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Seventeen Civilians Beheaded In Afghanistan After Attending "Mixed-Gender" Party

REUTERS (UK)AL JAZEERA(Qatar) BBC NEWS (UK), CNN (USA)

Worldcrunch

KABUL - Fifteen men and two women were found beheaded in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province on Monday. Reuters, Al Jazeera and other news outlets reported that the victims had attended a "mixed-sex" party where men and women were socializing.

The bodies were found in a house near the Musa Qala district, about 75 kilometers north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, in the South of Afghanistan. Some had gunshot wounds while others showed signs of beatings, reports BBC News.

Although there were no immediate claims of responsibility, the local Governor’s spokesman said that “it was the work of the Taliban”, who have long condemned any social mixing between men and women, according to BBC News.

Meanwhile, ten Afghan army soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack in the same province. CNN reports that an Afghan soldier shot two NATO service members Monday in a so-called "green-on-blue" attack. Afghan and NATO officials are investigating the incident.

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Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

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