theres a big martian dust storm rn and its not clear if opportunity will survive
sci fi writers: humans dont care about robots
me, crying: OPPORTUNITY HONEY YOU CAN DO IT I BELIEVE IN YOU
Important clarification
1) Mars Rovers have to run heaters constantly (especially at night) because Mars is cold and they have sensitive electronics. Opportunity has had to shut down its heater because it hasn’t been able to draw enough power over the past few weeks; the danger is that Opportunity may not survive the few days its expected for the dust storm to clear up. The other currently operating rover, Curiosity is younger and has more advanced panels, batteries, and, most importantly, an onboard RTG (tl;dr: nuclear power source) that means dust storms aren’t as threatening to it. Opportunity has some radioactive heaters too, but they’re older, smaller, and have less power output. It’s survived dust storms in the past but every one is always a risk.
and 2)
THEIR OFFICIAL TWITTER CALLS IT OPPY, OPPY I BELIEVE IN YOU!!!
NPR examined a U.S. Education Department study and discovered that over 66 percent of reported school shootings for 2015-2016 school year never occurred.
The Education Department claims there were “nearly 240 schools … [which] reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.”
But NPR contacted schools and districts and was able to substantiate that 161 of the incidents “never happened.” They verified that something did occur in four instances, “but it didn’t meet the government’s parameters for a shooting.” Moreover, they received no response regarding 25 percent of the Educated Department’s reported school shootings.
NPR was able to confirm only 11 of the 240 reported shootings. They note: “A separate investigation by the ACLU of Southern California also was able to confirm fewer than a dozen of the incidents in the government’s report, while 59 percent were confirmed errors.”
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