Wednesday, June 24, 2020

A City Painted Over A Black Lives Matter Street Mural As Protests Continue

People pointed out the symbolism of the blue line of paint — but police said the paint is gray.

Last updated on June 21, 2020, at 10:30 p.m. ET

After protesters painted "Black Lives Matter" on a street outside the Florissant, Missouri, police department, the city covered it up, drawing new criticism as protests continue locally and around the US.

Police in Florissant, Missouri, protecting people while they paint a blue line over a BLM street mural

A photo posted to Twitter on Saturday showed a group of people painting over the stenciled words and questioned the use of a blue line of paint to do the job. "The thin blue line" has for decades been a metaphor for police work, and it's frequently included in pro-police imagery.

But according to Florissant Police Department Officer Steve Michael, the paint is not blue, but gray.

"It was painted over because it is illegal to paint the roadway," he said in an email to BuzzFeed News. "It has absolutely nothing to do with the message."

Michael added the new paint job was done by the city's street department.

"If we allow all groups to paint a message anywhere then we would have all kinds of different groups doing it," he said. "We simply cannot allow any group to paint anything on roadways."

Florissant, a St. Louis suburb, is a neighbor of Ferguson, Missouri, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed by police in 2014. Locals have protested many times since then, and they once again gathered against police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Police have at times used chemical agents on protesters, and earlier this month, an officer was fired after striking a man with an unmarked police vehicle.

The street mural was first painted on Friday, KMOV reported.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBqUXZzl_u7/?utm_source=ig_embed

Instagram: @juvon_baker

After it was initially painted over, protesters once again wrote "Black Lives Matter" in the street's center lane. It was then again painted over, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter said.

Starting to chalk lines in for Black Lives Matter. Has been painted and repainted 2 times this weekend. Florissant police say deployment of chemical munitions imminent. 'Hell no, we won't go' chant protesters.

But as of Sunday night, protesters were again gathering. And they were again writing out "Black Lives Matter."

Russian court grants early release to imprisoned Jehovah's Witness
Dane Dennis Christensen was sentenced to six years in jail by a Russian court in May 2017 for continuing the activities of an extremist group for practicing his Jehova's Witnesses religion. Photo courtesy of United States Commission on International Religious Freedom/Website

June 23 (UPI) -- The Jehovah's Witnesses said a Danish citizen who has been jailed in Russia since 2017 for practicing their religion was granted early release on Tuesday by a Kremlin court.

The Lgovskiy District Court in the Kursk Region that borders Ukraine granted Dennis Christensen early release at the prosecution's request, the religion said in a statement on its website.

Christensen was sentenced to six years in prison in February 2019 on charges of continuing the activities of an extremist group. The Jehovah's Witnesses organization was banned as an extremist group in 2017.

The Danish carpenter who lives in Oryol with his Russian-citizen wife was arrested on May 25, 2017, when Federal Security Service agents broke up a Jehovah's Witnesses prayer service in a crackdown on the religion, detaining some 70-80 people.

RELATED EU weighs barring travelers from U.S., Russia, Brazil in border reopening plan

The church said the judge mitigated the remainder of his sentence to a $5,759 fine.

"The decision will take effect in 10 days, after which he will be able to go home to his wife, family and fellow worshipers," the statement read.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom "welcomed" the decision to grant Christensen clemency.

Paroling Dennis Christensen was the right thing to do and we are glad that the Russian government finally took this important step," said USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin, who advocated for Christensen's release through the commission's Religious Prisoner of Conscience Project. "We are hopeful that this represents a change in policy, yet we remain concerned about Russia's ongoing imprisonment of people for simply practicing their peaceful religious beliefs."

According to the Jehovah's Witnesses, 10 of its followers remain behind Russian bars for their beliefs while another 24 remain in pretrial detention and another 24 are under house arrest.

The USCIRF recommended in its 2020 Annual Report that the U.S. State Department designate Russia as a country of particular concern over its violations against religious freedom. It currently has Russia on its Special Watch List.

According to the State Department's website, a CPC designation allows an economic measure, such as sanctions, to be imposed against the offending country if non-economic policy options fail to force the country to cease violating religious freedoms.

"Dennis Christensen's health noticeably deteriorated while in custody, and USCIRF is hopeful that he will recover his strength at home," Manchin added.

USS Nitze sails into contested waters off coast of Venezuela

IMPERIALIST PROVOCATION

DEFENSE NEWS
JUNE 23, 2020 / 8:05 PM

Official U.S. Navy file photo of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze departs Safaga, Egypt after a port visit in this July 2019 photo. On June 23, 2020, while peacefully operating in the Caribbean Sea, USS Nitze conducted a freedom of navigation operation off the coast of Venezuela. Photo by Will Hardy/U.S. Navy

June 23 (UPI) -- The USS Nitze sailed into contested waters off the coast of Venezuela Tuesday in what the Navy describes as a "freedom of navigation operation" contesting "an excessive maritime claim" by Venezuela.

According to the Navy, Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer conducted the operation outside of Venezuela's 12-nautical-mile territorial jurisdiction -- an area the Maduro regime claims control over.

"The U.S. Navy routinely conducts freedom of navigation operations around the world to preserve the maritime navigation and access rights guaranteed to all nations and vital to the global mobility of U.S. forces," said the Navy's press release on the operation.

The Navy and Coast Guard are currently operating in the Caribbean as part of a counter-narcotics operation announced earlier this spring.

PHONEY WAR ON DRUGS, TO INCREASE AMERICAN ABILITY TO INTERDICT

AS IT WILLS, IN OTHER WORDS PIRACY AND PRIVATEERING

"The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, preserving the rights, freedoms and lawful use of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations," said Adm. Craig Faller, Commander of U.S. Southern Command. "These freedoms are the bedrock of ongoing security efforts, and essential to regional peace and stability."

CAP IN HAND
Lord: Pentagon needs more funding to reimburse contractors for COVID-19 claims

NO THEY DON'T THEY ALREADY GET 65% OF THE US ANNUAL BUDGET FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES, ALMOST $1TRILLION ANNUALLY

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PERMANENT+ARMS+ECONOMY

Ellen M. Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, briefs reporters on the Defense Department’s COVID-19 acquisition policy at the Pentagon Monday. Photo by Jackie Sanders/U.S. Air Force

June 23 (UPI) -- The Department of Defense may have to reach into fiscal 2021 appropriations to reimburse contractors for costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Undersecretary for Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord told reporters this week.

Lord said Monday that the Pentagon needs an amount of money in the "lower double-digit billions" to be included in the fiscal 2021 Defense appropriations bill to meet an expected wave of claims by contractors related to the pandemic.

Lord said the Pentagon might have to dip into its modernization and readiness funding to address anticipated contractor claims under Section 3610 of the CARES Act.

The section of the law allows DoD and other agencies to modify contract terms to allow contractors to keep their employees who are not working onsite but can't work from home at a "ready state," and reimburse up to 40 hours of paid leave per employee.

RELATED GenDyn inks $9.5B deal for first 2 Columbia-class subs

It also allows agencies some discretion in how they reimburse contractors.

So far the agency has not released its criteria for claims, nor received any from contractors, according to Lord.

"We have not yet received any claims because I believe the defense industrial base is waiting to more clearly understand what the process is and we are working with them on the criteria," Lord said.

RELATED Most civilian contractors have reopened, top Pentagon official says

Lord said the Pentagon has seen "an enormous amount of recovery" in the defense industrial base, depending on the location and type of work being performed.

The Pentagon also entered into an agreement this week with the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. to create a two-year, $100 million loan program to create, protect, maintain, expand or restore domestic industrial capabilities in support of COVID-19 response.

JUST DESSERTS
Judge orders Brazilian President 'JAIR JAIR' Bolsonaro to wear face mask

A federal judge ordered Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a face covering while in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or face a daily fine of approximately $390. Photo by Joedson Alves/EPA-EFE

TRUMP MINI ME

June 23 (UPI) -- A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to comply with measures requiring the use of a face mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or face a fine.

The ruling, made public Tuesday, declared that Bolsonaro was not exempt from the laws of the federal district, including Brazil's capital, and would face a fine of approximately $390 a day for failing to comply.

"The president of the republic must take all necessary measures to avoid the transmission of COVID-19 be that in order to protect his own health or that of those around him," Judge Renato Coelho Borelli wrote.Bolsonaro has repeatedly been seen in public without a mask or face covering and has been seen wearing a mask improperly, including hanging it off of his ear.

"A straightforward Google search is enough to find numerous images of the defendant Jair Messias Bolsonaro moving around Brasilia and the surrounding federal district without using a mask and exposing others to the spread of this infirmity that has caused a nationwide upheaval," Borelli wrote.

Brazil has reported 1.1 million positive COVID-19 cases and a death toll of 51,271 related to the virus, according to figures by Johns Hopkins University.

Bolsonaro has sought to diminish the threat of the coronavirus publicly, referring to it as a "little flu" and clashing with local legislators by pushing them to keep businesses open.

First egg ever found in Antarctica may come from extinct sea lizard

ANOTHER AMAZING FIND FROM THE MUSEUM STORAGE ROOM

Scientists likened the egg to a deflated football. Photo by Legendre et al.

June 17 (UPI) -- Nearly a decade ago, Chilean scientists recovered what looked like a deflated football among ancient marine deposits of the Antarctic coast.

But until recently, the fossilized orb -- nicknamed "The Thing" -- sat unnamed in collections at Chile's National Museum of Natural History. New research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests The Thing is actually a 66-million-year-old egg.

Measuring 11 inches in length and 7 inches wide, it is the largest soft shell egg ever found, and the second largest in history. The biggest egg ever discovered was laid by an elephant bird, a kiwi relative that went extinct only a few thousand years ago.

Scientists hypothesized that the egg found in Antarctica was laid by an extinct, giant marine reptile, like a mosasaur.

RELATED Remains of 90-million-year-old rainforest found near South Pole

"It is from an animal the size of a large dinosaur, but it is completely unlike a dinosaur egg," lead study author Lucas Legendre, geoscientist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas, said in a news release. "It is most similar to the eggs of lizards and snakes, but it is from a truly giant relative of these animals."

Chilean scientist David Rubilar-Rogers, a member of the research team that first found the egg, showed the fossil to scientists visiting the museum where it was stored, but most were puzzled -- that is until Julia Clarke, a professor of geological sciences at Texas, took a look.

"I showed it to her and, after a few minutes, Julia told me it could be a deflated egg!" Rubilar-Rogers said.

RELATED Early marine reptiles used pebble-like teeth to crush shellfish

Clarke's hunch was confirmed when powerful microscopes revealed several layers of membrane beneath the surface of the egg. According to Rubilar-Rogers, the ancient egg looks a lot like transparent, quick-hatching eggs laid by several modern snake and lizard species.

An artistic rendering shows a baby mosasaur hatching from an egg only moments after it was laid in the open seas of Late Cretaceous Antarctica. Photo by John Maisano/The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences

By analyzing the body and egg sizes of 259 living reptiles, researchers determined the species that laid the deflated football some 66 million years ago would have likely stretched about 20 feet from the nose to the end of the body, not counting the tail.

Marine deposits near the egg's origin have previously yielded the remains of mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, both babies and adults.

"Many authors have hypothesized that this was sort of a nursery site with shallow protected water, a cove environment where the young ones would have had a quiet setting to grow up," Legendre said.

It's possible the ancient marine lizard laid eggs in the open sea like some modern sea snakes. The reptile could have also buried its eggs on the beach, just beyond the breakers.

"We can't exclude the idea that they shoved their tail end up on shore because nothing like this has ever been discovered," Clarke said.

Archaeologists find ancient circle of deep shafts near Stonehenge

Archaeologists found a series of ancient pits encircling a prehistoric monument called the Durrington Walls. Photo by Vincent Gaffney, et al./Internet Archaeology/EDINA Digimap Ordnance Survey Service

June 22 (UPI) -- Archaeologists have discovered the markings of a prehistoric structure surrounding Durrington Walls, an ancient monument positioned just 1.9 miles northeast of Stonehenge.

The discovery suggests that roughly 4,500 years ago, Neolithic builders -- the same people who constructed Stonehenge -- dug a series of deep shafts, forming a circle spanning 1.2 miles in diameter, according to a study published Sunday in the journal Internet Archaeology.

Until recently, the pits -- usually discovered a few at a time -- were thought to be sinkholes or dew ponds. But their uniformity inspired further investigation, and aerial surveys using a combination of technologies, including ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry, revealed a larger pattern.

"The area around Stonehenge is among the most studied archaeological landscapes on earth and it is remarkable that the application of new technology can still lead to the discovery of such a massive prehistoric structure which, currently, is significantly larger than any comparative prehistoric monument that we know of, in Britain at least," Vincent Gaffney, one of leading archaeologists on the survey effort, said in a news release.

RELATED Bones show hundreds flocked to ancient Ireland capital for Iron Age feasts

Because the Durrington Walls, one of Britain's largest monument sites, sits at the center of the massive circle of shafts, researchers suspect the pits served as a boundary to lands considered sacred by the population.

"As the place where the builders of Stonehenge lived and feasted, Durrington Walls is key to unlocking the story of the wider Stonehenge landscape, and this astonishing discovery offers us new insights into the lives and beliefs of our Neolithic ancestors," said Nick Snashall, National Trust archaeologist for the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. "The Hidden Landscapes team has combined cutting-edge, archaeological fieldwork with good old-fashioned detective work to reveal this extraordinary discovery and write a whole new chapter in the story of the Stonehenge landscape."While Stonehenge is positioned in relation to the summer and winter solstices, marking the limits of the sun's range, the newly discovered pits suggest ancient recognition of even larger cosmological phenomena

RELATED Stonehenge construction may have been aided by lots of pig fat

It's not clear whether the pits were intended to guide people toward the ancient monuments or keep people out, but the shafts suggest the region's monuments were part of an expansive cultural and spiritual tradition.

"Seemingly isolated features have been shown to be linked and significant to the story of the emergence of the ritual landscape," said Chris Gaffney, archaeological geophysicist at Bradford University. "An interdisciplinary approach, using a battery of techniques, has been key to the successful understanding of this complex but structured element of the landscape around Durrington Walls."

In addition to the Durrington Walls, the boundary formed by the pits also includes a second monument, the Larkhill causewayed enclosure, built 1,500 years before Stonehenge.

RELATED DNA suggests Stonehenge builders came from Anatolia

The latest discovery suggests Britain's Stone Age populations were remarkably sophisticated and capable of tremendous geoengineering feats. Researchers say digging such massive pits with primitive tools is every bit as impressive as arranging giant stones.

"Seeing what is unseen! Yet again, the use of a multidisciplinary effort with remote sensing and careful sampling is giving us an insight to the past that shows an even more complex society that we could ever imagine," said Richard Bates, an earth scientist at the University of St. Andrews.

"Clearly sophisticated practices demonstrate that the people were so in tune with natural events to an extent that we can barely conceive in the modern world we live in today," Bates said.

WITHOUT THE AID OF ALIENS!

New Stonehenge discovery opens up new lines of exploration

2 days ago
News
1:08

Evidence suggests the wide circle of subterranean pits about 3 kilometres northeast of the famous stone circle was built in the same time period.

U.S. beekeepers saw unusually high summertime colony losses in 2019

Honey bee colonies experienced unusually high losses in the U.S. during the summer of 2019. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo
By
Brooks Hays
SCIENCE NEWS
JUNE 22, 2020

June 22 (UPI) -- Beekeepers in the United States lost 43.9 percent of honey bee colonies between April 2019 and April 2020, but surprisingly, a majority of the losses were recorded during summer months.

Every April, researchers with the Bee Informed Partnership distribute flyers to beekeepers across the United States. Participants are asked to provide information about the colonies they managed over the past 12 months.

The results of the latest survey were released online Monday, showing summer was much worse than winter last year.

"They give us the number of colonies they managed at different times, the number of splits they made or new colonies they bought, or sold, etc., and from all that information, we calculate the 'turnover rate,'" Nathalie Steinhauer, BIP's science coordinator, told UPI in an email.

RELATED Grooming bees help boost colony immunity

Researchers expect to see fluctuations in the turnover rate from year to year, usually with particularly bad years followed by less dramatic losses, and vice versa. But typically, winters are worse than summers -- especially for small-scale beekeepers.

According to the latest results, losses over this past winter were down 15.5 percentage points from the winter before.

"We recorded high losses in the summer of 2019 on the other hand," said Steinhauer, who is also a post-doctoral researcher in the entomology department at the University of Maryland. "And when we dig deeper into beekeeper categories, we realized it was mostly large sale migratory beekeepers that seemed to suffer the most that summer."

RELATED Pesticides harm honeybee nursing behavior, larval development, video shows

The Bee Informed Partnership's survey results don't offer a colony-by-colony autopsy report, but the questionnaires distributed to beekeepers do inquire about the suspected cause of colony losses.

"We ask beekeepers their opinion as to what caused their colonies to be lost, but it is rather subjective, and mostly indicative of what the beekeepers perceive are the high risks factors," Steinhauer said.

While understanding how beekeepers perceive risk can be useful, Steinhauer said there's plenty of research highlighting the biggest threats to honey bee colony health.

The biggest threats to bee colony health include: parasites, particularly the Varroa mite; a variety of viral, bacterial and fungal pathogens; pesticides; and poor nutrition. All of these threats can be exacerbated by weather patterns and poor management practices, experts say.

According to Steinhauer, weather anomalies best explain the unexpected results from the latest survey.

"We have heard anecdotally from various sources that spring 2019 was particularly late and wet, slowing a lot of the development of colonies and queen rearing early in the year, which meant colonies did not grow as strongly as you would have wanted," she said.

RELATED Invasive Asian giant hornet discovered in Washington state

Despite alarmist stories about bee losses, honey bees aren't on the verge of extinction. Bee keepers are usually able to replenish their colony stocks via hive splitting and other management techniques to replace annual colony losses. Still, there is plenty of evidence that both wild and managed bees are facing a litany of environmental threats.

"Some level of colony turnover is normal, but the question is how much is normal and how much is too much," Steinhauer said.

The Bee Informed Partnership was largely started to help answer that question, but Steinhauer suggests there's still not yet enough data to say for sure.

"We know from beekeepers that they think the current levels are really high," she said. "Also, a lot of beekeepers tell us that they've managed to keep the colony numbers high, but they notice the colonies are not as 'plump' as they used to be. It's hard because again, we don't have historical data on those aspects either. So, generally, we say our goal is to improve honey bee health."

In addition to continuing to collect data on colony losses, Steinhauer and other honey bee researchers are working on ways to combat the honey bee's biggest threats, including pests, pathogens, pesticides and poor nutrition.

"Each of those can affect honey bees directly, and each of those impact the effects of the others," Steinhauer said. "Nutrient deprived bees have lower capabilities to detoxify pesticides; infected bees will not collect as much food from their environment. It is all a vicious circle where one stressor makes it harder for bees to resist the others."

Research suggests that when bees have access to a greater diversity of plants and live in generally healthier ecosystems, they're better able to fight off parasites and resist disease.

"There is no single culprit which means there is no single solution. But if we generally improve the environment our bees -- and we -- live in, it might help more than the bees themselves," Steinhauer said.

Scientists confirm 50-year-old theory that aliens could exploit a black hole for energy

New research suggests the physics behind a theory that aliens could exploit a black hole for energy is sound. Photo by NASA/UPI | License PhotoJune 23 (UPI) -- Lab experiments have confirmed the 50-year-old theory that an alien civilization could exploit a black hole for energy.

More than a half-century ago, British physicist Roger Penrose surmised that energy could be harvested from a black hole by dropping an object into it's ergosphere, the outer layer of the black hole's event horizon.

The object would need to be quickly split in two, allowing half to fall into the black hole and the other half recovered. According to Penrose's theory, the recoil action would provide the recovered half of the object a loss of negative energy. It would, in effect, gain energy.

Not just any aliens could carry out such a complex engineering feat, Penrose acknowledged. If aliens were to harvest energy from a black hole, they'd need to be highly advanced.

RELATED Solution to century-old math problem may predict disease transmission

In 1971, two years after Penrose published his theory, another physicist, Yakov Zel'dovich, claimed the idea could be put to the test on Earth using twisted light waves bounced off the surface of a cylinder spun at just the right speed. Zel'dovich claimed a phenomenon known as the rotational doppler effect would cause the reflected light waves to bounce back with surplus energy.

Zel'dovich's proposal has gone untested, in part due to the need for the cylinder to rotate at speeds in excess of a billion revolutions per second -- a technological impossibility.

To finally put Penrose's original theory to the test, researchers at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, developed an alternative experiment using sound waves instead of light waves. By using waves with lower frequencies, the test wouldn't require the cylinder to spin so fast.

RELATED Scientists unveil new concept for single-atom transistor

Researchers at the University of Glasgow's School of Physics and Astronomy set up a unique combination of speakers to create a twist in the sound waves. Scientists directed the twisting sound waves toward a foam disc. Behind the disk, the team positioned a microphone.

Instead of bouncing off the foam disk, the sound waves traveled through and were picked up by the microphone on the other side. Recordings of the altered sound waves revealed changes in frequency and amplitude consistent with the doppler effect predicted by Zel'dovich.
Researchers detailed the results of their experiment this week in the journal Nature Physics.

RELATED Coldest material in the cosmos could help scientists find dark matter particles

"The linear version of the doppler effect is familiar to most people as the phenomenon that occurs as the pitch of an ambulance siren appears to rise as it approaches the listener but drops as it heads away," lead study author Marion Cromb, a doctoral student at Glasgow, said in a news release. "It appears to rise because the sound waves are reaching the listener more frequently as the ambulance nears, then less frequently as it passes."

"The rotational doppler effect is similar, but the effect is confined to a circular space," Cromb said. "The twisted sound waves change their pitch when measured from the point of view of the rotating surface. If the surface rotates fast enough then the sound frequency can do something very strange -- it can go from a positive frequency to a negative one, and in doing so steal some energy from the rotation of the surface."

When researchers accelerated the spin of the foam disk, the sound from the speakers quieted, becoming too low to hear. As the disk spun faster, the pitch got higher and higher until it returned to its original pitch -- only louder, with an amplitude 30 percent greater than before.

"What we heard during our experiment was extraordinary. What's happening is that the frequency of the sound waves is being doppler-shifted to zero as the spin speed increases. When the sound starts back up again, it's because the waves have been shifted from a positive frequency to a negative frequency," Cromb said. "Those negative-frequency waves are capable of taking some of the energy from the spinning foam disc, becoming louder in the process -- just as Zel'dovich proposed in 1971."

Researchers suggest their surprise discovery has paved the way for a variety of new physics experiments. Scientists hope their test can be replicated using electromagnetic waves or some other kind of waves.
upi.com/7016941

ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
Ancient sea ice loss spurred Antarctic cold reversal 15,000 years ago

Researchers collected ancient ice samples from a blue ice area in Western Antarctica's Patriot Hills. Photo by Chris Turney

June 22 (UPI) -- A mysterious period of climate change, known as the Antarctic cold reversal, was triggered by the rapid loss of sea ice nearly 15,000 years ago, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

At the end of the last ice age, some 18,000 years ago, atmospheric carbon levels began to rise, Earth's glaciers started receding and the world steadily warmed. But this period of warming didn't proceed uninterrupted. It happened in fits and starts.

One fit, beginning 14,600 years ago, was particularly pronounced: the Antarctic cold reversal. After a period of greenhouse warming, atmospheric CO2 levels plateaued -- remaining at 240 parts per million for 1,900 years.

Scientists weren't sure what caused the plateau, but researchers recently found evidence of increased biological activity during the reversal period.

RELATED First egg ever found in Antarctica may come from extinct sea lizard

"We found that in sediment cores located in the sea-ice zone of the Southern Ocean biological productivity increased during this critical period, whereas it decreased farther north, outside of the sea-ice zone," Michael Weber, researcher at the Institute for Geosciences at the University of Bonn in Switzerland, said in a news release. "It was now important to find out how climate records on the Antarctic continent depict this critical time period."

To better understand how changes in ice patterns influenced the region's biological activity and the Antarctic carbon cycle, an international team of researchers headed to Western Antarctica's Patriot Hills Blue Ice Area in search of marine biomarkers trapped in ancient ice layers.

"The cause of this long plateau in global atmospheric CO2 levels may be fundamental to understanding the potential of the Southern Ocean to moderate atmospheric CO2," said lead researcher Chris Fogwill.

RELATED Western half of Antarctica warming faster than eastern half, new study shows why

"Whilst recent reductions in emissions due to the Covid-19 pandemic have shown that we can reduce CO2, we need to understand the ways in which CO2 levels have been stabilized by natural processes, as they may be key to the responsible development of geoengineering approaches and remain fundamental to achieving our commitment to the Paris Agreement," said Fogwill, professor of glaciology and palaeoclimatology at Keele University in Britain.

Blue ice areas are formed when high winds push snow into large embankments. The combination of wind-drive snow transport, ice flow and sublimation leaves older, smoother and bluer ice exposed.

Many blue ice areas feature especially ancient ice, and some contain ice as much as 2.5 million years old, researchers say.

RELATED Rivers ensure one-third of carbon from fires is stored in the ocean

"Instead of drilling kilometers into the ice, we can simply walk across a blue ice area to travel back through time," said researcher Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at the University of New South Wales. "This provides the opportunity to sample large volumes of ice necessary for studying new organic biomarkers and DNA that were blown from the Southern Ocean onto Antarctica and preserved in the blue ice."

Analysis of the ice samples collected from the Patriot Hills revealed a growing abundance of marine organisms during the 1,900-year Antarctic cold reversal, researchers reported.

When scientists ran climate models fueled by paleoclimate data from the time period, their simulations showed the rise in biological activity coincided with dramatic seasonal changes in sea ice extent.

RELATED Antarctic ice sheets can retreat as fast 165 feet per day

The research suggests sea ice losses triggered an increase in biological activity, which helped pull CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it in the ocean.

In future studies, scientists said they hope to use their findings to improve climate change prediction models for the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.

"Our results highlight the role Antarctic sea ice plays in controlling global CO2, and demonstrate the need to incorporate such feedbacks into climate-carbon models," researchers wrote in the study.

ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
Alaskan volcano eruption triggered Rome's transition from republic to empire

When Alaska’s Okmok volcano erupted a little more than 2,000 years ago, the event triggered climatic shocks that caused economic and political instability across the Mediterranean, according to a new study. Photo by Christina Neal/Alaska Volcano Observatory/USGS
June 23 (UPI) -- Ancient ice cores suggest a giant volcanic eruption in what's now Alaska set off a series of climatic shocks that sowed economic disruption and political upheaval across the Mediterranean during the middle of the 1st century B.C.

In the wake of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., Rome's power brokers jockeyed for control as the Roman Republic disintegrated and the Roman Empire emerged. Several hundred miles to the Southeast, Cleopatra's attempt to restore Egypt to its former glory was complicated by failed floods, famine and disease.

To better understand how ancient climate change influenced the trajectory of this turbulent period of history, researchers analyzed paleoclimatic, archaeological and historical records.

When scientists compared their climatic data to historical records, they found evidence that the climatic shocks triggered by the Alaskan eruption reverberated across the Mediterranean. The research team shared their findings this week in the journal PNAS.

RELATED Archaeologists map complete Roman city without lifting a shovel

Ice cores extracted from the Arctic revealed the remnants of one of the largest volcanic eruptions during the 2,500 years. Scientists dated the volcanic rocks to the year 43 B.C. and traced the ejected particles to the Okmok volcano in Alaska.

Paleoclimate records showed the year 43 and 42 B.C. were two of the coldest years in the Northern Hemisphere -- and the beginning of a decade-long cold spell.

"We know that the Nile River did not flood in 43 B.C.E. and 42 B.C.E. -- and now we know why," Joe Manning, professor of classics and history at Yale University, said in a news release. "This volcanic eruption greatly affected the Nile watershed."

RELATED Humans in Asia survived Toba super-eruption 74,000 years ago

In one written source, penned in 39 B.C., an Egyptian historian describes the large-scale famine and social unrest that plagued the empire during the previous decade.

"This inscription does not describe collapse or resilience," Manning said. "It is a more complicated story of trying to survive and to figure out how to distribute grain during a very chaotic time."

Historical records from Rome suggest the entirety of the Mediterranean experienced the ill effects of the climatic shocks caused by the massive eruption on the island of Okmok.

RELATED Himalayan glacier reveals evidence of start of Industrial Revolution

"While it is difficult to establish direct causal linkages to thinly documented historical events, the wet and very cold conditions from this massive eruption on the opposite side of Earth probably resulted in crop failures, famine, and disease, exacerbating social unrest and contributing to political realignments throughout the Mediterranean region at this critical juncture of Western civilization," researchers wrote in their new paper.

RELATED Vesuvius eruption turned ancient resident's brain to glass

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Icons of 1960s civil rights movement voice cautious optimism

1 of 18 https://apnews.com/7402c00e5fd0b032998c25d6b50bcb94

FILE - In this March 1, 1965 file photo Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hops over a puddle as it rains in Selma, Ala. King led hundreds of African Americans to the court house in a voter registration drive. At front is civil rights worker Andrew Young, and at right, behind King is Rev. Ralph Abernathy. Today's protests across America against racial injustice are being watched closely by people who five decades ago faced jail cells, bloody assaults, snarling dogs and even potential assassination in the battle against institutional racism. Young, a King lieutenant, marvels at both the sizes and the spontaneity of the protests. The former Democratic congressman, Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador recalled activists spending three months to organize for a 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, campaign in which King and other protesters were jailed. (AP Photo, File)

This July 27, 1969 fie photo shows Rev. Jesse Jackson speaking to a protest group in front of the Indiana Governor's mansion in Indianapolis. Today's protests across America against racial injustice are being watched closely by people who five decades ago faced jail cells, bloody assaults, snarling dogs and even potential assassination in the battle against institutional racism. (AP Photo, File)

CINCINNATI (AP) — Bob Moses says America is at “a lurching moment” for racial change, potentially as transforming as the Civil War era and as the 1960s civil rights movement that he helped lead.

“What we are experiencing now as a nation has only happened a couple times in our history,” said Moses, a main organizer of the 1964 “Freedom Summer” project in Mississippi. “These are moments when the whole nation is lurching, and it’s not quite sure which way it’s going to lurch.”

Moses, now 85 and still active with The Algebra Project he founded, was among the many people, Black and white, who risked jail time, assaults and even assassination in the battles against racial segregation and for voting rights in the South. Associated Press reporters asked some of the leaders their thoughts on the current protests across the country sparked by police slayings of Black men in Minneapolis and Atlanta.

“We have kind of the perfect storm,” said the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a close aide to the slain Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and leader of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition, an organization that fights for social change. “You’ve got COVID-19, you’ve got ‘Code Blue’ — police brutality — you have poverty, and you have Trump.”

Studies show that Black people have suffered disproportionately from the coronavirus, the resulting economic downturn and at the hands of police, and polls show most are opposed to President Donald Trump, a Republican. Jackson noted, though, it’s not just Black people taking to the streets in large numbers.

“They have been more massive, more rainbow and more global,” said Jackson, 78.

Bobby Seale, 83, who co-founded the Black Panther Party with the late Huey Newton in 1966, said he finds today’s demonstrations “fantastic” for drawing hundreds of thousands of people, far greater numbers that he could must back in his day.

“I love it,” Seale said, laughing, from his Oakland home.

FILE - In this May 20, 1971 file photo Bobby Seale, left, national chairman of the Black Panther party, is escorted from the Montville state prison in Montville, Conn., for a trip to New Haven, Conn. Seale said he finds today’s demonstrations against racial injustice “fantastic” for drawing hundreds of thousands of people, far greater numbers that he could muster back in his day. (AP Photo, File)

This Saturday, March 12, 1972 fie photo shows Bobby Seale, left, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson talking at the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Ind. Today's protests across America against racial injustice are being watched closely by people who five decades ago faced jail cells, bloody assaults, snarling dogs and even potential assassination in the battle against institutional racism. (AP Photo/File)

Andrew Young, a King lieutenant, marvels at both the sizes and the spontaneity of the protests. The former Democratic congressman, Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador recalled activists spending three months to organize for a 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, campaign in which King and other protesters were jailed. He said only a fraction of the 500 demonstrators sought showed up.

“Our mobilization was inconsequential,” said Young, 88, explaining that King’s letter from the jail and an economic boycott proved more powerful.

James Meredith, who turns 87 Thursday, has seen himself on a lifelong mission from God to topple white supremacy. He said Monday from his home in Jackson, Mississippi, that it’s a sign from God that a young girl filmed George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Meredith says that kind of visual evidence calls attention to continued violence against Black people.

“Every time it looks like it’s going to be over, the same thing that’s been happening now for 500 years, happens over and over,” said Meredith, who became the first African American to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962 amid violent protests by white people. He survived being shot by a white man in 1966 while on a “march against fear.”

St. Louis activist Percy Green, who gained national attention in 1964 for scaling the Gateway Arch to protest the exclusion of Blacks from federal contracts and jobs as the Arch was being built, said the 1960s protests had clear goals.

“This is reactive, though,” said Green, an 84-year-old veteran civil rights activist. “What we did back then was proactive. So they are going to have to keep this up to get change.”

Green and Seale said activists should use the energy from the multiracial, multiethnic coalition growing in streets to register new voters for lasting political change.

Jackson suggested the demonstrators should broaden their focus beyond the need for police reforms.

“Now my concern there is that the police issue is the epidermis, the skin layer of our crisis,” Jackson said. “Racism is bone deep; it’s not just police.”

Even Seale, who was charged with conspiracy and inciting a riot in the wake of the 198 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, said: “They have to keep it peaceful. I don’t believe in rioting.”

Former Democratic U.S. Sen. Fred Harris, 89, the last surviving member of the 1968 Kerner Commission, a panel that examined the urban riots of the time, said he’s “as angry as these protesters” because racism, inequality and poverty persists all these years later. He warned that violence leads to more repression.

1963 BLACK MUSLIMS PROTEST

“I’m hopeful, though,” Harris, who is white, said from his Corrales, New Mexico, home.

Jackson and Young are as well.

“There’s going to be a new consensus emerging about how to maintain law and order in a civilized society,” Young said. “I think we’re just starting. I don’t think anybody has a notion of how big a change this is going to introduce.”

Moses remains cautious. America has “lurched” forward racially, then fallen back before. The Civil War era’s emancipation and Reconstruction gave way to Jim Crow segregation in the South. King’s nonviolence movement and racial progress slowed amid white backlash over the 1967 urban rioting and riots after King’s 1968 assassination.

But Moses also thinks the video of Floyd dying slowly under a white police officer’s knee is a searing image for the nation.

“Until you can come up from under the pressure of the deep sea, you don’t realize ‘Whoa! I’ve been in the deep sea,’” he said from Hollywood, Florida. “Some Americans were shocked, it seems to me, to discover they had actually been swimming in this deep, deep sea and didn’t understand it.”

This June 6, 1966 file photo, shows civil rights activist James Meredith grimacing in pain as he pulls himself across Highway 51 after being shot in Hernando, Miss., during his March Against Fear. Today's protests across America against racial injustice are being watched closely by people who five decades ago faced jail cells, bloody assaults, snarling dogs and even potential assassination in the battle against institutional racism. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)

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Contreras reported from Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Associated Press writers Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed.

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