This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
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Earthquake deaths: the dividing line on fault lines
The low death toll and damage from a recent earthquake in Taiwan highlights global inequality in preparing for natural disasters, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
DAMAGE LIMITATION: (Left) A powerful earthquake strikes Hualien City in eastern Taiwan, last Thursday; (right) Earthquake aftermath in Kahramanmaras, Turkey on February 10 2023
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
The FBU is demanding 52 weeks of full pay for women firefighters, highlighting the unique health risks they face — and the continuing need to recruit and retain more women if policies like this are still not in place, writes SEONA HART
Israel continues to operate with impunity in what seems to be a brutal and protracted experiment, while much of the world looks on, says RAMZY BAROUD
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY
With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
A recent Immigration Summit heard from Lord Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. JAYDEE SEAFORTH reports on his message that we need to increase public empathy with desperate people seeking asylum
IN a video taken just after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck the eastern coast of Taiwan on April 3, the Taipei 101 skyscraper is shown oscillating lightly. Despite the fact that tall buildings are particularly susceptible to seismic damage, the building only experienced minimal swaying during the earthquake.
Elsewhere in Taiwan, 28 buildings collapsed and at least 125 experienced some form of damage. It wasn’t simply luck that protected Taipei 101; the 1,670-foot tall building has been specifically designed to minimise damage from natural disasters that are endemic to the region, such as earthquakes and typhoons.
When an earthquake happens, its energy is dissipated in the form of seismic waves, which have a variety of frequencies (rates of vibration). These seismic waves cause the ground to shake.
Buildings have a natural rate at which they will vibrate, referred to as their resonant frequency, like the natural frequency of a child going back and forth on a swing. When seismic waves of this resonant frequency shake the ground beneath a building, the wave will be amplified, causing stronger shaking and more damage.
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A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
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