#Optical Imaging Industry

[internationaldayoflight]

Building relationships across the diverse community of optics and photonics companies around the globe.

In his role as Optica's Chief Technology Officer, Pozo leads the organization's international corporate engagement efforts. He and his team focus on building relationships across the diverse community of optics and photonics companies around the globe. Jose will share his vision for the need for a global photonics industry network, and will describe the developments that he expects in the next decade in imaging and sensing, integrated photonics, automotive applications and AR/VR; together with examples of current photonics trends. Date: 15/05/2023 - 16/05/2023. Location: Auckland , New Zealand.

Tūhura Otago Museum and the Dodd-Walls Centre are bringing our favourite hands-on, light-based science demonstrations along with the Quantum Shorts flash fiction competition to Balclutha Library to inspire the next generation of scientists AND science fiction writers. We’ll kick things off with lights, lasers, and liquid nitrogen before handing things over to our travelling physicist for an introduction to all things quantum!

[nasa]

Let's Explore a Metal-Rich Asteroid 🤘

Between Mars and Jupiter, there lies a unique, metal-rich asteroid named Psyche. Psyche’s special because it looks like it is part or all of the metallic interior of a planetesimal—an early planetary building block of our solar system. For the first time, we have the chance to visit a planetary core and possibly learn more about the turbulent history that created terrestrial planets.

Here are six things to know about the mission that’s a journey into the past: Psyche.

1. Psyche could help us learn more about the origins of our solar system.

After studying data from Earth-based radar and optical telescopes, scientists believe that Psyche collided with other large bodies in space and lost its outer rocky shell. This leads scientists to think that Psyche could have a metal-rich interior, which is a building block of a rocky planet. Since we can’t pierce the core of rocky planets like Mercury, Venus, Mars, and our home planet, Earth, Psyche offers us a window into how other planets are formed.

2. Psyche might be different than other objects in the solar system.

Rocks on Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Earth contain iron oxides. From afar, Psyche doesn’t seem to feature these chemical compounds, so it might have a different history of formation than other planets.

If the Psyche asteroid is leftover material from a planetary formation, scientists are excited to learn about the similarities and differences from other rocky planets. The asteroid might instead prove to be a never-before-seen solar system object. Either way, we’re prepared for the possibility of the unexpected!

3. Three science instruments and a gravity science investigation will be aboard the spacecraft.

The three instruments aboard will be a magnetometer, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, and a multispectral imager. Here’s what each of them will do:

Magnetometer: Detect evidence of a magnetic field, which will tell us whether the asteroid formed from a planetary body

Gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer: Help us figure out what chemical elements Psyche is made of, and how it was formed

Multispectral imager: Gather and share information about the topography and mineral composition of Psyche

The gravity science investigation will allow scientists to determine the asteroid’s rotation, mass, and gravity field and to gain insight into the interior by analyzing the radio waves it communicates with. Then, scientists can measure how Psyche affects the spacecraft’s orbit.

4. The Psyche spacecraft will use a super-efficient propulsion system.

Psyche’s solar electric propulsion system harnesses energy from large solar arrays that convert sunlight into electricity, creating thrust. For the first time ever, we will be using Hall-effect thrusters in deep space.

5. This mission runs on collaboration.

To make this mission happen, we work together with universities, and industry and NASA to draw in resources and expertise.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the mission and is responsible for system engineering, integration, and mission operations, while NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Services Program manages launch operations and procured the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Working with Arizona State University (ASU) offers opportunities for students to train as future instrument or mission leads. Mission leader and Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton is also based at ASU.

Finally, Maxar Technologies is a key commercial participant and delivered the main body of the spacecraft, as well as most of its engineering hardware systems.

6. You can be a part of the journey.

Everyone can find activities to get involved on the mission’s webpage. There's an annual internship to interpret the mission, capstone courses for undergraduate projects, and age-appropriate lessons, craft projects, and videos.

You can join us for a virtual launch experience, and, of course, you can watch the launch with us on Oct. 12, 2023, at 10:16 a.m. EDT!

For official news on the mission, follow us on social media and check out NASA’s and ASU’s Psyche websites.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[decolonize-the-everything]

Immediate action is needed to tackle the impact of ethnic and other biases in the use of medical devices, an independent review says. It found pulse oximeter devices could be less accurate for people with darker skin tones, making it harder to spot dangerous falls in oxygen levels. And it warned devices using artificial intelligence (AI) could under-estimate skin cancer in people with darker skin. The review said fairer devices needed to be designed urgently.

In total, it made 18 recommendations for improvement. The government says it fully accepts the report's conclusions. The review was commissioned in 2022 amid mounting concern that ethnic minorities faced greater Covid risks. It looked closely at three types of device where there is potential for "substantial" harm to patients: • optical medical devices such as pulse oximeters, which send light waves through a patient's skin to estimate the level of oxygen in the blood. The light can behave differently depending on skin tone • AI in healthcare • polygenic risk scores, which combine the results of several genetic tests to help estimate an individual's risk of disease and are used mostly for research purposes

Pulse oximeters were used frequently during the Covid pandemic, for example, alongside other observations, to help judge whether a patient needed hospital admission and treatment.[...]

Chest X-rays

One example is the potential under-diagnosis of skin cancers for people with darker skin.

This would probably be a result of machines being 'trained' predominantly on images of lighter skin tones, the team explains. Another concern arises when using AI systems for reading chest x-rays - which are mainly trained on images taken of men, who tend to have larger lung capacities. This could potentially lead to underdiagnosis of heart disease in women, the report suggests, worsening an already long-standing problem.

Call me a fucking extremist but I don't think white people should be building AI and I definitely don't think it should be put in medical devices when the medical industry is already so full of its own systemic bias and especially before there's proper regulations about AI and without more expansive protections for BIPOC in the medical industry.

If you put racist medical device on the market and encourage people to use it knowing it can misdiagnose heart problems and cancer in people with dark skin then they should be able to take you to court for everything youve ever had ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[malfunctioningmeatsuit]

most makeup is NOT art: let's face it

(DISCLAIMER: I am not judging the influencers as people and am assuming good faith. I am instead pointing out libfem nonsense. I do not think other women are vapid and shallow if they follow beauty trends, rather that the current culture surrounding makeup encourages women to conform and suppress. This is an attack on the system, not on women.)

<3

anyways...

Makeup culture has skyrocketed in popularity with the rise of talentless influencers, increasing backlash to patriarchy, and the onset of late stage capitalism. Elementary and middle school girls are doing one hour makeup routines before school. Women who criticize the beauty industry are getting called ugly and talentless.

As the makeup industry racks in more money and more women waste their time and money to hide their insecurities, there has also been a backlash from feminists surrounding makeup culture. Of course with every revolution there are reactionaries and these reactionaries have come up with all sorts of excuses and defenses to cope with or dismiss the exploitation of women with insecurities.

"I do it for myself"

"Criticizing makeup is criticizing women"

"You're such a pick me"

"Makeup is empowering"

"You're just trying to be not like the other girls"

"It makes me feel sexy"

"You just don't know how to do it"

All of these are very common defensive reactions which many other radical feminists have addressed. I am going to be addressing one I do not see talked about as much. I am going to be dissecting the notion that "makeup is art" and highlighting how absolutely untrue and ridiculous that idea is in our current world.

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Look at these images.

These are the gold standard trendy looks worn by popular makeup influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. These are women from multiple different cultures and ethnicities. Sadly, they've been dragged into a very toxic and misogynistic culture which masquerades as art.

Look at the faces. They all make the same expression, gazing longingly off into the distance or towards the camera. These are "acceptable" faces for women to make. It makes sense they're making those faces as natural smiles are condemned for being "too gummy" or because they "cause wrinkles."

Their makeup is virtually identical also. Their faces are completely caked with foundation and concealer. They make their lips look fuller because thin lips are considered ugly. They have completely buried any of their unique facial features beneath layers of chemical paste. No moles, no distinct hairs, no freckles, no anything. They've likely been told their natural faces are unacceptable.

This style of makeup is not only socially acceptable, but very palatable to patriarchy. Women are shamed for not conforming to this standard. This is the standard for women, made by patriarchy and capitalism and inspired by the male gaze. To say this makeup is art rather than propaganda intended to make women feel guilty in their natural face is an insult to art and to women. It is an insult also to actual makeup art.

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Now look at these images.

These are incredible images I sourced from Instagram as well as google that show how makeup can be used to create powerful, fascinating, mind-boggling, and gorgeous works of art with the human face as a canvas.

Every single image is distinct. Between optical illusions, social commentary, homages to nature, and brilliant bursts of color, to say this isn't art would be objectively incorrect. The makeup in this art is bold, an expression of individuality, and even controversial. (Makeup that isn't for men's sexual gratification??? Makeup being used for art rather than as a coping mechanism??? Whaaaatt??)

The makeup here is a completely different species than the makeup worn by the influencer women in the first part of this post. Rather than hide their features with makeup for the sake of avoiding being ugly, they do it to play with the appearance of human anatomy. Rather than sexualize themselves, they paint mold and scars and eyes where they shouldn't be.

They revere their bodies and adorn their faces with bright colors out of a love for art and the human anatomy. They see their bodies as wonderful canvases in which they can express themselves on. They are painters rather than influencers. They care about creativity rather than wear makeup because they've been told they need to enhance their sex appeal.

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Liberal feminists call makeup an art as a means of separating makeup from patriarchy because facing the misogynistic truth of beauty culture is a threat to their habits. They also only speak about the style of makeup on the left as art and dismiss genuine makeup art because it shows how toxic and removed from true art beauty culture makeup is.

Tragically calling makeup art is hardly even accurate given the reality of the culture. Makeup is rarely ever used for true artistic expression and for every one artful makeup account on social media there are hundreds of cut+paste beauty influencers. True makeup art is a statistical anomaly and makeup/beauty culture very much shuns genuine creatives.

In my opinion...

Makeup will only be an art when it is divorced from patriarchy.

Makeup will only be an art when true creatives aren't shunned and instead are the voices of the community.

Makeup will only be an art when it stops centering sex appeal.

Makeup will only be an art when women are allowed to opt out of it and men are allowed to enjoy it.

Makeup will only be an art when it is no longer used by women and girls who've been taught to hate their innate features.

Makeup will only be an art when no women feel pressured to do it.

[fatehbaz]

"Abolition forgery":

So, observers and historians have, for a long time, since the first abolition campaigns, talked and written a lot about how Britain and the United States sought to improve their image and optics in the early nineteenth century by endorsing the formal legal abolition of chattel slavery, while the British and US states and their businesses/corporations meanwhile used this legal abolition as a cloak to receive credit for being nice, benevolent liberal democracies while they actually replaced the lost “productivity” of slave laborers by expanding the use of indentured laborers and prison laborers, achieved by passing laws to criminalize poverty, vagabondage, loitering, etc., to capture and imprison laborers. Like, this was explicit; we can read about these plans in the journals and letters of statesmen and politicians from that time. Many "abolitionist" politicians were extremely anxious about how to replace the lost labor. This use of indentured labor and prison labor has been extensively explored in study/discussion fields (discourse on Revolutionary Atlantic, the Black Atlantic, the Caribbean, the American South, prisons, etc.), Basic stuff at this point. Both slavery-based plantation operations and contemporary prisons are concerned with mobility and immobility, how to control and restrict the movement of people, especially Black people. After the “official” abolition of slavery, Europe and the United States then disguised their continued use of forced labor with the language of freedom, liberation, etc. And this isn't merely historical revisionism; critics and observers from that time (during the Haitian Revolution around 1800 or in the 1830s in London, for example) were conscious of how governments were actively trying to replicate this system of servitude..

And recently I came across this term that I liked, from scholar Ndubueze Mbah.

He calls this “abolition forgery.”

Mbah uses this term to describe how Europe and the US disguised ongoing forced labor, how these states “fake” liberation, making a “forgery” of justice.

But Mbah then also uses “abolition forgery” in a dramatically different, ironic counterpoint: to describe how the dispossessed, the poor, found ways to confront the ongoing state violence by forging documents, faking paperwork, piracy, evasion, etc. They find ways to remain mobile, to avoid surveillance.

And this reminds me quite a bit of Sylvia Wynter’s now-famous kinda double-meaning and definition of “plot” when discussing the plantation environment. If you’re unfamiliar:

Wynter uses “plot” to describe the literal plantation plots, where slaves were forced to work in these enclosed industrialized spaces of hyper-efficient agriculture, as in plots of crops, soil, and enclosed private land. However, then Wynter expands the use of the term “plot” to show the agency of the enslaved and imprisoned, by highlighting how the victims of forced labor “plot” against the prison, the plantation overseer, the state. They make subversive “plots” and plan escapes and subterfuge, and in doing so, they build lives for themselves despite the violence. And in this way, they also extend the “plot” of their own stories, their own narratives. So by promoting the plot of their own narratives, in opposition to the “official” narratives and “official” discourses of imperial states which try to determine what counts as “legitimate” and try to define the course of history, people instead create counter-histories, liberated narratives. This allows an “escape”. Not just a literal escape from the physical confines of the plantation or the carceral state, an escape from the walls and the fences, but also an escape from the official narratives endorsed by empires, creating different futures.

(National borders also function in this way, to prevent mobility and therefore compel people to subject themselves to local work environments.)

Katherine McKittrick also expands on Wynter's ideas about plots and plantations, describing how contemporary cities restrict mobility of laborers.

So Mbah seems to be playing in this space with two different definitions of “abolition forgery.”

Mbah authored a paper titled ‘“Where There is Freedom, There Is No State”: Abolition as a Forgery’. He discussed the paper at American Historical Association’s “Mobility and Labor in the Post-Abolition Atlantic World” symposium held on 6 January 2023. Here’s an abstract published online at AHA’s site: This paper outlines the geography and networks of indentured labor recruitment, conditions of plantation and lumbering labor, and property repatriation practices of Nigerian British-subjects inveigled into “unfree” migrant “wage-labor” in Spanish Fernando Po and French Gabon in the first half of the twentieth century. [...] Their agencies and experiences clarify how abolitionism expanded forced labor and unfreedom, and broaden our understanding of global Black unfreedom after the end of trans-Atlantic slavery. Because monopolies and forced labor [...] underpinned European imperialism in post-abolition West Africa, Africans interfaced with colonial states through forgery and illicit mobilities [...] to survive and thrive.

---

Also. Here’s a look at another talk he gave in April 2023.

[Excerpt:]

Ndubueze L. Mbah, an associate professor of history and global gender studies at the University at Buffalo, discussed the theory and implications of “abolition forgery” in a seminar [...]. In the lecture, Mbah — a West African Atlantic historian — defined his core concept of “abolition forgery” as a combination of two interwoven processes. He first discussed the usage of abolition forgery as “the use of free labor discourse to disguise forced labor” in European imperialism in Africa throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Later in the lecture, Mbah provided a counterpoint to this definition of abolition forgery, using the term to describe the ways Africans trapped in a system of forced labor faked documents to promote their mobility across the continent. [...]

Mbah began the webinar by discussing the story of Jampawo, an African British subject who petitioned the British colonial governor in 1900. In his appeal, Jampawo cited the physical punishment he and nine African men endured when they refused to sign a Spanish labor contract that differed significantly from the English language contract they signed at recruitment and constituted terms they deemed to be akin to slavery. Because of the men’s consent in the initial English language contract, however, the governor determined that “they were not victims of forced labor, but willful beneficiaries of free labor,” Mbah said.

Mbah transitioned from this anecdote describing an instance of coerced contract labor to a discussion of different modes of resistance employed by Africans who experienced similar conditions under British imperialism. “Africans like Jampawo resisted by voting with their feet, walking away or running away, or by calling out abolition as a hoax,” Mbah said.

Mbah introduced the concept of African hypermobility, through which “coerced migrants challenged the capacity of colonial borders and contracts to keep them within sites of exploitation,” he said.] [...] Mbah also discussed how the stipulations of forced labor contracts imposed constricting gender hierarchies [...]. To conclude, Mbah gestured toward how the system of forced labor persists in Africa today, yet it “continues to be masked by neoliberal discourses of democracy and of development.” [...] “The so-called greening of Africa [...] continues to rely on forced labor that remains invisible.” [End of excerpt.]

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This text excerpt from: Emily R. Willrich and Nicole Y. Lu. “Harvard Radcliffe Fellow Discusses Theory of ‘Abolition Forgery’ in Webinar.” The Harvard Crimson. 13 April 2023. [Published online. Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[gacha-incels]

tbh I didn’t know the incel Joker obsession spanned across incel groups outside places like the US where this imagery originated from. like in those clothes this guy looks like a kid on Halloween. he woke up, dressed up in clown clothes, did his makeup and drew a goofy ass smile on a medical mask. he’s holding what looks like a nerf or water gun while at the same time espousing extremely real and violent threats to women. there is a strange juxtaposition happening between the way he’s chosen to represent himself here as, essentially, a kid’s comic book character and his violent words. Of course to these guys this character is a “symbol” for them, we don’t need to argue that and I don’t want to be reminded about how much money and film has been dedicated to these comic books lol. using this image is Iike a fast forward button for any actual PR or messaging he wants to say to his fellow incels, especially if he wants people to join and spend money. I’m not talking about that but rather the optics of using a comic book character, something typically associated with children.

imo this and the extremely violent reactions we have seen here and in the west regarding videogames (the previous “gamergate” and whatever stupid shit is happening now) have some overarching similarities. are these guys worried about the abuse workers suffer in the industry? No, they don’t want the boogieman “femi” working on games, they don’t want the boogieman “SBI” touching their games, etc, you’ll see a lot of these guys say it’s because they want these games to remain as “escapism” for them with “no politics”. all of this is incredibly naïve. politics affect every single part of a game - who gets hired, what gets made, what story that gets told, the characters, the marketing, the budget (and sponsors and everything that entails), etc. when you see them write about “SJWs” all at once, and suddenly it’s “SBI” all at once, and then suddenly this turns into “DEI” etc, it’s because these misogynists all watch and listen to the same group of big misogynist “influencers” and will parrot everything they say. So we’ve got the following all together - idolizing and dressing up like the comic book character the Joker, an unhealthy attachment to videogames with a “no girls allowed” attitude, blaming everything on women and minorities, a naïve understanding of how the world works, and these Daddy-figure influencers. It seems like some sort of self-inflicted arrested development (idk if this term is still used I just mean they refuse to grow up/mature, and this is specifically on their own accord) to me, it’s like they let themselves have the thought pattens of kids/teens and completely wallow in this, but with the violence and brutality of adults. blame everything bad in your life on women, it’s the thought process of a petulant teen boy, every woman with short hair is a feminist, legitimately how a child would think, but taking a knife and brutally attacking a woman with short hair and the bystander man who tried to get between you is the violence and strength of an adult. but these guys are so legitimately pandered to by society, placated by companies and have made entire communities and cottage indu$tries based on hating women/ believing that everything wrong in their lives is because of women that there’s no reason to “grow up”. It benefits them, they never have to think they’re wrong, and they enjoy it. this is at least a small part of what goes in to this I’m guessing, so much of this is so oddly childish with the emphasis they put on comics and videogames yet extremely violent in real life

[justenjoythegossip]

Would it be more “acceptable” if Chris & Abba were exclusively PR?

Chris’ performative political activism

Whether Chris and Abba are a real legitimate couple with a PR spin or exclusively PR, Chris’ political activism has proved to be totally performative. It’s one thing to fight for equality and injustice when it is beneficial to your image, it’s another to do it when voicing that opinion can be costly. Look at Melissa Barrera who expressed her opinion, stuck to her guts and lost the role she is most famous for. Look at Brendan Fraser who refused to stay silent and paid such a heavy price after speaking out on his being sexually assaulted. It took him years to come back and finally take home a much deserved Oscar for his acclaimed performance in the Whale. 

Chris’ persona and brand were utterly destroyed when he was linked to that fat-shaming racist antisemitic Nazi sympathizing girl. The most aggravating part of this PR shitshow is that by accepting to be officially in a “RS” and then be “married” to her, he has helped put her in the spotlight, which was his first mistake. Look at Dylan O’Brien who is in a real relationship with someone extremely problematic as well. They are rather discreet. If Chris and Abba had behaved like a real private couple, if Abba would have stayed in the shadow, then the backlash would have been kept to a minimum. Also by agreeing to this, Chris helped clean her image. Knowing what she has shown to the world publicly, it’s all the more egregious to see the media portraying her as this smart talented great humanitarian who speaks 5 languages and who has perfect eyebrows. The gaslighting is unbearable. 

Of course, Chris has famously said that the industry makes you do things that you don’t want to do. But it is an excuse. It’s a rationalization. The truth is that he had a choice. For sure the two options he was offered probably sucked but he still had a choice. Nobody forced this on him. And he knew the optics were terrible. That’s why he didn’t come back to Twitter, that’s why he took so much distance from his political project ASP. It would have been too hypocritical to be vocal and to be lecturing people when he, himself, was connected to someone that represents what he is allegedly fighting against. 

When he did that infamous asp chat about racism and antisemitism, it wasn’t random. It was very likely a test to monitor the reaction of his fans. This is probably why they left all those negative comments. They wanted to know if Chris had been forgiven...

If their “RS/marriage” was exclusively PR, would that absolve him somehow?  

Certain mods have expressed the opinion that if Chris and Abba were a real legitimate couple, it would be much worse and then they couldn’t support Chris anymore. I don’t mean to judge or criticize anyone’s opinion by the way, especially since I think some of those mods are good, well-intentioned people and I love reading their take on things but I am just trying to ask questions here. 

What is implied here is that it’s ok and preferable to compromise yourself if it’s meant for your career.  And it’s true that we are taught from the earliest age that we have to succeed. Whatever the cost may be. We must have friends, have a career, have money, have a family, have a house… So much emphasis on having and so little on being. This is the darker side of the American dream, it puts way too much importance on money and success. And if you can’t achieve those goals then you are considered to be worthless. Nihilism starts right there. If you are nothing, it’s a lot easier to give up on your morals and ethics… 

To get back to Chris. Yes he’s had an amazing career, the kind of career most actors would kill for. But it’s easy to relate to being terrified to lose what you have and what you have always wanted. I guess the desperation must be unbearable if you have defined yourself by your professional success and you see that things start slipping away from you. And by his looks and demeanor, people can tell he has struggled with it. Although it might be an act of course. But I choose to believe that it’s genuine and that he really feels guilty about it.   

But wouldn’t love make this situation more “acceptable”?

If Chris and Abba were exclusively PR, then it would signify that Chris compromised himself and his beliefs for his career, for roles, for money and for power. 

But wouldn’t it be actually “preferable” and “more acceptable” to compromise yourself out of love? 

Love can be so powerful and nonsensical that certain people have lost their ways because of it. People have betrayed their partners or spouses, some have abandoned their own children because of it. Heck, people have even killed out of passion. And we sometimes free those people in a court of law when a jury decides that the criminal was so blinded by love and passion that they were unable to distinguish right from wrong. We call it temporary insanity! 

If Chris had genuinely fallen in love with Abba (I don’t believe it by the way) to the point of being blind to her problematic stuff, would that be really worse or wouldn’t that serve as more mitigating circumstances? I am merely asking a question: compromising yourself for money and roles is it better than compromising yourself out of love? Did we actually become too cynical? Too materialistic? 

Chris and his treatment of Abba and how it is reflective of our society…

Regardless of what we might think of Abba (and for sure we don’t have a good opinion of her), Chris has treated her very poorly. And this doesn’t reflect well on him. 

Indeed he has done the absolute bare minimum to sell this, has never even said her name once, he has acted all ashamed most times she was nearby, has thrown shade (see the GQ interview where he implied she was judgmental), he has kept repeating how much he likes to be alone and how his dog is his true soulmate. He even said while allegedly being with her that he was looking for a partner to spend the rest of his life with. Ouch!

Of course, people who know about her problematic stuff will have trouble having any kind of empathy for her but that doesn’t make it ok. 

Chris has agreed to this PR shitshow so tacitly he has accepted that Abba is good enough for these PR games and he has accepted to use her. So he should treat her with a minimum of respect. Otherwise he shouldn’t have gone through with it in the first place.  

And it’s very symptomatic of our society these days. With the propaganda pushed by the mass media, we are taught that it’s ok to hate on people as long as they are horrible human beings. And similarly we have seen so many mods troll and comment on Abba‘s appearance as if it was even relevant. Just because someone is horrible, it doesn’t give you a license to behave the same way. Otherwise you become the very same thing you are criticizing. 

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Cerrado deforestation has emitted 135 million tons of CO2 since 2023

Deforestation in the cerrado biome generated emissions of more than 135 million tons of CO2 from January 2023 to July 2024. The volume corresponds to 1.5 times the total produced by Brazilian industry each year.

The survey was carried out by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) and released today (Sep. 18). The data were obtained through the Cerrado Deforestation Alert System (SAD Cerrado), which uses optical satellites from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 sensor and compares images of areas at least six months apart to see if trees have been cut down.

The second largest biome in the country, and highly diverse, the cerrado extends over 13 of Brazil’s 27 states and is made up of three types of vegetation: savannah—which predominates, and was the most heavily destroyed during the period—forest, and grassland.

The savannah formations of the cerrado—which make up 62 percent of the biome’s vegetation—accounted for 88 million tons of CO2 (65%) emitted in the period. The burning of forest formations generated almost 37 million tons, while the destruction of grassland, which occupies six percent of the biome’s area, resulted in the emission of around 10 million tons.

Continue reading.

[mariacallous]

There are just two cables linking the remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard with mainland Norway, providing almost all the data from polar-orbiting satellites to the rest of the world. And two years ago, they nearly stopped working.

Norwegian police images released in late May show the catastrophic damage done to one of the Svalbard fiber optic cables: the plastic casing slashed open, the cable exposed, and wires unfurled like a faulty electrical cord.

The unsolved January 2022 incident, which cut data flow from the SvalSat satellites and limited air traffic to the archipelago, is serving as a cautionary tale about what can happen when undersea cables—which underpin most of the global communications network—are cut. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels did just that earlier this year when they targeted a key bottleneck between Asia, Africa, and Europe—after threatening to do so in response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

The threat is not just limited to one or two areas. NATO officials believe that Russia has a decadeslong program to map out European undersea infrastructure as part of an effort to prepare the battlefield for a possible conflict with the 32-nation alliance.

“We know the potential is there to do damage if they would want to,” said a senior NATO official, speaking with Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity based on ground rules for interacting with journalists set by the alliance. “Part of Russian war planning is knowing where the critical infrastructure of your enemy is.”

It doesn’t take a huge effort by the Russians to get the information that they need to cause harm. Most of the pipelines are run by utility companies, and much of the data on where the cables run is in the public domain because of licensing requirements.

In response, NATO now has an undersea infrastructure coordination group that brings together military and civilian officials and has the power to convene top representatives from the private sector, based out of the alliance’s Maritime Command in the London suburb of Northwood.

“The question is connecting all the dots and creating a network,” the senior NATO official said of the information and intelligence exchange.

The ambitious effort is an attempt to use computing power to protect the vast undersea cable network that undergirds much of the global economy. Since it’s nearly impossible to patrol undersea all the time without an unrealistic number of submarines—especially across the Atlantic Ocean—the alliance has to rely on computers. Drawing on data from software interfaces and the cable and pipeline operators themselves, NATO allies are working together with the private sector to create a massive alert system for the thousands of miles of undersea infrastructure in Northern Europe, relying on sensors from the cables as well as acoustic sensors attached to wind turbines, which can be used to detect irregularities.

“NATO processes, I think, are sort of in a very early phase,” said Audun Halvorsen, the director of the emergency department for the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association (and formerly the country’s deputy foreign minister). “They are basically trying to map out the landscape when it comes to jurisdictions, when it comes to authorities involved. You are facing a huge range of different regulatory regimes for the industry around the undersea basin.”

The strategy of cutting undersea cables is almost as old as modern warfare. (The first trans-Atlantic cables had been laid a few decades earlier, in 1866.) Britain began cutting German undersea cables at the outset of World War I to sabotage communications—and the Germans happily returned the favor. When submarine telephone cables began being laid in the 1950s, during the early days of the Cold War, Soviet trawlers damaged underwater cables near the Newfoundland coast. The U.S. Navy alone owns more than 40,000 nautical miles of active cables on the seafloor.

But with fiber optic cables becoming the ubiquitous plumbing that underpins global communications and trade in the internet age, the vulnerability in the seabed is growing. Norway’s undersea pipeline network provides about 40 percent of Europe’s natural gas supply, with pipelines crisscrossing the North Sea to the United Kingdom and the rest of the continent along with about 500 underwater communication cables that carry roughly 97 percent of the world’s internet traffic—some of them extending all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. That’s as much as $10 trillion in financial transactions every day.

“It is less kinetic and more a way for the Russians to show the West that ‘we know you guys are quite challenged in securing that infrastructure,’” said Sebastian Bruns, a naval expert at the Center for Maritime Strategy and Security at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University in Germany. “They would be tackling the very seams of what ties our societies together.”

About 100 of those cables break globally every year—most by accident—and it’s basically impossible to protect all of that infrastructure, other than by adding even more redundant data cables or ensuring that more liquified natural gas tankers are waiting out at sea, providing another source of gas if there’s a break.

The concern for that infrastructure has led to the NATO effort, which began after the September 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. Even though much of the data about where the cables are located is public, the sensor data that could determine whether a linkage is in danger of being cut is stovepiped far under the national level—meaning that it’s kept within the companies themselves. The United States alone has 85 licensed undersea telecommunications landing stations. And while many pipeline owners have taken into account the risk of corrosion and possible accidents, factoring for sabotage is less common.

Some experts believe that smaller groups of countries can move faster than NATO to protect the cables. In April, Norway and five other countries bordering the North Sea—Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom—agreed to share operational information to protect undersea cables and pipelines against sabotage. And the Council of the Baltic States recently met in Finland to condemn Russia’s hybrid tactics—incidents of sabotage that fall beneath the level of declared war, including threats to undersea cables.

Already, Russia is lashing out at Nordic countries through other means. Since Finland joined NATO in April 2023, Russia has been sending waves of forced migrants to their 830-mile-long shared border—nearly half of the entire boundary between Russia and the alliance—forcing Helsinki to shut down all of its crossings. Russia has proposed redrawing borders in the Baltic Sea, hit Sweden with cyberattacks, and even removed buoys on the Narva River that Estonia put in place to mark their maritime frontier.

“All of our economy under the sea is under threat,” Vice-Adm. Didier Maleterre, the deputy commander of the NATO maritime command, said in April.

The threat is heightened by a Russian submarine program that has resurged since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, operating from the Kola Peninsula. But problems can also be caused by unintended anchor drag from commercial ships. The Hong Kong-flagged and Chinese-operated NewNew Polar Bear, suspected of damaging the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia in October 2023, sailed away along the Northern Sea route with protection from a Russian icebreaker.

In the face of all the other challenges—shrinking navies, a resurgence in piracy, the Red Sea attacks—that undersea flank is exposed.

And officials say that Russia’s use of criminal and civilian networks—which are also deployed to create influence networks in mainland Europe—makes all of these tactics, including the sabotage of undersea pipelines, extremely difficult to pin on the Kremlin. The Russian surveys of the Baltic seabed, for instance, are carried out by ships with an ostensibly scientific purpose.

“We are still tied into this military-versus-civilian division of labor, whereas the Russians are much smarter using civilian vessels for military purposes,” said Bruns, the naval expert. “We are yet to find a solution for that.”

Scientists still understand relatively little about the form of the seafloor. So artificial intelligence is also being used to map it, providing another potential method to spot would-be Russian cable snappers. Some NATO countries and operators are even thinking about burying their pipelines in the seafloor, especially in the Baltic Sea, where the average depth is just under 200 feet. It’s already standard practice near most European coastlines, since it helps protect against bottom trawlers and ship anchors.

After the Balticconnector pipeline incident last fall, Norway began to do an inventory of its own undersea infrastructure, starting with oil and gas before branching out to map parts of the electrical grid and communications cables that ran underwater. Authorities were able to search nearly 5,600 miles of oil and gas pipelines.

“We searched everything,” said Gen. Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway’s chief of defense. “When we found something, we used our military experts to look [at], ‘what is this? Is this something that has been placed there? Is this something from World War II? Is it something that the fishermen dropped?’”

The ability to conduct such an extensive search stems from the infrastructure of the private sector. Norway’s energy industry already has preparedness mechanisms in place to help protect and repair undersea infrastructure for pipelines and electric cables, Halvorsen said, which is coordinated by Norwegian operator Equinor. It’s a model that Halvorsen believes has promise for communication cables, too. But across most of NATO, that capability is limited.

“There is basically zero capability in government hands to survey, repair, maintain, [or] replace any of this infrastructure,” Halvorsen said. “All that capability and capacity is for the civilian industry. So to protect this kind of underwater infrastructure, you need to have some kind of functioning interface between the government side … and the industry.”

[domini-porter]

Hi, I genuinely just want to pop in to say that I’m very excited to begin reading your series The Age of Wickedness!

I loved what you did with CMYK, and I was waiting because I’m currently working my way through FAR too many stories.

So I didn’t honestly come to ask a question as much as I came to say thanks for your work & I, too, am a certified Drake hater. I wanted to scream to someone else who shares the love for Rizzles and hate for Drake. It is a very specific overlap in the Venn diagram of active fandoms here. 😂

But while I’m here, I do love getting a glimpse into writers’ processes, and I’m curious to know if you had a passion for this particular era, or if you had a particular idea for Rizzles and you felt this would be the greatest way to realize it?

Thanks for keeping the fandom alive & stay hating 🥂

Oh hi hi thank you!

First: wop wop wop wop wop Dot fuck ‘em up (very thrilled to start the Intersectional Haters Society with you)

As for the AoW time period—it’s kind of a confluence of things! It all started with a mental image of Maura wearing a bustle while doing taxidermy, and kind of developed from there. But I’m a biiiiiiiig Edith Wharton fan (there are lots of little references to her works throughout, including the series name), a less-big Henry James fan, and so on.

Then you gotta add the influence of my best friend/sounding board/biggest fan, who LOVES this time period more than any other, as well as fringe religions, social movements, etc, and has declared himself my research assistant (thx jda).

Then you gotta add my unstoppable love for trivia and my immovable need to be both correct and authoritative, now with the entirety of human knowledge available on the same device I type my stories into, which means not only am I able to reference the correct building and location for the specific year (1885, in this case), but the architect, the financiers, the floor plan. The internet will probably turn out to have been a mistake, but it also tells me the dates of home games played by the Boston Beaneaters during the 1886 season, so.

And then? When I got into it, and started researching in earnest? Turns out every-fucking-thing of note that happened in this time period happened in Boston. Okay, not everything. But a lot of things! Incidental things! Things I discovered during research! Like how general anesthesia was developed at Massachusetts General Hospital, a facility designed by one Mr. Bulfinch, father of legendary myth-collector Charles Bulfinch (who compiled the first, and still most famous, book of myths and legends). Neat, right? Now add in that I only discovered this when researching that hospital’s Ether Dome, after spending a couple hundred pages heavily incorporating Greek myth as a motif (and namdropping Bulfinch’s Mythology specifically). I dunno, it thrilled me, at least? And there’s tons of that kind of serendipitous detail woven in, which hopefully isn’t a chore, because it soothes and delights me to share cool facts.

Then you’ve got the other stuff that makes it a compelling setting—it’s during the Industrial Revolution but before a lot of medical and scientific discoveries (horrifying fact! surgical gloves weren’t developed until 1892!). Huge developments were underway socially and culturally, with massive immigration and the emergence of organized social services, especially in ultra-progressive Boston. Things move slowly without internal combustion and optical cables, and everything requires significantly more effort (travel, communication, etc). This is so fun because it both forces creative problem-solving and really forces the universe of the story to slow down to allow for more character development and world-building and honestly, a sense of wonder and mystery (not that you can’t have a slow world in the modern era, but due to the ubiquity of technology it feels more difficult—there often must be a reason this modern setting is de-emphasizing technology, etc, instead of just not including cell phones; plus the massive advantage of hindsight for historical fiction).

Okay, WHEW. I could clearly talk about this stuff for another 600 pages, but I gotta go get stoned and hang out with my cats, as is tradition. Thank you again for asking! And even more for caring about The Beef, which is still at the front of my mind (Drake’s gonna drop something else, is my theory, to bait Dot, and oh jeez am I ever hype for how Kendrick scorches the earth)(also the whole West Coast scene hates Drake now, which is THRILLING)

[thepastisalreadywritten]

TOKYO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Japan launched its lunar exploration spacecraft on Thursday aboard a homegrown H-IIA rocket, hoping to become the world's fifth country to land on the moon early next year.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the rocket took off from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan as planned and successfully released the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM).

Unfavourable weather led to three postponements in a week last month.

Dubbed the "moon sniper," Japan aims to land SLIM within 100 metres of its target site on the lunar surface.

The $100-million mission is expected to start the landing by February after a long, fuel-efficient approach trajectory.

"The big objective of SLIM is to prove the high-accuracy landing ... to achieve 'landing where we want' on the lunar surface, rather than 'landing where we can'," JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa told a news conference.

The launch comes two weeks after India became the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 mission to the unexplored lunar south pole.

Around the same time, Russia's Luna-25 lander crashed while approaching the moon.

Two earlier lunar landing attempts by Japan failed in the last year.

JAXA lost contact with the OMOTENASHI lander and scrubbed an attempted landing in November.

The Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander, made by Japanese startup ispace (9348.T), crashed in April as it attempted to descend to the lunar surface.

SLIM is set to touch down on the near side of the moon close to Mare Nectaris, a lunar sea that, viewed from Earth, appears as a dark spot.

Its primary goal is to test advanced optical and image processing technology.

After landing, the craft aims to analyse the composition of olivine rocks near the sites in search of clues about the origin of the moon. No lunar rover is loaded on SLIM.

Thursday's H-IIA rocket also carried the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) satellite, a joint project of JAXA, NASA and the European Space Agency.

The satellite aims to observe plasma winds flowing through the universe that scientists see as key to helping understand the evolution of stars and galaxies.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T) manufactured the rocket and operated the launch, which marked the 47th H-IIA rocket Japan has launched since 2001, bringing the vehicle's success rate close to 98%.

JAXA had suspended the launch of H-IIA carrying SLIM for several months while it investigated the failure of its new medium-lift H3 rocket during its debut in March.

Japan's space missions have faced other recent setbacks, with the launch failure of the Epsilon small rocket in October 2022, followed by an engine explosion during a test in July.

The country aims to send an astronaut to the moon's surface in the latter half of the 2020s as part of NASA's Artemis programme.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/japan-launches-rocket-carrying-moon-lander-slim-after-three-delays-2023-09-06/

Japan launches 'Moon Sniper' mission | AFP

7 September 2023

Japan's "Moon Sniper" mission blasted off Thursday as the country's space programme looks to bounce back from a string of recent mishaps, weeks after India's historic lunar triumph.

[nasa]

For the Benefit of All: Assistive Tech Developed from NASA Tech

What do modern cochlear implants and robotic gloves have in common? They were derived from NASA technology. We’ve made it easier to find and use our patented inventions that could help create products that enhance life for people with disabilities.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which highlights the contributions of American workers with disabilities – many of whom use assistive technology on the job. Take a look at these assistive technologies that are NASA spinoffs.

Low-Vision Headsets

The Joint Optical Reflective Display (JORDY) device is a headset that uses NASA image processing and head-mounted display technology to enable people with low vision to read and write. JORDY enhances individuals’ remaining sight by magnifying objects up to 50 times and allowing them to change contrast, brightness, and display modes. JORDY's name was inspired by Geordi La Forge, a blind character from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” whose futuristic visor enabled him to see.

Cochlear Implants

Work that led to the modern cochlear implant was patented by a NASA engineer in the 1970s. Following three failed corrective surgeries, Adam Kissiah combined his NASA electronics know-how with research in the Kennedy Space Center technical library to build his own solution for people with severe-to-profound hearing loss who receive little or no benefit from hearing aids. Several companies now make the devices, which have been implanted in hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Robotic Gloves

Ironhand, from Swedish company Bioservo Technologies, is the world’s first industrial-strength robotic glove for factory workers and others who perform repetitive manual tasks. It helps prevent stress injuries but has been especially warmly received by workers with preexisting hand injuries and conditions. The glove is based on a suite of patents for the technology developed by NASA and General Motors to build the hands of the Robonaut 2 humanoid robotic astronaut.

Smart Glasses

Neurofeedback technology NASA originally developed to improve pilots’ attention has been the basis for products aimed at helping people manage attention disorders without medication. The devices measure brainwave output to gauge attention levels according to the “engagement index” a NASA engineer created. Then, they show the results to users, helping them learn to voluntarily control their degree of concentration. One such device is a pair of smart glasses from Narbis, whose lenses darken as attention wanes.

Anti-Gravity Treadmills

A NASA scientist who developed ways to use air pressure to simulate gravity for astronauts exercising in space had the idea to apply the concept for the opposite effect on Earth. After licensing his technology, Alter-G Inc. developed its anti-gravity G-Trainer treadmill, which lets users offload some or all of their weight while exercising. The treadmills can help people recover from athletic or brain injuries, and they allow a safe exercise regimen for others with long-term conditions such as arthritis.

Wireless Muscle Sensors

Some of the most exciting assistive technologies to spin off may be yet to come. Delsys Inc. developed electromyographic technology to help NASA understand the effects of long-term weightlessness on astronauts’ muscles and movements. Electromyography detects and analyzes electrical signals emitted when motor nerves trigger movement. Among the company’s customers are physical therapists developing exercise routines to help patients recover from injuries. But some researchers are using the technology to attempt recoveries that once seemed impossible, such as helping paralyzed patients regain movement, letting laryngectomy patients speak, and outfitting amputees with artificial limbs that work like the real thing.  

To further enhance the lives of people with disabilities, NASA has identified a selection of patented technologies created for space missions that could spur the next generation of assistive technology here on Earth.

Want to learn more about assistive technologies already in action? Check out NASA Spinoff to find products and services that wouldn’t exist without space exploration.   

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Adolf Martens (6 March 1850 – 24 July 1914)

A German metallurgist, Adolf Martens was primarily involved in the iron and steel industries, working on bridges and other metallic structures as well as rail lines, before he became a professor in Berlin. Martens is most famous for his work on steel microstructures - in particular, the phase (martensite) that was named in his honor. (Though at the time, martensitic transformations were unknown and Martens didn't actually publish any studies connected to martensite, he did sketch microstructures that could have been what we now call martensite.) As well as studying microstructures, relating structure to properties, he also studied fracture surfaces and developed and improved versions of optical microscopes.

Sources/Further Reading: (Image source - Wikipedia) (University of Cambridge) (1989 article)

[y0ur-maj3sty]

Project Blue Beam

Nasa has been working on aircraft that are real, but will become a part of the Global Holographic Alien Invasion/Light show. This may also include a staged 2nd coming of historical fugures; such as Jesus or Mohammed or Krishna.

BLUE BEAM Has 4 Steps:

Step 1

The first step concerns the breakdown of all archaeological knowledge. It deals with staging earthquakes at certain precise locations around the planet where supposed new "discoveries" will finally explain that the meanings of the basic doctrines of all the world`s major religions are wrong. This falsification will be used to make the population believe that all religious doctrine has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. For example, in the entertainment/movie industry, a falsification started with the film(s) 2001: A Space Odyssey, the TV-series Star Trek, the Star Wars films, and E.T., all of which deal with space invasion and protection. Another movie example is Jurassic Park which was released to push the Theory of Evolution.

Step 2

The second step deals with the gigantic space show: 3D optical holograms and sounds, laser projections of multiple holographic images in different parts of the world, each receiving a different image, according to its predetermined original national religious faith. This new "god" image will talk in all languages. As an example, the Soviets have manufactured the advanced computers and have programmed them with the Minute Psychological Particles based upon their studies of the anatomy and biology of the human body, as well as their studies on the anatomy, chemistry and electricity of the human brain. These computers have also been fed with the different languages of the world.

Step 3

The third step deals with telepathic electronic two-way communication, where ELF(Extra Low Frequency), VLF (Very Low Frequency), and LF (Low Frequency) waves will reach the people of the Earth through the insides of their brains, making each person believe that his own God is speaking to him from within his own soul. Such rays, from satellites, are fed from the memory of computers that store much data about the human being and his languages. These rays will then interlace and interweave with the natural thinking processes to form what is called Artificial Talk.

Step 4

The fourth step involves universal supernatural manifestations using electronic means. This step contains three different orientations:

The first one is to make mankind believe that an Alien Invasion is about to occur upon every major city on the earth. This is to push each major nation into using its nuclear capability to strike back. In this manner, it would put each of these nations in a state of full disarmament before the United Nations after the false attack.

The second is to make the vast Christian population believe that a major rapture is occurring, with a simple, orchestrated, divine intervention of an alleged "good" alien force coming to save the good people from a brutal satanic attack. Its goal is to get rid of all significant opposition to the New World Order.

The third orientation is a mixture of electronic and supernatural forces. The waves or frequencies used at that time will allow supernatural forces to travel through fiber optics cable, coaxial cable, electric and telephone lines in order to penetrate all electronic equipment and appliances that will by then all have a special microchip installed. The goal of this step deals with the materialization of satanic ghosts, spectres, and poltergeists all across the globe in order to push all populations to the edge of a wave of suicide, killing and permanent psychological disorder. After that night, humanity is believed to be ready for them to enter in a "New" Messiah to re-establish peace everywhere at any cost, even at the cost of their freedom.

[iww-gnv]

When the International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPRO) general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann appeared at the Future of Sport conference in Paris last month, he described athlete data as “the third big-value contribution the players make to the sport industry,” following their on-field performance and image rights. Such a statement reflects data’s evaluated status in modern sports. Yet while name, image and likeness rights have been commercialized extensively in professional sports, data rights are a nascent field, evolving at varying speeds based on club cooperation, league and union maturity and legal jurisdiction. There’s a wide range of data collected, too, inclusive of GPS vests, optical tracking cameras, force plates, heart rate monitors and more.  FIFPRO, the consortium representing 66 global professional soccer unions, recently announced its grand ambition to tackle the issue itself, serving as an accelerant of a universal solution across soccer. The idea, Baer-Hoffmann said, is to “translate the highest standard of data protection legislation” into a centralized platform whose development is led by FIFPRO with the athletes’ interests at the center. The Netherlands-headquartered FIFPRO started exploring rights and protections of athlete data about five years ago. A survey it conducted during the 2020-21 season reported that 80% of pro players rated their interest in using data as at least an 8 on a 1-to-10 scale. Only about half, however, had full access to it or even understood why and how it was collected.