Earthquakes

Local earthquakes more common than many realize: Times Daily – Jan. 26

“You feel like the ground below your feet is going away,” said Cemen, a geology professor at The University of Alabama. “It’s almost like there’s going to be a break in the ground and you’re going to fall into it.” The professors are talking about what they went through when they experienced a phenomenon that is among specific areas in their field of work: earthquakes.

Digital Humanities

Making discoveries discoverable: American Libraries Magazine – Jan. 26

In the four years the course has been held, undergraduates taking “Southern Memory: Lynching in the South” at The University of Alabama have contributed brand-new research on lynchings in seven Alabama counties and discovered previously undocumented victims. Using digitized newspaper archives and local sources including court documents, census records, and sheriff’s records, they contribute to a digital humanities database that connects reports and expands understanding of this history.

Starlink

SpaceX set to finally launch its next batch of 60 Starlink internet satellites after delays: Express Digest – Jan. 29

SpaceX has successfully launched its latest batch of 60 Starlink satellites from the ‘Slick 40’ launch pad in Cape Canaveral. The cluster of satellites was twice delayed earlier this week due to adverse weather. but today’s launch went off without a hitch. The 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket went off on-time at 14:06 GMT (9:06ET) and followed a ‘nominal trajectory’ throughout’, SpaceX said on its live broadcast. University of Alabama astronomer Bill Keel told the AFP that the sighting of the first Starlink satellite train had experts trying to extrapolate what effect artificial constellations of such steady brightness might have as they grow in number.
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Daily Mail

Mary Lumpkin

She was raped by the owner of a notorious slave jail. Later, she inherited it.: Washington Post – Feb. 1

Robert Lumpkin was one of the South’s most prolific and brutal slave traders, presiding over a slave jail in Richmond so notorious that it was referred to as the “Devil’s Half Acre.” Mary Lumpkin lived with him — and with the horror of who he was, bearing witness to the extreme punishments he meted out to enslaved people like her. With scant historical records on which to rely, Americans too often reach comfortable conclusions about what for many is an uncomfortable topic, said Sharony Andrews Green, an associate professor of history at The University of Alabama.