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Heated Homes or Owls?

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Imagine going to bed wearing a winter jacket. You can't afford propane to fuel a fire and you don't have access to a natural gas line. Your only source for heat is wood from dead trees and now you don't even have that to rely on. The U.S. Forest Service has put a ban on timber sales, thinning projects and prescribed burning in forests across the southwest.. The notion is in order to protect and get a better sense of the population of Mexican spotted owls. This may sound nice but the effects are drastic for people living in Arizona and New Mexico. The Mexican spotted owl is a threatened species and scientists have had a difficult time monitoring the population. To combat the issue, the U.S. Forest Service put in its suspension on many projects that affect the amount of wood being taken from the forests, including the wood used by civilians to heat their houses. This will take its toll on many citizens in the area because a lot of them rely on wood to fuel their fires
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Is the Internet Targeting You?

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On any social media platform you have probably seen some ads that look very familiar. Big companies use a technique called targeted advertising where they observe what links you click on, what websites you look at and what pictures you view to determine which ads to show you. So next time you click that picture of a cute dog, don't be surprised to see a dog food ad later in the day. It sounds like these companies are just doing their job but when you do it illegally it becomes a big problem. Google, the owner of YouTube, was recently fined $170 million by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for violating privacy policies. YouTube uses targeted advertising on all of their users, even the kids on their child version of the app (ages 7 and younger). The problem is that they were collecting data from these children without express consent from the parents/guardians. Commissioner of the FTC, Rohit Chopra, explained his logic for the fine, "[YouTube] baited kids with nursery rhy
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My Family History

I interviewed my grandparents on my mom's side to learn more about the origins of my family. What I discovered is that I am a 3rd generation American and my great grandparents came to America from Poland and other eastern European countries. My mom's maiden name was Becker, which was changed from its original Germanic spelling of Bechurmann. My great-grandpa changed it to Becker when he went into business in New York after he came to America from Poland. He then married and settled down in Chicago because he had relatives already living here. This is on my grandpa's side, on my grandma's side, my great-grandpa came to America through Ellis island from Jasniowiecki, Poland. They left because of the Pograms which were organized massacres of Jewish people in eastern Europe. Therefore my great-grandparents made the journey to America and finally landed in Detroit, Michigan. This brings us to my grandparents. My grandpa was born in Chicago and my grandma was born in Detroi
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