Dallas Cowboys face backlash for partnering with gun-themed coffee company


The Dallas Cowboys sparked criticism on social media Tuesday, July 5, 2022, after announcing a marketing agreement with a gun-themed coffee company with blends that include “AK-47 Espresso,” “Silencer Smooth” and “Murdered Out.” The partnership with the Black Rifle Coffee Co. was revealed on Twitter the day after seven people died in a shooting at a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago. 

(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

By: Sarah Dewberry
Jul 08, 2022

DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys faced backlash after they announced they were partnering with a gun-themed coffee company a day after several people were killed in a mass shooting in suburban Chicago.

On Tuesday, "America's Team" announced the partnership with Salt Lake City-based Black Rifle Coffee Co., which sells coffee with names like "AK-47 Espresso" and "Murdered Out."

"#CowboysNation, please welcome America’s Coffee to America’s Team. We are celebrating America’s birthday all week long by giving away tickets to a #DallasCowboys home game & a -year subscription to @blckriflecoffee!" the team tweeted.

The coffee company, which a U.S. Army veteran founded, is popular among conservatives and gun-rights advocates, the Associated Press reported.

The team faced immediate criticism due to the timing of the announcement.

On July 4, seven people were killed, and more than 30 others were wounded at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.

News of the partnership also comes a month after 19 students and two teachers were killed during a school shooting in Uvalde.

The Cowboys previously announced they were donating $400,000 to support victims and survivors of the school shooting.

A Disturbing Shift Has Affected Earth's Delicate Energy Balance, Scientists Report

Tessa Koumoundouros - 

Our living planet is unique among all we've been able to explore in the Universe so far. From our axial tilt preventing too many temperature extremes, to our goldilocks zone position, life on Earth depends on many finely balanced, interwoven cycles that come together to produce the exact circumstances we need to thrive.


© NASA/Reid Wiseman Sunrise from the ISS.

One of these cycles is Earth's delicate energy system – the inputs and outputs of the energy received from the Sun.

This cycle dictates all planetary climate systems. On Mars, the seasonal change in energy imbalance – around 15.3 percent between Mars's seasons, compared to 0.4 percent on Earth – is thought to cause the planet's infamously epic dust storms.

For at least a while, before the 1750s, this fluctuating energy cycle on Earth was relatively balanced. But we've now created an imbalance that's recently doubled in just 15 years.

"The net energy imbalance is calculated by looking at how much heat is absorbed from the Sun and how much is able to radiate back into space," explains atmospheric scientist Kevin Trenberth from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research.

"It is not yet possible to measure the imbalance directly, the only practical way to estimate it is through an inventory of the changes in energy."

Trenberth and Chinese Academy of Sciences atmospheric physicist Lijing Cheng reviewed data from all components of the climate system: land, ice, ocean and atmosphere between 2000 and 2019, to conduct a stocktake of these changes.

Earth's atmosphere reflects almost one quarter of the energy that hits it, unlike on the Moon which takes the full impact of the Sun's energy, leading to surface temperatures of around 100°C (212°F). Most of that energy is then absorbed by the Moon and radiated back out into space as thermal infrared radiation, more commonly known as heat.

Again, it's the atmosphere that changes this process here on Earth. Some molecules in our atmosphere catch that heat before reaching space and keep holding onto it. Unfortunately for us, these are the greenhouse gasses, which have effectively now enveloped the planet in a too-snug blanket at the top of the atmosphere.

That extra trapped energy not only changes the place it ends up in but also impacts its surroundings on the way to its final destination, the researchers explain in their paper.

"It is vital to understand the net energy gain, and how much and where heat is redistributed within the Earth system," they write. "How much heat might be moved to where it can be purged from the Earth via radiation to limit warming?"

While everyone has mostly been focusing on increasing temperatures, that's only one product of this extra energy. Only 4 percent of it goes into raising temperatures of land and another 3 percent goes into melting ice, Trenberth and Cheng worked out.

Almost 93 percent is being absorbed by the ocean, they found, and we're already witnessing the unpleasant consequences.

Although less than 1 percent of the excess energy whirls around in our atmosphere, it's enough to directly increase the severity and frequency of extreme weather events, from droughts to floods.

However, the increased atmospheric turbulence may also be helpful.

"Those weather events move energy around and help the climate system get rid of energy by radiating it to space," explain the researchers.

Clouds and ice also help to reflect solar radiation before it becomes long-wave heat that the gasses trap. But both reflective clouds and ice are being reduced by disruptions in this energy cycle.

There's still too much missing information for a comprehensive Earth system model that accurately predicts specific outcomes beyond the short term, Trenberth and Cheng say. But by incorporating their Earth energy imbalance framework that considers each Earth system component, this may be improved on.

"Modeling the Earth energy imbalance is challenging, and the relevant observations and their synthesis need improvements," concludes Cheng.

"Understanding how all forms of energy are distributed across the globe and are sequestered or radiated back to space will give us a better understanding of our future."

This research was published in Environmental Research Climate.

Edmonton law student sues province, law society over mandatory oath to the Queen

Katarina Szulc -CBC 

An Edmonton articling student set to be called to the bar next month is suing the province and the Law Society of Alberta because he says swearing a mandatory oath to the Queen would contradict his religious beliefs.


© Jamie McCannel/CBC

Prabjot Singh Wirring is suing the province and Law Society of Alberta because he says swearing a mandatory oath to the Queen would contradict his religious beliefs.

Prabjot Singh Wirring is a devout Amritdhari Sikh. He says he made an absolute oath and submitted himself to Akal Purakh and cannot make a similar allegiance to another entity or sovereign.

"For me, it's a fundamental part of who I am as a person. The requirement to take that oath of allegiance would require me to renege on the vows and the oath that I've already made and a lot of damage to who I am as a person and to my identity," Wirring told CBC.

In Alberta, provincial legislation requires lawyers swear an oath to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors."

Wiring's legal challenge is being heard in Court of Queen's Bench. He's seeking to be exempt from the oath.

Wirring says he hoped the province would make an exception for him considering other provinces, like Ontario and British Columbia, have opted to make the oath optional or offer a different oath.

"Inclusion is a collective responsibility of the profession of our community and society in general. But unfortunately, a lot of the time this burden falls on racialized people," he said.

Although Wirring initially tried to negotiate with the Law Society of Alberta, he says he soon realized the oath was legislated and he would have to take up the issue with the provincial government.

A spokesperson for the province declined to comment because the matter is before the courts.

The Law Society of Alberta said in a statement that the issue is for the province, because any change must be legislated.

In court Thursday, the Crown motioned to strike or dismiss the claim, stating that the issue has been decided in other cases.

Wirring's lawyer Avnish Nanda told CBC he finds it frustrating the province is unwilling to make an exception.

"There's no willingness on the part of the minister or the Alberta government to back down. Either you make the oath of allegiance to the Queen, or you can't practise law in Alberta," Nanda said.

The government's statements of defence are set to be filed by July 15, with the court hearing after October 7.

IN CONSERVATIVE COUNTRY
'Happy Stampede': Prime minister mobbed by admirers at Calgary Stampede events


CALGARY — Inch by inch. Step by step. It could be the lyrics to a country and western song featured at the Calgary Stampede, but in reality it was the progress Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was making Sunday as he attended a pancake breakfast in Calgary.


© Provided by The Canadian Press'Happy Stampede': Prime minister mobbed by admirers at Stampede events

The annual 10-day celebration of the cowboy way of life has become an irresistible magnet for politicians of all political stripes.

Trudeau is no exception and has made an appearance year-after-year.

"This is a moment to gather and to celebrate being able to gather once again. It's great to see everyone in person. Happy Stampede," said Trudeau, who was attending a breakfast hosted by his lone Liberal MP in Calgary, George Chahal.

Trudeau briefly referenced the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and global events before spending some time flipping pancakes.

"It's been a tough couple of years where people have had to pull together and make it through and we really saw the strength of community," he said.

"We're facing more challenges with the war in Ukraine and with the global inflation crisis, but at the same time we're seeing it — time and time again — Canadians stepping up and being there for each other."

A lone protester, carrying a Canadian flag, yelled "traitor" a number of times before being quietly escorted out of the parking lot and across the street.

Trudeau was mobbed as he slowly made his way through the crowd, posing for pictures, holding small children and shaking hands.

He also visited the Stampede grounds and appeared at a Liberal fundraiser later in the day.

At the Stampede, Trudeau met with the Stampede's veterinarian and some students who are researching animal safety. They walked along the horses in the pens behind the grandstand infield as they talked.

He then met with Mayor Jyoti Gondek, who welcomed him to Calgary.

Trudeau also went to one of the barns and talked to some heavy horse owners before walking through the crowds on the grounds, where many young families were attending.

People stopped him and asked for selfies as he talked about how nice it was to be back at the event. Others, including refugees from Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan, thanked him. One woman from Calgary thanked him for helping to save her home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A few people could be heard muttering negative comments under their breath, before walking away. Others yelled in the background.

The prime minister's visit came on the heels of the federal Conservative barbecue in Calgary on Saturday night where four of the five leadership candidates had an opportunity to impress supporters before the party elects a leader in September.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2022.

Bill Graveland and Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press

Rogers customers grow increasingly frustrated on 3rd day without cell, internet service

Laura McQuillan -CBC - July 10,2022


After waiting hours on hold to speak with a Rogers representative, Rosanna Minicucci is still no closer to finding out when her landline, internet and TV service might be restored.

"I stayed five hours on hold, on the line. People are obviously calling — there are obviously a lot of people out there still with no service," Minicucci, who lives in Vaughan, north of Toronto, said.

She is one of a number of Rogers customers who told CBC News they're still struggling to use their phones, internet and other Rogers services more than 48 hours after Friday's nationwide outage caused major disruptions, including to 911 lines and banking services.

In a statement on Sunday afternoon, Rogers said its networks and systems were "close to fully operational," with service restored to "the vast majority" of customers.

"We are aware that some customers continue to experience intermittent challenges with their services," Rogers said.

The company did not answer questions about how many customers were still facing issues. It said its technical teams were working to resolve the remaining issues, and affected customers would receive credits on their accounts. Rogers has not said what the amount of the credit would be.

Earlier, it blamed the outage on a maintenance update that caused some of its routers to malfunction early Friday morning.

Some Rogers customers who have been waiting more than two days for service restoration say they are unhappy with the company's lack of communication and are now considering switching providers.

With her internet down on Friday, Minicucci was unable to work from home as she usually does, and on Sunday afternoon, she was uncertain about whether her service would be restored in time for work on Monday morning.

"Will I stay with Rogers? How can I? I don't trust their service," she said.

Jen Dieleman, a DoorDash driver in London, Ont., said she was unable to work on Friday or Saturday because her Rogers cellphone couldn't connect to the app that drivers use to pick up and deliver orders. Her service was still spotty on Sunday, she said.

"I'm out trying to work right now, and it's still glitching and having issues," Dieleman said, adding that she had missed out on picking up orders due to issues with her cellphone data.

In Whitby, northeast of Toronto, Justine Creagmile and her parents are still waiting for their home phone, internet and cable to resume working — even though service has been restored for their neighbours.

"It's absolutely frustrating, honestly," she said. "We're all connected to the same wiring. How is theirs working and ours isn't?"

Creagmile said her family has had "absolutely no luck" in trying to troubleshoot their issues with Rogers via phone and social media, and their future as Rogers customers will "depend on what Rogers is going to do to rectify the problem."


© Matt Fratpietro/CBC

Friday's outage left businesses across the country unable to process debit card payments, including this coffee shop in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Service resuming but patchy

Other customers told CBC News that their service appeared to be returning on Sunday afternoon, but it remained patchy.

Adriano Burgo said the Wi-Fi at his house in London, Ont., had "slowed down immensely," while his cellphone calls were dropping intermittently and he was unable to send texts.

He described Rogers' communication with its customers about the ongoing issues as "very poor," but he was unsure if he would switch providers.

"My problem is it's such a monopoly market, especially in London," he said. "We don't really have many options when it comes to internet and cable."

Rogers' issues were also affecting other companies that rely on its network, including internet provider TekSavvy, which was advising its customers in Ontario and Quebec of ongoing issues on Sunday afternoon.

In a statement, TekSavvy vice-president Andy Kaplan-Myrth said thousands of customers were still reporting slow or intermittent internet speeds, or were having difficulty connecting to the internet at all.

The company recommended customers try rebooting their modem and contacting TekSavvy if problems continued.

Ottawa orders meeting with telecom bosses

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne is to meet with Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri and other telecom company leaders on Monday "to discuss how important it is to improve the reliability of the networks across Canada," according to a statement from Champagne's office.

The statement did not provide any details about which other companies' executives would be attending the meeting.

Champagne called the outage "unacceptable" and said he had expressed that view directly to Staffieri, his office said.

Rogers Has Revealed The Cause Of Friday's Outage & The Company's CEO Has Apologized

IT IMPACTED MORE THAN JUST ROGERS CUSTOMERS

Sofia Misenheimer - MTLBLOG

Rogers is finally sharing the cause of the massive network outage that rocked Canada on Friday: a maintenance update in the company's core network that caused some routers to malfunction. The company CEO wrote to customers on Sunday morning, apologizing for the system failure.


© Provided by mtlblogRogers Has Revealed The Cause Of Friday's Outage & The Company's CEO Has Apologized

"We let you down on Friday. You have my personal commitment that we will do better," Rogers President and CEO Tony Staffieri wrote in an email to customers.

"We know how much you rely on our networks and I sincerely apologize. We’re particularly troubled that some customers could not reach emergency services, and we are addressing the issue as an urgent priority."

Internet and phone service went down for Rogers customers and those of other cell providers that use the company's network, like Fido, chatr and Cityfone.

Some emergency and banking services that rely on Rogers systems were also unavailable.

Meanwhile, Montreal's municipal services were seriously affected, with passport office call centres shut down for the day, along with taxi offices and the city's 311 information line.

While Rogers acknowledged the outage on Friday morning, it offered little information about the cause or when services might be restored.

Staffieri wrote that, as of Sunday, services have been restored and that company networks and systems are "close to fully operational."

He said technical teams are monitoring for any lingering issues while experts dig into the root cause of the outage to improve stability.

The company plans to credit customers who were affected by the outage. That credit will be applied automatically with no action required.

The Cause For The Rogers Outage Has Been Revealed & The CEO Says 'We Let You Down'

Canada - Trending Team - NARCITY

In the aftermath of the huge Rogers outage that affected the internet and phone services of people across Canada, the company has shared an apology and an explanation.



On Saturday, July 9, "A Message from Rogers President and CEO" Tony Staffieri was posted on their site.

"We now believe we’ve narrowed the cause to a network system failure following a maintenance update in our core network, which caused some of our routers to malfunction early Friday morning," Staffieri wrote.

To fix the problem, they disconnected certain equipment "which allowed our network and services to come back online over time as we managed traffic volumes returning to normal levels."

"We know how much our customers rely on our networks, and I sincerely apologize," Staffieri continued, adding that they were "particularly troubled" that some people couldn't contact emergency services, which he says they are addressing.




As well, customers will be given credit for the disruption that will be applied automatically to their accounts.

Staffieri also said that, as CEO, he takes full responsibility for ensuring the company earns back the trust of its customers.

He also laid out a three-step action plan which consists of fully restoring all services, completing "root cause analysis and testing," and making "any necessary changes."

"We will take every step necessary and continue to make significant investments in our networks to strengthen our technology systems, increase network stability for our customers, and enhance our testing," he shared.

"We let you down yesterday," he wrote. "You have my personal commitment that we can, and will, do better."

During the outage on Friday, some people attending concerts were advised to physically print out their tickets to avoid any mishaps due to not being able to connect to the internet and get their tickets scanned.

As well, Passport Canada tweeted that the outage affected some call centres and offices, including passport offices.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.

Rogers outage shows need for Plan B when wireless, internet services fail, analysts say

Nick Logan - CBC

You didn't have to be a Rogers customer to feel the sense of dread when waking up to the news of a widespread wireless and internet outage Friday morning. The day, for millions of Canadians, was already off to a bad start.

At a Starbucks in Toronto, there was no quick tap of a debit card to get your caffeine fix on the run, as the disruption affected online payment systems across the country. Commuters in Vancouver were advised they may not be able to pay transit fares with debit cards. Cafes and libraries still offering Wi-Fi became makeshift offices. Any convenience to working from home became an inconvenience for those relying on the telecom giant's services.

It's the second major Rogers disruption in about 14 months. The company admitted to its 11 million wireless subscribers: "Today we have let you down."

The Canadian economy, and everyday life, is tethered to our communications networks, and when they go down, like Rogers did for much of the day Friday, there is no universal Plan B to keep widely-used – and vital — services online.

The repercussions are serious.

Change in traffic on the Rogers network since July 7, 2022

At least a half a million merchants use Interac debit payments, which rely on the Rogers network. Government services, including the ArriveCan app, have been impacted. The Niagara Health authority had to cancel radiation therapy appointments. Some cities have warned Rogers customers they may have trouble contacting 9-1-1 in emergencies.

"We have become remarkably fragile because of the rapid pace of innovation and the rapid pace of implementation of new techniques and new forms of technology," said economist Dan Ciuriak, a senior fellow with the Centre for International Governance and Innovation.

This needs to be a "wake up call," he said, not just for Rogers but for Canada's wireless communications infrastructure as a whole.

"We're talking about moving into the Metaverse. We're still in the dinoverse unfortunately, and this is pretty bad for Canada business-wise."

Loyalty to 1 company leaves you vulnerable

In an email to some corporate customers, Rogers blamed the disruption on an outage within its core network. There was no estimate for full restoration, though some services appeared to be returning to normal late Friday.

While Rogers will have to further explain what led to such a significant failure, Ciuriak said Canada has "lagged" in its development of wireless network hardware compared to other countries, as well with its security.

Tyler Chamberlain, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management, isn't as critical of the country's wireless communications infrastructure, noting these types of service interruptions are more common in other countries.

He said it would be "really expensive" to build any system that "never fails."


© Kate Dubinski/CBC

Merchants at the Covent Garden Market in London, Ont., told customers it was cash only on Friday due to the Rogers outage. The Interac system for debit payments relies on Rogers; credit payments would also be interrupted in businesses using Rogers internet.

Part of the problem is that, whether it's in our business or personal lives, we often rely on one company for all of our telecommunications services, said Chamberlain, which is something companies like Rogers, Bell and Shaw offer as an incentive for slightly lower prices.

"[That's] one of the things that maybe you want to … reconsider because if you are all-in-one and that one goes down, you really are isolated," he said, especially for those working from home full time. Though, he admitted that's not necessarily an option in rural parts of the country.

Businesses relying on wireless networks may want to consider the same thing, added David Soberman, a marketing professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

"If cashless payment systems are based on one network, you may find that some companies basically contract with two different [wireless or internet] suppliers so that they have one option if the other fails," he said.

"But not all companies can afford all those backups."

Who's to blame?

The responsibility lies with a company like Rogers when its services fail, said Soberman.

"I think the real issue here is that Rogers has a problem in their systems and they obviously aren't managing it very well," he said, noting the the other major wireless and internet providers in Canada haven't had such major disruptions in such a short period of time as Rogers has in the past two years.

Federal government critics are demanding an investigation into the Rogers service disruption.

"Given the critical infrastructure that's affected, and that the CRTC itself is affected, the cause of the Rogers outage should be immediately explained," Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said in a statement shared on Twitter, calling for an emergency parliamentary committee meeting to "make sure it doesn't happen again."

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh claimed the widespread disruption to businesses and services is a consequence of the Liberal government "protecting the profits of telecoms giants."

Ciuriak said the government has a regulatory responsibility but it stops there.

"You would not expect a government bureaucrat to understand the software requirements to ensure that systems are robust and resilient," he said.

A vital service needing regulation?

Although the CRTC has declared broadband internet a basic telecommunications service, it's not a utility like water or power, which are mostly run by Crown corporations or quasi-Crown corporations, Chamberlain added.

But Soberman said the government may want to consider treating the wireless and internet services in a similar fashion to ensure there is limited disruption to business and vital services like 911.

"[The] internet is providing an infrastructure that is as important as the electrical system, is as important as the water, is certainly as important as the postal system," he said.

There could be a means of other wireless or internet companies stepping in to mitigate a disruption like this, he suggested.

"You might be able to make some kind of a law or regulation that would ensure that service is provided all the time to people, even if one of the suppliers has a problem."

The CRTC does have rules regarding the telecom networks ensuring cellphone users are still able to contact 911 even without wireless service. But the regulator did not immediately reply to CBC's question about whether that rule was breached as a result of the Rogers outage.

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/07/rogers-outage-implications-show-need.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/07/canada-massive-rogers-outage-snarling.html

Hawaii museum revisits history of gender-fluid healers

July 7,2022

HONOLULU (AP) — More than 500 years ago, Hawaiians placed four boulders on a Waikiki beach to honor visitors from the court of Tahiti’s king who had healed the sick. They were “mahu,” which in Hawaiian language and culture refers to someone with dual male and female spirit and a mixture of gender traits.


© Provided by The Canadian PressHawaii museum revisits history of gender-fluid healers

The stones were neglected for many years, as Christian missionaries and other colonizing Westerners suppressed the role of mahu in Hawaiian society. At one point a bowling alley was built over the boulders.

Officials restored the stones multiple times since the 1960s but informational plaques installed next to them omitted references to mahu.

The stones and the history of the four healers now are featured in an exhibit at Bishop Museum in Honolulu. The display highlights the deep roots of gender fluidity in Polynesia.

Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu is mahu and one of the exhibit’s curators. She said the healers were revered for their skill and hopes their story will show children in Hawaii that “proper Hawaiian culture” doesn’t pass judgment against those “who have elements of duality.”

“They were respected and honored because the people knew that their male and female duality made them even more powerful a healer,” Wong-Kalu said.

Kapaemahu was the leader of the four healers, and the exhibit is named The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu. Their story was passed down orally, like all Hawaiian stories, until a written language was developed in the 1800s.

But Hawaiians were discouraged from talking about mahu. DeSoto Brown, a Bishop Museum historian and the exhibit’s lead curator, said Christian missionaries who arrived in 1820 forbade anything that deviated from “clearly defined roles and presentation” of male and female genders.

The earliest known written account of the mahu healers is a 1906 manuscript by James Alapuna Harbottle Boyd, the son-in-law of Archibald Cleghorn, who owned the Waikiki property where the stones were at the time. Cleghorn’s wife, Princess Likelike, and daughter, Princess Kaiulani, were known to place seaweed and offer prayers at the stones when they swam.

Boyd’s manuscript “Tradition of the Wizard Stones of Ka-Pae-Mahu” said the Hawaiian people loved the healers for their “tall stature, courteous ways and kindly manners” and their cures became famous across Oahu.

“Their ways and great physique were overshadowed by their low, soft speech, and they became as one with those they came in contact with,” Boyd wrote. “They were unsexed, by nature, and their habits coincided with their womanly seeming, although manly in stature and general bearing.”

When it was time for the healers to leave, four boulders were brought down from Oahu’s Kaimuki area. Two were placed at the site of the healers’ hut and the others where they bathed in the ocean. Idols indicating the dual spirit of the healers were placed under each stone.

Many Hawaiians grew up not knowing about Hawaiian concepts of mahu or the stones because the American businessmen who overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 banned Hawaiian language instruction in schools and discouraged speaking it in homes. Generations of Hawaiians lost connections to cultural traditions.

Wong-Kalu, 50, said as a child she was made to believe mahu was a derogatory word. She remembers being among those who would sit on the stones and drape towels over them after swimming, oblivious to their significance.

Mahu are akin to “two-spirit” common in many Native American cultures, Wong-Kalu said, adding there are physical, emotional, mental and spiritual elements to being mahu. The representation of male and female depends on the person, she said.

“In Hawaii, one could exist really in the middle,” she said.

The stones nearly were lost just before the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At the time, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported the boulders would be blasted or removed after a developer leased Cleghorn’s property to build a bowling alley.

Following an outcry, plans emerged for a concrete walkway between the stones. But the developer instead built over them.

The stones were uncovered two decades later when the city tore down buildings to build a public beach park. Elders recalled the story of the stones and urged they remain. The city agreed and created a plaque that mentioned the Tahitian healers but didn’t say anything about them being mahu.

In 1997, the city fenced off the stones and dedicated a new plaque. It also didn’t reference mahu.

During both periods, waves of homophobia and transphobia washed over Honolulu. In the 1960s, a new state law prohibited cross-dressing and police forced drag performers to wear a button saying: “I Am A Boy.” Three decades later, there was backlash in Hawaii and nationally when the Hawaii Supreme Court sided with same-sex couples seeking the right to marry.

The Bishop Museum exhibit, on display through Oct. 16, recounts this history and displays artifacts like massage sticks and a medicine pounder that healers would have used centuries ago. Islander concepts of gender fluidity are explored through stories like that of King Kamehameha III and his male lover.

A map shows terms used in Polynesia for those who don’t identify as male or female, including “fa’afafine” in Samoa and “leiti” in Tonga.

Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson helped curate the exhibit and hope it will spur the city to tell the full story of the mahu at the site of the stones.

Ian Scheuring, spokesperson for Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, said the city is researching the issue and local leaders plan to meet with members of the LGBTQ and Native Hawaiian communities to learn how they can help tell the “true and complete” story of the healers.

Tatiana Kalaniopua Young, a Native Hawaiian anthropologist, mahu and a director of the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation, said the story the stones and healers helped her family understand that she was not “this weird creature that's outside of the norm." And that in a Hawaiian sense, she was part of the norm.

“It gave me a sense of place and purpose as a mahu and it really made me proud to be Kanaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian,” she said.

___

This story has been updated to correct the title of the exhibit to The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu.

Audrey Mcavoy, The Associated Press

Native American Indian Berdache or "Two-Spirit" Tradition

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Sept 22, 2016 — Berdaches also occupied roles not associated with shamanism. Navajo berdaches - called nadle - were responsible for preparation and cooking of ...

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Oct 11, 2010 — ... referred to as "berdache" by early French explorers in North America, ... the term berdache had a clear homosexual connotation.

Minerals from Antarctica give clues to potentially habitable locations on Mars

Staff Writer | June 30, 2022 | 

Blood Falls. (Image by National Science Foundation/Peter Rejcek, Wikimedia Commons).

Minerals found in samples of material from Antarctica could give scientists a better understanding of the surface and subsurface environment of Mars, and indicate locations of potentially habitable subsurface locations.


In a recent paper published in the journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, lead author Elizabeth C. Sklute, a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute, explains that in Antarctica’s Taylor Glacier brine flows out from a subsurface body of water that has been isolated for possibly thousands of years. The terminus area where the brine flows has been dubbed Blood Falls.

The brine flow deposits material that is the surface manifestation of a subsurface environment that hosts a thriving community of microbial life.

According to Sklute, initially, the brine is clear, but the deposit reddens with time on the surface, earning Blood Falls its name.

After scientists from the University of Tennessee collected samples of intermittent brine discharge, Sklute’s team tested them using Fourier transform infrared, Raman, visible to near-infrared, and Mössbauer spectroscopies.

Samples were further characterized using microprobe and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy for chemistry, and X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy for mineralogy, crystallography, and chemistry.

“We took dry samples and we analyzed them by shining light of different wavelengths at them,” Sklute said. “Each wavelength of light makes the bonds and atoms in a sample react in a different way. Using them all together, it lets us figure out what is there.”

The researcher explained that her team took each of the little pieces of information and pasted them together to form a whole image. Then they used different techniques to understand the bonds or atoms that comprise the samples.

“Combining these techniques, we have determined the detailed mineralogical assemblage of this Mars analog site and we have learned that the deposit is mostly carbonates and that the red color of Bloody Falls is from the oxidation of dissolved ferrous ions (Fe2+) as they are exposed to air, likely in combination with other ions,” the scientist explained.

“Instead of forming ferric (Fe3+) minerals, which is what usually happens on earth, this brine turns into amorphous (no long-range structure) nanospheres containing iron and a bunch of other elements, like chlorine and sodium.”

Sklute pointed out that amorphous materials have been found to be ubiquitous in Gale Crater on Mars by the Curiosity rover.

“To date, we haven’t been able to determine what the amorphous material on Mars is made of,” she said. “Finding what may be similar material in a natural environment on earth is really exciting. We do not say this is a biosignature because it is not produced by the microbes but rather by the chemistry where the microbes live. It does, however, give us a road map for a place to look on another frozen world.”

UK coal mine’s climate impact is ‘indefensible,’ watchdog says
Bloomberg News | June 28, 2022 | 

Woodhouse Colliery would be the UK’s first new deep coal mine in three decades. (Image courtesy of West Cumbria Mining)

Plans to build the UK’s first deep coal mine in three decades are “absolutely indefensible” because the resulting pollution would blow holes through the nation’s pledge to reduce emissions by 2050, the climate change watchdog said.


The government is expected to decide next week whether to allow the mine in Cumbria, northwest England. The ruling was put on hold last year after concerns were raised that the mine is at odds with the country’s legally binding goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson hinted last week he supported the project, which would produce coking coal that’s used to make steel. He told Parliament that it made no sense for the UK to import coal when it could be produced at home.

“All it means is that we create another example of Britain saying one thing and doing another,” said John Gummer, chair of the independent Climate Change Committee. “We do not need this coal mine.”

He added that 80% of what the mine produces would be exported, anyway.

The committee released its annual report on how the UK is progressing toward reaching net-zero through five-year increments known as carbon budgets. The government isn’t living up to those ambitious pledges and needs to fill major policy gaps, particularly for insulating homes, decarbonizing agriculture and optimizing land use.

“In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, the country is crying out to end its dependence on expensive fossil fuels,” Gummer said. “The window to deliver real progress is short. We are eagle-eyed for the promised action.”

A spokesman for the Business and Energy Department said the UK has reduced emissions faster than any other Group of Seven country in the past 30 years, and it pushed other nations to set their net-zero targets during leadership of the COP26 climate summit last November.

This year, the CCC found that greenhouse-gas emissions have almost halved from 1990 levels. Though there was a 4% increase last year as the economy started recovering from the pandemic, emissions still were 10% lower than in 2019. Car usage has increased, but flights remain suppressed.

Like most of Europe, the UK is searching for new sources of fossil fuels to help wean itself off Russian oil and gas. The UK now wants to keep a reserve of coal-fired plants available this winter rather than shutting almost all of them during the next three months as originally planned.

The CCC said it’s unconcerned by those plans since keeping the lights on should be a priority during the energy crisis. The emissions impact of the insurance supply deal is “very tiny,” said Chris Stark, the commission’s chief executive. The same goes for government plans announced last month to give tax breaks to companies that want to start new oil-and-gas production in the North Sea.

It also praised the nation’s progress in deploying renewable sources of electricity and promoting the use of electric vehicles.

(By Jessica Shankleman)

Column: US forms ‘friendly’ coalition to secure critical minerals

Reuters | June 30, 2022 | 

Ferromagnetic fluid magnetized by a neodymium magnet (Stock Image)

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)


A metallic NATO is starting to take shape, though no-one is calling it that just yet.

The Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) is in theory open to all countries that are committed to “responsible critical mineral supply chains to support economic prosperity and climate objectives”.

But the coalition assembled by the United States is one of like-minded countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany with an Asian axis in the form of Japan and South Korea.

It is defined as much as anything by who is not on the invite list – China and Russia.

China’s dominance of key enabling minerals such as lithium and rare earths is the single biggest reason why Western countries are looking to build their own supply chains.

Russia, a major producer of nickel, aluminium and platinum group metals, is now also a highly problematic trading partner as its war in Ukraine that the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” grinds on.

A previously highly globalised minerals supply network looks set to split into politically polarised spheres of influence, a tectonic realignment with far-reaching implications.
‘Friend-shoring’

The United States and Europe have realised that they can’t build out purely domestic supply chains quickly enough to meet demand from the electric vehicle transition.

The answer is “friend-shoring”. If you can’t produce it yourself, find a friendly country that can.

“Friend-shoring is the idea that countries that espouse a common set of values (…) get the benefits of trade so we have multiple sources of supply and are not reliant excessively on sourcing critical goods from countries where we have geopolitical concerns,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in “a fireside chat” with Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland.

The process was already well underway before the US State Department announced the formation of the MSP on June 14.

US and Canadian officials have been working closely as Canada fleshes out a promised C$3.8 billion ($3.02 billion) package to boost production of lithium, copper and other strategic minerals.

European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič has just been in Norway to seal “a strategic partnership” on battery technologies and critical raw materials.

The Pentagon is getting in on the friend-shoring trend too.

It has asked Congress to amend the Cold War-era Defense Production Act (DPA) to allow it to invest directly in Australia and the United Kingdom.

The Defense Department (DoD) says it is “unnecessarily” constrained by the existing requirement to invest only on home soil or in Canada. Leveraging the resources of two “closest allies” would “increase the nation’s advantage in an environment of great competition”.

Rare earths breakthrough

The first tangible rewards of all this heightened mineral diplomacy are starting to be seen.

Rare earths have posed a particular headache for Western countries because of China’s dominance of the supply chain, particularly the processing stage of production.

The only operating rare earths mine in the United States, for example, has been shipping its concentrate to China for refining.

The DoD is investing $120m in a new plant for heavy rare earths separation. It has chosen an Australian company as its partner.

Lynas Rare Earths will supply the plant in Texas with mixed rare earths carbonate from its mine in Western Australia as well as working with third-party suppliers “as they become available,” it said.

The plant is due to become operational in 2025 and Lynas and the DoD are already working on a complementary light rare earths separation facility.

Expect many more such “friendly” tie-ups in the coming months as the United States and Europe attempt to pivot away from “unfriendly” nations.
Hostilities

As for China and Russia, “we’re still going to have a relationship with countries outside this closest circle but it’s going to be a (…) relationship that has less trust at its heart,” according to Chrystia Freeland.

The days of unlimited Chinese mining investment in countries such as Canada and Australia are probably over.

Canada waved through Zijin Mining Group’s 601899.SS acquisition of Toronto-listed Neo Lithium Corp last year, saying it saw no risks to national security.

But speaking to the Globe and Mail earlier this month, Jonathan Wilkinson, Natural Resources Minister, signalled a change in stance. “I do think that it is appropriate for us to pause and reflect on whether we will allow those kinds of transactions going forward,” he said.

This is not just a question of ownership but also of off-take deals if material is being shipped to China for refining. “Canada needs to ensure that it is protecting itself in an area that is clearly strategic and ensuring that those supply chains will be robust for our allies,” Wilkinson said.

The investment climate has just got a lot chillier for Chinese operators and there has already been a hostile reaction.

The DoD said on Tuesday it was “aware of the recent disinformation campaign” against Lynas and other rare earth mining companies operating in the United States.

This follows claims by US-based cybersecurity firm Mandiant that a pro-China propaganda campaign used fake social media accounts to try to stir up opposition to proposed new mines and plants.

China’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and embassy in Washington did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

It’s a warning sign of what may come if the geopolitical polarisation of critical minerals supply turns ugly.

A ‘big deal’

The MSP marks a new chapter in the critical minerals story. The pressure to decouple from China has been growing for several years but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has concentrated minds.

While the immediate focus is on Russia’s role in the energy sector, there is a recognition that critical minerals could be next.

“Being dependent on countries that do not always share our perspectives on global affairs, and that have shown the ability at times to use their control of some of these resources as a weapon, is not a very good strategy,” warned Canada’s Wilkinson.

The era of globalised trade patterns in strategic commodities is over, according to Chrystia Freeman.

Friend-shoring is going to be “the big economic and geopolitical issue” going forwards and “the world has not yet really started to properly grapple with how big a deal this is”.

(Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

EU’s Green Deal demands switch from fossil fuels to domestic metal production – report

Valentina Ruiz Leotaud | July 3, 2022 

Wind turbines in the Netherlands. (Image from Pxhere).

In a recently published whitepaper, researchers from the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities analyze the geopolitical context within which the European Union’s Green Deal is being advanced and conclude that the focus of the block’s energy transition should be on a switch from fossil fuels to metals.


However, given the resources available in the EU, the researchers believe the continent will have to build its own urban mining and refining operations to decrease its raw materials dependency and will need to foster the materials that will accumulate in the energy infrastructure in the coming decades.



“We will need huge amounts of steel to build the wind turbines, and neodymium for the magnets that will replace the high-maintenance gearbox,” René Kleijn, one of the study’s co-authors, said. “We will also need large quantities of copper for cables, nickel and lithium for making batteries, and we have to produce a lot of solar panels based on a variety of materials including silicon, silver, indium and tellurium.”

In Kleijn’s view, there is no shortage in the ores that need to be mined. The issue that needs to be dealt with is the ability of supply chains to keep up with rapidly increasing demand as research has shown that, for some metals, global mining will have to increase by a factor of 20 to 50 by 2050.

“The problem is that it can take up to two decades to build a new mine,” the industrial ecologist said. “This means that all major industrial countries are scrambling for these metals, leading to increased geopolitical tension. We will also see a shift in geopolitical power as metal ores are not located in the same countries as to where coal, oil and gas are located.” (Graph from Metabolic’s Toward a circular energy transition report).

For Kleijn, Europe has made a big mistake by not building its refinery capacity and becoming dependent on other countries for oil, coal and gas, as well as for the resources needed to realize the energy transition.

The researcher points out that, meanwhile, China has become a major producer of critical raw materials, including the cobalt that is mined in Congo but then immediately shipped to China for processing.

Kleijn and his co-authors believe that for the EU to address its dependence on other countries, it is important to allow for some government and community involvement, as the free market falls short when it comes to upscaling critical raw materials.

It is also important to build enough capacity that allows moving away from a system based on extraction to one based on availability.

“We will be much less dependent on inputs once we have erected enough wind turbines, installed enough solar panels, built enough batteries and are able to produce hydrogen on a big scale. After all, wind and solar energy are free resources,” Kleijn said. “[But] it takes a sense of urgency to realize this vision. The war in Ukraine has demonstrated that global supply chains are vulnerable. And depending on a single country can lead to huge price fluctuations. We must therefore diversify our most important supply chains.”

As an example, the whitepaper mentions how lithium prices are increasing rapidly simply because demand is outpacing production, despite it being an abundant resource worldwide. Similarly, the price of nickel skyrocketed, and the London Metal Exchange even temporarily halted trade in this metal, as a consequence of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, thus highlighting how geopolitical aspects play a critical role in the provision of resources in general, and the metals needed to shift toward clean energies in particular.

“Decreasing European dependency on imports means that we will have to build our own mining and refining operations,” the document states. “Reducing our consumption is an important priority as well, of course, but the reality is that our current society needs energy, mobility, and technology. We must really ask ourselves where we want to source the raw materials that we will need in the coming decades.”

For the experts behind the study, besides ensuring critical materials supply through industrial policy, circular thinking can also help reduce shortages of critical metals, something that can be achieved by increasing the lifespan and recyclability of products.