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How Important Is The Suez Canal?

Like a steel beached whale, a container ship was wedged between the banks of the Suez Canal last week. The Ever Given, a 224,000-ton vessel, was bound for Rotterdam, Netherlands. After encountering strong winds and a sandstorm on March 23, it drifted horizontally until it got stuck. The ship was finally refloated yesterday, thanks to human effort and a huge help from nature. Meanwhile, more than 367 ships were stuck at both ends of the canal, as global trade came to a halt. Let's look at the history and importance of the Suez Canal, and how the ship was dislodged. A Brief History The Suez...

A Feud With California

Beautiful coastlines, redwood forests, Hollywood, Silicon Valley... California is a much sought out destination. The state also has a reputation for leading the country in climate policies. But, California has recently come under fire by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), or more specifically, President Donald Trump. Let’s look at the role California has played in shaping environmental policies for other U.S states, and the current feud between the EPA and California. A Leader On Environment In 1966, after a particularly bad smog in the Los Angeles area, California started regulating...

Palu Quake: Why Did The Soil Flow?

On September 28, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake occurred on the Palu-Koro fault located on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Shortly after, a tsunami struck the city of Palu, located about 50 miles away (see article here on how tsunamis form). These two events destroyed large parts of Palu as well as neighboring cities and tragically killed over 1500 people. Let’s take a look at the science behind what happened. For a background on what causes earthquakes, click here . When Soil Turns Liquid... Palu and its neighboring cities are situated in a flat valley where the soil is loose and sandy and...

Jacindamania: New Zealand's New Prime Minister

Look into the future and imagine you are thirty-seven years old. What are you doing? Working at your dream job? Making history? Leading a country? That’s exactly what the newly elected Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, is doing right now. Ms. Ardern became the youngest Prime Minister New Zealand has had in over 150 years, sweeping the nation with what some are calling “Jacindamania.” New Zealand’s Elections To win a New Zealand election, a political party must win at least 61 seats in the New Zealand Parliament. The two main parties currently represented in Parliament are the...

Saudi Women Get The Right To Drive

Imagine a busy highway intersection, packed with cars and trucks. Now, imagine looking into the window of every single one of those cars to find only one type of person in the driver’s seat: men. This was the reality in Saudi Arabia up until just a few days ago. Saudi women were forbidden to drive, and instead had to ask male relatives or hire drivers to take them everywhere. Some women spent up to a third of their salaries hiring drivers. This newest change in Saudi Arabian law, which will take effect in June 2018, represents the end of a policy that has been a symbol of Saudi Arabia’s ultra...

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