More than 650 tech workers at The New York Times have formed a union to fight for more diversity, pay equity, and job security

kduffy@insider.com (Kate Duffy) 

4/14/2021

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© Johannes EISELE / AFP The New York Times building. Johannes EISELE / AFP
More than 650 tech workers at The New York Times have formed a union called the Tech Times Guild.
The union said workers are facing "unexplained termination and opaque promotion processes."
It's organizing the formation with the NewsGuild union and awaiting recognition from the Times.

Tech workers at The New York Times on Tuesday announced they have formed a union and asked for recognition from the publication.

The union, called the Tech Times Guild, represents more than 650 employees who work for the digital side of the company in roles such as software engineers, data analysts and product managers.

The Tech Times Guild said in a statement on Twitter that it's organizing its formation with the NewsGuild of New York - an editorial union of more than 3,000 media workers at the Times, The Daily Beast, The Nation, and other media outlets.

Tech workers weren't included in the NewsGuild because they weren't allowed to join. The Tech Times Guild is looking to become a separate bargaining unit from the NewsGuild. It would communicate with the Times management independently.

"As of now, we face a number of challenges, including sudden or unexplained termination, opaque promotion processes, unpaid overtime, and underinvestment in diverse representation," the Tech Times Guild tweeted.

"Without a union, we lack the data or bargaining rights to address these issues," it said, adding that the tech workers will be able to build digital products and platforms in a company, which is more "equitable, healthy and just."

"At The New York Times, we have a long history of positive and productive relationships with unions, and we respect the right of all employees to decide whether or not joining a union is right for them," The New York Times said in a statement to Insider.

"We will take time to review this request and discuss it soon with representatives of the NewsGuild," it said, adding that the company wants to "make sure all voices are heard."

The forming of the Tech Times Guild comes three months after more than 200 Google employees formed a union to promote inclusivity, transparency, and ensure the company acts ethically. At Amazon, there was a historic push to form the company's first union in the US last month but workers voted against it on April 9th.

Daniel Dae Kim Says He Took ‘Drastic’ Pay Cut On ‘Hawaii Five-0’ After Starring On ‘Lost’
Corey Atad 

ET 

4




Daniel Dae Kim has always been serious about representation.

© Photo: Art Streiber / ABC / Courtesy: Everett Collection/CP Images Daniel Dae Kim

In an interview with Vulture, the actor talked about his positive experience working on "Lost", as well as the trouble he later faced on "Hawaii Five-0".

"One thing that has never really properly been reported is the amount of pay cut I took to do 'Hawaii Five-0' from 'Lost'," he revealed. "It was drastic, and it was never made up."

RELATED: Daniel Dae Kim, Daniel Wu Offer Reward After Attack On Elderly Man

After starring in the remake of the classic TV series for seven seasons, Kim left the show due to the significant pay disparity between himself and co-stars Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan.

Kim had met with CBS to demand equal pay among the co-stars, including fellow star Grace Park.

"Make us all equal," he said, "Make us all the ensemble that I thought we always were, and get me back to where I was with 'Lost'."

He continued, "I didn't think that was an unreasonable position to take. It was very clear and simple. I was very transparent about it with my castmates, with my showrunner, with the studio from the start. It became much more dramatic because of the way that it didn't come together."



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Ultimately Kim and Park both left the series and their relationships with the other co-stars suffered.

"I think any time you have an ensemble of actors, everyone's objectives are unique and individual," Kim said. "So it's hard for me to collectively say whether they were allies in this ... I do know that the way things got spun by the end changed my relationships with them."

RELATED: Daniel Dae Kim Calls On Other Communities To Speak Up Against Asian Hate During Time 100 Interview

Before "Hawaii Five-0", Kim had his breakout role as Jin on the mystery drama "Lost", revealing that at first he did express concerns to the show's creators about stereotypical portrayals of Koreans.

“When I read the script for the pilot, I knew this was a land mine,” Kim said. “My greatest fear was that the pilot of ‘Lost’ would air but the series would not — because if you were to see the pilot as the totality of my character, you would have been left with that stereotype.”

He continued, “While we were shooting, I remember sitting down with Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams and saying, ‘Guys, this character cannot progress in this same way.’ They basically said, ‘Trust us.’ I did, and it turned out for the best. As an Asian actor, you’re just looking to get hired. It’s about working within the system to try and change it when you have the opportunity. The character grew to a place where I don’t think you’d call him a stereotype by the end.”

Kim also talked about the work he did to make sure he had the character's accent as close to correct as possible.

“It is a funny thing about my accent. It’s not standard Korean (표준어) because I speak Busan satoori (사투리)," he explained. "So when we first started, because Yunjin spoke standard Korean, it was decided that I was going to try and change my Busan to standard Korean. So that, plus thinking about the acting of it and realizing I did have an American accent — it became this weird mix of things.”

RELATED: Daniel Dae Kim Says Anti-Asian Violence 'Has Gotten Worse, Much Worse' In Testimony At U.S. Congressional Hearing

Unfortunately, he still got hit with some criticism over the accent.

“There’s no doubt it stung when I felt like the people I was trying to respect and please the most were the ones who were critical of me,” Kim said. “It was painful because, as my career since then has borne out, I take a great deal of pride in being Korean American. I know that not every representation is 100 per cent something we can stand behind all the time, but I choose to look at things as whether they’re moving the needle of progress on a larger scale. I don’t think you can question the positive effect ‘Lost’ had on representation. You could even argue it has had an effect on the way we cast now, if you look at the copycat shows that came out as a result of ‘Lost'.”

SMILE YOU ARE ON CANDID  CAMERA

Liberal MP caught stark naked during House of Commons video conference

OTTAWA — A Liberal MP was caught wearing his birthday suit in the virtual House of Commons.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

William Amos, who has represented the Quebec riding of Pontiac since 2015, appeared on the screens of his fellow members of Parliament completely naked Wednesday.

A screenshot obtained by The Canadian Press shows him standing behind a desk between the Quebec and Canadian flags, his private parts hidden by what appears to be a mobile phone in one hand.

"This was an unfortunate error," Amos said in a statement sent by email Wednesday.

"My video was accidentally turned on as I was changing into my work clothes after going for a jog. I sincerely apologize to my colleagues in the House of Commons for this unintentional distraction. Obviously, it was an honest mistake and it won’t happen again.”

Bloc Québécois MP Claude DeBellefeuille, the party whip, raised the incident in a point of order after question period, suggesting a reminder about parliamentary decorum.

“It may be necessary to remind the members, especially the male ones, that a tie and jacket are obligatory, but so are a shirt, boxer shorts or pants,” she said in French.

“We have seen that the member is in great physical shape, but I think members should be reminded to be careful and control the camera well.”

Speaker Anthony Rota later thanked DeBellefeuille for her "observations" and clarified that while he had not seen anything, he checked with technicians and confirmed they saw something.

He reminded MPs to always be vigilant when they are near a camera and microphone.

Amos, the parliamentary secretary to Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, was visible only to MPs and staffers on an internal video conference feed. Because he was not speaking during question period, his image did not show up on the public feed.

Liberal whip Mark Holland said Amos was "utterly mortified."

Holland said he was satisfied with the explanation from his caucus colleague.

"I don't think there was any ill intent … It's certainly an unfortunate circumstance," Holland said in an interview.

"I think it's part of the circumstances of the world we're in right now, where the line between our home and our office place is so blurred and trying to manage that is sometimes challenging," he added.

"This is a warning to everybody. You've got to really always assume that camera is on and be very careful any time you wander anywhere near that camera that you're dressed appropriately."

Asked if he'll be issuing a warning to all Liberal MPs to that effect, Holland said: "Oh, big time."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2021.

Catherine Lévesque and Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

How Ottawa's financial aid package for Air Canada compares to the auto sector bailout

The federal government's blockbuster financial aid plan for Air Canada amid the COVID-19 pandemic shares similarities — and stark differences — with its contribution to the bailout of two Detroit automakers during the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Here's a comparison of the two multibillion-dollar rescue deals:


Pre-crisis standing

Canada's largest airline was on a much stronger financial footing ahead of the COVID-19 crisis than the car makers were before the financial meltdown.

Air Canada made a profit of $1.5 billion the year before the pandemic, whereas many large automakers regularly posted losses before the recession.

"Air Canada was in a great financial position," said Jacques Roy, a professor of transport management at HEC Montreal business school. "They had experienced five years of profits."

Yet the automotive sector had suffered from years of slumping sales.

Experts say the industry as a whole was in dire need of restructuring, including shrinking its manufacturing footprint, closing dealerships and discontinuing brands.

Cost cutting

The federal and Ontario governments rejected initial restructuring plans put forward by automakers, suggesting more cost reductions were needed before public dollars would be available.

However, Air Canada had already undergone aggressive cost cutting before striking a deal with Ottawa, said Robert Kokonis, president and managing director of Toronto-based aviation consulting firm AirTrav Inc.

"They embarked on major cost-cutting to extract not just low hanging fruit but tougher-to-get fruit from their operations," he said. "They went to aircraft leasing companies looking for deferrals, they asked for delayed deliveries, they laid off staff."

In contrast, Ottawa turned down the first appeal for aid from the automakers because there had not been enough concessions, Kokonis said.

Bailout vs. financial aid

Ottawa's pandemic rescue package for Air Canada is "probably as close to commercial terms as you're going to get," said Chris Murray of ATB Capital Markets.

As well as low-interest loans, the agreement will see the federal government take an equity stake in the airline but requires Air Canada to refund passengers for cancelled flights, cap executive compensation at $1 million and restore service to regional airports.

"You've got a lender that really is engaged in making sure Air Canada can resume service and ... the company is using this as a bridge to get back to normal operations."

The structure of the deal contrasts with the bailout offered to automakers, said Aaron Wudrick, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

"There are more strings attached with respect to share buybacks and corporate compensation," he said. "Those are probably included because of the lessons learned during the financial crisis."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:AC).

Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press

IT WAS A CROWN AND WAS PRIVATIZED TO AVOID THIS
Airline deal means taxpayers once again take a risk on corporate Canada
Don Pittis CBC

4/14/2021

© Chris Helgren/Reuters Sparse crowds at airports across Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic have hurt the finances of Air Canada, but with roughly $6 billion in federal government support announced on Monday, there is every reason to think the airline can…

Once again taxpayers have stepped in to throw a multibillion-dollar lifeline to corporate Canada, but this time it looks as though Canadians may actually make money on the deal.

After a long and contentious negotiation, the federal government announced this week that it had struck a bargain to bail out Air Canada, imposing a strict series of conditions. It will provide refunds to ticket holders, support the aerospace industry, return service to regional airports and help ensure that the country's biggest air carrier can survive financially until Canadians start travelling again once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

You could see Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's eyes light up at Monday's late-night news conference when she heard the wording of a reporter's question about why taxpayers were "footing the bill" to refund Air Canada ticket holders.

"Taxpayers aren't footing the bill," Freeland said almost gleefully. "This is a loan facility, and the government of Canada fully expects to be paid back."
Taxpayer risk

The impression that this was mere corporate welfare was not just held among reporters suddenly coming to terms with the surprise deal, rumours of which only began to emerge late Monday afternoon. A Tuesday morning search on Twitter for "Air Canada" showed many angry tweets demanding why some other more worthy causes — from universal basic income to urban public transport — did not get the generous handout instead.

Of course, as in any government bailout — this one worth about $6 billion — taxpayers are taking a risk. In the uncertain world of commerce, there is always at least a small chance that a company will not be able to pay its bills, in which case Canadians will indeed be on the hook.

But having a backer like the Canadian government makes a corporate failure that much less likely. And along with offering repayable loans to the company, Canadians took a half-billion-dollar stake, buying shares in Air Canada at $23 each.

Despite a decline in share prices to about $26 when markets opened on Tuesday as investors assessed the deal, taxpayers were still in the money. And if, as most people expect, air travel returns to levels before COVID-19 once everyone has been vaccinated, taxpayers will see a windfall if shares head back toward a pre-pandemic $50 each.

While Freeland and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra fronted the news conference and soaked up the good publicity, people in the know say the hard-bargaining mastermind behind the deal was no politician. Like a poacher turned gamekeeper, deputy finance minister Michael Sabia used to be on the other side of the bargaining table, holding powerful corporate positions that include chief executive officer of Bell Canada and head of Quebec's giant pension fund, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

"I think a lot of the credit does go to Michael Sabia," said Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, noting that when Sabia was named deputy minister in December, Hyder sent him a note in the middle of the night offering advice.
'Michael gets it'

"His arrival there actually triggered a real negotiation and a real discussion and conversation that led to the successful conclusion of the agreement," Hyder said in a phone conversation on Tuesday. "I would say Michael gets it."

But it is clear that it's not just the business side of the deal that Sabia gets. By hammering out a bargain specifying that the money would have to be paid back before shareholders got dividends and before the executives could return to their multimillion-dollar salaries and bonuses, Sabia proved to be a shrewd political operator as well, cutting a deal that voters are likely to accept just before what many expect will be a federal election.

© Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press Deputy finance minister Michael Sabia, who was once CEO of Bell Canada, may keep a low profile, but his business skills are all over the Air Canada deal, observers say.

Not all previous corporate bailouts — including a purchase of shares in a troubled General Motors in 2009 by the federal Conservative government at the time — have been as successful as this one promises to be.

Times were different then, as a global financial meltdown created a persistent recession and industries had trouble climbing out of the hole. Also, taxpayers may not have got the best price when the government sold the shares before the 2015 election in a murky deal with Goldman Sachs to help bolster its claim of running a balanced budget.

According to Canada's auditor general and according to Mark Milke in a report for the Fraser Institute, taxpayers lost billions of dollars on the GM share deal.

But as in the GM deal, Hyder said, the government's calculation is not to make a short-term profit on shares, but, in this case, to support an entire air transport sector and aerospace sector and the many good jobs they provide. And while, like many in the private sector, he doesn't want to see long-term government ownership of the airline, there is a benefit to the government having "skin in the game" and a seat at the corporate table, Hyder said.

According to the International Monetary Fund, this recession really is different, and it recently altered its gloomy forecast made last autumn that the pandemic would cause lasting damage. Last week it predicted there would be few scars, especially in the world's richer economies.

As Sabia and Air Canada both recognized, the airline's problem was not a bad business model but a classic cash-flow problem, and by acting to plug that temporary shortage of cash, taxpayers and the national carrier are both very likely to benefit.

While Hyder sees the Air Canada deal as a good one, he believes that Sabia and Freeland have plenty more work ahead with other airlines and other sectors to help business restart the Canadian economy and return to profit.

"There's still much more to do here," he said.

Follow Don Pittis on Twitter @don_pittis

Italian-Canadians to get formal apology for treatment during Second World War


OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will issue a formal apology next month for the treatment of Italian-Canadians during the Second World War.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The government said in a news release that 600 Italian-Canadian men were interned in camps in Canada after Italy allied with Germany and joined the war in 1940.

Some 31,000 other Italian-Canadians were declared enemy aliens.

Trudeau told the House of Commons Wednesday that his government "will right these wrongs" by issuing a formal apology in May.

In 1988, Canada formally apologized and offered $300 million in compensation to Japanese-Canadians, 22,000 of whom were interned in camps during the Second World War.

Trudeau did not say whether there will be compensation for Italian-Canadians.

He announced plans for the apology in response to a question Wednesday from Liberal MP Angelo Iacono.

"During the Second World War, hundreds of Italian-Canadians were interned for the simple reason that they were of Italian heritage," Iacono told the Commons.

"Parents were taken away from their homes, leaving children without their fathers in many cases and families without a paycheque to put food on their tables. Lives and careers, businesses and reputations were interrupted and ruined, and yet no one was held responsible.

"Italian Canadians have lived with these memories for many years and they deserve closure."

Trudeau replied that Canadians of Italian heritage "deal with ongoing discrimination related to mistakes made by our governments of the past that continue to affect them to this day."

"I'm proud to stand up and say that our government will right these wrongs with a formal apology in the month of May."

The government's news release said that in 1939, the Defence of Canada Regulations gave the justice minister the right to intern, seize property and limit activities of Canadian residents born in countries that were at war with Canada.

The regulations clearly targeted Canadians' fear of "the foreign element," and not a single person was ever charged with any crime, the release said.

In 2018, the RCMP issued a statement of regret for their involvement in the internment.

The government's formal apology will pay tribute to and honour the families of each of the 600 interned as an act of respect and an acknowledgment that an injustice happened, the release said.

Canada is home to over 1.6 million Canadians of Italian origin, one of the largest Italian diasporas in the world, and they have made immeasurable contributions to the social, cultural and economic fabric of the country, the release added.

A joint statement from 10 Italian-Canadian members of Parliament, including Justice Minister David Lametti and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, said many residents suffered irrevocable harm.

"They may have been Italian by heritage, but they were Canadians first. We as Italian Members of Parliament thank those members before us who brought attention to this injustice and helped bring this apology to fruition for these families in our Italian-Canadian communities."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2021.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for INTERNMENT 

Canada's migrant farmworkers remain at risk a year into pandemic

By Anna Mehler Paperny

4/14/2021

© Reuters/SHANNON VANRAES FILE PHOTO: Man checks grain bin on a farm in Manitoba, Canada NOTE WELL HE IS NOT WEARING FALL PROTECTION

TORONTO (Reuters) - Pedro, a Mexican migrant worker, knew he had to leave the Ontario cannabis operation where he worked when so many of his coworkers caught COVID-19 that his employer began to house them in a 16-person bunk house alongside the uninfected.

Pedro moved in with friends in the nearby farming town of Leamington, Ontario, at the end of October. He asked to be identified under a pseudonym because he fears that speaking out will affect his chances of employment.

"I didn't know where to go, where to get help. So I was left behind, hopeless," he said, speaking through a translator. About a week later, Pedro landed another job, working with peppers in a greenhouse. Conditions are better, he said.

But he added: "To be honest, I don't think all employers are taking precautions."

Pedro is one of about 60,000 migrant farmworkers - many from Central America and the Caribbean - who come to Canada as part of an annual migration of people that ramps up in spring. They grow and harvest the country's food supply and have continued to work in the midst of a pandemic.

They feed the country and are a crucial part of a C$68.8 billion ($54.8 billion) sector, making up about one-fifth of the country's agricultural workforce, according to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

As the pandemic crippled travel last year, agricultural employers were unable to fill one-fifth of the temporary foreign worker positions they needed, costing Canadian farmers C$2.9 billion due to labour shortages, according to research commissioned by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.

These workers are also uniquely at risk. They live and work in crowded settings, and language barriers coupled with precarious immigration status tied to their employment prevent them from speaking out about unsafe conditions.

Last year they were hit hard by COVID-19, with 8.7% of migrants in Ontario testing positive. This year they are returning as Canada is in the grip of a third wave. While governments and employers say they are taking steps to keep these workers safe, advocates and workers contacted by Reuters say the dangers remain - except that now, those dangers are known.

Graphic on COVID-19 global tracker: https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/

SAME CRISIS

Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, argues the same factors that made workers more vulnerable to COVID-19 last year - crowded workplaces, congregate living, visas that tie them to an employer and make them fearful of speaking out - still exist.

"We are walking into the same crisis yet again, the only difference being that we already know how bad it is."

Keith Currie, vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said employers are doing their best, but some transmission of the virus will occur.

"Because they're living on the farm, they're in contact with each other when they're working ... despite all our efforts, it spreads. Just like it does elsewhere in society."

Some 760 farmworkers have been infected so far this year in Ontario, Canada's most populous province, according to provincial data. Ontario put agriculture workers in Phase 2 of its COVID-19 vaccinations, which begins this month, and has set up a clinic at Toronto’s airport offering vaccines to migrants on arrival.

But advocates worry migrant workers might lack requisite identification, especially if they are undocumented.

Advocates argue not enough is being done to keep these workers safe from the pandemic. They say rules such as the requirement to get - and pay for - a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of coming to Canada place an undue logistical and financial burden on migrants.

Last month the federal government announced new measures meant to protect migrant agricultural workers, including beefed-up inspections.

But the migrants interviewed by Reuters argued what will protect them is more stable status that does not tie them to an employer.

"Hopefully this year, the government of Canada gives us status," said Teresa, a migrant worker from Baja California.

($1 = 1.2559 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Denny Thomas and Matthew Lewis)

WITHOUT BLOWING UP!

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches and lands rocket New Shepard, as it prepares to launch people

Michael Sheetz 

4/14/2021

Jeff Bezos' private space company Blue Origin launched and landed the fifteenth test flight of its New Shepard rocket booster and capsule on Wednesday.
Known as NS-15, the mission launched from Blue Origin's private facility in West Texas and marks a "verification step" for the rocket and capsule before flying people, the company said.
The mission reached 348,753 feet altitude, Blue Origin said – or about 106 kilometers, above the internationally recognized boundary of space.

© Provided by CNBC A New Shepard rocket launches on a test flight.

Jeff Bezos' private space company Blue Origin launched and landed the fifteenth test flight of its New Shepard rocket booster and capsule on Wednesday.

The mission did not have passengers on board, although the capsule on top of the rocket is designed to carry as many as six people for future flights. Known as NS-15, the mission launched from Blue Origin's private facility in West Texas and marks a "verification step" for the rocket and capsule before flying people, the company said.

New Shepard is designed to carrying people on a ride past the edge of space, with the capsules on previous test flights reaching an altitude of more than 340,000 feet (or more than 100 kilometers). The capsule spends as much as 10 minutes in zero gravity before returning to Earth, with massive windows to give passengers a view.

The mission on Wednesday reached 348,753 feet altitude, Blue Origin said – or about 106 kilometers, above the internationally recognized boundary of space.

NS-15 is expected to represent the second of two "stable configuration" test flights, CNBC reported in January, after the NS-14 mission featured the debut of a new rocket booster and upgraded capsule. While Blue Origin has only said that the first crewed flights will be "soon," sources told CNBC in January that the company's leadership hopes to launch its first crew on the NS-16 mission.

The company confirmed CNBC's reporting that NS-15 would feature a test of loading and unloading the crew. Blue Origin called this an "astronaut operational exercise," a key step in preparing for launching passengers.

"The primary operations will entail Blue Origin personnel standing in as astronauts entering into the capsule prior to launch. These astronauts will climb the launch tower, get into their seats, buckle their harnesses, and conduct a communications check from their seat with CAPCOM, the Capsule Communicator. The tower operations team will prepare the capsule cabin for launch and then briefly close the capsule hatch. The astronauts will then exit the capsule prior to launch," the company said in a blog post.

© Provided by CNBC Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos opens the capsule of the new Shepard Rocket after a launch.

After the capsule lands, Blue Origin said its personnel will re-enter the capsule to rehearse opening the hatch and exiting the spacecraft.

Blue Origin rocket passes latest test, sets path for crewed space launches
Eric Mack 

CNET

4/14/2021

© Blue Origin

Blue Origin's crew capsule after a safe landing with Mannequin Skywalker inside.

Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, performed another test flight of its New Shepard rocket Wednesday, bringing it closer to flying humans to space in a very tangible way.

The 15th launch of New Shepard, dubbed NS-15, started with humans inside the crew capsule, although none of them actually flew on the mission.

On Wednesday morning, Blue Origin went through the motions of driving astronaut stand-ins for the day from its training facility down to the launch pad. There they paused for a photo in front of New Shepard and then climbed the tower and loaded into the capsule.

Audrey Powers, Blue Origin vice president for legal, and engineer Gary Lai, who is responsible for helping lead the design of New Shepard, climbed into the capsule, buckled in and performed a communications check with mission control. The hatch was closed but not latched, as after a few minutes everyone but a dummy named Mannequin Skywalker exited the capsule and departed the landing pad.

Then a long wait ensued. A series of holds that appeared to be related to winds and other weather conditions delayed liftoff of NS-15 until flames finally emerged from the bottom end of the booster at 9:50 a.m. PT (11:50 a.m. PT).

New Shepard then blasted off to the edge of space as the company has successfully done 14 times already. The capsule separated from the rocket booster and continued to climb to a height of 66 miles (106 kilometers) while the booster came in for a successful vertical landing. A few minutes later, the capsule made a soft landing in the west Texas desert with the aid of parachutes. The whole process took just over 10 minutes.

Later, the designated astronauts for the day were set to again get inside the capsule and rehearse opening the hatch and exiting.

Wednesday's mission follows a successful launch and landing in January that included the latest version of the crew capsule, which is identical or at least very close to the one the company's first paying customers will use.

During the pre-launch livestream, Blue Origin's Ariane Cornell provided a little more insight into what the New Shepard flight experience will be like for the company's future paying customers. Those civilian astronauts will arrive at the company's facility in west Texas three days before their flight. They will go through flight training and a dress rehearsal of the launch process before finally climbing into the capsule for the real thing.

The highlight comes a few minutes after launch when the New Shepard capsule separates from the booster and continues to climb. At maximum altitude, passengers will experience three minutes of weightlessness before buckling back in and descending for a soft landing about two miles from the launch pad.

Five years into its testing program, it's not clear when those first commercial flights will happen. The company is calling NS-15 a critical "verification step" prior to flying astronauts.

  

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin moves closer to passenger launches

William Harwood 

CBS NEWS

4/14/2021


Taking another step toward sending passengers into space, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched an unpiloted New Shepard capsule on a suborbital test flight Wednesday, using astronaut stand-ins before takeoff and after landing to rehearse boarding and egress procedures.

© Blue Origin 041421-launch2.jpg

The company has not yet announced when it plans its first launch with passengers on board or how much tickets might cost. But after 15 unpiloted test flights, the system appears to be on the verge of commercial operations, giving six passengers at a time a few minutes of weightlessness and an out-of-this-world view.

"We're getting very close to sending people up to space and back," said launch commentator Ariane Cornell

.

© Provided by CBS News Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket blasts off from the company's West Texas launch site, kicking off an unpiloted suborbital test flight. / Credit: Blue Origin webcast

To help pave the way, company personnel walked up the launch gantry before liftoff and strapped in aboard the New Shepard capsule just as paying customers will do for an actual flight. The stand-ins tested their communications gear and reviewed launch procedures before exiting to clear the pad for flight.

Wednesday's flight began at 12:51 p.m. ET when the New Shepard rocket's hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine ignited with a rush of flaming exhaust at Blue Origin's remote Van Horn, Texas, flight test facility.

The stubby rocket quickly climbed away from Launch Site One, steadily accelerating as it consumed propellants and lost weight, reaching a maximum velocity of 2,247 mph before releasing the crew capsule about two minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff.

The capsule then soared to an altitude of 66 miles (348,753 feet), well above the 50-mile-high lower "boundary" of space, before beginning the long plunge back to Earth. Inside, an instrumented test dummy — Mannequin Skywalker — experienced three to five minutes of microgravity before atmospheric deceleration forces set in.

PICTURE PERFECT NO GO BOOM

© Provided by CBS News The New Shepard booster executes a picture-perfect landing after propelling an unpiloted crew capsule to an altitude of 66 miles. / Credit: Blue Origin webcast

The New Shepard booster, meanwhile, homed in on its landing pad, restarting its engine and deploying four short landing legs before settling to an on-target touchdown. The capsule floated to a relatively gentle landing a short distance away, slowed as usual by three large parachutes.

After touchdown, the astronaut stand-ins were expected to re-enter the capsule and rehearse the same post-landing procedures commercial crews will use after their flights.

The New Shepard system is designed to carry space tourists, government and civilian researchers and a variety of payloads to altitudes just above the discernible atmosphere, providing a few minutes of microgravity, along with panoramic views through six large windows.

© Provided by CBS News The Blue Origin crew capsule, carrying an instrumented test dummy, settles toward touchdown to wrap up a sucessful test flight. / Credit: Blue Origin webcast

NASA, the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration consider 50 miles to be the dividing line between space and the discernible atmosphere while the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, an international governing body for aviation-related sports and records, puts the threshold at 100 kilometers, or 62 miles.

The New Shepard capsule routinely exceeds both of those standards.

The launching marked the 15th flight of a New Shepard rocket and capsule since the program's maiden flight six years ago and the second flight of the first Blue Origin booster and capsule dedicated to upcoming commercial astronaut missions.

New Shepard is a strictly suborbital rocket and spacecraft that is not capable of achieving the velocities required to reach orbit. It will compete with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceplane for commercial passengers and payloads.

But Blue Origin is developing orbit-class New Glenn rockets that will use a powerful new company-designed engine, the BE-4, to help boost large satellites into orbit. The company has built a huge rocket factory just outside the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to manufacture the rockets and is developing a launch complex at the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The company also is leading a team, one of three, designing a moon lander to carry astronauts to and from the lunar surface in NASA's Artemis program. NASA is expected to award contracts to one and possibly two teams over the next few weeks.

Leaked footage of ‘pyramid-shaped’ UFOs is real, Pentagon says
Josh K. Elliott 11 hrs ago

© Jeremy Corbell/Instagram A flashing, triangular-shaped object is shown through a nightvision camera over the USS Russell, in footage leaked to filmmaker Jeremy Corbell.

Newly leaked video of flashing, triangle-shaped objects that flew over a U.S. warship is real, the Pentagon said, after UFO investigators released the clip and several other puzzling photos online.

The photos and videos were distributed by documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp, a Las Vegas-based reporter who has covered UFO-related stories for decades. The leaks include a night-vision video at sea, a series of grainy infrared images and smartphone photos captured from the cockpit of an FA-18 fighter, which had previously been posted online.

Read more: The CIA released thousands of UFO documents online. Here’s how to read them

The Pentagon confirmed in a statement this week that the leaked photos and videos were captured by U.S. navy personnel, though it declined to label them Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) — the government's official term for a UFO.

"I can confirm that the referenced photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel," Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough said in a statement to the Black Vault, a site with a long history of obtaining UFO-related documents through freedom of information laws.

"They confirmed they are all genuine, but won't give their designation," site operator John Greenewald said.

"The UAP (Task Force) has included these incidents in their ongoing examinations," Gough said.

“As we have said before, to maintain operations security and to avoid disclosing information that may be useful to potential adversaries, DOD does not discuss publicly the details of either the observations or the examinations of reported incursions into our training ranges or designated airspace, including those incursions initially designated as UAP.”

Corbell says the video and photos were originally shared at an Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) briefing on May 1, 2020, and later leaked to him. He says he worked with Knapp to verify the authenticity and context of the footage before releasing it online.

Read more: Pentagon officially releases three leaked ‘UFO’ videos

“These are authentic photos and video from actual military encounters with UFOs — generated to educate high-level intelligence officers within our military on the nature and presentation of the UAP/UFO phenomenon,“ he wrote on his website.

Perhaps the most startling video is the one recorded from the deck of the USS Russell, which appears to show several unidentified flying triangles "flashing" in the clouds off the coast of San Diego. The brief video was shot through a night-vision camera in July of 2019, Corbell says.

"The USS Russell observed and recorded multiple 'pyramid' shaped craft," he wrote.

The video shows a distinctly triangle-shaped object moving through the clouds above the warship. The object joins two other, fainter triangles in the sky before the video ends.

Photos from the second event show a “spherical shaped craft” near the USS Omaha, according to Corbell. The black-and-white, grainy sequence of infrared photos depicts a black circle seemingly descending into the ocean.

Corbell says the object seemed to slip effortlessly into the water instead of making a splash and taking damage upon impact. He adds that the navy sent a submarine to search for wreckage, but they found nothing.

The third event described in the briefings involves a series of photos captured by a weapons systems officer from an FA-18 jet in Virginia on March 4, 2019, Corbell says.

The weapons systems officer snapped photos of three objects that afternoon within a matter of about 20 minutes, according to Knapp, Corbell's collaborator. The objects were described as a "sphere," an "acorn" and a "metallic blimp" in the intelligence briefing, they say.

The nature of all the objects involved remains unknown to the public, despite speculation that they might be of alien origin.

Corbell says the combined trove of footage is evidence that the U.S. Department of Defence is taking UFOs seriously — and that these phenomena are worth exploring in a "rational and transparent" way.

UFOs have long been a taboo subject in the scientific community, and a tongue-in-cheek topic for mainstream news.

Several leaks and Pentagon statements in recent years have added credibility to the discussion, particularly after the U.S. government confirmed that there are some flying objects that it simply cannot identify.

Video: Pilot claims UFO spotted while flying over Arizona

Pentagon officials have taken a more open attitude toward UFOs over the last two years, after studying them in secret for several years. They've confirmed several mysterious videos, and have started encouraging military members to document and report their UAP encounters for safety reasons.

“This is all about frequent incursions into our training ranges by UAPs,” Joe Gradisher, spokesperson for the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, told CNN in 2019. “Those incursions present a safety hazard to the safe flight of our aviators and security of our operations.”

The Pentagon announced its official UAP Task Force on Aug. 4 of last year. Its mission is to "detect, analyze and catalogue UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security."

In other words, their job is to identify the strange visitors that keep popping up during military training missions — be they visitors from Russia, China or another world altogether.

Bright fireball meteor explodes over Florida Monday night

Scott Sutherland 

THE WEATHER NETWORK

4/14/2021

Embedded content: https://players.brightcove.net/1942203455001/B1CSR9sVf_default/index.html?videoId=6248903533001

Floridians were treated to a fantastic sight on Monday night, as a bright fireball blazed across the sky and then exploded with a brilliant flash of light.

At around 10:20 p.m. ET on April 12, 2021, our planet had an extremely close encounter with a small space rock on its journey around the Sun. Swept up by Earth's atmosphere, this meteoroid plunged towards the surface, lighting up the sky as it did.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkThis image combines 30 frames from a video shot on the night of April 12, 2021, from Lakeland, FL, just to the southwest of Orlando. It captures the entire path of the fireball that flashed over the area, from beginning to just before it filled the horizon with light as it exploded. Video credit: Joseph Gresham

As of Tuesday afternoon, the American Meteor Society had collected 230 witness reports from the event, from people across the entire Florida peninsula, the Bahamas and even as far away as central Georgia. The exceptionally clear skies over the U.S. Southeast on Monday night would have guaranteed a perfect view for anyone who happened to be looking in the right direction at the time.

By compiling all of these reports and comparing each witness's account of the fireball location and direction of travel, AMS scientists can estimate where it happened. With these fireballs typically occurring very high up in the atmosphere — 30 to 50 kilometres above the surface — it's tough for individual witnesses to accurately judge the meteor's trajectory. The more reports they get, however, the more accurate the AMS estimate will be.

© Provided by The Weather Network

The event map from the American Meteor Society shows the likely trajectory of this fireball. Credit: AMS

This meteor's estimated trajectory puts it travelling from south to north, out over the Atlantic Ocean, about 60-70 kilometres northeast of West Palm Beach.

According to the International Meteor Organization, no major annual meteor showers are happening right now. The next meteor shower this year is the Lyrids, which begins on April 14 and peaks on the night of April 21-22. While this fireball occurred only two days before the shower begins, it's unlikely to be an early Lyrid. At the time of the fireball, the 'radiant' for the Lyrids — the point in the sky where the shower's meteors appear to originate from — was in the northeastern part of the sky.

Thus, this particular fireball was likely a sporadic meteor — one not associated with a known meteor shower.

A LARGE BOULDER THE SIZE OF A SMALL BOULDER

Update: In a post to their Facebook page, NASA Meteor Watch identified the likely cause of this fireball.

They said is was an asteroid fragment over 60 cm wide — about the size of an exercise ball — with a mass estimated at around 400 kg, which hit the atmosphere at a speed of over 60,000 kilometres per hour.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkThis artist's rendition shows a small Earth-impacting asteroid hitting the top of the planet's atmosphere. Credit: Kevin M. Gill, CC BY 2.0

"This translates to a kinetic energy of about 14 tons of TNT," they wrote, "explaining the flashes of light that lit up the sky as the fragment broke apart."

WILL THERE BE METEORITES?

Based on past conversations with meteor scientist Denis Vida at Western University, it's the slower meteoroids — those travelling at less than 30 kilometres per second — that are most likely to result in meteorites hitting the ground. Based on NASA Meteor Watch's calculations, this particular meteoroid was travelling at around 17 km/s. So, some fragments of it probably did reach the surface intact.

However, given that this meteor flashed over water, any meteorites from it are on the bottom of the ocean now.

SEEN FROM SPACE

This fireball was not only bright enough to be seen by witnesses from hundreds of kilometres around, but its explosive flash was also seen from space.

The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument, on board the GOES-16 geosynchronous weather satellite, routinely monitors cloud-tops for lightning strikes. This sensor will also pick up any other flash of light in its view if that flash is bright enough.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkThe continental view of GOES-16's Geostationary Lightning Mapper picked up the fireball flash at 10:20 p.m. ET on April 12 (02:20 UTC, April 13). The inset image shows a close-up view of the area. Credit: CIRA/NOAA

In this case, the GLM picked up the fireball explosion in almost the exact spot that the AMS estimated.

Read more: Got your hands on a space rock? Here's how to know for sure!
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

Out in space, there are likely millions of tiny bits of rock and ice and dust floating around the Sun. These are all leftover pieces from the formation of the solar system over 4.5 billion years ago. As they orbit the Sun, these meteoroids travel at speeds of tens to hundreds of thousands of kilometres per hour. So, if their path happens to intercept Earth, they plunge into the atmosphere at high speed.

© Provided by The Weather Network

As the meteoroid encounters air molecules in its path, it compresses those molecules together. This slows the meteoroid down, and if it compresses the air hard enough, that air will glow. This is the 'meteor' flash that we see.

If these meteoroids are tiny, such as microscopic dust grains, we may not notice them at all. If something more significant — the size of a grain of sand up to a pebble or even larger — passes over places we inhabit, though, they are much more noticeable. The larger and faster-moving the meteoroid is, the brighter the resulting meteor will be. Brighter ones are referred to as fireballs, while the brightest (which usually involve the meteoroid exploding during flight) are often called bolides.

The meteors' colour depends on a few different factors, such as the concentration of gases compressed by the meteoroid and the minerals and metals found in the meteoroid itself.

If a meteoroid is large enough and moving slowly enough as it makes its plunge through the atmosphere, pieces of it can reach the ground intact. If we find these, we call them meteorites.

UN warns that impact of Caribbean volcano could affect other islands

BEEN ACTIVE FOR A WEEK NOW

AFP 

The humanitarian and economic crisis unleashed by the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent will last months and could extend to nearby islands, a UN official warned Wednesday.

© Handout A NASA Earth Observatory satellite image of the volcano eruption of the La Soufriere Volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent

"It is a crisis that will require a humanitarian response but also a response in terms of rehabilitation" which could last for several months, said Didier Trebucq, the United Nations coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.

© Sofiane OUANES Map locating Saint Vincent's La Soufriere volcano

Trebucq, speaking to reporters in New York via videoconference from Barbados, said that the volcano -- which had not erupted since 1979 -- remains active and every day belches up clouds of ash and smoke after erupting on April 9.

The islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have around 110,000 inhabitants, 20,000 of whom had to be evacuated from their homes.

About 4,000 people have been moved to shelters but "this number is growing," Trebucq said.

On Wednesday a French navy ship, Le Ventose, reached Saint Vincent with water and 75 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

Trebucq said that it was hard to know how long the crisis will last. "Everything will depend on the duration of the volcanic eruptions," he said. "It is possible that it will last a few weeks, it is also possible that it lasts several months."

The eruption will have a medium and long term impact on Saint Vincent as well as nearby islands including Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and others.

The French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe may also be impacted "depending on the direction of the winds and where the volcanic ash is deposited," he said.

In calling for more robust international aid Trebucq noted that hurricane season in the Caribbean is set to begin in two months, and that tourism, the main source of income for the islands, has been severely curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

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