HALLOWEEN

IT'S TIME AGAIN TO TAKE A CENSUS OF THE U.S. POPULATION.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU'RE COUNTED!

2020 Census: Everyone Counts

It’s that time again. Census time! Once every ten years the federal government counts every single person living in the U.S. of A. in order to effectively allocate representation and resources across the country. It’s an ambitious endeavor, for sure, but one designed to benefit everyone by making sure each community can adequately fund crucial public goods and services, like roads, hospitals, and schools. It determines how many seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives. Also, congressional and state legislative boundaries are drawn and redrawn based on the data collected. Political representation at the state and federal level hinges on census participation. That’s a big deal!

The census count kicked off in March, with its biggest push for people to respond on their own in April, a.k.a. tax month. Although people in the U.S. pay federal income taxes every year, only once every decade do we have the power to influence how those dollars come back to us

The census is a nine-part questionnaire that takes just 10 minutes to complete. To combat all the misinformation flying around about what the census is and how the collected data is used, we’re gonna bust some of the myths and answer a few of the frequently asked questions:

Is there a citizenship question?

No. The courts have permanently blocked asking respondent their citizenship status and the courts have permanently blocked the Trump administration from adding one. Furthermore, federal law prohibits the Census Bureau from sharing individual census information with any person, organization or government body, including law enforcement. Your responses can only be used for statistical purposes (individual records are released only after 72 years!).

What will you be asked?

The questionnaire asks for basic demographic information such as age, race, type of housing, etc. It will not ask for compromising or sensitive information like social security numbers, bank account numbers, or immigration status.

Who should be counted on the Census?

Every person living in the United States, regardless of citizenship status, including kids and babies!

How can I take the Census?

Great news! Completing the census questionnaire is literally the easiest it’s ever been. For the first time ever, you can complete the census online at 2020Census.gov or by phone at 844-330-2020. Also, by April 1st, every home will receive a mailed notice to participate in the 2020 Census.

When is the deadline?

Ideally, Uncle Sam would like to receive your data by April 30th. But as of right now, you can respond on your own all the way until mid-August. If you don’t respond on your own by the end of May, a Census worker may come to your home and ask to record your answers in person. And while it was funny on screen, please do not behave like Christopher Walken in this classic SNL Census sketch.

Is it safe?

Yes. The census is safe, your information is handled with the utmost confidentiality meaning that no one can take your data and use it against you. Your individual data will not be shared with any person, organization or government body, including other federal agencies or any law enforcement or housing authorities. It’s to your benefit to participate.

Sure, filling out a form sounds boring, but it helps to think of it as an opportunity to make your voices heard in a way that really matters. That sounds exciting, no? Plus, you only have to spend 10 minutes doing it once every 10 years.

Make sure to pass this information to your friends and family in order to stop the spread of misinformation. If you have any questions, please check out the United States Census Bureau Fact Sheet.

Please visit 2020census.gov for more information.

the Guardian

Astronomers discover first suspected 'exomoon' 8,000 light years away

Neptune-sized body would be the first known moon outside solar system and the largest moon yet discovered

This could be The First Confirmed Astronomical Discovery of an Extrasolar_Moon more than 20_Years after The First Confirmed Astronomical Discovery of an Extrasolar_Planet was made!

Some Possible Models of The Future Evolution of The Cosmos are presented Here.

This Is Why Dark Energy Must Exist, Despite Recent Reports To The Contrary

“We do not do science in a vacuum, completely ignoring all the other pieces of evidence that our scientific foundation builds upon. We use the information we have and know about the Universe to draw the best, most robust conclusions we have. It is not important that your data meet a certain arbitrary standard on its own, but rather that your data can demonstrate which conclusions are inescapable given our Universe as it actually is.

Our Universe contains matter, is at least close to spatially flat, and has supernovae that allow us to determine how it’s expanding. When we put that picture together, a dark energy-dominated Universe is inescapable. Just remember to look at the whole picture, or you might miss out on how amazing it truly is.”

20 years ago, the supernova data came back with an extraordinary surprise: it looked like the Universe wasn’t just expanding, but that the expansion rate was increasing as we head further into the future. While there were many dark energy skeptics to start, the increased flow of improved data from many lines of evidence that all kept pointing to the same conclusion has led to a cosmological consensus: dark energy dominates the Universe today. Last week, a story made waves, as Subir Sarkar and collaborators published their second paper (the first was in 2016) claiming that the evidence from supernovae is not good enough to support the existence of dark energy, and our cosmological foundation for it is extraordinarily shaky.

This is not true. This is demonstrably untrue. And the claim shows a deliberate unwillingness to pay attention to the rest of the field. Find out why dark energy must exist, despite recent reports to the contrary.

Climate Changes can possibly harm Human Health.

Climate Change Harms Human Health

Climate change is already making people sicker, according to a deep-dive written by Renee Cho for Columbia University's Earth Institute.

Excerpt:

Climate change is already making people sicker, according to a deep-dive written by Renee Cho for Columbia University’s Earth Institute on Monday.

Cho pointed to the example of doctors in Florida who are noticing that their patients run through prescriptions faster as conditions like asthma worsen due to heat waves.

Indeed, Florida doctors have observed enough instances of climate-related health issues that they’ve banded together to form Florida Clinicians for Climate Action, The Miami Herald reported in February.

“Being in Florida especially, you can’t not realize what’s happening to our climate. I see it right now on a day-to-day basis,” Dr. Cheryl Holder, president of the Florida State Medical Association, told The Herald.

Florida doctors have also noticed that heat waves coincide with more hospital visits due to heart failure, Florida Institute for Health Innovation head Roderick King told The Herald. He hopes to fund a study investigating the link.

In the Earth Institute article, Cho also mentioned the spread of diseases like Lyme disease, which have sickened people in Pennsylvania for the first time.

Cho’s analysis comes a week after an article published in Undark examining the spread of Lyme disease into Canada, where there were more than six times the number of Lyme disease cases reported in 2016 compared to 2009.

It's not quite Warp Drive, but Researchers are hot on the trail of building Nuclear Fusion Impulse Engines, to complete with Real-Life Dilithium Crystals.

Here are two Extrasolar_Planets in The Habitable_Zone of The Particular K_Type Star they orbit where it's possible that There could be Liquid_Water on The Surface of each one of Them.  If there are indeed Oceans of Liquid_Water on Their Surfaces.  Then these recently discovered Exoplanets could be Good SETI Search Targets! 

There could be other universes out there in The Cosmos. 

"The Science of Star Wars: An Astrophysicist's Independent Examination of Space Travel, Aliens, Planets, and Robots as Portrayed in the Star Wars Films and Books" by Jeanne Cavelos

Laser Technology in Particle Accelerators!

https://phys.org/news/2018-06-laser-technology-success-particle.html

The Evolution and The Origin of Life on Earth.

Phanerozoic Eon Goddesses Moodboards (1/3)

Paleozoic Era: Goddesses of Early Life