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Jim Camden: Spin Control: Social media ads: Less negative, more polarizing than TV?

If you use Facebook, and about two-thirds of Americans do based on current estimates, you may have noticed plenty of political ads as the campaigns heated up last year.

Travis Ridout.
Ridout

A group of political scientists, which includes Washington State University’s Travis Ridout, has gone beyond noticing such things to quantifying the use of Facebook by political campaigns.

Facebook ads weren’t as likely as television to be used for issues because the viewer’s attention span is so short, said Ridout, who is the Thomas S. Foley distinguished professor of government and public policy and the director of WSU’s School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs.

“It’s a criticism we used to level at TV,” he said. But with television, a campaign could always count on some viewers being too lazy to change the channel and picking up the message. With social media platforms, ads can be dismissed with the swipe of a finger on a smart phone screen. “They really have to capture your attention in the first seconds.”

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Yahoo!News

Officials: New policing laws lack clarity

Law enforcement officials on the Palouse have made it clear police reform laws that took effect in Washington this week will not stop staff from responding to emergency calls.

The legislation will, however, affect their actions when they arrive at the scene.

What police are allowed and not allowed to do is not always clear.

David Makin.
Makin

Washington State University associate professor David Makin said he advised police to clarify that the new law does not lock police out from assisting those people, it just limits their ability to use force. Makin works in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, serves on the Pullman Police Advisory Committee and has worked with Jenkins on police-related research projects for years.

“While both HB 1310 and HB 1054 have created unnecessary confusion regarding the rule of law, I would urge (the Pullman Police Department) to clarify the process and reassure the community that PPD is committed to assisting those most vulnerable in our community in their time of need,” Makin said “My understanding is that PPD has good working relationships and protocol for handling these situations and has handled these scenes with compassion.

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The Lewiston Tribune

Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill would invest billions to combat wildfires

Over the weekend, as smoke from Western fires cast a thin haze in the sky above the Capitol, senators unveiled the details of a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill that would make a historic investment to combat wildfires.

Mark Swanson.
Swanson

Mark Swanson, an associate professor of forestry at Washington State University, said lawmakers in Congress need to understand those factors aren’t mutually exclusive.

“We’re seeing a perfect storm of climate change and the accumulation of fuels from the period of fire exclusion,” he said, referring to the policy of putting out nearly all fires that has led to denser forests than existed before white settlers arrived.

Other factors, Swanson said, include population growth that has brought more accidental fires and more people living in areas susceptible to fire, and the federal government barring Native Americans from using controlled burns and other traditional forest management tools.

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The Spokesman-Review
Fire Rescue 1

Electron microscopy in the age of automation

“Many of the greatest challenges of our time, from clean energy to environmental justice, require new approaches to the craft of scientific experimentation. This is exceedingly apparent in the field of electron microscopy. As researchers utilize this powerful window to peer into the atomic machinery behind today’s technologies, they are increasingly inundated with data and constrained by traditional operating models. We must leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning in our scientific instruments if we are to unlock breakthrough discoveries,” says Steven R. Spurgeon, a materials scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and international expert in the study of nanomaterials using electron microscopy.

Kevin Fiedler.
Fiedler

To bring the microscopy platform to life, Spurgeon assembled a team from inside and outside PNNL, including Kevin Fiedler, a mathematician from Washington State University. Fielder partnered with a computer scientist to designed an architecture to process and analyze incoming images to enable large-area montaging and stage feedback.

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Phys.org

Imagine Louis Armstrong playing your prom

In the spring of 1951, legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong took the stage at Bohler Gymnasium to play for Junior Prom. Tickets cost $3.25 per couple, and the theme was “Bayou Blues.”

Horace Alexander-Young.
Alexander-Young

For Horace Alexander Young, WSU associate professor of music and an accomplished musician himself, Armstrong’s visit to Pullman serves as inspiration and an important piece of the school’s past.

“WSU was taking the lead on bringing people of color to campus over more than 100 years of history,” said Young, who earned his MA at WSU in 1983. “It’s really exciting to look back on that history.”

It’s fitting that Armstrong was the first of the three music icons to visit WSU. He’s considered one of the fathers of jazz, and helped take the style from a regional sound to an international phenomenon.

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WSU Insider