Organisms in Space, Canadian Tech, and Airplane Self-Certification

Weekend Reads: March 29, 2019

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This 19-Year-Old Is Paying Her Way through College by Naming over 677,000 Chinese Babies

Karen Gilchrist | CNBC | Tweeted by Michael D. Farren

At just 15, Beau Jessup came up with the idea of Special Name, a website designed to provide Chinese parents with culturally appropriate English names for their babies.

Strange Earth Organisms Have Somehow Survived Living outside the ISS

Michelle Starr | ScienceAlert | Retweeted by Alex Tabarrok

Extensive testing on the International Space Station has demonstrated that unicellular organisms found in Earth’s harshest environments could, in theory, survive on Mars.

The Future of Aviation? Even More Automation

Stephen Rice and Scott Winter | Fast Company | Tweeted by Brent Skorup

While airplane automation has come under investigation in recent weeks and months, more automation could make flying more efficient and affordable.

We’ve Been Singing a Feminist Anthem for Decades and Didn’t Even Know It

Henry Olsen | The Washington Post | Shared by Donald Boudreaux

While only the chorus is sung at Major League Baseball games, the first and second verses of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” show the song’s feminist nature.

Fast-Tracked Aircraft Certification, Pushed by Boeing, Comes Under the Spotlight

Ted Mann and Siobhan Hughes | The Wall Street Journal | Retweeted by Veronique de Rugy

After two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 Max airplanes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, Congress is scrutinizing a process that delegates some safety-certification functions to manufacturers.

People Don’t Bribe College Officials to Help Their Kids. They Do It to Help Themselves.

Amanda Hess | The New York Times Magazine | Retweeted by Tyler Cowen

After the college admission bribery scandal, many people took to social media to attack the kids. However, it could be possible that the parents did it for their own gratification.

Canada Is Becoming a Tech Hub. Thanks, Donald Trump!

Rani Molla | Recode | Retweeted by Christine McDaniel

Because America’s H1-B process is so lengthy, many foreign tech workers are instead immigrating to Canada. This could cause a major loss to the US economy.

NJ Town Is Turning a Former Glass Factory into a Waterfront Park

Gianluca D’Elia | NJ.com | Retweeted by Emily Hamilton

Green infrastructure projects like the Lion Gate Municipal Complex can increase property values, provide recreation for residents, and restore wetlands that will reduce flood impacts.

Why Housing Policy Is Climate Policy

Scott Wiener and Daniel Kammen | The New York Times | Retweeted by Salim Furth

Because low-income and working-class people are priced out of California’s cities, transportation is stagnating the state’s progress on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.