TheConversationUS

#TikTok was in court today to overturn a U.S. law that would force the video app to divorce from its China-based parent company or be banned.

It’s the latest development in a lengthy saga over the app that many politicians in Washington fear is a security risk.

But why is TikTok controversial?

Here’s a quick rundown of reads from #cybersecurity, #socialmedia and legal experts:

https://theconversation.com/tiktok-ban-goes-to-the-court-5-essential-reads-on-the-case-and-its-consequences-239160
#news #technology

Learn about the Zen monk who became the Laughing Buddha:

One of his names is “Cloth Bag,” which was a nickname given to the Chinese Buddhist monk who lived in the 10th century. He got this nickname because he often wandered from town to town carrying a cloth bag full of treasures to share freely with children. Artists in China depicted him as a plump, laughing monk – his round belly represents his generosity and abundance.

https://theconversation.com/who-is-the-laughing-buddha-a-scholar-of-east-asian-buddhism-explains-236029
#religion #Buddhism #history

When and how people domesticated #horses has long posed an archeological mystery.

Over the past 20 years, data seemed to converge on the idea that horses were first domesticated in sites of the Botai culture in Kazakhstan, where scientists found large quantities of horse bones at sites dating to the fourth millennium BCE. But now, new analyses suggest revising this long-standing hypothesis for how humans domesticated horses.

https://theconversation.com/domesticating-horses-226800
#science #history #archaeology

The U.S. still has an active presence in #Syria, and recent assaults by US-backed fighters marked the worst clashes there in nearly a year.

A political scientist says a continued presence risks prolonging America’s entanglement in a protracted and costly conflict with no clear end in sight, while antagonizing NATO ally Turkey.
https://theconversation.com/us-military-presence-in-syria-carries-substantial-risks-but-so-does-complete-withdrawal-235569
#USPolitics #News #WorldNews

Curators from the Smithsonian will be diving for balloons, scooping up signs and hoping to score some hot dish at the #DNC this week.

We talked to three of them about how they select items to be used in the future to explain what's going on now (republished on @medium) https://medium.com/@ConversationUS/how-smithsonian-curators-scavenge-political-conventions-to-explain-the-present-to-the-future-d90a8cb99f80 #News #USPolitics #DNC2024 @histodons

The price of asthma medication has soared in the U.S. over the past decade and a half.

The pharmaceutical company Teva sells QVAR RediHaler, a corticosteroid inhaler, for $286 in the U.S.

In Germany, Teva sells that same inhaler for $9.

https://theconversation.com/asthma-meds-have-become-shockingly-unaffordable-but-relief-may-be-on-the-way-222858
#health

17th-century New England farmers moved a mind-staggering amount of stone to build walls – an estimated 240,000 miles of barricades, most stacked thigh-high and similarly wide.

That’s long enough to wrap Earth 10x at the equator – and is larger in volume than the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall in Britain and the Egyptian pyramids at Giza COMBINED.

https://theconversation.com/new-england-stone-walls-lie-at-the-intersection-of-history-archaeology-ecology-and-geoscience-and-deserve-a-science-of-their-own-216701
#agriculture #history @histodons #Histodons

The UN’s Genocide Convention, in its 75 years, has not stopped genocide.

Far from it.

But there is some value to the international treaty.

https://theconversation.com/the-landmark-genocide-convention-has-had-mixed-results-since-the-un-approved-it-75-years-ago-219296
#history @histodons #Histodons #humanrights #genocide

1957: Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, and there's concern of the U.S.' shortage of Russian speakers to monitor Soviet activity

1958: Congress authorizes funding to strengthen education in foreign language

2023: A new report shows the study of languages other than English experienced an unprecedented drop of 16.6% since 2016

“This creates greater risks for national security,” explains a professor:
https://theconversation.com/fewer-u-s-college-students-are-studying-a-foreign-language-and-that-spells-trouble-for-national-security-198135

@academicchatter #academicchatter #HigherEd #ForeignPolicy

Henry #Kissinger is dead at the age of 100.

Here's one Cambodian's verdict
"I’m a scholar of the political economy of Cambodia who, as a child, escaped the brutal Khmer Rouge regime with four siblings...
In both a professional and personal sense, I am aware of the near 50-year impact Kissinger’s policies during the Vietnam War have had on the country of my birth."

That impact was destruction, death and trauma.

https://theconversation.com/henry-kissingers-bombing-campaign-likely-killed-hundreds-of-thousands-of-cambodians-and-set-path-for-the-ravages-of-the-khmer-rouge-209353
@histodons #News