USA
Tribal elders testify about painful memories from government-backed boarding schools

Associated Press

ANADARKO, Okla. — Native American tribal elders who were once students at government-backed Indian boarding schools testified Saturday about the hardships they endured, including beatings, whippings, sexual assaults, forced haircuts and painful nicknames.

They came from different states and different tribes, but they shared the common experience of having attended the schools that were designed to strip Indigenous people of their cultural identities.

“I still feel that pain,” said 84-year-old Donald Neconie, a former U.S. Marine and member of the Kiowa Tribe who once attended the Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City. “I will never, ever forgive this school for what they did to me.

“It may be good now. But it wasn’t back then.”

RELATED:Federal investigation identifies over 400 indigenous boarding schools, 50 burial sites in the US

As the elders spoke, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, herself a Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico and the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history, listened quietly. The event at the Riverside Indian School, which still operates today but with a vastly different mission, was the first stop on a yearlong nationwide tour to hear about the painful experiences of Native Americans who were sent to the government-backed boarding schools.


“Federal Indian boarding school policies have touched every Indigenous person I know,” Haaland said at the start of the event, which attracted Native Americans from throughout the region. “Some are survivors. Some are descendants. But we all carry the trauma in our hearts.

“My ancestors endured the horrors of the Indian boarding school assimilation policies carried out by the same department that I now lead. This is the first time in history that a cabinet secretary comes to the table with this shared trauma.”

Haaland’s agency recently released a report that identified more than 400 of the schools, which sought to assimilate Native children into white society during a period that stretched from the late 18th century until the late 1960s.

Although most closed their doors long ago and none still exist to strip students of their identities, some still function as schools, albeit with drastically different missions that celebrate the cultural backgrounds of their Native students. Among them is Riverside, which is one of oldest.

Riverside, which opened in 1871, serves students from grades four through 12 these days, offering them specialized academic programs as well as courses on cultural topics such as bead-working, shawl-making and an introduction to tribal art, foods and games. Currently operated by the Bureau of Indian Education, it has nearly 800 students from more than 75 tribes across the country, and the school’s administration, staff and faculty are mostly Native American.

It is one of 183 elementary and secondary schools across the country funded by the Bureau of Indian Education that seek to provide education aligned with a tribe’s needs for cultural and economic well-being, according to the bureau’s website.

But Riverside also has a dark history of mistreating the thousands of Native American students who were forced from their homes to attend it.

Neconie, who still lives in Anadarko, recalled being beaten if he cried or spoke his native Kiowa language when he attended Riverside in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

“Every time I tried to talk Kiowa, they put lye in my mouth,” he said. “It was 12 years of hell.”

Brought Plenty, a Standing Rock Sioux who lives in Dallas, recalled the years she spent at Indian boarding schools in South Dakota, where she was forced to cut her hair and told not to speak her Native language. She recalled being forced to whip other girls with wet towels and being punished when she didn’t.

“What they did to us makes you feel so inferior,” she said. “You never get past this. You never forget it.”

Until recently, the federal government hadn’t been open to examining its role in the troubled history of Native American boarding schools. But this has changed because people who know about the trauma that was inflicted hold prominent positions in government.

At least 500 children died at such schools, but that number is expected to reach into the thousands or tens of thousands as more research is done.

The Interior Department’s report includes a list of the boarding schools in what were states or territories that operated between 1819 and 1969 that had a housing component and received support from the federal government.

Oklahoma had the most, 76, followed by Arizona, which had 47, and New Mexico, which had 43. All three states still have significant Native American populations.

Former students might be hesitant to recount the painful past and trust a government whose policies were to eradicate tribes and, later, assimilate them under the veil of education. But some welcome the opportunity to share their stories for the first time.

Not all the memories from those who attended the schools were painful ones.

Dorothy WhiteHorse, 89, a Kiowa who attended Riverside in the 1940s, said she recalled learning to dance the jitterbug in the school’s gymnasium and learning to speak English for the first time. She also recalled older Kiowa women who served as house mothers in the dormitories who let her speak her Native language and treated her with kindness.

“I was helped,” WhiteHorse said. “I’m one of the happy ones.”

But WhiteHorse also had some troubling memories, including the time she said three young boys ran away from the home and got caught in a snowstorm. She said all three froze to death.

“I think we need a memorial for those boys,” she said.

Felicia Fonseca contributed to this report from Flagstaff, Arizona

UN Deems Eviction of Palestinians from Masafer Yatta as ‘War Crime’

Saturday, 9 July, 2022 - 

Palestinian demonstrators gesture next to Israeli forces during a protest against Israeli settlements in Masafer Yatta, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, October 2, 2021. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma

Tel Aviv- Asharq Al-Awsat

The United Nations has warned that the forced evictions of Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and amounts to a “war crime.”

The UN Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states in its weekly report on Friday that the forcible transfer of civilians from, or within, the occupied Palestinian territory is absolutely prohibited under international humanitarian Law.

“Israeli authorities should halt all coercive measures, including planned evictions, demolitions, and military training in residential areas,” OCHA said in its report.

Masafer Yatta spans some 36 kilometers and is comprised of 19 Palestinian villages that are home to more than 1,200 Palestinians.

In the 1980s, Israeli authorities designated a part of Masafer Yatta as a closed military zone. Since this declaration, residents have been at risk of forced eviction, demolition, and forcible transfer.

In 1999, the Israeli government issued eviction orders against approximately 700 Palestinian residents of the city for “illegally living in a firing zone,” as a result of which the Israeli military evicted by force most of them and destroyed or confiscated their homes and property.

A few months later, the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ), in response to a petition filed on behalf of the residents, issued an interim injunction allowing most of the people to return, pending a final court decision.

However, the existence of eviction orders left residents living under the constant threat of destruction of their properties and the risk of forcible transfer.

In a 2012 petition to the HCJ, the Israeli military offered citizens access to the land for cultivation and grazing only on weekends and Jewish holidays.

Legal action, humanitarian aid and advocacy challenged this decision and provided temporary protection from forced eviction to the Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta.

On May 4, 2022, the HCJ ruled that there were no legal barriers to the planned expulsion of Palestinian residents from Masafer Yatta to make way for military training, effectively placing them at imminent risk of forced evictions, arbitrary displacement, and forcible transfer.

The OCHA stressed in its report that “constant eviction of Palestinians from their ancestral homes and Israel’s decades-long settlements expansion activities have changed realities on the ground, and are inconsistent with international humanitarian law and UN Security Council resolutions, which are legally binding.”

The statement stated that “215 Palestinian families, comprising 1,150 individuals, including 569 children, are currently living in the Masafer Yatta area and are facing threats of home demolition, as well as violence from settlers who live in outposts close to them”.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah: Prominent Egyptian activist marks 100 days of hunger strike

Supporters of Alaa Abd el-Fattah are calling on Washington to help secure his release

Egyptian activist and blogger Alaa Abd el-Fattah gives an interview at his home in Cairo on 17 May 2019 (AFP/File photo)

By MEE and agencies
Published date: 9 July 2022 

Supporters of prominent Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who on Sunday will mark 100 days on a hunger strike, are calling on Washington to help secure his release, a statement said.

A major figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Abd el-Fattah was sentenced in December to five years in prison after he was convicted along with two others of "broadcasting false news".

Sunday will mark 100 days of his huger strike, a statement from his support committee said. He has been only taking "100 calories a day in the form of a spoon of honey and a drop of milk in tea", Saturday's statement said.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah: Family urges UK government to pressure Egyptian minister during London visitRead More »

His sister Sanaa Seif will speak about his case in a media briefing in Washington on Monday ahead of a Middle East tour later in the week by US President Joe Biden, the statement added.

Other Arab leaders including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are expected to be present in Saudi Arabia when Biden visits the kingdom as part of his tour.

Another sister, Mona Seif continues to draw attention to the plight of what rights groups say are about 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt. She has been collecting letters of support from European lawmakers for months.

Mona Seif announced this week that she was suspending her own hunger strike, which she had begun in solidarity with her brother.

"Alaa is currently serving a five-year sentence for sharing a Facebook post about prison conditions in Egypt," the support committee statement said.

"He is on hunger strike demanding his right to consular access from the British embassy," it added.

Abd el-Fattah gained UK citizenship in April from inside prison, through his British-born mother Laila Soueif.

Egypt's interior ministry said last month that it had footage that "disproves" reports of his hunger strike.


Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in June that Britain was "working very hard to secure his release".

The British government is now in disarray after Boris Johnson resigned as prime minister this week.

Egypt is set to host the COP27 climate summit in November, a role Human Rights Watch has said "rewards" President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's "repressive rule".

AL JAZZERA From: The Listening Post

The case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah and Egypt’s crushing of dissent

The story of an imprisoned activist exposes the grim climate for speech in Egypt. Plus, what might Chile’s new constitution portend for the media there?

As Egypt’s President el-Sisi kicks off a “National Dialogue” on human rights, the precarious fate of jailed writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah exposes the grave climate for free speech in the country.

Contributors:
Mona Seif – Sister of Alaa Abd el-Fattah
Nancy Okail – President, Center for International Policy
Amr Khalifa – Political analyst
Sabrina Bennoui – Head of the Middle East desk, Reporters Without Borders

NASA FURIOUS AT RUSSIA'S UKRAINE STUNT ON SPACE STATION

DECADES OF PEACEFUL COOPERATION ARE ON THE LINE.

FUTURISM

Rising Tensions

NASA has officially decried Russia for spreading anti-Ukraine propaganda on board the ISS earlier this week.

On Monday, the Russian space agency took to Telegram to post images of ISS cosmonauts holding the flags of the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic — two separatist regions in Eastern Ukraine that only Russia and Syria recognize as independent territories — claiming that the Russian capture of the territories was a "liberation day to celebrate both on Earth and in space."

While NASA administrator Bill Nelson was quick to respond, claiming that there was no need for the US to further escalate the situation, the agency has seemingly had a change of heart since then.

NASA decided to condemn the act in a fiery Thursday statement, declaring that it "strongly rebukes using the International Space Station for political purposes to support [the] war against Ukraine, which is fundamentally inconsistent with the station's primary function among the 15 international participating countries to advance science and develop technology for peaceful purposes."

End of an Era?

Until this week, the off-world relationship between the two countries had remained civil overall, in spite of the war currently waging on Ukrainian soil.

Earlier this year, NASA associate administrator for space operation Kathy Leuders said that the space agencies and their respective spacefarers were "still working together," as quoted by The Washington Post. "Obviously, we understand the global situation and where it is, but as a joint team, these teams are operating together."

The astronauts and cosmonauts themselves have gone to great lengths to debunk claims of any Ukraine-related ill will amongst one another.

"About my relationship with my Russian crewmates," NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, told the press back in April after returning to Earth by way of Russian spacecraft. "They were, are and will continue to be very dear friends of mine."

Honestly, this whole situation is pretty heartbreaking. The ISS has served as a powerful symbol of peace and cooperation for decades. Politicizing the orbital outpost during a divisive, violent war serves as a highly unfortunate departure from its intended purposes.

READ MORE: NASA issues rebuke to Russia for using space station as war propaganda [The Washington Post]

More on ISS Propaganda: Cosmonauts Spread Anti-Ukraine Propaganda on Space Station

US and Russia still tethered by International Space Station during Ukraine conflict

But NASA has more independence these days

By Loren Grush@lorengrush  Feb 24, 2022, 

The International Space Station as seen from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon departing the ISS

 Image: NASA

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, tensions between the US and Russia are particularly strained here on Earth, prompting concerns that friction could inevitably spill over into the two countries’ longstanding partnership in space. For now, both NASA and Russia say they are still working together to keep the International Space Station operational, as they’ve done during past international turmoil.

Russia is, by and large, the United States’ biggest working partner in space. NASA and Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, jointly operate the ISS, an orbiting laboratory that has become the primary space destination for astronauts hailing from America, Russia, and other nations across the globe. Roscosmos and NASA have been working together on the ISS for nearly three decades now, but the US-Russian partnership goes back even further than that. The two space organizations coordinated on Russia’s former Mir space station, swapped seats on NASA’s Space Shuttle and Russia’s Soyuz rocket, and even worked together during the Apollo era on the Apollo-Soyuz test project.

FOR NOW, BOTH NASA AND RUSSIA SAY THEY ARE STILL WORKING TOGETHER

Since the space partnership has been a lengthy one, this is certainly not the first time that Russia and the US have clashed on the ground while continuing to work together in space. NASA and Roscosmos have continued to cooperate on the ISS during the 2014 invasion of Crimea and even after Russia blew up its own satellite, creating debris that threatened the ISS. Consistent communication between the two organizations is paramount for the safety of the ISS crew, even when tensions flare. “We’ve been able to keep it compartmentalized for so long,” Todd Harrison, director of the aerospace security project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells The Verge. “And there’s a value to having that relationship between the US and Russia.”

Currently, seven people are living onboard the International Space Station, including four NASA astronauts and two Russian cosmonauts. NASA says that nothing has changed regarding the schedule of the ISS. “NASA continues working with the State Space Corporation Roscosmos (Roscosmos) and our other international partners in Canada, Europe, and Japan to maintain safe and continuous International Space Station operations,” Josh Finch, a spokesperson for NASA, emailed to The Verge in a statement a few hours before the invasion began. “NASA and its international partners have maintained a continuous and productive human presence aboard the International Space Station for more than 21 years.”

However, there may be more options for NASA to distance itself from the Russian space corporation as the situation becomes more dire on the ground, especially since the dynamic between the organizations has significantly evolved in recent years. “It’s not really an option to just not be in contact about [the ISS],” Makena Young, an associate fellow with the Aerospace Security Project at CSIS, tells The Verge. “But basically anything else I think is up for delays or cancellations.”

“IT’S NOT REALLY AN OPTION TO JUST NOT BE IN CONTACT ABOUT [THE ISS].”

On a more superficial level, it seems likely that any planned trips to Russia or other pleasantries between NASA and Roscosmos will be delayed or canceled. Despite reports that NASA administrator Bill Nelson would be taking a trip to Russia to discuss ISS operations, NASA press secretary Jackie McGuinness confirmed to The Verge that there is no trip currently planned. “At the level of exchanges of dignitaries or attending conferences, I would guess that you’ll see a reduction,” David Burbach, a professor at the US Naval War College who teaches space security and international relations, tells The Verge.

Perhaps the most analogous situation to current events occurred back in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea. At the time, NASA sent out a memo to employees telling them to suspend contact with Russian government representatives. Travel to Russia was suspended for NASA workers and Dmitry Rogozin, a deputy prime minister in 2014 who now leads Roscosmos, was sanctioned personally, preventing him from entering the United States.

NASA was in a much more precarious position in 2014. The space agency had just retired the Space Shuttle in 2011, and without the vehicle, NASA didn’t have a way to deliver people to space. So, for years, NASA relied on Russia’s Soyuz rocket to get its astronauts to and from the International Space Station. While NASA could take some actions, the agency couldn’t completely distance itself from Russia during the Crimea invasion as the agency needed Roscosmos in a fundamental way.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s Roscosmos space corporation

 Photo by Pavel Pavlov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The situation is much different now. In 2020, SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts to the ISS on the company’s Crew Dragon, demonstrating that it could deliver people to and from space for the agency. Now, NASA has the option to fly its astronauts solely on Crew Dragon flights if it wants. And that could give NASA a little more freedom to cut ties with Russia on certain projects. “NASA really doesn’t have a lot of reliance on Russia anymore for civil space programs,” says Young. “So I think that there’s a lot more wiggle room to be a bit more strict than there was in the past.”

One project that might be in a precarious position is a planned crew swap between NASA and Roscosmos, where the two organizations would allow personnel to fly on the other country’s passenger vehicles. While NASA has continued flying its astronauts on the Russian Soyuz rocket, Russian cosmonauts have not yet flown on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Lately, Roscosmos had begun warming to the idea, and the two organizations are in the midst of finalizing that arrangement, though nothing has been officially signed. In December, Rogozin announced that Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina would fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon in the fall of 2022 as part of the crew swap. NASA confirmed to The Verge that there are two cosmonauts currently in Houston training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and two NASA astronauts completed training in Russia earlier in February.

It’s possible that agreement could be in jeopardy in the future, but for now, it seems to still be moving forward. “Roscosmos continues fulfilling its international obligations to ensure ISS operation; work is also underway on the integrated crew flights agreement.” Oleg Bolashev, chief specialist of the Roscosmos press service, emailed to The Verge in a statement.

“I THINK IT IS FAIR TO SAY RUSSIA STANDS TO LOSE MORE THAN WE DO.”

Roscosmos continues to rely on NASA to keep the ISS running, as NASA spends $3–4 billion on the project every year. “I think it is fair to say Russia stands to lose more than we do,” Harrison says. He argues that the ISS is the flagship of the Russian space program. “They don’t really have any other achievements to point to of that magnitude,” says Harrison. “So they would be losing a tremendous science platform but also a tremendous status symbol as a space superpower if they didn’t have ISS.”

The ISS isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but the future of the station is still unresolved. In late December, the Biden administration announced its intention to extend ISS operations through 2030. Roscosmos has been mulling over a similar extension. However, Rogozin told The New York Times that such an extension could not happen until the sanctions on two Russian companies were removed. “In order to give us a technical capability to produce whatever is needed for this extension, these restrictions need to be lifted first,” Rogozin said. However, Rogozin also told CNN that “this is a family, where a divorce within a station is not possible.”

Outwardly, Rogozin is still showing his support for Roscosmos’ relationship with NASA amid current events while condemning US policy.

The NASA and Roscosmos relationship has faced more tests than ever as of late, even beyond the situation in Ukraine. When the Russian military intentionally destroyed one of the nation’s own satellites with a ground missile, the test created thousands of pieces of debris that posed an immediate threat to the International Space Station. The crew onboard — which included two cosmonauts — had to be woken up early and then sheltered in place as a precaution. Administrator Nelson condemned the test, and he later spoke with Rogozin, “expressing dismay” over the danger the astronauts faced. Rogozin indicated to The New York Times that he shared frustration over the test.

As it is, the ISS remains one of the few things keeping NASA and Roscosmos together. NASA is currently focused on its new flagship mission called Artemis, a massive new endeavor to send the first woman and the first person of color to the surface of the Moon. As part of that project, NASA developed the Artemis Accords, an international agreement between various nations that creates a set of standards for how to explore the Moon. Rogozin has been particularly critical of both Artemis and the Artemis Accords, comparing the agreement to “an invasion” in a now-deleted tweet. He also said that Russia plans to work with China on their lunar efforts instead.

Despite all this turmoil — both in space and on Earth — the ISS is still zooming along on its orbit, and the astronauts and cosmonauts on board are still working together as planned. In March, Russia plans to launch another crewed Soyuz flight to the ISS, though that mission will carry an all-cosmonaut crew. That isn’t likely to change anytime soon.

“I think it’s pretty unlikely we’ll see expansions or new developments with Russia,” says Burbach. “But I don’t think that the nuclear option with ISS — I don’t think we’re going to see that.”

California needs nuclear, solar and wind to beat climate change

David Middlecamp/dmiddlecamp@thetribunenews.com

Jennifer L. Klay 

Fri, July 8, 2022

Momentum is building in San Luis Obispo County and across the state to extend operations at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant beyond its scheduled shutdown beginning in 2024.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is reconsidering the closure of the state’s last nuclear facility and single largest source of clean energy production. Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently changed her mind about shuttering Diablo Canyon. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Energy has proposed changes to allow the plant to qualify for federal assistance to remain in operation.

So why the recent shift? Time is running out to avert the worsening impacts of climate change and Diablo Canyon can help speed up our progress toward reducing emissions.

Research has shown that Diablo Canyon could enable the state to achieve a carbon-free electric grid 10 years ahead of schedule.

Two studies, one by Stanford and MIT and another by the Brattle Group, also found that the plant could dramatically reduce carbon emissions and reliance on natural gas and bolster grid reliability while saving Californians billions on their energy bills.

Still, some critics persist in arguing that we can combat the crisis without Diablo Canyon — or that extending operations would run counter to our state’s renewable energy goals.

Rigorous analysis strongly suggests otherwise.

As of today, California is on track to badly miss its climate goals.

According to a recent report by Energy Innovation, the state needs to more than triple its rate of greenhouse gas reductions to reach its target of lowering emissions to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030. The Brattle Group study found that the expansion of solar power — one of the pillars of decarbonization — is currently running at less than half the rate required to maintain reliability and achieve the state’s zero-carbon goals.

Even if the state builds solar energy capacity at twice the current rate, California will remain dependent on polluting gas-fired power generation and carbon-emitting imported fuels in the near term. Those emissions will linger in the air and warm the atmosphere for centuries while retaining Diablo Canyon would enable the state to displace these sources with carbon-free generation.

Others express concern over the handling and storage of Diablo Canyon’s spent fuel. The volume of spent fuel is low and secured within dry casks that keep workers safe, prevent leaks, and withstand the impact of natural disasters. This technology is not new and has been rigorously tested and used for decades at Diablo Canyon and dozens of other sites throughout the nation.

Diablo Canyon’s seismic preparedness and safety is another topic of misinformation from opponents. But rigorous analysis has made clear that the plant is built to withstand any and all seismic activity at the site. In a letter to Gov. Newsom, experts point out that an extensive regulatory review found that Diablo could safely withstand even the largest earthquakes and that no additional seismic or flood protection retrofits are needed. Diablo Canyon “does not pose a seismic danger, and thus the seismic issue should be taken off the table,” the experts wrote.

Meanwhile, local support for retaining Diablo Canyon is strong. A January poll found that 74 percent of San Luis Obispo County voters support continued operation of the plant. In a show of bipartisan cooperation, Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham and County Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg joined forces to warn that closing the plant would increase the state’s dependence on carbon-emitting natural gas, preventing us from meeting our ambitious emissions goals.

As California braces for prolonged drought, wildfires and weather extremes, every moment counts in securing the state’s clean energy future. Diablo Canyon should continue to produce carbon-free power to benefit the state and the local San Luis Obispo community and serve as an integral part of an all-of-the-above approach to building our low-carbon future.

Jennifer L. Klay is a physics professor at Cal Poly

Tesla reportedly nowhere near goal of installing 1,000 solar roofs a week

Harri Weber
Thu, July 7, 2022

Five and a half years on (well, really 5.69), Tesla's solar roofs are looking less like a revelation and more like a hobby. Though Elon Must set a goal of 1,000 solar roof installations per week, the company's latest averages are reportedly a tiny fraction of that figure.

Citing an anonymous source, Electrek reports that Tesla installed just 2.5 megawatts of solar roofs in the second quarter. That would equate to about 260 medium-sized (9.6-kilowatt) home installations last quarter, or roughly 20 each week, per some back-of-the-napkin math. A more generous estimate (say, if we assume each installation were rated at just 5 kW) would still place Tesla somewhere around 38 per week, or nearly 4% of the way toward that 1,000-per-week target.

Tesla originally showcased its roofs in 2016 on the street best known as Wisteria Lane, where "Desperate Housewives" was filmed. "It’s not a thing on the roof. It is the roof,” Musk said around then, pitching it as a sleek alternative to bolt-on solar systems that tend to stick out.

So, what's the holdup on the roofs? Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the report, but the company may have bit off more than it could chew. "We basically made some significant mistakes in assessing the difficulty of certain roofs," Musk said last year, as Tesla hiked its prices for some buyers. "You just can’t have a one-size-fits-all situation," he said.

Supply-chain issues could also be a factor. For the first quarter of 2022, Tesla reported a sharp drop in solar deployments, most of which involve conventional panels. The company blamed "import delays beyond our control on certain solar components" for the decline.

Solar shingles aside, Tesla's larger solar business is reportedly doing well lately. The company's U.S. residential division just saw "its best quarter since 2017 right after the acquisition of SolarCity," Electrek wrote. We'll hear more on that when Tesla releases its second-quarter report on July 20.

Beyond Tesla, several other companies have tried to make solar shingles happen, including GAF Energy and SunRoof. No matter how well they blend in, however, none have managed to supplant conventional solar systems — at least not yet.

Huge underground search for mysterious dark matter begins
    

Dark Matter Search

Researchers at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, S.D., discuss conditions on Dec. 8, 2019 at the underground laboratory that was once used as a gold mine. Scientists have begun a new search for mysterious dark matter in a former gold mine a mile underground. Dark matter makes up the vast majority of the mass of the universe but scientists don't know what it is. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves)More

SETH BORENSTEIN
Thu, July 7, 2022 

LEAD, S.D. (AP) — In a former gold mine a mile underground, inside a titanium tank filled with a rare liquified gas, scientists have begun the search for what so far has been unfindable: dark matter.

Scientists are pretty sure the invisible stuff makes up most of the universe’s mass and say we wouldn't be here without it — but they don't know what it is. The race to solve this enormous mystery has brought one team to the depths under Lead, South Dakota.

The question for scientists is basic, says Kevin Lesko, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “What is this great place I live in? Right now, 95% of it is a mystery.”

The idea is that a mile of dirt and rock, a giant tank, a second tank and the purest titanium in the world will block nearly all the cosmic rays and particles that zip around — and through — all of us every day. But dark matter particles, scientists think, can avoid all those obstacles. They hope one will fly into the vat of liquid xenon in the inner tank and smash into a xenon nucleus like two balls in a game of pool, revealing its existence in a flash of light seen by a device called “the time projection chamber.”

Scientists announced Thursday that the five-year, $60 million search finally got underway two months ago after a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. So far the device has found ... nothing. At least no dark matter.

That’s OK, they say. The equipment appears to be working to filter out most of the background radiation they hoped to block. “To search for this very rare type of interaction, job number one is to first get rid of all of the ordinary sources of radiation, which would overwhelm the experiment,” said University of Maryland physicist Carter Hall.

And if all their calculations and theories are right, they figure they’ll see only a couple fleeting signs of dark matter a year. The team of 250 scientists estimates they’ll get 20 times more data over the next couple of years.

By the time the experiment finishes, the chance of finding dark matter with this device is “probably less than 50% but more than 10%,” said Hugh Lippincott, a physicist and spokesman for the experiment in a Thursday news conference.

While that's far from a sure thing, “you need a little enthusiasm," Lawrence Berkeley's Lesko said. “You don’t go into rare search physics without some hope of finding something.”

Two hulking Depression-era hoists run an elevator that brings scientists to what's called the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment in the Sanford Underground Research Facility. A 10-minute descent ends in a tunnel with cool-to-the-touch walls lined with netting. But the old, musty mine soon leads to a high-tech lab where dirt and contamination is the enemy. Helmets are exchanged for new cleaner ones and a double layer of baby blue booties go over steel-toed safety boots.

The heart of the experiment is the giant tank called the cryostat, lead engineer Jeff Cherwinka said in a December 2019 tour before the device was closed and filled. He described it as “like a thermos” made of “perhaps the purest titanium in the world” designed to keep the liquid xenon cold and keep background radiation at a minimum.

Xenon is special, explained experiment physics coordinator Aaron Manalaysay, because it allows researchers to see if a collision is with one of its electrons or with its nucleus. If something hits the nucleus, it is more likely to be the dark matter that everyone is looking for, he said.

These scientists tried a similar, smaller experiment here years ago. After coming up empty, they figured they had to go much bigger. Another large-scale experiment is underway in Italy run by a rival team, but no results have been announced so far.

The scientists are trying to understand why the universe is not what it seems.

One part of the mystery is dark matter, which has by far most of the mass in the cosmos. Astronomers know it's there because when they measure the stars and other regular matter in galaxies, they find that there is not nearly enough gravity to hold these clusters together. If nothing else was out there, galaxies would be “quickly flying apart,” Manalaysay said.

“It is essentially impossible to understand our observation of history, of the evolutionary cosmos without dark matter,” Manalaysay said.

Lippincott, a University of California, Santa Barbara, physicist, said “we would not be here without dark matter.”

So while there's little doubt that dark matter exists, there's lots of doubt about what it is. The leading theory is that it involves things called WIMPs — weakly interacting massive particles.

If that's the case, LUX-ZEPLIN could be able to detect them. We want to find “where the wimps can be hiding,” Lippincott said.

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.

___

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Asteroid Bennu nearly swallowed up NASA's sampling spacecraft

It was a close call, but OSIRIS-REx's unexpected adventure might help improve planetary defense techniques.

By Elizabeth Howell published 1 day ago

A mosaic image of the asteroid Bennu created using data from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. 

(Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

NASA's asteroid-sampling spacecraft had a near-death experience at Bennu, according to the mission team.

In October 2020, the agency's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft nearly sank into the surface of the rubbly asteroid while picking up rocks for shipment to Earth in 2023, team members revealed Thursday (July 7). The spacecraft only escaped getting stuck or sinking into oblivion within Bennu by firing its thrusters at the right moment.

"We expected the surface to be pretty rigid," principal investigator Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, told Space.com. "We saw a giant wall of debris flying away from the sample site. For spacecraft operators, it was really frightening."

Now that the spacecraft (more formally known as Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) is safely on its way back to our planet to deliver its precious cargo, scientists are digging into the science implications of the dramatic moment.

"It turns out that the particles making up Bennu's exterior are so loosely packed and lightly bound to each other that they act more like a fluid than a solid," Lauretta said in a University of Arizona statement

That structure is why the OSIRIS-REx sampling probe had such a close call, he and his colleagues determined. The loose surface, made up of particles jostling against each other like plastic balls in a children's play area, has implications for how asteroids were formed and also for planetary defense techniques to protect against potential rogue space rocks coming near our planet, NASA added in a second statement

Photographs from the mission showed a giraffe-scale crater left behind from the brief touchdown, scarring the surface as far as 26 feet (8-meters) wide. That was nothing like the small divot investigators predicted from simulations.

The encounter was a very close call for the spacecraft, mission personnel now say. Where scientists had expected to find a firm surface, the spacecraft experienced resistance comparable to that needed to filter a French press coffee maker, they said.

"By the time we fired our thrusters to leave the surface, we were still plunging into the asteroid," Ron Ballouz, an OSIRIS-REx scientist based at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, said in the University of Arizona statement.

"I think we're still at the beginning of understanding what these bodies are, because they behave in very counterintuitive ways," Patrick Michel, an OSIRIS-REx team member and asteroid scientist at Côte d'Azur Observatory in France, said in the NASA statement.

RELATED STORIES:

— Asteroid Bennu's mysterious missing craters suggest 'impact armoring' protecting the surface

— Boulders on asteroid Bennu shed new light on the space rock's history

— Eruptions on Asteroid Bennu hint at causes of space rock explosions

Read more: 

Dramatic sampling shows asteroid Bennu is nothing like scientists expected

Related: Ride shotgun with NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe as it buzzes Bennu (video)

Butler shows hundreds of employees the door after raising $50M for room service delivery

Kyle Wiggers

TechCrunch

Fri, July 8, 2022 

On May 16, Butler Hospitality, an on-demand platform for room service and amenities, sent an email to vendors that might have been considered reassuring under other circumstances. "We are writing to inform you [that] room service and catering services will continue as is. All collateral is still functional," the email read. "We appreciate your loyalty to sticking with us through these times."

The trouble was, Butler's roughly 1,000-person workforce had been laid off just days earlier. In fact, most were told that the company had been dissolved -- according to interviews TechCrunch had with a number of former employees, and corroborated in a report last week by industry blog Restaurant Dive.

Butler’s downfall is a cautionary tale both of the opportunities and challenges that exist in the world of on-demand startups. There may be clear gaps in the market for services that appear in theory like easy sailing. Yet they can inevitably be buffeted by economic, social and, in recent times, extreme public health headwinds. And amidst all that, those working there are the first to go over.

On-demand delivery

New York-based Butler was founded in 2016 as a "ghost kitchen" operator with a simple business model. Butler would lease a hotel kitchen on one property and use it to provide meal delivery services to in-house guests there and in other, nearby hotels.

Butler founder and CEO Premtim Gjonbalic has experience in the hospitality industry. According to a Forbes profile, he opened his first restaurant in New York City at the age of 19 -- located inside a "big-box" hotel. Gjonbalic is also listed as an advisor to Fast Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company that unsuccessfully attempted to take Fertitta Entertainment, a dining, hospitality, and gaming giant, public.

"We are coming in and showing what the experience should be,” Gjonbalic told Crunchbase in a 2020 interview. "You don’t need a cart in the room or a $20 service charge to deliver food. Guests want good packaging, a good menu, price transparency and to be able to track their order. This should have been happening a long time ago."

Butler owned five different restaurant concepts that it staffed, including Standard by Butler (a casual bar and grill), Prime by Butler (an American brasserie) and Super Franc (a Tuscan steakhouse). Hotels could choose which concepts to have available to their guests; Butler handled the integration, experience, menu design and packaging. To customers, it pledged to deliver orders -- including "convenience" items on the side, like chargers and shaving cream -- in under 30 minutes, charged directly to their hotel bill.

After a seed round and bootstrapped funding from Gjonbalic, Butler went on to raise $15 million in Series A contributions from The Kraft Group, &vest, Scopus Ventures and Mousse Partners. The company subsequently raised $30 million from backers including Shamrock Holdings, Maywic Select Investments and Platform Ventures, bringing Butler's total raised to "north of" $50 million.

In a press release issued last October, Butler said that it wanted to more than double its presence to 12 markets in the U.S., with plans to service rooms in cities including Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh (expanding from its bases in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Miami, Denver, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.). The company said that Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Marriott were among its more than 400 hospitality partners, which were big gets for the small operation.

But some ex-employees say trouble was brewing behind the scenes.

Signs of instability

Butler no doubt took a hit as the pandemic depressed service and hospitality spending. In April 2020, the company received a $600,000 loan through the Paycheck Protection Program. But Butler, intent on expansion, continued to take on expensive new hotel restaurant leases.

At one point, Butler was offering $500 prepaid Visa cards for every hotel partner successfully referred to it.

"Butler expanded its national footprint in 2021, hoping to capitalize on the travel recovery," Gjonbalic told TechCrunch via email. However, the startup found COVID-19 having both direct and indirect lasting effects, he added, among them labor and supply chain shortages, closed international borders, and continued delays of corporate and group travel.

As travel recovered in late Q1 2022, Butler's challenges didn't go away, with inflation, geopolitical issues (i.e. the war in Ukraine), interest rate hikes and the bigger pressure on tech finance all creating a challenging fundraising environment for the startup. This led to commitments falling through "abruptly," Gjonbalic said.

But Gjonbalic and the rest of the company's senior leaders failed to communicate the severity of the situation, according to ex-staffers who spoke with TechCrunch on the condition of anonymity. Just weeks prior to the mass firings, one ex-employee claims they were told Butler had no cash flow issues and that "the next [financing] round was coming." Another says they were assured that the company's board of directors would give six months of runway regardless of how the next fundraise went.

Some of the complaints have been more public and open. Kelly Buerger, a former launch manager for Butler, filed a class action lawsuit against the company in June alleging that Butler failed to give employees sufficient notice of their termination. Under the New York WARN Act and the federal WARN Act, companies employing 50 or more employees are generally required to give several weeks’ advance notice of mass layoffs.

"Beginning on or about April 22, 2022, and within 90 days therefrom, [Butler] terminated hundreds of its employees," the lawsuit alleges. "[Butler] was required by the WARN Act to give [Buerger] and putative class members at least 60 days advance written notice of their termination ... [Butler also] failed to pay [Buerger] and each of the putative class members their respective wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday pay and accrued vacation for 60 days following their respective terminations, along with other vested compensation perks during the 60-day period."

Some ex-Butler employees who were promised health benefits through August received an email a week after the dissolution indicating their plans would been terminated early.

Layoffs begin

Butler began taking extraordinary measures to preserve its remaining capital. An employee at one of Butler's hotel customers said the company began discontinuing services and introducing new fees without advanced warning. For example, Butler began charging for deliveries that previously had been free.

Early in the year, there was a round of layoffs at Butler -- fewer than 20 people -- that management described to employees as "a one-time thing." A few weeks later, about 50 people were furloughed in what Butler internally called a response to "challenges."

"We regret to inform you that due to ... circumstances faced by [Butler] resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, including the critical need to conserve our cash resources, we have made the very difficult decision to place you on a temporary furlough," a notice received by one ex-Butler employee reads. "We are hopeful that [Butler's] financial condition will improve, and we hope to recall you from temporary furlough to resume your position with [Butler] by no later than November 9, 2022."

The larger-scale layoffs started in May, shortly after Butler hired a new COO and chief revenue officer. The company dissolved on May 13.

Gjonbalic claims that the board and Butler's legal counsel at Cooley, a Palo Alto-based law firm, explored "several options" to try to save the company, but ultimately decided to shut down and dissolve the company on May 12.

"On May 13, Delaware counsel was retained to assist with the shutdown and to liquidate the business assets and the employees were terminated on May 13," Gjonbalic told TechCrunch in an email. "Butler is not operational. The board agreed ... to shut down the company, but this is not something that happens overnight, so several excess liability hubs were assigned or transitioned back to hotel ownership to assist with accomplishing this as quickly as possible."

Employees laid off during the final round, which included operational staff working at Butler-leased restaurants, were informed in a three-minute Google Meet call. An ex-employee told TechCrunch that services stopped abruptly after the company's dissolution; guests at one hotel with a Butler contract were suddenly unable to order room service.

Vestiges of the company remain. An ex-employee with knowledge of the matter said that people formerly employed by Butler were direct-messaging the company's Instagram account, which remains active, to ask about missing payments. Much of Butler's senior leadership haven't updated their profiles on LinkedIn to reflect the shutdown, and Butler's website makes no mention of it.

"Hotel owners and hotel management companies took over most of [Butler's] lease obligations, and fortunately my dad agreed to assume two of the remaining lease obligations and debts off the company’s hands," Gjonbalic said [in an email to TechCrunch]. "An assignee is in place and he is handling all post-dissolution matters."

Cautionary tale

While an extreme example, Butler is hardly the only food delivery startup to have fallen on hard times recently. Instacart last month slashed its valuation by almost 40% and slowed hiring. Publicly traded DoorDash and Deliveroo have seen their stock prices fluctuate wildly over the past year. Gorillas, Getir, Zapp, Jokr and Gopuff are among other delivery startups that have let go staff in recent months, despite fundraising. And some have been forced to shut down entirely, like Fridge No More, 1520 and Buyk.

Beyond foodtech, stories like Butler's are playing out with increasing frequency as investors tighten their belts, fearing a downturn. As one ex-Butler staffer put it, VC backers maintained an insatiable demand for growth, encouraging expansion that later proved to be foolhardy. Valuations became inflated, which caused unrealistic expectations and changes in direction -- and initiatives.

"Butler is a prime example of what’s happening in tech right now -- except instead of just 20% layoffs, the whole company went under," the staffer said.