Television control room
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WASHINGTON — Trust in the news media is being eroded by perceptions of inaccuracy and bias, fueled in part by Americans’ skepticism about what they read on social media.
Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions. In this presidential campaign year, Democrats were more likely to trust the news media than Republicans or independents. (emphasis added)
But trust today also goes beyond the traditional journalistic principles of accuracy, balance and fairness.
Formal instruction about birth control and other aspects of sexual health in the U.S. is on the decline, according to an analysis of survey data from 2006 to 2013.
“The declines in formal sex education we observed since 2006 are distressing, but unfortunately are part of a longer term retreat from sex education, especially instruction about birth control methods,” said lead study author Laura Duberstein Lindberg of The Guttmacher Institute in New York.
“For example, in 1995 more than four out of five teens were taught about birth control—in the most recent data this is only about half,” she said.
The researchers used interviews taken from nationwide household surveys administered continuously between 2006 and 2010 and between 2011 and 2013, focusing on respondents aged 15 to 19 years. The analysis included responses from about 2,000 teen boys and 1,000 teen girls in each wave of surveys.
The surveys included questions about whether the youth had ever received formal sex educationat school, church, a community center or elsewhere before age 18. Examples of sex educationtopics used in the surveys included how to say no to sex, methods of birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and how to prevent HIV and AIDS. The second wave of surveys […]
House appropriators, meanwhile, took aim at DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) program, which funds applied research aimed at developing clean energy technologies. The Obama administration had requested a 40.1% increase in the EERE budget to $2.9 billion. In contrast, House appropriators would cut EERE spending by 12% to $1.8 billion.
Scientists supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) likely won’t be happy with Congress’s version of the budget for the agency in fiscal year 2017, which begins 1 October. In February, the Obama administration proposed a 4.2% increase, to $5.572 billion, in the budget of DOE’s basic research wing, the Office of Science—not counting an extra $100 million request dedicated for university research that would not be part of the usual budget process. However, yesterday both the Senate and House of Representatives appropriations subcommittees that oversee DOE released spending plans that would give the Office of Science just a 0.9% increase, to $5.4 billion. Both chambers also rejected the call for the $100 million mandatory spending on university research.
Although that increase may seem like small change, it represents a vote of confidence for the Office of Science, Senator Lamar Alexander (R–TN), chair of the Senate energy and water subcommittee, said at the Senate subcommittee markup yesterday. “The top priority is the Office of Science,” Alexander said. “This is the second year that we’ve been able to increase […]
Boys gather near the wreckage of car destroyed by a US drone airstrike targeting suspected al-Qaida militants in Azan, Yemen, in 2013. Photograph: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters
Four former US air force service members, with more than 20 years of experience between them operating military drones, have written an open letter to Barack Obama warning that the program of targeted killings by unmanned aircraft has become a major driving force for Isis and other terrorist groups.
The group of servicemen have issued an impassioned plea to the Obama administration, calling for a rethink of a military tactic that they say has “fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like Isis, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantánamo Bay”.
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
