Author: letstalklibrary4001

The Ocean Cleanup — “How System 002 Works”

Ocean and horizon with long view of Ocean Cleanup’s System 002 with its two vessels, long net, and retention zone.
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Image credit: The Ocean Cleanup

Have you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? No, it’s not something from Sesame Street (although it sounds like it could be). It’s big, it’s in the middle of the ocean, it’s garbage-y. And it’s real. Ocean Cleanup is an organization that uses innovative techniques to clean up the patch. In addition to their website, they have numerous YouTube videos that explain their techniques and their progress. For our Library, we’ve chosen this short one from October 2021.

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Surprising Creatures Lurk in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Assorted plastics and other debris float on the surface of the sea.
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Image credit: Jakchai Tilakoon/EyeEm/Getty Images

Raise your hand if you think that the tons and tons of plastic garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean are a good thing, something to be preserved and protected. Nobody? No hands up? Good. We all know that it’s ugly and harmful to wildlife; there’s no controversy there. Now, new research shows that it’s even worse than we imagined. Scientific American science writer Meghan Bartels describes a newly researched threat posed by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in this April 2023 report.

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Influencer Parents and the Kids Who Had Their Childhood Made Into Content

A small child sits on the lap of a woman; they gaze at one another, smiling. In front of them, a ring light and a smartphone on a gooseneck stand.
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Image credit: JOSE LUIS PELAEZ INC

How would you feel about seeing photos of yourself on social media for all the world to see (especially if you didn’t put them there yourself)? This may not be a hypothetical question; many of us have likely had that very experience. For some, it might cause some blushing, a chuckle, and no big deal; life goes on, what’s for dinner? But in some cases—particularly those involving children, who typically don’t get to make their own decisions about it—there is a danger of it being a Very Big Deal and not a pleasant one. Journalist Fortesa Latifi details some cases of childhood being used as content in this March 2023 Teen Vogue report.

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The Thinking Error That Makes People Susceptible to Climate Change Denial

Photo from above of a person standing before a chalked arrow that points both to the left and to the right.
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Image credit: eyetoeyePIX via Getty Images

We’ve all seen and heard scientific reports and arguments about climate change from scholars in many different disciplines—biology, geology, environmental sciences, chemistry, and many more, and those disciplines seem obviously relevant to the phenomenon. Here’s one from psychology. What does psychology have to do with climate change? Not much with the changes themselves, perhaps, but it may have a lot to do with the debates and controversies surrounding the issue. In this May 2023 essay in The Conversation, psychology professor Jeremy P. Shapiro proposes an explanation for climate change denial.

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How Online Mobs Act Like Flocks of Birds

Still frame from a computer simulation of a murmuration of birds swooping and swirling across the screen.
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Image credit: Noema

Have you ever watched a group of birds flying together, making swirling, looping patterns in the sky, and thought, “Wow! I wish we humans could do that!”? Well, we kind of already do, at least on social media. Renée DiResta, technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory, uses the metaphor of a murmuration of birds (that’s what it’s called) to describe our social media behavior. In this November 2022 essay in Noema, she analyzes some of our most problematic social media behavior and makes some recommendations for addressing the problems.

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Yes, This New York County Actually Used the Crazy Spider Voting Sticker Design That You Saw Online

A round “I voted” sticker shows a childish drawing of a green-legged spider figure with a smiling human head. The face is in shades of purple with big red eyes and multicolor teeth.
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Image credit: CNN

News giant CNN publishes a detailed report about an “I voted” sticker that is being distributed in a medium-sized county in New York. Wait. This is newsworthy?! Really? “I voted” stickers are usually the most yawn-inducing bits of civic display imaginable. Well, not this time, and not in Ulster County, New York, where the winning entry in a county-wide contest shows a childish drawing of a brightly colored monster with insect legs and a scary human face that says “I voted.” CNN reporter Zoe Sottile filed this report in November 2022.

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Goin’ Bananas: How a Minor League Team Got More Followers Than the Yankees

About twenty uniformed Savannah Bananas players line up side-by-side on the field doing a kick-line dance.
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Image credit: Christian Science Moniter

To hear some people tell it, the Savannah Bananas, a professional baseball team based in Savannah Georgia, are making baseball fun again (Gasp!!). They play by modified rules (“Banana Ball”), their games consistently sell out, and according to this July 2022 report by Patrik Jonsson, Christian Science Monitor staff writer, they have more social media followers than the New York Yankees. What’s up with that?

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