User:Severoon/News Comprehension Corner

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I often find that staying abreast of the current news and politics isn't quite enough to stay well-informed. Much of the time, news is delivered as though listeners have a basic knowledge of some far-flung place that most people lack. "Of course," the newscaster intones, "you'll remember the southwesterly Belusian uprising in the 1960s that caused alpaca wool to skyrocket in value." No, actually, I don't remember that. (In the case of this particular example, it's because it didn't happen, and there's no such place as Belusia.)

I'm not embarrassed to admit that, when news happens in some corner of the globe with which I'm not overly familiar, I usually feel the need to do some reading. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I rarely follow through. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I just forget until the next time it's mentioned, or I remember to look up something, but can't remember what.

This is my attempt to track subjects about which I knew very little until I did some cursory research. I may link externally from time to time, or throw in a couple of opinions with the link (keep in mind, this page, like other user pages, does not follow wikipedia's NPOV rules). The purpose of this page is to link topics that are not only related to current events, but also topics that are referenced regularly about which the average, otherwise well-informed person knows very little. These links are meant to fill in important knowledge gaps, and perhaps inspire further investigation that just the links presented here. I've decided to present these links in the form of questions (and sometimes answers) that pertain to their newsworthiness.

Keep in mind, as I'm an American, the topics listed here related to the news are primarily noteworthy from an American perspective.

Please feel free to discuss existing entries or suggest new ones on the talk page.

Contents

[edit] The Iraq War

Quick answer: Kurds are an ethic group in Iraq, as well as other countries. The Arab and Kurdish people comprise the two most populous ethnicities in Iraq. Sunni and Shi'a, on the other hand, are different denominations of Islam. By ethnicity and by religion are two completely ways of breaking down the demographics of Iraq.

[edit] Illegal Immigration

America seems to be coming to terms with the problem of illegal immigration lately.

Quick answer: The most notable example of a border fence is the Israeli West Bank barrier. It is almost universally recognized that this fence was successful in its primary purpose, which was to prevent Palestinian terrorist attacks.

[edit] Science

  • What is a stem cell? Why can't it be used in scientific research? What does stem cell research have to do with abortion?
Quick answer: A stem cell is a cell that has not yet undergone cellular differentiation. Scientists believe that continued research using stem cells will yield many significant medical advances. Research labs may do stem cell research in accordance with the Dickey Amendment, which mandates that no human embryos may be created or destroyed lest the lab lose all federal funding. The link to abortion is due to the fact that nearly all useful scientific research involving stem cells would require the destruction of human embryos (most labs would harvest stem cells from embryos received from abortion clinics, using material that would otherwise be discarded as medical waste).

[edit] Technology, Privacy, Censorship

  • I'm going to do something here on the recent controversies over Google Desktop Search's latest feature and Google in China...
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