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☆ Carbon Dioxide Levels Have Passed a New Milestone
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-20 | by ( Aatish Bhatia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

Global carbon dioxide levels as of … Play animation Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Monitoring Laboratory The chart shows monthly numbers of carbon dioxide molecules per million molecules of dry air. Carbon Dioxide Levels Have Passed a New MilestoneCarbon dioxide acts like Earth’s thermostat: The more of it in the air, the more the planet warms. More carbon dioxide, warmer temperatures Source: NOAA (carbon dioxide); NASA (temperature) The chart shows the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951–1980, versus global carbon dioxide levels. Currently, carbon dioxide levels are rising at near-record rates. Annual change in carbon dioxide levels Source: NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory The chart shows the increase in global carbon dioxide levels over the course of each year.

Persons: Glen Peters, Doug McNeall, Xin Lan, ”, El Niño, El, Mr, McNeall, “ Organizations: NOAA, NASA, National Oceanic, Global, Budget, CICERO Center, International Climate Research, Britain’s Met

☆ Force of Ship Collision Was on the Scale of a Rocket Launch
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Aatish Bhatia | Francesca Paris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +9 min

Erin Schaff/The New York TimesForce of Ship Collision Was on the Scale of a Rocket LaunchThe container ship Dali appeared to move sluggishly before striking the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on Tuesday. Experts disagreed on whether it was reasonable for any bridge pier to withstand a direct collision with a massive container ship. F = ma force mass acceleration F = ma force mass accelerationOur first task, and a major source of uncertainty, was finding those numbers. F= (100,000 to 195,000 metric tons) × (7.8 mph - 2.5 mph) / 38 seconds mass acceleration F= (100,000 to 195,000 metric tons) × (7.8 mph - 2.5 mph) / 38 seconds mass acceleration For the actual calculation, we used metric units. We tried one more method: using a formula to calculate the ship collision force published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the industry organization that publishes bridge safety standards.

Persons: Erin Schaff, Dali, Francis Scott Key, “, ”, Ben Schafer, Nii, Sherif El, Themistoklis Sapsis, Tawil Organizations: The New York Times Force, Empire, Saturn, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, M.I.T, American Association of State, Transportation, U.S . Army Corps, Engineers, Reuters, Sunshine Skyway Locations: Baltimore, Dali, Tampa Bay, Florida

☆ We Tried to Create a Diverse College Class Without Affirmative Action
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Aatish Bhatia | Emily Badger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +22 min

If selective colleges admitted students by score alone — using, say, a 1300 cutoff — the pool would not be very diverse, by race or class. If selective colleges admitted students by score alone — using, say, a 1300 cutoff — the pool would not be very diverse, by race or class. To create a more diverse class, colleges could … But admissions preferences based on race are no longer legal. We Tried to Create a Diverse College Class Without Affirmative Action Now you can try it, too. In our affirmative action model, just 6 percent of admitted students come from the bottom quartile of the income distribution.

Persons: …, Sean Reardon, Demetra, NaN %, NaN, It’s, “, ”, Richard Kahlenberg, we’re, didn’t, “ We’re, Zack Mabel, we’ve, —, it’s, Richard Sander, Jill Orcutt, Johns Hopkins, they’ll Organizations: Stanford, Penn, Here’s, Colleges, Progressive Policy Institute, White Asian, American Association of Collegiate, University of California Locations: America, Here’s, Alaska, Georgetown, U.C . Merced

‘A Beautiful Place That Has a Dragon’: Where Hurricane Risk Meets Booming GrowthThe hurricanes keep coming, and the people, too: The fastest-growing places along the Atlantic coast this century are also among the most hurricane-prone. And rising sea levels make storm surges more damaging and coastal flooding more frequent. And this booming coastal population is, by many accounts, a larger contributor to rising hurricane risks than climate change. When Gail Hart moved from Arizona to retire in Wilmington, N.C., in 2017, she hadn’t considered the hurricane risk. Still said, “where do you put 100,000 people?”The housing crunch is one of many tensions playing out between wealthy coastal communities and those who live nearby.

Persons: Matthew, Dorian, Isaias, Ian, “, ”, Kathie Dello, Gail Hart, hadn’t, ” Gail Hart, Del Webb, Hurricane Florence, Hart, “ There’s, Steven Still, Amanda Martin, North, Mr, Still, Jenny Brennan, David McIntire, McIntire, O’Leary, Ms, Water, O’Leary’s, Kevin Mishoe, Mishoe, Gina, Karen Willis Amspacher, Amspacher, “ It’s, It’s, she’s, Sharon Valentine, Hurricane Fran, Wilmington’s Del, Valentine, Leonard Bull Organizations: Hurricanes, Hurricane, First Street Foundation, Atlantic, National Flood Insurance, Southern Environmental Law Center, States, Brunswick, Myrtle, Association, Hurricane Florence, Down Locations: United States, Myrtle Beach, S.C, Wilmington, N.C, Carolinas, Florence, Carolina, Gulf, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina’s, Kure Beach, Horry County, Brunswick County, Arizona, Tula, New Hanover County, U.S, It’s, North Carolina, Conway, Horry, Hurricane, Hurricane Florence, Bucksport, Carteret County, —, Banks, Stacy, Harkers, Fayetteville, Wilmington’s, Wilmington’s Del Webb

☆ Explore How Income Influences Attendance at 139 Top Colleges
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Aatish Bhatia | Claire Cain Miller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

Explore How Income Influences Attendance at 139 Top CollegesAt many selective private colleges, being very rich is a door to entry — students with parents earning in the top 1 percent attend at much higher rates than other similarly qualified students, new data shows. The data is available for 139 colleges, including the top private colleges according to Barron’s and many of the top public and private colleges in U.S. News & World Report. The researchers also had access to internal admissions data for several of the most elite private colleges. In much of the next tier of elite private colleges, rich students have a similar advantage. Even though college attendance rises with parental income, when it comes to educating the majority of America’s four-year college students, public universities play a vital role — regardless of how much their parents make.

Persons: Raj Chetty, Deming, Friedman, Professor Chetty, John N . Friedman of Brown, David J . Deming, ”, Jesse Rothstein, Chetty, They’re Organizations: U.S . News, Harvard, Dartmouth, Chetty, Ivy League, University of California, Stony Brook University, Carnegie Mellon Locations: U.S, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Berkeley, Los Angeles, California, Swarthmore, Wellesley

It has been well established that legacies have an advantage in elite college admissions. But the new data was the first to quantify it by analyzing internal admissions records. They used more recent data, including the income tax records of graduates of the dozen top colleges in the study, to analyze their post-college outcomes. They estimated that legacy students were no more likely than other graduates to make it into the top 1 percent of earners, attend an elite graduate school or work at a prestigious firm. “This isn’t about unqualified students getting in,” said Michael Hurwitz, who leads policy research at the College Board and has done research on legacy admissions that found similar patterns.

Persons: Friedman, Raj Chetty, David J . Deming, Harvard —, ”, Michael Hurwitz, Biden Organizations: Harvard, College Board, Civil Rights, Education Department

The study — by Opportunity Insights, a group of economists based at Harvard who study inequality — quantifies for the first time the extent to which being very rich is its own qualification in selective college admissions. The result is the clearest picture yet of how America’s elite colleges perpetuate the intergenerational transfer of wealth and opportunity. Less than 1 percent of American college students attend the 12 elite colleges. For the several elite colleges that also shared internal admissions data, they could see other aspects of students’ applications between 2001 and 2015, including how admissions offices rated them. Share of admitted students who were recruited athletes at selected elite colleges Recruited athletes at elite colleges were much more likely to come from the highest-earning households.

Persons: ”, Susan Dynarski, Raj Chetty, John N . Friedman of Brown, David J . Deming, Christopher L, “, Neil Gorsuch, didn’t, Ivy, Dynarski, Pell, You’re, Michael Bastedo, Bastedo, John Morganelli, don’t, It’s, you’re, Jana Barnello, Stuart Schmill, “ It’s Organizations: Elite College, Ivy League, Opportunity, Harvard, Stanford, Duke, University of Chicago, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Princeton, Notre Dame, Public, University of Texas, University of Virginia, Fortune, University of Michigan, New York Times, Dartmouth, University of Michigan’s School of Education, Cornell, College Board, Brown, University of California Locations: M.I.T, America, Northwestern, N.Y.U, Austin, United States, California, U.C.L.A

daily record (2003) 35: E.P.A.’s safe daily levels 377: Wednesday in New York City Source: New York City Community Air Survey and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Data shows hourly concentrations of PM2.5 particles, measured in micrograms per cubic meter, for seven N.Y.C. The air in New York City on Wednesday wasn’t just bad by the city’s standards. It was historically bad, even compared with places around the world that generally experience much more air pollution. Wednesday’s daily average was the highest since recording in New York began in 1999. Wednesday’s pollution, of course, was not caused by a power plant or vehicles, but by major wildfires in Canada, mostly in Quebec.

Persons: San Francisco —, Eric James, James Organizations: New York City, New York City Community Air Survey, New York State Department of Environmental, Records, Protection Agency, state’s Department of Environmental, Environmental Protection Agency, University of Colorado, National Oceanic, Atmospheric Administration, Administration Locations: New York, Portland ,, San Francisco, New York City, Canada, Northern California, Quebec, North America

☆ Watch an A.I. Learn to Write by Reading Nothing but Jane Austen
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Aatish Bhatia | Aatish Bhatia Spent Weeks Reading Dozens Of A.I. Research Articles | Training Tiny Language Models On His Computer. Before Coming To The Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

This is how language models usually start off: They guess randomly and produce gibberish. Over many, many rounds of training, language models can learn to write. As language models grow larger, the patterns that they learn can become increasingly complex. More is differentOther than the additional fine-tuning stages, the primary difference between nanoGPT and the language model underlying chatGPT is size. Large language models can become highly unpredictable, as evidenced by Microsoft Bing A.I.’s early interactions with my colleague Kevin Roose.

☆ Watch How Arctic Air Blanketed the U.S. Last Week
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Aatish Bhatia | Margot Sanger-Katz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Air temperature ⭠ Warmer air Colder air ⭢ Freezing +80°F +60°F +40°F +20°F 0 -20°F Source: NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction Note: The map depicts air temperatures two meters above ground. It shows a detailed simulation of air temperatures that was created by blending high-resolution weather forecast models with recent observations from satellites and over 30,000 weather stations. The polar vortex spins in a counter-clockwise direction, creating the path of cold air that traveled south, then east, and finally north again. It became “pretty breezy” as the freezing air shifted east, said Caleb Grunzke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in Chanhassen, Minn. As the cold air traveled down the central part of the country, its path was deflected by the Rocky Mountains.

But the Inflation Reduction Act, which represents about a third of the spending, was passed by Democrats alone. The White House is still pushing a more expansive child tax credit that was not included in the Inflation Reduction Act. Here’s a detailed look at what Mr. Biden wanted and what he got:Climate and Environment Proposed $722 billion Passed $509 billionOn climate, the Biden administration got much of what it wanted. Health Care Proposed $563 billion Passed $412 billionOn health care, there were some victories for the president — and much trimming. The family programs were eliminated largely because of concerns from Mr. Manchin about the overall size of what became the Inflation Reduction Act.

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