Why wombat poop is so weird (CNN)
by Amy Woodyatt
Wombats are unique in the animal world for the shape of their poop. Now, scientists have figured out how they managed to defecate little cubes.
The intellectual endeavor of Black archiving (Black Perspectives)
by Robert Greene II
In the early twentieth century, white archivists using Dewey Decimal Classification had just two places for most Black work: slavery or “the Negro question.” Dorothy B. Porter changed that, and demonstrated the intellectual and creative possibilities of cataloging.
Our planet’s hellish past (The Atlantic)
by Peter Brannen
Since the start of recorded history, climate change has turned jungles to deserts, starved cities, and brought down empires—all with variations of less than 1 degree Celsius. To see what greater variation might bring, we have to look at the past on an entirely different scale.
There’s nothing funny about remote classes (The Conversation)
by Scott Henderson
For many teachers, humor is part of the craft of helping students to learn. But, for a number of reasons, remote learning make jokes much harder to pull off.
The trouble with bad language online (Wired)
by Tom Simonite
Armed with lists of troubling terms, AI can help us avoid offensive, potentially harmful content online. But letting software make judgement calls about context, or varying uses of terms in marginalized communities can lead to unintended consequences.
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