Canada's opposition filibusters overnight against PM Trudeau's carbon tax

Fri, December 8, 2023 

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks as Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre listens during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

By Steve Scherer

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's main opposition Conservative Party forced the House of Commons to sit overnight in a filibuster that it says will end when Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau drops his carbon pricing system that it blames for fueling inflation.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre brought bags of fast food to his caucus after midnight and stood to move motions to "axe" the carbon tax until 6 a.m. ET (1100 GMT) - all of which failed.


Trudeau and much of the Liberal caucus also voted through the night to defeat the Conservative motions and slowly make progress on the passage of budget-related legislation that funds the various government departments.

"We have successfully killed a day of government business," Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer told reporters on Friday, his eyes puffy from lack of sleep.

"We are voting against the budget. We're just doing it in a little bit of a different way this time to highlight the fact that Justin Trudeau is going to radically increase the carbon tax," Scheer said. The carbon tax is set to increase over time.

Poilievre would win a majority if a vote were held today, polls show, and he has gathered momentum by accusing Trudeau of failing to protect Canadians from cost-of-living increases. Inflation exceeded 8% last year but in October it was just a notch above 3%. An election is not due until 2025.

The federal carbon tax, in effect since 2019, is Trudeau's signature climate policy and is intended to discourage use of fossil fuels and accelerate a switch to clean energy.

"We're not axing the tax," Trudeau told reporters in the House on Friday.

Canadians receive quarterly rebates to make the carbon tax revenue neutral, but Trudeau offered in October a three-year carve-out for home heating oil under pressure from Liberal lawmakers on the Atlantic coast.

That move appeared to confirm the Conservative view that the carbon tax was a burden on households and reignited debate over the policy.

Voting on the government supply legislation is about half over, Scheer said, so the filibuster is not likely to last into next week. The House will close on Dec. 15 for the holidays.

"Mr. Poilievre continues to gaslight Canadians for clickbait," Liberal House leader Karina Gould told reporters.

"They are literally trying to shut down the government, which is the page out of the extreme-right Republican handbook in the United States. Canadians have seen the dysfunction in Washington. They don't want that here in Ottawa."

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Additional reporting by Dale Smith; Editing by Richard Chang)

Liberals, NDP criticize Poilievre's absence during late-night House sitting

CBC
Thu, December 7, 2023 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre addresses the National Conservative Caucus in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press - image credit)

The Liberals and NDP are criticizing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for being absent from the House of Commons as his party works to delay government legislation.

Poilievre said Wednesday his MPs will pitch "thousands of amendments" to legislation to keep Parliament sitting over Christmas if the Liberal government doesn't scrap parts of its carbon tax.

"You will have no rest until the tax is gone," Poilievre said in a message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Liberal MPs.

The Tories are forcing delays by prompting 135 votes in the House, most of them on the government's estimates. The party said this will result in round-the-clock voting that likely will last until Friday evening and stall the Liberal agenda.

Poilievre held a fundraiser in Quebec on Thursday evening before spending time with members of the Montreal Jewish community at a synagogue that was recently hit by Molotov cocktails, a spokesperson told CBC News on background.

That didn't stop MPs from taking note of his absence from the House on Thursday evening. Some began chanting "Where is Pierre?" at the Conservative benches.

Conservatives responded with chants of "Where is Trudeau?" — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was also absent. Deputy Speaker Chris d'Entremont promised to have MPs removed if the chanting continued.

Karina Gould, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons rises during question period in the House of Commons, in Ottawa, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023.

Karina Gould, leader of the government in the House of Commons, rises during question period on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Speaking to reporters before the voting marathon began Thursday evening, Government House Leader Karina Gould criticized Poilievre for his absence.

"Here he is yesterday claiming to Canadians that he's going to hold this government to account," she said. "Well, let's see if he shows up to vote."

Rules adopted in the wake of the pandemic allow MPs to vote virtually through an app; Poilievre, Trudeau and other MPs did that a number of times on Thursday evening. Poilievre's spokesperson told CBC the Conservative leader will be participating in every vote.

NDP House Leader Peter Julian also spoke to reporters about Poilievre's absence.

"The fact that Mr. Poilievre doesn't even have the courage to be here with the members of Parliament that are here all night shows how artificial his latest blocking tactic is," Julian said.

The Conservatives maintain they will carry out their obstruction tactics until the Liberals lift the carbon tax from all home-heating energy sources, pass a bill to grant carbon tax relief to some farmers and exempt all First Nations from the carbon levy, as some chiefs have demanded.

Poilievre put forward a motion calling on the government to meet those demands on Thursday but it was defeated.

Senate set to vote on carbon tax bill

The late-night House sitting comes as the Senate is set to have a final vote on a carbon tax carve-out bill that has been a lightning rod for controversy in the upper chamber.

Bill C-234 would remove the carbon tax from most natural gas and propane used on farms — other farm fuels like diesel and gasoline are already exempt under the Liberal tax regime. It's expected to be put up for a third vote in the Senate on Thursday evening.

The Conservative private members bill was passed in the House — without the support of the governing Liberal Party — without much fanfare. But the bill began to receive more attention after the Liberals announced a three-year carbon tax exemption for heating oil.

Conservatives used the Liberal exemption as a rallying point to call for C-234 to pass.

The ensuing debate in the upper chamber resulted in accusations of bullying and harassment by some senators.

The Senate voted 40-39 to amend the bill to limit the exemption only to propane used for grain drying. If the bill is passed with the amendment, the carbon tax would still apply to heating barns and greenhouses.

Ben Lobb, the MP who brought forward the bill, said Wednesday that he was "disappointed" with the Senate's change.

Ben Lobb, Conservative MP-elect for Huron-Bruce.

Conservative MP Ben Lobb, who sponsored Bill C-234, said the Senate's amendment was disappointing. (CBC News)

"The amendment that was passed last night in a way guts the bill and really diminishes the opportunity that was there, so close to have a good result for Canadian farmers," the Ontario MP told reporters.

Sen. Pierre Dalphond, who proposed the amendment, defended the change.

"The amendment rests on the fact that alternatives and efficiencies are readily available to reduce emissions related to heating and cooling of farm buildings, as compared to grain drying," he said in a media statement.

If the bill passes the third reading in the Senate, it will go back to the House for MPs to consider the changes made by the upper chamber.

Temple linked to Hercules and Alexander the Great discovered in ancient megacity in Iraq

Jennifer Nalewicki
Thu, December 7, 2023 

A digital replica of a temple.
Archaeologists in Iraq have unearthed twin temples built on top of each other. The newer, Hellenistic temple dates to the fourth century B.C. and may have a link to Alexander the Great.

The temple contained a fired brick with an Aramaic and Greek inscription that references "the giver of two brothers" — a possible reference to the Macedonian king, who conquered much of the known world during his 13-year-reign from 336 B.C. to 323 B.C.

Archaeologists from the British Museum in London discovered the older temple while conducting excavations at Girsu, a Sumerian city now known as Tello in southeastern Iraq. The excavations are part of an ongoing venture conducted by the museum known as The Girsu Project that focuses on learning more about the city’s storied history.

Remnants of the older, Sumerian temple were found buried "on the exact same spot" as the newer construction, which was dedicated to the "Greek god Hercules and his Sumerian equivalent, the hero god Ningirsu [also known as Ninurta]," Sebastien Rey, an archaeologist and curator of Ancient Mesopotamia at the British Museum who led the excavation, told Live Science in an email.

The fact that a temple was raised on the same site where one stood 1,500 years earlier was no coincidence, and the site must have held some significance to the people of Mesopotamia, the researchers said.

Related: 2nd-century Alexander the Great statue with lion's-mane hairstyle unearthed in Turkey

"It shows that the inhabitants of Babylonia in the [fourth] century B.C. had a vast knowledge of their history," Rey said. "The legacy of the Sumerians was still very vibrant."

While exploring the dual temple site, archaeologists discovered a silver drachm (an ancient Greek coin) buried beneath an altar or shrine, as well as a brick with the two brothers inscription.

"The inscription is very interesting because it mentions an enigmatic Babylonian name written in Greek and Aramaic," Rey said. "The name 'Adadnadinakhe,' which means 'Adad, the giver of brothers,' was clearly chosen as a ceremonial title on account of its archaizing tone and symbolic connotations. All the evidence points to the fact that the name was extraordinarily rare."

A tablet with an inscription

The inscription itself is a nod to Zeus, the Greek sky god, who is often symbolized by a lightning bolt and an eagle. Both of these symbols can be found on the coin, which would've been struck in Babylon "under Alexander the Great's authority," Rey said. "It shows Hercules in a youthful, clean-shaven portrait that strongly recalls conventional representations of Alexander on one side, with Zeus on the other."

Zeus also "famously acknowledged Alexander as his son through the agency of the Ammon oracle,” Rey said. "He became quite literally the 'giver of brothers' because he affirmed a fraternal bond between Alexander and Heracles."

However, researchers don't yet know whether the Macedonian king actually visited the site.

"But he might have had the opportunity to go there, either during his stay in Babylon, or by taking a detour on the way to [the city of] Susa," he said. "Significantly, he was able to pay his soldiers after taking Babylon because the city's coffers were surrendered to him. This meant that Alexander and his generals had control of the region's wealth, and they presumably used Babylonian silver to mint the many coins that were struck in the city."

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In addition to the artifacts, researchers also found offerings normally given after a battle, including clay figurines of soldiers.

"The recovered figurines, which originated in a range of places in the Hellenistic world, must in many instances have been carried to the temple by visitors," he said. "Among these are the Macedonian riders on horseback, which have strong associations with Alexander. However, they could also be associated with a cult of warlike heroism.

"Combined with the clear signs of an Alexandrian presence in the shrine, this raises the intriguing possibility that Alexander was directly and actively instrumental in [the temple's] re-establishment, and (or) that it came to include a memorial to the departed Macedonian after his early death," Rey concluded.

High-profile attacks on Derek Chauvin and Larry Nassar put spotlight on violence in federal prisons

MICHAEL R. SISAK and MICHAEL BALSAMO
Fri, December 8, 2023 

Derek Chauvin was stabbed nearly two dozen times at a federal prison in Arizona. Larry Nassar was knifed repeatedly at a federal penitentiary in Florida.

The recent assaults of two high-profile federal prisoners by fellow inmates have renewed concerns about whether the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons is capable of keeping inmates safe.

In the shadow of gangster James “Whitey” Bulger’s 2018 beating death and financier Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 suicide, the agency is again under scrutiny for failing to protect high-profile prisoners from harm.

Chauvin, 47, the ex-Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020, was assaulted Nov. 24 in the law library at a medium-security federal prison in Tucson, Arizona — the same complex where an inmate tried to shoot a visitor last year with a contraband gun.

Chauvin’s suspected attacker, an ex-gang leader, told correctional officers he would have killed him if they hadn’t responded when they did, prosecutors said. He is charged with attempted murder and was moved to a federal penitentiary next door.

Chauvin’s family is “very concerned about the facility’s capacity to protect Derek from further harm,” his lawyer, Gregory Erickson, said.

Nassar, 60, the ex-U.S. women’s gymnastics team doctor who sexually abused athletes, was ambushed in his cell on July 9 at a federal penitentiary in Coleman, Florida. Other inmates stopped his attacker before officers arrived.

The attacks are symptoms of larger problems within the Justice Department’s largest agency that put all 158,000 federal prisoners at risk. They include severe staffing shortages, staff-on-inmate abuse, broken surveillance cameras and crumbling infrastructure.

The violence has challenged a perception that federal prisons are far safer than state prisons. The inmates suspected of attacking Chauvin and Nassar both have violent histories.

“No one’s sentence, regardless of their offense, includes being subjected to violence while they’re in prison," said Daniel Landsman, deputy director of policy at Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a criminal justice advocacy group. “The attack on Chauvin is the latest in a long list of incidents that highlight the urgent need for comprehensive independent oversight of our federal Bureau of Prisons.”

An ongoing Associated Press investigation has uncovered deep problems within the Bureau of Prisons, including rampant sexual abuse and other staff criminal conduct, dozens of escapes, violence, deaths and understaffing that has hampered responses to emergencies, including inmate assaults and suicides.

The agency, with more than 30,000 employees, 122 prison facilities and an annual budget of about $8 billion, has drawn increased oversight from Congress and scrutiny from government watchdogs.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has cited management failures, flawed policies and incompetence as factors in Bulger’s killing and blamed “negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures” for Epstein’s suicide as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

The “serious deficiencies” connected to their deaths were "especially concerning given that the BOP would presumably take particular care in handling the custody and care of such inmates," Horowitz wrote.

Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters said lessons learned would be “applied to the broader BOP correctional landscape.” But the agency declined last week to tell the AP what changes have been made, saying it does not “discuss specific security practices.”

Peters also promised a security review after the gun breach last year. Asked for an update, the agency said it “does not comment on matters related to investigations.”

A spokesperson, Benjamin O’Cone, said the agency “takes seriously our duty to protect the individuals entrusted in our custody, as well as maintain the safety of correctional employees and the community.”

“We review safety protocols and implement corrective actions when identified,” O’Cone said.

Chauvin began his incarceration in solitary confinement at a maximum-security Minnesota state prison, “largely for his own protection,” his former lawyer wrote in court papers.

He transferred to FCI Tucson in August 2022 after agreeing to simultaneously serve all his punishment for Floyd’s murder in federal prison — a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights, later reduced by seven months, and a 22½-year state sentence for second-degree murder.

Chauvin’s sentencing judge was optimistic he'd fare better with fewer restrictions in federal prison.

Rather than solitary or protective custody, the Bureau of Prisons placed Chauvin in the “dropout yard” — a housing unit for former police officers, ex-gang members, sexual abusers and other high-risk prisoners.

Though generally thought to be safer for such inmates, those units still see violence, like Nassar’s stabbing in a “dropout yard” unit at the U.S. Penitentiary in Coleman, Florida.

Nassar was attacked after purportedly making a lewd comment while watching women’s tennis on TV. An inmate, identified as Shane McMillan, stabbed him repeatedly before four other inmates pulled him away.

McMillan was convicted of assaulting a Louisiana federal prison officer in 2006 and attempting to kill another inmate at the federal Supermax in Colorado, in 2011. He has yet to be charged with attacking Nassar. Court records didn't list a lawyer for him.

Prior to Chauvin’s stabbing, there were no public reports of violence toward him — but he too was at risk.

John Turscak, a former Mexican Mafia gang leader and one-time FBI informant charged with attacking Chauvin, told investigators he thought about stabbing him before attacking, federal prosecutors said.

Turscak stabbed Chauvin 22 times with an improvised knife, prosecutors said. FCI Tucson has struggled with staffing in the past, but the Bureau of Prisons said nearly every officer position is now filled.

Turscak told the FBI he attacked Chauvin because of his high profile, prosecutors said. Turscak said he chose the day after Thanksgiving — Black Friday — as a symbolic connection to Black Lives Matter and the Mexican Mafia’s “Black Hand” symbol, prosecutors said.

Turscak, 52, led a Mexican Mafia faction in the 1990s. He was due to be released from federal prison in 2026 after serving more than 30 years for racketeering and conspiring to kill a gang rival. Court records didn't list a lawyer for him.

Despite Turscak’s arrest, Erickson said he and his client’s family have more questions — and concerns.

“Why was Derek allowed into the law library without a guard in close enough proximity to stop a possible attack? the lawyer said. “His family continues to wonder.”

POLITICAL PRISONER

RIP

Ex Black Panther who maintained innocence in bombing that killed an officer dies in Nebraska prison

JOSH FUNK
Updated Fri, December 8, 2023 

This undated photo provided by Nebraska Department of Correctional Services shows Ed Poindexter, the second of two former Black Panthers who always maintained their innocence in the 1970 bombing death of a white Omaha police officer, has died Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, in prison. A spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said Friday that Poindexter had died a day earlier at the age of 79. 

(Nebraska Department of Correctional Services via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The second of two former Black Panthers who always maintained their innocence in the 1970 bombing death of a white Omaha police officer has died in prison.

A spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said Friday that Ed Poindexter had died a day earlier at the age of 79. David Rice, the other man convicted in the death of Omaha Police Officer Larry Minard, died in prison in 2016.

The pair argued that they were targeted because of their membership in the Black Panthers by an FBI program that undermined radical political groups, and they questioned the legitimacy of crucial testimony that helped convict them. Some of their supporters called them political prisoners.


Poindexter and Rice both doubted the key witness in the case who implicated them in the bombing plot, but they were unsuccessful in numerous appeals. A recording of the phone call that lured Minard to a vacant house before a homemade explosive detonated appeared to have been made by an adult man even though a teen testified he made the call.

And a voice expert who analyzed it years later as part of one of Poindexter's appeals said it was “highly probable” that the recording didn't match the voice of the witness, who was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony. That teen testified that Poindexter and Rice directed him to plant the suitcase loaded with dynamite.

The recording of that police call was never played at trial, and in one of his appeals Poindexter said his lawyers at the time never even requested a copy of it.

But various judges decided the doubts about the recording raised later weren't enough to warrant a new trial, and Poindexter and Rice's life sentences were upheld. The Nebraska Pardons Board also refused to commute their sentences despite pleas from advocates.

The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, Mindy Rush Chipman, said Poindexter deserved a new trial because of the “credible reports of significant misconduct in the prosecution" of the case.

“Ultimately, you cannot separate this case from the circumstances at the time which continue to this day, namely law enforcement agencies targeting people and groups calling for racial justice,” she said. “Nebraskans can and should acknowledge the tragedy of Larry Minard’s death while also recognizing the haunting possibility that an innocent man just died in prison.”

Poindexter's death will be investigated by a grand jury, as required by state law, though officials said he was being treated for an unnamed medical condition before he died. In an appeal to Nebraska's newly elected governor a year ago, Poindexter's advocates said he had advanced kidney disease and had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
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Clouded leopard: The cat with saber-like teeth that can walk upside down in trees

Megan Shersby
Sat, December 9, 2023 

leopard lies relaxed on the branch of a tree.


Name: Clouded leopard, also known as the mainland clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)

Where it lives: Southeast Asia

What it eats: Mammals, including ungulates, primates and rodents


Why it's awesome: Unlike lions and cheetahs in Africa, which stalk or race across the open plains in pursuit of prey, clouded leopards have a more arboreal approach to life, having adapted to living in the tropical forests of southeast Asia.

This tree-dwelling lifestyle has pushed them to possess remarkable ankles, which they can rotate by nearly 180 degrees.

Such incredible flexibility in these joints enables them to descend tree trunks headfirst. In captivity, these cats have been observed climbing upside down along horizontal branches and hanging down by their hind feet, enabling them to jump down onto prey below — although scientists believe they mainly hunt on the ground.

Clouded leopards have short, stocky legs, small bodies — between 27 and 42.5 inches (69 to 108 centimeters) long — and long tails, which are the longest of all cats relative to body size, and help them to balance in trees. They can weigh between 25 and 50 pounds (11 to 23 kilograms).

Clouded leopards also have the largest upper canines of all living cats, in proportion to their body size. A study published Oct. 6 in the journal Science Advances noted their teeth proportions are similar to some extinct sabertooth species.

Related: Cats' dazzling eye colors may come from 1 unusual ancestor

When taking down large prey, these big cats don't kill with a bite to the throat, unlike their large feline cousins. Instead, they bite the back of the neck to kill their prey, severing the spinal cord.

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In 2006, researchers discovered that clouded leopards are actually two distinct species, with the now-named Sunda clouded leopards (N. diardi) endemic to the Sumatran and Bornean islands.

Both N. diardi and N. nebulosa are considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

"The mainland clouded leopard lives in the dense forests across South and Southeast Asia showcasing remarkable adaptations for life in the tree tops," Wai-Ming Wong, director of small cat conservation science for Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, told Live Science in an email.

"However, deforestation and agricultural expansion threatens much of the available habitat across their range. It is crucial to develop effective conservation management plans that include a range of stakeholders from local communities to government agencies to safeguard the future of this charismatic species," Wong added.

Two baby dinosaurs found in tyrannosaur fossil shed light on changing diet

John Besley, PA
Fri, 8 December 2023 



The remains of two baby dinosaurs have been discovered inside the fossil of a 75-million-year-old tyrannosaur, shedding new light on the changing diet of the ancient predators.

According to a study published in the journal Science Advances, the hind limbs of two small bird-like dinosaurs called citipes were found beneath the rib cage of a juvenile gorgosaurus, a close cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex.

The researchers behind the study say the discovery suggests juvenile gorgosaurus’ preyed on small, young dinosaurs, while earlier fossil evidence shows the adult gorgosaurus attacked and ate very large plant-eating dinosaurs which lived in herds.


Dr Darla Zelenitsky, one of the lead scientists in the study, told the BBC the discovery is “solid evidence that tyrannosaurs drastically changed their diet as they grew up”.

She said: “We now know that these teenage (tyrannosaurs) hunted small, young dinosaurs.

“These smaller, immature tyrannosaurs were probably not ready to jump into a group of horned dinosaurs, where the adults weighed thousands of kilograms.”

The fossil was originally discovered in Canada’s Alberta Badlands in 2009, but was entombed in rock and took years to be prepared for study.

The initial discovery was made by staff at Alberta’s Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology, who spotted small toe bones protruding from the rib cage.

Dr Francois Therrien, the other lead scientist in the study, told the BBC: “The rock within the ribcage was removed to expose what was hidden inside.

“And lo and behold – the complete hind legs of two baby dinosaurs, both under a year old.”

Time of the sign: Hollywood landmark hits 100


Huw GRIFFITH
Fri, 8 December 2023 

The Hollywood Sign is a centenarian, but like many an ageing superstar in Los Angeles, it looks spectacular (DAVID SWANSON)

The landmark word has loomed over Tinseltown since before movies started talking, becoming a symbol of the entire film industry.

For the first time in decades, the Hollywood sign -- at least a little bit of it -- was illuminated on Friday to celebrate its 100th birthday.

The nine-letter sign is officially a centenarian but, as with many an aging grande dame in Hollywood, looks as fresh as ever.

Like the actors and actresses it looks down on, the sign has been in its fair share of films.

Directors who want to let their audience know a movie is set in Los Angeles have an easy establishing shot, while a filmmaker who wants to signify the destruction of America can set their special effects team loose on the sign.

It has also seen real life tragedy: British-born actress Peg Entwistle took her own life by plunging from the top of the letter H in 1932.

- Hooray for... realtors? -

The sign, a must-see for any film buff or tourist visiting Los Angeles, initially read "HOLLYWOODLAND", having been constructed in 1923 as an advertisement for an upscale real estate development.

During its first decade, it was routinely lit by thousands of bulbs, with "HOLLY", "WOOD" and "LAND" illuminated in turn as a beacon of the desireable homes on offer below.

By the 1940s, the letters were looking a little ragged.

The Los Angeles Times reported vandals or windstorms had damaged the H, before locals decided they had had enough and asked the city to tear it down.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, recognising that they had a blockbuster trademark on their hands, stepped in and offered to fix it up.

But the last four letters had to go -- the sign was to represent the whole town, not just a fashionable property patch, and by 1949, the newly restored sign simply read "HOLLYWOOD".

- Mr Nice Guy -

Three decades of baking sun and occasional storms took their toll on the 50-foot (15-meter)-high wooden letters.

Eventually, the first O reduced to a lower case "u" and the final O toppled down completely.

Enter one Alice Cooper -- the chicken-bothering father of shock rock -- who led a campaign to restore the sign to its former glory, donating $28,000.

Eight others, including actor Gene Autry, Playboy founder Hugh Heffner and singer Andy Williams, kicked in the same, each sponsoring a letter.

(Cooper is the first O, Autry has the second L, Heffner got the Y and Williams snagged the W).

The replacement letters are a tad more compact, just 44 feet high, but made of steel, although they remain characteristically off-kilter.

The Hollywood Sign Trust said last year the repainting it carried out in time for the 100th anniversary used almost 400 gallons (1,500 liters) of paint and primer.

Friday night's lighting was purely symbolic, Hollywood Sign Trust chairman Jeff Zarrinnam said, with just a little stretch of the second L cutting through the gloom.

Unlike most global landmarks, the Hollywood sign is not usually lit up at night, partially because of objections from people who live nearby.

But, said Zarrinnam, it might start shining again.

"What we are working on is a plan to hopefully light the sign on very special occasions," he said.

"We have some very important sporting events that are coming to Los Angeles like the FIFA World Cup, we have the Olympics coming (in 2028) so those are the types of events that we would probably want to light the Hollywood sign in the future."

hg/dhw

Opinion
Sacred Mysteries: ‘Christus vincit’ and the coming of Christmas

Christopher Howse
Sat, 9 December 2023 

IC XC NI KA – detail of a coin of Empress Theodora, 1055 - agefotostock / Alamy

Why were discs of bread that were prepared for the Mass stamped in relief with letters such as IC XC NI KA? That is a question which a once-popular theologian Honorius of Autun attempted to answer in the early 12th century in his commentary on the symbolism of the liturgy.

It was, he suggested, because Christ was the denarius or coin give to the labourers in the vineyard (Matthew, chapter 20). So it was fitting for the host to be stamped with his name just as a coin is stamped with that of the Emperor.

Historically, Honorius got it round the wrong way. Leavened bread prepared for the liturgy in Eastern Christendom had since the 5th century been stamped with those Greek letters, standing for “Jesus Christ Conquers”. This monogram on the bread to be used in the liturgy, was then adopted on coinage. Such coins continued in circulation in the West in areas under Byzantine influence, such as the Norman kingdom of Sicily. In the West, the practice then went full circle, with the monogram copied from coinage and stamped on hosts of unleavened bread.


This scrap of learning from the byways of sigillography appears in a classic study by Ernst Kantorowicz called Laudes Regiae, published in 1946 after delays brought on by the author having to flee the German Nazis. I consulted this book because I was fascinated by the origin of the church chant, Christus vincit. Christus regnat. Christus imperat, “Christ has conquered. Christ reigns. Christ rules.” It is the Latin equivalent of the Greek Iesous Christos Nika expressed as IC XC NIKA.

The Latin chant is used at Easter and at the modern feast of Christ the King, but it also fits the theme of the coming Kingdom of God, which is explored in the present season of Advent. As the Lord’s Prayer says: Adveniat regnum tuum, “Thy kingdom come.”

I had no idea until this year that Christus vincit. Christus regnat. Christus imperat was so old. It was certainly in use before the coronation of Charlemagne, which every schoolboy can tell us was on Christmas Day in the year 800.

The chant, known as the Laudes Regiæ, was used at the coronation of William the Conqueror’s wife Matilda as Queen in 1068. It stayed part of the English coronation tradition until the Reformation, and indeed there is an echo of it still in the coronation acclamation “Vivat!” That interpolation in Psalm 122 (“I was glad”) has been made by boys of Westminster School since the coronation of James II. But on the title page of Cranmer’s Bible of 1539, Henry VIII hands the Bible to the Archbishop while the people around cry Vivat Rex! (The captions are all in Latin on this frontispiece of the Bible in English.) That hope or prayer for a long life for the sovereign was present in some medieval texts of the Laudes Regiae. in the form Vita (such as “Gelasius vita!”)

The Laudes Regiae was far more often in use on great feast days such as Easter, Christmas, the Epiphany or the Ascension than at infrequent coronations. Indeed it as been suggested that coronations picked up the use of the hymn because they often took place on holy days such as Christmas or the Epiphany.

IN structure the hymn is a kind of litany. In other words it calls on God to bless the pope, king, bishop and clergy, and sometimes the army, and it calls on the names of a succession of saints to pray for them. Formally the invocations were sung out and a choir responded.

Fundamentally, the hymn, introduced to England by the Normans, praises God as King.

6 million-year-old 'fossil groundwater pool' discovered deep beneath Sicilian mountains

Sascha Pare
Thu, December 7, 2023

A aerial view of the coastline in Sicily.


A large pocket of fresh water that was sucked down into Earth's crust 6 million years ago is still buried deep below a mountain range in Sicily, new research has found.

The fresh water likely became trapped underground during the Messinian salinity crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea dried up after the ocean floor around the Strait of Gibraltar began to rise, isolating the sea. This event likely exposed the seabed to rainwater that then trickled down into Earth's crust, according to a study published Nov. 22 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

The rainwater accumulated and formed an aquifer that stretched between 2,300 to 8,200 feet (700 to 2,500 meters) deep beneath the Hyblean Mountains in southern Sicily, Italy, and has not budged since.

In the new study, researchers investigated deep groundwater reserves in and around the Gela formation, which is a known oil reservoir and hosts several deep wells, harnessing publicly available data from these wells. They constructed 3D models of the aquifer and estimated it holds 4.2 cubic miles (17.5 cubic kilometers) of water — more than twice as much as is held in Scotland's Loch Ness.

Related: 'Missing' blob of water predicted to be in the Atlantic finally found

The researchers then used the 3D models to turn back the clock and reconstruct the past geology of the study area, which stretched across the Hyblaean Plateau and the Malta Plateau in the central Mediterranean. During the Messinian (7.2 million to 5.3 million years ago), fresh water infiltrated Earth's crust several thousand feet below current sea levels as a result of the salinity crisis, their results showed. The crisis saw sea levels drop about 7,870 feet (2,400 m) below current levels in parts of the Mediterranean.

diagram shows a topographical map of the Hyblaean Mountains in Sicily, with the shape of the newly discovered aquifer imposed over top

This "fossil groundwater pool" then accumulated in a layer of carbonate rocks that acts as "a sort of sponge, where fluids are present within the pores between the rock particles," study lead author Lorenzo Lipparini, a geoscientist at the University of Malta, Roma Tre University and with Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, told Live Science in an email.

But for this explanation to hold, Lipparini and his colleagues needed to find a conduit that would channel meteoric water — water from rain and snowfall — from the Mediterranean seabed to the deeply buried Gela formation. The Malta Escarpment, a 190-mile-long (300 kilometers) submarine cliff extending southward from the eastern margin of Sicily, "is a likely candidate for such a direct connection," the researchers wrote in the study. In other words, the missing conduit is likely within the escarpment.

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The Messinian salinity crisis, which lasted roughly 700,000 years, ended abruptly with an "extremely rapid" rise in sea levels that may have changed the pressure conditions and "deactivated the whole mechanism," the researchers wrote in the study.

It's also possible that sediments and mineral deposits sealed off the conduit along the Malta Escarpment during the salinity crisis, preventing sea water from mixing with fresh water in the Gela formation in the millions of years that followed, the researchers noted.

The team hopes the fresh water can be pumped up to alleviate water scarcity in Sicily and that the discovery will inspire similar deep groundwater explorations in other parts of the Mediterranean.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article said the Messinian salinity crisis was caused by global cooling. This was corrected on Friday, December 8.

Halley’s Comet Gearing Up for Its Return Journey Toward Earth

Noor Al-Sibai
Thu, December 7, 2023 


Middle Path

It's been nearly 40 years since Halley's comet last flew by Earth — and very soon, it will be headed back our way.

As Universe Today reports, this coming Sunday, December 9, the famed comet will reach its furthest point from the Sun. Known as its "aphelion," this is essentially the middle point in Halley's long elliptical orbit through our Solar System.

Named for English astronomer Edmond Halley, who discovered the famed comet and several others in the 18th century, Halley's comet hasn't visible in the night sky since hair metal was all the rage back in 1986.

As exciting as this date is for skywatchers who are waiting for generations to see this gorgeous fireball to streak through Earthly skies — or since 2003, when the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope captured the grainiest of images of the comet as it cruised through the outer edges of our Solar System — they'll still have to wait for quite a while considering that it won't be back around these parts until 2061.

If you're hoping for another telescopic glance of Halley's comet at its furthest, though, you're unfortunately out of luck.

Although both the Hubble and the James Webb space telescopes would certainly be powerful enough to capture images of the comet as it makes its about-face near Jupiter, a NASA spokesperson told Universe Today that there's nothing on either instrument's schedule indicating plans to check it out now or in the future.
Consolation Prize

While we won't get any glimpses of Halley's comet itself for another few decades, we are able to see remnants of it on Earth in the form of the Eta Aquariids meteor shower.

Every year between late April and early May, our planet passes through debris from the tail of Halley's comet, some of which can leave trails that last for a few seconds or even minutes. While this remnant of the famous fireball is most spectacular in the Southern Hemisphere, those of us up here in the Northern half of the globe aren't completely out of luck — we can see 10 to 20 meteors per hour in the pre-dawn hours of its predicted peak on May 5, 2024.

If you're looking for a skywatching fix before the end of the year, the peak of the Geminids meteor shower is slated for December 13 and 14. In an interview with Space.com, NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke said the viewing conditions for it this year are supposed to be exceptional.

More on star stuff: Scientists Discover Star System So Perfect It Seems Like Art

A Gigantic Hole Just Opened Up in the Sun

Victor Tangermann
Thu, December 7, 2023 


Solar Hole

A massive hole opened up in the Sun's atmosphere over the weekend, measuring more than 60 times the diameter of the Earth across at its peak.

Coronal holes like this one, imaged by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, occur when the Sun's magnetic field suddenly allows a huge stream of the star's upper atmosphere to pour out in the form of solar wind.

Over a short period of time, these highly energized particles can eventually make their way to us and — if powerful enough — wreak havoc on satellites in the Earth's orbit. In rare instances, they can even mess with the electrical grid back on the ground.

Fortunately, in the case of the latest hole, scientists aren't expecting any major disruptions earlier this week beyond minor to moderate geomagnetic storms, as well as the associated auroras borealis in the night sky, according to SpaceWeather.com.
Weather Men

The appearance of the hole in and of itself isn't entirely unexpected. The Sun will soon reach the peak of its 11-year cycle known as the solar maximum, ushering in a particularly turbulent period of activity.

This activity ranges from simple solar flares to massive outbursts of solar wind called coronal mass ejections.

Coronal holes are only visible in ultraviolet wavelengths, appearing as dark patches of relatively cool particles in our observations. They're less likely to actually fling solar wind outwards as they're simply an opening, allowing for these photons and electrons to escape.

The last time scientists spotted a large coronal hole was in March, causing powerful streams of solar wind to hit the Earth's atmosphere.

Scientists have found that the Sun's solar activity is already stronger than expected this time, meaning that we'll likely see more awe-inspiring events there in the near future.

More on the Sun: Professor Warns That the Sun Is Angry and It Could Knock Out the Internet