China's space station has had to dodge SpaceX Starlink satellites twice

Elon Musk's growing broadband satellite mega-constellation is getting the wrong kind of international attention. Earlier this month, China filed what amounts to an official complaint with the United Nations over what it says were two close calls between its space station and SpaceX Starlink satellites. 

© Provided by CNET The view of Earth from China's space station. Tang Hongbo/China Manned Space Agency

"Starlink satellites launched by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of the United States of America have had two close encounters with the China Space Station," China said in the diplomatic note addressed to the UN Secretary-General. "For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control on July 1 and October 21, 2021, respectively."

China's description of the second incident suggests there was minimal or no communication with SpaceX:

"As the (Starlink) satellite was continuously maneuvering, the maneuver strategy was unknown and orbital errors were hard to be assessed, there was thus a collision risk between the Starlink-2305 satellite and the China Space Station. To ensure the safety and lives of in-orbit astronauts, the China Space Station performed an evasive maneuver again on the same day to avoid a potential collision between the two spacecraft."

SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Astronomer and leading orbit watcher Jonathan McDowell said Monday on Twitter that he confirmed that the near misses and evasive maneuvers described by China did take place as described.

This is not the first international incident involving a SpaceX satellite. In 2019, a European spacecraft had to perform an evasive maneuver to avoid coming too close to a Starlink satellite. SpaceX cited "a bug in our on-call paging system" that caused a communications breakdown leading to the incident.

There is some irony to the latest news. A 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test that destroyed one of the country's own satellites created one of the largest orbital debris clouds to date, leading the International Space Station to perform multiple evasive maneuvers over the years. China has also not condemned a similar destructive Russian test earlier this year that again sent ISS astronauts to take cover in capsules docked with the station.

SpaceX has so far launched almost 1,900 Starlink satellites for its global broadband service and has a license to deploy a constellation made up of over 12,000 satellites.

China slams US after space station 'close encounters' with Elon Musk's satellites

A screengrab of a video from Nov 7, 2021, shows Chinese astronaut Zhai Zhigang stepping out of China's Tiangong space station. PHOTO: AFP

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing on Tuesday (Dec 28) accused the United States of irresponsible and unsafe conduct in space over two "close encounters" between the Chinese space station and satellites operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Tiangong, China's new space station, had to manoeuvre to avoid colliding with one Starlink satellite in July and with another in October, according to a note submitted by Beijing to the United Nations space agency this month.

The note said the incidents "constituted dangers to the life or health of astronauts aboard the China Space Station".

"The US... ignores its obligations under international treaties, posing a serious threat to the lives and safety of astronauts," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a routine briefing on Tuesday.

Starlink, a division of SpaceX, operates a constellation of close to 2,000 satellites that aims to provide internet access to most parts of Earth.

SpaceX is a private American company, independent of the US military and civilian space agency NASA.

But China said in its note to the UN that members of the Outer Space Treaty - the foundation of international space law - are also responsible for actions by their non-government entities.

SpaceX has not responded to a request for comment.

Evasive manoeuvres to reduce the risk of collisions in space are becoming more frequent as more objects enter Earth's orbit, said Dr Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

"We've really noticed the increase in the number of close passes since Starlink started getting deployed," he told AFP.

Any collision would likely "completely demolish" the Chinese space station and kill everyone on board, Dr McDowell added.

The core module of China's station Tiangong - meaning "heavenly palace" - entered orbit earlier this year, and it is expected to become fully operational next year.

Beijing's complaint about Starlink prompted criticism on Chinese social media of SpaceX's billionaire founder Musk, who is widely admired in China.

One hashtag about the topic on the Twitter-like Weibo platform racked up 90 million views Tuesday.

"How ironic that Chinese people buy Tesla, contributing large sums of money so Musk can launch Starlink, and then he (nearly) crashes into China's space station," one user commented.

Mr Musk's electric car maker Tesla sells tens of thousands of vehicles in China each month, though the firm's reputation has taken a hit this year following a spate of crashes, scandals and data security concerns.

"Prepare to boycott Tesla," said another Weibo user, echoing a common response in China to foreign brands perceived to be acting contrary to national interests.

Chinese web users blast Musk over space station near-misses

By AFP
Published December 27, 2021

Although Musk is widely admired in China, the reputation of Tesla -- which sells tens of thousands of vehicles in the country each month -- has faltered - Copyright AFP/File STR

Chinese web users slammed billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday after Beijing said its space station took evasive action to avoid hitting two of his SpaceX satellites, dealing a blow to the tycoon’s reputation in a country that has embraced his Tesla electric cars.

China’s Tiangong space station was forced to take “preventive collision avoidance control” during two “close encounters” with SpaceX’s Starlink satellites in July and October, according to a document submitted to the UN’s space agency by Beijing this month.

On both occasions, the satellites moved into orbits that prompted space station operators to change course, the document said.

“The manoeuvre strategy was unknown and orbital errors were hard to be assessed”, Beijing said of the satellite involved in the October incident, adding that it took action to “ensure the safety and lives of in-orbit astronauts”.

Tiangong — meaning “heavenly palace” — is the latest achievement in China’s drive to become a major space power, after landing a rover on Mars and sending probes to the Moon.

Its core module entered orbit earlier this year, with the station expected to be fully operational by 2022.

Chinese social media users blasted Musk and his companies over the incident, with one hashtag racking up 87 million views by Tuesday morning.

“How ironic that Chinese people buy Tesla, contributing large sums of money so Musk can launch Starlink, and then he [nearly] crashes into China’s space station,” one user commented.

“Prepare to boycott Tesla,” said another, in a nod to a common response in China to foreign brands perceived to be acting contrary to Beijing’s national interests.

Some speculated that Washington would have imposed sanctions if the roles were reversed.

“Why don’t we just do what they do?” one wrote.

California-based SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Although Musk is widely admired in China, the reputation of Tesla — which sells tens of thousands of vehicles in the country each month — has faltered this year following a spate of crashes, scandals and data storage concerns.

But Tesla is still hugely popular and sells around one out of every four of its cars in the country, as well as building a rare wholly-owned factory in Shanghai.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/social-media/chinese-web-users-blast-musk-over-space-station-near-misses/article#ixzz7GOvdFj5s

Chinese citizens slam Musk online after space station near-misses

Mon, December 27, 2021

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese citizens lashed out online against billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk's space ambitions on Monday after China complained that its space station was forced to take evasive action to avoid collision with satellites launched by Musk's Starlink programme.

The satellites from Starlink Internet Services, a division of Musk's SpaceX aerospace company, had two "close encounters" with the Chinese space station on July 1 and Oct. 21, according to a document submitted by China earlier this month to the U.N.'s space agency.

"For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control," China said in a document published on the website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

The complaints have not been independently verified. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a post on China's Twitter-like Weibo microblogging platform on Monday, one user said Starlink's satellites were "just a pile of space junk", while another described them as "American space warfare weapons".

With nearly 30,000 satellites and other debris believed to be orbiting the planet, scientists have urged governments to share data to reduce the risk of catastrophic space collisions.

SpaceX alone has deployed nearly 1,900 satellites to serve its Starlink broadband network, and is planning more.

"The risks of Starlink are being gradually exposed, the whole human race will pay for their business activities," a user posting under the name Chen Haiying said on Weibo.

U.S. space agency NASA was forced to abruptly call off a spacewalk at the end of November, citing risks posed by space debris. Musk tweeted in response that some Starlink satellite orbits had been adjusted to reduce the possibility of collisions.

China began constructing the space station in April with the launch of Tianhe, the largest of its three modules. The station is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 after four crewed missions.

Musk has become a well-known figure in China, though Tesla's electric-vehicle business has come under growing scrutiny from regulators, especially after a customer climbed on top of a Tesla car at the Shanghai auto show in April to protest against poor customer service.

(Reporting by Liangping Gao and David Stanway; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Elon Musk accused of 'space warfare' after Starlink satellites in near miss with China's space station


Simina Mistreanu
Mon, December 27, 2021

Elon Musk accused of 'space warfare' after Starlink satellites in near miss with China's space station - Wikipedia

Elon Musk has been accused of "space warfare" after some of the satellites he launched for a groundbreaking global internet project had a near miss with China's new space station.

Satellites from Starlink Internet Services, a division of Musk's SpaceX aerospace company, had two "close encounters" with the Chinese space station in July and October, according to a document submitted by China to the UN's space agency earlier this month.

"For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control," China said in a report published on the website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.


Mr Musk's Starlink project to blanket the world with universal internet coverage has hit stumbling blocks before in China, which keeps information tightly controlled.

A copy of the report circulated on Monday on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, where several users referred to the project as “space warfare”.

Elon Musk accused of 'space warfare' after Starlink satellites in near miss with China's space station - Xinhua/Shutterstock /Shutterstock

One person called Starlink “a rogue project,” while another said it was “just a lot of space junk”.

SpaceX has so far deployed nearly 1,900 satellites to serve its Starlink broadband network, and Mr Musk has said he ultimately wants to put about 42,000 satellites in orbit.

State-run tabloid Global Times said the satellites could be “used to detect China's space perception capabilities and test whether China can accurately grasp their actions.”

“The aerospace industry is currently concerned about the military application of Starlink satellites because after the deployment of more than 40,000 satellites, the normal launch of other countries will be affected,” the paper said.
Elon's Musk plans interfere with China's 'Great Firewall'

This is not the first time Mr Musk’s space programme has gotten in China’s crosshairs.

In order to achieve his plan of high-speed Internet for all across the earth, Mr Musk initially planned to ask China for permission to build antenna dishes or ground links on its territory to send and receive data from the Starlink spacecraft.

But that plan would have interfered with China’s censored Internet network, known as the “Great Firewall,” which blocks access to websites such as Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and international media in order to keep its 1.4 billion people shielded from any criticism against the country’s communist leadership.

Last month, the Chinese division of Tesla, which is also owned by Mr Musk, announced Starlink would not launch its services in China. Instead, all Tesla cars and charging stations in the country would use network services provided by Chinese operators, with all data kept in the country.

The announcement came as China is forcing foreign companies to keep inside the country all records collected from Chinese consumers. Tesla also needs authorities’ approval before updating certain software on cars in China.

Tesla is estimated to be producing more than half of its vehicles in China, and Chinese sales have helped to make the company profitable.

Elon Musk accused of 'space warfare' after Starlink satellites in near miss with China's space station - NurPhoto /NurPhoto

So Mr Musk has made sure to toe the line when it comes to the Chinese government’s requests.

Tesla apologised earlier this year over its handling of consumer complaints after a customer publicly blamed Tesla brakes for an accident during an auto show in Shanghai.

Mr Musk followed up by singing China’s praise on Twitter during the Communist Party’s centenary, in July. “The economic prosperity that China has achieved is truly amazing, especially in infrastructure!”, Mr Musk tweeted.

On Monday, some Chinese internet users drew a connection between Mr Musk’s space programme and his China electric vehicle operations and sales.

“If someday Starlink’s low-orbit satellites collide with our country’s low-orbit satellites or other spacecraft,” the user wrote, “what will happen to Tesla in China?”

Mexico Shuns International Oil Markets to Produce More Gasoline at Home

Amy Stillman
Tue, December 28, 2021



(Bloomberg) -- Mexico plans to halt crude oil exports in 2023 as part of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s nationalist goal of self-sufficiency in fuel production.

Petroleos Mexicanos, the Mexican state-owned producer known as Pemex, will reduce daily crude exports next year by more than half to 435,000 barrels before phasing out sales to foreign customers the following year, Chief Executive Officer Octavio Romero said during a press conference in Mexico City on Tuesday.

The ambitious -- and some say improbable -- endeavor is part of Lopez Obrador’s drive to expand homegrown production of gasoline and diesel that Mexico now mostly buys from U.S. refiners. Like many major oil-producing nations, Mexico lacks the processing capacity to convert its oil bounty into fuels and other end-products.

If fulfilled, Pemex’s pledge will mark the exit from international oil markets of one of its most prominent players of the past decades. At its peak in 2004, Pemex exported almost 1.9 million barrels a day to refineries from Japan to India, and participated in OPEC meetings as an observer. Mexican crude also had a major influence on the U.S. oil refining heartland along the Gulf Coast where plants were configured to handle heavy, sulfur-rich oil.

Skeptical Reception

Despite the pledge, questions abound over whether the heavily indebted state driller can achieve its goal and many question the logic of scrapping crude exports that are a significant source of cash for Mexico and Pemex bondholders. The company is shouldering a $113 billion debt load that is larger than that of any other oil explorer in the world.

The skepticism about Pemex’s ability to refine all of its own crude output stems from the company’s poor operating and safety record. Pemex refineries have been operating at a fraction of capacity for half a decade after years of underinvestment and lack of maintenance.

In contrast, U.S. refiners typically operate at more than 90% of capacity; even during the worst of the pandemic-driven collapse in energy demand, American fuel makers were churning away at close to 70%.

The pledge “seems impossible to me because the refineries are not capable of operating at 80%,” said Rosanety Barrios, a former energy ministry official under ex-President Enrique Pena Nieto. Another red flag is Pemex’s plan to go it alone without the expertise of foreign partners “so that if something doesn’t go as expected, there is no cushion.”

Production Slump

Last month, Pemex sold slightly more than one million barrels abroad on a daily basis. It’s been struggling to raise so-called runs at its refineries. Meanwhile, its crude output has declined every year since 2004, with the exception of last year due to a rise in production of condensate, a very light oil that’s usually of lower value than regular crude.

To meet its energy goals, Pemex aims to refine 1.51 million barrels of crude a day next year and 2 million in 2023, Romero said. The Mexican driller will plow all of its production into a fleet of refineries that includes the Dos Bocas facility under construction in the southeastern state of Tabasco and a facility being bought near Houston.

Pemex plans to bring Dos Bocas online next year, though full operations are unlikely until 2023 due to cost overruns and construction delays. The refinery in the Houston suburb of Deer Park is categorized by Pemex as part of its national refining system despite its location north of the U.S. border.

Increasing Throughput

Mexico could produce an additional 190,000 to 220,000 barrels of gasoline per day if it succeeds in raising crude processing by 635,000 to 735,000 barrels by 2023. At this rate, Mexico could reduce imports of American gasoline by as much as 50% from 2020 levels, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Asian refineries, which buy more than one-fourth of Mexican crude shipments, are expected to bear the brunt of any export curbs. South Korean and Indian customers would be hit hardest but American and European refiners also would be impacted as Pemex backtracks on previous plans to diversify away from the U.S. market.

Mexico accounted for around 62% of total gasoline exports from the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2020, EIA data show.

“They don’t have the refining capacity in place, they’ve not been able to increase their refining throughput, and the number of accidents has increased tremendously,” said John Padilla, managing director at energy consultancy IPD Latin America. “You aren’t turning off exports unless you significantly reduce production of crude oil, and that would have major consequences for Pemex bondholders. Mexico would need to absorb massive amounts of Pemex debt.”

WHO DIVERTED THEM?

Cargo ships divert gas from China to Britain


Lucy Burton
Tue, December 28, 2021

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker

Huge cargo ships carrying liquid gas that were destined for China have changed course and are now heading towards the UK as Europe remains trapped in a major supply crunch.

While the Continent’s energy crisis and high prices have attracted ships away from other parts of the world, the new arrivals are now bringing prices down. Benchmark Dutch front-month gas fell for a fifth day yesterday, dropping as much as 9.2pc in Amsterdam.

The UK gas price rocketed to a record 470p per therm last week, up from just 50p in April, but has since fallen to under 270p.

James Huckstepp, managing analyst at S&P Global Platts, said tankers are flocking towards British shores in a move that is “critical to ­tempering even more extreme prices and demand destruction in Europe”.

He said: “We are seeing cargoes previously destined for Asia now diverting to the UK. This is particularly the case for those cargoes originating in the US, given the journey between the US and Europe is much shorter than that to Asia.”

The number of US tankers heading for European ports jumped by one third last weekend, according to Bloomberg, with 20 vessels bearing American gas heading for Europe and another 14 heading in the general direction of Europe while awaiting final orders.

The number of cargoes travelling to the UK and elsewhere in Europe will raise hopes that new supplies can ease the energy crisis and help lower gas prices, which have declined after soaring to record highs last week. That will bring some relief to UK energy bosses, who met Downing Street officials this week for crunch crisis talks.

Ahead of the meeting, Stephen Fitzpatrick, the boss of Britain’s second-largest supplier Ovo Energy, warned that bills were “almost certain” to ­double to £2,000 per household.

It is understood that the Government could facilitate a deal that would see the industry given access to a £20bn fund, which they could repay at a rate of £2bn a year over 10 years.

Nathan Piper, head of oil and gas research at Investec, said European and UK prices have surged above Asian ­liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, attracting volumes away from China.

The additional supplies will provide some much-needed respite ahead of looming winter shortages. However, one Singapore-based trader told S&P Global Platts earlier this month that they are not sure “how sustainable these diversions to the Atlantic will be”.

The cost of energy in Europe has been soaring this year due to low levels of gas storage, tight supplies from Russia and lower output from clean energy sources, in part because of weak wind speeds. Some 26 retail energy companies have gone bust since August.

The country gets most of its gas via pipes connected to the North Sea, ­Norway and continental Europe, but in ­normal times it also gets about 20pc via ships in the global market.

Russia has been accused of withholding extra pipeline gas supplies to mainland Europe in recent months, in an attempt to pressure Germany into starting up its new pipeline, Nord Stream 2.

It comes as new data show that shipments of gas from Russia to the UK increased this year.

As of last week, Russia had sent 29 shipments of LNG to the UK during 2021 – compared to 22 a year earlier – according to data from S&P Global Platts Analytics. It marks the second highest annual figure since the first Russian shipments to the UK in 2017.

Proponents of the North Sea industry argue that the Government could boost Britain’s energy security by granting permission for more domestic oil and gas drilling. About 10 licenced North Sea projects are expected to be up for development approval and final investment decisions in next year, but are likely to draw opposition from climate change activists.

Protesters have been emboldened by Shell’s decision earlier this month to pull out of the Cambo field development. Its partner, Siccar Point Energy, subsequently paused the project.

In October, Friends of the Earth, using analysis from campaign group Uplift, found in total about 30 licenced UK offshore oil and gas projects are in line for development approval by 2025.

The Government has said it supports domestic production as oil and gas still fulfils about 75pc of total UK’s energy needs – fuelling most boilers, cars and almost 40pc of UK power supply.

However, it has also introduced a “climate compatibility” checklist that new oil and gas projects need to pass if they are to get a licence. Supporters of North Sea drilling say it results in lower emissions than importing gas from other parts of the world.

Riot Games Settles Gender Discrimination Suit for $100 Million

Vlad Savov
Mon, December 27, 2021


(Bloomberg) -- Riot Games Inc., a Tencent Holdings Ltd. subsidiary, settled a 2018 gender discrimination class-action suit by agreeing to pay $100 million in compensation and legal fees.

The settlement agreement announced Monday stipulates that Riot will pay $80 million to all current and former employees and contractors who identify as women and worked for Riot at any time since Nov. 2014. The payment will be distributed via a fund, pending court approval. A further $20 million will cover attorneys’ fees and miscellaneous expenses, and Riot has agreed to have its pay processes overseen by a third party for a period of three years, the company said in a statement.

Video Games Struggle to Shake Sexist Attitudes: Tae Kim

“This is a great day for the women of Riot Games – and for women at all video game and tech companies – who deserve a workplace that is free of harassment and discrimination,” said Genie Harrison, whose law firm represented the plaintiffs. “We appreciate Riot’s introspection and work since 2018 toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive company, its willingness to take responsibility for its past, and its commitment to continued fairness and equality in the future.”

The video games industry has been going through a period of reckoning around sexism, both in the content of the entertainment it produces and in the workplace. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which took part in the suit against Riot Games, has been at the forefront of this push. It also sued Activision Blizzard Inc. over its “frat boy” culture this summer, leading to a settlement that produced an $18 million fund for alleged victims of discrimination or harassment at the company.

Partying and Sexism Were Long Part of Blizzard’s Office Culture

How Ancient Human and Animal DNA Is Preserved in Archaeological Sediments for Thousands of Years

By MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY DECEMBER 27, 2021

Sampling of an undisturbed block of impregnated sediment for ancient DNA analyses. Credit: MPI f. Evolutionary Anthropology

Ancient human and animal DNA can remain stably localized in sediments, preserved in microscopic fragments of bone and feces.

Sediments in which archaeological finds are embedded have long been regarded by most archaeologists as unimportant by-products of excavations. However, in recent years it has been shown that sediments can contain ancient biomolecules, including DNA. “The retrieval of ancient human and faunal DNA from sediments offers exciting new opportunities to investigate the geographical and temporal distribution of ancient humans and other organisms at sites where their skeletal remains are rare or absent,” says Matthias Meyer, senior author of the study and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.

To investigate the origin of DNA in the sediment, Max Planck researchers teamed up with an international group of geoarchaeologists — archaeologists who apply geological techniques to reconstruct the formation of sediment and sites — to study DNA preservation in sediment at a microscopic scale. They used undisturbed blocks of sediment that had been previously removed from archaeological sites and soaked in synthetic plastic-like (polyester) resin. The hardened blocks were taken to the laboratory and sliced in sections for microscopic imaging and genetic analysis.

Surface of a section of undisturbed block of impregnated sediment from Denisova Cave. Credit: Mike Morley

The researchers successfully extracted DNA from a collection of blocks of sediment prepared as long as 40 years ago, from sites in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. “The fact that these blocks are an excellent source of ancient DNA – including that originating from hominins — despite often decades of storage in plastic, provides access to a vast untapped repository of genetic information. The study opens up a new era of ancient DNA studies that will revisit samples stored in labs, allowing for analysis of sites that have long since been back-filled, which is especially important given travel restriction and site inaccessibility in a pandemic world,” says Mike Morley from Flinders University in Australia who led some of the geoarchaeological analyses.

Abundance of micro remains in the sediment matrix

The scientists used blocks of sediment from Denisova Cave, a site located in the Altai Mountains in South Central Siberia where ancient DNA from Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans has been retrieved, and showed that small organic particles yielded more DNA than sediment sampled randomly. “It clearly shows that the high success rate of ancient mammalian DNA retrieval from Denisova Cave sediments comes from the abundance of micro remains in the sediment matrix rather than from free extracellular DNA from feces, bodily fluids or decomposing cellular tissue potentially adsorbed onto mineral grains,” says Vera Aldeias, co-author of the study and researcher at the University of Algarve in Portugal. “This study is a big step closer to understand precisely where and under what conditions ancient DNA is preserved in sediments,” says Morley.

The approach described in the study allows highly localized micro-scale sampling of sediment for DNA analyses and shows that ancient DNA (aDNA) is not uniformly distributed in the sediment; and that specific sediment features are more conducive to ancient DNA preservation than others. “Linking sediment aDNA to the archaeological micro-context means that we can also address the possibility of physical movement of aDNA between sedimentary deposits,” says Susan Mentzer a researcher at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (Germany).

Diyendo Massilani, the lead author of the study, was able to recover substantial amounts of Neanderthal DNA from only a few milligrams of sediment. He could identify the sex of the individuals who left their DNA behind, and showed that they belonged to a population related to a Neanderthal whose genome was previously reconstructed from a bone fragment discovered in the cave. “The Neanderthal DNA in these small samples of plastic-embedded sediment was far more concentrated than what we typically find in loose material,” he says. “With this approach it will become possible in the future to analyze the DNA of many different ancient human individuals from just a small cube of solidified sediment. It is amusing to think that this is presumably so because they used the cave as a toilet tens of thousands of years ago.”

Reference: “Microstratigraphic preservation of ancient faunal and hominin DNA in Pleistocene cave sediments” 27 December 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2113666118

CTHULHU STUDIES

A Weird Paper Tests The Limits of Science by Claiming Octopuses Came From Space


(PlanctonVideo/iStock)

MIKE MCRAE
28 DECEMBER 2021

A summary of decades of research on a rather 'out-there' idea involving viruses from space raises questions on just how scientific we can be when it comes to speculating on the history of life on Earth.

It's easy to throw around words like crackpot, rogue, and maverick in describing the scientific fringe, but then papers like this one, from 2018, come along and leave us blinking owlishly, unsure of where to even begin.

A total of 33 names were listed as authors on this review, which was published by Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology back in August 2018. The journal is peer reviewed and fairly well cited. So it's not exactly small, or a niche pay-for-publish source.

Science writer Stephen Fleischfresser goes into depth on the background of two of the better known scientists involved: Edward Steele and Chandra Wickramasinghe. It's well worth a read.

For a tl;dr version, Steele is an immunologist who has a fringe reputation for his views on evolution that relies on acquiring gene changes determined by the influence of the environment rather than random mutations, in what he calls meta-Lamarckism.

Wickramasinghe, on the other hand, has had a somewhat less controversial career, recognized for empirically confirming Sir Fred Hoyle's hypothesis describing the production of complex carbon molecules on interstellar dust.

Wickramasinghe and Hoyle also happened to be responsible for another space biology thesis. Only this one is based on more than just the origins of organic chemistry.

The Hoyle Wickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology makes the rather simple claim that the direction of evolution has been significantly affected by biochemistry that didn't start on our planet.

In Wickramasinghe's own words, "Comets are the carriers and distributors of life in the cosmos, and life on Earth arose and developed as a result of cometary inputs."

Those inputs, Wickramasinghe argued, aren't limited to a generous sprinkling of space-baked amino acids, either.

Rather, they include viruses that insert themselves into organisms, pushing their evolution into whole new directions.

The report, titled "Cause of Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?", pulls on existing research to conclude that a rain of extra-terrestrial retroviruses played a key role in the diversification of life in our oceans roughly half a billion years ago.

"Thus retroviruses and other viruses hypothesized to be liberated in cometary debris trails both can potentially add new DNA sequences to terrestrial genomes and drive further mutagenic change within somatic and germline genomes," the authors wrote.

Let that sink in for a moment. And take a deep breath before continuing, because that was the tame part.

It was during this period that a group of mollusks known as cephalopods first stretched out their tentacles from beneath their shells, branching into a stunning array of sizes and shapes in what seemed like a remarkably short time frame.

The genetics of these organisms, which today include octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish, are as weird as the animals themselves, due in part to their ability to edit their DNA on the fly.

The authors of the paper make the rather audacious claim that these genetic oddities might be a sign of life from space.

Not of space viruses this time, but the arrival of whole genomes frozen in stasis before thawing out in our tepid waters.

"Thus the possibility that cryopreserved squid and/or octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted," they wrote.

In his review of the paper, medical researcher Keith Baverstock from the University of Eastern Finland conceded that there's a lot of evidence that plausibly aligns with the H-W thesis, such as the curious timeline of the appearance of viruses.


But that's just not how science advances.

"I believe this paper justifies skepticism of the scientific value of stand alone theories of the origin of life," Baverstock argued at the time.

"The weight of plausible, but non-definitive, evidence, great though that might be, is not the point."

While the idea is as novel and exciting as it is provocative, nothing in the summary helps us better understand the history of life on Earth any better than existing conjectures, adding little of value to our model of evolution.

Still, with solid caveats in place, maybe science can cope with a generous dose of crazy every now and then.

Journal editor Denis Noble concedes that 'further research is needed', which is a bit of an understatement.

But given the developments regarding space-based organic chemistry in recent years, there's room for discussion.

"As space chemistry and biology grows in importance it is appropriate for a journal devoted to the interface between physics and biology to encourage the debates," said Noble.

"In the future, the ideas will surely become testable."

Just in case those tests confirm speculations, we recommend being well prepared for the return of our cephalopod overlords. Who knows when they'll want those eggs back?

This research was published in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.

A version of this article was first published in August 2018.

Businesses Have Manufactured Inflation Fear to Protect Profits Amid Rising Wages

People line up to check out at a grocery store in New York City, on November 14, 2021.

WANG YING / XINHUA VIA GETTY IMAGES

BYHadas Thier, Truthout

PUBLISHEDDecember 26, 2021

For weeks, a high-pitched panic about inflation has infused the mainstream media, most absurdly in CNN’s clip of a family struggling to keep up with the price of buying 12 gallons of milk per week (yes, 12).

Up until recently, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pushed back against this kind of narrative, arguing that rising prices were a short-term and transitory problem due to supply chain shocks from the pandemic that will eventually return to normal. But now the Fed has shifted course and is preparing to institute policies to “cool off the economy” — a euphemism for shrinking the money supply in order to drive down business investment and thus scale back job growth.

The definition of inflation is simple enough: an increase in the prices of goods and services. If prices rise quickly, and outpace wage growth, this can cause problems for working families — even those who don’t drink 12 gallons of milk per week. But the media narrative about rising inflation has conveniently left out several important points.

First, the prices of some of our biggest expenses — health care, housing, higher education to name a few — have been rising (often explosively so) for decades with little discussion or concern from the punditry. Health care costs are in fact the leading cause of bankruptcy in the country. Global food prices, too, have been rising because of the impact of climate change on crop yields. Easing these kinds of costs — through a nationalized health care system, investment in affordable housing, student debt relief and decarbonization — would go a much longer way toward improving working people’s finances than monetary policies to tighten economic growth.

Second, although it’s true that there has been a noticeable uptick in prices (measured by the annual change on the consumer price index) by 6.8 percent over the last year, this is still not very high by historical standards. The last time the United States experienced a serious inflationary crisis in the 1970s, the rate of inflation regularly hit between 11-13 percent. It’s also the case that measures of current price increases are skewed by a few sectors of the economy, most notably the energy sector.

A more useful measure to look at is a comparison of the rise of prices to the state of wages. If prices are going up faster than wages, then our relative purchasing power declines. But if wages keep pace with inflation, or even outpace inflation, then our purchasing power stays the same, or is strengthened. The reverse is also true. Thus, even though inflation rates have remained relatively low for much of the last few decades, wages have grown even less, meaning that purchasing power for working people declined despite low inflation rates.

Today, wages are finally rising. The New York Times recently reported that about 13 percent of workers have not seen pay increases this year and many retirees receive pensions that are constant. But it has been “middle- and high-income earners whose pay gains were least likely to have kept up with inflation. Over the 12 months that ended in September, those in the top quarter of earners experienced 2.7 percent gains in hourly earnings, compared with 4.8 percent for the lowest quarter of earners.” The combination of wage increases and COVID-19 relief checks have put more money in the pockets of the bottom half of earners than they had at the start of the pandemic.Inflation is a question of class politics — which class gains at whose expense — rather than technical monetary policies.

Most importantly, the media spin has left out the elephant in the room. It is business owners who are the ones raising prices. They are currently setting record profits, so do they have to raise prices? The answer to this question ultimately reveals that inflation is a question of class politics — which class gains at whose expense — rather than technical monetary policies.

What Exactly Is Inflation, and Where Does It Come From?

Inflation is an increase in prices, generalized across the economy, i.e., not just the rise of one particular good but goods across wide swaths of the economy.

How does this happen? The classic explanation is that inflation occurs when too many dollars chase too few goods. That is, if demand for goods and services exceeds the world’s capacity to supply those goods and services, this creates an upward pressure on prices. Business owners can get away with charging more from consumers, who essentially bid against each other for limited supply.

Today, the rapid reopening of economies following lockdowns has created heightened demand for goods and services, far outpacing the rate at which supply chains have come online. The free market allows producers of items in short supply to “pick their price,” as anyone looking to buy a used car right now knows.

This can also lead to good old-fashioned price gouging. The oil industry, for instance, curtailed production at the height of the pandemic due to cratering demand for fuel. Now that demand is back up, Bloomberg News reports, “oil companies are keeping production flat while using profits to reward shareholders.” And although wholesale prices of oil have fallen somewhat, retail gas stations are still selling gas at high prices. “When wholesale prices decline rapidly, it provides a window for retail operators to sell at high prices for a few weeks before lowering prices,” oil storage broker Tank Tiger CEO Ernie Barsamian told Bloomberg. He noted that eventually gas prices will come down, but for now, many refiners and gas stations are enjoying the higher profits.

The other half of the inflationary equation is the role of increased workers’ wages. In a situation like today, where wages have begun to rise, this will feed an increased demand for goods, as working people have more money to spend. At the same time, higher wages also raise the cost of production for employers. If businesses pay higher wages to workers, the argument goes, this cuts into profit margins, leading capitalists to pass on their added costs to consumers.Falling unemployment, rising wages and increased social spending does not have to automatically translate into inflation of prices if we allow bosses’ profit margins and their share of the national income to decrease.

Most mainstream economists assume that even if an external factor (a spike in oil prices due to geopolitical shifts, or supply chain chokeholds due to pandemic lockdowns) triggers the rise in prices, ultimately higher wages are the primary culprit of any sustained inflationary trends. Finally, mainstream economics draws a line between higher wages and low unemployment rates. A tight labor market, where workers are not easily replaced, gives workers more bargaining power to demand higher wages.

This line of argument was first championed by economist Milton Friedman, who stated that a ”natural rate of unemployment” exists below which inflation begins to take off. Friedman’s “monetarist” ideas took hold after the inflationary crisis of the 1970s, and ever since have been used as a battering ram against policies in which governments actively promote full employment or better jobs for workers.

In one sense, conservatives have a point. Karl Marx himself similarly argued that capitalism depends on unemployment — a “reserve army of labor” — to keep workers desperate enough to agree to whatever terms of work they can get. Unemployment, in other words, is a means to prevent wages from growing so far that they threaten profitability.

Class Conflict

The question that economic pundits conspicuously avoid is: What if instead of raising prices, businesses just made do with smaller profit margins? After all, U.S. corporations are currently making record profits, posting their fattest margins since 1950. Even at John Deere, the site of the highest-profile strike this year, Bloomberg News reports, “workers held out to get a 10% raise, yet the company is still expected to earn even more next year than the record profit it posted [in November].”A left economic agenda must push back against the inflation panic to maintain demands for higher wages and increased social spending, while guarding against real inflation through policies that protect working people’s pockets.

Workers don’t set prices, the bosses do. And they do so on the basis of maintaining the greatest possible profit margins. If workers’ wages go up but prices stay the same, this would simply mean that a greater share of profits went to workers rather than capitalists. System-wide, workers’ share of the economic pie (i.e., the “national income”) would increase. Falling unemployment, rising wages and increased social spending does not have to automatically translate into inflation of prices if we allow bosses’ profit margins and their share of the national income to decrease.

Even the dire rates of inflation in the 1970s, in the context of a strong labor movement “hurt capital more than it did workers, while neoliberal repression of workers’ power has kept inflation low from the 1980s onward,” sociologists Ho-fung Hung and Daniel Thompson have argued. The question of inflation is therefore a matter of class conflict over who gains at whose expense.

This is not to say that inflationary pulls aren’t a problem; if prices of common goods rise much faster than wages, or if the spikes in inflation are so high that businesses aren’t able to operate smoothly and fall into bankruptcy, laying off workers, this could have dire consequences. But the cures that are typically on hand are worse than the disease. Thus, in response to the crisis in the 1970s, the U.S. ruling class, led by President Ronald Reagan and Fed Chair Paul Volcker (though begun by President Jimmy Carter), was willing to induce a severe recession in order to stop inflation. The ensuing decades of neoliberalism created astronomical levels of class inequality.

But there are other tools to stop inflation, which do so in favor of workers. Price controls have been used in wartime throughout U.S. history, most significantly by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration. As political scientist Todd Tucker recently pointed out, FDR employed 160,000 federal employees in the Office of Price Administration to control prices “on goods from scrap steel to shoes to milk.” Even President Richard Nixon briefly implemented price controls.

Immediate reforms in the form of rent control, expanding Medicare, and allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices are a good start to such policies, along with capping CEO pay and taxing the rich. Other reforms like investment into public housing and public education also indirectly cap prices.

Ultimately, a left economic agenda must push back against the inflation panic to maintain demands for higher wages and increased social spending, while guarding against real inflation through price controls and policies that protect working people’s pockets.

 

SOHR: Syria’s war claimed 3,700 lives in 2021, lowest annual death toll in 10 years

On Dec 23, 2021

Syria’s ongoing war has claimed a total of 3,746 lives this year, the lowest death toll in its history, according to recent data by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Wednesday, December 22.

The SOHR figures indicate that 1,505 of the casualties were civilians, which included 360 children.

By far, this is the lowest figure of casualties since the war in Syria began. The numbers confirm the downward trend of the death toll from last year, with 6,800 deaths reported in 2018, compared with over 10,000 deaths in 2019.

According to the Observatory, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in the UK with extensive sources throughout Syria, landmines, and various other explosive remnants has killed 297 people in 2021.

The Landmine Monitor, a global initiative dedicated to monitoring progress in eradicating landmines, cluster munitions, and other explosive remnants of warfare, reported in November that Syria had now surpassed Afghanistan in the number of fatalities attributed to landmines and other explosive remnants of warfare.

Syria’s ongoing conflict, which broke out in 2011 after the violent repression of anti-regime protests, has subsided in the past two years.
While Russian-backed regime forces occasionally attack opposition militants in the northwest opposition enclave of Idlib, the cease-fire agreement has mostly held.

Daesh members, who fled underground after being defeated in 2019, have also been responsible for deadly hit-and-run attacks in eastern Syria.

To date, the Syrian conflict has claimed over half a million lives and has resulted in the largest conflict-induced displacement since World War II.

Protesters storm Guadeloupe legislature over vaccine mandate  better access to clean water, pension and wage increases and mass employment.

By Dw News

| Updated: Saturday, December 25, 2021

Basse-Terre, Dec 25: Protesters in Guadeloupe on Friday occupied the local legislature in the French Caribbean overseas territory, in a new standoff with Paris sparked by coronavirus prevention measures

Tensions have been building in Guadeloupe and the neighboring island of Martinique over the last weeks, particularly over the management of the territories as well as coronavirus measures including obligatory vaccinations for healthcare workers.

The protesters are also seeking better access to clean water, pension and wage increases and mass employment.

Demonstrators first entered the debating chamber of the Regional Council while it was meeting on Thursday, with several staying the night and deciding to continue their action through Friday.

The protesters aim to negotiate with France over the COVID measures, and are calling for sanctions to be halted against healthcare workers who have refused the vaccine. However, officials have indicated that they will not engage in talks as long as demonstrations are carried out.

Inside the council building, the protesters strung a banner reading "No to Obligatory Vaccination, No to the Health Pass,'' according to images posted online by local officials. A Christmas tree was shown knocked over.

'We have absolutely nothing'

"We're here and as long as we don't have a commitment, because we have nothing at all, we have absolutely nothing, so as long as we don't have a firm commitment, an urgent meeting, we'll stay here," said Maite Hubert M'toumo, general secretary of the general union of Guadeloupean workers, in the legislature.

"If we have to, we'll spend Christmas here. But we'll stay here," she added. Raphael Cece, of the newspaper Rebelle, added: "We are not against the vaccine, but we are fighting against this injustice, the sanctions, the mandatory vaccines for health workers."

Last month, protesters set up barricades around major roads, bringing traffic on the island to a standstill.

France's Overseas Territories Minister Sebastien Lecornu tweeted in response: "No demand justifies hindering the smooth running of an assembly of elected officials in the middle of a plenary session."

Health care workers who refused the vaccine are set to be suspended from December 31.

Low vaccination rates in the territories

Vaccination rates in France's Caribbean territories are significantly lower than those on mainland France, and there are concerns that the new wave created by the omicron variant could create serious health problems in the region.

One-third of the island's population lives below the poverty line, and the cost of living is higher than in the French mainland. Water supplies have been a major problem in recent years because of obsolete pipes.

Anger over France's handling of a toxic pesticide in Caribbean banana fields has fueled mistrust in the government's COVID-19 vaccine polices, along with misinformation shared on WhatsApp and Telegram groups.

FDA-approved Vuity eyedrops could replace your reading glasses

Linda Carroll
Tue, December 28, 2021

It’s one of the more irritating side effects of aging: blurred close-up vision, or presbyopia. But a novel therapy, eyedrops that can improve near vision for hours, may help those who’ve gotten tired of wearing reading glasses.

Just approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Vuity's eyedrops have been found to work in as little as 15 minutes, with effects that last up to six hours, according to clinical trial data presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery this past summer.

“Vuity is the first and only FDA-approved prescription eyedrop treatment of presbyopia — an age-related blurring of near vision — in adults,” said Dr. George Waring, IV, a LASIK and cataract surgeon and director of the Waring Vision Institute in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Waring was a principle investigator for the clinical trials that led to the FDA’s approval of Vuity.
Who are these eyedrops for?

“Nearly half of the U.S. adult population currently lives with presbyopia,” Waring said. “And most people over 40 struggle with some age-related near vision loss.”

The clinical trials showed that the eyedrops were safe and well-tolerated, Waring said, adding that no serious adverse events occurred.

"This is for all patients between 40 and 55 years of age who have presbyopia," said Dr. Ralph Chu, an ophthalmologist based in Minnesota. "So, difficulty seeing near vision. It’s not just reading vision, but it’s our daily activities. It’s eating the food on our plate. It’s putting makeup on in the morning. It’s seeing the dashboard of your car."
How do Vuity eyedrops work?

The eyedrops contain a medication that has been used for more than a hundred years, at a higher concentration, to treat glaucoma, so it’s a drug that doctors have a lot of experience using. The low dose in the Vuity eyedrops works by temporarily decreasing the size of the pupil.

Waring compares this to changing the f-stop on a camera to decrease the size of the opening allowing light to pass to the film in older cameras. “It’s an age-old optical principle that by reducing the aperture extends the range of focus,” he said. “So this increases the ability to read close up while maintaining distance vision.”

Since the smaller pupil allows less light in, the drops are not recommended for use while driving at night, Waring said.

The clinical trials showed that people’s near vision improved. In fact, compared to those who received placebo eyedrops, 22.9% more of those treated with Vuity drops could read at least three more lines on an eye chart than they could before the treatment.

NBC News correspondent Kristen Dahlgren tried the eyedrops on TODAY. She said the drops burned a little going in and her eyes became red, but within 30 minutes her vision had drastically improved.

“I haven’t been able to read letters that small in years without glasses," Dahlgren said.

There are a number of products coming to market that improve close-up vision, said Dr. Tamiesha Frempong, an ophthalmologist with New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai and assistant professor in ophthalmology and pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

“This one constricts the pupil and expands depth of focus to see well at near distances without impacting distance vision or compromising peripheral vision,” Frempong said. “One thing we don’t know is if there will be any long-term consequences.”

An advantage of the drops over other therapies, such as surgery, is that you can stop it whenever you want, Frempong said.

“I’m really excited about them,” she added. “I would like to try it myself and would like to have my patients try it. Presbyopia affects so many people and really impacts their ability to function and their quality of life.”

A bottle of the eyedrops costs $80 and lasts about a month. They're available only by prescription and are not covered by health insurance.