Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Paved Way For GPS, Dies At 95

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Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Paved Way For GPS, Dies At 95 (Maria)

The author writes, “She navigated segregation to become an esteemed mathematician — and today, her work helps billions of people navigate the world. Gladys West, whose pioneering career contributed key elements to what became the GPS satellite system and was later acknowledged as a ‘hidden figure’ of GPS, died Saturday at age 95.”

Want to Stop ICE? Go After Its Corporate Collaborators (Dana)

From The Nation: “There are many well-known ICE-fighting tactics that we can and should use, like protests, know-your-rights trainings, and neighborhood watches. But two recent victories show a promising, relatively underutilized path forward — one that deserves to be pursued further: We can target businesses that work with ICE. ICE relies heavily on the private sector to help carry out its Gestapo-like crusade against immigrants and their allies. Without the logistical, financial, and political support of business, its capacity to terrorize our communities would crumble.”

Iran’s Internet Blackout Reverberates in Washington (Reader Steve)

From The Seattle Times: “‘When the government takes out the entire internet and blacks out the entire country, it is a horrifically scary time,” state Rep. Darya Farivar said. For Iranian American communities in Washington state, internet shutdowns in Iran often spark the most frightening moments of unrest. To Farivar, that fear is not abstract. It arrives in broken communication, in hours spent refreshing a phone screen, in the understanding that when information vanishes, violence often follows. As unrest intensifies in Iran, people across Washington state say the crisis weighs deeply on daily life, through desperate calls to family overseas, mounting anxiety, and the strain of watching chaos unfold from thousands of miles away. In living rooms and spaces across the state, people with ties to Iran describe a familiar vigil: tracking headlines, scrolling Persian-language social media posts, and waiting for any sign that loved ones are safe. When communication goes dark, they say, it signals the worst.”

I’m a White House Reporter. Here’s the Side of the Trump Administration You Don’t See on TV (Russ)

The author writes, “When Donald Trump took the oath of office one year ago, I was watching on a laptop screen in the White House briefing room while bracing myself from the absurdly cold air that flooded the small space every time someone opened the door. As he delivered not one but two separate stemwinding addresses in the Capitol — first the traditional post-inaugural speech in the Capitol rotunda, then a second, far more partisan and unscripted rant to supporters who’d been seated in an overflow area — I looked up to see a colleague from another news outlet who, like me, had been on the White House beat since the start of Trump’s tumultuous first term nearly a decade earlier. As the president rambled on … she rolled her eyes and turned to me with a knowing smile. ‘Here we go again,’ she said. Those of us who covered Trump’s first administration thought we knew what to expect. Boy, were we wrong.”

Poor Communities Threatened by Aging Sewers See Crucial Aid Slashed Under Trump (Laura)

The authors write, “Cahokia Heights, [Illinois], a mostly Black city where about one-third live in poverty, is among scores of communities nationwide with aging and decrepit wastewater systems that can put people and their homes at risk. Exposure to untreated sewage, which can enter homes by backing up through plumbing or via floods after rainwater overwhelms sewer systems, can cause illness. Such problems are often in rural areas or declining cities without the money or expertise to fix problems on their own. Now, hundreds of millions in grants and loans promised by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and former President Joe Biden’s administration to address racial and economic disparities have been canceled or targeted for elimination under President Donald Trump.”

Act Now — 48 Million Gmail Usernames And Passwords Leaked Online (Sean)

From Forbes: “A highly respected veteran security researcher has confirmed that a database of 149 million compromised credentials, including those for an estimated 48 million Gmail accounts, has been leaked online. “The publicly exposed database was not password-protected or encrypted,” Jeremiah Fowler said, adding that the database of unique logins and passwords totalled ‘a massive 96 GB of raw credential data.’ Here’s what we know so far, and what action you need to take.”

This Strange Form of Water May Power Giant Planets’ Magnetic Fields (Mili)

The author writes, “At extreme pressures and temperatures, water becomes superionic — a solid that behaves partly like a liquid and conducts electricity. This unusual form is believed to shape the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune and may be the most common type of water in the solar system. New high-precision experiments show its atomic structure is far messier than expected, combining multiple crystal patterns instead of one clean arrangement. The finding reshapes models of icy planets both near and far.”