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Dr. Universe: How do people name continents or places on earth?

Our world is full of so many different places. They get their names in lots of different ways.

One way a place might get a name is from the person who explored it. The Americas are named after an Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. But Amerigo wasn’t the first person to explore these continents.

There were already people living there when he arrived. Still, “America” was named after Amerigo. For the most part, people name things because they are claiming possession of a place. Because of that, sometimes the original names of places are lost or erased.

Theresa Jordan.
Jordan

That’s what I found out from my friend Theresa Jordan, a history professor who teaches a geography course at Washington State University.

I also found out that Native Americans in the northeast of North America were already calling the place they lived “Turtle Island.” The Guna people, the first to live in Panama and Columbia, called the Americas “Abya Yala.”

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Dr. Universe

A museum and national park, Hanford’s 75-year-old B Reactor is a vital reminder of the nuclear age’s extraordinary potential and devastating power

Along the bank of the Columbia River in south-central Washington, an expanse of windswept desert plateau teems with wildlife, despite being designated as the “most contaminated site in the Western Hemisphere.” At Hanford, where Native Americans fished and lived off the land for eons, the U.S. government created the most powerful, dangerous materials humankind has ever known, and the largest environmental disaster the country has ever confronted.

All that’s taken place at Hanford, birthplace of the world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor, has indisputably changed the course of humanity.

Robert Franklin.
Franklin

“There is a world before atomic weapons and a world after atomic weapons, and we live in that world, and the B Reactor is the point where that shift happened,” says Robert Franklin, a history professor at Washington State University’s Tri-Cities campus. Franklin is also the assistant director of the Hanford History Project and president of the nonprofit B Reactor Museum Association.

By reflecting upon the entirety of Hanford’s history, Franklin hopes current and future generations can learn from its far-reaching impacts. To start, those interested can visit Hanford itself, where tours of the decommissioned B Reactor offer an up-close look at how the Atomic Age was born. Also, a new exhibit by the Spokane County Library District — on display next month, alongside a series of local events — will explore the complex history and legacy of Hanford.

“However [people] think they might feel about it, come and see the place and give yourself time to reflect both on the achievement it was to build that on such a short time, and to understand the nature of the country in 1942, ’43,” Franklin says. “And to reflect on the scale of loss that it created and to reflect on a world that was forever changed.

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Inlander

WSU fine artist explores ‘internet addiction’ with paintings

Joe Hedges.
Hedges

Washington State University fine arts faculty member Joe Hedges has been thinking hard about the slash in his title: Assistant Professor of Painting/Intermedia.

“There’s a lot of ambiguity with that slash,” Hedges said. “Is it painting or intermedia, painting and intermedia, or paintings that are both painting and incorporate other media? I have basically been trying it all.”

Among Hedges’ latest artworks are oil paintings of beautiful landscapes but with a twist. They incorporate flat screen televisions, smart phones or other objects to become what he calls “Hypercombines” — paintings that are connected to the internet.

“I started thinking about this buzz phrase that was going around a few years ago, ‘the internet of things,’ and asking myself why couldn’t an oil painting be part of the internet of things? What would that look like?” he asked.

Those questions have inspired and informed several of his new works to be exhibited at Artworks Gallery in Loveland, Colorado, Nov. 8–Dec. 18, and at Chase Gallery in Spokane, Wash., Jan. 3–March 25.

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WSU Insider

Fuse justifies lie as way to show Woodward not being transparent

A progressive political organization that accuses a Spokane mayoral candidate of not being honest about her political leanings defends using a lie of its own to prove its point.

Fuse Washington, which has endorsed Ben Stuckart for Spokane mayor, sent an activist to a campaign stop by Nadine Woodward last July, claiming to be a supporter of President Donald Trump and asking the former television news anchor whom she voted for in the 2016 presidential election.

When Woodward declined, saying the race is nonpartisan and it doesn’t matter what party you are if you’re filling pot holes, the activist persisted. He said it was a key factor in deciding his support. After several minutes of discussion, Woodward said “I’ll tell you one thing, I did not vote for Hillary Clinton. Is that good enough?”

Cornell Clayton.
Clayton

Cornell Clayton, political science professor and director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute of Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University, said lying by activists in a campaign “falls into a gray area.” A conservative group, Project Veritas, has used it repeatedly to compile video exposes of groups it targets, justifying the tactic by arguing its opponents are hypocritical, he said.

Secret ballots have been standard in American elections for more than a century. Candidates often deflect questions about how they voted in other races or for controversial measures by citing the secrecy of the ballot, Clayton said.

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Spokesman-Review

Wall Street seeks a valuable resource from Washington state’s aging farmers: their water

The faces behind Washington’s farms are wrinkling.

The average age of a Washington farmer is 58.1 years, up from 56.8 in 2012, according to the Census of Agriculture. Meanwhile, farmers under age 44 make up less than 18 percent of those in the business.

Marcia Ostrom.
Ostrom

The years ahead will be defined by “high transition,” said Marcia Ostrom, an associate professor in the School of the Environment at Washington State University.

That represents an opportunity for investors in farms, land and water.

Older farmers often don’t have relatives interested in farming, Ostrom said. Their retirements are often tied to farm assets. Younger farmers often find it difficult to build capital to enter a high-cost industry.

Water rights offer farmers another option.

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Seattle Times