Renewable Energy Gets Iran War Boost: Research

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Renewable Energy Gets Iran War Boost: Research (Maria)

The author writes, “Early signs are emerging that the energy shock could aid the global spread of renewable power and other climate-friendly tech. The throttling of oil and gas transit — and higher prices — has short- and long-term consequences for fuel use. Early data disputes the conventional wisdom that coal is a winner, per the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a research group. … Solar and wind power were up as renewables offset more of the decline in gas-fired power than coal, the group reports.”

Psychological Research Finds Trump Supporters Are Not Doing Well (Dana)

From Futurism: “A tranche of psychological studies found something startling about Donald Trump’s most loyal soldiers: they each turn to a grim coping mechanism to make sense of the real estate mogul’s laundry list of lies and documented sexual abuse. Three separate research papers, published together in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology, each pointing to the same conclusion. … While each study is highly complex in their own right, together they reinforce the finding that denial of factual information — Trump’s seedy misdeeds, basically — is a direct response to anxiety caused by cognitive dissonance.”

Texas Residents Push Back Against Any ICE Detention Facility in their Community (Sean)

From The Texas Tribune: “In an effort to thwart the possibility of an immigrant detention center opening up in the city, Rio Grande Valley residents confronted the McAllen city commissioners on Monday, demanding their opposition and transparency on the issue. ‘I want to continue being proud of all that my city does for our community, but for that, we need transparency and we need communication,’ Alexis Saenz, a McAllen resident, told the commissioners. ‘I demand you reject public funding, approvals and local resources for ICE.’”

Trump Promised To Cut Electric Costs in Half. In Energy-Rich West Virginia, Bills Now Top Mortgages (Reader Steve)

From the Los Angeles Times: “President Trump, as part of his campaign pitch to ‘make America affordable again,’ promised to cut Americans’ electricity bills by half during his first year to 18 months in the White House. … It hasn’t worked out. Instead, electricity increased 4.8% in February nationwide and piped natural gas prices rose 10.9%, both compared with a year earlier, according to the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index. That surpassed inflation even before the attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel sent energy costs ballooning.”

‘When There Was Wonder in the World’: Why Raiders of the Lost Ark Is My Feelgood Movie (Al)

The author writes, “The ancient Greek philosopher Lucretius writes in his epic poem ‘On the Nature of Things’: ‘It is comforting, when winds are whipping up the waters of the vast sea, to watch from land the severe trials of another person … it is comforting to see from what troubles you yourself are exempt.’ This feeling of living dangerously by proxy is exactly why I find it so relaxing to watch Indiana Jones in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark go through an endless stream of trials and tribulations: trekking through the hot, sticky jungle. Avoiding venomous spiders and snakes. Being betrayed by not one, but two of his colleagues. Jumping over bottomless chasms and outrunning giant boulders, only to be thwarted by his arch-rival and chased by a tribe of bow-and-arrow-toting Amazonians. And that’s just the first 15 minutes of the film.”

How Far Back in Time Can You Understand English? (Laura)

From the Dead Language Society: “An experiment in language change.”