Deutsche Welle: Yemen conflict all but ignored by the West

When the UN children's rights organization UNICEF recently released a report stating that at least one child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen, the expectation was that the news would be picked up by international news outlets. But barring a few exceptions, including Al Jazeera and DW, the news was not carried by much of the global media prominently, and some not at all.

In its report, the humanitarian organization estimated that more than 400,000 Yemeni children are at risk of starvation, and a further 2.2 million are in need of urgent care. How could it be that statistics this alarming, the result of a war involving regional superpowers with the backing of the US and UK, does not make headline news? [...]

It's not that the conflict isn't covered, but when it is, news outlets tend to focus on the 'Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia versus the Shia Iran proxy war' narrative which overlooks the country's deepening humanitarian crisis. [...]

"There isn't a direct or immediate threat coming to western countries from Yemen," Baraa Shiban, a London-based Yemeni human rights activist, tells DW. "There are no 'waves' of Yemeni refugees crossing the Mediterranean because it's too far and if there are refugees they remain few in numbers. This is also related to the threat western countries feel they are facing. Dealing with the 'Islamic State' (IS) tops the list for western politicians. IS has claimed attacks inside Europe and such attacks could happen again. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been busy hitting inside Yemen - recently killing soldiers in Aden - but it's limited in its ability to hit in Europe or the US."

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Wendover Productions: How to Make First Contact

The Conversation: What’s the point of sex? It’s good for your physical, social and mental health

Were sex only important for procreation, it would more than do its job from an evolutionary perspective. However, evidence suggests that at a physical and social level, sex is about much more than making babies.

Most nonhuman animals have no interest in sex outside of a reproductive context. But women have sex throughout their menstrual cycle despite being fertile for only a few days each month, and go on having sex long after menopause renders them infertile. And of course, couples who are of the same sex, using contraception or infertile are no less keen for congress than any pregnancy-focused counterparts.

Ultimately, no one knows for sure what the point of all this sex is, but its other biological effects may provide clues. [...]

In humans, those couples who have sex less frequently are at greater risk of relationship dissolution than are friskier couples.

But oxytocin is not just good for pair bonding. It is released from the brain into the blood stream in many social situations, including breastfeeding, singing and most activities that involve being “together” pleasurably. It appears oxytocin plays a role in a lot of group oriented and socially harmonious activities, and is implicated in altruism.

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Atlas Obscura: It's Not Hiking: The Patient Practice of Long Distance Walking

Walking became an American fad in 1963, thanks to President John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy often talked about the importance of physical fitness, pointing out that during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency marine officers were required to be able to walk 50 miles in 20 hours. Then-attorney general Robert F. Kennedy decided to back his brother up and in February 1963 he walked a 50 mile route that ended in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. A walking craze overtook the nation. According to an April 1963 New York Times article, teenagers, marines, Boy Scouts, government workers and “Sunday drivers” took to roads and walkways in droves, while department stores scrambled to meet the demand for pedometers. Interest in the 50-mile Kennedy March, as it came to be known, ignited globally, and today you can still attend an annual version in Sittard in the Netherlands. But the craze is mostly forgotten in the U.S. today. [...]

While long distance walking is a novelty for many Americans, it has long been popular in Europe—miles of established paths criss-cross the continent, and in England they are often clearly marked and cared for. If a path unravels across a farm, the farmer is the caretaker of that expanse. Many enthusiasts belong to the Long Distance Walkers Association, based out of England. Founded in 1972, the LDWA is a clearinghouse for information, organizes long distance walks, publishes a journal called “Strider”, and holds an annual meeting. It has around 8,000 members. The LDWA site cautions that “what constitutes an LDP [long distance path] is a matter of opinion and views vary widely” but most of the routes they catalog are 20 miles or longer. [...]

But long distance walking isn’t quite the same as hiking. For one thing, many long distance walkers simply go for one long walk that lasts a day—20 or more miles is common. Walks organized by the LDWA average around 26 miles. Once a year they host a 100-mile walk split up over two days. And long distance walkers aren’t necessarily campers. Even when they do go on adventurous multi-day excursions, they’re just as likely to post up at a bed and breakfast where they can take a shower and have a beer. There are even businesses that will carry your gear for you. And long distance walking doesn’t have to be rural; some tramp through urban centers or parks. Long distance walkers go solo, but they also go in groups. There are no “hard and fast” rules, says Elrick 

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CityLab: A Comprehensive Map of American Lynchings

Lynchings formed the bloody backdrop of Southern life for a century after the Civil War. Between the 1860s and 1960s, thousands of black Americans were killed in public acts of racial terror. Millions more fled to cities in the North and West in an effort to escape this environment. Many soon discovered that, in many ways, the rest of American society was no less racist.

How many lynchings occurred during the Jim Crow era? Where? These are difficult questions to pinpoint. A November 2015 report by the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative found that nearly 4,000 black people were killed in lynchings in a dozen Southern states between 1877 and 1950—a higher number than any previous estimates. But lynchings were not strictly limited to the South. And, although black Americans were victimized in far greater numbers than any group, other minorities were also targets.

A new map project called Monroe Work Today—named after the pioneering black sociologist who gathered much of the data—aims to be the most comprehensive catalogue of proven lynchings that took place in the United States from 1835 to 1964. Not only does it reach back further in time than most studies or maps, it also spans all regions of the U.S. The mapmakers at Auut Studio developed the map as an interactive high-school lesson plan, spending four years synthesizing modern academic research with historical lynching records. Their interactive project lists 4,000 victims of lynchings nationwide, as well as nearly 600 additional victims of “racialized mob violence.”

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