Latest news with #UniversityofHouston
NDTV
2 days ago
- Science
- NDTV
Scientists Can Tell When A Volcano Is About To Erupt Using This 'Green' Cue
Scientists can predict when a volcano is about to erupt by looking at the vegetation nearby. A new study collaboration between NASA and the Smithsonian Institution claims that the greenness of the trees around a volcano can indicate a potential imminent blast. As volcanoes get charged up to explode, they push magma close to the surface, releasing higher levels of carbon dioxide. In turn, the health of the surrounding trees is boosted with the leaves becoming greener by consuming the excess CO2. "The remote detection of carbon dioxide greening of vegetation potentially gives scientists another tool - along with seismic waves and changes in ground height-to get a clear idea of what's going on underneath the volcano," read a NASA statement. Up until recently, scientists had to trek to volcanoes if they wanted to measure the CO2 levels, as a volcano emitting modest amounts of carbon dioxide does not show up in satellite imagery. However, with a number of volcanoes located in remote areas, assessing the greenery could help scientists avoid the trouble of trekking through the dangerous terrains. "There are plenty of satellites we can use to do this kind of analysis," study lead author Nicole Guinn, a doctoral student in volcanology at the University of Houston in Texas, said in the statement. Researchers analysed images collected by Landsat 8, NASA's Terra satellite, ESA's (European Space Agency) Sentinel-2, and other Earth-observing satellites to monitor trees around the Mount Etna volcano on the coast of Sicily. Results showed 16 clear spikes in both the amount of CO2 and vegetation's greenness, which coincided with upward migrations of magma from the volcano. The findings could have important real-life implications as 10 per cent of the world's population lives in areas susceptible to volcanic hazards. Predicting a volcanic eruption in advance could help move out people who live or work within a few miles of the volcano and face dangers that include ejected rock, dust, and surges of hot, toxic gases.
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
A millennial couple is selling their home after endless repairs to become renters again: 'The whole housing market is a scam'
Roxanne Werner and her wife, Kristina Werner, bought their Houston home in early 2022 when, like many white-collar workers, they were still working remotely and wanted more space. Buying felt relatively affordable — they paid about $390,000 for their three-bedroom house with a pool and snagged a 3.75% mortgage interest rate. But the hidden costs of homeownership quickly reared their ugly heads. First, there was a gas leak. Then, a $10,000 air conditioning repair. A costly pool leak, new garage doors, and plumbing issues came next. It felt like they're playing whack-a-mole with never-ending home maintenance. And that's all on top of their $2,600 monthly mortgage payment. "The amount we pay monthly for our mortgage is totally reasonable," said Werner, who's 38 and works in communications for local government. "But then once we moved in, it just feels like it's been one thing after another, after another, after another." So the couple, who have a combined income of about $185,000, is selling their house and going back to renting. They're not alone. Some homeowners are weighing the burdens of owning and deciding they'd prefer the flexibility and lack of liability that renting offers. This has helped push the age of the typical tenant higher, driven also by both Gen Zers and millennials renting for longer and boomers renting as they age. Rethinking the American Dream As interest rates and home prices have surged in recent years, renting has become a better deal than buying in many places — a reversal of the historic norm. Indeed, homebuyers purchasing starter homes in 50 major cities in 2024 spent over $1,000 more on housing costs each month than tenants do. There are all kinds of phantom costs associated with owning a home beyond the mortgage, insurance, and taxes. Buying and selling fees, home maintenance and repairs, insurance, and taxes can all be more than a homeowner bargained for. And unlike other major purchases, like a car, homebuyers tend to treat their home as an investment that will appreciate over time. But turning a profit on a home — or just breaking even — is far from assured. Werner and her wife, who works for the University of Houston, are looking forward to putting more money aside each month for long-term savings, vacations, dinners out, and their 11-year-old son's college fund. Buying another, lower-maintenance home feels like a bad deal now, Werner said, with interest rates around 7% and home prices elevated. "It just feels like the whole housing market is kind of a scam," Werner said. "You buy the house, you sell it, and then you make a bunch of money, but then you also want to be able to afford to buy another house." The couple listed their house for $429,000 in early May and are out of the option period with a buyer who has offered just below their asking price. Now, they're looking for a rental townhouse in a more walkable neighborhood that's closer to downtown Houston. Werner estimates that she and her wife, who works at the University of Houston, will end up spending a bit more on their future rent — they think around $2,800 — than they do on their mortgage. But they expect to spend less on their overall housing costs when they factor in repairs and maintenance, she added. Ultimately, though, Werner wants to abandon the social norms and traditions that make owning a home "synonymous" with the American Dream. "Do we mean buy a home, or do we mean that you can build any life you want to, and maybe, for some people, that doesn't mean owning a home?" she said.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Who is Olivia Julianna, the Gen Z activist fighting for abortion rights?
If you've scrolled through political TikTok or Twitter anytime recently, you've probably seen Olivia Julianna pop up—usually dropping truth bombs, clapping back at lawmakers, or rallying young voters like a boss. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now She's just 22, but this Houston-based activist has already become one of Gen Z's loudest, smartest, and most fearless voices. Whether it's abortion rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy, or calling out political hypocrisy, Olivia doesn't just show up—she shows out. Born in 2002 and raised in a working-class Mexican-American family in Texas, Olivia Julianna Herrera (she goes by her first and middle names for safety reasons) calls herself a 'queer, plus-size, disabled Latina.' She's also a first-gen college student, currently majoring in political science at the University of Houston–Victoria. Her activism really took off around the 2020 election, when she started posting videos that broke down big political issues in plain English—just Gen Z doing Gen Z things, but with a ton of insight and fire. Her big moment came in 2021. When Texas passed its super-restrictive Heartbeat Act, Olivia didn't just post angry tweets—she urged people to flood the state's anonymous 'snitch site' with fake tips. The site crashed. The message was clear: don't mess with her. Then came the Twitter showdown of 2022. After Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz made a rude comment about abortion rights activists, Olivia clapped back. He insulted her. She turned that into a fundraising moment—and raised over $2 million for abortion funds. Her response? 'He gave me a national platform. I used it.' Iconic. From there, Olivia became unstoppable. She landed on Bloomberg's 50 Most Influential list, joined Gen-Z for Change as Director of Politics, and played a key role in mobilizing young voters online. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now She's the real deal. In August 2024, Olivia hit the national stage with a fiery speech at the Democratic National Convention. Rocking a hot-pink power suit (inspired by Nancy Pelosi, no less), she urged Gen Z to show up for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and warned about threats to voting rights. Oh—and she introduced Stevie Wonder. Casual. In early 2025, she decided to switch gears. Instead of sticking with campaign work, Olivia launched her own Substack, A New Perspective, where she breaks down politics, calls out the BS in both parties, and keeps fighting for the issues that matter. She's still as bold and outspoken as ever—just doing it her way. Whether she's crashing websites, trending on Twitter, or making political speeches in pink, one thing's for sure: Olivia Julianna is a force, and she's just getting started.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Trees May Be Able to Warn Us When a Volcano Is About to Erupt
The science of predicting volcanic eruptions can genuinely save lives – potentially, a lot of lives – and researchers have shown that tree leaf colors can act as warning signals around a volcano that's about to blow. As volcanoes get more active and closer to an eruption, they push magma up closer to the surface, releasing higher levels of carbon dioxide. That in turn can boost the health of the surrounding trees, making leaves greener. And those changes – specifically in the measurement known as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) – can be spotted by satellites in space. We could be looking at an early warning system for eruptions that doesn't require any local field work or ground sensors, so it could work in remote and difficult-to-access areas. "There are plenty of satellites we can use to do this kind of analysis," says volcanologist Nicole Guinn, from the University of Houston. Guinn was the first author of a recent study looking at carbon dioxide levels around Mount Etna in Italy. The study compared data from sensors around the volcano with satellite imagery, finding a strong relationship between more carbon dioxide and greener trees. Across the course of two years, the team found 16 clear spikes in carbon dioxide and the NDVI, matching magma movements underground. The patterns were even observed farther away from faults in the mountain. That study referenced earlier research from 2019, led by volcanologist Robert Bogue of McGill University, which showed that carbon dioxide emitted by two active volcanoes in Costa Rica had an impact on leaf color in tropical trees in the area. Now Guinn and Bogue, together with other researchers, are working on a project led by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution, analyzing changes in the color of plant life around volcanoes in Panama and Costa Rica. It's part of the collaborative Airborne Validation Unified Experiment: Land to Ocean (AVUELO) mission, which is looking to develop more ways in which we can measure the health of the planet from satellites. Current methods, like NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2, are only strong enough to pick up major eruptions. "A volcano emitting the modest amounts of carbon dioxide that might presage an eruption isn't going to show up in satellite imagery," says Bogue. "The whole idea is to find something that we could measure instead of carbon dioxide directly, to give us a proxy to detect changes in volcano emissions." There are multiple signals that can be interpreted to predict volcanic eruptions, including the rumble of seismic waves and changes in ground height. With the greening of leaves from carbon dioxide emissions, we now have another signal to measure – even if it won't be suitable for all sites. The AVUELO researchers are also interested in the broader effects of increased carbon dioxide on trees. As our world warms up due to human emissions of carbon dioxide, we could be increasingly reliant on vegetation to regulate this greenhouse gas. "We're interested not only in tree responses to volcanic carbon dioxide as an early warning of eruption, but also in how much the trees are able to take up, as a window into the future of the Earth when all of Earth's trees are exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide." says climate scientist Josh Fisher, from Chapman University in California and part of the AVUELO team. The Mount Etna research was published in Remote Sensing of Environment. 60% of The Ocean Floor Could Harbor 'Rare' Supergiant Crustacean Watch: 1,000-Foot Lava Jets Erupt From Hawaii's Kīlauea Volcano Giant Megalodon's Prey Finally Revealed, And It's Not What We Thought
The Hill
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
See a penny, pick it up? In the future, probably not as often — and, some say, that matters
NEW YORK (AP) — Ask someone for their thoughts: Could it now cost you a nickel? If you want to call somebody stingy, would you say they're a quarter-pincher? And if they spend money unwisely, are they now dime-wise but pound-foolish? OK, maybe those are some minor, small-stakes, dare we say penny-ante concerns in the wake of the U.S. Treasury confirming Thursday that it will stop making shiny new penny coins after the current production run is complete. But it is the end of an era in the United States. While there will still be over a billion already existing pennies in circulation, rattling around in jars, gathering dust under the sofa cushions and waiting to be picked up from sidewalks, no new cents will be joining their ranks for the first time in more than two centuries. The Trump administration made the call as a cost-saving measure – it costs almost four cents to make a penny (which, by the way, are now primarily made up of zinc with a copper coating). They're not as financially useful as they were in other times as prices have gone up, and digital technologies have overall reduced the use of physical bills and coins for many people. Advocates have been calling for the penny to drop for decades. But will no one think of the archeologists? 'Since 1793, we have continuously seeded the archeological record with datable pennies, and now we're going to stop doing that,' laments Frank Holt, an emeritus professor at the University of Houston who has studied the history of coins in his work. 'In 2,000 years, there are going to be archeologists pulling out what hair they have left saying, 'What am I going to do now that I don't have these datable objects there?'' And for something with such a small face value, the copper-colored coin has punched above its denomination in the culture, Holt says. 'It's not just an economic argument, because pennies and all coins are embedded in our culture. They reflect our politics, our religion, our art, our sense of ourselves, our ideals, our aspirations,' he says. 'We put mottos on them and self-identifiers and we decide — in the case of the United States — which dead persons are most important to us and should be commemorated.' Holt points to traditions of putting pennies in loafers, of rhymes like 'See a penny, pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck,' of people who think an unexpected penny sighting could be a sign from a loved one who's passed on. When it does come to economics, the discussion of whether or not there should be pennies is actually part of a larger conversation, says Ursula Dalinghaus, an assistant professor of anthropology at Ripon College in Wisconsin who studies the anthropology of money. For example, a bedrock of American culture is the price tag ending in $.99, somehow trying to convince buyers that the 1-cent difference keeping the cost from the next dollar makes it a good deal, she points out. What happens to that price now? Also, while many people have switched over to digital forms of payments and couldn't even tell you the last time they carried a coin around or had a bill in their wallets, there are many people who still use all kinds of physical currency — yes, even pennies. 'Cash is very important for a lot of people to budget, to keep control of costs. Even just donating a penny to someone asking for small change, it does add up,' she says. 'I feel like we're far too quick to only look at what is the cost of minting it or distributing it and we're not really willing to look at the everyday experiences and interactions people have. So maybe if we don't use small change, we don't think about it. But other people do.' In a final irony, news of the penny's fate came out on the eve of Lucky Penny Day, no less! (Yes, there is such a thing, on May 23rd.) 'We don't have a lucky nickel day. We don't have a lucky dime day, lucky quarter day, we only have a Lucky Penny Day,' Holt says. 'And why is that? It's more than money. It is more than an economic tool. We've endowed the penny with almost mystical, magical powers to bring us luck, to change our fortunes.'
