Word: citizens
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Among the most ambitious and successful online "citizen science" projects to date, Galaxy Zoo asks its participants to help classify galaxies by studying images of them online and answering a standard set of questions about their features. For instance: Is the galaxy smooth or bulging? Is it elliptical or spiral? If it's spiral, how many arms does it have, and are they tightly wound or thrown open wide? (See the top 10 scientific discoveries...
...classify another 250,000 SDSS galaxies. To date, more than 57 million classifications have been made by some 265,000 volunteers (this reporter's contribution is, so far, a meager 267); another 5 million classifications will finish the job. There's also an entire "Zooniverse" of related citizen-science projects, which include simulating galaxy collisions to study mergers; hunting for supernovae and hypervelocity stars, incredibly rare stars that are so "fast," they escape the gravitational pull of a galaxy; and compiling collections of "irregulars," galaxies that defy classification...
...using Earth-bound telescopes as well as the Hubble Space Telescope. The project's findings have led to 10 scientific articles, which appeared in peer-reviewed journals, and six more are on the way. And a few "zooites," as the volunteers refer to themselves, hope to publish their own citizen-science research projects someday, with help from professional astronomers...
Criticism of the welfare state touches a raw nerve among Germans. They have jealously guarded social benefits since they were introduced by Otto von Bismarck, the "Iron Chancellor," in the 1880s. Bismarck's system - designed to win over workers and increase productivity - guaranteed every citizen social insurance, including a pension, national health insurance and disability benefits. Westerwelle thinks that should change, and is also pushing for lower taxes and a new simplified tax system. The opposition Social Democrats branded him a "sociopolitical arsonist" while the Greens warned that the welfare state would be pared back to a "social...
Colleen LaRose, an American citizen from Pennsylvania who went by the online handle Jihad Jane, was indicted on March 9 for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and plotting to murder a Swedish cartoonist whose depiction of the Prophet Muhammad had angered Muslims. LaRose, 46, had been in custody since October. Assistant Attorney General for National Security David Kris said the suspect's being a suburban American woman "underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face...