Latest news with #UniversityofColoradoatBoulder
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Please shut up — if you're trying to make money in the stock market
Can you all just shut up? That's not just a matter of preference — it turns out, the more people are chattering on social media, the worse future stock-market returns will be. 'The situation is extreme': I'm 65 and leaving my estate to only one grandchild. Can the others contest my will? 'You never know what might happen': How do I make sure my son-in-law doesn't get his hands on my daughter's inheritance? Trade court strikes down Trump tariffs: What it means for markets — and what's next My father-in-law has dementia and is moving in with us. Can we invoice him for a caregiver? My ex-wife said she should have been compensated for working part time during our marriage. Do I owe her? A new research paper titled 'Market Signals from Social Media' studied millions of posts on StockTwits, Seeking Alpha and the social-media platform that used to be called Twitter and is now called X. The researchers examined the sentiment of those posts as well as their frequency. It found stock-market returns rise prior to high-sentiment days, followed by a reversal over the next 20 days, but returns decline prior to high-frequency days, followed by a continuation of negative returns. This is true so much so that a trading strategy built around the findings would've produced excess returns averaging 4.6% with a Sharpe ratio — a measure of risk-adjusted returns — of 1.2, which would be a solid performance by Wall Street standards. The research paper points out sentiment is driven by lagged returns, while attention, or frequency of posts, is predicted by lagged trading. Put a different way, sentiment is driven by past performance, while attention is driven by past volume. And it's especially bad news rather than good that hits sentiment and increases attention. That meshes with theories of loss aversion. The researchers — J. Anthony Cookson from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Runjing Lu from the University of Toronto, William Mullins from the University of California San Diego and Marina Niessner from Indiana University — looked at posts between 2013 and 2021. That's a period that covered the 2013 to 2015 stock-market bull run, the 2018–19 trade war with China, and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Intriguingly, they also compared their results to looking at Google and Bloomberg searches for tickers, as well as daily news stories from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and found the social-media data was more predictive. Read on: My husband and I earn $115K and owe $220K on our home. We're inheriting $300K. Should we invest in real estate or stock? Nvidia results are proof the tech sector is worth investor loyalty, says strategist who recommended buying at April lows My friend is getting divorced. Her husband kindly said, 'Take the house.' Is there a catch? It's my dream to travel to Africa. My husband says it's not on his bucket list. Do I pay for him or go alone? The best scenario for 2025 is stocks go nowhere, says this strategist. Here's where he says to camp out instead.
BBC News
26-04-2025
- Science
- BBC News
New study says Mars could have been a warm, wet planet
New research suggests Mars - which we know as a very cold, dry, rocky planet - may once have actually been warmer and study carried out by scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said that rain and snow may have fallen on the Red Planet billions of years ago, massively shaping the surface of the planet we see today. There is evidence of the existence of water on the planet, which suggests there could have once been life on Mars - as living things need water to survive. The team made computer simulations, from satellite images and rover cameras, to try and guess how the planet developed its craggy terrain we see today. Amongst the areas they looked at was a part of the planet close to the equator. The equator is an imaginary line around the widest part of the planet, half-way between the north and south poles. They used mathematically-powered computer programmes to digitally model what that area would look like if rain and snow fell on it over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. It was then possible to see how the surface of the planet could have changed, taking into account the rain freezing and melting over the years. The researchers concluded that the patterns of dry valleys, riverbeds and lakebeds on Mars today could have been shaped by water, most likely from snow or rain, as they are on Earth."You could pull up Google Earth images of places like Utah, zoom out, and you would see similarities to Mars," Amanda Steckel, planetary geologist and one of the authors of the study said. However, the team noted their research alone was not enough to suggest this was definitely how the planet came to look how it does today, but it was enough to provide new insights into its history.
Express Tribune
23-04-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
Mars may have once had rain and rivers, new study suggests
Listen to article Mars may have experienced rainfall and river flow billions of years ago, reshaping the Red Planet's surface and supporting a once wetter and warmer climate, according to a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder used computer simulations to compare two competing theories about ancient Mars: one positing a cold, icy world with brief thawing periods, and the other a planet where rain and snow fed widespread erosion. Their models suggest that valley networks on Mars, particularly in equatorial regions, align more closely with patterns expected from precipitation rather than ice melt. 'You could pull up Google Earth images of places like Utah, zoom out, and you would see similarities to Mars,' said lead author Amanda Steckel. 'We see valleys beginning at a large range of elevations. It's hard to explain that with just ice.' Satellite data shows dense branching channels near the Martian equator, which may have drained into ancient lakes or even an ocean. NASA's Perseverance rover is currently exploring one such site in Jezero Crater. In the simulations, rainfall scenarios produced valley headwaters at both low and high altitudes, while ice melt was largely confined to higher elevations. This discrepancy led researchers to conclude that rainfall better matches the actual Martian terrain. 'We let the virtual water flow for tens of thousands of years,' said study co-author Brian Hynek. 'The resulting terrain looked a lot like what we see on Mars.' The findings add weight to the hypothesis that early Mars had a climate capable of sustaining flowing surface water. While not conclusive, the study offers new insight into the planet's geological evolution. 'Once the erosion from flowing water stopped, Mars almost got frozen in time and probably still looks a lot like Earth did 3.5 billion years ago,' Dr Hynek said.
The Independent
23-04-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Groundbreaking study finds Mars may once have had rain and snow
Mars may once have had a relatively warm and wet climate conducive to flowing water, rain and snow, producing a terrain much different than the frigid wasteland we know today. A new study published on Monday in the Journal of Geophysical Research depicts a Red Planet where rivers rushed down valleys to feed hundreds of lakes. There is evidence that at least some water existed on the surface of Mars around 4bn years ago. Exactly where this water came from, however, remains a mystery. Some theories suggest that ancient Mars was likely always cold and dry with ice. In the early solar system when the Sun was only about 75 per cent as bright as it is now, the theories state, Mars had sprawling ice caps. The ice caps, which covered the planet all the way to the equator, occasionally melted for short periods of time, producing water. The latest study tested warm-and-wet and cold-and-dry theories about ancient Mars using computer simulations to assess how water might have shaped the surface of the planet billions of years ago. The researchers found that the patterns of valleys and headwaters on Mars today were likely shaped by precipitation from snow or rain. 'You could pull up Google Earth images of places like Utah, zoom out, and you would see similarities to Mars," said Amanda Steckel, an author of the study from the University of Colorado at Boulder. "It's very hard to make any kind of conclusive statement,' she explained. 'But we see these valleys beginning at a large range of elevations. It's hard to explain that with just ice.' Satellite images also reveal what could be fingerprints of water on the planet. For example, vast networks of channels spreading from highlands near the Martian equator branch like trees and may have once emptied into lakes and 'even, possibly, an ocean '. The site of one such potential ancient lake is currently being explored by Nasa 's Perseverance rover. The researchers said a major river likely emptied into this region, depositing a delta on top of the crater floor 4.1bn to 3.7bn years ago in the Noachian epoch. "You'd need meters deep of flowing water to deposit those kinds of boulders," said Brian Hynek, another author of the study. The latest study tested this possibility using a digital version of a portion of the planet. The researchers modelled the evolution of this virtual landscape close to the Martian equator. In some of their simulations, they added water from falling precipitation and melting ice caps to see how the terrain changed. They even let the virtual water flow for tens to hundreds of thousands of years and then assessed the terrain patterns that formed as a result. In these scenarios, the researchers specifically analysed where the headwaters feeding the branching valleys emerged. The different scenarios produced very different planets. When simulating melting ice caps, valley heads formed largely at high elevations, roughly around the edge of where the ancient ice sat. But when modelling rainfall, the Martian headwaters were much more widespread, forming at elevations ranging from below the planet's average surface to over 3,350m high. Whereas ice caps seemed to contribute to valleys only around a narrow band of elevations, widespread rainfall could have 'valley heads forming everywhere', the researchers noted. Comparing their findings to actual data from Mars taken by Nasa spacecrafts, the researchers found that simulations with rainfall lined up more closely with the real Red Planet. They cautioned, however, that while the results weren't the final word on the planet's ancient climate, they could provide new insights into its history. 'Once the erosion from flowing water stopped, Mars almost got frozen in time and probably still looks a lot like Earth did 3.5 billion years ago," Dr Hynek said.
Washington Post
24-03-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
End experiments on dogs
Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of 'Dogs Demystified: An A-to-Z Guide to All Things Canine.' Jane Goodall, an ethologist and conservationist, is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute. Every year, more than 40,000 dogs, mostly beagles, are used in research in the United States. They are often used in painful and deadly tests, and laws to protect them are minimal. We should end this betrayal of man's best friend. It's important to understand what dogs can go through even before they reach a lab. On Jan. 9, a judge in Dane County, Wisconsin, ordered the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of criminal animal cruelty at Ridglan Farms, which sits just outside Madison. Ridglan is one of only two large U.S. 'purpose breeders' of beagles for experimentation. Ridglan has been in business since 1966 and holds about 3,000 beagles in huge, industrial sheds. It also has an atrocious record on animal welfare. Last month, the district attorney of La Crosse County was selected to begin the investigation. As the court's order details, inspections by state and federal regulatory bodies have documented deficient housing, untreated injuries and unsanitary conditions at Ridglan for years. In June, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection conducted a regular inspection there; because it found violations, the department conducted a follow-up inspection in September — and found more. The reports documented dogs limping with untreated foot injuries, lack of positive human contact and socialization, excrement in cages and accumulating on floors, 'stagnant pools of moisture,' and exhaust fans 'coated with organic material, restricting air movement.' Government inspectors have allowed Ridglan to agree to rectify such issues — only to have the company commit them again. Those and other violations were detailed in October at an all-day evidentiary hearing in the case seeking a special prosecutor. (One of us, Marc Bekoff, testified in the proceeding.) What we see, on videos captured by activists who entered Ridglan and rescued three dogs and in the inspection reports, is dogs suffering extreme psychological distress. An attorney for Ridglan did not respond to a request for comment for this op-ed. The company previously told a local TV station that it 'is subject to extensive state and federal regulations that govern its operations and [that it] takes compliance with those regulations seriously.' Ridglan is not an outlier. In 2022, federal agents raided what was at the time another large U.S. dog experimentation breeding facility, Envigo. The feds seized more than 100 dogs in urgent need of care. Envigo later reached an agreement with the Justice Department to close its U.S. facility and adopt out more than 4,000 beagles. In June, Envigo was ordered to pay the largest fine in history for animal welfare violations: $35 million. With this dramatic closure, only Ridglan and a much larger breeder, Marshall Farms in Upstate New York, remain. The latter holds approximately 18,000 dogs. Dogs from such 'purpose bred' facilities can cost more than $1,000. Dogs in the experimentation industry are routinely mutilated. Sometimes their vocal cords are cut so that their barking will not disturb animal experimenters. One of the most egregious revelations to emerge from Ridglan is its practice of 'cherry-eye removal' surgery. Current and former Ridglan employees say these have for years routinely been conducted by non-veterinarians and without supervision. The dogs are restrained while an overgrown gland is crudely cut off the dog's eye, with little — and, often, no — anesthesia, pain relief, bleeding control or after care. Removing this gland leaves dogs with permanently painful dry eyes. What awaits dogs when they arrive at a laboratory is often worse. They are used in all sorts of lab experiments: to test drugs, pesticides and medical devices, for example. Some are specially bred to have diseases or operated on to give them the symptoms of diseases. A common technique for toxicology testing is 'oral gavage,' in which a tube is shoved down dogs' throats and they are forced to ingest substances. Dogs rarely make it out of a lab alive. In the past decade, dogs purchased from Ridglan have been subjected to hour-long strokes, killing several and leaving the rest with severe brain damage; injured to simulate a rotator cuff injury; and sickened with a high-potency sweetener. All of the dogs used in these experiments were killed, either in the experiments themselves or afterward. All of these tests are legal. The Animal Welfare Act, which regulates both labs and breeders such as Ridglan, places no restrictions on experimental design or purpose, no matter how painful or trivial. If researchers claim that their experimental objectives require them to violate standards that the AWA covers, such as providing adequate food, water or exercise, they may lawfully do so. Even these requirements are limited. For example, under the AWA, dog cages need to be only six inches longer and taller than the dog's full body length and height; doubling this space eliminates the requirement to ever allow the dogs outside the cage. At October's Ridglan evidentiary hearing, one witness testified that, when he worked there, the dogs never went outside and were only let out of their cages to be transported to a lab. And these minimal protections are inadequately enforced. Multiple audits by the Agriculture Department's inspector general have found that enforcement of federal animal welfare laws is 'basically meaningless' and 'ineffective.' In October 2018, The Post reported that during the first three quarters of that year the federal government had filed a single administrative complaint. In February, USDA's inspector general released an audit of dog-breeding facilities. It found that a whopping 80 percent of audited breeders had not fully corrected previous AWA noncompliances, that 'inconsistent and untimely inspections' by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service may have contributed to the problem, and that the service had not promptly responded to complaints — all of which 'poses a threat to the safety and well-being of the animals.' It does not have to be this way. Since 1979, the number of dogs used in experiments has been reduced by 80 percent, and Americans are increasingly opposed to the use of animals in medical testing. In 2015, the United States ended all federal funding for experimentation on chimpanzees, which effectively stopped the practice. We can end what we're doing to dogs, too. For thousands of years, humans have selectively bred dogs to be loyal to us and need our care. To use them in deadly and painful experiments is a profound betrayal of trust. Thousands of dogs are trapped in breeding facilities and labs. With an immediate moratorium on federal funding for experiments on dogs, and ultimately a ban on dog experiments, we can end this situation and begin to provide those dogs with the loving homes they deserve.
