Every Day is Magic: Ada Limón
In her 2015 collection, Bright Dead Things, a National Book Award finalist for poetry, Ada Limón writes of moving to Kentucky: “Confession: I did not want to live here.” It’s perhaps not a surprising sentiment coming from a coastally oriented person who was raised in Northern California, attended college in Seattle, and then spent over a decade in New York City.
But Limón and her husband, Lucas, have been in Lexington for seven years now and the effects of settling into this place are noticeable in her new book, The Carrying (Milkweed, Aug.). It’s a phenomenally lively and attentive collection replete with the trappings of living a little closer to nature. While Bright Dead Things is marked by a preponderance of light, such as images of fireflies and neon signs, The Carrying features numerous appearances by various trees, birds, and beetles. Limón also demonstrates a greater willingness to be explicit in naming colors, particularly green. “It’s crazy green, the whole book,” she says. “Lexington is the greenest place I’ve ever lived.” Similarly, where in Bright Dead Things, Limón tells a lot of stories and anecdotes, in The Carrying she is very present in her thoughts and experiences.
As it turns out, these shifts in focus have another, altogether unexpected source. While putting Bright Dead Things together, Limón was diagnosed with chronic vestibular neuronitis, which can cause bouts of vertigo. “If I’m really having vertigo, it’s pretty intense and I really have to focus,”
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EXPO PRODUCCIÓN® Announces New 2021 Dates
“MEXICO CITY — September 17, 2020 — Tarsus México and Exposition Development Company, Inc. (ExpoDevCo) announce new dates for the sixth edition of EXPO PRODUCCIÓN. The show will now take place June 15 – 17, 2021 instead of the originally scheduled March 2021 dates at Centro Citibanamex, Mexico City.
The organizers are committed to providing a safe, sanitary and professional event while maintaining the quality that defines EXPO PRODUCCIÓN. The new dates will allow the organizers, all participants, and the industry more time to plan and prepare due to the global pandemic situation.
The power of being face-to-face is essential for developing successful and strategic business relationships and the organizers are prioritizing the well-being of all participants that will attend the event…”
https://www.textileworld.com/textile-world/2020/09/expo-produccion-announces-new-2021-dates/
Latino businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic. But owners won’t give up hope
“Maria Palacio had made it.
She grew up on a coffee farm in Colombia. She knew how little money coffee farms and their workers made. When she came to the U.S. in 2010, she wanted to change that, so she founded Progeny Coffee in Palo Alto to help bring growers out of poverty.
Soon, she began supplying Google, Facebook, Microsoft and LinkedIn, providing coffee for the tech companies’ huge campuses, which allowed her to bring awareness to the coffee farmers she started all of this for.
Then tech companies began sending workers home, closing their campuses in Silicon Valley and their towers in San Francisco in the weeks before the coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic. Sales at the company, now based in Berkeley, dropped by 97% after shelter-in-place hit, Palacio said…”
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change appointed as Executive Secretary Patricia Espinoza Appointed for Second Term
“…Members of the COP Bureau unanimously agreed with the re-appointment, highlighting the Executive Secretary’s excellent leadership and commitment to the climate change agenda and her dedication to ensuring the continuous guidance and support of the UNFCCC Secretariat to Parties and the UNFCCC process in general.
Ambassador of Mexico to Germany from 2001 to 2002 and from 2012 to 2016, Ms. Espinosa was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, bringing more than 30 years of experience at highest levels in international relations, specialized in climate change, global governance, sustainable development, gender equality and protection of human rights…”
https://unfccc.int/news/unfccc-executive-secretary-patricia-espinosa-appointed-for-second-term
Hispanics demonstrate wide variation in trust of health information sources
“..Lack of knowledge about cancer services, exacerbated by relatively limited access to those services, is considered a major contributor to those disparities,” said the study’s lead author, Marlene Camacho-Rivera, MS, MPH, ScD, assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, New York. “In this study, we aimed to assess trust in health information across various sources and evaluate how that trust may vary by gender, age, ethnic background, and socioeconomic background…”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-hispanics-wide-variation-health-sources.html
Pristine Cancun greets excited tourists as the rest of Mexico desperately waits to reopen
“…An irony of the coronavirus pandemic is that the idyllic Mexico beach vacation seen in the brochures really does exist now: The white sand beaches are sparkling clean and empty on the Caribbean coast, the water is clear on the Pacific Coast and the waters around the resort of Los Cabos are teeming with fish after 10 weeks with no boats going out. There are two-for-one deals and very eager staff.
It’s all only an airline flight – and a taxi ride and a reception desk – away, and that’s the problem…”
Mexico City’s coronavirus death toll may be 3 times higher than official count, report says
“…Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity says it obtained a confidential database providing details on the 4,577 Mexico City deaths in which coronavirus or equivalent designations — such as “COVID-19,” “COV” and “SARS COV2” — were mentioned on death certificates. The certificates are kept in civil registry offices.
In 3,532 of the cases, the report said, the virus was listed on death certificates as the confirmed, suspected, probable or possible cause of death, sometimes in combination with other ailments, such as severe respiratory infections. In another 1,045 cases, COVID-19 was listed as a cause of death, without specifying whether it was suspected, likely or confirmed…’
How technology will change us after the COVID-19 pandemic is over
“…When Rice University suspended classes in early March after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, three for-credit courses were available online. When Rice’s classes restarted on March 23, 1,906 online courses were offered, said Klara Jelinkova, the university’s chief information officer.Setting all this up – including training 487 professors, many of whom had never taught online before – was “simultaneously exhilirating and scary,” Jelinkova said.Online education has been around for a while, and some universities are built entirely on it. But many colleges — and particularly K-12 schools — have not embraced it…”
Coronavirus research: Menlo Park lab using robots, AI to find COVID-19 medication, Peter Madrid, PhD, senior director of applied biosciences
“MENLO PARK, Calif. (KGO) — As the number of cases of COVID-19 increases, so does the pressure to develop an anti-viral to treat its symptoms. A lab on the Peninsula appears to have developed the right process at the right time to speed up that process.”We’re hoping to be able to take the full discovery of a candidate drug from roughly two years down to six months,” said Peter Madrid, senior director of applied biosciences at SRI Biosciences in Menlo Park…”
Dr. John Torres MD
“Dr. John Torres is an emergency medicine physician in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He received his medical degree from University of New Mexico School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years…”
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Astronaut José M. Hernández
“NASA engineer José M. Hernández wanted to fly in space ever since he heard that the first Hispanic-American had been chosen to travel into space. “I was hoeing a row of sugar beets in a field near Stockton, Calif., and I heard on my transistor radio that Franklin Chang-Diaz had been selected for the Astronaut Corps,” says Hernandez, who was a senior in high school at the time. “I was already interested in science and engineering,” Hernandez remembers, “but that was the moment I said, ‘I want to fly in space.’ And that’s something I’ve been striving for each day since then.” That hard work paid off when was selected to begin training as a mission specialist as part of the 2004 astronaut candidate class…”
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Dr. Fernando Mendoza MD Los Alamitos, CA
“…Dr. Fernando Mendoza is a cardiologist in Los Alamitos, California and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Los Alamitos Medical Center and MemorialCare Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. He received his medical degree from David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and has been in practice between 11-20 years. Dr. Mendoza accepts several types of health insurance, listed below. He also speaks multiple languages, including Spanish…”
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France A. Córdova
“…The Honorable France A. Córdova is an astrophysicist and the 14th director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Córdova was nominated to this position by the President of the United States in 2013 and subsequently confirmed by the U.S. Senate. NSF is a $8.1B independent federal agency; it is the only government agency charged with advancing all fields of scientific discovery, technological innovation, and STEM education…”
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Alumna’s photo series reifies dangers of drugs using everyday household items
“Ingredients commonly used in crystal methamphetamine can be found in your everyday household products.
Readily available commodities like isopropyl alcohol, brake fluid and battery cleaner are sometimes used in the synthesis of the drug, said Aydinaneth Ortiz. The UCLA alumna photographed a number of these products for a series titled “Ingredients.” Three photos from the set of eight were on display at the University Art Museum at California State University, Long Beach from January 28 until April 14 as part of the exhibit titled “Call and Response, When We Say … You Say.” With “Ingredients,” Ortiz said she wants to show viewers the dangers of crystal meth, since it is an issue that has impacted her own life and continues to affect many people…”
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Noam Chomsky kicks off lecture series on linguistics at UCLA
“The father of modern linguistics delivered the first of several public lectures at UCLA on Monday as part of a weeklong lecture series.
Noam Chomsky, a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is giving a series of open lectures on linguistic theory at UCLA from Monday through Thursday.
The event was hosted by UCLA’s Department of Linguistics. Roughly 250 people attended the first lecture Monday, said Claudia Salguero, linguistics department manager. Attendees included UCLA undergraduate and graduate students, USC students and visitors from overseas who flew in to attend the lecture, she said.
Chomsky spoke about the history of linguistics during Monday’s lecture, as well as several linguistic theories he developed. One of these theories was the theory of universal grammar. Chomsky proposed there are universal linguistic rules that are innately hard-wired in humans. These basic rule…”
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Not what it seems
“…This is the editor’s letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.
In The Week’s office, the country’s major newspapers are laid out in a line each day along a counter. One day last week, the same spooky image stared out from every front page, like a cosmic eyeball — the first-ever “photo” of a black hole. It’s an achievement once thought impossible, given that black holes exert such monstrous gravity that they swallow light itself. To see the unseeable, it took 200 scientists on four continents using eight radio telescopes, synchronized so that they functioned like one giant radio dish the size of Earth. Even Einstein, whose theories predicted black holes, initially doubted something so outlandish could exist. Now astronomers have captured what one looks like: a radiant orange-red ring of superheated gas swirling…”
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The Hummingbird as Warrior: Evolution of a Fierce and Furious Beak
“…If you want to know what makes hummingbirds tick, it’s best to avoid most poetry about them.
Bird-beam of the summer day,
— Whither on your sunny way?
Whither? Probably off to have a bloodcurdling fight, that’s whither.
John Vance Cheney wrote that verse, but let’s not point fingers. He has plenty of poetic company, all seduced by the color, beauty and teeny tininess of the hummingbird but failed to notice the ferocity burning in its rapidly beating heart.
The Aztecs weren’t fooled. Their god of war, Huitzilopochtli, was a hummingbird. The Aztecs loved war, and they loved the beauty of the birds as well. It seems they didn’t find any contradiction in the marriage of beauty and bloodthirsty aggression…”
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Mexican scientist cures the Human Papilloma Virus
“…Gallegos has treated hundreds of patients with photodynamic therapy over the last twenty years, studying its effects. Now, she has successfully used this therapy to eradicate HPV in 100% of patients who present without malignant legions, and 64.3% of women with pre-cancerous lesions.
Her discovery will have a huge impact, as most sexually active people will have at least one HPV infection in their lives. Current statistics report that 79 million Americans have HPV, with 14 million new infections each year.
HPV is especially dangerous for women, as it can lead to cervical cancer, which, if left untreated, can cause infertility and death…”
Seizing Opportunity
“…Carlos Marquez, the new manager of the Charles T. Munger Physics Residence, reflects on a long and fruitful career on campus…”
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Dr. Ellen Ochoa, first Hispanic woman in space, to keynote 2018 SACNAS – The National Diversity in STEM Conference
“…Ellen Ochoa
SACNAS is excited to announce that trailblazer Dr. Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman ever to go to space will keynote 2018 SACNAS – The National Diversity in STEM Conference. Dr. Ochoa is also only the second female Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center—where she led the human space flight enterprise for the nation from 2013 to 2018…”
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Humanity’s Genes Reveal Its Tangled History
…”Reality, it turns out, is more complex and interesting than scientists ever imagined.
In the early 19th century, Jean-Fraconnçois Champollion used the Rosetta Stone to begin the process of deciphering the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt. We already knew Egypt through the Bible and the histories of the Greeks, but even Herodotus wrote 2,000 years after the beginning of the Old Kingdom. With the translation of hieroglyphics, the legend of Egypt came to life. What had been cloudy became clear.
In Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past, David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard’s Medical School and the Broad Institute, introduces us to the 21st-century Rosetta Stone: ancient DNA, which will do more for our understanding of prehistory than radiocarbon dating did. Where the latter allowed archaeologists to create a timeline based on the material objects they excavated, DNA sequencing allows scholars to explore the genetics of the people who created those material cultures. We may never see the face of Agamemnon, but we already have the DNA of the warlords of Mycenaean Greece, and in the future we could reconstruct their features from genes alone…”
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