PIEZIOELECTRIC PHENOMENA

Unexplained Lights During an Earthquake Have Mexicans Wondering if the Apocalypse Is Coming

The dazzling lights were seen from the southern coastal city of Acapulco all the way to the capital Mexico City.

By Jeff Ernst




DAMAGES ARE SEEN AFTER AN EARTHQUAKE IN ACAPULCO, STATE OF GUERRERO, MEXICO, ON SEPTEMBER 7, 2021. PHOTO BY JESUS ESPINOSA/XINHUA VIA GETTY IMAGES.

As the ground shook across Mexico this week due to a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, mysterious blue and red flashes of light illuminated the sky, drawing comparisons on social media with a biblical apocalypse and frightening the masses who’d taken to the streets for safety.

The dazzling lights, which appeared during the quake on September 7 as though they were shot from the ground like fireworks, were observed from the southern coastal city of Acapulco, near the quake’s epicenter, all the way to the capital Mexico City, roughly 200 miles away.

The exact cause of the luminous display is debated by scientists.

Among the most prominent theories is that the flashes are an example of what’s commonly known as earthquake lights, or EQL. Instances of this phenomenon have been recorded for hundreds of years, in some cases occurring in the hours and minutes before noticeable seismic activity.

For centuries earthquake lights were dismissed as folktales or illusions, but in recent decades, with the advent of video cameras for surveillance or on smartphones, more evidence that suggests their existence has led scientists to take a closer look.

Differing hypotheses regarding the cause of the phenomenon have been proposed, “including the disruption of the Earth's magnetic field by tectonic stress and the so-called piezoelectric effect, in which quartz-bearing rocks produce voltages when compressed in a certain way.”

A study published in 2014, however, theorizes that the lights occur when seismic activity causes certain kinds of rocks to release energy, which can manifest itself in short, blue flames that emerge from the ground, spheres of energy resembling ball lightning that can hover in the air for seconds to minutes, or the bright flashes of light that shoot out from the ground and appear to be what was observed in Mexico.

Since the kinds of rocks that produce earthquake lights only exist in certain environments, occurrences are rare. Following a devastating 8.1 magnitude earthquake in Mexico that hit four years before the most recent one, similar lights were observed.

Still, many remain skeptical, including the United States Geological Survey, which noted tha

“Geophysicists differ on the extent to which they think that individual reports of unusual lighting near the time and epicenter of an earthquake actually represent EQL: some doubt that any of the reports constitute solid evidence for EQL, whereas others think that at least some reports plausibly correspond to EQL.”

Others suggest that the lights seen in the sky over Mexico were caused by electrical shortages and the explosion of transformers along the grid, or even regular lightning. It’s also possible that there were shortages, lightning and earthquake lights combining to produce the spectacular show. Further study will be necessary to come to a definitive conclusion.

Meanwhile, many in Mexico are on edge wondering if another earthquake could hit before the month’s end. An unusual amount of seismic activity has occurred in September, including many of the most notorious quakes in the country’s history. The coincidence has led to much speculation, and a torrent of memes, but there is no scientific reason for why earthquakes would occur at a certain point of the year.

Piezoelectricity

Piezoelectricity (/ˌpiːzoʊ-, ˌpiːtsoʊ-, paɪˌiːzoʊ-/, US: /piˌeɪzoʊ-, piˌeɪtsoʊ-/) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The word …

 

What were the flashes of light seen during Mexico’s recent earthquake?

Experts say these bursts of light are linked to the energy released during the tremor

People standing outside their homes during the earthquake in Mexico City on Tuesday

.CARLOS RAMÍREZ / EFE

ALMUDENA BARRAGÁN

México - 09 SEP 2021 - 10:09 MDT

A 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook central Mexico on Tuesday night, leaving at least one person dead and significant damage in Acapulco, in Guerrero State. But the earthquake also roused terror for another reason: huge flashes of blue light in the sky known as “earthquake lights.” Experts interviewed by this newspaper say the phenomenon is caused by the release of energy before, during and after the tremor, and the flashes can be triggered by seismic activity and volcanic eruptions.

”The interaction between motion on the ground and the atmosphere is real,” said Víctor Manuel Cruz, a seismologist at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). “Records show that an earthquake can produce dynamic disturbances and electromagnetic signals,” he added.

In the middle of the rainy night, many confused the flashes for lightning or electrical system failures. Although science has not offered a conclusive explanation for this phenomenon, most cite the release of energy during an earthquake. This might be linked to a phenomenon known as triboluminescence, where materials release light when they are rubbed, stretched or otherwise manipulated.

When a seismic wave hits the ground, the friction generated in some rock types such as basalt can cause electrical currents on its surface, which are then forcefully expelled. At that moment, the light show in the sky appears. The range of colors is not only limited to blue but also violet and white, just like electrical currents, historical records show. Specialists say that these lights, just like the production of water vapor in certain areas of the Earth’s surface, can be one way of predicting an earthquake weeks in advance.

On September 7, 2017, Mexico’s largest earthquake in the last 100 years hit the country. The magnitude 8.2 tremor killed 100 people and injured dozens more. Another quake shook Mexico City on September 19, 2017, killing 300, on the same day as in 1985 that an earthquake killed more than 10,000 people.

This latest quake on September 7 occurred at the limit of what is known as the seismic gap of Guerrero. Could another quake happen on September 19? “The probability of two earthquakes occurring on the same day with a magnitude greater than 7 is very unlikely,” Cruz said, “but it can happen, as we have already seen.” In 2017, EL PAÍS published a study calculating the probability – or rather, improbability – of experiencing a similar earthquake on another September 19. The result yielded a one in 74 chance. History, unfortunately, sometimes repeats itself.

 British Columbia

Police treatment of Indigenous protesters differs starkly from white protesters, experts say

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The RCMP said it evaluates the threat and risk of each case, and responds in an appropriate manner

Angela Sterritt · CBC News · Posted: Sep 12, 2021 

People march during a protest against COVID-19 vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations for health-care workers in Vancouver on Sept. 1. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

Indigenous people and criminology experts say the hands-off police treatment of people protesting mandatory vaccinations, many of whom are white, starkly differs from the way they treat Indigenous and Black protesters.

Last week, crowds swept cities across British Columbia with mostly white protesters blocking roads to health-care facilities, verbally accusing health-care workers and assaulting a hospital employee. Police presence was minimal and one person was arrested.

Days later, protesters with alleged ties to white supremacist circles yelled and pelted gravel at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. One man — the former leader of a local People's Party of Canada riding association — was arrested Saturday and charged with assault with a weapon. 

"There is no accountability," said xʷ is xʷ čaa Kati George-Jim, a T'Sou-ke woman.

She has been protesting old-growth logging in Fairy Creek where the RCMP have arrested 890 people, and were reported to have tackled, dragged, pepper sprayed and torn clothing of those objecting the logging.

xʷ is xʷ čaa Kati George-Jim says she has long-term damage to her back and is traumatized after being violently arrested by RCMP officers while acting as a legal observer and protesting old-growth logging at Fairy Creek. Seeing mostly white anti-mask and anti-vaccine protesters not get arrested for assault, she says, is not surprising. (Submitted by xʷ is xʷ čaa Kati George-Jim )

Many of the protesters are Indigenous.

A judge recently declared the RCMP's actions were "unlawful."

"I just wish it was more obvious for people to understand that type of privilege and that type of white supremacy that Canada shows every day," xʷ is xʷ čaa said.

In a statement, the RCMP said it "evaluates threat and risk and responds in an appropriate manner as per each case."

They said they will investigate and "may lay charges should any unlawful activity or criminal act be committed."

• Reports of assault, verbal abuse as thousands protest vaccine passports outside hospitals across B.C.

• People's Party of Canada drops riding president over stone-throwing incident at Trudeau event

Janelle Shoihet, media relations officer at the B.C. RCMP, said people can make a public complaint to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, regarding allegations of police violence at Fairy Creek. 

xʷ is xʷ čaa said that is not always an option for communities of colour.

"We're not believed and the process is traumatic, having to bring forward that violence and trauma of abuse to the system or the institution that did that harm," she said. 

Two types of policing

Jeffrey Monaghan, associate professor at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Carleton University, says he believes that had the anti-vaccine protesters been Indigenous or Black, police would have intervened with force and made arrests. 

"Despite the violence a lot of these [anti-vaccine] folks are committing, they're fundamentally treated as different forms of public threat," he said.

A Fairy Creek protestor being carried off by RCMP. A judge recently declared that the RCMP's actions were "unlawful." (Submitted by Arvin Singh)

He says there are two categories of public order policing: the first is proactive public order policing, where officers get ready for protests and confrontation ahead of time. This often involves surveillance and detailed organizational plans.

"That's what you're seeing in Fairy Creek right now," he said, adding that police also prepared in advance for actions in Wet'suwet'en territories. 

"Indigenous movements in particular are under heavy scrutiny and surveillance ahead of time, which leads to much more repressive, much more managed, much more surveilled policing."

• 39% of Canadians have 'serious problem' with how police interact with people of colour: poll

• Fairy Creek protest on Vancouver Island now considered largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history

The second is what he calls reactive public order policing.

"That's what you're seeing with the anti-vaxxers [protests] where police are basically just forming basic lines, trying to get through the event."

Irina Ceric, a professor in the criminology department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, says she believes the two types of treatment are a result of police seeing one group as a threat and the other as relatable.

RCMP security put their hands up to protect Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau from rocks, as protesters shouted and threw gravel at him as he left a London, Ont., campaign stop during the Canadian federal election campaign on Sept. 6. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

"There is evidence that the police are more hands-off with anti-vaccine and anti-mask protests because there seems to be some, some level of affinity there," she said.

"It's really difficult now to argue that there isn't really systemic racism within policing agencies across Canada," she added. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Angela Sterritt

CBC Reporter

Angela Sterritt is a journalist from the Gitxsan Nation. Sterritt's news and current affairs pieces are featured on national and local CBC platforms. Her CBC column 'Reconcile This' tackles the tensions between Indigenous people and institutions in B.C. Have a story idea? angela.sterritt@cbc.ca

Jagmeet Singh: the ex-lawyer and TikTok star who could topple Trudeau


The New Democratic party’s leader is riding high in the polls – and could be the kingmaker in next week’s election

‘I’m not Justin Trudeau. I’m not like him.’ Jagmeet Singh at an election debate in Quebec last week. Photograph: Blair Gable/Reuters

Leyland Cecco in Toronto

The ObserverCanada
Sun 12 Sep 2021 

He’s the most-liked national political leader in Canada, wears sharply tailored suits, has graced the pages of a men’s fashion magazine and is followed by starstruck fans on social media. And he’s not Justin Trudeau.

With Canada heading to the polls after a snap election controversially called by Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh, leader of the progressive New Democratic party (NDP), has quickly emerged as the most affable politician in Canada – and a powerful figure who is unlikely to become prime minister.

On that last point, Singh and party leaders disagree. He argues that, like the other leaders, he’s competing for a chance to govern when the country votes on 20 September. But although the former human rights lawyer may end up a casualty of a multi-party system that rewards Trudeau’s Liberals and the Conservatives, he could gain kingmaker status.

His appeal among voters comes as Trudeau has stumbled in the polls. Surveys have found up to three-quarters of Canadians disagree with holding an election during the fourth wave of the pandemic. The prime minister is trailing Conservative rival Erin O’Toole by three points. The rookie Tory leader has spent weeks closing the policy gap between his party and the governing Liberals.

On the left, however, Singh is looking to widen that gap. Running on promises to make prescription drugs available to all Canadians, cutting emissions to 50% of 2005 levels by 2030, writing off student-loan debt and tackling inflated housing and rental markets, Singh’s campaign has enjoyed an uptick in support since the election was called in late August.
On TikTok, the culture is very playful and light-hearted. And Jagmeet has played into that. It makes him relatableWave Wyld, social media consultant

With his youth and charisma, Singh, 42, has been compared to Trudeau, a leader criticised for focusing on optics over substance and policy. But at a recent visit to Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, Singh drew a stark line between himself and the Liberal leader: “I’m not Justin Trudeau. I’m not like him. I’ve lived a different life. I understand the pain of being not valued, not worth anything. Indigenous people have been made to feel that way for so long. And I promise you, I’ll be different.”

Born in Scarborough, Ontario, Singh spent much of his early life on the move after his father Jagtaran, a psychiatrist, took jobs at different hospitals. Jagtaran became an alcoholic and was abusive towards both Jagmeet and his younger brother Gurratan. Following an incident with their father, Jagmeet, then at university, took Gurratan to live with him.

Gurratan recently said: “I was getting a bit frightened, quite frankly, and anxious at home. And Jagmeet kind of, at the perfect moment, took me off to London, Ontario.” Now a provincial politician and adviser to his older brother, Gurratan added: “He didn’t want me to feel those emotions again.” The pair lived together in a small apartment, with Jagmeet taking several jobs as he juggled his university work.

Jagmeet Singh’s story of persistence over adversity, and his gift for mingling with crowds, made him a strong favourite when the party voted for a new leader in 2017.

But his initial honeymoon was shortlived: veterans of the New Democrats fled amid infighting and backstabbing. The party bled money, and weak poll numbers suggested Singh would need to fight hard to both win himself a seat in parliament and prevent the party from splintering nationally.

His popularity soared after a powerful debate performance in the 2019 election, but the cash-strapped party could do little to capitalise on the success. Two years later, and with far more funding, Singh’s face is plastered across billboards, public transport, social media – and on newly released “Jagmeet swag”, including T-shirts celebrating “the Jagmeet UpriSingh”. He also has an immense following on TikTok, where his videos, ranging from policy critiques to clips of him skateboarding, regularly get millions of views.

Justin Trudeau on the campaign trail on Friday. He has been criticised for calling a snap election during a pandemic. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

“It is a personality-driven app. If you have charisma and you have personality on camera, that’s going to benefit you.” said Wave Wyld, a Toronto-based TikTok consultant. “There’s aren’t a lot of politicians on TikTok.”

In contrast, she points to Trudeau’s use of photo-ops, rather than videos, highlighting the different ways they engage with social media.

“Trudeau’s not making entertaining, compelling videos. He’s just talking to the camera in a professional, serious tone about what he stands for,” she said. “But on TikTok, the culture is very playful and light-hearted. And Jagmeet has also played into that. It makes him relatable – you don’t take yourself too seriously on the app.”

But TikTok views mean little unless Singh can convert them into votes. Under Canada’s parliamentary system, where the country elects local candidates to the house of commons instead of casting a ballot for party leaders, Singh’s favourability only takes him so far.

“People often think of the NDP as a third party, not as an alternative to government,” said Lori Turnbull, professor of political science at Dalhousie University. “Singh’s ability to grow his popularity effectively maxes out because people don’t think they’re going to form a government. The electoral system is no friend to him.”

Barring a political miracle, his party is set to capture far fewer than the 170 seats needed for a majority – putting the New Democrats in third place. But if polling projections prove correct and a minority government is elected, Singh could hold the balance of power in Ottawa.

For the past two years, his party has propped up the Liberals. Singh claims his party got concessions on emergency coronavirus benefits – but Turnbull says he didn’t go far enough. “He should have been harder on Trudeau. He should have had more to show for the NDP support,” she said.

In the last election, Singh refused to work with then Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. But this time he has expressed an openness to collaborating with O’Toole on policies that both parties say are priorities, including childcare and housing.

A shift in Trudeau’s political fortunes could produce a scenario in which the Conservatives win more seats than the Liberals, but still need another party’s support to govern.

“Singh … doesn’t want to be in the back seat of the Liberal car. He wants a presence in shaping policy,” said Turnbull. “If he and O’Toole sense they can bring down Trudeau, it might be a prospect too juicy to pass up.”

'MAYBE' TECH

China prepares to test thorium-fuelled nuclear reactor

If China’s experimental reactor is a success it could lead to commercialization and help the nation meet its climate goals.

Smriti Mallapaty

China has more than 50 conventional nuclear power plants, such as this, but the experimental thorium reactor in Wuwei will be a first.

Credit: Costfoto/Barcroft Media/Getty

Scientists are excited about an experimental nuclear reactor using thorium as fuel, which is about to begin tests in China. Although this radioactive element has been trialled in reactors before, experts say that China is the first to have a shot at commercializing the technology.

The reactor is unusual in that it has molten salts circulating inside it instead of water. It has the potential to produce nuclear energy that is relatively safe and cheap, while also generating a much smaller amount of very long-lived radioactive waste than conventional reactors.

Construction of the experimental thorium reactor in Wuwei, on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert, was due to be completed by the end of August — with trial runs scheduled for this month, according to the government of Gansu province.

Thorium is a weakly radioactive, silvery metal found naturally in rocks, and currently has little industrial use. It is a waste product of the growing rare-earth mining industry in China, and is therefore an attractive alternative to imported uranium, say researchers.

Powerful potential

“Thorium is much more plentiful than uranium and so it would be a very useful technology to have in 50 or 100 years’ time,” when uranium reserves start to run low, says Lyndon Edwards, a nuclear engineer at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in Sydney. But the technology will take many decades to realize, so we need to start now, he adds.

China launched its molten-salt reactor programme in 2011, investing some 3 billion yuan (US$500 million), according to Ritsuo Yoshioka, former president of the International Thorium Molten-Salt Forum in Oiso, Japan, who has worked closely with Chinese researchers.

Operated by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP), the Wuwei reactor is designed to produce just 2 megawatts of thermal energy, which is only enough to power up to 1,000 homes. But if the experiments are a success, China hopes to build a 373-megawatt reactor by 2030, which could power hundreds of thousands of homes.

These reactors are among the “perfect technologies” for helping China to achieve its goal of zero carbon emissions by around 2050, says energy modeller Jiang Kejun at the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission in Beijing.

The naturally occurring isotope thorium-232 cannot undergo fission, but when irradiated in a reactor, it absorbs neutrons to form uranium-233, which is a fissile material that generates heat.

Thorium has been tested as a fuel in other types of nuclear reactor in countries including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, and is part of a nuclear programme in India. But it has so far not proved cost effective because it is more expensive to extract than uranium and, unlike some naturally occurring isotopes of uranium, needs to be converted into a fissile material.

Some researchers support thorium as a fuel because they say its waste products have less chance of being weaponized than do those of uranium, but others have argued that risks still exist.

Source: US Department of Energy/International Atomic Energy Agency
Blast from the past

When China switches on its experimental reactor, it will be the first molten-salt reactor operating since 1969, when US researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee shut theirs down. And it will be the first molten-salt reactor to be fuelled by thorium. Researchers who have collaborated with SINAP say the Chinese design copies that of Oak Ridge, but improves on it by calling on decades of innovation in manufacturing, materials and instrumentation.

Researchers in China directly involved with the reactor did not respond to requests for confirmation of the reactor’s design and when exactly tests will begin.

Compared with light-water reactors in conventional nuclear power stations, molten-salt reactors operate at significantly higher temperatures, which means they could generate electricity much more efficiently, says Charles Forsberg, a nuclear engineer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

China’s reactor will use fluoride-based salts, which melt into a colourless, transparent liquid when heated to about 450 ºC. The salt acts as a coolant to transport heat from the reactor core. In addition, rather than solid fuel rods, molten-salt reactors also use the liquid salt as a substrate for the fuel, such as thorium, to be directly dissolved into the core.

Molten-salt reactors are considered to be relatively safe because the fuel is already dissolved in liquid and they operate at lower pressures than do conventional nuclear reactors, which reduces the risk of explosive meltdowns.

Yoshioka says many countries are working on molten-salt reactors — to generate cheaper electricity from uranium or to use waste plutonium from light-water reactors as fuel — but China alone is attempting to use thorium fuel.

Thorium pellets at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, India.

Credit: Pallava Bagla/Corbis/Getty

Next-generation reactors

China’s reactor will be “a test bed to do a lot of learning”, says Forsberg, from analysing corrosion to characterizing the radionucleotide composition of the mixture as it circulates.

“We are going to learn so much new science,” agrees Simon Middleburgh, a nuclear materials scientist at Bangor University, UK. “If they would let me, I’d be on the first plane there.”

It could take months for China’s reactor to reach full operation. “If anything along the way goes wrong, you can’t continue, and have to stop and start again,” says Middleburgh. For example, the pumps might fail, pipes could corrode or a blockage might occur. Nevertheless, scientists are hopeful of success.

Molten-salt reactors are just one of many advanced nuclear technologies China is investing in. In 2002, an intergovernmental forum identified six promising reactor technologies to fast-track by 2030, including reactors cooled by lead or sodium liquids. China has programmes for all of them.

Some of these reactor types could replace coal-fuelled power plants, says David Fishman, a project manager at the Lantau Group energy consultancy in Hong Kong. “As China cruises towards carbon neutrality, it could pull out [power plant] boilers and retrofit them with nuclear reactors.”

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02459-w

Why China is developing a game-changing thorium-fuelled nuclear reactor

Issued on: 12/09/2021 -

China has around 50 traditional nuclear plants running, such as in 

Taishan, pictured here on June 17, 2021. AP
Text by: Sébastian SEIBT

China is poised to test a thorium-powered nuclear reactor in September, the world’s first since 1969. The theory is that this new molten-salt technology will be “safer” and “greener” than regular uranium reactors, and so could help Beijing meet its climate goals. Yet is the country's investment in this also geostrategic?

A new page in the history of nuclear energy could be written this September, in the middle of the Gobi Desert, in the north of China. At the end of August, Beijing announced that it had completed the construction of its first thorium-fuelled molten-salt nuclear reactor, with plans to begin the first tests of this alternative technology to current nuclear reactors within the next two weeks.

Built not far from the northern city of Wuwei, the low-powered prototype can as yet only produce energy for around 1,000 homes, according to the scientific journal Nature.

But if the upcoming tests succeed, Chinese authorities will start a programme to build another reactor capable of generating electricity for over 100,000 homes. Beijing could then become an exporter of a reactor technology that has been the subject of much discussion for over 40 years, according to French financial newspaper Les Echos.

Lower accident risks?

The Chinese reactor could be the first molten-salt reactor operating in the world since 1969, when the US abandoned its Oak Ridge National Laboratory facility in Tennessee.

“Almost all current reactors use uranium as fuel and water, instead of molten salt and thorium," which will be used in China’s new plant, Jean-Claude Garnier, head of France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), told FRANCE 24.

These two "new" ingredients were not chosen by accident by Beijing: molten-salt reactors are among the most promising technologies for power plants, according to the Generation IV forum – a US initiative to push for international cooperation on civil nuclear power.

With molten-salt technology, "it is the salt itself that becomes the fuel", Sylvain David, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and nuclear reactors specialist, explained in a FRANCE 24 interview. The crystals are mixed with nuclear material – either uranium or thorium – heated to over 500°C to become liquid, and are then be able to transport the heat and energy produced.

Theoretically, this process would make the installations safer. "Some accident risks are supposedly eliminated because liquid burning avoids situations where the nuclear reaction can get out of control and damage the reactor structures," Jean-Claude Garnier added.

There's another advantage for China: this type of reactor does not need to be built near watercourses, since the molten salts themselves "serve as a coolant, unlike conventional uranium power plants that need huge amounts of water to cool their reactors", French newspaper Les Echos noted. As a result, the reactors can be installed in isolated and arid regions… like the Gobi Desert.

China's plentiful supply

Beijing has also opted to use thorium rather than uranium in its new molten-salt reactor, a combination that has drawn attention from experts for years. This is mostly because “there is much more thorium than uranium in nature”, Francesco D’Auria, nuclear reactor technology specialist at the University of Pisa, told FRANCE 24.

In addition, thorium belongs to a famous family of rare-earth metals that are much more abundant in China than elsewhere; this is the icing on the cake for Chinese authorities, who could increase its energy independence from major uranium exporting countries, such as Canada and Australia, two countries whose diplomatic relations with China have collapsed in recent years.

Beijing’s investment is also a long-term one. “For now, there is enough uranium to fuel all operating reactors. But if the number of reactors increases, we could reach a situation where supply would no longer keep up, and using thorium can drastically reduce the need for uranium. That makes it a potentially more sustainable option," Sylvain David explained.

A 'greener' nuclear energy?

According to supporters of thorium, it would also a "greener" solution. Unlike the uranium currently used in nuclear power plants, burning thorium does not create plutonium, a highly toxic chemical element, Nature pointed out.

With so many positives on their side, why are molten salts and thorium only being used now? “Essentially because uranium 235 was the natural candidate for nuclear reactors and the market did not look much further," Francesco D'Auria added.

Radiation, corrosion and... nuclear weapons

Among the three main candidates for nuclear reaction – uranium 235, uranium 238 and thorium – the first is “the only isotope naturally fissile”, Sylvain David explained. The other two must be bombarded with neutrons for the material to become fissile (able to undergo nuclear fission) and be used by a reactor: a possible but more complex process.

Once that is done on thorium, it produces uranium 233, the fissile material needed for nuclear power generation. That then becomes another problem with thorium: "The radiation emitted by uranium 233 is stronger than that of the other isotopes, so you have to be more careful," Francesco D'Auria warned.

The feasibility of molten-salt reactors is also questionable as it creates further technical problems. "At very high temperatures, the salt can corrode the reactor’s structures, which need to be protected in some manner," Jean-Claude Garnier explained.

The stakes are clearly high for the Chinese tests and they will be watched very closely around the world in order to see how Beijing hopes to overcome these obstacles. But even if China ends up claiming victory, they should not rejoice too quickly, Francesco D’Auria said: "The problem with corrosive products is that you don't realise their damage until five to 10 years after."

Moreover, the expert claims there is no reason to celebrate a nuclear reactor that not only produces energy, but also uranium 233. "This is an isotope that does not exist in nature and that can be used to build an atomic bomb," pointed out Francesco D'Auria.

As such, China could end up revolutionising the nuclear industry but, at the same time, they might once more alarm supporters of non-proliferation around the world.

‘I stand by what I said’: KU student body president not backing down from controversial retweet



Aaron Torres, Katie Bernard
Fri, September 10, 2021

Niya McAdoo said she hasn’t been surprised by the backlash, some of it in viciously racist emails and social media, to her retweeting the phrase “happy friday everybody. Death to america” on Sept. 3.

“I think that the phrase, ‘Death to America,’ is a triggering phrase for people. Most people have seen that phrase being said by countries outside of the U.S.,” said McAdoo, a 23-year-old senior and KU’s new student body president. “In no way was that the intention... disrespect or call to violence to any specific group, veterans or military folks.

“But ultimately I stand by what I said. Because, to me, the America that I live in is not an America that supports me.”

Conservative social media jumped on her message. Radio host Todd Starnes wrote a story on his personal website. The Kansas City Star’s Michael Ryan published a column about McAdoo’s retweet.

“This, Jayhawk country, is your KU student body president,” Ryan opined.

The Student Senate is scheduled to take up a censure resolution next week. KU Chancellor Douglas Girod said that while McAdoo’s sentiments were constitutionally protected speech, he strongly disagreed.

“The opinions in the student’s post are protected by the First Amendment. In addition, KU is committed to its role as a marketplace of ideas – including ideas that some individuals find offensive,” Girod said.

“I understand and appreciate why many individuals have found the content of the student’s post offensive.”

McAdoo, originally from Columbia, Missouri, grew up in a bi-racial home — her mom is white and her dad is Black. She said she chose KU because she wanted to be close to home and she knew it was a good school. She’s majoring in visual art and African and African-American Studies.

She said among the reasons she wasn’t surprised by the backlash was because of this country’s history of condemning Black people and other people of color for speaking out.

“Any person of color who attempts to speak out or attempts to honestly give their opinion of this country and what this country stands for and what it’s done to our communities has received backlash, so it’s nothing new,” she said.

“There was no huge intention behind retweeting it....To me this country doesn’t stand for inclusion, it doesn’t stand for Black and Brown communities, it doesn’t stand for queer and trans communities. So this America that I currently live in, yes I want to see it waste away. Yes, I want to see it die.”

She added: “The Chancellor can talk about being disappointed by my statement all day, but I’m disappointed in the fact that I’m still being called a n---er.”

The Kansas Federation of College Republicans tweeted that McAdoo should resign immediately. She said she would not.

She also feels like she doesn’t owe an explanation, particularly to people who aren’t trying to understand her reality — and the reality Black people face.

“You can read about these things in books and articles,” McAdoo said. “It’s not that these people are uneducated about racism, they know about it, they’ve read about it. These people are racist because they choose to be. Nothing I say is going to change that.”

University Response

Conservative columnists pointed to McAdoo’s social media posts as evidence the University of Kansas and other campuses are breeding hatred of America. They pushed KU to take a stronger stance against it.

But officials stopped short of condemning or punishing her.

Harrison-Lee said McAdoo’s post didn’t demonstrate “the type of productive dialogue we hope to encourage on our university campuses” but that any desire for civility could not outweigh freedom of expression.

Genelle Belmas, a first amendment law professor at the University of Kansas journalism school, said KU was placed in a tough situation responding to the outrage. Do nothing, she said, and members of the public would be angry. Punish McAdoo, and they’d be accused of violating her right to free expression.

“I hope against hope that they do not come down in some way against this student,” Belmas said.

“We have a responsibility to make sure KU has a good face but also to make sure she is protected.”

Belmas said McAdoo could be censured for her speech by her fellow student senators but should not face discipline from the University unless she violated a policy related to university-affiliated social media accounts.

Every few years, Belmas said, political outrage would be directed at the University over the speech of student or faculty.

In 2018, Republican political candidates attacked the University for allowing an art exhibit of a defaced flag to fly above a building. A professor received death threats for posting on Twitter that the NRA had blood on their hands following the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.

The University’s response to such conduct, she said, has been hit-and-miss. Following McAdoo’s tweet, Belmas said the university acted appropriately. But in the prior events, Belmas believed the university suppressed speech by moving the art exhibit and suspending the professor who criticized the NRA.

“We have as educators but also as students and as graduate students and everyone who associates with the university a duty to make sure that ideas are challenged and it’s always better to challenge the idea than to simply chill the speech so the speech isn’t there whatsoever,” said Harrison Rosenthal a joint PHD and Law student at KU who serves as vice chair of KU’s graduate student advisory board.

McAdoo’s said that amid all the blowback, criticism and racist insults she’s also received messages of support from friends and from faculty members. She also doesn’t want Black and Brown people to stop fighting and advocating for true justice.

“I urge people to continue speaking up. I urge people to be their authentic selves. I urge them to keep advocating against these oppressive systems that do what they do,” she said. “And fight for these rights that we’re owed.”

Feeding cows a few ounces of seaweed daily could sharply reduce their contribution to climate change


Ermias Kebreab, Associate Dean and Professor of Animal Science. Director, World Food Center, University of California, Davis 

 Breanna Roque, Ph.D. Student in Animal Biology, University of California, Davis

Sat, September 11, 2021,

A little seaweed with that? Cowirrie/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Methane is a short-lived but powerful greenhouse gas and the second-largest contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide. And the majority of human-induced methane emissions comes from livestock.

About 70% of agricultural methane comes from enteric fermentation – chemical reactions in the stomachs of cows and other grazing animals as they break down plants. The animals burp out most of this methane and pass the rest as flatulence.

There are roughly 1 billion cattle around the world, so reducing enteric methane is an effective way to reduce overall methane emissions. But most options for doing so, such as changing cows’ diets to more digestible feed or adding more fat, are not cost-effective. A 2015 study suggested that using seaweed as an additive to cattle’s normal feed could reduce methane production, but this research was done in a laboratory, not in live animals.

We study sustainable agriculture, focusing on livestock. In a 2021 study, we show that using red seaweed (Asparagopsis) as a feed supplement can reduce both methane emissions and feed costs without affecting meat quality. If these findings can be scaled up and commercialized, they could transform cattle production into a more economically and environmentally sustainable industry.

Plant-digesting machines

Ruminant animals, such as cows, sheep and goats, can digest plant material that is indigestible for humans and animals with simple stomachs, such as pigs and chickens. This unique ability stems from ruminants’ four-compartment stomachs – particularly the rumen compartment, which contains a host of different microbes that ferment feed and break it down into nutrients.

This process also generates byproducts that the cow’s body does not take up, such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Methane-producing microbes, called methanogens, use these compounds to form methane, which the cow’s body expels.

We first analyzed this problem in a 2019 study, the first such research that was conducted in cattle rather than in a laboratory. In that work, we showed that supplementing dairy cows’ feed with about 10 ounces of seaweed a day reduced methane emissions by up to 67%. However, the cattle that ate this relatively large quantity of seaweed consumed less feed. This reduced their milk production – a clear drawback for dairy farmers.

Our new study sought to answer several questions that would be important to farmers considering whether to use seaweed supplements in their cattle. We wanted to know whether the seaweed was stable when stored for up to three years; whether microbes that produce methane in cows’ stomachs could adapt to the seaweed, making it ineffective; and whether the type of diet that the cows ate changed the seaweed’s effectiveness in reducing methane emissions. And we used less seaweed than in our 2019 study.

Better growth with less feed

For the study, we added 1.5 to 3 ounces of seaweed per animal daily to 21 beef cows’ food for 21 weeks. As with most new ingredients in cattle diets, it took some time for the animals to get used to the taste of seaweed, but they became accustomed to it within a few weeks.

Steer in barn, University of California, Davis.

As we expected, the steers released a lot more hydrogen – up to 750% more, mostly from their mouths – as their systems produced less methane. Hydrogen has minimal impact on the environment. Seaweed supplements did not affect the animals’ carbon dioxide emissions.

We also found that seaweed that had been stored in a freezer for three years maintained its effectiveness, and that microbes in the cows’ digestive systems did not adapt to the seaweed in ways that neutralized its effects.

We fed each of the animals three different diets during the experiment. These rations contained varying amounts of dried grasses, such as alfalfa and wheat hay, which are referred to as forage. Cattle may also consume fresh grass, grains, molasses and byproducts such as almond hull and cotton seed.

Methane production in the rumen increases with rising levels of forage in cows’ diet, so we wanted to see whether forage levels also affected how well seaweed reduced overall methane formation. Methane emissions from cattle on high-forage diets decreased by 33% to 52%, depending on how much seaweed they consumed. Emissions from cattle fed low-forage diets fell by 70% to 80%. This difference may reflect lower levels of an enzyme that is involved in producing methane in the guts of cattle-fed low-fiber diets.

One important finding was that the steers in our study converted feed to body weight up to 20% more efficiently than cattle on a conventional diet. This benefit could reduce production costs for farmers, since they would need to buy less feed. For example, we calculate that a producer finishing 1,000 head of beef cattle – that is, feeding them a high-energy diet to grow and add muscle – could reduce feed costs by US,320 to ,320 depending on how much seaweed the cattle consumed.

Map of methane sources by continent.

We don’t know for certain why feeding cattle seaweed supplements helped them convert more of their diet to weight gain. However, previous research has suggested that some rumen microorganisms can use hydrogen that is no longer going into methane production to generate energy-dense nutrients that the cow can then use for added growth.

When a panel of consumers sampled meat from cattle raised in our study, they did not detect any difference in tenderness, juiciness or flavor between meat from cattle that consumed seaweed and others that did not.

Commercializing seaweed as a cattle feed additive would involve many steps. First, scientists would need to develop aquaculture techniques for producing seaweed on a large scale, either in the ocean or in tanks on land. And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would have to approve using seaweed as a feed supplement for commercial cattle.

Farmers and ranchers could also earn money for reducing their cattle’s emissions. Climate scientists would have to provide guidance on quantifying, monitoring and verifying methane emission reductions from cattle. Such rules could allow cattle farmers to earn credits from carbon offset programs around the world.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Ermias Kebreab, University of California, Davis and Breanna Roque, University of California, Davis.

Read more:

Heat is a serious threat to dairy cows – we’re finding innovative ways to keep them cool


Young California ranchers are finding new ways to raise livestock and improve the land


Yes, eating meat affects the environment, but cows are not killing the climate

Ermias Kebreab receives funding from the Foundation for Agricultural Research, Elm Innovations, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Grantham Foundation. He advises feed additive companies such as Blue Ocean Barns and Mootral.

If service sector employers ever want to see their workers again, they have to do more than raise wages. They'll need to help people get ahead.


John Fillmore
Sun, September 12, 2021

A Starbucks barista fulfills an order in a South Philadelphia store, before more than 8,000 branches nationwide will close this afternoon for anti-bias training, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mark Makela/Reuters


The hospitality industry is struggling to fill open positions.


The sector can attract new talent by investing in education and training.


The "skilling up" of employees will also better prepare workers for a rapidly changing labor market


John Fillmore is President of Chegg Skills.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.


Not so long ago, things were looking up for the hospitality industry. The robust introduction of vaccines caused the lifting of many COVID-19 related restrictions, and it seemed like the worst was over for America's restaurants, cafés, and bars. But the contours of another crisis are coming into view.

Early in the year, a mere 8% of restaurant operators listed recruitment as their top challenge, but by April, that number shot up to a staggering 57%. A survey published earlier this month by Joblist confirmed that an earthquake was happening: a third of former hospitality employees said they will not be returning to the sector, citing poor pay and lack of benefits. Further confirmation came from a study from UC Berkeley's Food Labor Research Center finding that more than half of current hospitality industry workers were seriously considering leaving their jobs.

What is to be done to save the industry from freefall? The obvious answer, of course, is wages. And thankfully, we're seeing much-needed improvement on that score, with the industry recording a normal year's worth of pay raises in June alone. But if you listen to employees, current and former, you learn that money alone cannot solve the problem.

For that, we need something more powerful - a shift in the mindset, a radical reimagination of how we approach hospitality jobs that includes both a living wage and opportunity for further economic mobility.

Just look at white-collar industries, which have long understood that investing in their employees and building up loyalty required much more than just competitive wages: it meant investing in employees' career development, even though some employees would apply those new skills in different jobs. Service sector businesses may now need to think about making a similar leap, offering clear and visible paths to career growth both within and outside the organization.
The solution is education

Imagine working the night shift at a fast-food restaurant and feeling like you have no path to developing the skills necessary to have more economic options. Now imagine that your employer proposed helping you pursue academic studies, which are otherwise utterly unaffordable for far too many Americans.

For an increasing number of service sector workers, that dream is becoming a reality - not because of innovative government programs, but from an increasing commitment of private companies to support their frontline workers. Starbucks first partnered with Arizona State University in 2014 to allow its employees to earn their bachelor's degree through ASU Online with 100% tuition coverage. ASU then worked through InStride to extend this offer to all companies.

Meanwhile, a slew of training providers have sprung up to help workers skill-up. Out-skilling platform LearnIn, for example, course curators OpenSesame, and employee-course matchmakers Guild Education - which works with organizations such as Walmart, Chipotle and Disney and has helped over three million workers gain access to higher education - are all carving out a significant space for themselves.

Guild reports that employees who used their services had a 93% retention rate six months later, compared to 56% for those who didn't. And that for every dollar employers spent on education, they saw a $2.84 return on investment. To put it in highly technical terms, a win-win.

Investing in education has implications that go beyond mere short-term financial gains. As automation continues to disrupt industries at a rapid pace, we may soon face a reality in which about 40% of US jobs are lost to machines.

And you can guarantee that it will be those in low-income jobs who are hit hardest. The only way to prepare for such a transition, and to avoid chaotic and disastrous socioeconomic implications, is to encourage those most at risk, like service sector workers, to acquire skills in new fields such as software development, data science, or UX design.

But the math just doesn't add up to put them all through college. When you take $20,000 tuition annually and multiply it by the six years it takes many to graduate, that adds up to a $120,000 education (and often much more). With over 70 million Americans in low-wage service jobs, that would mean over $8 trillion to try and meet all of our retraining needs through the traditional path. That affordability crisis means many people in service jobs will have had no real chance to develop formal skills in high-demand tech areas through traditional higher education.

As a result, millions of talented and motivated people are having their potential wasted by a system that is currently stacked in favor of those with resources. They need help. Hospitality businesses struggling to find new talent must now go back to the drawing board to provide them that help. By doing so, they will become enablers of economic mobility which, in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, joins climate change as one of the greatest challenges society must meet in the coming decades.

Companies should remember that the great ethos of the service sector has always been aspirational - that even the humblest entry-level job was always perceived as a testing ground for ambition and dedication and a gateway to bigger and better things. It's why CEOs and movie stars alike take such pleasure in talking about their early, first jobs - not because they're fortunate enough to no longer have to wait on tables or mop up behind the bar, but because they appreciate the first place that gave them a chance to prove their worth.

Let us, then, focus on precisely that: creating opportunities for employees to feel supported, empowered, and in control of their futures to re-ignite an America where individuals are constrained only by the power of their dreams and their dedication to making those dreams a reality.

Do that, and you'll see an economic boom that extends well beyond our bars and restaurants, benefitting us all.

Read the original article on Business Insider

A secretive Pentagon program that started on Trump's last day in office just ended. The mystery has not.


US pentagon building aerial view at sunset

Craig Timberg
Fri, September 10, 2021

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon program that delegated management of a huge swath of the internet to a Florida company in January - just minutes before President Donald Trump left office - has ended as mysteriously as it began, with the Defense Department this week retaking control of 175 million IP addresses.

The program had drawn scrutiny because of its unusual timing, starting amid a politically charged changeover of federal power, and because of its enormous scale. At its peak, the company, Global Resource Systems, controlled almost 6% of a section of the internet called IPv4. The IP addresses had been under Pentagon control for decades but left unused, despite being potentially worth billions of dollars on the open market.


Adding to the mystery, company registration records showed Global Resource Systems at the time was only a few months old, having been established in September 2020, and had no publicly reported federal contracts, no obvious public-facing website and no sign on the shared office space it listed as its physical address in Plantation, Fla. The company also did not respond to requests for comment, and the Pentagon did not announce the program or publicly acknowledge its existence until The Washington Post reported on it in April.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon made a technical announcement - visible mainly to network administrators around the world - saying it was resuming control of the 175 million IP addresses and directing the traffic to its own servers.

On Friday the Pentagon told The Post that the pilot program, which it previously had characterized as a cybersecurity measure designed to detect unspecified "vulnerabilities" and "prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space," was over. Parts of the internet once managed by Global Resource Systems, the Pentagon said, now were being overseen by the Department of Defense Information Network, known by the acronym DODIN and part of U.S. Cyber Command, based at Fort Meade.

The IP addresses had never been sold or leased to the company, merely put under its control for the pilot program, created by an elite Pentagon unit known as the Defense Digital Service, which reports directly to the secretary of defense and bills itself as a "SWAT team of nerds" that solves emergency problems and conducts experimental work for the military.

"The Defense Digital Service established a plan to launch the cybersecurity pilot and then transition control of the initiative to DoD partners," Russell Goemaere, a spokesman for the Defense Department, said in a statement to The Post. "Following the DDS pilot, shifting DoD Internet Protocol (IP) advertisement to DoD's traditional operations and mature network security processes, maintains consistency across the DODIN. This allows for active management of the IP space and ensure the Department has the operational maneuver space necessary to maintain and improve DODIN resiliency."

But the Pentagon statement shed little new light on exactly what the pilot program was doing or why it now has ended. It's clear, though, that its mission has been extended even as it comes more formally under Pentagon control.

On the unusual timing of the start of the pilot program - which began the transfer of control of IP addresses at 11:57 a.m. on Inauguration Day, three minutes before President Joe Biden took office - Goemaere added, "The decision to launch and the scheduling of the DDS pilot effort was agnostic of administration change. The effort was planned and initiated in the Fall of 2020. It was launched in mid-January 2021 when the required infrastructure was in place."

Global Resource Systems did not return a request for comment Friday.

The unusual nature of the program has been tracked by several people in the networking world, including Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for Kentik, a network monitoring company.

In April, Madory, a former Air Force officer, had come to believe the program was intended to collect intelligence. By announcing control of such a large section of the internet - especially one the Pentagon had left mothballed for years - it likely was possible to reroute information flowing across the internet to military networks for examination and analysis.

Madory said Friday that routine networking errors can make such operations fruitful.

"There are a lot of networks that inadvertently leak out vulnerabilities," he said. "I'm sure they've been scooping that noise up for the past few months."

Such tactics, he added, can allow cyberspies to discover weaknesses in the networks of adversaries or potentially detect evidence of how adversaries are surveilling your own networks, to help inform the creation of better defenses.

Madory shared one more tantalizing fact: His analysis of traffic flowing through the internet addresses once controlled by Global Resource Systems are still leading to the same place as they have for most of the year - a computer router in Ashburn, Va., a major hub of internet connections for government agencies and private companies - despite the official resumption of Pentagon control.

- - -

The Washington Post's Alice Crites and Paul Sonne contributed to this report.

China boosts stake in UK with London shares spree

Richard Evans
Fri, September 10, 2021

People's Bank of China

China’s central bank has muscled in on the London stock market to grab a bigger stake in Britain even as economic tensions between Beijing and the West rise.

The People’s Bank of China now owns UK shares worth $17.1bn, including stakes in most of the FTSE 100, analysis by The Sunday Telegraph has revealed. It has dramatically increased its exposure in the past few weeks: the total value of its holdings in the second quarter of the year was less than $2bn.

The Bank owns more than 1.5pc of BP and Royal Dutch Shell, where it is the fourth-largest holder of the “A” class of shares. It also owns more than 1pc of Vodafone, BHP and Anglo American, according to data from Bloomberg.

In all it has stakes in more than 100 British companies, with particular exposure to energy stocks, which account for about a quarter of its London holdings. The materials sector accounts for a further 16pc.

However, its buying spree has come at a time of mounting tension over China’s behaviour in Hong Kong and towards Taiwan, and the treatment of its Muslim minority. The UK has joined allies to restrict the use of Chinese telecoms equipment and ministers are currently grappling with how Chinese investment in new nuclear power stations might be replaced.

The People’s Bank’s stocks are believed to form part of China’s foreign currency reserves, which it has diversified away from the dollar and from bonds. It also owns shares in a handful of other countries, including Italy and Malaysia. No American stocks were found among the Bloomberg data.

Most of the companies identified as holdings of the People’s Bank and contacted by this newspaper declined to comment beyond confirming its presence on their shareholder register. However, Rolls-Royce said: “China is an important market for our civil aerospace and power systems businesses and so it is gratifying that China’s central bank sees our shares as a good investment.”

Experts said it was uncommon for central banks to own shares. The Bank of England owns bonds as part of its QE programme but does not own any stocks.

The People’s Bank of China did not respond to requests for comment.