On This Day: Environmental Protection Agency formed
On Dec. 2, 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency was formed with Indianapolis lawyer William Ruckelshaus as its administrator.

By UPI Staff


Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William Ruckelshaus (L) meets with underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau on December 7, 1983. The EPA was formed December 2, 1970. File Photo by Don Rypka/UPI | License Photo

FCC DEADLOCK —

Senate rushes to confirm Trump FCC nominee in order to hinder Biden admin

Democrats fight nomination, hoping for 2-1 FCC majority when Biden is sworn in.

JON BRODKIN - 12/2/2020 ARS TECHNICA

Enlarge / Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) at an FCC oversight hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee on June 24, 2020.
Getty Images | Washington Post

Senate Republicans are rushing to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee to the Federal Communications Commission in order to create a 2-2 deadlock for the Biden FCC.

In a 14-12 party-line vote today, the Senate Commerce Committee approved Trump's nomination of Nathan Simington. If Simington is confirmed by the full Senate, the FCC would be deadlocked at two Republicans and two Democrats after the upcoming departures of Chairman Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly. To get a 3-2 majority on the FCC, President-elect Joe Biden would have to nominate a Democrat after taking office and hope that the Senate confirms the nomination.

Senate Democrats said today that Simington is not qualified to be an FCC commissioner and that he misrepresented his work in the Trump administration during the committee's confirmation process.

"I will continue this fight on the Senate floor," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said. "I will continue to do everything I can to hold this nomination and to oppose it because I think Mr. Simington lacks the qualifications and independence that are required of an FCC commissioner."

Approving Simington would create "a deadlock at the commission in the middle of a national crisis," Blumenthal also said. "Perhaps the telecommunications and media companies want that kind of deadlock. They may wish for an FCC that is absent and neutralized. But we face right now a national emergency, both a pandemic and economic crisis that requires this independent agency to be more active than ever in protecting consumers and our telecommunications. The fact is, Mr. Simington has failed to provide this committee with an assurance that he will have the candor and independence that is required."
Nominee backs Trump “assault on First Amendment”

No Republican senators offered any justification for confirming Simington at today's meeting, which covered three nominations, including Simington's, and lasted less than 15 minutes. Blumenthal and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) pointed out that Simington was nominated only after Trump pulled the renomination of O'Rielly, who did not support Trump's attempted crackdown on Twitter and Facebook for alleged anti-conservative bias.Advertisement


"It would seem that Mr. Simington was nominated for just one purpose: to support the president's indefensible assault on the First Amendment," Blumenthal said. "It appears in fact to be his sole qualification—his reason for replacing Commissioner O'Rielly."

As Cantwell said, O'Rielly's "nomination was reportedly pulled as retaliation for Mr. O'Rielly speaking his mind about problems with the FCC trying to issue rules related to section 230 at the president's behest." The process "raises real questions about why the White House chose Mr. Simington, particularly given his lack of experience with the FCC, its statutory responsibilities, and many of the key issues at the agency," she said.

Simington is a senior adviser at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which petitioned the FCC for a new interpretation of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to limit social media platforms' legal protections for hosting third-party content when platforms take down or modify content they consider objectionable. Simington played a role in drafting and promoting that plan.

Blumenthal said he asked Simington to recuse himself from the FCC's Section 230 proceeding, but Simington has not committed to do so.
Simington lobbied Fox News

Newly revealed emails showed that Simington "reached out to Fox News this summer in an attempt at 'engaging' host Laura Ingraham to support President Donald Trump's quest to make it easier to sue social media companies like Facebook and Twitter," Politico reported last week. "Simington... wrote that the popular Fox News host could help sway the FCC to act on Trump's proposal before Election Day."

Blumenthal and Cantwell said the emails proved that Simington downplayed his role in the Trump administration's Section 230 proposal. Simington reportedly claimed during his nomination hearing that he had only a "minor role" in the NTIA's petition to the FCC.

"We have learned he sought to enlist Fox News to 'help get the FCC on board more quickly and thereby ensure a freer and fair social media landscape going into the elections this fall,'" Blumenthal said today, quoting from Simington's email to a Fox News staffer. "He then described restraining social media companies as a concern both to the presidency and down ballot. He failed to disclose this to the committee, he failed to tell us about it, Mr. Chairman. So I asked Mr. Simington again and received a nonanswer."Advertisement

Nominee “misrepresented his involvement”

Blumenthal also said that Simington's answers to questions from both Democratic and Republican senators were "inadequate, incomplete, and evasive."

Cantwell said there are "real questions... about Mr. Simington's candor with the committee during this confirmation process. We now know based on his own emails that he misrepresented his involvement in pushing the FCC to do the president's bidding on Section 230."

"The FCC and NTIA simply cannot be permitted to be an instrument of political bullying," Blumenthal said. "It is an assault on the integrity and independence of the FCC, and this committee must take this threat seriously."

FCC nominations have in some cases been approved in pairs, with one Democrat and one Republican joining the commission simultaneously. That's what happened in August 2017 when Republican Brendan Carr and Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel were confirmed on the same day. Before that, Rosenworcel had to leave the commission for about seven months because the Republican-led Senate refused to reconfirm her, a move that gave Trump a 2-1 FCC majority when he took office.

"She had to leave the commission to ensure that President Trump could appoint an accompanying [Republican] FCC nominee, and we should hold this nomination as well," Blumenthal said.

“Zero qualifications”

The sole purpose of Simington's nomination is "obstructing the incoming Biden administration and its FCC appointees," said Matt Wood, VP of policy and general counsel of media-advocacy group Free Press.

"Nathan Simington has zero qualifications for this position," Wood said. "He's here only as a result of strong-arm political tactics to reward his loyalty to Trump. Hand-picked and then forced on the Senate by a now-defeated president, Simington was not chosen for his expertise or ability, but for his apparent willingness to improperly cast a vote on the unlawful, unconstitutional, and just plain bad Section 230 petition that he helped write."

Fight for the Future, an advocacy group, warned that Simington's nomination is an attempt to prevent the restoration of net neutrality rules and urged people to contact their senators to oppose it.


ARS

SAY GOODBYE TO AJIT PAI —

Ajit Pai announces departure from FCC after four-year deregulatory blitz

Democrats may gain 2-1 FCC majority Jan. 20, with Rosenworcel as possible chair.

JON BRODKIN - 11/30/2020 ARS TECHNICA

Enlarge / FCC Chairman Ajit Pai speaking at a press conference on October 1, 2018, in Washington, DC.
Getty Images | Mark Wilson

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced today that he will leave the FCC on January 20, 2021, the day Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president. In his four years as FCC chief, Pai deregulated the broadband industry, eliminated net neutrality rules, and justified his deregulatory agenda by using faulty data and taking credit for broadband deployments that were planned before he became chairman.

Pai called being chairman "the honor of a lifetime."

"I am grateful to President Trump for giving me the opportunity to lead the agency in 2017, to President Obama for appointing me as a Commissioner in 2012, and to Senate Majority Leader McConnell and the Senate for twice confirming me. To be the first Asian-American to chair the FCC has been a particular privilege. As I often say: only in America," Pai said in his statement today.

FURTHER READING Ajit Pai touted false broadband data despite clear signs it wasn’t accurate

As per tradition in which presidents nominate commissioners from both parties, Obama nominated Pai in 2012 at the request of Senate Republicans. When Democrats were in power, Pai fought against the Obama-era FCC's decisions to adopt consumer-protection rules such as net neutrality and broadband-privacy regulations. When Trump became president and promoted Pai to the chairmanship, he set out to overturn some of the biggest decisions made by his predecessor, Democrat Tom Wheeler.

Democrats have path to 2-1 majority in January

Pai's departure from the FCC would give the Biden administration a 2-1 Democratic majority immediately upon the new president's inauguration. The FCC is currently 3-2 in Republicans' favor, but Republican Michael O'Rielly is leaving at the end of 2020 because Trump pulled O'Rielly's renomination. Trump's choice to replace O'Rielly has not been confirmed by the Senate.

It's likely that Biden and the Senate will work out a deal to add one Democrat and one Republican to fill the commission's two empty seats sometime in 2021, eventually giving Democrats a 3-2 majority. But a Democratic-majority FCC could get moving on restoring net neutrality rules and other regulatory matters with a three-member group consisting of Democrats Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks, and Republican Brendan Carr.

Rosenworcel, who has been an FCC commissioner since 2012 and is widely respected by lawmakers and consumer advocates, could be promoted to FCC chair by Biden on either an interim or permanent basis. Starks has been on the FCC less than two years and is not seen as a leading candidate for the chair spot. If Biden doesn't want to make either Rosenworcel or Starks the chair, he could bring in a new Democrat for the role as Obama did with Wheeler in 2013. One possible chair candidate is former commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who has already been appointed to a Biden transition team that will review the FCC.
Social-media crackdown likely dead

Biden's election victory likely spelled doom for Trump's plan to impose a crackdown on social-media companies like Twitter and Facebook, which have been trying to counter Trump's attempts to spread misinformation on their platforms. A few weeks before the election, Pai announced a proposal to implement Trump's request, which would limit legal protections for social media websites that block or modify content posted by users.

After the election, Congressional Democrats called on Pai to "immediately stop work on all partisan, controversial items" during the presidential transition period. Pai did not immediately respond to that request, and in today's statement Pai did not say anything about policy plans for the remainder of his term. Pai also didn't say anything about his post-FCC plans; he was a Verizon lawyer from 2001 to 2003, and then held several government positions before joining the FCC.

Democrats' upcoming 2-1 majority was made possible by Trump's decision to pull O'Rielly's renomination, which came shortly after O'Rielly refused to back the social-media crackdown. If Trump hadn't pulled the renomination, the Senate could have voted to give O'Rielly another term, deadlocking the FCC at 2-2 in the early part of the Biden administration.

There is still a chance for a 2-2 deadlock if the Republican-controlled Senate confirms Nathan Simington, Trump's pick to replace O'Rielly.

Pai helped telecoms “at the expense of the public”

"Unfortunately, Chairman Pai has succeeded in many of his efforts to promote the interests of large telecommunications, broadcasting, and cable companies at the expense of smaller competitors and, especially, the public," Benton Institute Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman said in a statement today. "We have less competition and higher prices as a result of these policies, some of which may still be overturned in the courts."

Pai's court losses included one that overturned his attempt to take broadband subsidies away from tribal residents and another that overturned his attempt to kill environmental and historic-preservation reviews of 5G small cells. Though Pai's repeal of net neutrality rules was upheld in court, judges overturned Pai's related decision to preempt state-level net neutrality laws. Pai won a case allowing the FCC to preempt local fees and regulations imposed on wireless carriers deploying 5G networks.

In his statement today, Pai said the FCC has "delivered for the American people over the past four years: closing the digital divide; promoting innovation and competition, from 5G on the ground to broadband from space; protecting consumers; and advancing public safety. And this FCC has not shied away from making tough choices. As a result, our nation's communications networks are now faster, stronger, and more widely deployed than ever before." O'Rielly issued a statement applauding Pai for deregulating the broadband industry and for moves that "open[ed] up more spectrum bands for commercial use, and expand[ed] broadband access to unserved Americans."

Rosenworcel, who consistently opposed Pai's deregulatory moves and criticized the FCC majority for not doing more to help Americans access broadband during the pandemic, issued a statement about Pai's departure today. "While we did not always agree on policy matters, I always valued our shared commitment to public service," Rosenworcel said. "Serving the American people is a tremendous honor and I wish him the best in the future."

Amazon to roll out tools to monitor factory workers and machines
Sensor, computer vision hardware come as tech giant pushes into industrial sector.

DAVE LEE, FINANCIAL TIMES - 12/1/2020


Amazon is rolling out cheap new tools that will allow factories everywhere to monitor their workers and machines, as the tech giant looks to boost its presence in the industrial sector.

Launched by Amazon’s cloud arm AWS, the new machine-learning-based services include hardware to monitor the health of heavy machinery and computer vision capable of detecting whether workers are complying with social distancing.

Amazon said it had created a two-inch, low-cost sensor—Monitron—that can be attached to equipment to monitor abnormal vibrations or temperatures and predict future faults.

AWS Panorama, meanwhile, is a service that uses computer vision to analyze footage gathered by cameras within facilities, automatically detecting safety and compliance issues such as workers not wearing PPE or vehicles being driven in unauthorized areas.

The new services, announced on Tuesday during the company’s annual cloud computing conference, represent a step up in the tech giant’s efforts to gather and crunch real-world data in areas it currently feels are underserved.

“If you look at manufacturing and industrial generally, it’s a space that has seen some innovations, but there’s a lot of pieces that haven’t been digitized and modernized,” said Matt Garman, AWS’s head of sales and marketing, speaking to the FT.
“Locked up in machines”

“There’s a ton of data in a factory, or manufacturing facility, or a supply chain. It’s just locked up in sensors, locked up in machines that a lot of companies could get a lot of value from.”Advertisement


Amazon said it had installed 1,000 Monitron sensors at its fulfillment centers near the German city of Mönchengladbach, where they are used to monitor conveyor belts handling packages.

If successful, said analyst Brent Thill from Jefferies, the move would help Amazon cement its position as the dominant player in cloud computing, in the face of growing competition from Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud as well as a prolonged run of slowed segment growth.

“This idea of predictive analytics can go beyond a factory floor,” Mr. Thill said. “It can go into a car, on to a bridge, or on to an oil rig. It can cross fertilize a lot of different industries.”

A number of companies are already trialling AWS Panorama. Siemens Mobility said it would use the tech to monitor traffic flow in cities, though would not specify which. Deloitte said it was working with a major North America seaport to use the tool to monitor the movement of shipments.

“Easy for us to get worried”

However, Amazon’s own use of tools to monitor the productivity of employees has raised concerns among critics. Throughout the pandemic, the company has used computer vision to ensure employee compliance with social distancing guidelines.

Swami Sivasubramanian, AWS’s head of machine learning and AI, said none of the services announced would include “pre-packaged” facial recognition capabilities, and he said AWS would block clients who abused its terms of service on data privacy and surveillance.

“When you look at this technology, sometimes it’s very easy for us to get worried about how they can be abused,” he told the FT.

“But the same technology can be used to ensure worker safety. Are people walking in spaces where they shouldn’t be? Is there an oil spill? Are they not wearing hard hats? These are real-world problems.”

© 2020 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved 

Yes, the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was bad—but was it really that bad?

The United States saw a total of 12 landfalls. Louisiana, alone, experienced five.

ERIC BERGER - 12/1/2020, 1:41 PM

Enlarge / All of 2020's tropical storms and hurricanes in a single image.

Monday was the last "official" day of the Atlantic hurricane season, drawing down the curtain on what has been a frenetic year for storms forming in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea.

The top-line numbers are staggering: there were a total of 30 tropical storms and hurricanes, surpassing the previous record of 28 set in the year 2005. For only the second time, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami ran out of names and had to resort to using the Greek alphabet.

Of all those storms, 12 made landfall in the United States, obliterating the previous record of nine landfalling tropical storms or hurricanes set in 1916. The state of Louisiana alone experienced five landfalls. At least part of the state fell under coastal watches or warnings for tropical activity for a total of 474 hours this summer and fall. And Laura became the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the Pelican State since 1856.
Not all records broken

By some measures, however, this season was not all that extraordinary. Perhaps the best measurement of a season's overall activity is not the number of named storms but rather its "accumulated cyclone energy," or ACE, which sums up the intensity and duration of storms. So a weak, short-lived tropical storm counts for almost nothing, whereas a major, long-lived hurricane will quickly rack up dozens of points.

The ACE value for the 2020 Atlantic season to date is 179.8—and another weak tropical or subtropical storm could still form. This is notably higher than the climatological norm for ACE values (about 104), but it would not quite make the top 10 busiest Atlantic seasons on record, which is paced by the 1933 and 2005 seasons.Advertisement

In terms of estimated damages, this season has been far from a record-breaker as well. So far, damages across the Atlantic basin are estimated at $37 billion. This is substantially less than the devastating 2017 season, which included hurricanes Harvey and Irma and totaled more than $300 billion in damages. It is also less than 2005, which featured Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and other storms, topping $200 billion. One factor in 2020 was that most of the biggest storms missed heavily populated areas.

Also, the hyperactive Atlantic basin stands out amid the other basins where tropical activity typically occurs, including the northeastern and northwestern Pacific Ocean, which were much quieter than normal this year. Overall, in 2020, the Northern Hemisphere is seeing an ACE value about 20 percent below normal levels for a calendar year.
Legacy of 2020

Perhaps the biggest legacy of this Atlantic hurricane season is the disturbing trend of tropical storms rapidly developing into strong hurricanes. This "rapid intensification" occurs when a storm's maximum sustained winds increase by 35mph or more within the period of 24 hours, and it was observed in 10 storms this year.

Moreover, three late season storms—Delta, Eta, and Iota—increased their speeds by 100mph or more in 36 hours or less. Iota, which slammed into Nicaragua on November 17, was the latest Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic.

FURTHER READING Hurricanes might not be losing steam as fast as they used to

Some recent studies, including a paper published by Nature Communications in 2019, have found that climate change has goosed intensification. The study observed, for the strongest storms, that rate of intensification over a 24-hour period increased by about 3mph to 4mph per decade from 1982 through 2009. Storms that strengthen more quickly, especially near landfall, leave coastal residents and emergency planners with less time and information to make vital preparations and calls for evacuation.

High-energy X-rays reveal the secrets of ancient Egyptian inks

Analysis involved 12 papyri fragments from the Tebtunis Temple, southwest of Cairo.

JENNIFER OUELLETTE - 12/2/2020

Enlarge / Detail of a medical treatise from the Tebtunis Temple Library with headings marked in red ink.

The Papyrus Carlsberg Collection


An international team of scientists used high-energy X-rays to analyze 12 fragments from ancient Egyptian papyri and found lead compounds in both red and black inks used. According to their recent paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this is evidence that these compounds were added not for pigmentation but for their fast-drying properties, to prevent the ink from smearing as people wrote. Painters in 15th-century Europe used a similar technique when developing oil paints, but this study suggests ancient Egyptians discovered it 1,400 years earlier. So the practice may have been much more widespread than previously assumed.

“Our analyses of the inks on the papyri fragments from the unique Tebtunis Temple Library revealed previously unknown compositions of red and black inks, particularly iron-based and lead-based compounds,” said co-author Thomas Christiansen, an Egyptologist from the University of Copenhagen.

As I've written previously, synchrotron radiation is a thin beam of very high-intensity X-rays generated within a particle accelerator. Electrons are fired into a linear accelerator to boost their speeds and then injected into a storage ring. They zoom through the ring at near-light speed as a series of magnets bend and focus the electrons. In the process, they give off X-rays, which can then be focused down beamlines. This is useful for analyzing structure because in general, the shorter the wavelength used (and the higher the energy of the light), the finer the details one can image and/or analyze.

That's what makes synchrotron radiation particularly useful for analyzing art and other priceless artifacts, among other applications. Back in 2008, European scientists used synchrotron radiation to reconstruct the hidden portrait of a peasant woman painted by Vincent van Gogh. The artist (known for re-using his canvases) had painted over it when he created 1887's Patch of Grass. The synchrotron radiation excites the atoms on the canvas, which then emit X-rays of their own that can be picked up by a fluorescence detector. Each element in the painting has its own X-ray signature, so scientists can identify the distribution of each in the many layers of paint.

Last year, we reported on the work of a team of Dutch and French scientists who used high-energy X-rays to unlock Rembrandt's secret recipe for his famous impasto technique, believed to be lost to history. Impasto (translated as "dough" or "mixture") involves applying paint to the canvas in very thick layers. It's usually done with oil paint because of the thick consistency and slow drying time, although it's possible to add acrylic gels as a thickening agent to get a similar effect with acrylics. Rembrandt used it to represent folds in clothing or jewels, among other objects, in his paintings. The scientists discovered the presence of a mineral called plumbonacrite in the impasto layer—an uncommon element in paints from that period.

And earlier this year, we reported on the work of an international team of scientists who used this method to determine the cause of alarming signs of degradation to Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream. Their analysis revealed that the damage is not the result of exposure to light, but humidity—specifically, from the breath of museum visitors, perhaps as they lean in to take a closer look at the master's brushstrokes.
Ink is history

This latest study builds on work over the past decade or so to investigate the invention and history of ink in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. "Ink is history in the sense that ink has been used to inscribe a vast number of scripts and languages on various media over the course of more than 5,000 years," the authors wrote, with the earliest such examples dating back to Egypt, circa 3200 BCE. During this period, black ink was used to write the main body of a text, and red ink was used for highlighting headings, keywords, and so forth.

"By applying 21st century, state-of-the-art technology to reveal the hidden secrets of ancient ink technology, we are contributing to the unveiling of the origin of writing practices," said co-author Marine Cotte, a scientist at the ESRF.

A papyrus fragment from a long astrological treatise (inv. P. Carlsberg 89) from the Tebtunis Temple Library and X-ray fluorescence maps showing the distribution of iron (red) and lead (blue) in the red letters that write out the ancient Egyptian word for "star."

The Papyrus Carlsberg Collection and the ESRF

Ancient Egyptian scribal palette c. 100 BCE to 100 CE. It has a rectangular cavity in one end in which a dry black ink cake was placed.

Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale

Ruins of the city Tebtunis, where the only temple library to survive from ancient Egypt was discovered in the 1930s.
Kim Ryholt, University of Copenhagen

These inks were typically made from soot and ocher, mixed with some kind of binder (usually gum Arabic), then suspended in animal glue, vegetable oil, or vinegar. Then the mixture would be dried and pressed into pellets so that scribes could easily carry the inks with them. When they needed to use it, they would mix the dried pellet with a bit of water, using the nib of a reed pen for the actual writing. In that sense, the colorants were more closely akin to paints, in that they would be classified as pigments rather than dyes.

Cotte, Christiansen, and their colleagues have previously studied the red, orange, and pink inks used on 11 surviving fragments from several manuscripts found in two small cellars in the so-called Tebtunis Temple Library, southwest of Cairo. That work revealed an unusual red ink based on a mixture of iron and lead compounds that had not been previously documented, although there is a reference in Pliny's Natural History to blending red ocher and lead white to make an orange-reddish pigment. It was generally used as a flesh tone by Egyptian painters between 30 BCE to 400 CE, according to the authors, but had not been identified in ancient Egyptian papyri until their study.Advertisement

Ring around the ocher

For this latest study, the team was interested in analyzing the mineral compounds of the red and black inks from the temple papyri fragments, especially the specific iron and lead compounds. They used numerous synchrotron radiation techniques to probe the chemical composition, including micro X-ray fluorescence, micro X-ray diffraction, and micro-infrared spectroscopy. They found a complex mix of lead phosphates, potassium lead sulphates, lead carboxylates, and lead chlorides.

“The iron-based compounds in the red inks are most likely ocher—a natural earth pigment—because the iron was found together with aluminium and the mineral hematite, which occur in ocher," said co-author Sine Larsen, also of the University of Copenhagen, of the results. "The lead compounds appear in both the red and black inks, but since we did not identify any of the typical lead-based pigments used to color the ink, we suggest that this particular lead compound was used by the scribes to dry the ink rather than as a pigment.”

Cotte et al. believe that the temple priests likely did not make the inks themselves, given the complexity of the red ink in particular, which would have required some specialized knowledge, and the sheer amount of raw materials that would have been needed to make them.

The team also noted an unusual "coffee ring effect" in the red ink markings. The coffee ring effect occurs when a single liquid evaporates and the solids that had been dissolved in the liquid, like coffee grounds, form a telltale ring. It happens because the evaporation occurs faster at the edge than at the center. Any remaining liquid flows outward to the edge to fill in the gaps, dragging those solids with it. In this case, the red ocher pigment is present in coarse particles, which stayed in place while the more finely ground soluble lead compounds diffused into the papyrus cells to create a ring effect, making it appear (at the micrometer scale) as if the letters had been outlined.

"The advanced synchrotron-based microanalyses have provided us with invaluable knowledge of the preparation and composition of red and black inks in ancient Egypt and Rome 2,000 years ago," said Christiansen. "And our results are supported by contemporary evidence of ink production facilities in ancient Egypt from a magical spell inscribed on a Greek alchemical papyrus, which dates to the third century AD. It refers to a red ink that was prepared inside a workshop. This papyrus was found in Thebes, and it may well have belonged to a priestly library like the papyri studied here, thus providing insights into some of the chemical arts applied by Egyptian priests of the late Roman period."

DOI: PNAS, 2020. 10.1073/pnas.2004534117 (About DOIs).

China releases a super-clear image of the Moon taken by Chang’e 5 probe

There is also video showing the descent of the space
craft.

ERIC BERGER - 12/2/2020, 8:47 AM

Enlarge / This panoramic image shows the Chang'e 5 lander and the lunar landscape.
CNSA


Less than a day after its Chang'e 5 probe made a soft landing on the Moon, the China National Space Administration has released both a short video showing the spacecraft's descent to the surface as well as a high-definition image of the lunar landscape.

The panoramic surface image, highlighting the Oceanus Procellarum region where the spacecraft landed, is especially jaw-dropping. It shows the lander and one of its legs in the foreground, with the lunar surface stretching off to the horizon. This zoomable image, which measures 15,000×7,947 pixels, provides incredible detail about small rocks near the lander, as well as the indentation made by the landing leg in the Moon's surface.

The sped-up video of the descent clearly shows the Chang'e 5 lander undergoing deceleration, reorienting itself, avoiding hazards, and then hovering before coming in for a final landing.Advertisement

The landing of Chang'e 5's descender and ascender unit.

📹：CNSA/CLEP
ℹ：https://t.co/uAjm4tGl7i pic.twitter.com/P7zK9asBuq

— LaunchStuff (@LaunchStuff) December 2, 2020

Landing on the Moon is not a new feat for China. The country's Chang'e 3 probe made a successful soft landing on the Moon in 2013, and in 2019 the Chang'e 4 probe made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon—by any national space program. It's also worth noting that there are presently three active probes on the lunar surface, and all of them are Chinese.

But the real test for China's space program will come on Thursday. Since its landing, the Chang'e 5 probe has been scooping up material and placing lunar regolith into a sample return capsule. On Thursday, this small spacecraft will then attempt to launch from the surface of the Moon, something only previously done by the United States and former Soviet Union.

After this small vehicle reaches lunar orbit, it must still dock with the lunar orbiter, hand off samples, and then return safely to Earth through the planet's atmosphere. All of this, if successful, will play out over the next few weeks. Should all go well, before the end of 2020, China will have the first new samples of lunar rock returned to Earth in more than four decades.


ARS 

German award for worst advertising gender stereotypes goes to TOPModel

TOPModel uses a cast of 14 dolls to market its stationery and makeup products to girls. A German initiative to challenge harmful messages in ads has just awarded the brand a prize for "absurd gender marketing."


A German prize recognizing the worst gender stereotypes in advertising has gone to the brand TOPModel.

Owned by Depesche, a company based just outside of Hamburg, the brand was criticized for pushing an unrealistic and limited idea of beauty when marketing its magazine, school supplies and makeup.

The organizers of the "absurd gender marketing" award, known as the "Goldener Zaunpfahl," said TOPModel "more than deserved" to win the title.

(A Zaunpfahl is a fence post, and a German idiom that directly translates as "waving with a fence post" means that you are either stating the obvious or dropping a hint in a manner that is not in the least bit subtle — hence the "golden fence post" award.)

At the center of the brand's products and social media posts are its "top models," a cast of 14 female comic characters who are all slim with pouting lips and big eyes.

"The brand's 14 dolls suggest diversity, but then again, they only represent one and the same beauty ideal," the prize organizers said. "What sounds like diversity and individuality is, on the contrary, a stereotypical and very limited picture of what girls should be interested in and, in particular, what they should look like."

Consumers were asked to vote for the worst offender in an online poll. TOPModel's marketing campaign won "by a clear margin" among the pool of seven nominees, the organizers said.

Second prize went to an ad for the German supermarket chain Edeka, which shows a series of black and white vignettes of incompetent fathers parenting, and culminates with a child saying: "Thank you mummy that you are not daddy."

Completing the somewhat ignoble podium was a poster campaign designed to attract dental assistants that asked: "Does your daughter already know what she wants to be?"


The award is an initiative of klische*esc, a German organization that says it aims to challenge advertising messages that rely on gender stereotypes by starting "a social dialogue about the [effects] of advertising and product design."

It has been handing out the award for worst gender cliches in advertising since 2016.

Read more: 

 The objectification of women in advertising

UK bans ads over gender stereotypes in landmark ruling

UK bans gender stereotypes in ads

A ban has come into force prohibiting commercials that reinforce gender prejudices. A prominent German feminist told DW that Germany is dragging its heels on the problem. 

AUDIOS AND VIDEOS ON THE TOPIC

Watch video Constructing gender: challenging stereotypes in design

VIDEO 'Pink Stinks' confronts stereotypes in advertising

Germany: Pandemic revives gender stereotypes


Date 02.12.2020
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3m7K7

#SOS
UN urges help for virus-stranded ship crews

Issued on: 01/12/2020 - 

Shipping containers are seen on a Cosco Shipping vessel at the Port of Long Beach on August 23, 2019 in Long Beach, California

 Frederic J. BROWN AFP

United Nations (United States) (AFP)

Seafarers should be classified as "key workers", UN nations urged Tuesday, with the hope that could help clear a way home for some 400,000 of them stuck at sea due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A resolution adopted by 193 nations "urges member states to designate seafarers and other marine personnel as key workers."

It calls on governments to allow "stranded seafarers to be repatriated and others to join ships" under safe Covid-19 protocols.

The International Chamber of Shipping, based in London and representing 80 percent of the merchant fleet, welcomed the resolution.

"This is a significant step in recognizing the crucial role that 2,000,000 sailors play in transporting food, medicine, energy supplies and other essential raw materials across the globe amidst the height of a global pandemic," it said in a statement.

The maritime industry also hopes the qualification will allow seafarers to be among priority groups to benefit from future vaccines against the virus.

In June, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned over the situation of seafarers stranded without the possibility of being relieved because of travel restrictions imposed by dozens of countries fearing infections.

Sea transport represents more than 80 percent of trade and is crucial for the transport of drugs, food and critical supplies in the fight against the pandemic, he said at the time.

© 2020 AFP

#SPACERACE2.0
Chinese Chang'e-5 space probe successfully lands on moon

Issued on: 01/12/2020 -

Lift-off of the Long March 5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-5 lunar module, from the Wenchang space centre in southern China on November 24, 2020. © AFP

Text by:NEWS WIRES

A Chinese probe sent to the Moon to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades successfully landed on Tuesday, Beijing's space agency said.

China has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022 and of eventually sending humans to the Moon.

The latest mission's goal is to shovel up lunar rocks and soil to help scientists learn about the Moon's origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.

The Chang'e-5 spacecraft -- named for the mythical Chinese moon goddess -- "landed on the near side of the Moon late Tuesday," state media agency Xinhua reported, citing the China National Space Administration.

If the return journey is successful, China will be only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.

The probe entered the Moon's orbit on Saturday after a 112-hour journey from Earth, Xinhua said, after a rocket carried it into space from China's southern Hainan province last week.

'Space dream'

It is to collect two kilogrammes (4.5 pounds) of surface material in a previously unexplored area known as Oceanus Procellarum -- or "Ocean of Storms" -- which consist of a vast lava plain, according to the science journal Nature.

The collection will take place over the course of one lunar day -- equivalent to around 14 Earth days.

Its lunar samples will then be returned to Earth in a capsule programmed to land in northern China's Inner Mongolia region later in December, according to US space agency NASA.

The mission is technically challenging and involves several innovations not seen during previous attempts at collecting moon rocks, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics researcher Jonathan McDowell told AFP last month.

Under President Xi Jinping, plans for China's "space dream", as he calls it, have been put into overdrive.

The new superpower is looking to finally catch up with the US and Russia after years of belatedly matching their space milestones.

A Chinese lunar rover landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019 in a global first that boosted Beijing's aspirations to become a space superpower.

The latest probe is among a slew of ambitious targets set by Beijing, which include creating a super-powerful rocket capable of delivering payloads heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle, a lunar base and a permanently crewed space station.

China's astronauts and scientists have also talked up manned missions to Mars.

(AFP)

'Sabre-toothed tiger' skeleton up for auction

Issued on: 01/12/2020 

A South Dakota rancher last year discovered this rare 37-million-year-old skeleton belonging to what is popularly known as a sabre-toothed tiger. It was found virtually intact and is expected to sell for tens of thousands of dollars

Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

Geneva (AFP)

A nearly 40-million-year-old skeleton belonging to what is popularly known as a sabre-toothed tiger is going under the hammer next week in Geneva a year after its discovery on a US ranch.

The skeleton, some 120 centimetres (nearly four feet) long, is expected to fetch between 60,000 and 80,000 Swiss francs ($66,560 to $88,750; 55,300 to 73,750 euros) at auction on December 8 in the Swiss city.

"This fossil is exceptional, above all for its conservation: it's 37 million years old, and it's 90 percent complete," Bernard Piguet, director of the Piguet auction house, told AFP on Tuesday.

"The few missing bones were remade with a 3D printer," he added, with the skeleton reconstructed around a black metal frame.

Piguet said he was fascinated by the merger of "the extremely old with modern technologies".

The original bones are those of a Hoplophoneus. Not strictly a true member of the cat family, they are an extinct genus of the Nimravidae family and stalked around North America.

"It was found in South Dakota during the last excavation season, towards the end of summer 2019," Swiss collector Yann Cuenin, who owns the dozens of paleontology lots on auction, told AFP.

"As in most finds, erosion had unearthed part of the skeleton. While walking around his property, the ranch owner saw bones sticking out of the ground."

While the skeleton is the star of the show, there are plenty of other treasures from the past up for grabs, including ammolite, an opal-like organic gemstone, in shades of red and orange.

Measuring 40 cm long by 36 cm wide, the fossil from the Cretaceous period is 75 million years old and hails from the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It is estimated to fetch between 20,000 and 30,000 Swiss francs.

Jurassic Park enthusiasts can also buy a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth (2,200 to 2,800 francs), or, for 5,000 to 7,000 francs, an impressive 85-cm long fin from a mosasaur -- a marine reptile that in the Cretaceous period was at the top of the submarine food chain.

© 2020 AFP