'Allergic reaction to US religious right' fueling decline of religion, experts say
Adam Gabbatt 

THE GUARDIAN

4/5/2021

Fewer than half of Americans belong to a house of worship, a new study shows, but religion – and Christianity in particular – continues to have an outsize influence in US politics, especially because it is declining faster among Democrats than Republicans.

© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP Donald Trump with religious leaders for a national day of prayer in September 2017.

Just 47% of the US population are members of a church, mosque or synagogue, according to a survey by Gallup, down from 70% two decades ago – in part a result of millennials turning away from religion but also, experts say, a reaction to the swirling mix of rightwing politics and Christianity pursued by the Republican party.

Related: I thought I was over my Catholic guilt about being gay. Maybe I was wrong? | Antoun Issa


The evidence comes as Republicans in some states have pursued extreme “Christian nationalist” policies, attempting to force their version of Christianity on an increasingly uninterested public.

This week the governor of Arkansas signed a law allowing doctors to refuse to treat LGBTQ people on religious grounds, and other states are exploring similar legislation.

Gallup began asking Americans about their church membership in 1937 – and for decades the number was always above 70%. That began to change in 2000, and the number has steadily dropped ever since.

Some of the decline is attributable to changing generations, with about 66% of people born before 1946 are still members of a church, compared to just 36% of millennials.

Among other groups Gallup reported, the decline in church membership stands out among self-identified Democrats and independents. The number of Democratic church members dropped by 25% over the 20 year period, with independents decreasing by 18%. Republican church members declined too, but only by 12%.

David Campbell, professor and chair of the University of Notre Dame’s political science department and co-author of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, said a reason for the decline among those groups is political – an “allergic reaction to the religious right”.

“Many Americans – especially young people – see religion as bound up with political conservatism, and the Republican party specifically,” Campbell said.

“Since that is not their party, or their politics, they do not want to identify as being religious. Young people are especially allergic to the perception that many – but by no means all – American religions are hostile to LGBTQ rights.”

Research by Campbell shows that a growing number of Americans have turned away from religion as politicians – particularly Republicans – have mixed religion with their politics. Campbell says there has always been an ebb and flow in American adherence to religion, but he thinks the current decline is likely to continue.

“I see no sign that the religious right, and Christian nationalism, is fading. Which in turn suggests that the allergic reaction will continue to be seen – and thus more and more Americans will turn away from religion,” he said.

The number of people who identify as non-religious has grown steadily in recent decades, according to Michele Margolis, associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and author of From Politics to the Pews. More than 20% of all Americans are classed as “nones”, Margolis said, and more than a third of Americans under 30.

“That means non-identification is going to continue becoming a larger share of population over time as cohort replacement continues to occur,” Margolis said. But she agreed another factor is the rightwing’s infusion of politics with theism.

“As religion has been closed linked with conservative politics, we’ve had Democrats opting out of organized religion, or being less involved, and Republicans opting in,” she said.

Christian nationalists – who believe America was established as, and should remain, a Christian country – have pushed a range of measures to thrust their version of religion into American life.

You virtually have to wear religion on your sleeve in order to be electedAnnie Laurie Gaylor

In states including Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida, Republicans have introduced legislation which would variously hack away at LGTBQ rights, reproductive rights, challenge the ability of couples to adopt children, and see religion forced into classrooms.

The governor of Arkansas recently signed into law a bill that allows medical workers to refuse to treat LGBTQ people on religious grounds. Montana is set to pass a law which would allow people or businesses to discriminate, based on religion, against the LGBTQ community.

“Do not make me NOT do what my God tells me I have to do,” said Republican Montana congressman John Fuller, a supporter of the law.

Alison Gill, vice-president for legal and policy at American Atheists, who authored a report into the creep of Christian extremism in the US, warned that the drop-off in religious adherence in America could actually accelerate that effort, rather than slow it down.

“Surveys of those who identify with Christian nationalist beliefs consistently show that this group feels that they are subject to more discrimination and marginalization than any other group in society, including Islamic people, Black people, atheists, [and] Jewish people,” Gill said.

“They are experiencing their loss of prominence in American culture as an unacceptable attack on their beliefs -- and this is driving much of the efforts we are seeing to cling onto power, undermine democracy, and fight for ‘religious freedom’ protections that apply only to them.”

The influence of religion over politics is stark, Gill said.

“America perceives itself to be a predominantly religious society, even if the facts no longer agree. Politicians often feel beholden to pronounce their religious faith – and are attacked for a perceived lack of it,” she said.

While the danger of a right-wing backlash is real, Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said that the Gallup data suggests the US is moving in a positive direction.

“We have this constitutional separation of church and state in America, and our constitution is godless, and it says you can’t have a religious test for public office, and yet you virtually have to wear religion on your sleeve in order to be elected,” Gaylor said.

“There is movement [away from religion], and we’re just delighted to see this. We think it’s great that Americans are finally waking up.”

Satellite images show large Russian military build up in Arctic: report

THEY HAVE A FLOATING NUKE POWER PLANT

Ellen Mitchell 

4/5/2021


Russia is building up military equipment in the Arctic and testing new weapons there as it looks to assert dominance of the region, CNN reported.

© Getty Images Russian Arctic anti-aircraft missile systems "Pantsir-SA" move through Red Square during a military parade

Russia is building upon military bases, hardware and underground storage facilities on its Arctic coastline, with bombers, MiG31BM jets and new radar systems close to the Alaskan coast, according to satellite images provided to CNN by space technology company Maxar.

Included in the buildup is the Poseidon 2M39 unmanned stealth torpedo, a so-called super-weapon powered by a nuclear reactor. Russia is quickly developing the armament and tested it in February, with further tests planned this year, according to Russian state media.

Moscow intends for the torpedo to be able to elude U.S. and NATO coastal defenses and is "part of the new type of nuclear deterrent weapons," the head of Norwegian intelligence, Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensønes, told CNN.

To counter the buildup, NATO and the U.S. have also moved equipment into the area in the past year, including the U.S. military's stealth Seawolf submarine as well as its B-1 Lancer bombers, which recently flew over the eastern Barents Sea.

"There's clearly a military challenge from the Russians in the Arctic," a senior State Department official told CNN. "That has implications for the United States and its allies, not least because it creates the capacity to project power up to the North Atlantic."

While the increase of Russian military assets has taken place inside Russian territory, U.S. officials are worried Moscow may move use its forces to take over areas of the Arctic outside its borders.

The buildup has been all the more apparent in recent days with Russia holding military flights near Alaskan airspace and submarine activity in the Arctic.

In late March, three Russian nuclear ballistic missile submarines simultaneously broke through several feet of ice in the Arctic in a military drill. And last week, Russia flew jets and bombers near Alaskan airspace, including 10 times on Monday alone.

"I think we've been very clear about the threats that we see from Russia across domains. ... We're taking them very, very seriously," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said last week.

In addition, Moscow is regularly testing high-tech weapons, including the Poseidon 2M39 and the "Tsirkon" anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile.

Russia also is attempting to influence a shipping lane that runs from between Norway and Alaska known as the "Northern Sea Route." The route cuts in half shipping times to move containers from Europe to Asia.

Amazon illegally fired 2 activist employees, labor board reportedly finds

mfriel@businessinsider.com (Mikhaila Friel) 4/5/2021

© Karen Ducey/Getty Images Employees of Amazon and other tech companies at the Global Climate Strike on September 20, 2019, in Seattle. Karen Ducey/Getty Images

Amazon illegally fired two employees who had criticized it, the National Labor Relations Board found.

The employees had complained about working conditions and the company's impact on climate change.

Amazon maintains that the employees were fired for violating internal policies.

Amazon acted illegally by firing two employees who publicly criticized it last year, the National Labor Relations Board found, The New York Times reported on Monday.

Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa were fired in April 2020 after discussing their concerns about the company's impact on climate change and its treatment of warehouse workers during the pandemic. At the time, Amazon said they had violated internal policies.

The NLRB, an independent federal agency to protect the rights of private-sector employees in the US, said it would accuse Amazon of unfair labor practices if Amazon did not settle the case with the women, Cunningham told The Times.

Cunningham told the publication that the agency's finding was a "moral victory" that "really shows that we are on the right side of history and the right side of the law."

Amazon again denied that the women were fired for criticizing the company publicly, repeating its statement that they had violated internal policies.

"We support every employee's right to criticize their employer's working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against our internal policies, all of which are lawful," Jaci Anderson, an Amazon spokesperson, told The Times.

"We terminated these employees not for talking publicly about working conditions, safety or sustainability but, rather, for repeatedly violating internal policies," she added.

NLRB complaints about Amazon have more than tripled in the past year, NBC News reported last week. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 37 complaints have accused Amazon of infringing on workers' rights to organize, the report said.

Last month, the NLRB accused Amazon of illegally intimidating and threatening a worker in New York City who led a walkout in March 2020.

The nearly 6,000 employees at an Amazon warehouse in Birmingham, Alabama, voted last week on whether to form the firm's first union. The employees have said the vote was prompted by difficult working conditions, long hours, and a lack of job security.

Amazon has publicly opposed the campaign from the beginning with anti-union ads and signs.

The news rounds out a tough week for Amazon, which apologized on Friday for snarky tweets targeted at Rep. Mark Pocan that denied that its workers peed in bottles. After the firm's original tweets, Amazon drivers told journalists - including at Insider - that time pressure meant they peed in bottles, pooped in bags, and struggled to change menstrual pads in their vans.

Representatives for Amazon and the NLRB did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Scientists Discover Weird 'Falgae' in Cornwall That Are Genetically Unique

David Nield 

4/5/2021


The mesmerizing red algal species Phymatolithon calcareum clumps together to form habitats called maerl beds in coastal regions across the northeast Atlantic, but researchers have discovered a pocket of the algae near Cornwall in the UK that's genetically distinct from the rest of the region.

© Mark Milburn, Atlantic Scuba Falgae in the Fal Estuary.

It's been dubbed 'falgae', likely because of its location in the Fal Estuary – a busy waterway used by both commercial and naval ships sailing to and from Falmouth port.

These maerl beds are important habitats for many marine species – like coral reefs – and play an important role in the storage of carbon. The researchers are hoping that the new findings will help in efforts to protect these beds from numerous threats.

"It appears that the unique diversity in the Fal Estuary has likely been shaped over time by geographical isolation of this maerl bed and a lack of genetic exchange with other P. calcareum populations," says marine biologist Tom Jenkins, from the University of Exeter in the UK.

Even the algae at the Manacles reef, just 13 kilometers (8 miles) away, across Falmouth Bay, have a different genetic make-up, the team found. They used a whole-genome genotyping process to study the DNA from 12 separate maerl bed sites stretching from Norway to Portugal.

Genetic variations could be found in different geographical spots, but it was only the Fal Estuary sample that was completely genetically distinct – and it doesn't appear to be a hybrid of other types of algae either, at least based on the samples the research team used.

The researchers suggest that it's the isolation of this batch of red algae that has caused it to be genetically distinct. Algae that form maerl beds grow very slowly, even over thousands of years, and aren't easily dispersed.

"The wider genetic differences we found across north-east Atlantic are probably explained by the low dispersal capacity of this species, which limits connectivity between particular populations separated by large distances," says Jenkins.

Maerl beds can provide safe harbor for thousands of fish and invertebrates, but their existence is threatened by climate change, the dredging required to maintain waterways, and the shipping traffic that travels to and from ports.

The danger from marine pollution is a particular problem for the algae in the Fal Estuary because it is so busy. In many ways, the day-to-day activity on waterways is at odds with the conditions maerl beds need to survive.

Knowing more about the genetics of these maerl beds should help preserve them, the team behind the new study says: knowing how these batches of red algae are different is going to be important for conservation efforts.

"There are several large maerl beds around the coast of south and southwest England, and the genetic differences we identified show that these need to be managed on a site-by-site basis, as separate and distinct populations," says evolutionary biologist Jamie Stevens, from the University of Exeter.

The research has been published in Evolutionary Applications.

Japan just recorded its earliest cherry blossom bloom in 1,200 years. scientists warn it's a symptom of the larger climate crisis

By Jessie Yeung, Selina Wang and Derek Van Dam, CNN 

4/5/2021

Think of Japan in the spring, and the image that comes to mind is likely the country's famous cherry blossoms, also known as "sakura" -- white and pink flowers, bursting across cities and mountains, petals covering the ground.

A woman takes a selfie with cherry blossoms in full bloom along the Meguro river in Tokyo on March 26, 2021. (Photo by Behrouz MEHRI / AFP) (Photo by BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP via Getty Images)

The flowers, which experience a "peak bloom" that only lasts a few days, have been revered in Japan for more than a thousand years. Crowds celebrate with viewing parties, flocking to the most popular locations to take photos and have picnics underneath the branches.

But this year, cherry blossom season has come and gone in the blink of an eye, in one of the earliest blooms on record -- and scientists warn it's a symptom of the larger climate crisis threatening ecosystems everywhere.

Yasuyuki Aono, a researcher at Osaka Prefecture University, has gathered records from Kyoto back to 812 AD from historical documents and diaries. In the central city of Kyoto, cherry blossoms peaked on March 26, the earliest in more than 1,200 years, Aono said.

And in the capital Tokyo, cherry blossoms reached full bloom on March 22, the second-earliest date on record.

"As global temperatures warm, the last spring frosts are occurring earlier and flowering is occurring sooner," said Dr. Lewis Ziska from Columbia Universities Environmental Health Sciences.

The peak bloom dates shift every year, depending on numerous factors including weather and rainfall, but have shown a general trend of moving earlier and earlier. In Kyoto, the peak date hovered around mid-April for centuries, according to Aono's data, but began moving into early April during the 1800s. The date has only dipped into late March a handful of times in recorded history.

"Sakura blooms are very temperature sensitive," said Aono. "Flowering and full bloom could be earlier or later depending on the temperature alone," he said. "The temperature was low in the 1820s, but it has risen by about 3.5 degrees Celsius (6.3 degrees Fahrenheit) to this day."

This year's seasons in particular influenced the blossom dates, he added. The winter was very cold, but the spring came fast and unusually warm, so "the buds are completely awake after enough rest."

Their early bloom, however, is just the tip of the iceberg of a worldwide phenomenon that could destabilize natural systems and countries' economies, said Amos Tai, assistant professor of earth science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

There are two sources of increased heat, which is the main factor making the flowers bloom earlier: urbanization and climate change. With increased urbanization, cities tend to get warmer than the surrounding rural area, in what is called the heat island effect. But a bigger reason is climate change, which has caused rising temperatures across the region and the world.

And these earlier dates aren't just a matter of tourists scrambling to catch peak bloom before the petals all fall -- it could have a lasting impact on entire ecosystems, and threaten the survival of many species.

© Clive Rose/Getty Images People flock to Tokyo city parks to view the blooming cherry blossoms on March 21.


For every action there is a reaction

Plants and insects rely heavily on each other, and both use environmental cues to "regulate the timing of different stages of their life cycles," said Tai. For instance, plants sense the temperature around them and if it's warm enough for a consistent period, they start to flower and their leaves start to emerge. Similarly, insects and other animals depend on temperature for their life cycles, meaning higher heat can cause faster growth.

"The relationship between plants and insects and other organisms have developed over many years -- thousands to millions of years," said Tai. "But in the recent century, climate change is really wrecking everything and perturbing all of these relationships."

© Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images A bird next to cherry blossoms at a park in Tokyo, Japan, on March 23.

Different plants and insects may respond to the rise in heat at different paces, throwing their life cycles out of sync. Whereas they once timed their growth simultaneously each spring, now flowers may bloom before insects are ready, and vice versa -- meaning "the insects may not find enough food to eat from the plants, and the plants don't have enough pollinators (to reproduce)," he said.

Over the past decade, some plant and animal populations have already begun shifting to both "higher altitudes" and "higher latitudes" to escape the effects of climate change, according to a 2009 study in Biological Conservation. But it's becoming harder for ecosystems to adapt, with climate change making the weather more and more unpredictable. Though the trend of flowering dates is generally moving earlier, unexpected and extreme weather means that there is still huge variability year-by-year.

"Ecosystems are not accustomed to these kinds of large fluctuations, it causes them a lot of stress," said Tai. "Productivity may be reduced, and ecosystems may even collapse in the future."

Not limited to cherry blossoms

This year's change in flowering dates isn't limited to just Japan; the cherry blossoms that adorn the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, have also bloomed early. According to the National Park Service, the peak bloom date of the Washington cherry blossoms has advanced forward by nearly a week from April 5th to March 31.

And the effects of climate change aren't just limited to cherry blossoms."Cherry blossoms catch the eye, people love to go see them, but lots of other plants are experiencing changes in their life cycle as well, and may have even stronger influence on the stability of their ecosystems," said Tai.

The same phenomenon is already happening to many crops and economically valuable plants, he said -- posing big problems for food security and farmers' livelihoods. Food supplies in some of the most vulnerable regions in the world are being directly affected by droughts, crop failures and locust swarms.

In some regions, farmers may be forced to change the types of crops they grow. Some climates will become too hot for what they are growing now, while other climates will see more flooding, more snow, more moisture in the air, which will also limit what can be grown.

"(Farmers) have a much harder time predicting when they will have a good year, when they will have a bad year," Tai added. "Agriculture now is more like a gamble, because climate change is randomizing the things happening in our ecological systems."

© Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images Cherry blossoms at Kitanomaru Park in Tokyo, Japan, on March 23.

      PROOF OF GLOBAL WARMING

An inflatable shark, triceratops, and 8 T-Rex wait to cross the street as they parade down Whyte Avenue, in Edmonton Sunday April 4, 2021. The shark is carrying an Easter basket

© Provided by Edmonton Journal

THAT MIGHT NOT BE SUCH A GOOD IDEA
Elon Musk Could Help Aliens Notice Humans, Study Says
Caroline Delbert 

POPMECH

4/4/2021

Earth could eventually be visible to aliens because of the signature left by Starlink satellites.

Scientists say this will take about 1,000 years.

This research could also help scientists tune our telescopes to better see aliens.

Elon Musk has a grand goal for SpaceX’s Starlink: use an eventual 40,000 satellites to blanket the entire planet in internet coverage, far surpassing any existing satellite internet service. But there may be more to the mission. In a new study, one scientist suggests Musk’s satellite network may also make Earth a major target of alien interest.

➡ You think space is bad***. So do we. Let’s nerd out over it together.

Starlink’s 40,000 satellites in orbit—1,000 of which astronomers have already criticized for obstructing the night sky—will be enough to register as a megastructure that will eventually appear on some faraway civilization’s radar, writes Zaza Osmanov, a professor of astrophysics at the Free University of Tbilisi in Georgia, in a new paper published to the preprint server arXiv.

Osmanov studied how the electrical signature of Starlink will show up via signals to large interferometers in distant alien civilizations. Since Earth’s advanced interferometers would be able to detect this activity from other planets, Osmanov writes, anyone else with the same technology could do the same back to us.

“We consider the possible observational characteristics of a planetary megastructure partially or completely covering an Earth-like planet located in the habitable zone,” Osmanov explains. That means finding the key inflection point at which the Starlink satellite network would become detectable to a faraway observer.

To assess what’s visible from where, Osmanov explored what it would mean to cover Earth with a large amount of literally anything. Is there enough graphene, for example, to blanket the atmosphere and become visible from deep space? It turns out there’s enough carbon available to us to do this many, many times over if we wanted—like an Everlasting Gobstopper of Earth-size graphene layers.

How much time will we need to launch and place that much material, now that we know we have it? Osmanov estimates this will take 1,000 years of launches at regular intervals. At that point, enough material would be in space for humans to become visible to aliens.

And what about Starlink? Musk doesn’t have plans to make a material blanket as part of his satellite network—this would block the sun, and not in the hip Bill Gates way. If people are mad about thousands of tiny satellites, imagine how a giant sky blanket would go over. But the radio signals thrown off by Starlink and other satellites mean the right instrument on a faraway planet could observe the satellite network’s energy and wave signature.

There’s even a third option, speaking of the Gates-funded geoengineering. If Earthlings decide to fill the stratosphere with aerosol particles as a way to reflect away warming solar radiation, it’s feasible to wonder if that level of reflection would be visible as some kind of iridescent shimmer. Will Earth light up like an iconic color-changing‘90s Ford Explorer?

For now, Earth is safely invisible to the faraway telescopes and instruments of any aliens scanning the skies with comparable technology to our own. Of course, that presumes that they’re not already watching us.

430,000 YEARS AGO
Particles were produced when a meteorite EXPLODED in mid-air

Ryan Morrison For Mailonline 

4/1/22021

An ancient meteorite that exploded in mid-air 430,000 years ago left behind unusual particles of matter in the mountains of Antarctica, a new study reveals.

An international team of space scientists, led by the University of Kent, examined 'extra-terrestrial particles' recovered from the summit of mountain Walnumfjellet in the Sør Rondane Mountains of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica.

The pieces of vaporised space rock were deposited after a 330ft asteroid exploded close to the frozen surface of Antarctica hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The findings may help scientists identify past 'airburst' impacts and prepare for future ones, which could wreak severe destruction if they happened in densely populated locations.

© Provided by Daily Mail An ancient meteorite that exploded in mid-air 430,000 years ago left behind unusual particles of matter in the mountains of Antarctica, a new study reveals.

IMPACT EVENT: SPACE ROCK EXPLOSIONS RELEASING IMMENSE ENERGY


An impact event is when a space rock collides with the Earth, or explodes in its upper or lower atmosphere.

There can be significant consequences from a crater forming impact.

Including the Chicxulub event 66 million years ago that killed dinosaurs.

The Tunguska event was a massive explosion in Russia in 1908 over a sparsely populated area of Siberia.

It flattened 80 million trees, but left behind no impact crater.

It is thought it disintegrated six miles above the surface.


Large airbursts, which occur when asteroids enter Earth's atmosphere and explode in mid-air, are estimated to occur far more frequently than crater-forming impacts.

However, due to the challenges of identifying and characterising the far-flung residues of exploded meteorites, large airbursts are mostly identified through eyewitness accounts rather than by evidence in the geological record.

To piece together the puzzle of a possible ancient meteorite event that struck Antarctica while barely leaving a trace, study authors looked to tiny particles.

Matthias Van Ginneken and colleagues used microscopy and laser techniques to analyse 17 black, spherical igneous particles gathered from Walnumfjellet.

They determined that the particles, which were mostly between about 100 and 300 micrometers in size, were mainly composed of the minerals olivine and iron spinel, welded together by small amounts of glass.

The chemistry of these particles, including their high nickel content, suggests they originated in outer space.

They also compared the particles with those found in other ice cores, which record meteorite events on Antarctica 430,000 and 480,000 years ago.

The team observed similarities that suggest the particles resulted from a single-asteroid impact about 430,000 years ago.

© Provided by Daily Mail An international team of space scientists, led by the University of Kent, examined 'extra-terrestrial particles' recovered from the summit of mountain Walnumfjellet in the Sør Rondane Mountains of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica

They used a combination of numerical simulations with the low oxygen-18 isotope content observed in the particles, to identify their origin.

Noting the lack of a crater tied to the event, Ginneken concluded that the particles reached the ice sheet through projectile vapour jets released by the exploded meteorite, which was likely between 330ft and 500ft in diameter.

This type of explosion is described as intermediate, as it is larger than an airburst, exploding at high altitude, but smaller than an impact cratering event.

© Provided by Daily Mail The particles of vaporised space rock resulted from the atmospheric entry of an asteroid at least 330ft in size exploding near the surface at high velocity


CHELYABINSK EVENT: THE LARGEST METEOR STRIKE IN A CENTURY


A meteor that blazed across southern Ural Mountain range in February 2013 was the largest recorded meteor strike in more than a century, after the Tunguska event of 1908.

More than 1,600 people were injured by the shock wave from the explosion, estimated to be as strong as 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs, as it landed near the city of Chelyabinsk.

The fireball measuring 18 meters across, screamed into Earth's atmosphere at 41,600 mph.

Much of the meteor landed in a local lake called Chebarkul.

The findings indicate an impact much more hazardous than the Tunguska and Chelyabinsk events over Russia in 1908 and 2013, respectively.

This research, published by Science Advances, guides an important discovery for the geological record where evidence of such events in scarce. .

The study highlights the importance of reassessing the threat of medium-sized asteroids, as it is likely that similar touchdown events will produce similar particles.

Such an event would be entirely destructive over a large area, corresponding to the area of interaction between the hot jet and the ground, the team warned.

Ginneken said: 'To complete asteroid impact record, we recommend that future studies should focus on the identification of similar events on different targets.'

These targets include rocky or shallow oceanic basements, as the Antarctic ice sheet only covers nine per cent of Earth's land surface.

'Our research may also prove useful for the identification of these events in deep sea sediment cores and, if plume expansion reaches landmasses, the sedimentary record,' he added.

While touchdown events may not threaten human activity if occurring over Antarctica, if it was to take place above a densely populated area, it would result in millions of casualties and severe damages over hundreds of miles, they warned.

The findings have been published in the journal Science Advances

At The Mountains of Madness : H. P. Lovecraft : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

At The Mountains of Madness : R. A. Blum : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Corporations gave over $50M to voting restriction backers

4/5/2021

WASHINGTON — When executives from Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines spoke out against Georgia's new voting law as unduly restrictive last week, it seemed to signal a new activism springing from corporate America

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

But if leaders of the nation's most prominent companies are going to reject lawmakers who support restrictive voting measures, they will have to abruptly reverse course.

State legislators across the country who have pushed for new voting restrictions, and also seized on former President Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud, have reaped more than $50 million in corporate donations in recent years, according to a new report by Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group.

Telecom giant AT&T was the most prolific, donating over $800,000 since 2015 to authors of proposed restrictions, cosponsors of such measures, or those who voted in favour of the bills, the report found. Other top donors during the same period include Comcast, Philip Morris USA, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart, Verizon, General Motors and Pfizer.

The money may not have been given with voting laws in mind, but it nonetheless helped cement Republican control in statehouses where many of the prohibitive measures are now moving forward.

Whether companies continue to give to these lawmakers will test how far risk-adverse corporate leaders are willing to go in their increasingly forceful criticism of the restrictive efforts, which voting rights groups have excoriated as an attack on democracy.

"It really is corporate America, as a whole, that is funding these politicians,” said Mike Tanglis, one of the authors of the report. “It seems many are trying to hide under a rock and hope that this issue passes.”

More than 120 companies detailed in the report previously said they would rethink their donations to members of Congress who, acting on the same falsehoods as the state lawmakers, objected to the certification of President Joe Biden's win following the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

The tension is most evident now in Georgia, where a far-reaching new voting law has drawn an intense national scrutiny, prompting the criticism from Delta and Coca-Cola. On Friday, MLB announced it would no longer host the 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta.

Yet it's unclear whether this aggressive new posture will extend to corporate campaign donation practices. And early indicators show there is risk.

Georgia's Republican-controlled House voted to strip Delta of a tax break worth tens of millions of dollars annually for their criticism of the new law, though the action was rendered moot after the GOP Senate failed to take it up before the legislative session adjourned.

What is certain, though, is that withholding corporate donations to state-level candidates, like many companies did at the federal level, would have a far greater impact in statehouses.

“A contribution of $5,000 to a U.S. senator who is raising $30 million is a drop in a bucket. But in some of these state races, a few thousand dollars can buy a lot of ad time,” said Tanglis. “If corporate America is going to say that (Trump's) lie is unacceptable on the federal level, what about on the state level?”

Public Citizen analyzed about 245 voting restriction bills proposed before March 1. They culled a list of sponsors and cosponsors, while also analyzing vote roll calls. Then they cross-referenced the data with state-level donation records dating back to 2015, which included money from company political action committees, as well as direct contributions from corporate treasuries.

Among their findings:

— Companies donated at least $50 million to lawmakers who supported voting restrictions, including $22 million in the 2020 campaign cycle.

— At least 81 Fortune 100 companies have given a combined total of $7.7 million to supporters of the restrictions.

— Nearly half of all Fortune 500 companies donated a combined total of $12.8 million to supporters of the restrictions.

— About three-quarters of the companies that changed their donation policies after the U.S. Capitol attack have also given to lawmakers who supported voting rights restrictions.

— More than 60 companies have given at least $100,000 to lawmakers who supported the restrictions.

— Separately, industry groups and trade associations contributed an additional $36 million to the lawmakers, $16 million of which was given during the 2020 cycle.

In response, AT&T said “the right to vote is sacred” but declined to say whether the company would withhold donations to state lawmakers as they did for members of Congress who objected to Biden's win.

“We understand that election laws are complicated, not our company’s expertise and ultimately the responsibility of elected officials. But, as a company, we have a responsibility to engage," AT&T CEO John Stankey said in a statement.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said in a statement, “We strongly oppose the passage of any legislation or the adoption of any measure that would make it harder" to vote. But he stopped short of pledging any specific action.

Comcast said in a statement that "efforts to limit or impede access to this vital constitutional right for any citizen are not consistent with our values.” The company would not comment on whether it would evaluate its giving to lawmakers who support the measures.

Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, said in a statement that “every eligible voter should be able to exercise their right to vote” and pledged to monitor lawmakers' “alignment with our political contribution guiding principles when making future contribution decisions."

Other companies listed in the report declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.

On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged companies to resist what he called a “co-ordinated campaign by powerful and wealthy people to mislead and bully the American people.”

“Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex," the Kentucky Republican said in a statement. “Americans do not need or want big business to amplify ... or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signalling.”

Pressure has been particularly intense in Georgia, where Republican Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed a sweeping new law that bans people from handing out food or water to voters waiting in line and allows the Republican-controlled State Election Board to remove and replace county election officials, among many other provisions.

Two of the top corporate contribution recipients detailed in Public Citizen's report were among the sponsors of the measure.

Since 2015, Republican state Sen. Jeff Mullis has collected more than $869,000 in donation from corporate PACs. Among his top corporate donors were AT&T ($15,900) and UnitedHealth Group ($12,900), according to the report. Mullis is chair of the Georgia Senate’os Rules Committee, which plays a key role in determining which bills make it to the floor fr a

Republican state Sen. Butch Miller, another sponsor of the bill, has received at least $729,000 in corporate donations since 2015. Among his top corporate givers are UnitedHealth Group ($15,700) and AT&T ($13,600), the report states.

 vote.

Miller and Mullis did not respond to requests for comment.

Brian Slodysko, The Associated Press

POSTMODERN STALINISM

‘We’re coming to get you’: China’s critics facing threats, retaliation for activism in Canada

POSTMODERN RED SCARE

Rachel Gilmore 

© Aly Song/Reuters A woman wearing a protective mask is seen past a portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping on a street as the country is hit by an outbreak of the coronavirus, in Shanghai, China, March 12, 2020.

In July 2019, Mehmet Tohti was just hours away from speaking publicly to politicians about the Chinese government’s horrific abuse of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang when he received a message on Twitter:

“Your f---ing mother is dead,” it read.

Read more: Trudeau says China must address world’s ‘significant’ concerns on Uyghur abuse

Tohti had lost contact with his mother in late 2016, three years earlier. He had started to become more vocal about the mass detention and abuse of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, publicly calling it a genocide and alleging the existence of concentration camps.

“And then my mother and 37 family members, close relatives, disappeared,” Tohti said.

“Since October 23, 2016, no phone, no message...nothing.”

He never heard from his mother again.

“I love her so much,” Tohti said softly.

His story is just one of many for activists who speak out against the Chinese government in Canada. Despite being separated by an ocean, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its supporters have methods of keeping activists in Canada under their thumb — and there’s very little that Canadian law enforcement can do about it.

Cherie Wong is painfully aware of this reality.

Video: Cherie Wong describes threats she’s faced while advocating for Hong Kong, intimidation from Chinese government

She had already faced repeated death and rape threats. Knowing full well the kind of intimidation and threats that activists critical of the Chinese government face, Wong had a friend book her Vancouver hotel room under a different name. It was January of 2020, and she was in town to launch her organization, Alliance Canada Hong Kong, which fights for the autonomy of the region.

Sitting in her hotel room, the phone began to ring.

When she answered, she says she was greeted by an intimidating voice. It kept repeating, “we’re coming to get you.”

“It was a very threatening tone on the phone, telling me that ‘we know where you are, this is your room number, and we're coming to get you,'” Wong said.

She had no idea who it was, but they knew her name and hotel room number — despite the fact that she had taken precautions to shroud that information from anyone contacting the hotel.

“I sat in my room and just started shaking, realizing that I could be in very real danger and not knowing what to do,” she said.

She said she contacted the police, but they told her there was nothing they could do about it. This is a key part of the problem, Wong said: the intimidation activists face often falls into a legal grey area, where there’s very little Canada can do.

Video: Trudeau urges international community for coordinated sanctions on China for Uyghurs’ mistreatment

Speaking to a parliamentary committee on March 11, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki said those feeling pressure from China can call the RCMP’s national security tip line. That line is open to any and all national security tips and Lucki acknowledged that they “tend to get a lot of tips that aren't relative to national security or law enforcement.”

“What dissidents face in Canada is often on the grey area of criminal harassment and just discomfort that you feel (in) daily life,” Wong said.

“I can assure you most of the harassment that I personally have experienced, aside from the very extreme death and rape threats, are not criminal activities. But they equally create the same threat for me and my family, whether here in Canada or in Hong Kong.”

Read more: China touts ties with Russia in new threats against West over Uyghur sanctions

For example, Wong said, activists who speak out can often expect their families to get a “tea visit” from government officials back home in China.

“They come and knock on your door and say, 'we're coming in to talk to you about your family,'” she explained.

As officials sit down and drink tea with your relatives in China, they offer a chilling warning, according to Wong: “Your family from Canada seem to be very active nowadays. Maybe you should tell them to stop.”

“How do you report that to the RCMP?” Wong asked.

Video: Tibetan activist describes the incentives driving support for China

That’s exactly the fear that was front of mind as Tibetan-Canadian Chemi Lhamo welcomed Hong Kong students to her office when she served as student president of the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus.

She said other students often stood poised outside the door, snapping photos of the Hong Kong students who entered.

“That means that their families back home would also be subjected to threats, so I had to meet them, actually, in secrecy,” Lhamo explained.

“People would actually come in wearing their masks...like a full head on, sometimes clown masks and sometimes V for Vendetta-type masks, to enter my office to be able to talk to me. And so because of that, whether it was self-censorship or the intimidation tactics, either way, it really came in the way of me being able to actually help them.”

Lhamo understands why these people might want to hide their identities. When she was first elected student president, her stance in favour of Tibet’s liberation garnered the attention of supporters of the Chinese government — and a campaign of harassment ensued.

 "Hong Kong activists tell parliamentary committee why Canada should care about Hong Kong"

Tibet has been under China’s occupation since the 1950s. China’s military invaded and took over the land, brutally cracking down on any pushback from the Tibetans and forcing their leader, the Dalai Lama, to flee to India. In the years since, Tibetan culture has been eroded and any pursuit of Tibetan liberation has been met with prison time, violence and repression.

China, meanwhile, insists the Tibetans are happy and prosperous — but they won’t allow Western journalists or politicians to enter the area and make that determination for themselves.

Read more: Canada hits Chinese officials with sanctions over ‘gross’ human rights violations in Xinjiang

Lhamo’s grandparents walked on foot over the Himalayas to give her parents a better life in India, where she was born. As she rose to prominence in the University of Toronto’s student government, pro-China supporters flooded her social media with threats.

“I was attacked by these thousands and thousands, I would say over 10,000 messages and comments, which were not just hate speech. I had death threats, rape threats, and they were against me, but also targeting my family members,” Lhamo said.

© Provided by Global News

One comment was similar to a threat Tohti had faced. A comment posted on her Instagram: “your mom is dead.”

She said she immediately called her mother, checking in during the middle of her mom’s workday to see whether she was alright. She was fine, although Lhamo said she was a bit confused about why her daughter was asking.

“Those were the moments where... I realized how much of a threat the Chinese government can still be,” Lhamo said.

“That's just a peek into the life that I had to live because of the Chinese state influence, despite being born in India and raised in Toronto.”

Video: China’s Xi doesn’t have a ‘democratic bone’ in his body: Biden

But Canadian law enforcement agencies still struggle to help address constant disruptions in the lives of activists like Lhamo, Tohti and Wong. Speaking on March 11, Lucki explained the RCMP receives 120 tips daily on its national security tip line — but that many of the tips can’t be addressed.

“People might feel, for example, a threat. If it doesn't meet the threshold of a criminal offence, then we normally can't deal with it, in that sense,” Lucki explained.

She said that sometimes, if the tip doesn’t quite meet the threshold of a national security threat, the RCMP will pass off the case to local police services -- but only if there’s a Criminal Code violation involved, such as uttering threats.

Callers can also sometimes find their tip passed along to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). But while there’s multiple national security agencies available to help, Wong said very few can actually do anything to stop the intimidation.

This is because Canada doesn’t have laws against “clandestine foreign influence,” according to Stephanie Carvin, a Carleton University professor and former CSIS analyst.

Clandestine foreign influence refers to secretive efforts by a foreign government to influence policy or action abroad -- in layman’s terms, spy missions.

“There's laws against targeted harassment. There's laws against intimidating people and uttering threats. But by and large, this becomes very, very hard to prosecute,” Carvin said.

“Sometimes CSIS will interview these individuals just to get a better picture of what's happening. But at the end of the day, there really isn't a lot we can do unless we know that these activities are specifically linked to individuals who may be at a consulate or embassy.”

Video: China’s treatment of Uyghur minority is ‘totally unacceptable’: Garneau

It’s a reality that’s familiar to Wong.

“Many members of our community, including myself, have spoken with members of local police...some of us have been in touch with CSIS agents. But the general consensus from all of these law enforcement and intelligence agencies is ‘there's nothing we can do to help you individually,’” Wong said.

But there are things the Canadian government can do to help, she said. They could provide resources to the victims of this harassment in languages like Cantonese, she suggested, as not all members of diaspora communities speak French or English.

Both Wong and Tohti also called on the government to create a registry for foreign agents working in Canada.

It would “bring to light that there are foreign actors active here in Canada, whether Chinese or otherwise, carrying out state sanctioned operations,” Wong said.”

Read more: China cuts Hong Kong elected legislature seats, increases Beijing control: lawmaker

But while they wait for the government to take action, the threats against critics of the Chinese regime continue.

Tohti said he’s had cars parked outside of his house for weeks on end -- ones that no neighbours recognize. Individuals have come to his front door in Ottawa asking questions about his activities.

Wong said her internet often fails when she gets on the line with members of Parliament to discuss the plight of Hong Kongers.

Chinese officials continue to visit family members back home in China for ‘tea.’ They often do so after individuals like Wong speak to the media, she said.

And to this day, Tohti still doesn’t know what happened to his mother.

Video: China ‘firmly opposes’ gathering of diplomats supporting Michael Kovrig as closed-door trial underway

“And I don't think the Canadian government understands, truly understands the struggles that Chinese dissidents have been struggling with, not only in the past year, but in the past few decades.”

But, she said, she won’t stop speaking out.

“I'm willing to risk my own safety and my own security if it means that Hong Kong and Canada can feel a little safer.”

Tohti, who has had his entire extended family detained in Xinjiang as he spoke out about the abuses, also stood firm in his convictions.

“There's nothing in my hand to change the fate of my relatives. Even (if) I stopped today. It wouldn't change anything. Probably, the Chinese government would increase the pressure, by thinking that the pressure works here. So let's double up,” he explained.

“It is tough. It is tough.”

But, he said, it’s the right thing to do.

“Despite the risk, despite the danger, you put yourself and you put your family members (in), you have only one choice,” Tohti said.

“To do what is right, and stand on the right side of history.”