Saturday, February 08, 2020

Research voyage brings Zealandia secrets to the surface

Fresh evidence of how the continent of Zealandia was created has been published by an international team of scientists co-led by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington's Professor Rupert Sutherland.

The research both upends the previous theory and establishes a new geological concept.

Professor Sutherland from the University's School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences was part of the team of predominantly GNS Science researchers that made global headlines in 2017 when they announced Zealandia should count as a new fully-fledged continent, Earth's seventh and smallest.

New Zealand to the south and New Caledonia to the north are the only major land masses of the otherwise mostly underwater Zealandia, which, at 4.9 million square kilometers, is about two-thirds the size of Australia.

Its continental crust is mostly between 10 and 30 kilometers thick, which is thinner than the 30 to 45 kilometers of the six other continents, yet thicker than oceanic crust, which is about seven kilometers thick.

The first scientific drilling expedition to Zealandia in 1972 hypothesized it was underwater after its crust was stretched, thinned and ripped away from the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana (which included Australia and Antarctica) about 85 million years ago.

Although evidence remains compelling that this was at least part of the case, new samples collected and tested by Professor Sutherland and his colleagues during a nine-week Tasman Sea voyage under the auspices of the International Ocean Discovery Program indicate a key additional factor: Zealandia's subsequent modification during the formation of the Pacific Ring of Fire about 50 million years ago.

The Pacific Ring of Fire is a zone of volcanoes and earthquakes that result from the geological process of subduction, where a tectonic plate sinks back deep into the Earth. The process by which the zone formed has always been a mystery.

"We propose that a 'subduction rupture event' propagated around the whole of the western Pacific at that time," says Professor Sutherland. "We suggest the process was similar to a massive super-slow earthquake that resurrected ancient subduction faults that had lain dormant for many millions of years. This concept of 'subduction resurrection' is a new idea and may help explain a range of different geological observations."

As a result of the Pacific Ring of Fire, "things that were in 1,000 meters of water came up to sea level and then subsided down to be more than 1,000 meters deep again," he says. "The permanent effects included the New Caledonia Trough that comes all the way to Taranaki."

Professor Sutherland's team included more than 30 scientists from New Zealand, the United States, Italy, Spain, New Caledonia, China, the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Japan, the United Kingdom and South Korea. He co-led it with Professor Gerald Dickens from Rice University in Texas in the United States.

They used a 300-tonne drill to make six boreholes up to 900 meters below the sea floor, from which rock and sediment cores were collected and analyzed for clues about the timing and length of Zealandia's uplift.

"We used fossils from three of the sites to show that northern Zealandia became much shallower and likely even had land areas between 50 and 35 million years ago. At about the same time, two other sites subsided into deeper water, and then the whole region subsided by at least a kilometer to its present depth," says Professor Sutherland.

The team's evidence shows that events such as the creation of the Pacific Ring of Fire "can dramatically alter the geography of continents, and the sedimentary record preserved on Zealandia will help us figure out in more detail how and why it happened, and what the consequences were for plants, animals, and regional climate."

Lost continent of Zealandia: Scientists return from expedition to sunken land

More information: R. Sutherland et al. Continental-scale geographic change across Zealandia during Paleogene subduction initiation, Geology (2020). DOI: 10.1130/G47008.1

New research to help identify safe sites for nuclear waste storage

by University of Sheffield

New insights into rates of bedrock erosion by glaciers around the world will help to identify better sites for the safe storage of nuclear waste, according to researchers.

A new analysis of global glacier erosion rates and flow speeds by scientists at the University of Sheffield, University of Dundee and Keele University has overturned previous findings about the link between glacial flow and erosion rates.

Published in Nature Communications today, the findings confirm the importance of glacier flow speed in determining the rate of glacial erosion. But in an unexpected result, the scientists show that the increase in erosion rate with glacier flow speed occurs much more slowly than previously thought.

Dr. Darrel Swift, a member of the Energy Institute at the University of Sheffield, said: "As glaciers flow downhill, they slide over the bedrock beneath, causing the bedrock to be eroded. This analysis shows that a glacier that flows twice as fast as its neighbor does not necessarily produce twice the rate of bedrock erosion.

"This may be because, as glacier flow speed increases, spaces between the ice and the bed are formed in the lee of bedrock bumps. This means that the base of the glacier begins to separate from, or lose contact with, the bed.

"This effect has been suggested by some to enhance the rate of erosion, because it increases the stress placed by sliding ice on the few lumps of bedrock that remain in contact with the glacier's base. However, it is perfectly possible that this effect is negated by the fact that less and less of the bed is in contact with sliding ice."

For the first time, the analysis also shows the clear importance of local temperature and precipitation in determining glacial erosion rates at the global scale.

Dr. Swift explained: "The speed of glacier flow is important because this dictates how fast ice at the base of the glacier slides over the bedrock beneath.

"But a glacier also has to keep its bed clean. This is because sediment produced by erosion can accumulate at the glacier bed, and the accumulation of a thick sediment layer would eventually slow the rate of erosion. Warmer and wetter environments may help glaciers to wash their beds because glacial melt will likely be more abundant, and this means sliding ice will maintain closer contact with bedrock."

The findings help to explain patterns of glacial erosion produced by glaciers and larger ice caps or ice sheets, which are responsible for creating spectacular Alpine landscapes—and also have implications for the safe long-term storage of hazardous nuclear waste.

Dr. Swift, who has advised organizations responsible for the siting and development of deep geological nuclear waste disposal facilities, said: "For many countries, underground storage of hazardous nuclear waste in a deep geological facility is the accepted safest solution. Organisations responsible for finding suitable sites for these facilities, and for designing the necessary underground infrastructure, must ensure that future glacial erosion will not adversely affect the facility's integrity.

"Advancing ice during future glacial periods could, over many hundreds of thousands of years, remove many hundreds of meters of bedrock. This would likely affect the environment of the disposal facility beneath, where nuclear waste can remain dangerous for over 100,000 years.

"In many countries, otherwise ideal sites for the development of deep geological disposal facilities are in areas that have previously been covered by ice. This means that those sites will likely experience glaciation, and glacial erosion, in the future."

How some of Earth's most breathtaking landscapes are created by glaciers

More information: Simon J. Cook et al. The empirical basis for modelling glacial erosion rates, Nature Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14583-8

Meet the 71-year-old staging a one-man protest in his Trump-loving retirement community

For most of his life, Ed McGinty kept his political beliefs to himself.

Ed McGinty is a rare protester in the Trump stronghold of The Villages. “When Trump won, it changed the whole ballgame for me,” McGinty says. “I thought to myself, ‘This was supposed to be a joke. What’s wrong with these people?’ ” (Chris Stanley)

Raised Irish Catholic in Philadelphia, the 71-year-old retired real estate broker has always been a Democrat, just like his parents before him. But the last time he remembers being especially politically motivated was when Hubert Humphrey ran against Richard Nixon in 1968. After that, he’d wake up the morning after Election Day, find out George W. Bush or another Republican had won and say, “Okay, well, back to work.”

Then Donald Trump was elected.

“When Trump won, it changed the whole ballgame for me,” McGinty told The Washington Post. “I thought to myself, ‘This was supposed to be a joke. What’s wrong with these people?’ ”

In the three years since then, the once-quiet political observer has transformed into the best-known Trump protester in The Villages, a sprawling, meticulously planned and maintained retirement community that lies about 45 miles northwest of Orlando. McGinty’s daily vigil with signs blasting the president as a “SEXUAL PREDATOR” (among other things) has drawn ire in the Trump-loving Florida town he has called home since 2016. It has also brought viral fame.

For his one-man protest against the president, McGinty has been berated as a baby killer and a “dumb a--,” decried in letters to the editor of a local news site and hit with an anonymous, handwritten threat — a sign that even a town that is described as Disney World for retirees and markets itself as “Florida’s Friendliest Hometown” is not immune to the divisiveness of this political era.

“There was always a divide, but we coexisted,” said Chris Stanley, president of The Villages Democratic Club. “There would be some good-natured back and forth, but your neighbors were your friends. You’d have dinner with the Republicans because it wasn’t a big deal. … These days, the division in the country shows up best in The Villages because now the Republicans, they won’t golf with you anymore, or you don’t want to golf with them.”

The 120,000-person enclave is a Trump stronghold in a county the president carried by nearly 70 percent, where Republicans outnumber Democrats two to one and golf carts — the main mode of transportation — are adorned with Trump bumper stickers. A regular stop for GOP politicians and hopefuls, it is Republican to its roots, created by billionaire conservative developer H. Gary Morse, who donated millions of dollars to the party’s candidates and committees before his death in 2014.

Even employees of The Villages have been pressured to support the Republican cause, according to Politico Magazine, which noted in a 2018 feature on the community that the development firm encouraged them to donate to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign to show that “The Villages family is ‘all in.’ ”

Jerry Prince, president of The Villages Republican Club, disputed the notion that the town has become highly politicized as a result of Trump’s rise, saying that most political disagreements are benign and short-lived. He supports the president but has maintained friendships with people who do not.

“There’s radicals on both sides, okay,” he said. “And I’ve heard of people wearing a Trump hat and somebody berates them, and I’ve seen the Republican side berate people to the left down here. They would have done that if they were in New York, or wherever the hell they came from.”

In McGinty’s telling, however, merely wearing an Elizabeth Warren hat cost him the friendly relationship he shared with a neighbor who used to give treats to his dogs. The man demanded he stop wearing the Warren hat — “and that was what really began my quest,” McGinty said. He called it “the defining day of my life as far as protesting.”

Soon after that encounter, he added the first of many anti-Trump signs to his golf cart, which previously was decorated only with stickers bearing the Penn State logo and his and his wife’s names. He rode around undeterred and even amused by the response: People shouting obscenities and giving him the finger, along with the occasional thumbs-up.

These days, McGinty devotes about two hours a day to protesting, crashing rallies planned by the Villagers for Trump group and parking his golf cart in well-trafficked areas where people are most likely to see his signs: “TRUMP BIGOT AND RACIST,” “TRUMP IS A SEXUAL PREDATOR” and “TRUMP COMPULSIVE LIAR.” He said he rotates between about 30 posters carrying various anti-Trump sentiments. He sits in his cart reading while he puts them on display, enjoying the confrontations that follow.

His critics call it deranged. Stanley calls it “something that’s coming from his soul.”

McGinty said he watched Trump’s career in New York and was appalled by his tabloid-fodder infidelity. During the 2016 election, he was angered anew by the then-candidate’s mocking of a disabled reporter, which was personal, McGinty said, because he has a sister with a disability.

He thinks Trump is immoral and unqualified, and he is frustrated by his community’s vehement support for him.

“These people down here are emboldened because there’s so many of them,” McGinty said. “And they really try to intimidate any Democrat that even sticks his head above water.”

His chief adversary — Villagers for Trump, which hosts frequent sign wavings and turns out for visits from MAGA stars including George Papadopoulos and Roger Stone, both convicted in the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference — did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

But Stanley, the Democratic club president, agreed that opposition to Democrats has become more forceful. She said her 800-member group has always had to rent office space outside of The Villages, unable to get a lease in town. But now the partisan divide has gotten “ugly,” she said, pointing to video of a man pulling down an anti-Trump protester who had climbed onto a bench during a rally for the president’s October visit to the town

She’s started new golf and dinner clubs for Democrats whose previous social circles were casualties of the 2016 election.

“If the rest of the country is as ugly as it is here,” Stanley said, “that’s terrifying.”

Tension over McGinty’s protest hit new heights last week, when he found a threatening letter on his front door. “BE VERY CAREFUL IF THE WELL BEING OF YOUR FAMILY IS OF IMPORTANCE,” it read. The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office took a report on the “vague threat,” noting that “Mr. McGinty advised he had no idea who had composed the note, but thought it was due to his political views.”

Days later, video of an exchange between McGinty and a woman who said she would “defend Trump until the day I die” went viral on Twitter, earning him notice outside of the Villages bubble.

The argument started when the woman, identified by Villages-News.com as Marsha Hill, approached McGinty with a camera rolling and asked him why he thought Trump was a sexual predator. An incredulous McGinty said the president had “admitted it,” citing the infamous hot-microphone conversation in which he bragged about groping women.

“Do you live in a cave, lady?” he asked, closing the book he’d been reading: “A Very Stable Genius,” by Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig.

There were honks and name-calling. Hill announced that she was going to send the video to Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr. McGinty responded, “Good. And tell Donald Trump to come down here. I want to punch him right in the nose.”

“This guy should be arrested,” Hill told Villages-News.com, accusing McGinty of defamation. “You can’t say that about the president with no proof.”

But when she posted footage of the confrontation on Twitter, tagging conservative radio commentator and failed Florida congressional candidate Dan Bongino, people ridiculed her and rallied around McGinty.

“THIS GUY IS AN AMERICAN HERO!!” said one representative tweet. McGinty’s own sparsely used Twitter account (pinned tweet: “I can’t wait for the presidential election #GoodbyeTrump”) picked up nearly 20,000 followers. Hill briefly locked hers (bio: “Trumpateer. MAGA2020”), writing in a tweet that “Twitter liberals are the meanest” and that she had been harassed.

In letters to the editor of the local news site, one of McGinty’s neighbors suggested that he was “suffering from a devastating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome” and called his new Twitter fans “lemming Trump haters.” Another noted that his speech is protected by the Constitution, “besides the fact that I whole heartedly agree with him.” A third said the “rabid fans of Trump have made living in The Villages intolerable,” while a fourth brought up Hillary Clinton, imagining a “disastrous future” if she had been elected and brought “her rapist husband back into the White House.”

Prince, of the Republican club, told The Post he wasn’t familiar with McGinty, and doesn’t get agitated by protesters anyway.

“The thing I say is, ‘This is America and you can think what you want,’ ” he said.

For his part, McGinty was back in his golf cart this week with his “TRUMP COMPULSIVE LIAR” sign. During an hour-long phone interview with a Post reporter on Wednesday, he was approached by a man who hurled an insult not fit for print (McGinty responded in kind) and by a woman who called him “my hero.” He handed her the phone.

“I had to come over and shake his hand,” she said, declining to give her name. “I just admire him for being so courageous.”

It was just another day in the lonesome stand against Trump: Angry opposition, quiet praise and McGinty in the middle, reveling in it all. His wife worries, his neighbors think he’s crazy and some of his friendships have suffered.

But he said he has no intention of stopping: His newfound activism is one of the things he’s most proud of in his life.

“I’m proud that I’m standing up for what’s right,” he said. “There’s never been a doubt in my mind that what I’m doing is right.”

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A few climate models are now predicting an unprecedented and alarming spike in temperatures — perhaps as much as 5 degrees Celsius

New projections suggest the doubling of CO₂ in the earth's atmosphere could lead to an increase in global temperatures around 5°C. Gian-Reto Tarnutzer/Unsplash

A handful of climate projections are predicting much higher rise in global temperatures than scientists have seen in the models before.
While there's concern over the number, some scientists hope the latest projections are outliers.

A 2-degree rise in temperature could lead sea level to jump, coral reefs to die, and water to become dangerously scarce in some parts of the world. Some models right now predict a 5-degree rise.

Several recent climate models have suggested the Earth's climate could warm to a far higher temperature than scientists previously predicted, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The startling anomaly first appeared in models from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which suggested that if Earth's atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentration doubles (as it's expected to do by the end of the century), the planet could wind up 5.3 degrees hotter. That's 33% higher than the group's previous estimate.

About a fifth of new climate-model results published in the past year have indicated similarly stark global temperature spikes, according to Bloomberg. The UK-based Met Office Hadley Center predicted a 5.5 degrees of warming, the US Department of Energy calculated a 5.3°-degree jump, French scientists estimated a 4.9-degree increase, and a model from Canadian scientists predicted the largest rise: 5.6 degrees

Scientists hope the models are an "overshot," Bloomberg reported. It will take scientists a significant amount time – at least months – to figure out how to interpret the results.

The climate models estimate "climate sensitivity," which tells scientists how much warmer the planet will get as a result of rising CO₂ concentrations. For four decades, the expected temperature rise if CO2 levels double has been about 3 degrees.

These models have a proven track record of accurately forecasting climate change. A recent study from the American Geophysical Union found that climate projections over the past five decades have largely been accurate — actual climate observations aligned with the models' predictions.

Still, there's a hope among climate scientists that the new projections are outliers. About a dozen other models are still due to be released, Bloomberg reported, and they could help paint a clearer picture.

"We hope it's not the right answer," Klaus Wyser, a senior researcher at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute told Bloomberg.

In the 2015 Paris climate agreement — from which President Donald Trump has started to withdraw the US —countries pledged to reduce carbon emissions in order to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees. It also established a more ambitious goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, but that's likely now out of reach given that the planet has already warmed by about 1 degree.

If global temperatures rise by 2 degrees, models predict, sea levels would get 1.6 feet higher, global heatwaves would become far more common, and subtropical areas could lose a third of their supply of fresh water. Nearly all aquatic life in oceans worldwide would be impacted; 99% of coral reefs could die.

---30---

It’s T-Shirt Weather in Antarctica as Temperature ...

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/its-t-shirt-weather-in-antarctica-as.html

Global warming to blame for hottest day in Argentina Antarctica
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/global-warming-to-blame-for-hottest-day.html

LOOKING FOR A GREAT LEADER

Xi Jinping has turned invisible during China's coronavirus epidemic, likely to cover his back in case things go badly wrong

Alexandra Ma

A screen showing Chinese President Xi Jinping at a symposium

in Hong Kong in February 2019. Kin Cheung/AP

China has framed its fight against the Wuhan coronavirus as a national struggle and a "people's war."
But its leader, President Xi Jinping, has been nowhere near the front lines.
His right hand man, Premier Li Keqiang, has been dispatched instead.
Some Communist officials have sought to portray Xi as an invisible force guiding the fight from afar.
But experts say Xi could be staying hidden to protect himself from public anger.
Citizens have accused the government of suppressing information about the virus, and punishing people who did speak out.

The outbreak of the deadly Wuhan coronavirus is sorely testing the Chinese Communist Party's grip on power.

With more than 630 people dead, citizens have turned their anger on their rulers, accusing the government of covering up the epidemic in its early days.

And the country's leader, President Xi Jinping, is nowhere to be found.

Xi has issued multiple statements about the virus, characterizing the battle against the disease as a patriotic national struggle, but has made no public or on-camera appearances.

He has called the fight against the coronavirus a "people's war" that requires "resolute actions," according to state media reports. Multiple officials have praised Xi's leadership in their speeches and meetings about the virus — but Xi has not been seen on the front lines once

Instead, he's sent his right hand man, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. In late January Li visited Wuhan, where the virus originated, to rally workers at a local hospital and at a construction site of a new hospital panic-built to accommodate more patients.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, (center) wears a mask while speaking to medical worker at the Jinyintan hospital in Wuhan on January 27. cnsphoto via Reuters

Wuhan's mayor, Zhou Xianwang, has offered himself up as a scapegoat, offering lat month to step down to placate locals' anger at the outbreak.

Officials have been criticized for responding slowly, while punishing citizens for spreading "rumors" about the virus, and detaining journalists for covering it.

(One such citizen who was censured for discussing the virus was Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist in Wuhan who warned his colleagues in late December of the outbreak. Local police later had him sign a letter admitting to "making false comments." He died of the coronavirus on Friday, sparking a public outpouring of grief.)

In other words, Xi is staying as far as possible from China's biggest crisis in years. In a country where he is considered the sole leader and dominant presence, it's obvious.

Xi in Paris in March 2019. Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty

Experts say he is likely trying to ensure he can keep his grip on power even if the coronavirus destroys citizens' faith in the Communist Party.

"If the situation improves, he will take credit. If it worsens the blame will be pinned on Li Keqiang," Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told The Guardian.

"The central government may be still in an active process in gauging when it's appropriate for Xi to appear to take the reins of the coronavirus fighting efforts," Rui Zhong, a China expert at the Wilson Center, told CNN's James Griffiths.

Medical staff rally in Wuhan before starting work in a newly-built hospital. Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Bill Bishop, author of the Sinocism newsletter, suggested that seeing Xi wear a mask in public — as almost the entire country is now required to do — could weaken his image as leader.

"One of the key political tasks of all party members is to protect the core, i.e. Xi Jinping, and while you would think the 'people's leader' would want to be seen close to the people, perhaps in this case the risk of him catching the virus may be too high, and images of him wearing a mask might be anathema to the propaganda wizards," he said.

"That said, I do not know what is going on," Bishop continued. "I will bet that Xi and the other top leaders in the Party and the military understand that they either all hang together in this crisis or they may all hang separately, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin."

Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, told Al Jazeera that Xi handled the crisis "very badly."

"You can't have him as the undisputed, unchallenged leader of China on one hand, and then say that in his watch, under his charge, the virus is being handled badly and it's got nothing to do with him," he said.

—TIME (@TIME) February 6, 2020

China's leadership appears to understand the gravity of the coronavirus and the challenge it presents to its power.

The official account of a Monday meeting of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee — a body comprising the country's top leadership, chaired by Xi — said: "The outbreak is a major test of China's system and capacity for governance, and we must sum up the experience and draw a lesson from it."

The same meeting also acknowledged "shortcomings and deficiencies exposed in the response to this epidemic," and pledged to improve the country's emergency management system — a rare admission of fault in an authoritarian nation.

Members of the Politburo Standing Committee, including Xi and Li Keqiang (fourth and fifth from left) at Beijing's Great Hall of the People in October 2017. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

But is it too late for the Communist Party to recoup its image?

Earlier this week, many people on Chinese social media had already started drawing attention to Xi's absence, asking euphemistically: "Where is that person?"

They posted images of former leaders responding to past crises on the ground, The New York Times reported, seeming to highlight the different approach taken by Xi.

An unnamed person in Wuhan wrote on Weibo earlier this week: "I know before long this country will go back to being a peaceful, prosperous society. We will hear many people screaming how proud they are of its prosperity and power ... But after what I have witnessed, I refuse to watch the applause and commendation."

It's a bold thing to say on Weibo, which often censors and removes content deemed politically sensitive, and in China, where people are frequently detained or disappeared.

After the death of Li — the doctor who died after being censored for spreading word of the coronavirus — Weibo was filled with outpourings of grief and anger at the government, which included the phrase: "We want freedom of speech."

Read more:
Chinese citizens are furious at the death of the whistleblower doctor censored for talking about the coronavirus. His mother said she couldn't even say goodbye.
China's unprecedented quarantine of 11 million people in Wuhan is 2 weeks old. Here's what it's like in the isolated city.
Mistrust, low pay, and a tradition of bribery in China's healthcare system have crippled efforts to contain the Wuhan coronavirus

AN EXCITED JAMES CARVELL ON MSNBC

Image result for MUMBLES KING OF THE HILL

Defective software could have doomed Boeing's crew capsule

by Marcia Dunn

ANOTHER BOEING SOFTWARE SCREW UP

Defective software could have doomed Boeing's crew capsule during its first test flight, a botched trip that was cut short and never made it to the International Space Station, NASA and company officials said Friday.

The Starliner capsule launched without astronauts in December, but its automatic timer was off by 11 hours, preventing the capsule from flying to the space station as planned. This software trouble—which left the capsule in the wrong orbit just after liftoff—set off a scramble to find more possible coding errors, Boeing officials said.

Hours before the Starliner's scheduled touchdown, a second software mistake was discovered, this time involving the Starliner's service module. Flight controllers rushed to fix the problem, which could have caused the cylinder to slam into the capsule once jettisoned during reentry.

Such an impact could have sent the Starliner into a tumble, said Jim Chilton, a senior vice president for Boeing. In addition, damage to the Starliner's heat shield could have caused the capsule to burn up on reentry, he noted.

He also conceded they wouldn't have found the second problem without the first.

"Nobody is more disappointed in the issues that we uncovered ... than the Starliner team," said Boeing program manager John Mulholland.

These latest findings stem from a joint investigation team formed by NASA and Boeing in the wake of the aborted test flight. The capsule returned to Earth on Dec. 22 after just two days, parachuting down to a landing in New Mexico.

The mission was supposed to be the company's last major hurdle before launching the first Starliner crew.

NASA has yet to decide whether Boeing should conduct another test flight without a crew, before putting astronauts on board. Just in case, Boeing reported last week that it took a $410 million charge in its fourth-quarter earnings, to cover a possible mission repeat.

Douglas Loverro, head of NASA's human exploration and operations mission directorate, said Boeing needs to check and verify all of its flight software before any decisions are made on a possible reflight. He told reporters NASA shares some of the blame for the software problems.

"Our NASA oversight was insufficient. That's obvious and we recognize that," he said.

The investigation team also is looking into a third problem, an intermittent space-to-ground communication problem that hampered controllers' ability to command and manage the capsule early in the flight. Interference from cellphone towers may have exacerbated the matter, Boeing officials said.

NASA said the independent review should be completed by the end of February.

Outside of this ongoing review, NASA is taking an extensive look at Boeing's culture, according to Loverro. He said it was prompted in part by software issues elsewhere in the company, an apparent reference to the grounded 737 Max fleet.

A second private company is on track to launch astronauts for NASA as early as this spring. SpaceX successfully completed a launch abort test last month at Cape Canaveral.

NASA astronauts have not launched from home soil since the space shuttle program ended in 2011, instead riding Russian rockets to get to the space station. The Soyuz seats go for tens of millions of dollars apiece.

NASA has been paying billions of dollars to Boeing and SpaceX to develop capsules capable of transporting astronauts to and from the space station. Even before Boeing's software issues, the commercial crew flights were years behind schedule. The space agency deliberately opted for two companies for redundancy, an advantage cited repeatedly Friday by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

Boeing's crew capsule declared ready for 1st space flight

Multiple software errors doomed Boeing crew capsule test
AFP
Multiple software issues and a poor radio link doomed a test flight of Boeing's crew capsule late last year, NASA said Friday, revealing for the first time a glitch that could have destroyed the spaceship on its re-entry.

© HO The Starliner's December 20 mission, an uncrewed test flight, was ended early when it failed to engage its thrusters on time, due to a previously reported faulty timer

The Starliner's December 20 mission, an uncrewed test flight, was ended early when it failed to engage its thrusters on time, due to a previously reported faulty timer.

NASA said in a statement Friday that the problem arose because it incorrectly pulled time from its Atlas V launch rocket, creating an 11-hour mismatch.

The second problem was intermittent space-to-ground communications, impeding the flight control team's ability to command and control the vehicle.

A third issue was confirmed by NASA and Boeing for the first time: a coding error in the program that governs Starliner's preparation for reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

The error would have caused the service module, which contains the spacecraft's support systems and is supposed to detach prior to re-entry, to be pushed toward the crewed module.

This could have resulted in impact, destabilizing the ship or damaging its heat shield, said Jim Chilton, senior vice president of Boeing's Space and Launch division.

The error was caught and fixed via a software patch the night before landing, said John Mulholland, project manager for the Starliner.

Douglas Loverro, a senior NASA official, said the multiple errors pointed to "insufficient" oversight by his agency, but he also added: "It looks as if there could possibly be process issues at Boeing. And so, we want to understand what the culture is at Boeing, that may have led to that."

Starliner's failure was the latest serious setback for Boeing, which is still reeling from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max aircraft. The crashes, in October 2018 in Indonesia and in March 2019 in Ethiopia, claimed a total 346 lives.

The findings of an independent review into the latest failure will be ready in late February.

NASA officials have refused to be drawn on what it all means for the future of Starliner, which is scheduled to take its first astronauts to the International Space Station in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Boeing's space rival SpaceX is preparing for its first crewed flight with its Crew Dragon, likely in the second quarter, according to boss Elon Musk.

NASA has committed to pay the two companies $8 billion in return for six trips carrying four astronauts each to the ISS. The US has relied on Russian rockets to carry its crews to the space station since ending the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

Amazon deforestation for January hits record

A handout picture released by the Communication Department of the State of Mato Grosso shows deforestation in the Amazon basin in the municipality of Colniza, Mato Grosso state, Brazil, on August 29, 2019

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil more than doubled in January compared with the previous year, according to official data published Friday.

More than 280 square kilometers (110 square miles) were cleared, an increase of 108 percent. It was the largest area cleared in the month of January since 2015, when such data started being collected, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

The data was collected by the INPE's satellite-based DETER system, which monitors deforestation in real time.

In comparison, 136 square kilometers were cleared in January 2019, 183 square kilometers in 2018 and 58 square kilometers in 2017.

INPE data published in mid-January found that deforestation in the Amazon in northern Brazil had soared 85 percent in 2019, clearing 9,166 square kilometers—the highest number in at least five years—versus 4,946 square kilometers cleared in 2018.

The sharp increase overlapped the first year in office of President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change skeptic who has eased restrictions on exploiting the Amazon's vast riches.

Bolsonaro made headlines in August when he attempted to minimize the resurgence of forest fires that had shocked the world.

On August 2, INPE then-president Ricardo Galvao was sacked by Bolsonaro's administration, which accused him of exaggerating the extent of the deforestation.

On Wednesday, Bolsonaro unveiled a sweeping plan for the Amazon rainforest that would open indigenous lands to mining, farming and hydroelectric power projects.

Many NGOs said this would further increase deforestation.

The bill, which has yet to be approved by Congress, is a "dream" for the far-right leader but a "nightmare" for environmentalists and tribal leaders.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon up by more than double: data

Yarn created from skin cells can be woven into human textiles

SOUNDS LIKE THE WEAVING HUMAN SKIN INTO PANTS AND COVERS OF BOOKS ALA HP LOVECRAFT DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers from France, Columbia and the U.S. has developed a type of yarn from human skin cells that can be woven into human textiles. In their paper published in the journal Acta Biomaterialia, the group describes the process they used and applications for the materials they produced.

Medical textiles are materials that can be used to heal skin and other body parts. They can also replace parts of damaged organs. But not all patients have the same reactions to all textiles, because the materials are often treated as foreign agents by the immune system. So scientists continue to look for ways to create textiles that the human body will accept. In this new effort, the researchers have created textiles out of human fibroblasts—cells that normally assist with the production of collagen and other fibers. The body will not reject them because they are natural human cells.

The researchers have created a variety of textiles out of the material for use in a wide variety of applications. The researchers first grew skin cell fibroblasts into sheets of material. The sheets were then fashioned into desired shapes. In many instances, they were cut into strings for applications such as suturing wounds. The strings could also be twisted or knotted to create braids or used like yarn for knitting or crochet applications. One notable advantage of the new technique is that it does not require the use of scaffolds to create parts of organs—they can simply be fashioned in ways similar to knitting a hat or scarf.

The new material has already been tested on animals, and the researchers are ready to start testing on human patients. They suggest it could be used to create pouches, valves or tubes, in addition to serving as a suture material for skin or organs after surgery. As an example, they created a tube out of the material and grafted it onto an artery in a test sheep. They also sutured open wounds in rats. The researchers claim the new material works as well as others currently in use.

Invention of shape-changing textiles powered only by body heat

More information: Laure Magnan et al. Human Textiles: a cell-synthesized yarn as a truly "bio" material for tissue engineering applications., Acta Biomaterialia (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2020.01.037

* The Dreams in the Witch-House | The H.P. Lovecraft Wiki ..
"The Dreams in the Witch House" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, part of the ... Keziah Mason was an old woman of Arkham who was arrested as part of the ...

Keziah Mason | The H.P. Lovecraft Wiki | Fandom
During the Salem witch trials of 1692, an old woman by the name of Keziah ... and when he took a room in her house she revealed to that same knowledge to ...

The Dreams in the Witch House - Tor.com
Jul 7, 2015 - Welcome back to the Lovecraft reread, in which two modern Mythos writers get girl ... Today we're looking at “The Dreams in the Witch House,” written in ... What's Cyclopean: The alien city of the elder things, that Gilman visits while ... My understanding is that HP wrote this work after being introduced to the ...

Nábrók - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Nábrók
Nábrók (calqued as necropants, literally "corpse britches") are a pair of pants made from the skin of a dead man, which are believed in Icelandic witchcraft to be capable of producing an endless supply of money. It is unlikely these pants ever existed outside of folklore.

Necropants: Did Icelandic Sorcerers Really Make Magic Pants ...
https://www.ancient-origins.net › unexplained-phenomena › necropants-ic...
Jun 27, 2018 - A museum in Iceland is home to the only known pair of necropants: pants made out of human skin. Legend has it that Icelandic sorcerers would tear the skin off of a dead friend’s body and clothe themselves in their flesh. They called them Nábrók, or necropants -- a type of dark ...

The Creepy Icelandic Pants Made of Human Skin
https://www.thevintagenews.com › 2018/08/24 › necropants
Aug 24, 2018 - Post-death, “you must dig up his body and flay the skin of the corpse in one piece from the waist down. As soon as you step into the pants they ...

Necropants and Other Tales of 17th-Century Icelandic Sorcery ...
https://www.atlasobscura.com › articles › objects-of-intrigue-necropants
... has been buried, dig up the body, and then skin the lower half of the corpse without creating any holes or tears, thus creating a pair of gruesome skin pants.

HUMAN SKIN BOOK COVER

NECRONOMICON FROM EVIL DEAD

In suspending Global Entry, a spiteful Trump makes us all less safe (opinion)
Opinion by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Ninety seconds. That's my record for getting through border controls at John F. Kennedy International Airport, armed with my Global Entry card. Customs took an additional two minutes (Global Entry card holders have their own line). This streamlined processing by the Trusted Traveler program allowed me to plan same-day business, rather than spend hours in line.

The Trump administration's suspension of Global Entry, NEXUS and other Trusted Traveler programs for residents of New York state, announced Wednesday by Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, will change all that. According to Wolf, new enrollments and re-enrollments for the service that costs $100 every five years are no longer possible, although current card holders can in theory continue to participate in the program until their special status expires.

While the official reason Wolf gave for the move was national security, in reality an authoritarian cocktail of spite, corruption and racism drives this decision -- one that will make America less secure and less efficient.

Every autocrat has an obsession, and one of President Donald Trump's is targeting immigrants as part of a crusade to rally his base and keep America a majority-white and Christian territory. His Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is targeting New York state because of its Green Light Law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses and forbids government officials from turning over Department of Motor Vehicles records to federal officials.
Without that information, Wolf claims, the government can't vet people for Trusted Traveler status.
National security experts and former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials say that's not just untrue but also dangerous. Trump's action will place vetted and non-vetted travelers together in lines for protracted periods of time. "This makes all air travelers less safe," tweeted Marco Lopez, who served as CBP chief of staff when Global Entry program launched. "Best crime fighting tool in the skies."

Revoking Global Entry has less to do with security than with the latest retaliation by Trump against a state that contains New York City, a place he felt has never really accepted him. More precisely, the New York City area, home to two busy international airports, Newark and JFK, is now a sanctuary for immigrants -- and to a state attorney general's office that under Barbara Underwood and now Letitia James has investigated him for alleged corruption and forced him to dissolve his Trump Foundation for what Underwood said was a "shocking pattern" of illegal behaviors.

"No one is above the law, not even the President," says James. Trump feels differently: he uses the law as a weapon against his enemies.

What does Trump really want to obtain with this power play? As always with authoritarians, the people and businesses that will lose time needlessly are just his pawns. His real targets are New York City and state politicians who have defied him: he hopes to make them unpopular and put pressure on them to renounce sanctuary cities, investigations and other measures that stand in the way of his personal and ideological goals. His further targets are other cities -- and whole states, such as California -- whose leaders must now be wondering: Are we next? And if so, what will the retaliation look like?

The Trump administration also knows well that taking away vetted status can mean more difficulties for his racial targets, opening travelers up to profiling if they have the wrong names or skin colors. As one of thousands wrongly placed on a State Department list after the 9/11 terrorist attacks merely for having a "Ben" name ("Ben" being too close to "Bin," as in Osama bin Laden), I have been through that, including special searches in cubicles.

What Trump wants is what all authoritarians want: conformity. He'll try and get it any way he can.

Guess who is not affected by the DHS ruling? The very rich, who travel in private jets and often have special VIP concierge services, like screening and entry protocols, if they travel commercially. Those people are Trump's real constituency, and they won't care about this change.

For the rest of us, there is the partial comfort of DHS's Mobile Passport application, or the private program Clear. Yet the suspension of Global Entry is not really about travel but about the erosion of principled government and the triumph of a politics of revenge.

To remedy that, we'll all need to make our voices heard.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment