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How to watch the 'Green Comet' as it makes closest approach in 50K years
A green comet shooting through the morning skies is scheduled to make its closest approach to Earth at the beginning of next month.
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was first spotted in March of last year, when it was already inside Jupiter’s orbit. It’s reportedly making its closest approach in 50,000 years.
NASA has said that it will make its closest approach to our planet on Feb. 2.
If this comet continues its current trend in brightness, it should be easily visible with a small telescope or binoculars.
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![Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility.](https://my.grillocom.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Comet-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility.
(Dan Bartlett)
The agency noted that it’s “just possible” it could become visible to the unaided eye under dark skies.
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![Exterior view of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on February 28, 2018, in Pasadena, California.](https://my.grillocom.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/JPL.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Exterior view of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on February 28, 2018, in Pasadena, California.
((Photo by RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images))
“If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, use binoculars or a small telescope to find Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), which has been passing through the morning skies all month,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory tweeted Friday.
It will become visible in the Southern Hemisphere in early February.
![On a voyage through the inner Solar System, comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will be at perigee, its closest to our planet, on Feb. 2.](https://my.grillocom.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Comet-2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
On a voyage through the inner Solar System, comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will be at perigee, its closest to our planet, on Feb. 2.
(Dan Bartlett)
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Skywatchers are advised to check apps for the comet’s position.
On Jan. 21, the comet will reportedly be close to the constellation Draco, according to the New York Times.
'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' shows what a panic attack can feel like. Here's why that's important
CNN
—
One of the most stirring and resonant sequences in a film this awards season comes from an unlikely source: “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.”
The DreamWorks film, a sequel to a spinoff of “Shrek,” follows the titular feline as he attempts to restore eight of the nine lives he’s spent. He spends most of the film committing acts of daring with panache and charm to spare, as audiences have come to expect from Puss in Boots.
But during one crucial sequence, Puss loses faith, and panic and fear threaten to consume him.
Puss slumps against a tree in a forest, huffing and puffing. His rapid heartbeat drowns out any other sound in the forest where he lies. His friend, the affable therapy dog Perrito, notices Puss is in distress and lays his head on our feline hero’s tummy. Puss exhales a few times, calmly pets Perrito and is able to recover.
It’s a quiet, brief moment in an otherwise jovial film aimed at young viewers and families. But it’s resonating with many viewers for its depiction of what it feels like to have a panic attack – and the relief of coming out the other side.
“That was one of our big goals – let’s take our audience on a journey that expresses the full range of emotions of life,” said Joel Crawford, director of “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” in an interview with CNN.
There are still hard-won victories, gags and hard-earned wisdom in the film, but what lends “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” its staying power is its heart and honesty, even in a fairy-tale setting. Psychologists spoke with CNN about why it can be impactful to see panic attacks reflected on screen – and how a bipedal, sword-carrying cat got it right.
A panic attack is “basically a wave of powerful, physical fear that feels overwhelming,” said David Carbonell, a clinical psychologist based in Chicago who specializes in fear and phobias. Someone experiencing a panic attack may feel their heart beating at a faster-than-normal rate and have trouble catching their breath. Lightheadedness and tingles in extremities are common, too. But the throughline is always fear that feels suffocating, even if that fear doesn’t match one’s circumstances.
Lynn Bufka, associate chief of practice transformation at the American Psychological Association and a clinician, compared a panic attack to an encounter in the desert with a terrifying rattlesnake. Faced with a venomous foe, our body would trigger a physiological response to the fear in front of us. But with a panic attack, there usually isn’t an obvious cause, and this unknown element can make a panic attack feel even scarier, she said.
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” takes place in the same fairy-tale land of the “Shrek” series, with its anthropomorphic animals and ogres with hearts of gold. The new film features Goldilocks and the three bears, a grown-up and villainous version of “Little Jack Horner” of nursery rhyme fame and Salma Hayek as a feline foil to Antonio Banderas’ Puss in Boots. All of them are after a mythical wishing star, which, if Puss can reach it first, could restore the first eight of his nine lives.
It’s all very fantastical and humorous until it isn’t. In a brief but crucial sequence, Puss is overwhelmed by fear and can’t catch his breath. Even his comedic sidekick Perrito straightens up to calmly comfort Puss. It’s a sober moment in an otherwise jovial story.
That was intentional, director Crawford said. He told CNN that the moment wasn’t for laughs, and the film as a whole aimed to portray a more vulnerable side to the swashbuckling cat audiences have come to know.
“(Watching) an animated world is such a great way to escape,” he said, while noting that challenging topics can be explored through the comfort of fiction.
The process began with the film’s screenwriters, Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow, who brought their own experiences to the film’s portrayal of fear and panic, as well as Crawford and co-director Januel Mercado. Then it moved to storyboard artist Taylor Meacham, who drew from his own panic attacks to sketch what Puss might look like. Everything from the “tunnel vision” when viewers see Puss’ point of view to the loud heartbeat that takes over the scene were pulled from his experiences with panic, Meacham told CNN.
He also made sure the scene slowed down to take the time “needed for Puss in Boots to relax and breathe as he comes out of his attack,” he said. “The contrast from such intensity gradually into calm is another moment I hope feels real for viewers.”
Animator Prashanth Cavale even filmed himself as a reference for the scene, adding “tiny clenches and twitches” to add a lifelike texture to the scene, Cavale told CNN.
The goal, Crawford said, was to avoid making the moment feel “superficial or forced” while keeping it accessible to viewers of all ages.
“Fear, weakness, anxiety – if anybody has ever felt those emotions, which is everybody, we wanted to make sure this scene related to them,” Crawford said.
What audiences see in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” is less what a panic attack looks like to a bystander and more what it feels like to have one. A panic attack is often imperceptible to everyone except the person experiencing them, Bufka and Carbonell said. But in the moment, a panic attack can feel like a catastrophic event, even if it doesn’t look like one on the outside.
“Puss in Boots” isn’t the first example of popular media to feature a character experiencing a panic attack. Tony Soprano infamously suffered from them in “The Sopranos,” though his were greatly exaggerated and unrealistic – it’s rare for people to collapse during or after a panic attack, Carbonell said. The new HBO Max series “Velma” takes a heightened approach to panic attacks, too, showing both its bespectacled protagonist’s exaggerated perspective of panic and the subdued reality. (HBO and CNN share parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Former ABC News journalist Dan Harris even had a panic attack live on air while reading a brief news item, though most coworkers and viewers didn’t know it at the time thanks to his outwardly calm demeanor.
Even if a panic attack portrayed onscreen isn’t a universal representation of the psychological phenomenon, seeing a character have one, particularly in a film like “Puss in Boots” that children and adults alike will view, can lead someone to consider their own experiences with panic and anxiety and seek help from an expert or from loved ones, Bufka said.
“It just really helps to normalize that this happens, and that you can recover,” she said.
When Puss finds comfort in his friend, the portly Perrito, who lends a paw for support without saying anything, the dog’s response is a fine example for people to follow if they know their loved ones have panic attacks, Carbonell said.
“You want to undercut the panic and bring it back down to reasonable proportions,” Carbonell said. Simply being there for someone and not overwhelming them with suggestions can help ground them.
Puss also accepts the help Perrito silently offers him. Fighting against a panic attack, Carbonell said, can often elongate and worsen it – the “quicksand of mental illness.” But letting it pass and rediscovering one’s calm is often the quickest way to get through it, he said.
For children, especially, seeing a character feel extreme fear and then find comfort in a loved one can be impactful, Bufka said, even if they’re not familiar with the term “panic attack.”
“People don’t always have the language for their emotions,” she said. “But it’s important to have it onscreen, because it helps people feel seen, recognized and not alone.”
Rasputin vs Stalin. Epic Rap Battles of History
Rasputin and Stalin face off in this episode of Epic Rap Battles of History. Who won? You decide! Want to help ERB? Support us …
Many coastal nursing homes aren’t ready for hurricanes
A significant number of nursing homes at risk for hurricane-related flooding may be inadequately prepared, a new study finds.
One in 10 nursing homes in US coastal regions is at risk of exposure to severe hurricane-related flooding. Nursing home residents are disproportionately more susceptible than the general population to injury and death due to environmental disasters.
Researchers used publicly-available data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to study the relationship between local exposure risk to hurricanes and emergency preparedness across nursing homes in various coastal regions.
They found that preparedness differed considerably, highlighting the need for standardized emergency measures that protect all vulnerable, at-risk residents.
“This project is at the intersection of medicine and climate,” says Kaitlin Throgmorton, data librarian for the health sciences at Cushing/Whitney Medical Library at Yale University and collaborator of the study, published in JAMA Network Open. “We’re trying to understand how nursing homes are responding to various climate threats through using fully open data.”
Smaller-scale studies have suggested a lack of emergency preparedness. The team hoped to better understand the correlation between potential inundation from hurricanes and preparedness at a large geographic scale using a sample of nearly 6,000 nursing homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
They geocoded the homes and evaluated facility characteristics as well as exposure risk to potential hurricane-related inundation using maps data from the National Hurricane Center. Then, they used the data to see if exposed nursing homes were likelier to have stronger preparedness.
The study found that approximately 10% of those sampled were at risk of experiencing hurricane-related inundation, and about 30% also had a critical emergency preparedness deficiency.
While at-risk facilities on the western Gulf Coast were more likely to have stronger preparedness, to the team’s surprise, this correlation did not exist in other regions. In the mid-Atlantic region, they observed a higher prevalence of emergency preparedness deficiencies among at-risk facilities.
“In our analysis, we found that nursing homes in the western Gulf Coast seem to be responsive to local environmental risks,” says Natalia Festa, research fellow with the National Clinician Scholars Program and Yale Program on Aging. “But in other regions, that does not seem to be the case.”
The team believes that the western Gulf Coast may be better prepared due to regulatory reforms following Hurricane Katrina, and that these facilities could potentially serve as an exemplar of emergency preparedness for at-risk nursing homes in other parts of the country.
“But there is additional research that’s needed to understand the mechanisms underlying the patterns that we observed,” Festa adds.
Furthermore, the study shows how fully open data can be used to learn more about health care facilities’ preparedness for environmental hazards.
“We’ve been able to promote open data work and also show the impact of what we can learn and what we can advise on from a policy perspective,” says Throgmorton.
The team plans to extend its work by evaluating nursing home emergency preparedness for other regionally concentrated environmental hazards throughout the United States.
Source: Isabella Backman for Yale University
‘Scooby-Doo’ spinoff ‘Velma’ jokes about sexualizing teens as woke series endures blistering ratings, reviews
HBO and actress Mindy Kaling‘s “Scooby Doo” spin-off series “Velma” added more controversial content to its repertoire in its latest episode, this time treating sexualizing kids as a joke.
During episode four, titled, “Velma Makes a List,” the new series makes multiple jokes about children in a sexual manner. The first involves the local town mayor lusting over attractive high school teenage girls, and the other involves lead character Velma’s impression of young boys and their talent for drawing male genitalia.
After Velma is tasked with thwarting a local murderer who seems to be targeting only pretty high school girls, the middle-aged town sheriff suggests that she rank the hottest girls in her school and help them be less attractive to save their lives.
SCOOBY-DOO’ CHARACTERS DAPHNE AND VELMA GETTING LIVE-ACTION SPINOFF FILM
![HBO "Scooby Doo" spinoff "Velma" has been annihilated by critics since it debuted earlier this month.](https://my.grillocom.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/scoobydoo1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
HBO “Scooby Doo” spinoff “Velma” has been annihilated by critics since it debuted earlier this month.
Though the town mayor’s salivating reaction to Velma’s makeover reveal shows she has failed in her task, and gives “Velma” viewers an uncomfortable scene of a middle-aged white man lusting over underage girls.
Talking to the mayor and sheriff during the reveal, Velma says, “Mayor Dave, Sheriff Cogburn, I want you to remember this moment. For far too long, we have told girls that pain is beauty. Well, today you will see these painfully beautiful girls transform from ‘Damn’ to ‘Eh…’”
As noted by NewsBusters, once Velma reveals the girls, who don’t appear to have changed their appearance in any way, the mayor says, “Ooh, they are so hot. Daddy likey…Wait. You were supposed to do the opposite. What the h—, Velma?”
In another scene from the same episode, Velma attempts to make a comment on sexism to her friend but accidentally makes a bizarre statement on little kids and genitalia.
She says, “Our whole lives, girls are told by guys there’s a right way to be hot, and I’m not it. Guys even teach us to be ashamed of our own bodies. Every little kid knows how to draw a penis, but make a little kid draw a vɑgina, and what happens?” Her friend Norville replies, “You go to jail?” to which she says, “Exacty.”
The R-rated humor is just the latest stunt from the HBO animated series, which has already been the subject of many headlines for flipping the concept of the beloved “Scooby-Doo” Mystery Gang on its head in an attempt to appeal to modern audiences.
The show has been blasted for its over-the-top woke themes. For example, it has race-swapped several of the main characters, most notably Shaggy, who is now an African American male named “Norville.” It also features lesbian scenes between the titular character, who is now of Asian/Pacific Island descent, and Daphne, who is now half Asian, half White.
In addition, the series devotes story beats to portraying former beloved character Fred as a rich White male who gets taken down a peg because of his privilege.
VELMA IS OFFICIALLY REVEALED TO BE A LESBIAN IN NEW ‘SCOOBY-DOO’ FILM
!["Scooby-Doo," the beloved dog from the legendary Hanna-Barbera show "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!"](https://my.grillocom.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ScoobyFilmPublicityArchiveUnited-Archives-via-Getty-Images.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
“Scooby-Doo,” the beloved dog from the legendary Hanna-Barbera show “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!”
(Getty Images)
As Fox News Digital previously reported, “Velma” also “features limbs being severed, one of the main characters going to a strip club with her dad, and two teenage boys making out at their high school.”
These elements have added up to a show that has been annihilated by critics. Fox noted, “Though the critic reviews are bad, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is even worse with most giving it a half a star (out of five). One viewer called it ‘so insulting to the Scooby-Doo fan base.’ Another observed, ‘Very current year. This culture sucks so bad.’”
Reviews have been so bad that some have wondered whether the show was a conspiracy to annoy right-wingers. Forbes contributor Paul Tassi mentioned this notion, writing, “Velma is so bad in fact, that it’s spawning conspiracy theories that creator Mindy Kaling made what is essentially a parody of what the right wing thinks left wing comedy is like.”
The Daily Mail even reported that “Velma” is “now the third worst rated TV show in IMBD history, having aired just four episodes of its first season.”
Fox News Digital spoke to conservative Hollywood and entertainment critic Christian Toto about why creators would push a raunchy Scooby-Doo spinoff, just for it to get slammed by audiences. He said, “Hollywood artists don’t appreciate the frustration many feel about these woke makeovers. In their circles, diversity and social justice are vital tools in their storytelling kits.”
Toto – who runs the popular conservative film and entertainment commentary site Hollywoodintoto.com – explained that bad reviews entice producers to double down on their creative decisions.
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He said, “What’s more interesting is that when confronted with angry viewers the response is often to double down and slam critics as racist, sexist, etc. We saw that with the backlash against ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ on Amazon Prime.”
Though Toto did acknowledge that “audiences in turn, often overreact. They’re angry at not just one show but a cultural landscape that pushes these reboots. So they lash out on properties like ‘Velma’ by slamming them on TV review sites and social media.”
Discovery in India reveals intimate details about lives of some of the largest dinosaurs
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
CNN
—
To pry open the mysteries of our planet’s past, scientists typically study rocks and fossilized bones.
Eggs are an often overlooked but extremely rich source of information, with birds, reptiles, dinosaurs and a few oddball mammals laying them on land for more than 200 million years.
Rare fossilized eggshells can illuminate the behavior and diet of ancient creatures, expose changes in climate, and shed light on how our prehistoric relatives lived and communicated.
And now, an “eggciting” discovery in India announced this week has revealed intimate details about the lives of some of the biggest dinosaurs to walk the Earth.
![The discovery of 250-plus fossilized eggs in India suggests giant dinosaurs weren't attentive parents.](https://my.grillocom.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/230117110902-02-dinosaurs-nest-eggs-india-discovery.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_270,w_480,c_fill)
Paleontologists in central India have unearthed a fossilized dinosaur hatchery with 92 nests and 256 eggs belonging to colonies of giant plant-eating titanosaurs.
Judging by the nests’ proximity to one another, researchers inferred the dinosaurs laid eggs together in colonies or rookeries, as many birds do today.
However, unlike most bird species, titanosaurs weren’t doting parents. Researchers think these creatures likely laid their eggs and then left their offspring to fend for themselves.
“Since titanosaurs were huge in size, closely spaced nests would not have allowed them to visit the nests to maneuver and incubate the eggs or feed the hatchlings … as the parents would step on the eggs and trample them,” said lead study author Guntupalli Prasad, a paleontologist at the University of Delhi.
Planting a tree is a fitting memorial to a loved one, but how about “becoming” a tree after death?
Transcend, a New York-based green burial start-up, is one company offering a way for people to make a positive environmental impact when they shuffle off this mortal coil.
Customers will select a tree species to be planted over the body, which will be prepared with biodegradable flax linen and buried with wood chips, local soil and fungi to facilitate composting. The site is marked, and the tree left to grow.
Advocates hope green burials can help slow the climate crisis, but the industry is new — Transcend hasn’t planted any people yet — and there is little research on how much better human composting is for the environment compared with traditional burials.
Want more ideas on how to tackle the climate crisis and reduce your eco-anxiety? Sign up for CNN’s Life, But Greener limited newsletter series.
![The short-beaked echidna is native to Australia.](https://my.grillocom.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/230119113707-02-echidna-heat-study-restricted-re-up.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_270,w_480,c_fill)
Australia’s echidna, like the platypus, belongs to an odd group of mammals that lay eggs, known as monotremes. But the spiky creature’s egg-laying ability isn’t its only unusual characteristic.
Despite being one of the world’s oldest surviving species, echidnas are also thought to be sensitive to heat. Researchers, however, have discovered the echidna uses a unique method to cool down and stay active at much higher temperatures than previously known.
Infrared footage of 124 echidnas shot over the space of a year revealed how they beat the heat of global warming: The creature blows mucus bubbles, which burst over its nose tip and wet it. As the moisture evaporates, it cools the echidna’s blood, with the nose tip acting as an “evaporative window.”
When the Artemis I mission lifted off in November, NASA’s Space Launch System performed as advertised. The most powerful rocket ever flown provided the propulsion needed to send the Orion spacecraft on a journey around the moon and back.
But SLS has long been considered controversial, and NASA and Boeing, which was responsible for the rocket’s core stage, have both received criticism for delays and whopping price tags.
The complicated history of SLS has left some industry insiders with conflicting feelings about the rocket and its place in the Artemis program, which is designed to land humans on the moon and eventually reach Mars.
Meanwhile, astronomers have now documented the cosmic drama that is the Milky Way in unprecedented detail during the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey — and it produced a breathtaking image.
![The runestone was uncovered at a burial ground in eastern Norway.](https://my.grillocom.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/230118120812-06-oldest-runestone.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_270,w_480,c_fill)
Runes are the oldest known form of writing in Scandinavia and are closely associated with the Viking Age between 793 and 1066 — a time from which thousands of stones with runic inscriptions have been found.
Older runestones are much rarer, and archaeologists in Norway have recently discovered the most ancient known example — thought to be around 2,000 years old.
Researchers at the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History spotted the stone while investigating a burial ground in the municipality of Hole in eastern Norway in 2021.
Eight runes on the front face of the reddish-brown sandstone boulder spell “idiberug” when converted into Roman letters. According to one of the archaeologists, it could be the name of a woman.
Immerse yourself in these engrossing stories:
— Scientists have discovered a foot-long snake in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It shares a key trait with its much larger cousin — the boa constrictor.
— NASA and Boeing are teaming up to design a new type of emission-reducing, single-aisle aircraft. Air travelers could benefit in the 2030s.
— Analysis of DNA extracted from the skeletal remains of more than 100 individuals has revealed that, in ancient Greece, marrying your cousin was not just allowed — but encouraged.
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Shootings rise on unusually hot days in US cities
Any unseasonably hot day—no matter the time of year—can lead to a rush of gun violence, research finds.
When temperatures sizzle, so do tempers. Across the United States, headlines lamenting a summer spike in shootings—a “gun violence emergency” in Portland, Oregon, “another summer of mayhem” in Philadelphia—have become a depressing feature of the season.
According to the researchers, mitigating the impacts of climate change and helping residents adjust to rising temperatures could help curb shootings.
Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the study finds a consistent relationship between higher temperatures and higher risk of shootings in 100 of the country’s most populated cities.
The comprehensive study reveals that nearly 7% of shootings can be attributed to above-average daily temperatures, even after adjusting for seasonal patterns. The paper’s findings—the first to show that heat-attributable shootings are a nationwide problem—indicate that the Northeast and Midwest regions experience the sharpest increases in gun violence on hotter-than-normal days. Gun violence is the leading cause of death among children and teens—a situation that only worsened during the pandemic.
“Our study provides strong evidence that daily temperature plays a meaningful role in gun violence fluctuations,” says study senior author Jonathan Jay, assistant professor of community health sciences and director of Boston University’s Research on Innovations for Safety and Equity (RISE) Lab. “Even though some regions showed larger or smaller effects, the general pattern is remarkably consistent across cities.”
As climate change threatens to raise daily temperatures even more, the researchers say their findings underscore the need for ongoing policies and programs that acclimate communities to heat and mitigate the risk of heat-attributable gun violence.
“Our study really highlights the importance of heat adaptation strategies that can be used all year, as well as a need for specific regional awareness and attention in regions where this relationship is strongest,” says Vivian Lyons, study lead author and a research scientist in the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work.
For the study, the research team used publicly available data from the Gun Violence Archive, a national repository of gun violence information. They analyzed daily temperatures and more than 116,000 shootings, from 2015 to 2020, in 100 of the most populous US cities with the highest number of assault-related shootings. Accounting for seasonality and regional climate differences, they found that 7,973 shootings were attributable to above-average temperatures.
The temperatures associated with increased gun violence varied considerably across cities. For example, both Seattle and Las Vegas experienced the highest elevated risk of gun violence during days when the temperature soared within the 96th percentile range of average daily temperatures—but for Seattle, that temperature was 84 degrees, while in Las Vegas, it was 104 degrees.
“Cities with high rates of firearm violence should continue to implement firearm-prevention strategies broadly, including credible messenger programs and hospital-based violence intervention programs,” Lyons says. “What our study suggests is that for cities with more heat-attributable shootings, implementing heat adaptation strategies at the community level—such as greening efforts that have been effective at reducing urban heat islands and have some association with reductions in firearm violence—may be particularly important.”
So, what might be driving this association between heat and gun violence? “It could be that heat causes stress, which makes people more likely to use aggression,” says Jay, who’s also a partnering faculty member at the BU Center for Climate and Health. “Or it could be that people are more likely to get out on warmer days and have more interactions, which creates more opportunities for conflict and violence. Most likely, it’s a combination of both.”
Regionally, heat-attributable gun violence may be most pronounced in the Northeast and Midwest due to sharper fluctuations in temperature in those areas, even within seasons, or because cities in those regions are less acclimated to heat, the researchers say. But those regions are also more racially segregated than other parts of the country. The study findings should be interpreted within the context of structural racism and racial inequities in exposure to gun violence and heat, says Jay.
“The Northeast and Midwest regions are where we see some of the starkest differences in the built environment and other resources, according to race—to me, these inequities are the most interesting and important direction of this work,” Jay says. “We know that segregation and disinvestment lead communities of color, especially Black communities, to have greater exposure to adverse environmental conditions that contribute to gun violence risk, such as abandoned buildings, liquor stores, lack of green space, and more intense urban heat islands.”
Healthy tree canopy and other heat mitigation strategies can serve as part of a mission that’s “part racial justice, part climate change mitigation, and part gun violence prevention,” he says. “These are all urgent issues where we need to continue to partner with communities and work across disciplines.”
The researchers will next study differences in heat-related gun violence among neighborhoods in a project funded by the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research.
The study had funding from Washington state; Jay also had support from the Boston University Clinical & Translational Science Institute.
Source: Boston University
Hilaria Baldwin ripped for 'beyond offensive' accent while talking to paparazzi
Social media reactions ripped Hilaria Baldwin for continuing to use an “offensive” Spanish accent after she spoke with paparazzi this week.
Twitter users immediately seized on fresh video to once more lambaste Baldwin for her accent, with one user writing, “It’s beyond offensive at this point that she continues with this Spanish accent.”
“Regardless of the chaos of her mind and this situation – you’re not Spanish,” the user wrote.
The 37-year-old yoga/wellness expert faced widespread criticism in Dec. 2020 when it came to light that she was born in Boston, and not Spain, as she had implied. Many also criticized her for allegedly faking a Spanish accent – a criticism that continues to follow her to this day.
Following the initial scandal, Baldwin wrote on Instagram that her parents “raised my brother and me with two cultures, American and Spanish, and I feel a true sense of belonging to both.” She said she should have “been more clear” and apologized for the controversy, but she maintained she had a “deep connection to two cultures.”
Baldwin courted further criticism this week when she spoke up in defense of her husband, actor Alec Baldwin, after the New Mexico courts announced a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust.” Baldwin told the paparazzi to leave her family alone and “let this play out.”
“I’m going to tell you what I’m going to say, you’re not going to ask me questions,” Baldwin told paparazzi Friday. “I want you guys to realize we have seven kids, and you being here to escort them to school and to be there when they come home is not good.”
PROSECUTORS THINK ALEC BALDWIN IS FACING MORE THAN SIX YEARS IN PRISON, SAYS FAMED DEFENSE ATTORNEY
“So on a human level, you know I’m not going to say anything to you. You know that,” she continued, speaking with a Spanish accent. “So please, leave my family in peace, and let this all play out, okay?”
Another user criticized Baldwin for her accent even as they expressed sympathy for the family.
“I saw people feeling badly for her being stalked by [paparazzi], and of course that’s valid, but the AAAAACCENT my GOD,” the user wrote, adding that others “are completely correct” in criticizing Baldwin.
Another user who was stunned that “she’s still doing it” even after it was “revealed” that she wasn’t from Spain.
ALEC BALDWIN IS ‘DIRTY BOMB IN HOLLYWOOD’ AFTER ‘RUST’ SHOOTING: BRAND CONSULTANT
Daily Blast Live cohost Tory Shulman mockingly asked, “How do you say – you’re from Boston?” in reference to when Baldwin said she couldn’t remember the word for cucumber during a cooking segment on The Today Show.
One user, claiming to be Spanish, said that Baldwin had a “pretty convincing Madrid accent,” adding, “Not saying that it’s 100% fake, just that, as a Spaniard, it would have 100% fooled me lol.”
But another user chimed in that Baldwin and actor Austin Butler, who recently won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Elvis, “need some kind of support group for people who can’t turn off the fake voice.”
Baldwin, who goes by Hilaria but revealed her real name is Hillary, previously apologized for the scandal and tried to correct some of the “misconceptions” that she said people had picked up about her, saying that she “spent time in Boston and Spain,” but that her family “now lives in Spain.”
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“I moved to New York when I was 19 years old, and I have lived here ever since. For me, I feel like I have spent 10 years sharing that story over and over again,” Baldwin told The New York Times.
Representatives for Hilaria Baldwin did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by time of publication.
Fox News Digital’s Mariah Haas contributed to this report.