It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, May 04, 2024
Lake tsunamis pose significant threat under warming climate
SEISMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
IMAGE:
THE MOST ACTIVE PORTION OF THE INSTABILITY AT PORTAGE GLACIER, LOOKING DOWN ON PORTAGE LAKE AND A TOUR BOAT IN THE DISTANCE.
The names might not be familiar—Cowee Creek, Brabazon Range, Upper Pederson Lagoon—but they mark the sites of recent lake tsunamis, a phenomenon that is increasingly common in Alaska, British Columbia and other regions with mountain glaciers.
Triggered by landslides into small bodies of water, most of these tsunamis have occurred in remote locations so far, but geologist Bretwood Higman of Ground Truth Alaska said it may just be a matter of time before a tsunami swamps a more populated place like Portage Lake near Whittier, Alaska.
When he estimates where the risk of an Alaskan lake tsunami is highest, Portage Lake “is pretty much at the top of my list,” Higman said.
Other sites in Alaska where the risks of lake tsunamis coincide with human activity and infrastructure include Eklutna, Seward, Valdez, Juneau, Grewingk Lake in Kachemak Bay State Park and Index Lake near Glacier View.
At the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting, Higman discussed the importance of assessing sites like Portage Lake for the possibility of lake tsunamis, in part by using distinctive seismic signals connected to landslides.
“There are some cases where there are dramatic and very distinctive precursory seismic signals that precede a catastrophic landslide, sometimes by as much as days,” Highman noted. “If we could get to the point where we understood these and knew how to detect them, they could be really useful.”
Higman calls lake tsunamis “an emerging, climate-linked hazard.” The geological conditions that underlie the events in places like Alaska are usually similar. Higher temperatures melt the glaciers that buttress the walls of the valley that cradles the shrinking glacier. Without the glacier in place to hold them up, the valley walls are more prone to landslide, either into an existing body of water or a new lake created by the glacier melt. In other areas, warming conditions are weakening permafrost that may be important to the stability of slopes above lakes.
“This is something that historically has been a pretty rare event, but in the last few years there have been a really surprising number of these,” said Higman.
The 2020 Elliot Creek tsunami in a glacial valley in British Columbia, for instance, featured a landslide measuring 18 cubic million meters in volume and a tsunami runup of more than 100 meters.
Forest and salmon habitat were the main casualties of that tsunami, but Higman and his colleagues are looking at these remote but dramatic events to find ways to prepare for tsunamis in places with more infrastructure. “There are places where we see the same kinds of geologic instability that preceded these other events, but there are a lot of people exposed,” said Higman.
Higman said there are some parallels between the tectonic faults that seismologists usually study and “the behaviors that we’re seeing in the failure surface of these very large landslides,” suggesting that they also offer one way to study fault dynamics in miniature.
SPACE
X-ray satellite XMM-newton sees ‘space clover' in a new light
NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
IMAGE:
THIS MULTIWAVELENGTH IMAGE OF THE CLOVERLEAF ORC (ODD RADIO CIRCLE) COMBINES VISIBLE LIGHT OBSERVATIONS FROM THE DESI (DARK ENERGY SPECTROSCOPIC INSTRUMENT) LEGACY SURVEY IN WHITE AND YELLOW, X-RAYS FROM XMM-NEWTON IN BLUE, AND RADIO FROM ASKAP (THE AUSTRALIAN SQUARE KILOMETER ARRAY PATHFINDER) IN RED.
CREDIT: X. ZHANG AND M. KLUGE (MPE), B. KORIBALSKI (CSIRO)
Astronomers have discovered enormous circular radio features of unknown origin around some galaxies. Now, new observations of one dubbed the Cloverleaf suggest it was created by clashing groups of galaxies.
Studying these structures, collectively called ORCs (odd radio circles), in a different kind of light offered scientists a chance to probe everything from supersonic shock waves to black hole behavior.
“This is the first time anyone has seen X-ray emission associated with an ORC,” said Esra Bulbul, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, who led the study. “It was the missing key to unlock the secret of the Cloverleaf’s formation.”
Until 2021, no one knew ORCs existed. Thanks to improved technology, radio surveys became sensitive enough to pick up such faint signals. Over the course of a few years, astronomers discovered eight of these strange structures scattered randomly beyond our galaxy. Each is large enough to envelop an entire galaxy –– sometimes several.
“The power needed to produce such an expansive radio emission is very strong,” Bulbul said. “Some simulations can reproduce their shapes but not their intensity. No simulations explain how to create ORCs.”
When Bulbul learned ORCs hadn’t been studied in X-ray light, she and postdoctoral researcher Xiaoyuan Zhang began poring over data from eROSITA (Extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array), an orbiting German/Russian X-ray telescope. They noticed some X-ray emission that seemed like it could be from the Cloverleaf, based on less than 7 minutes of observation time.
That gave them a strong enough case to assemble a larger team and secure additional telescope time with XMM-Newton, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with NASA contributions.
“We were allotted about five-and-a-half hours, and the data came in late one evening in November,” Bulbul said. “I forwarded it to Xiaoyuan, and he came into my office the next morning and said, ‘Detection,’ and I just started cheering!”
“We really got lucky,” Zhang said. “We saw several plausible X-ray point sources close to the ORC in eROSITA observations, but not the expanded emission we saw with XMM-Newton. It turns out the eROSITA sources couldn’t have been from the Cloverleaf, but it was compelling enough to get us to take a closer look.”
Gallivanting Galaxies
The X-ray emission traces the distribution of gas within the group of galaxies like police tape around a crime scene. By seeing how that gas has been disturbed, scientists determined that galaxies embedded in the Cloverleaf are actually members of two separate groups that drew close enough together to merge. The emission’s temperature also hints at the number of galaxies involved.
When galaxies join, their higher combined mass increases their gravity. Surrounding gas begins to fall inward, which heats up the infalling gas. The greater the system’s mass, the hotter the gas becomes.
Based on the emission’s X-ray spectrum, it’s around 15 million degrees Fahrenheit, or between 8 and 9 million degrees Celsius. “That measurement let us deduce that the Cloverleaf ORC is hosted by around a dozen galaxies that have gravitated together, which agrees with what we see in deep visible light images,” Zhang said.
The team proposes the merger produced shock waves that accelerated particles to create radio emission.
“Galaxies interact and coalesce all the time,” said Kim Weaver, the NASA project scientist for XMM-Newton at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was not involved in the study. “But the source of the accelerated particles is unclear. One fascinating idea for the powerful radio signal is that the resident supermassive black holes went through episodes of extreme activity in the past, and relic electrons from that ancient activity were reaccelerated by this merging event.”
While galaxy group mergers are common, ORCs are very rare. And it’s still unclear how these interactions can produce such strong radio emissions.
“Mergers make up the backbone of structure formation, but there’s something special in this system that rockets the radio emission,” Bulbul said. “We can’t tell right now what it is, so we need more and deeper data from both radio and X-ray telescopes.”
The team solved the mystery of the nature of the Cloverleaf ORC, but also opened up additional questions. They plan to study the Cloverleaf in more detail to tease out answers.
“We stand to learn a lot from more thorough observations because these interactions take in all kinds of science,” Weaver says. “You’ve pretty much got everything that we deal with in the cosmos put together in this little package. It’s like a mini universe.”
Recent reports of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope finding signs of life on a distant planet understandably sparked excitement. A new study challenges this finding, but also outlines how the telescope might verify the presence of the life-produced gas.
The UC Riverside study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, may be a disappointment to extraterrestrial enthusiasts but does not rule out the near-future possibility of discovery.
In 2023 there were tantalizing reports of a biosignature gas in the atmosphere of planet K2-18b, which seemed to have several conditions that would make life possible.
Many exoplanets, meaning planets orbiting other stars, are not easily comparable to Earth. Their temperatures, atmospheres, and climates make it hard to imagine Earth-type life on them.
However, K2-18b is a bit different. “This planet gets almost the same amount of solar radiation as Earth. And if atmosphere is removed as a factor, K2-18b has a temperature close to Earth’s, which is also an ideal situation in which to find life,” said UCR project scientist and paper author Shang-Min Tsai.
K2-18b’s atmosphere is mainly hydrogen, unlike our nitrogen-based atmosphere. But there was speculation that K2-18b has water oceans, like Earth. That makes K2-18b a potentially “Hycean” world, which means a combination of a hydrogen atmosphere and water oceans.
Last year, a Cambridge team revealed methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of K2-18b using JWST – other elements that could point to signs of life.
“What was icing on the cake, in terms of the search for life, is that last year these researchers reported a tentative detection of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, in the atmosphere of that planet, which is produced by ocean phytoplankton on Earth,” Tsai said. DMS is the main source of airborne sulfur on our planet and may play a role in cloud formation.
Because the telescope data were inconclusive, the UCR researchers wanted to understand whether enough DMS could accumulate to detectable levels on K2-18b, which is about 120 light years away from Earth. As with any planet that far away, obtaining physical samples of atmospheric chemicals is impossible.
“The DMS signal from the Webb telescope was not very strong and only showed up in certain ways when analyzing the data,” Tsai said. “We wanted to know if we could be sure of what seemed like a hint about DMS.”
Based on computer models that account for the physics and chemistry of DMS, as well as the hydrogen-based atmosphere, the researchers found that it is unlikely the data show the presence of DMS. “The signal strongly overlaps with methane, and we think that picking out DMS from methane is beyond this instrument’s capability,” Tsai said.
However, the researchers believe it is possible for DMS to accumulate to detectable levels. For that to happen, plankton or some other life form would have to produce 20 times more DMS than is present on Earth.
Detecting life on exoplanets is a daunting task, given their distance from Earth. To find DMS, the Webb telescope would need to use an instrument better able to detect infrared wavelengths in the atmosphere than the one used last year. Fortunately, the telescope will use such an instrument later this year, revealing definitively whether DMS exists on K2-18b.
"The best biosignatures on an exoplanet may differ significantly from those we find most abundant on Earth today. On a planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, we may be more likely to find DMS made by life instead of oxygen made by plants and bacteria as on Earth,” said UCR astrobiologist Eddie Schwieterman, a senior author of the study.
Given the complexities of searching far-flung planets for signs of life, some wonder about the researchers continued motivations.
“Why do we keep exploring the cosmos for signs of life? Imagine you’re camping in Joshua Tree at night, and you hear something. Your instinct is to shine a light to see what’s out there. That’s what we’re doing too, in a way,” Tsai said.
Biogenic sulfur gases as biosignatures on temperate sub-Neptune waterworlds
‘Baby asteroid’ just a toddler in space years, researchers say
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
ITHACA, N.Y. – An asteroid discovered last November is in fact a solar system toddler – just 2-3 million years old, a Cornell University-led research team estimates using novel statistical calculations.
The team derived the age of Selam, a “moonlet” circling the small asteroid Dinkinesh in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, based only on dynamics, or how the pair moves in space. Their calculation agrees with one by NASA’s Lucy mission based on an analysis of surface craters, the more traditional method for dating asteroids.
The new method complements that work and has some advantages: It doesn’t require an expensive spacecraft to capture close-up images; could be more accurate in cases where asteroid surfaces have undergone recent changes; and can be applied to the secondary bodies in dozens of other known binary systems, which account for 15% of near-Earth asteroids, the researchers said.
“Finding the ages of asteroids is important to understanding them, and this one is remarkably young when compared to the age of the solar system, meaning it formed somewhat recently,” said Colby Merrill, a doctoral student in the field of aerospace engineering. “Obtaining the age of this one body can help us to understand the population as a whole.”
Merrill, a dynamics expert who was part of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, was watching closely when the Lucy spacecraft flew by Dinkinesh on Nov. 1, 2023, and unexpectedly found Selam. The latter turned out to be “an extraordinarily unique and complex body,” Merrill said – a so-called “contact binary” consisting of two lobes that are essentially rubble piles stuck together, and the first of its kind seen orbiting another asteroid.
Binary asteroids are dynamically complex and fascinating objects that are engaged in a sort of tug of war, the researchers said. Gravity acting on the objects causes them to physically bulge and results in tides, which slowly reduce the system’s energy. Meanwhile, the sun’s radiation also alters the binary system’s energy with an effect termed the Binary Yarkovsky-O’Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (BYORP) effect. Eventually, the system will reach an equilibrium where tides and BYORP are equally strong – a stalemate in the tug of war.
Assuming those forces were in equilibrium and plugging in asteroid data shared publicly by the Lucy mission, the researchers calculated how long it would have taken for Selam to reach its current state after forming from surface material ejected by a rapidly spinning Dinkinesh. Along the way, the team said it improved upon preexisting equations that assumed both bodies were equally dense and ignored the secondary body’s mass. Running roughly 1 million calculations with varying parameters, the results produced a median age for Selam of 3 million years old, with 2 million being the most likely result.
Researchers hope to apply their new aging method to other binary systems where dynamics have been well characterized, even without close flybys.
“Used in tandem with crater counting, this method could help better constrain a system’s age,” said Alexia Kubas, a doctoral student in the field of astronomy and space sciences and paper co-author. “If we use two methods and they agree with each other, we can be more confident that we’re getting a meaningful age that describes the current state of the system.”
Hungry, hungry white dwarfs: solving the puzzle of stellar metal pollution
\
JILA
IMAGE:
PLANETESIMAL ORBITS AROUND A WHITE DWARF. INITIALLY, EVERY PLANETESIMAL HAS A CIRCULAR, PROGRADE ORBIT. THE KICK FORMS AN ECCENTRIC DEBRIS DISK WHICH WITH PROGRADE (BLUE) AND RETROGRADE ORBITS (ORANGE).
Dead stars known as white dwarfs, have a mass like the Sun while being similar in size to Earth. They are common in our galaxy, as 97% of stars are white dwarfs. As stars reach the end of their lives, their cores collapse into the dense ball of a white dwarf, making our galaxy seem like an ethereal graveyard.
Despite their prevalence, the chemical makeup of these stellar remnants has been a conundrum for astronomers for years. The presence of heavy metal elements—like silicon, magnesium, and calcium—on the surface of many of these compact objects is a perplexing discovery that defies our expectations of stellar behavior.
“We know that if these heavy metals are present on the surface of the white dwarf, the white dwarf is dense enough that these heavy metals should very quickly sink toward the core,” explains JILA graduate student Tatsuya Akiba. “So, you shouldn't see any metals on the surface of a white dwarf unless the white dwarf is actively eating something.”
While white dwarfs can consume various nearby objects, such as comets or asteroids (known as planetesimals), the intricacies of this process have yet to be fully explored. However, this behavior could hold the key to unraveling the mystery of a white dwarf's metal composition, potentially leading to exciting revelations about white dwarf dynamics.
In results reported in a new paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Akiba, along with JILA Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences professor Ann-Marie Madigan and undergraduate student Selah McIntyre, believe they have found a reason why these stellar zombies eat their nearby planetesimals. Using computer simulations, the researchers simulated the white dwarf receiving a “natal kick” during its formation (which has been observed) caused by asymmetric mass loss, altering its motion and the dynamics of any surrounding material.
In 80% of their test runs, the researchers observed that, from the kick, the orbits of comets and asteroids within a range of 30 to 240 AU of the white dwarf (corresponding to the Sun–Neptune distance and beyond) became elongated and aligned. Furthermore, around 40% of subsequently eaten planetesimals come from counter-rotating (retrograde) orbits.
The researchers also extended their simulations to examine the white dwarf's dynamics after 100 million years. They found that the white dwarf’s nearby planetesimals still had elongated orbits and moved as one coherent unit, a result never seen before.
“This is something I think is unique about our theory: we can explain why the accretion events are so long-lasting,” states Madigan. “While other mechanisms may explain an original accretion event, our simulations with the kick show why it still happens hundreds of millions of years later.” These results explain why the heavy metals are found on the surface of a white dwarf, as that white dwarf continuously consumes smaller objects in its path.
It’s All About Gravity
As Madigan’s research group at JILA focuses on gravitational dynamics, looking at the gravity surrounding white dwarfs seemed like a natural focus of study.
“Simulations help us understand the dynamics of different astrophysical objects,” Akiba says. “So, in this simulation, we throw a bunch of asteroids and comets around the white dwarf, which is significantly bigger, and see how the simulation evolves and which of these asteroids and comets the white dwarf eats.”
The researchers hope to take their simulations to greater scales in future projects, looking at how white dwarfs interact with larger planets.
As Akiba elaborates, “Other studies have suggested that asteroids and comets, the small bodies, might not be the only source of metal pollution on the white dwarf’s surface. So, the white dwarfs might eat something bigger, like a planet.”
Discovering More about Solar System Formation
These new findings further reveal more about the formation of white dwarfs, which is important in understanding how solar systems change over millions of years. They also help shed light on the origins and future evolution of our solar system, revealing more about the chemistry involved.
“The vast majority of planets in the universe will end up orbiting a white dwarf,” Madigan says. “It could be that 50% of these systems get eaten by their star, including our own solar system. Now, we have a mechanism to explain why this would happen.”
“Planetesimals can give us insight into other solar systems and planetary compositions beyond where we live in our solar region” McIntyre adds. “White dwarfs aren't just a lens into the past. They're also kind of a lens into the future.”
Tidal Disruption of Planetesimals from an Eccentric Debris Disk Following a White Dwarf Natal Kick
Climate is one culprit in spread and growth of dust in Middle East
KTH, ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
IMAGE:
THE AREA BETWEEN THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES RIVERS IN NORTHERN IRAQ AND ALONG THE SYRIA-IRAQ BORDER WAS REPORTED TO HAVE THE HIGHEST CONCENTRATION OF DUST SOURCES IN THE REGION. A GRAPHIC DEPICTS THE INTENSITY OF CHANGE OVER THE LAST 20 YEARS.
Climate change is transforming dust storms—a natural phenomenon in the Middle East—into a more frequent and widespread threat to health and economies throughout the region, a new study shows.
Dust levels have increased in many parts of the Middle East chiefly due to global warming, but other human activities also share credit, says Zahra Kalantari, associate professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. She cites such factors as oil extraction, military conflicts and lack of cross-border coordination of water management.
Published in the journalScience of the Total Environment, the study maps the spread of aerosolized dust, and pinpoints where and when trends in precipitation and evaporation have changed course for the worse.
Analyzing multiple sets of data over the last 40 years, the researchers found an increase in dust levels in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, parts of Iran and Egypt and countries around the Persian Gulf, while it has declined in northern Iran and southwest Turkey.
The area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in northern Iraq and along the Syria-Iraq border was reported to have the highest concentration of dust sources in the region, reflecting a sharp increase over the last 20 years.
The researchers documented a notable decrease in precipitation in northern Iraq, Syria, southwestern Iran, and southern Turkey. The natural effects of the area’s arid and hot climate have also been intensified by factors such as deforestation, dam building, over-irrigation and extraction of water and military conflict. Kalantari says one serious result is the reduction of soil moisture and vegetation coverage, which normally help reduce dust levels.
The environmental consequences include soil erosion, biodiversity loss and desertification, she says. Economic losses may result from damaged infrastructure, disrupted agriculture and reduced tourism.
Social disruption also can be expected, she says, and vulnerable populations will suffer disproportionately.
Kalantari says regional cooperation is vital to address complex factors and implement effective dust control measures. Comprehensive strategies are imperative to mitigate adverse effects on health, ecology, and socio-economic development.
The researchers call for “a comprehensive strategy focusing on environmental management and policy reforms.” Prescriptive measures include: reforestation, soil conservation, water conservation, regional cooperation, sustainable urban planning, advanced monitoring systems, public awareness campaigns and climate adaptation measures.
“These efforts, combined with research and cross-border collaboration, are essential for a sustainable environment that is resilient to dust storms in the Middle East,” Kalantari says.
Dust and climate interactions in the Middle East: Spatio-temporal analysis of aerosol optical depth and climatic variables
Pharmacists accuse GPs in England of scuppering Pharmacy First scheme
Denis Campbell Health policy editor Fri, 3 May 2024 Pharmacy First is PM’s flagship plan to cut the time it takes to see GPs by sending patients with seven common conditions to pharmacists for treatment.Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA
GPs have been accused of scuppering Rishi Sunak’s flagship plan to cut the time it takes to see them by refusing to refer patients with minor ailments to a pharmacist instead.
Pharmacists claim many GPs in England are not sending patients to them to be treated – and that some are refusing to participate at all in the “groundbreaking” Pharmacy First scheme.
Last May, Sunak made patients being assessed, advised and treated by pharmacists instead of family doctors the centrepiece of his primary care recovery plan.
It was intended to ease the pressure on overworked GPs and reduce the delays many patients face when needing care – as well as giving them greater choice of where to seek healthcare and helping free up 15m family doctor appointments in its first two years for people with more pressing illnesses.
The scheme was expanded in January, when the NHS announced patients could seek help from a pharmacist instead of a GP for seven common conditions including earache, sinusitis, a sore throat, infected insect bites and shingles. More than 10,000 community pharmacies were ready to help patients, it added.
But a row has broken out between GPs and pharmacists over the former’s alleged refusal to refer patients onwards.
Three-quarters of pharmacists are not getting regular referrals from GPs, according to a survey of 470 community pharmacies by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). It represents more than 5,000 independently run pharmacies. Some respondents said GPs in their areas were referring no patients at all.
The NPA is so concerned it has written to the health secretary, Victoria Atkins, asking her to convene an urgent summit.
“We are concerned with reports from many of our members that some GPs are not referring patients via the scheme and in some flatly refusing so to do,” wrote the NPA’s chair, Nick Kaye. Without action the intended expansion of NHS care by pharmacists could “fail”, he warned.
Aisling O’Brien, a pharmacist with the O’Brien’s pharmacy group, which runs nine outlets in north-west England, said patients liked Pharmacy First because of the convenience, access and speed it offered. But she added: “There is one GP surgery who, at the request of the GP partners, are refusing to refer for three out of the seven conditions. They refuse to give a reason.”
Sunak’s plan last year also said: “By expanding the role of pharmacies, fewer people will need to see their GP in the first place.”
Those extra consultations were central to Sunak’s promise to abolish the widespread “8am rush for GP appointments”.
The British Medical Association, which represents doctors including GPs, did not dispute the NPA’s claims that problems are affecting the rollout of Pharmacy First, but denied family doctors were refusing to take part.
“Community pharmacists and GPs want to work together to ensure patients receive safe and effective care. Rather than a reluctance to engage with Pharmacy First, we are aware of GPs raising concerns that this scheme is being rolled out too quickly, and is relying on inadequate IT infrastructure which is ultimately increasing the burden on our profession. This is putting further pressure on a system already close to breaking point,” said Dr Julius Parker, the deputy chair of the BMA’s GPs committee for England.
“GPs, pharmacists and patients all want the same thing. We want patients to be able to receive quick and easy care, in a practice that is local to them, which is well staffed, resourced and safe. We look forward to engaging with the NPA to better understand their concerns and better maximise the potential of this scheme.”
The Department of Health and Social Care did not respond directly to the NPA’s findings. But it urged family doctors to send patients to be seen by pharmacists if their condition means that is the right course of action.
“The Pharmacy First service will support a shift in patient attitudes towards seeking advice from community pharmacies as a first point of contact for seven common conditions and is expected to free up 10m GP appointments per year, once fully scaled,” a spokesperson said.
It’s certainly not the first time the star has made her mark: the Destiny’s Child song “Bootylicious“, co-written by her, dramatically pushed that adjective into the mainstream in the early noughties. But to have one’s very name included in the dictionary is a recognition many would aspire to, for this is immortalisation of the linguistic kind.
But it is not impossible in modern times: in 2001 Delia Smith saw “Delia” enter the Collins English Dictionary as a byword for a particular cooking style. Similarly, “Tarantinoesque”, after the director Quentin Tarantino, has found a place within the Oxford English Dictionary for a style of cinema characterised by violence and sharp dialogue. “Boris bike”, a colloquial term for the hireable bikes that were introduced when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London, was also given definition in a few current dictionaries, even if some might prefer Johnson’s legacy to be couched in rather different terms.
In fact, a competition akin to I’m a Celebrity, Get me in the Dictionary would not be short of contestants. From Billy No Mates to Flipping Ada and every Tom, Dick, and Harry, English is chock-full of personalities. And some of them belong to real individuals, whose exploits or achievements have percolated through time so that their name has come to signify one thing.
The original Jack the Lad, for example, was a notorious thief and folk hero in 18th century London. Brought up in a Bishopsgate workhouse, Jack Sheppard fell into crime at an early age, but his lasting fame rests on his many and spectacular escapes from prison despite increasingly elaborate attempts to keep him there, including being handcuffed and manacled to the floor. He subsequently became known to the authorities as Jack the Lad.
To the poorer classes, Sheppard was a daring hero and irrepressible champion; when his crimes finally caught up with him and he was hanged at Tyburn, a crowd of some 200,000 spectators came to witness it.
Another criminal who unwittingly found his way into the dictionary was Aleck Hoag, a notorious pimp, thief, and confidence man in 19th century New York who was dubbed “smart Aleck” by the NYPD because he considered himself smarter than the rest of them. The epithet has endured as a jibe for a smart-ass know-it-all.
More positively, when we describe ourselves as being “happy as Larry”, we may be giving a silent nod to Larry Foley, a renowned 19th century Australian boxer who retired at 32 and collected a purse of £1,000 for his final fight, presumably making him very happy indeed.
Admittedly there is another contender for the expression’s etymology, namely an old dialect word “larrikin”, meaning a mischievous child – but that wouldn’t be quite as much fun.
We do know that the original “maverick” was a Texan cattle rancher of that name, who consistently refused to brand his cows. Both Samuel Maverick and his animals came to be seen as outliers who didn’t conform to the norm. The name has come to signify just that ever since.
In some cases, the original inspiration for a biographical expression has been lost in time. We have, for example, no idea as to the identity of one Mickey Bliss, but his name became the foundation of the rhyming slang for “taking the mickey”: taking the Mickey Bliss/piss.
The same goes for Nelly Duff, the muse for the expression “not on your Nelly”, in which “not on your Nelly Duff” was part of a complicated rhyming slang formula for “Duff/puff/puff of life” – hence “not on your life”.
For now, we must let democracy do its thing and let language go where the majority wants it to. When it comes to dictionaries, we are all the boss.
Susie Dent is a lexicographer and etymologist. She has appeared in Dictionary Corner on Countdown since 1992, and co-hosts with Gyles Brandreth the podcast Something Rhymes with Purple
For now, David Hodges continues to fit his farming career round his full-time job.
With a family farm going back at least five generations, agriculture is in David Hodges' blood.
But the County Antrim man's passion for farm work can only be exercised part-time - not when he also has his other job, as a teacher in Ballymoney.
Teaching, David said, was the "only thing that would give me some time to farm".
That is why he has supported a call for a Farm Welfare Bill to be introduced in Northern Ireland.
"There's not enough income really for my dad and myself to both be at home and full-time, with the way things are in the current climate," he told BBC News NI.
It comes as campaign group Farmers For Action (FFA) published a report, titled On Life Support, which it commissioned from the economist Paul Gosling.
Like its 2016 predecessor, On the Eve of Destruction, it calls for legislative intervention to protect farmers and the fair pricing of agricultural produce. Getting young people into farming
David Hodges said having that protection would enable him to go back into farming full-time.
"Farming is probably the only industry in the whole world where you have no idea what your products are worth.
"You buy a calf with meat prices at a certain place, and by the time that animal's ready for selling it could be worth a whole lot less or it could be worth more, it just depends," he said.
"And I suppose if you had some sort of guarantee, or some sort of base price so you could do a cost analysis, that would massively change your income for the year."
"Suddenly you create a new environment where we have loads of young people maybe involved in farming again, whereas the current trend is if you're over 50, you're a full-time farmer," he said.
"There's not many my age are full-time - I'm a big member of Moycraig Young Farmers and I could safely say maybe 80% of people are part-time farmers."
Farmers For Action launched the report at Stormont this week
The Farmers For Action report found there is a serious problem with poverty in farming families, and that putting supermarkets and food processors in control of prices paid to farmers exacerbates the issue.
The campaign group is urging politicians to introduce a Farm Welfare Bill to support the sector and legislate for price protection. 'Part-time farmers could go full time'
William Taylor, from Farmers For Action, said its consultation with full-time farmers had shown that, with increased profitability as a result of farmgate price protection, additional workers would be employed.
He added it could also lead to part-time farmers considering returning to agriculture full-time, which would free up other roles they had taken up as a main income.
Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images
The report also called for Stormont to protect prices by "requiring wholesalers, retailers and food processors to pay at least the cost of production plus an inflation-linked margin".
It described this as "both a practical and effective way of supporting farmers and the rural economy".
"The report is a hard-hitting delivery of just how bad things are for many family farmers in Northern Ireland," Mr Taylor said.
He added the report shows there is precedent in other European countries of action taken "to curb the out-of-control financial pressure coming down the line" to farmers.
For now, David Hodges continues to fit his farming career around his full-time job.
"My dad always says, you're trying to leave it a little bit better for the person coming after you.
"We need to find a way of keeping these people involved in agriculture because if we take all the farming out of the rural community, then what are we left with?"
New Zealand signs MOU with German institute on Antarctica cooperation
MAY 04, 2024,
New Zealand said on Saturday that its Antarctic agency signed a memorandum of understanding with Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute to foster cooperation between the two polar science bodies, amid China's growing presence in Antarctica.
"Antarctica is of increasing geostrategic and scientific interest, and this arrangement will broaden connections between our marine and polar science institutes," New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a press release.
Peters and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, in Auckland on an official visit to New Zealand, witnessed the MOU's signing, according to the release.
The deal comes after New Zealand in February said it was reassessing a proposed overhaul of its decades-old Antarctica base after talks with a construction firm stalled. In 2019, New Zealand announced plans to revamp the base but since then projected costs have surged by more than 50%.
The Antarctic, due south of New Zealand and Australia, is increasingly crowded, with China opening its fifth research base there in February. Western governments are worried China's increased presence in the Antarctic and Arctic could provide the People's Liberation Army (PLA) better surveillance capabilities.
The Alfred Wegener Institute is the largest scientific organisation in Germany and coordinates German polar research efforts, according to its website. REUTERS
U.K. Labour Party expected to return to power as Conservatives suffer historic losses in general election
May 3, 2024
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s governing Conservative Party suffered heavy losses in local election results Friday, further cementing expectations that the Labour Party will return to power after 14 years in a U.K. general election that will take place in the coming months.
Labour won control of councils in England that the party hasn’t held for decades and was successful in a special by-election for Parliament that, if repeated in the general election, would lead to one of the Conservatives’ biggest-ever defeats.
Though the results overall make for grim reading for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he was able to breathe a sigh of relief when the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley in the northeast of England was reelected, albeit with a depressed share of the vote. The victory of Ben Houchen, who ran a very personal campaign, may be enough to cushion Sunak from any revolt by Conservative lawmakers.
For Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader, it’s generally been a stellar set of results, though in some areas with large Muslim populations, such as Blackburn and Oldham in northwest England, the party’s candidates appear to have suffered as a result of the leadership’s strongly pro-Israel stance in the conflict in Gaza.
Perhaps most important in the context of the general election, which has to take place by January but could come as soon as next month, Labour won back the parliamentary seat of Blackpool South in the northwest of England. The seat had gone Conservative in the last general election in 2019, when then Prime Minister Boris Johnson made big inroads in Brexit-supporting parts of the country.
In the contest, triggered by the resignation of a Conservative lawmaker following a lobbying scandal, Labour’s Chris Webb secured 10,825 votes, against the second-placed Conservative opponent’s 3,218. The swing from Conservative to Labour, at 26%, was the third biggest since World War II, which would be more than enough to see the party return to power for the first time since it was ejected in 2010.
Starmer went to Blackpool to congratulate Webb on his success and urged Sunak to call a general election. Sunak has the power to decide on the date, and has indicated that it will be in the second half of 2024.
“This was directly to Rishi Sunak to say we are fed up with your decline, your chaos and your division and we want change,” he said.
Thursday’s elections in large parts of England were important in themselves, with voters deciding who will run many aspects of their daily lives, such as garbage collection, road maintenance and local crime prevention, in the coming years. But with a general election looming, they are being viewed through a national prism.
John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said that the results so far indicate that the Conservatives are losing around half of the seats they are trying to defend.
“We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years,” he told BBC radio.
By midafternoon Friday, with around half of the 2,661 seats up for grabs counted, the Conservatives were down 213 while Labour was up 92. Other parties, such as the centrist Liberal Democrats and the Green Party also made gains.
Reform U.K., which is trying to usurp the Conservatives from the right, also had some successes, notably in Blackpool South, where it was less than 200 votes from grabbing second place.
Labour has won in areas that voted heavily for Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2016 and where it had been crushed by Brexit-backer Johnson, such as Hartlepool in the northeast of England, and Thurrock in southeast England. It also seized control of Rushmoor, a leafy and military-heavy council in the south of England where it has never won.
One bright spot for the Conservatives was the result in Tees Valley, which prior to Brexit had been a traditional Labour stronghold. However, Houchen’s vote share was down nearly 20 percentage points at 54% from 2021.
Sunak struck a defiant note in Teesside as he congratulated Houchen on his victory, while admitting “disappointing” results elsewhere.
“I’ve got a message for the Labour Party too, because they know that they have to win here in order to win a general election, they know that,” he said. “They assumed that Tees Valley would stroll back to them, but it didn’t.”
Sunak will be hoping Andy Street will remain mayor of the West Midlands when that result is announced on Saturday.
Also Saturday, Labour’s Sadiq Khan is expected to remain mayor of London, though there are some concerns being voiced that a low turnout may see him lose to Conservative opponent Susan Hall.
Sunak became prime minister in October 2022 after the short-lived tenure of his predecessor, Liz Truss, who left office after 49 days following a budget of unfunded tax cuts that roiled financial markets and sent borrowing costs for homeowners surging.
Her chaotic — and traumatic — leadership compounded the Conservatives’ difficulties following the circus surrounding her predecessor Johnson, who was forced to quit after being adjudged to have lied to Parliament over coronavirus lockdown breaches at his offices in Downing Street.
Nothing Sunak has tried to do has shifted the political dial, with Labour consistently 20 percentage points ahead in opinion polls. Whether anyone else can do better than Sunak is a question that may occupy the minds of nervous Conservative lawmakers in Parliament heading into the weekend.
Left: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attends a joint press conference with U.S. President Joe Biden in the East Room at the White House, in Washington DC, U.S., June 8, 2023. Niall Carson/Pool via REUTERS
