society
Kingwood (United States) (AFP) - Before a T. rex can tower over museum visitors or a Triceratops can show off its huge horns, dinosaur fossils must first be painstakingly reconstructed -- cleaned, fit together and even painted. For US restorationist Lauren McClain, the process is like putting together a giant 3D puzzle. McClain's job begins at her home workshop near Houston, Texas, where she carefully clears away dirt stuck to the more than 60-million-year-old remains using a tiny drill with an air compressor, similar to a dentist's tool. Then, she must assemble this ancient puzzle -- even t...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - Russian dissident historian Tamara Eidelman was on vacation in Greece when Moscow's tanks rolled into Ukraine in February 2022 and she realized that she would not be going back to her home country. With her single suitcase, Eidelman, 65, flew to Portugal, where her daughter had been living, and began a new life in exile. "I am operating under the assumption that I will not return. I am building my life in Portugal," Eidelman, who has over 1.6 million followers on her history channel on YouTube, told AFP. "I want to come back… but if I sit every day thinking 'When will it f...
AFP
Playa del Rey (United States) (AFP) - Tamara Hernandez moved into a recreational vehicle when her rent shot up. Beau Beard did it because he lost everything after going to prison. Stories like theirs abound in California where RVs and trailers, once a symbol of carefree living by the ocean, increasingly reflect a less glamorous slice of life in the Golden State: a housing crisis and the growing number of people without a roof over their head. A third of all the homeless people in America live in wealthy California, which if it were a country would boast the world's fifth-largest economy. In Lo...
AFP
Miami (AFP) - A Florida judge on Tuesday suspended part of a recently passed law that bans doctors from administering gender-affirming treatment to transgender children. Judge Robert Hinkle of Federal District Court in Tallahassee ruled that three transgender minors in the southern US state can receive puberty blockers. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit against state officials filed by their parents. "Gender identity is real," Hinkle wrote in his opinion. He added: "Florida has adopted a statute and rules that prohibit these treatments even when medically appropriate." So-called pubert...
AFP
San Francisco (AFP) - San Francisco has tapped a popular nightclub owner to be its first drag laureate, creating the ambassador-style position at a time when America's LGBTQ community fears an erosion of its rights amid rising conservative attacks. D'Arcy Drollinger will receive a $55,000 stipend for the 18-month term, during which the performer will promote queer events in the famously liberal city, long at the vanguard of the gay rights movement. "I am honored and thrilled to have been chosen as San Francisco's Drag Laureate, and I am proud to live in a city that is pioneering this position ...
AFP
New York (AFP) - New York appointed its first rat "czar" on Wednesday, tasked with cracking down on one of the more unappealing aspects of life in the Big Apple. The appointment of Kathleen Corradi comes four months after the city posted a tongue-in-cheek advert seeking "somewhat bloodthirsty" candidates for the role. Rats are regularly seen in America's largest metropolis, often spotted scurrying between subway tracks and sniffing around garbage bags on sidewalks. Legend has it that there are as many rats as humans -- around nine million -- although that figure has been debunked as a myth by ...
AFP
New York (AFP) - If you are "somewhat bloodthirsty" and willing to consider "wholesale slaughter" of vermin then you might be the ideal candidate to become New York City's new rat czar. Mayor Eric Adams's administration on Wednesday posted the job listing for Director of Rodent Mitigation, a position that pays between $120,000 and $170,000 a year. "Do you have what it takes to do the impossible?" asks the ad, which seeks someone with a "virulent vehemence for vermin" and a "general aura of badassery." A bachelor's degree is a must, as is experience in urban planning, project management or gove...
AFP
Paris (AFP) - By forcing the world to wake up to the daily sexual abuse suffered by women, the #MeToo movement became a social revolution of historic importance. Its legacy is still being determined. It began with a tweet: on October 15, 2017, US actor Alyssa Milano invited women to share their experiences of sexual harassment under the words "Me too". Within a year, the hashtag had been used more than 19 million times, according to Pew Research Center -- pushing the issue of sexual assault to the top of the global agenda. Of course, the movement sat on the shoulders of decades of feminist s...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - With gun control under debate and monkeypox in the headlines, Americans are facing a barrage of new twists on years-old misinformation in their social media feeds. Accurate news stories about mass shootings have attracted eyeballs but algorithms have also spurred baseless conspiracy theories from trolls who want to push lies to attract traffic. And thousands have unwittingly shared them on Facebook, Twitter and other sites. The May 24 attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas was a "false flag" operation aimed at pushing restrictive gun laws, according to Telegram po...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - US firearms makers produced over 139 million guns for the commercial market over the two decades from 2000, including 11.3 million in 2020 alone, according to a new government report. Another 71 million firearms were imported in the same period -- compared to just 7.5 million exported -- underscoring how the country is literally swimming in personal weapons that have stoked a surge in gun violence, murders and suicides, according to the Justice Department report. The report shows that while Americans have made favorites of semi-automatic assault rifles seen in many mass shoo...
AFP
閲覧を続けるには、ノアドット株式会社が「プライバシーポリシー」に定める「アクセスデータ」を取得することを含む「nor.利用規約」に同意する必要があります。
「これは何?」という方はこちら