CAPITALI$M IN SPACE

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff's past support of the 'huge' investment opportunity in space resurfaced after the company's Super Bowl ad mocked Elon Musk and Mars exploration

Grace Kay

Mon, February 14, 2022

Marc BenioffNICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

• Salesforce took a dig at the billionaire space race in its Super Bowl commercial on Sunday.

• Following the ad, a video resurfaced of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff saying "space is a huge category we should invest in."

• While the ad pokes fun at Elon Musk for investing in space, Benioff has been supportive of space exploration.

A video of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff saying that "space is a huge category we should invest in" resurfaced after the software company took a dig at the billionaire space race and Elon Musk's plans for colonizing Mars in its Super Bowl ad.

In Salesforce's 60-second commercial that aired on Sunday and during the Olympics, actor Matthew McConaughey floats through space in a hot air balloon and waxes philosophical on the future of life on Earth. In the video, he says "the new frontier" isn't "rocket science," taking a jab at entrepreneurs like Musk and Jeff Bezos and their preoccupation with building a future in outer space.

"It's not time to escape. It's time to engage," McConaughey said in the video. "So while the others look to the metaverse and Mars, let's stay here and restore ours," he added.

The ad echoed the criticism of many public figures, including Bill Gates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who called the billionaires to task for "joyriding into space while millions go hungry on Earth."

Yet Salesforce CEO Benioff was far from critical when Bezos announced his plans to spend $5.5 billion on 3 minutes in outer space. Benioff noted that it's an area where Time Ventures, his venture capital arm, is active and has invested in several space companies, including SpaceX, Astra, Swarm, and Planet Labs.

"I actually think that space is a huge category that we should invest in," Benioff said in an interview with CNBC, following Bezos' announcement. "I think those companies are amazing in the work they're doing and the entrepreneurs."

The CEO has also praised Musk for his work with SpaceX, calling his work "visionary leadership" on Twitter in 2020, as SpaceX prepared to launch astronauts into space.

Oscar winner McConaughey told Variety he would love to discuss the issues presented in the commercial with Bezos, Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg.

"Our campaign is not anti-technology. It's not anti-pioneering space," McConaughey told the publication "It's saying, 'Hey, we have to not be so ready to quit on our home team; our home planet. We got a home field advantage, let's take care of it.' If and when we do get to space — or if the day comes when there is a great migration or immigration or travel to space — I bet Elon, Mark and Jeff would like to export a more valuable society there with people that didn't take all the problems and angst and fear that we got right now."

Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment from Insider. Take a look at the

 company's Super Bowl ad below.

Climate grant illustrates growth in philanthropy-funded news



An iceberg floats past Bylot Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on July 24, 2017. The Associated Press said Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, that it is assigning more than two dozen journalists across the world to cover climate issues, in the news organization's largest single expansion paid for through philanthropic grants. 

AP Photo/David Goldman, File

DAVID BAUDER
Tue, February 15, 2022,

NEW YORK (AP) — The Associated Press said Tuesday that it is assigning more than two dozen journalists across the world to cover climate issues, in the news organization's largest single expansion paid for through philanthropic grants.

The announcement illustrates how philanthropy has swiftly become an important new funding source for journalism — at the AP and elsewhere — at a time when the industry's financial outlook has been otherwise bleak.

The AP's new team, with journalists based in Africa, Brazil, India and the United States, will focus on climate change's impact on agriculture, migration, urban planning, the economy, culture and other areas. Data, text and visual journalists are included, along with the capacity to collaborate with other newsrooms, said Julie Pace, senior vice president and executive editor.

“This far-reaching initiative will transform how we cover the climate story,” Pace said.

The grant is for more than $8 million over three years, and about 20 of the climate journalists will be new hires. The AP has appointed Peter Prengaman as its climate and environment news director to lead the team.

Five organizations are contributing to the effort: the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Quadrivium, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.

It's the most recent of a series of grants the AP has received since the mid-2010s to boost coverage in health and science, religion, water issues and philanthropy itself. Some 50 AP journalists have jobs funded through grants.

For many years, Journalists and philanthropists were more wary of each other. News organizations were concerned about maintaining independence and, until the past two decades, financially secure enough not to need help. Philanthropists didn't see the need, or how journalists could help them achieve their goals.

Nonprofit news organizations like ProPublica and Texas Tribune led the way in changing minds. The Salt Lake Tribune, which in 2019 became a nonprofit to attract more donors, and The Seattle Times are other pioneers.

A grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting was instrumental in AP's coverage of the conflict in Yemen that won a 2019 Pulitzer Prize, said Brian Carovillano, AP news vice president who supervises partnerships and grants. The AP's pandemic coverage has been bolstered by funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.

The climate funding is a big boost after years where the AP was frustrated that the company's ambitions were bigger than its capabilities to achieve them, he said.

“Do you want to do it right or do you want to do it well enough?” Carovillano said. “My answer to that is always that I want to do it right. I want to go as big as we can possibly go, and I think that should always be the AP's ambition.”

The New York Times last year launched its first major grant-funded project, called Headway, devoting a six-person team to produce stories on how people in the past expected the future to play out and how it actually did. One story that resulted was Michael Kimmelman's look at how New York City has rebounded from Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

“As far as we're concerned, it has been really seamless,” said Monica Drake, assistant managing editor at the Times. “It has allowed us to focus on things we want to cover and to do it independently.”

Through a Ford Foundation grant, the Times has also hired a disability fellow to produce stories about disabilities.

The Times is seeking to hire a head of philanthropic partnerships, much like AP is building its own department headed by former global business editor Lisa Gibbs, to work on securing outside support and partnerships for its work.

In 2019, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism gathered 30 people to discuss ideas for funding local news. Now it has more than 1,000, either development professionals or people who work at news organizations, who participate in webinars or other activities trying to advance the same goal, said Annie McCain Madonia, the institute's chief advancement officer.

In recent years, many funders have begun learning about the need to support news, said Joshua Stearns, director of the public square program at the Democracy Fund.

“Funders are seeing news and information about the issues they care about dry up,” Stearns said, “and in place of that are seeing disinformation.”

AP often needs to educate funders upon first approach, explaining the company's worldwide reach and mission to report independently. AP accepts money to cover certain areas but without strings attached; the funders have no influence on the stories that are done, Carovillano said.

Both sides had things to learn.

For Carovillano, it was getting used to the idea that funders weren't just being generous; they had their own goals to achieve. “This is a mutually beneficial arrangement,” he said.

The Knight Foundation, one of the largest journalism funders, is now primarily focused on helping deliver local news on digital platforms, said Alberto Ibarguen, its chief executive officer. He bore witness to a change in attitude among funders who now see journalism as a civic obligation.

Ibarguen called it "one of those overnight sensations that took a long time to build.”

Another major funder, the Ford Foundation, distributed $32.5 million for journalism projects last year, up from $17 million in 2019. That includes $2 million to an effort to provide more opportunities for minority journalists in Detroit.

Carovillano said he's noticed a difference in morale in his organization because of the growth achieved through new funding.

“I think it has changed the mindset of the newsroom a little bit,” he said. “After years of basically feeling a little beleaguered, people are proud that they’re part of an organization that is dreaming really big and actually has the ability to do it.”

While no one underestimates the business challenges that remain for journalism, the Lenfest Institute's Madonia said philanthropic efforts have at least changed the conversation.

“I feel like our language has gone from people talking about local news dying to there being a renaissance of local news,” she said. “If you can provide good, high-quality journalism, people are willing to pay for that, people are willing to support it. I think there's a lot of room for optimism. The trick is, can we move quickly enough?”

___

This story corrects the spelling of the name of an executive from the Lenfest Institute. She is Annie McCain Madonia, not Medonia.

Sensory deprivation tanks can help with symptoms of anxiety. I floated in one for an hour and felt my stress melt away as I unplugged from my phone and my personal responsibilities.

Allana Akhtar

Tue, February 15, 2022, 

Infinity Float sensory deprivation tankInfinity Float

• Sensory deprivation tanks force you into a meditative state by eliminating sound, light, and touch.

• Multiple studies have shown sensory deprivation tanks relieve anxiety and depression.

• I tried one at New York City's Infinity Float and felt like it reduced my anxiety.

Sensory deprivation tanks, or float tanks, are shallow pools of water in an enclosed, sound-proof space that allow users to spend time without hearing, touching, or seeing anything.

Multiple studies have shown sensory deprivation tanks aid in lowering stress and alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety. They've become a beacon for wellness-adjacent folks who are looking for a science-backed way to relieve anxiety while having fun.

I visited Infinity Float in Manhattan, New York to try a space frequented by athletes, businesspeople, actors, entrepreneurs, families, and general wellness enthusiasts. Here's how it went.

How sensory deprivation alleviated my anxiety

Infinity Float sensory deprivation tankAllana Akhtar/Insider

I suffer from anxiety, and I've had elevated levels of anxiety for weeks due to personal reasons — at times so bad I could not eat or sleep.

The morning of the sensory deprivation float my anxiety was very elevated: I felt on edge and tense all day before my 2 p.m. appointment.

Before heading to the tank, an Infinity Float employee discussed the steps to take before entering. I had to put in wax ear plugs and shower for a few minutes. Though I brought my bathing suit, Infinity Float suggests you swim naked.

Infinity Float adds a high concentration of epsom salt to the tubs, which works as a natural anti-microbial and antiseptic. The company provides petroleum jelly to apply to cuts and scars so the salt water does not irritate your skin.

The door to the tank connected to the shower, so when I was done rinsing off I stepped into a large bathtub surrounded by walls and filled with about a foot of water.

Infinity Float recommends customers shower before and after using the sensory deprivation tank.Allana Akhtar/Insider

I got into the tub and used a floating head rest to get myself in position. As a first time floater, finding a comfortable position felt awkward and unnatural, but the weird feeling went away after a few minutes. The sensory deprivation tank was sound proof aside from soft, calming music playing on a speaker. There was also a blue lightbulb inside the water and lights that mimic stars on the ceiling. I kept the music and star lights on and began my hourlong float session.

The first five minutes of floating continued to feel awkward as I worried about whether I was doing it correctly and whether I'll get bored in the hour. But 10 minutes into the experience my thoughts started to drift away and I felt fully focused on the star lights and soft music.

I struggle with meditation because I tend to get easily distracted, but I found the sensory deprivation tank forced my body into a meditative state. I had never experienced that level of mindlessness: My body slowly loosened up, and the anxiety that had kept my heart rate elevated and mind racing melted away.

I stared at star lights for most of my time in the Infinity Float sensory deprivation tank.Allana Akhtar/Insider

About halfway into my float I decided to try full sensory deprivation and turned off the music and lights. Unfortunately, as I got up to do that, salt water got in my eye and I had to leave the tank to wipe my face with a towel.

I didn't like the full sensory deprivation experience as much as with the music and star lights. I felt bizarrely embarrassed by the fact I was laying down naked in the dark, and it was difficult to reach that relaxed state. After a few minutes, I decided to turn the music and star lights back on for the remainder of the hour.

The best part of the sensory deprivation experience was being away from my phone, my computer, and my personal responsibilities. I had a lot going on in my life, but inside the tank I was able to get away from my worries and realize they are not as unmanageable as I had been feeling.

Though I couldn't check the time, after what felt like 50 minutes I felt myself starting to get slightly bored and wonder when my hour was up. Finally, the music got louder and the larger light bulb turned back on for a few minutes before jets turned on in the water, signaling the end of my session.

I immediately got up and felt euphoric: The anxieties and worries I had prior to the tank were not taking up all my energy anymore. Better yet, something about the sensory deprivation tank gave me a rush of positive emotion and joy that I hadn't felt in weeks.

I showered for a recommended 10 minutes after the tank, washing my hair with shampoo and conditioner and using body wash to get dried salt off my skin.

As I left Infinity Float, I decided I will use sensory deprivation the next time I feel overwhelmed with anxiety. The experience costs $99 for an hour, which, for me, is well worth it for the benefit it had on my mental health.

Scientists observed humpback whales

swimming as far as 3,700 miles to mate, 

much further than previously thought

Marianne Guenot

Wed, February 16, 2022,

A humpback whale feeds in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine SanctuaryElliott Hazen

• Humpback whales can travel huge distances in search of mating, per a new study.

• Experts observed some moving from breeding waters near Mexico to near Hawaii, some 3,700 miles.

• They were previously thought to stick to one area rather than making the months-long trip.

Humpback whales can swim as far as 3,700 miles for the chance to mate, per a new study.

Scientists analyzed a database of over 450,000 pictures of whales in the wild to track the animals. They found that some would swim thousands of miles during the mating season.

Two distinctive males, which could be recognized by markings on their tails, were recorded in two popular mating grounds less than two months apart.

The first was off the western coast of Mexico, and the second was near Hawaii, a distance of around 3,700 miles.

The timing suggests the whales swam faster than their typical cruising speed of 2.5 miles per hour to get there.

"Our first reaction was, 'You've got to be kidding me!'" James Darling of the Whale Trust Maui in Hawaii and an author on the study told the New Scientist magazine.

"They might just be traveling the ocean like it's their own backyard," he said.

The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Biology Letters on Wednesday.

One male's journey from Mexico to Hawaii in less than two months is shown on a map of the world.Google maps/Insider.

Humpback whales in the North Pacific tend to spend their summers around Canada and Alaska before relocating to mating grounds near Mexico and Hawaii in the winter.

They do not mate for life and females are thought to look for a new partner every breeding season.

Scientists previously assumed they would choose one mating site. But, thanks to the distinctive tail markings, the scientists saw that one male traveled 2,824 miles from Maui, Hawaii, to the Revillagigedo Archipelago of Mexico between 23 February and 17 April 2006.

The second made the opposite journey, from Guerrero, Mexico, to Maui between 16 February and April 5 in 2018, a journey that is 3693 miles (5944 km) long.

He was one of seven males to pursue a single female there, New Scientist said.

There's no reason to think females would not do the same, Darling told the outlet.

 

TikToker’s viral series reveals ‘Black history facts you’ll never learn in school’

Emerald Pellot

Fri, February 18, 2022

A woman is educating people about the Black history they were never taught in school.

TikToker @therealkamryne has over 101,000 followers. Her ongoing series “Black history facts you’ll never learn in school” examines the untold stories of Black Americans and how the Black community has shaped American history.

In one video, Kamryne discussed Mary Kenner. Born into a family of inventors, Kenner began making creations of her own at 6 years old.

“Eventually, one of her most popular inventions would go to improve the livelihoods of many women around the world,” she said. “In the 1920s, she revolutionized the sanitary belt, which would serve as the precursor for today’s modern maxi pad.”

In 1957, her patent was dismissed due to racial discrimination, but today history remembers Kenner’s contributions.

In another clip, Kamryne explained that the free lunch and breakfast programs available at U.S. public schools were actually founded by the Black Panther Party.

“In January of 1969, the Black Panther Party established the free breakfast for school children program in Oakland, Calif.,” she said. “This program went from feeding a handful of kids in Oakland to expanding all over the country, feeding thousands of kids per day.”

The head of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, despised the Black Panther Party and called the program “potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralize the BPP and destroy what it stands for,” and tried to destroy it. However, parents pushed back on Hoover’s efforts, as Kamryne explained.

“Parents were urging politicians to feed children before school,” she said. “The government established a breakfast program in 1975, but it wouldn’t be possible without the Panthers.”

While some people may only know Duke Ellington as a cartoon ghost from Netflix’s Big Mouth, the jazz musician played a pivotal role in music history.

“He took part in the Harlem Rennaissance. He played with huge names like Ella Fitzgerald, Louie Armstrong, John Coltrane and more,” Kamryne said. “Duke Ellington’s band not only survived the different changes of jazz music but they were also able to gain popularity with white and Black audiences, which was difficult during the time of segregation.”

The post TikToker’s viral series reveals ‘Black history facts you’ll never learn in school’ appeared first on In The Know.

Alumni from China’s top universities demand more thorough investigation into chained woman in viral video



Ryan General
Thu, February 17, 2022, 5:17 PM·2 min read

The Chinese government faces mounting calls for a more thorough investigation of the high-profile case of a woman who was found chained inside a hut in eastern China.

Among those putting pressure on the ruling Communist Party and the Chinese State Council are the alumni of two top universities in China – Peking University and Tsinghua University – reported the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

The middle-aged Chinese woman, identified only as Yang, was found detained in a small hut with a chain around the neck by a vlogger who visited a small village in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

On Feb. 15, a hundred alumni of Peking University published an online petition on Weibo asking for a proper investigation of the case.

“The tragic case and suffering of the Xuzhou woman has [sic] aroused widespread compassion, concern… as well as unsettling distress and anger,” read the petition, which was removed from the platform that evening.

The alumni said they are not satisfied with the investigations conducted by the local officers, which they find to be “unconvincing, inconsistent and full of flaws.” They are now urging central authorities to hold Xuzhou officials accountable, confirm the victim’s identity and put a stop to the trafficking of Chinese women.

Multiple other individual posts by users similarly calling for a more thorough investigation were also scrubbed from Chinese social media, according to SCMP.

Another petition posted to Twitter by the alumni of Tsinghua University remains uncensored.

Video footage of the woman’s shackled neck and pitiful living conditions drew immediate public outcry for justice online when it was first posted on the video platform Douyin last month.

According to local authorities in Jiangsu Province, the woman had been diagnosed with a mental illness and was kept in the shack by her legal husband of 24 years. She had eight children with the man who imprisoned her, NextShark reported.

Given her alleged mental health status, people online have questioned whether Yang was able to consent to the marriage.

Amid the growing public outrage, Xuzhou authorities recently arrested the husband for illegal imprisonment, in addition to two other individuals suspected of human trafficking. These recent actions follow their previous denial that this was a case of human trafficking, as many have suggested.

Featured Image via Douyin

‘Downfall’ documentary casts the tale of Boeing’s 737 MAX debacle as tech tragedy

Alan Boyle
Sat, February 19, 2022

Boeing workers and VIPs surround the first 737 MAX jet to roll out in Renton, Wash., in 2015. (Credit: Boeing)

The missteps traced in “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing” — Netflix’s new documentary about Boeing’s troubled 737 MAX jet — are the stuff of Greek tragedy.

Under the direction of filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the youngest child of Robert F. Kennedy, “Downfall” recounts how the aerospace giant cut corners in a race to compete against Airbus, and pressed mightily to minimize the known problems with a computerized flight control system that was capable of causing the 737 MAX to go into a fatal dive.

The result? Not just one, but two catastrophic crashes — first in Indonesia, in 2018, and only months later in Ethiopia. The combined death toll amounted to 346 people. The jets were grounded for nearly two years while Boeing worked on a fix to the control system.

When the Indonesian crash occurred, the root cause seemed to be shrouded in uncertainty. But subsequent investigations showed that Boeing knew the cause had to do with tweaks in an automated software routine known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS.

In the early stages of those investigations, I struggled to explain what MCAS was supposed to do (keep planes from stalling under extreme conditions) and what it ended up doing (forcing planes into a dive). “Downfall” uses computer graphics and re-enactments to show clearly how MCAS and other points of failure on the 737 MAX figured in the tragedy.

The film also lays out evidence from emails and other documents showing that when the 737 MAX was undergoing certification for flight, Boeing was desperate to avoid providing pilots with extra training, at extra cost — so desperate that the company hid the MCAS software’s capabilities from pilots, airlines and regulators.


“Downfall” gives center stage to critical pilots, former FAA officials, key investigators (including U.S. Rep. Peter Defazio, D-Ore.) and the families of the victims.

Among the journalists who show up on screen are The Air Current’s Jon Ostrower, who’s based in Seattle; Andy Pasztor, who covered the controversy as The Wall Street Journal’s aerospace reporter; and KING-5 reporter Glenn Farley, who makes a cameo in news footage.

Don’t expect to see Boeing executives telling their side of the story. Instead, “Downfall” passes along Boeing’s written responses to questions at the end of the 89-minute documentary. (The crawl also notes that Boeing paid out $2.5 billion to avoid criminal prosecution.)

There’s only so much you can say in 89 minutes: Some of the other controversies that have dogged Boeing over the past couple of years — for example, production problems with the 787 Dreamliner, or glitches that have bedeviled Boeing’s Starliner space taxi — go unmentioned.

But by focusing on the 737 MAX tragedy, “Downfall” lays out a textbook case showing how hubris and greed can have deadly consequences — and tarnish the reputation of a long-respected engineering powerhouse in the process.

It’s a lesson that applies not just to Boeing or just to aerospace, but to the wider tech community as well.

FAA will not allow Boeing to certify 787 Dreamliners for flight until manufacturing process meets its standards

Abby Wallace

Fri, February 18, 2022

A Dreamliner at Boeing South Carolina in North Charleston in 2017.REUTERS/Randall Hill/File Photo/File Photo.

• The FAA told Boeing that it will not hand over authority to certify 787 Dreamliners for flight.

• Boeing suspended deliveries of the airliners last May after the FAA raised concerns.

• The manufacturer has come under scrutiny in recent years for a number of manufacturing flaws.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will retain the power to approve Boeing 787 Dreamliners for flight, instead of returning approval power to the aircraft manufacturer.

Boeing suspended deliveries of the 787 planes last May after the FAA raised concerns over problems with the manufacturing and inspection of the aircraft. The deliveries have not yet resumed.

In a statement on Tuesday, the FAA said that it would continue to approve 787 Dreamliner aircrafts for flight until Boeing's quality control and manufacturing process "consistently produce 787s that meet FAA design standards."

"This will allow the agency to confirm the effectiveness of measures Boeing has undertaken to improve the 787 manufacturing process," the statement said.

In a statement sent to Insider, a spokesperson for Boeing said: "We respect the FAA's role as our regulator and we work transparently through their detailed and rigorous processes. Safety is the top priority for our industry. We will continue to engage with the FAA to ensure we meet their expectations and all applicable requirements."

The statement added: "Last year, we set out on a comprehensive program to ensure every 787 airplane in our production system conforms to our exacting specifications. We resolved many of the non-conformances and were finalizing our work on the remaining items. We also continue to focus on fulfilling requirements and expectations of the FAA and will follow their lead on the timing of resuming deliveries."

Boeing could not confirm to Insider when deliveries of the Dreamliners would return.

The manufacturer has come under fire in recent years over safety issues. In July, around two months after deliveries were halted, the FAA said that some undelivered 787 planes had manufacturing problems near the nose of the airliners.

In November, the FAA also reported an issue related to the contamination of materials that make up the aircraft's wing, fuselage and tail, and confirmed previously reported issues with fuselage gaps, The Seattle Times reported at the time.

The FAA also said that Boeing must have a plan to rework 787s in storage before the manufacturer could regain the authority to inspect the Dreamliners.

Boeing is also under ongoing scrutiny over a separate airliner — the 737 Max aircraft — after two of the planes crashed due to software issues, killing 346 people between 2018 and 2019.

Democratic lawmakers last week criticised the FAA's oversight of Boeing and "reluctance to consider civil enforcement actions" in the wake of the crashes. They also asked the US Department of Transportation to conduct a federal review of the FAA's actions.

LUXURY ECOCIDE

Cargo ship with Porsches, Lamborghinis burning in the Atlantic

Freighter Felicity Ace was carrying almost 4,000 cars bound for the US. The ship's crew was rescued, but the vessel was left unmanned and drifting at sea.

 

The ship was transporting VW-group cars, including luxury vehicles, from Germany

Nearly 4,000 cars, including Audis, Porches and Lamborghinis, were going up in smoke on a freighter that caught fire in the Atlantic Ocean near the coast of Portugal's Azores islands.

The Panama-flagged Felicity Ace was carrying Volkswagen Group vehicles from Germany to the US, a VW spokesperson said on Friday.

It caught fire on Wednesday evening, and Portugal's navy and air force rescued its 22-strong-crew.

Rescuers used a helicopter to evacuate 22 crew members

Felicity Ace adrift near Azores

An internal email from Volkswagen US said the ship carried 3,965 vehicles of the VW, Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini brands.

A Porsche spokesperson confirmed nearly 1,100 Porsche vehicles were on board. Audi also said some of its cars were on the ship but did not state how many.

The Portuguese navy was keeping an eye on the burning ship.

A Dutch salvage company would examine the possibility of towing the ship to a port, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

lo/dj (Reuters, DPA)

Photos show Felicity Ace, the burning cargo

 ship loaded with luxury cars, smoldering at

 sea


Photos show Felicity Ace, the burning cargo ship loaded with luxury cars, smoldering at sea

Rebecca Cohen
Fri, February 18, 2022

Photos show the Felicity Ace, a cargo ship carrying thousands of cars, ablaze in the Atlantic Ocean.

The massive boat caught fire on Wednesday near Portugal. All 22 crew members were rescued by the Portuguese Navy.

The ship was transporting about 4,000 cars from Volkswagen's factory in Germany to the US.

The Felicity Ace, a cargo ship carrying cars from Germany to the US, that caught on fire near Portugal earlier this week is still ablaze in the Atlantic Ocean.

Photos released by Reuters on Friday show that the ship is still loaded with thousands of cars that won't make it to their owners.

The massive ship was evacuated by the Portuguese Navy on Wednesday, saving all 22 crew members on board.

The ship was traveling to Rhode Island from Emden, Germany, where a Volkswagen factory is located, with thousands of cars in tow.

The 650-foot-long ship was carrying nearly 4,000 cars built by Germany's Volkswagen Group to North America, including one YouTuber's brand new Porsche.

The ship, Felicity Ace, which was traveling from Emden, Germany, where Volkswagen has a factory, to Davisville, in the U.S. state of Rhode Island, burns more than 100 km from the Azores islands, Portugal, February 18, 2022.Reuters

Source: Insider

Both Volkswagen and Porsche have confirmed to Insider that they are looking into what went wrong and how the fire started.

The ship, Felicity Ace, which was traveling from Emden, Germany, where Volkswagen has a factory, to Davisville, in the U.S. state of Rhode Island, burns more than 100 km from the Azores islands, Portugal, February 18, 2022.Reuters

Source: Insider

The carmakers said it is too soon to determine whether any of the vehicles can be salvaged and what next steps are, but the boat remains ablaze Friday, with little hope for the cars on board.

The ship, Felicity Ace, which was traveling from Emden, Germany, where Volkswagen has a factory, to Davisville, in the U.S. state of Rhode Island, burns more than 100 km from the Azores islands, Portugal, February 18, 2022.Reuters

Just a Few Months in Space May Permanently Rewire Your Brain

Miriam Fauzia
Fri, February 18, 2022

NASA

As humans look toward the vast unknowns of space to better understand our galactic neighborhood and stake out potential habitats, there’s one big question scientists are asking: How will the human body hold up outside Earth?

For the most part, research from NASA’s trailblazing Twins Study and other investigations show that free-floating thousands of miles above solid ground can cause big changes on immune system function, gene expression, metabolism, and even gut bacteria. Most of these physiological changes, however, reverse themselves once an astronaut is back on Earth. Others can be offset through diet, exercise, and other actions.

But when it comes to the brain, changes may be more permanent for space travelers, as found by one new peer-reviewed study published Friday in Frontiers of Neural Circuits.

In a collaborative effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian space agency Roscosmos, a team of researchers found that long-duration spaceflight leads to very small but widespread changes in regions of the brain involved in sensorimotor integration—the parts of our brain that help us pick up sensory information and use it to interact with our external environment. These changes were particularly notable in a type of brain tissue called white matter, which acts as a sort of network cable connecting the brain’s computing centers (gray matter) together.

NASA’s Trippy Thought: Build Space Homes Out of Mushrooms

The study, led by physiologist Floris Wuyts of the University of Antwerp, scanned the brains of 12 male Russian cosmonauts using a 3D-modeling technique called fiber tractography. When combined with an MRI, this modeling can give researchers an inside look at the “sort of wiring scheme of the brain,” Wuyts said in a press release.

Between Feb. 2014 and Feb. 2020, cosmonauts who were set to undergo long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station (which, according to NASA, are about six months long) had MRIs taken three months before they launched, and another about 10 days after they returned to Earth. A final MRI was collected around seven months post-mission.

After spaceflight, Wuyts and his team identified tiny “microstructural” changes that occurred not only in the sensorimotor tracts of the brain but also in regions like the cerebellum, which plays a big role in movement and mediating social behavior.

Changes were also seen in white matter tracts connecting the corpus callosum (the communication bridge between our left and right brain hemispheres) and regions involved in language processing and executive function.

On the final MRIs taken seven months later, some microstructural changes reverted to pre-flight conditions—but not all of them. It’s one of the first major pieces of evidence to demonstrate that space can permanently alter the human brain.

Wuyts’ team thinks the space environment (and its microgravity conditions) causes fluid cavities in the brain to dilate, pushing adjacent neural tissue around.

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What these findings mean for the long-term health of astronauts and potential space tourists is hard to say. Dr. Jan Stepanek, a physician specializing in space medicine at the Mayo Clinic, told The Daily Beast that just because an anatomical change happens in one part of your brain doesn’t necessarily mean the actual function is changing in an untoward way.

“The sort of big million dollar question that now stands in the room is how much of this is a favorable adaptation and how much of the adaptation—that may occur to deal with an extreme environment—may turn out to be potentially detrimental or maladaptive,” he said.

Stepanek and Jennifer Fogarty, a space medicine researcher at Baylor University, do think the new study opens the door for understanding how an altered environment like Earth's orbit or a new planet like Mars can affect our brains, and how those transformations could possibly be tracked and measured with diagnostic imaging.

“It gets complicated [to measure change and adaptation],” Fogarty told The Daily Beast. “But now, understanding that, from a functionality standpoint, we can start to understand why and how the body is going through these mechanistic sorts of investments and changes to [align brain function] with a new environment.”

More work is needed before we can generalize the findings to space travelers of all health statuses, gender, and age (the study only looked at healthy men who were on average in their mid-40s). The next stage of this field of study will be to connect the structural changes of the brain to behavioral and psychological changes—and whether any of these things might be signs of more severe neurological ailments.

“These findings give us additional pieces of the entire puzzle,” said Wuyts. “Since this research is so pioneering, we don’t know how the whole puzzle will look yet. These results contribute to the overall understanding of what’s going on in the brains of space travelers. It’s crucial to maintain this line of research, looking for spaceflight induced changes from different perspectives and different techniques.”

Climate change: Covid shutdown linked to record rainfall in China

Matt McGrath - Environment correspondent
Fri, February 18, 2022

This aerial photo taken on 16 July 2020 shows a flooded area near the Poyang Lake due to torrential rains in Poyang county, Shangrao city, in China's central Jiangxi province

Scientists say that a rapid drop in emissions because of Covid played a key role in record rainfall in China in 2020.

The decline in greenhouse gases and small particles called aerosols caused atmospheric changes that intensified the downpours.

Hundreds of people died and millions more were evacuated during a summer of record rainfall.


But long-term cuts in emissions are unlikely to trigger similar events.

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Many parts of eastern China experienced severe flooding in June and July in 2020. The researchers say the reductions in emissions contributed about one third of the extreme summer rain.

floods

The Yangtze river saw the heaviest rainfall since 1961, with a 79% increase in June and July compared to the average for the period over the previous 41 years.

A number of scientific studies have looked at what caused the flooding events, some pointing to the extreme conditions in the Indian Ocean.

Now an international team has put forward a new theory. They argue that the abrupt reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols, caused by shutdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, was a key cause of the intense downpours.

In their study the authors show that over the past four decades summer rainfall over eastern and central China has decreased significantly due to the increase in the number of aerosols in the atmosphere.

These particles, often associated with the burning of coal, can reduce the occurrence of large-scale storms which resulted in lower rainfall.

Aerosols are generated from human activities including the burning of coal

This new study says that the absence of these particles, and lower greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 caused the opposite effect - a major increase in rain.

However, the chain of events that connects the pandemic shutdown to the floods is quite complex.

"There was heating over land due to aerosol reductions but also cooling over the ocean due to a decrease in greenhouse gases, which intensified the land/sea temperature difference in the summer," explained lead author Prof Yang Yang from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, in China.

"This in turn, increased sea level pressure over the South China/Philippines sea and intensified the winds bringing moist air to eastern China which then saw intense precipitation."

Diggers open a channel to let flood waters flow

Most governments around the world are looking to reduce emissions of warming gases and aerosols through shifting their energy systems away from fossil fuels. Is there a danger that in making this shift they could provoke extreme events like the ones experienced in China in 2020?

"It's a good question," said Prof Yang.

"Because emissions were reduced dramatically in early 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic emerged, it caused an immediate and abrupt change in various components of the climate system."

"Such sudden change of the climate system would be very different from changes in response to continuous but gradual policy-driven emissions reductions."

The new study has been published in the journal, Nature Communications.

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc.