_water_strides_do_it_video.html
Using high-speed video to analyze a water strider’s jump, a Seoul National University team found the insect draws its larger legs inward as it pushes down on the water surface with just enough force to propel itself upward without breaking the water’s surface tension. No break in surface tension means no splash, which gives the water strider a nice stable platform from which to leap.
To prove this, they built a robotic counterpart that operates under the same principles. Watch it in the video above.
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| What It’s Like to Be Black in the Criminal Justice System |
[09 Aug 2015|04:11pm] |
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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/08/racial_disparities_in_the_criminal_justice_system_eight_charts_illustrating.html In the year since Michael Brown was killed, Americans have focused their attention on the harsh treatment of black Americans at the hands of police. A shocking number have been killed in encounters with police, in the year since Ferguson and in the years before. Thousands more have suffered subtler forms of discrimination in the criminal justice system, where social science research shows striking racial disparities at nearly every level—from arrest rates, to bail amounts, to sentence lengths, to probation hearing outcomes. We combed a vast body of research to find the clearest indicators of racial disparities at different phases of the justice process. The eight charts below offer a grim portrait of what it’s like to be a black American in our nation’s justice system.
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