Preventing lost planes, 80 years after Amelia Earhart

Edition: US - Today's top story: Amelia Earhart would have a hard time disappearing in 2019 [Click here to view this message in your web-browser](. Edition: US 5 January 2019 [The Conversation]( Academic rigor, journalistic flair Editor's note Eighty years ago today, Amelia Earhart was declared legally dead, having been missing in the South Pacific for a year and a half. Ohio State aviation scholars Brian Strzempkowski and Shawn Pruchnicki explain the technologies that pilots, air traffic controllers and airlines [use today to avoid getting lost](, and to reduce the chances a plane might go missing forever. Some face-tracking programs claim to be able to read a person’s emotions from a picture. But a new study shows that [this software struggles with darker skin](. Even when a black person is smiling, the computer assumes that the person pictured is angrier and unhappier than a white person with a similar expression. Schadenfreude – the pleasure people feel at others’ misfortune – has long vexed psychologists. Psychologist Shensheng Wang and his colleagues have developed a new framework to better understanding schadenfreude, [one that views the emotion as an offshoot of a sinister impulse](. Jeff Inglis Science + Technology Editor Top Stories Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, with advanced navigation equipment mounted above the cockpit. USAF/Wikimedia Commons [Amelia Earhart would have a hard time disappearing in 2019]( Brian Strzempkowski, The Ohio State University; Shawn Pruchnicki, The Ohio State University Eight decades after missing aviator Amelia Earhart was declared dead, technologies still don't quite track every airplane all over the globe. A new study compares the press photos of NBA players. Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports [Emotion-reading tech fails the racial bias test]( Lauren Rhue, Wake Forest University A new study shows that facial recognition software assumes that black faces are angrier than white faces, even when they're smiling. To feel a pang of pleasure at the misfortune of others is to be human. VixCompaNi/Shutterstock.com [Why does it feel good to see someone fail?]( Shensheng Wang, Emory University Schadenfreude seems to arise out of envy and a sense of justice. But some psychologists believe a darker impulse is at play. Politics + Society [Only 1 out of 36 newly elected female representatives in Congress is Republican – here’s why it matters]( Malliga Och, Idaho State University; Shauna Shames, Rutgers University Republican women face higher barriers to reaching elected office. A GOP allergy to identity politics plays a role too. 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