VDH: Data shows that vaccinated people rarely die from COVID
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Department of Health says that only 17 people who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus have died of the disease in the state since January.
The Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday that the new data indicates that unvaccinated Virginians make up more than 99% of COVID-related illnesses and fatalities this year.
It’s a fact that public health officials hope will persuade people who are unvaccinated to get their shots.
State Health Commissioner Norman Oliver urged more Virginians to get vaccinated in a statement on Friday.
“I applaud those who have chosen to protect themselves and the community by getting vaccinated,” he said, “and we appreciate the work of all who are helping to vaccinate Virginians.”
Public health officials say vaccines will be the most effective tool at ending the pandemic. It has killed more than 11,400 Virginians and infected at least half a million.
Cases have started ticking up again in several health districts. And public health officials say the delta variant is gaining ground in Virginia, leaving undervaccinated pockets of the state vulnerable.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Bath Iron Works seeks assurances of more Naval destroyer orders
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, C, visited Bath Iron Works Bath, Maine, this week, at a time the company fears a reduction in orders for Navy destroyers will lead to layoffs. Photo courtesy of Department of Defense
July 9 (UPI) -- Shipyards could suffer if the U.S. Navy does not order additional Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks was told this week.
Hicks visited Bath Iron Works in Maine, a General Dynamics subsidiary founded in 1884 whose primary customer is the U.S. Navy, and the Naval Sea Systems Command's Portsmouth, N.H., Naval Shipyard, to discuss a decrease in orders for Navy destroyers, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The trips were part of an assessment Hicks conducted this week of modernization and innovation efforts at several Pentagon installations.
In its 2022 budget, the Navy asked Congress to fund construction of only one destroyer, down from two requested in 2021, although last week the House Appropriations Committee returned the second ship to the military budget.
RELATEDKeel laid for USS Harvey Barnum destroyer at Bath Iron Works
Bath Iron Works executives are concerned that the low order will cause layoffs among experienced workers capable of building the Navy's newest destroyer, the DDG(X) class.
The new destroyers are designed to succeed the Arleigh Burke-class destoryers.
"There's no overlap between the current projected end of the [Arleigh Burke] program and the start of DDG(X)," Jon Mason, Bath Iron Works' vice president for human resources at the shipyard, told Defense One.
RELATEDNavy defends call for 1 destroyer in 2022 budget, tells Congress new contract coming
"And the challenges that that will create from an industrial base standpoint is what we really wanted to convey in these discussions here today," Mason said.
The Navy's long-term goals include a reduction in the older destroyers to about 65, down from the 90 currently at sea -- some of which are ready for decommissioning and retirement.
Bath Iron Works has requested orders for construction of at least 15 destroyers, beginning in 2023.
RELATEDFuture USS Inouye completes builder's trials after 4 days at sea
It currently has six Arleigh Burke-class ships under construction, and one Zumwalt-class ship.
Thirty-two Zumwalt-class ships were originally planned by the Navy, a number later reduced to seven and then to three.
Without new orders, the company has projected layoffs of 2,500 workers, of a workforce of about 7,000 people.
Maine's congressional delegation has advocated restoration of funding for new ships.
In June, Bath Iron Works was visited by Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, who is in favor of restoring construction of the previously-eliminated Arleigh Burke destroyer.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, C, visited Bath Iron Works Bath, Maine, this week, at a time the company fears a reduction in orders for Navy destroyers will lead to layoffs. Photo courtesy of Department of Defense
July 9 (UPI) -- Shipyards could suffer if the U.S. Navy does not order additional Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks was told this week.
Hicks visited Bath Iron Works in Maine, a General Dynamics subsidiary founded in 1884 whose primary customer is the U.S. Navy, and the Naval Sea Systems Command's Portsmouth, N.H., Naval Shipyard, to discuss a decrease in orders for Navy destroyers, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The trips were part of an assessment Hicks conducted this week of modernization and innovation efforts at several Pentagon installations.
In its 2022 budget, the Navy asked Congress to fund construction of only one destroyer, down from two requested in 2021, although last week the House Appropriations Committee returned the second ship to the military budget.
RELATEDKeel laid for USS Harvey Barnum destroyer at Bath Iron Works
Bath Iron Works executives are concerned that the low order will cause layoffs among experienced workers capable of building the Navy's newest destroyer, the DDG(X) class.
The new destroyers are designed to succeed the Arleigh Burke-class destoryers.
"There's no overlap between the current projected end of the [Arleigh Burke] program and the start of DDG(X)," Jon Mason, Bath Iron Works' vice president for human resources at the shipyard, told Defense One.
RELATEDNavy defends call for 1 destroyer in 2022 budget, tells Congress new contract coming
"And the challenges that that will create from an industrial base standpoint is what we really wanted to convey in these discussions here today," Mason said.
The Navy's long-term goals include a reduction in the older destroyers to about 65, down from the 90 currently at sea -- some of which are ready for decommissioning and retirement.
Bath Iron Works has requested orders for construction of at least 15 destroyers, beginning in 2023.
RELATEDFuture USS Inouye completes builder's trials after 4 days at sea
It currently has six Arleigh Burke-class ships under construction, and one Zumwalt-class ship.
Thirty-two Zumwalt-class ships were originally planned by the Navy, a number later reduced to seven and then to three.
Without new orders, the company has projected layoffs of 2,500 workers, of a workforce of about 7,000 people.
Maine's congressional delegation has advocated restoration of funding for new ships.
In June, Bath Iron Works was visited by Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, who is in favor of restoring construction of the previously-eliminated Arleigh Burke destroyer.
Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed gets his Pyrrhic victory
Ethiopian PM has prevailed in his first electoral contest, but there is little to celebrate given the country’s dire state, analysts say.
By James Jeffrey
11 Jul 2021
After months of setbacks – including being twice delayed – Ethiopia has had its election.
Originally scheduled for August 2020, it was postponed until June 5 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was delayed again to enable more time to tackle voter registration problems and other electoral challenges across African’s second-most populous country, eventually taking place on June 21.
On Saturday, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) announced that the party of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had won a landslide victory in his first electoral contest.
Hailing what he described as an “historic” election, Abiy said his Prosperity Party (PP) was “happy that it has been chosen by the will of the people to administer the country”.
The election’s belated completion is undoubtedly a significant moment, even as the polls were overshadowed by an opposition boycott, the conflict in the northern Tigray region and instability elsewhere. The NEBE channelled a lot of money and effort to overcome myriad obstacles and hold an election during a pandemic.
“I think that NEBE has done a reasonable job in difficult circumstances and may have created the kind of institution and precedents that Ethiopia needs,” said Terrence Lyons at George Mason University’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
But, at the same time, observers say, there is no escaping how numerous restrictions that characterised the election, and that were unrelated to COVID-19, speak to far larger fault lines running throughout Ethiopia. It means Abiy, who swept to power in 2018 on the back of years of anti-government protests, has little reason to savour the victory.
At stake, some say, remains not only Ethiopia’s democratic revival and break from its authoritarian past, but potentially the country’s survival as a nation state.
“Far from supplying legitimacy to the government and stability to the country, the election — boycotted by opposition parties and undertaken amid a war — is likely to pull Ethiopia further apart, to calamitous effect,” Tsedale Lemma, the founder of Addis Standard, an independent monthly magazine in Ethiopia, wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times on the election day.
‘Reshaping Ethiopia’
One of the most glaring problems with the election was it did not include Tigray, which represents 38 seats in the national parliament of 547 constituencies. Home to six million people, the region has been mired in eight months of catastrophic conflict pitting the federal government and its Eritrean allies against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigray’s former governing party which also used to dominate national politics until Abiy took office.
Many other Ethiopians also did not participate in the election due to worsening security in the Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz and Amhara regions, from which 64 constituencies have to wait until the second round of voting due on September 6, while there has been no date set for polls in Tigray, whose capital, Mekelle, was recently recaptured by forces loyal to TPLF. Ethiopia’s long-term ally, the United States, which has already spoken out over Tigray, has warned the exclusion of so many voters risks undermining confidence in the process
In addition to what some of Abiy’s critics say is yet another failure to deliver free and fair elections that fundamentally undermines the government’s legitimacy, the biggest issue at the heart of Ethiopia’s ongoing ructions remains the dispute over the nature of the Ethiopian state, which is metastasising in the form of the Tigray conflict that remains Abiy’s most immediate and greatest challenge, even as his government announced a unilateral ceasefire until September.
It all hinges on the balance of power between the federal centre and the regions, and the role of ethnolinguistic identity groups in the federal system.
“The big unknown going forward is whether Abiy’s victory encourages him to consolidate power and deploy the kinds of authoritarian means he has been using — arresting opposition, human rights violations, refusing negotiations with those he perceives to be his enemies — or will it allow him to relax, recognise that his mandate is now secure, and to take the opportunity to reach out and begin a process that is more inclusive and recognises that there are constituencies that have real grievances and oppose him,” says Lyons, noting that many believe Abiy would lean towards the first option.
Among the proponents of this more pessimistic view are Matt Bryden, director of Sahan, a research think-tank focused on the Horn of Africa. He says the most likely scenario is Abiy “will claim that the election was Ethiopia’s best and that he now has an even stronger mandate to pursue his agenda”, including the war in Tigray, and “reshaping Ethiopia as a more centralised autocracy”.
Salvaging Ethiopia’s democratic transition hinges on Abiy instigating a national dialogue to reform the current federal system that is no longer fit for purpose, argues Tewodrose Tirfe, chair of the Amhara Association of America, a US-based advocacy group for the Amhara, Ethiopia’s second-largest ethnic group.
Reforms needed
“The ethnic federalism system is hardly a nation-building project and has evidently become a system that is encouraging separatism,” Tewodrose says.
“If Ethiopia does not reform the ethnic apartheid system that leaves millions of Ethiopians stateless if they live outside of their ‘ethnic homeland’, Ethiopia will not be able to realise true democracy and take advantage of its enormous natural potential and population size.”
But others, such as Crisis Group’s Ethiopia specialist William Davison, argue that while the federal design contains defects, it is important to remember the federal system was created in 1994 in response to sustained armed resistance from various liberation fronts to homogenising tendencies — of the sort that Abiy is once again displaying.
At the end of 2019, Abiy dissolved the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) ruling alliance that had dominated Ethiopia politics since 1991, merging the ethnically based regional parties — apart from the TPLF that refused to join—into a single, national entity: the PP.
Since then, critics say Abiy and his new party appear just as disinclined as the EPRDF towards ruling in a genuinely democratic manner. Davison notes that some among the Oromo — Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group — are increasingly incensed by Abiy’s governance. The two main Oromo opposition parties boycotted the election amid increasing unrest in Oromia.
“The current violent blowback indicates that Abiy and his allies cannot achieve peace and prosperity for all Ethiopians by imposing their vision and party on Ethiopia using the coercive power of the state,” says Davison, noting Ethiopia’s internal strife leaves the country weaker and more fragile than it has been for decades.
This is not lost on the likes of Sudan and Egypt that have long-running disagreements with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project as well as, in Sudan’s case, a territorial border dispute.
It is also not lost on Eritrea and its longtime ruler Isaias Afwerki to Tigray’s north. All the while, on the international stage Ethiopia is likely to find itself increasingly isolated and at odds with its supporters, says Bryden.
The precarious situation for Ethiopia and the wider region is made all the worse, Davison says, by the “extreme toxicity” between the main political actors involved, polarised perspectives and “unwillingness to compromise”.
The election does nothing to change these dynamics. To avoid a continuation along the current violent trajectory requires, Davison says, Abiy should accept the dire need to bring everyone around the table — an option that so far he has shown no sign of being willing to consider — to hash out a compromise. It would be a difficult discussion, Davison says, but the alternative for Ethiopia is “far, far worse”, with others like Bryden agreeing there is a real risk of Ethiopia fragmenting further and even sliding towards state failure.
“I am always reluctant to predict the end of Ethiopia, since it looked pretty bad in early 2018 as well, and the state often manages to muddle through crisis after crisis,” Lyons says. “But it does not look good.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
Ethiopian PM has prevailed in his first electoral contest, but there is little to celebrate given the country’s dire state, analysts say.
On Saturday, the election board announced a landslide victory of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's party in his first electoral contest on June 21 [File: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
By James Jeffrey
11 Jul 2021
After months of setbacks – including being twice delayed – Ethiopia has had its election.
Originally scheduled for August 2020, it was postponed until June 5 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was delayed again to enable more time to tackle voter registration problems and other electoral challenges across African’s second-most populous country, eventually taking place on June 21.
On Saturday, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) announced that the party of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had won a landslide victory in his first electoral contest.
Hailing what he described as an “historic” election, Abiy said his Prosperity Party (PP) was “happy that it has been chosen by the will of the people to administer the country”.
The election’s belated completion is undoubtedly a significant moment, even as the polls were overshadowed by an opposition boycott, the conflict in the northern Tigray region and instability elsewhere. The NEBE channelled a lot of money and effort to overcome myriad obstacles and hold an election during a pandemic.
“I think that NEBE has done a reasonable job in difficult circumstances and may have created the kind of institution and precedents that Ethiopia needs,” said Terrence Lyons at George Mason University’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
But, at the same time, observers say, there is no escaping how numerous restrictions that characterised the election, and that were unrelated to COVID-19, speak to far larger fault lines running throughout Ethiopia. It means Abiy, who swept to power in 2018 on the back of years of anti-government protests, has little reason to savour the victory.
At stake, some say, remains not only Ethiopia’s democratic revival and break from its authoritarian past, but potentially the country’s survival as a nation state.
“Far from supplying legitimacy to the government and stability to the country, the election — boycotted by opposition parties and undertaken amid a war — is likely to pull Ethiopia further apart, to calamitous effect,” Tsedale Lemma, the founder of Addis Standard, an independent monthly magazine in Ethiopia, wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times on the election day.
‘Reshaping Ethiopia’
One of the most glaring problems with the election was it did not include Tigray, which represents 38 seats in the national parliament of 547 constituencies. Home to six million people, the region has been mired in eight months of catastrophic conflict pitting the federal government and its Eritrean allies against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigray’s former governing party which also used to dominate national politics until Abiy took office.
Many other Ethiopians also did not participate in the election due to worsening security in the Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz and Amhara regions, from which 64 constituencies have to wait until the second round of voting due on September 6, while there has been no date set for polls in Tigray, whose capital, Mekelle, was recently recaptured by forces loyal to TPLF. Ethiopia’s long-term ally, the United States, which has already spoken out over Tigray, has warned the exclusion of so many voters risks undermining confidence in the process
In addition to what some of Abiy’s critics say is yet another failure to deliver free and fair elections that fundamentally undermines the government’s legitimacy, the biggest issue at the heart of Ethiopia’s ongoing ructions remains the dispute over the nature of the Ethiopian state, which is metastasising in the form of the Tigray conflict that remains Abiy’s most immediate and greatest challenge, even as his government announced a unilateral ceasefire until September.
It all hinges on the balance of power between the federal centre and the regions, and the role of ethnolinguistic identity groups in the federal system.
“The big unknown going forward is whether Abiy’s victory encourages him to consolidate power and deploy the kinds of authoritarian means he has been using — arresting opposition, human rights violations, refusing negotiations with those he perceives to be his enemies — or will it allow him to relax, recognise that his mandate is now secure, and to take the opportunity to reach out and begin a process that is more inclusive and recognises that there are constituencies that have real grievances and oppose him,” says Lyons, noting that many believe Abiy would lean towards the first option.
Among the proponents of this more pessimistic view are Matt Bryden, director of Sahan, a research think-tank focused on the Horn of Africa. He says the most likely scenario is Abiy “will claim that the election was Ethiopia’s best and that he now has an even stronger mandate to pursue his agenda”, including the war in Tigray, and “reshaping Ethiopia as a more centralised autocracy”.
Salvaging Ethiopia’s democratic transition hinges on Abiy instigating a national dialogue to reform the current federal system that is no longer fit for purpose, argues Tewodrose Tirfe, chair of the Amhara Association of America, a US-based advocacy group for the Amhara, Ethiopia’s second-largest ethnic group.
Reforms needed
“The ethnic federalism system is hardly a nation-building project and has evidently become a system that is encouraging separatism,” Tewodrose says.
“If Ethiopia does not reform the ethnic apartheid system that leaves millions of Ethiopians stateless if they live outside of their ‘ethnic homeland’, Ethiopia will not be able to realise true democracy and take advantage of its enormous natural potential and population size.”
But others, such as Crisis Group’s Ethiopia specialist William Davison, argue that while the federal design contains defects, it is important to remember the federal system was created in 1994 in response to sustained armed resistance from various liberation fronts to homogenising tendencies — of the sort that Abiy is once again displaying.
At the end of 2019, Abiy dissolved the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) ruling alliance that had dominated Ethiopia politics since 1991, merging the ethnically based regional parties — apart from the TPLF that refused to join—into a single, national entity: the PP.
Since then, critics say Abiy and his new party appear just as disinclined as the EPRDF towards ruling in a genuinely democratic manner. Davison notes that some among the Oromo — Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group — are increasingly incensed by Abiy’s governance. The two main Oromo opposition parties boycotted the election amid increasing unrest in Oromia.
“The current violent blowback indicates that Abiy and his allies cannot achieve peace and prosperity for all Ethiopians by imposing their vision and party on Ethiopia using the coercive power of the state,” says Davison, noting Ethiopia’s internal strife leaves the country weaker and more fragile than it has been for decades.
This is not lost on the likes of Sudan and Egypt that have long-running disagreements with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project as well as, in Sudan’s case, a territorial border dispute.
It is also not lost on Eritrea and its longtime ruler Isaias Afwerki to Tigray’s north. All the while, on the international stage Ethiopia is likely to find itself increasingly isolated and at odds with its supporters, says Bryden.
The precarious situation for Ethiopia and the wider region is made all the worse, Davison says, by the “extreme toxicity” between the main political actors involved, polarised perspectives and “unwillingness to compromise”.
The election does nothing to change these dynamics. To avoid a continuation along the current violent trajectory requires, Davison says, Abiy should accept the dire need to bring everyone around the table — an option that so far he has shown no sign of being willing to consider — to hash out a compromise. It would be a difficult discussion, Davison says, but the alternative for Ethiopia is “far, far worse”, with others like Bryden agreeing there is a real risk of Ethiopia fragmenting further and even sliding towards state failure.
“I am always reluctant to predict the end of Ethiopia, since it looked pretty bad in early 2018 as well, and the state often manages to muddle through crisis after crisis,” Lyons says. “But it does not look good.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
U.S. Navy ships
Credit: Getty Images
- U.S. Navy holds patents for enigmatic inventions by aerospace engineer Dr. Salvatore Pais.
- Pais came up with technology that can "engineer" reality, devising an ultrafast craft, a fusion reactor, and more.
- While mostly theoretical at this point, the inventions could transform energy, space, and military sectors.
The U.S. Navy controls patents for some futuristic and outlandish technologies, some of which, dubbed "the UFO patents," came to light recently. Of particular note are inventions by the somewhat mysterious Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, whose tech claims to be able to "engineer reality." His slate of highly-ambitious, borderline sci-fi designs meant for use by the U.S. government range from gravitational wave generators and compact fusion reactors to next-gen hybrid aerospace-underwater crafts with revolutionary propulsion systems, and beyond.
Of course, the existence of patents does not mean these technologies have actually been created, but there is evidence that some demonstrations of operability have been successfully carried out. As investigated and reported by The War Zone, a possible reason why some of the patents may have been taken on by the Navy is that the Chinese military may also be developing similar advanced gadgets.
Among Dr. Pais's patents are designs, approved in 2018, for an aerospace-underwater craft of incredible speed and maneuverability. This cone-shaped vehicle can potentially fly just as well anywhere it may be, whether air, water or space, without leaving any heat signatures. It can achieve this by creating a quantum vacuum around itself with a very dense polarized energy field. This vacuum would allow it to repel any molecule the craft comes in contact with, no matter the medium. Manipulating "quantum field fluctuations in the local vacuum energy state," would help reduce the craft's inertia. The polarized vacuum would dramatically decrease any elemental resistance and lead to "extreme speeds," claims the paper.
Not only that, if the vacuum-creating technology can be engineered, we'd also be able to "engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level," states the patent. This would lead to major advancements in aerospace propulsion and generating power. Not to mention other reality-changing outcomes that come to mind.
Among Pais's other patents are inventions that stem from similar thinking, outlining pieces of technology necessary to make his creations come to fruition. His paper presented in 2019, titled "Room Temperature Superconducting System for Use on a Hybrid Aerospace Undersea Craft," proposes a system that can achieve superconductivity at room temperatures. This would become "a highly disruptive technology, capable of a total paradigm change in Science and Technology," conveys Pais
High frequency gravitational wave generator.
Credit: Dr. Salvatore Pais
Another invention devised by Pais is an electromagnetic field generator that could generate "an impenetrable defensive shield to sea and land as well as space-based military and civilian assets." This shield could protect from threats like anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles that evade radar, coronal mass ejections, military satellites, and even asteroids.
Dr. Pais's ideas center around the phenomenon he dubbed "The Pais Effect". He referred to it in his writings as the "controlled motion of electrically charged matter (from solid to plasma) via accelerated spin and/or accelerated vibration under rapid (yet smooth) acceleration-deceleration-acceleration transients." In less jargon-heavy terms, Pais claims to have figured out how to spin electromagnetic fields in order to contain a fusion reaction – an accomplishment that would lead to a tremendous change in power consumption and an abundance of energy
According to his bio in a recently published paper on a new Plasma Compression Fusion Device, which could transform energy production, Dr. Pais is a mechanical and aerospace engineer working at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), which is headquartered in Patuxent River, Maryland. Holding a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, Pais was a NASA Research Fellow and worked with Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. His current Department of Defense work involves his "advanced knowledge of theory, analysis, and modern experimental and computational methods in aerodynamics, along with an understanding of air-vehicle and missile design, especially in the domain of hypersonic power plant and vehicle design." He also has expert knowledge of electrooptics, emerging quantum technologies (laser power generation in particular), high-energy electromagnetic field generation, and the "breakthrough field of room temperature superconductivity, as related to advanced field propulsion."
Suffice it to say, with such a list of research credentials that would make Nikola Tesla proud, Dr. Pais seems well-positioned to carry out groundbreaking work.
A craft using an inertial mass reduction device.
Credit: Salvatore Pai
The patents won't necessarily lead to these technologies ever seeing the light of day. The research has its share of detractors and nonbelievers among other scientists, who think the amount of energy required for the fields described by Pais and his ideas on electromagnetic propulsions are well beyond the scope of current tech and are nearly impossible. Yet investigators at The War Zone found comments from Navy officials that indicate the inventions are being looked at seriously enough, and some tests are taking place.
If you'd like to read through Pais's patents yourself, check them out here.
Laser Augmented Turbojet Propulsion System
Credit: Dr. Salvatore Pais
Pancakes and protests: Politicians met with conflict at several Calgary Stampede breakfasts
Mark VillaniCTV News Calgary Video Journalist
CALGARY -- Politicians were flipping flapjacks with pride and promising better days ahead as the Calgary Stampede marks Canada’s first major event to fully open up with nearly zero restrictions.
A series of pancake breakfasts on Saturday morning saw thousands gather for the traditional celebration in what Premier Jason Kenney hopes to be a symbol of Alberta’s path to fully reopening.
“I'm glad people are embracing Alberta being open for summer and I believe with the vaccines we're open for good,” Kenney said.
“It's just a great feeling to get back in touch with friends, family and community.”
Although, not everyone is embracing a sense of togetherness.
Several protesters taunted Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro outside of a breakfast at Calgary’s Trico Centre.
Many of them held up signs in frustration of COVID-19 restrictions that halted surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic, while others said their rights were taken away during Alberta’s lockdown.
As the pair flipped pancakes, members from the protest group taunted them and shouted protests.
Politicians like Shandro say those comments have been all too familiar over the course of the last couple of years, but he hopes tensions will calm as Alberta continues to reopen.
“I think COVID has, on both sides of the political spectrum, made a lot of folks anxious and I think we're going to see as we continue to go throughout the reopening of the province, going into recovery moving from pandemic that anxiety will calm down,” Shandro said.
When Kenney was asked about his response to the protesters he said, “they should switch to decaf.”
“It's a democracy, people are free to share their views but these are the same people that attacked Minister Shandro's young children last week.”
'RAGING GRANNIES' FIGHT FOR NURSES AND END TO COAL MINING
While thousands of people enjoyed the taste of buttermilk pancakes and sausages, several protesters gathered outside of a pancake breakfast at Marlborough Mall Saturday morning for a peaceful demonstration.
A non-partisan group called the ‘Calgary Raging Grannies’ sang songs and held signs in protest of pay cuts to Alberta health-care workers.
“It’s despicable,” said group organizer, Rebecca Brown.
“They were heroes a little while ago and suddenly it’s a three per cent payback and a five per cent cut to their benefits and retroactive so they want us to pay it back too?”
Brown adds that several doctors, nurses, and frontline health-care workers have had cancelled vacations, been exposed to outbreaks and lost sick pay.
“A lot of nurses work part-time so the politicians go off with saying they’re earning all this money, but a lot of them are not so a cut in their pay could mean a serious deficit,” she said.
Meanwhile, other protesters fought against coal mining and for the protection of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Benita Estes drove in from High River, Alta. Saturday morning for the protest to send a message to federal and provincial politicians attending the breakfast.
“We still have a huge fight on our hands,” Estes said.
“For the people that live in southern Alberta, they’re going to ruin our water and this is our agricultural lands, something that we rely on for irrigation. People come from all around the world to see these mountains, they're not going to want to see a bunch of coal dusted lands.”
O'TOOLE: 'I WILL HAVE THEIR BACK'
Federal Opposition Leader, Erin O’Toole arrived in Calgary to attend the Stampede Breakfast at Marlborough Mall Saturday morning where he was greeted by several people wishing to take photos with him and share their thoughts on Conservative policies.
O’Toole spoke briefly to the crowd and, upon leaving the event, shared a brief comment with CTV News as a potential federal election looms for Canadians this fall.
“This is the greatest outdoor show on Earth and it's so good to see this province and the country reopening,” O’Toole said.
“I'm really proud of what Albertans have done for this country over the last generation, and will have their back, so it's great to be here.”
Erin O'Toole was met with admirers looking for a photo with the Conservative leader at a northeast Calgary Stampede breakfast.
Protesters heckled Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro at one Stampede breakfast Saturday, calling them out over Alberta's COVID-19 restrictions.
Mark VillaniCTV News Calgary Video Journalist
Published Saturday, July 10, 2021
CALGARY -- Politicians were flipping flapjacks with pride and promising better days ahead as the Calgary Stampede marks Canada’s first major event to fully open up with nearly zero restrictions.
A series of pancake breakfasts on Saturday morning saw thousands gather for the traditional celebration in what Premier Jason Kenney hopes to be a symbol of Alberta’s path to fully reopening.
“I'm glad people are embracing Alberta being open for summer and I believe with the vaccines we're open for good,” Kenney said.
“It's just a great feeling to get back in touch with friends, family and community.”
Although, not everyone is embracing a sense of togetherness.
Several protesters taunted Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro outside of a breakfast at Calgary’s Trico Centre.
Many of them held up signs in frustration of COVID-19 restrictions that halted surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic, while others said their rights were taken away during Alberta’s lockdown.
As the pair flipped pancakes, members from the protest group taunted them and shouted protests.
Politicians like Shandro say those comments have been all too familiar over the course of the last couple of years, but he hopes tensions will calm as Alberta continues to reopen.
“I think COVID has, on both sides of the political spectrum, made a lot of folks anxious and I think we're going to see as we continue to go throughout the reopening of the province, going into recovery moving from pandemic that anxiety will calm down,” Shandro said.
When Kenney was asked about his response to the protesters he said, “they should switch to decaf.”
“It's a democracy, people are free to share their views but these are the same people that attacked Minister Shandro's young children last week.”
'RAGING GRANNIES' FIGHT FOR NURSES AND END TO COAL MINING
While thousands of people enjoyed the taste of buttermilk pancakes and sausages, several protesters gathered outside of a pancake breakfast at Marlborough Mall Saturday morning for a peaceful demonstration.
A non-partisan group called the ‘Calgary Raging Grannies’ sang songs and held signs in protest of pay cuts to Alberta health-care workers.
“It’s despicable,” said group organizer, Rebecca Brown.
“They were heroes a little while ago and suddenly it’s a three per cent payback and a five per cent cut to their benefits and retroactive so they want us to pay it back too?”
Brown adds that several doctors, nurses, and frontline health-care workers have had cancelled vacations, been exposed to outbreaks and lost sick pay.
“A lot of nurses work part-time so the politicians go off with saying they’re earning all this money, but a lot of them are not so a cut in their pay could mean a serious deficit,” she said.
Meanwhile, other protesters fought against coal mining and for the protection of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Benita Estes drove in from High River, Alta. Saturday morning for the protest to send a message to federal and provincial politicians attending the breakfast.
“We still have a huge fight on our hands,” Estes said.
“For the people that live in southern Alberta, they’re going to ruin our water and this is our agricultural lands, something that we rely on for irrigation. People come from all around the world to see these mountains, they're not going to want to see a bunch of coal dusted lands.”
O'TOOLE: 'I WILL HAVE THEIR BACK'
Federal Opposition Leader, Erin O’Toole arrived in Calgary to attend the Stampede Breakfast at Marlborough Mall Saturday morning where he was greeted by several people wishing to take photos with him and share their thoughts on Conservative policies.
O’Toole spoke briefly to the crowd and, upon leaving the event, shared a brief comment with CTV News as a potential federal election looms for Canadians this fall.
“This is the greatest outdoor show on Earth and it's so good to see this province and the country reopening,” O’Toole said.
“I'm really proud of what Albertans have done for this country over the last generation, and will have their back, so it's great to be here.”
Erin O'Toole was met with admirers looking for a photo with the Conservative leader at a northeast Calgary Stampede breakfast.
Protesters heckled Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro at one Stampede breakfast Saturday, calling them out over Alberta's COVID-19 restrictions.
Autonomous drones learn to find 'hidden' meteorite impact sites
Jon Fingas
·Associate Editor
Sat., July 10, 2021
It's easy to find large meteorites (or their craters) once they've reached Earth, but the smaller ones often go neglected — scientists recover fewer than 2 percent of them. Soon, however, it might just be a question of sending a robot to do the job. Universe Today reports that researchers have developed a system that has autonomous drones use machine learning to find the smaller meteorites in impact sites that are either 'hidden' (even if observers traced the fall) or simply inaccessible.
The technology uses a mix of convolutional neural networks to recognize meteorites based on training images, both from online images as well as staged shots from the team's collection. This helps the AI distinguish between space rocks and ordinary stones, even with a variety of shapes and terrain conditions.
The results aren't flawless. While a test drone did correctly spot planted meteorites, there were also some false positives. It could be a while before robotic aircraft are trustworthy enough to provide accurate results all on their own.
The implications for space science are significant if the technology proves accurate, though. It would help scientists spot and potentially recover meteorites that are either too small to find or too remote. That, in turn, could help pinpoint meteorite sources and identify the rocks' compositions. Simply put, drones could fill gaps in humanity's understanding of the cosmic debris that lands at our doorstep.
Jon Fingas
·Associate Editor
Sat., July 10, 2021
It's easy to find large meteorites (or their craters) once they've reached Earth, but the smaller ones often go neglected — scientists recover fewer than 2 percent of them. Soon, however, it might just be a question of sending a robot to do the job. Universe Today reports that researchers have developed a system that has autonomous drones use machine learning to find the smaller meteorites in impact sites that are either 'hidden' (even if observers traced the fall) or simply inaccessible.
The technology uses a mix of convolutional neural networks to recognize meteorites based on training images, both from online images as well as staged shots from the team's collection. This helps the AI distinguish between space rocks and ordinary stones, even with a variety of shapes and terrain conditions.
The results aren't flawless. While a test drone did correctly spot planted meteorites, there were also some false positives. It could be a while before robotic aircraft are trustworthy enough to provide accurate results all on their own.
The implications for space science are significant if the technology proves accurate, though. It would help scientists spot and potentially recover meteorites that are either too small to find or too remote. That, in turn, could help pinpoint meteorite sources and identify the rocks' compositions. Simply put, drones could fill gaps in humanity's understanding of the cosmic debris that lands at our doorstep.
Massive solar storm heading towards Earth at 1.6 million kmph may impact cell phone, GPS signals
A hole has opened up in the Sun's atmosphere and is spewing a stream of solar wind in Earth's direction.
WRITTEN BY
DNA Web Team
EDITED BY
Karishma Jain
DNA webdesk Updated: Jul 11, 2021, 08:27 PM IST
A fierce solar storm is moving towards the Earth at a speed of 1.6 million kilometers per hour. It is feared that this storm may hit the Earth either on Sunday or Monday, due to which there may be a power failure around the world.
According to the website SpaceWeather.com, the storm has originated from the Sun's atmosphere. A hole has opened up in the Sun's atmosphere and is spewing a stream of solar wind in Earth's direction.
Direct effect on radio signals
ALSO READ
Sun blasts biggest solar flare since 2017, causes shortwave radio blackout
According to the website, satellite signals can also be interrupted due to this collision. It can also have a direct effect on radio signals, communication and weather. Not only this, the storm can have a significant impact on a region of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field.
As per the US space agency, NASA, the speed of the solar storm could increase from 1.6 million kilometres per hour.
ALSO READ
Shocking! Solar flares may shut down radio signals and cause navigation blackouts, experts warn
Can cause interference in mobile phone signals
This can heat the Earth's outer atmosphere, which will have a direct effect on satellites. It can cause interference in GPS navigation, mobile phone signals and satellite TV, current in power lines can be increased. However, this is rarely the case because the Earth's magnetic field acts as a protective shield.
X1.5-class flare
According to the Space Weather Prediction Centre of the United States, the impact of the solar flare will be centered on sub-solar point on the sunlit side of Earth. NASA has classified this flare as an X1.5-class flare.
X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.
Due to the solar storm, people living at the North or South Pole will be able to see a view of beautiful celestial lighting (auroras) at night.
Historically, solar storms have been known to plunge parts of the world into chaos. A solar storm in March 1989 caused a nine-hour blackout Hydro-Québec's electricity transmission system in Canada.
A hole has opened up in the Sun's atmosphere and is spewing a stream of solar wind in Earth's direction.
WRITTEN BY
DNA Web Team
EDITED BY
Karishma Jain
DNA webdesk Updated: Jul 11, 2021, 08:27 PM IST
A fierce solar storm is moving towards the Earth at a speed of 1.6 million kilometers per hour. It is feared that this storm may hit the Earth either on Sunday or Monday, due to which there may be a power failure around the world.
According to the website SpaceWeather.com, the storm has originated from the Sun's atmosphere. A hole has opened up in the Sun's atmosphere and is spewing a stream of solar wind in Earth's direction.
Direct effect on radio signals
ALSO READ
Sun blasts biggest solar flare since 2017, causes shortwave radio blackout
According to the website, satellite signals can also be interrupted due to this collision. It can also have a direct effect on radio signals, communication and weather. Not only this, the storm can have a significant impact on a region of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field.
As per the US space agency, NASA, the speed of the solar storm could increase from 1.6 million kilometres per hour.
ALSO READ
Shocking! Solar flares may shut down radio signals and cause navigation blackouts, experts warn
Can cause interference in mobile phone signals
This can heat the Earth's outer atmosphere, which will have a direct effect on satellites. It can cause interference in GPS navigation, mobile phone signals and satellite TV, current in power lines can be increased. However, this is rarely the case because the Earth's magnetic field acts as a protective shield.
X1.5-class flare
According to the Space Weather Prediction Centre of the United States, the impact of the solar flare will be centered on sub-solar point on the sunlit side of Earth. NASA has classified this flare as an X1.5-class flare.
X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.
Due to the solar storm, people living at the North or South Pole will be able to see a view of beautiful celestial lighting (auroras) at night.
Historically, solar storms have been known to plunge parts of the world into chaos. A solar storm in March 1989 caused a nine-hour blackout Hydro-Québec's electricity transmission system in Canada.
Sculpted by Starlight: An Unusual Meteorite Witness to the Solar System’s Birth
The Carina Nebula, where newborn stars are irradiated by intense ultraviolet light from nearby massive stars – possibly similar to the environment which birthed our solar system – is pictured over a fragment of Acfer 094. (Carina nebula image: NASA; ESA; N. Smith, University of California, Berkeley; and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acfer 094 image: Ryan Ogliore. Credit: Ryan Ogliore, Washington University in St. Louis
Researchers use unusual meteorite to gain insight into our solar system’s past, present.
In 2011, scientists confirmed a suspicion: There was a split in the local cosmos. Samples of the solar wind brought back to Earth by the Genesis mission definitively determined oxygen isotopes in the sun differ from those found on Earth, the moon and the other planets and satellites in the solar system.
Early in the solar system’s history, material that would later coalesce into planets had been hit with a hefty dose of ultraviolet light, which can explain this difference. Where did it come from? Two theories emerged: Either the ultraviolet light came from our then-young sun, or it came from a large nearby star in the sun’s stellar nursery.
Now, researchers from the lab of Ryan Ogliore, assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, have determined which was responsible for the split. It was most likely light from a long-dead massive star that left this impression on the rocky bodies of the solar system. The study was led by Lionel Vacher, a postdoctoral research associate in the physics department’s Laboratory for Space Sciences.
Their results are published in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.
“We knew that we were born of stardust: that is, dust created by other stars in our galactic neighborhood were part of the building blocks of the solar system,” Ogliore said.
“But this study showed that starlight had a profound effect on our origins as well.”
Tiny time capsule
All of that profundity was packed into a mere 85 grams of rock, a piece of an asteroid found as a meteorite in Algeria in 1990, named Acfer 094. Asteroids and planets formed from the same presolar material, but they’ve been influenced by different natural processes. The rocky building blocks that coalesced to form asteroids and planets were broken up and battered; vaporized and recombined; and compressed and heated. But the asteroid that Acfer 094 came from managed to survive for 4.6 billion years mostly unscathed.
“This is one of the most primitive meteorites in our collection,” Vacher said. “It was not heated significantly. It contains porous regions and tiny grains that formed around other stars. It is a reliable witness to the solar system’s formation.”
Acfer 094 is also the only meteorite that contains cosmic symplectite, an intergrowth of iron-oxide and iron-sulfide with extremely heavy oxygen isotopes — a significant finding.
The sun contains about 6% more of the lightest oxygen isotope compared with the rest of the solar system. That can be explained by ultraviolet light shining on the solar system’s building blocks, selectively breaking apart carbon monoxide gas into its constituent atoms. That process also creates a reservoir of much heavier oxygen isotopes. Until cosmic symplectite, however, no one had found this heavy isotope signature in samples of solar system materials.
With only three isotopes, however, simply finding the heavy oxygen isotopes wasn’t enough to answer the question of the origin of the light. Different ultraviolet spectra could have created the same result.
“That’s when Ryan came up with the idea of sulfur isotopes,” Vacher said.
Sulfur’s four isotopes would leave their marks in different ratios depending on the spectrum of ultraviolet light that irradiated hydrogen sulfide gas in the proto-solar system. A massive star and a young sun-like star have different ultraviolet spectra.
Cosmic symplectite formed when ices on the asteroid melted and reacted with small pieces of iron-nickel metal. In addition to oxygen, cosmic symplectite contains sulfur in iron sulfide. If its oxygen witnessed this ancient astrophysical process — which led to the heavy oxygen isotopes — perhaps its sulfur did, too.
“We developed a model,” Ogliore said. “If I had a massive star, what isotope anomalies would be created? What about for a young, sun-like star? The precision of the model depends on the experimental data. Fortunately, other scientists have done great experiments on what happens to isotope ratios when hydrogen sulfide is irradiated by ultraviolet light.”
Sulfur and oxygen isotope measurements of cosmic symplectite in Acfer 094 proved another challenge. The grains, tens of micrometers in size and a mixture of minerals, required new techniques on two different in-situ secondary-ion mass spectrometers: the NanoSIMS in the physics department (with assistance from Nan Liu, research assistant professor in physics) and the 7f-GEO in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, also in Arts & Sciences.
Putting the puzzle together
It helped to have friends in earth and planetary sciences, particularly David Fike, professor of earth and planetary sciences and director of Environmental Studies in Arts & Sciences as well as director of the International Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, and Clive Jones, research scientist in earth and planetary sciences.
“They are experts in high-precision in-situ sulfur isotope measurements for biogeochemistry,” Ogliore said. “Without this collaboration, we would not have achieved the precision we needed to differentiate between the young sun and massive star scenarios.”
The sulfur isotope measurements of cosmic symplectite were consistent with ultraviolet irradiation from a massive star, but did not fit the UV spectrum from the young sun. The results give a unique perspective on the astrophysical environment of the sun’s birth 4.6 billion years ago. Neighboring massive stars were likely close enough that their light affected the solar system’s formation. Such a nearby massive star in the night sky would appear brighter than the full moon.
Today, we can look to the skies and see a similar origin story play out elsewhere in the galaxy.
“We see nascent planetary systems, called proplyds, in the Orion nebula that are being photoevaporated by ultraviolet light from nearby massive O and B stars,” Vacher said.
“If the proplyds are too close to these stars, they can be torn apart, and planets never form. We now know our own solar system at its birth was close enough to be affected by the light of these stars,” he said. “But thankfully, not too close.”
Reference: “Cosmic symplectite recorded irradiation by nearby massive stars in the solar system’s parent molecular cloud” by Lionel G. Vacher, Ryan C. Ogliore, Clive Jones, Nan Liu and David A. Fike, 25 June 2021, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.
DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2021.06.026
This work was supported by the McDonnell Center for Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and NASA grant NNX14AF22G.
17 million gallons of sewage spill into ocean, close miles of LA beaches
Dockweiler State Beach, pictured here in March 2020, was closed for swimming Monday after 17 million gallons of sewage spilled into the ocean. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
July 13 (UPI) -- Miles of beaches along the Southern California coast in the Los Angeles area remained closed on Tuesday after 17 million gallons of sewage leaked into the Pacific Ocean.
Officials said the sewage came from the Hyperion treatment plant and spilled into Santa Monica Bay on Sunday.
As a result, about 4 miles of beaches were closed Monday to swimmers and surfers.
"Water samples are being tested and I'm getting more information about the scope of the problem," Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn tweeted. "Beaches from El Segundo to the Dockweiler RV Park are closed for swimming."
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health closed off the affected areas and said the beaches will stay closed until test results are "confirmed negative for elevated bacteria."
"Public Health officials are advising residents to avoid contact with ocean water in the affected areas," the department said in a statement. "Beach users are advised to stay out of the water until the advisory is removed."
The Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant is Los Angeles' largest and oldest sewage treatment facility and can handle about 450 million gallons of water each day.
"The plant's relief system was triggered and sewage flows were controlled through use of the plant's one-mile outfall and discharge of untreated sewage into Santa Monica Bay," Executive Plant Manager Timeyin Dafeta said, according to USA Today.
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