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We the People: States often have to share powers with federal government

Today’s question: Name one power that is only for the states.

The acceptable answers include a range of powers or services – education, police, land use and driver’s licenses – generally thought of as under state or local control. But they aren’t completely free of federal influence.

Lawrence Hatter.
Hatter

The framers did not all agree on the role of government, Professor Lawrence Hatter of the Washington State University History Department said. But they inherited British political thought that was deeply suspicious of centralized power.

“They were less interested, in general, in deciding which powers to reserve to the states than they were in ensuring the federal government did not accrue too much power,” he said in an email.

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The Spokesman-Review

Ask Dr. Universe: Did dinosaurs eat humans?

If you looked inside a T. rex mouth, you’d see some 12-inch teeth. That’s longer than my tail!

Aaron Blackwell.
Blackwell

I asked my friend Aaron Blackwell if dinosaurs used those big chompers on humans. He’s an anthropologist who studies human biology at Washington State University. He told me dinosaurs and humans didn’t live at the same time.

“Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago—before there were even primates,” Blackwell said. “So, they could never have eaten a human or even a monkey.”

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Dr. Universe

Associate Professor Danh Pham elected to American Bandmasters Association

Danh Pham
Pham

Danh Pham, director of WSU Bands and conductor of the WSU Symphony Orchestra, has been elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.

The organization honors outstanding achievement by invitation to membership and strives to enhance wind music by example and leadership. Some 300 conductors and composers throughout the United States and Canada are members.

Election to the American Bandmasters Association is a nearly one-year process that involves being nominated and sponsored by several current members , submission of performance recordings, and a review of professional contributions. Pham joins only a handful of other conductors and composers in the Pacific Northwest to be elected.

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WSU Insider

 

Vancouver businesses, schools embrace artificial intelligence technology

Artificial intelligence was once common only on television and in movies. But with the evolution of software programs like ChatGPT, DALL-E and Microsoft’s Bing bot, AI-generated materials aren’t just novel, they’re everywhere.

Some fear it, but many have embraced it. From doctors offices, to classrooms to small businesses, ChatGPT and similar programs are making a splash.

Luers

In February, Vancouver-based ZoomInfo announced that the company plans to integrate GPT technology into its go-to-market platform.

William Luers is a professor of creative media and digital culture at Washington State University Vancouver. He uses ChatGPT and some of the artificial-intelligence-generated image programs in his classes.

“I make it clear that this is not replacing creativity,” said Luers. “It’s an assistant for creative work.”

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The Columbian
Big Country News

 

High winds can worsen pathogen spread at outdoor chicken farms

Farmers who keep their chickens outdoors may want to watch the weather. A study of chicken farms in the West found that high winds increased the prevalence of Campylobacter in outdoor flocks, a bacterial pathogen in poultry that is the largest single cause of foodborne illness in the U.S.

Researchers found that about 26% of individual chickens had the pathogen at the “open environment” farms in the study, which included organic and free-range chicken farms. High winds the week prior to sampling and the farms’ location in more intensive agricultural settings were linked to a greater prevalence of Campylobacter.

Olivia Smith.
Smith

“Farmers need to be aware of the risk,” said co-lead author Olivia Smith, a recent Washington State University Ph.D. graduate in the School of Biological Sciences. “These environmental factors are influencing if the poultry are going to have foodborne pathogens, so farmers need to be aware of what’s around them. If there’s a lot of wind and if they’re in really agricultural areas, that’s a problem.”

To help reduce Campylobacter exposure, the researchers suggested farmers consider installing windbreaks and watch weather patterns, so they can bring chickens inside during periods of high winds that could be blowing the bacteria onto their farms from nearby fields and livestock areas.

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Capital Press
Phys.org
Futurity
WSU Insider