Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Hot to trot: Shetland ponies prove popular during pandemic

Issued on: 28/09/2021 -

Shetland ponies have long drawn attention for their distinctive shape, size and rough hair

ADRIAN DENNIS AFP

Papil (Royaume-Uni) (AFP)

For hundreds of years, the inhabitants of the northernmost part of Scotland and the United Kingdom have bred small horses -- the Shetland pony.

The animals, named after the unforgiving northern archipelago in the North Sea, have long drawn attention for their distinctive shape, size and rough hair.

But during the coronavirus pandemic they saw their value soar to new highs, prompting hopes of another bumper year as the islands' annual sale approaches.

"People had more money because they stayed at home and couldn't go on holiday, and a pony is a very nice way to spend your time," Sheena Anderson, chair of the Pony Breeders of Shetland Association, told AFP.

While demand for Shetland ponies has fluctuated over the last 12 months, prices in 2020 hit records of more than £3,000 ($4,100, 3,500 euros) for one of the tiny horses.

In tougher times, they have sold for as little as a few hundred pounds each -- and sometimes even less.

Breeders are now champing at the bit for the upcoming October 1 auction, which has been held online for the last few years.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Shetland ponies saw their value soar to new highs

ADRIAN DENNIS AFP

Because of their size, Shetland ponies are cheaper and easier to maintain than larger horses, said Anderson.

And, as well as being relatively strong for their stature, "they're cute", she added.

This year the breeder is putting two of the ponies up for sale.

She said as well as having a strong legs and a good "tail, top line and movement", the animals also have to have a certain look.

"It's like a beauty contest," Anderson explained, stroking Dester, a miniature beige specimen, barely one metre (3.3 feet) tall.

- International interest -

The breeders are counting on high demand this year driven by the online sale, which has widened access to buyers from all over the world.

"We've had interest already from people in Germany and Norway," said Anderson, but buyers have also bid for the ponies from Russia, Canada and the UAE.

Prices remain very low compared to their larger cousins and pony breeders -- who number about 100 on Shetland -- often struggle to make a living.

"I do it as a hobby. I don't make any money on it," Anderson, a nurse by profession, said, adding that in other countries, like the Netherlands, breeding is better regulated, organised and more lucrative.

For the head of the breeders' association, the peaceful Shetland ponies are an integral part of the remote islands' culture and identity.

The horses are everywhere -- grazing on windswept hills, their manes tossed in the strong ocean breeze, or walking on white sandy beaches buffeted by turquoise waters.

A pony is a very nice way to spend your time,' says Sheena Anderson, chair of the Pony Breeders of Shetland Association

ADRIAN DENNIS AFP

Elaine Tait, whose parents breed Shetland ponies, fell in love with the animals from the age of five, when she repeatedly told them: "I want a pony."

Her parents relented, then five years later at the age of 10, she got her second.

Today, alongside the family business, she has founded her own riding school for children and a separate business for tourists: the Shetland Pony Experience.

- Therapy animals -

The Shetland ponies' tiny stature is thought to have been part of their adaptation to the islands' harsh climate.

The windswept archipelago, home to some 23,000 people, 110 miles (180 kilometres) north of mainland Scotland, and just under halfway to Norway.

When the harsh winter sets in, grass is scarce and only the smallest creatures were able to survive.

Because of their size, Shetland ponies are cheaper and easier to maintain than larger horses

ADRIAN DENNIS AFP

As a result, the ponies have super strength for horses of their size and a century ago put it to use in agriculture or in coal mining.

Today, they are bought to show in competitions, for horse racing, breeding, to teach children how to ride, as pets or even therapy animals.

Libby Morrison, a therapist, explained on her website she has found "horse-human interaction to have a wide range of benefits for those affected by anxiety, depression, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and autism"

THE WAY BOOMERS REMEMBER SHETLAND PONIES

The Country That Makes Breakfast for the World Is Plagued by Fire, Frost and Drought

Peter Millard, Fabiana Batista and Leslie Patton
Mon., September 27, 2021,

(Bloomberg) -- No country on Earth puts more breakfasts on kitchen tables than Brazil.

The farms that dot the vast plains and highlands that rise above the Atlantic coast produce four-fifths of the world’s orange juice exports, half of its sugar exports, a third of coffee exports and a third of the soy and corn used to feed egg-laying hens and other livestock.

So when the region’s crops were scorched and then frozen this year by a devastating one-two punch fueled by climate change — the worst drought in a century followed by an unprecedented Antarctic front that repeatedly coated the land in thick frost — global commodity markets shook.

The cost of Arabica beans soared 30% over a six-day stretch in late July; orange juice jumped 20% in three weeks; and sugar hit a four-year high in August.

The price spikes are contributing to a surge in international food inflation -- a U.N. index has jumped 33% over the past 12 months -- that’s deepening financial hardship in the pandemic and forcing millions of lower-income families to scale back grocery purchases across the globe. What’s more, the episode is sending an ominous warning of what’s to come as scientists anticipate rising global temperatures and declining soil humidity will increasingly wreak havoc on farm lands in Brazil -- and much of the rest of the world.

“It’s a vicious cycle,” says Marcelo Seluchi, a meteorologist at Brazil’s Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alert Center. “There is no rain because there is no humidity, and there is no humidity because there is no rain.” Deforestation of the Amazon, which ranchers clear cut to raise cattle and plant crops, is playing a big role, he says. By his calculation, Brazil hasn’t had a normal rainy season since 2010.

“It’s been a very peculiar year,” he says. “Floods in Germany and China, and there’s a very serious drought problem in Brazil.”

There’s also drought across the border in Argentina and in Chile, Canada, Madagascar, Mexico and Russia. The U.S. has been cleaved in two this summer: The West has been ravaged by record heat waves, forest fires and a drought so severe that, like in Brazil, giant lakes and rivers are drying up and straining hydro-electric power; the East, meanwhile, has been drenched by record-setting tropical storms and deadly floods.

“The world is on a very dangerous path,” Seluchi says.

All of this, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, will lead to a 10% decline in crop yields over the next three decades, a period in which the global population is expected to grow more than one-fifth.

The destruction wrought in Brazil provides a glimpse of that future. Between the drought and the frost, crops on some 1.5 million square kilometers of land have been damaged — an area the size of Peru. The coffee losses are the most stunning: as much as 1.3 billion pounds of beans destroyed, enough to brew every single cup that Americans drink over a four-month period.

This has triggered a frantic rush among the world’s biggest coffee retailers — companies like Starbucks Corp. and Nestle SA — to secure supplies.

“These guys are scrambling pretty hard,” says Jack Scoville, a trader at commodities broker Price Futures Group in Chicago. Starbucks said in a statement that it always buys months in advance, and Mark Schneider, Nestle’s CEO, told investors on a July conference call that the company protected its finances by purchasing hedging contracts that stretch into early next year.

Scoville, though, warned that successfully locking in prices isn’t the same as getting enough coffee over the long term. Brazil’s poor harvest will roil the market for years, he predicts. He’s seeing buyers who normally get all of their beans from Brazil and Vietnam suddenly turn elsewhere to try to make up for shortfalls.

That’s exactly the situation that Bader Olabi, a roaster in Istanbul, finds himself in. He's hunting for new suppliers in Colombia, India and Africa to replace the 100 containers of beans he gets from Brazil each year. He knows it won’t be easy to convince customers that those coffees are just as good. In Turkey, Olabi says, “Brazilian coffee is the best.”

In Austin, Texas, Greater Goods Coffee Co., a specialty roaster, is planning to raise prices soon to offset the higher cost it had to pay for beans. Sara Gibson, the head roaster, calls it a wake-up call to customers. They’ll have to accept higher bills to help make farming more sustainable in the era of climate change, she says. “That’s my hill to die on.”

Brazil is now predicting its coffee crop will shrink by more than 25% this year. Ground zero for this wipeout was Caconde, a hamlet carved out of the lush hardwood forests of northwestern Sao Paulo state.

Coffee is 80% of the economy here. Stand on top of the highest peak and it’s coffee farms as far as the eye can see. One of them is a tidy, little plot owned by a 70-year-old former banker by the name of Antonio Ribeiro Goulart.

Goulart lost it all when the frost hit.

The leaves on every single tree he has — some 11,000 in all — went from a vibrant green to a dull brown in the span of 24 hours. One month later, he still seemed in a state of shock. He kept running his hands slowly through the dead branches as he talked. The leaves would crackle and then crumble into tiny pieces. “They were completely spectacular before the frost,” he says softly.

Goulart’s family has owned this plot for over a century. He inherited it from his father and settled in after spending some three decades at Banco Bradesco. He was a mid-level sort there, tasked with running a branch in downtown Sao Paulo when he retired ten years ago.

Back in 2019, he had pledged a portion of this year’s crop to a supplier that sold him a new husking machine, but that was impossible now. There will be no harvest for Goulart this year or next. Even 2023 is almost certainly lost. He will call the supplier and renegotiate the terms, he said. And then, like thousands of farmers around him, he will lop off all the branches on all the trees in the hope that the trunks sprout new shoots. If they do not, as he fears, he will cut them down to the stump and start from zero.

“There is no other solution,” he says.

Goulart may have loved the way his trees looked before the polar winds swept through, but the truth is the harvest in Caconde was already weak. The drought, which is now in its seventh month, was far too harsh to produce a good crop. Soil humidity was down to a mere 20%. Ideally, that number would be closer to 60%, says Ademar Pereira, the head of the local coffee growers’ association.

Pereira is standing on top of a bluff and pointing out all the tell-tale signs of the bone-dry weather: the manicured lawns that have turned into brown carpets; the gash that a recent wildfire left in a far-off mountain; and the hydroelectric reservoir down in the valley that is so low that marinas that were built right on the water’s edge now stand a quarter-mile away.

“We’ve never seen that before,” Pereira says.

When you tally up the accumulated rain shortfall over the past decade across many basins in Brazil, it comes to about a year’s worth of precipitation, according to ONS, the national electrical grid operator. The monsoons that farmers rely on have been arriving later and later each year. The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts this trend will worsen in coming years, with longer dry seasons stretching from central Brazil up into the Amazon.

It was along the outer edge of the rain forest, in a town called Nova Mutum, that Cleverson Bertamoni saw his corn fields go up in smoke one July day.

Bertamoni frantically piled farm hands into his two water trucks and sent them out to douse the fire. Still, it raged on. Bertamoni pleaded for help. His neighbors rushed over 13 more trucks. By the time the flames were finally out, some six hours later, almost 250 acres had been destroyed.

For Bertamoni, 43, it was unlike any fire he’s ever encountered in a career that began when he was a young boy following his parents into their soybean and corn fields. The ground is so dry now, he said, that a simple spark from a combine was enough to trigger the blaze. "It spread so fast."

Bertamoni suddenly found himself 16,000 bags of corn short of what he had promised to deliver to trading houses in Sao Paulo. The contract stipulated he had to fork over $120,000 to make up the difference. This wouldn’t work. He didn’t have that kind of cash. So he brokered a deal with them: He’d turn over 20,000 bags from next year’s harvest instead.

Bertamoni is relieved, albeit a bit edgy. It should all work out fine, he figures, just as long as the rains come and he can keep the fires at bay.

Cadence Weapon captures Polaris Music Prize for hip-hop album ‘Parallel World’

POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

Cadence Weapon has won the 2021 Polaris Music Prize for his album Parallel World.

The Edmonton-raised rapper’s full-length record — which fuses hip-hop, electronic and grime music into a reflection on social injustice — was selected by an 11-member grand jury as the best Canadian album of the year, based on its artistic merit.

The recognition comes with a $50,000 prize and heightened awareness for the artist who’s been part of Canada’s music industry for well over a decade but is still widely considered underground.

“I can’t believe this is happening, I feel amazing,” he said by webcam on Monday as he accepted the honour from his home.

The 35-year-old musician’s win comes after two of his previous albums were Polaris shortlisted, 2006’s Breaking Kayfabe and 2012’s Hope in Dirt City, but didn’t take home the prize.

Parallel World, his fifth album, was already a darling of music critics who applauded how its 10 songs that play out over a brisk 26-minutes left a lasting impact. Some credited the record with capturing a uniquely Toronto perspective on the Black experience in Canada that grapples with gentrification, technology and history.

“I definitely made music with a journalistic lens,” he said, acknowledging much of the album’s inspiration came from watching the George Floyd protests last year.

READ MORE: Protests after death of George Floyd brings racism to the forefront in Edmonton

Cadence Weapon, born Rollie Pemberton, moved to Toronto in 2015 after spending many of his formative years in Montreal. But before that, he was already on the radar of Canada’s arts scene, named Edmonton’s poet laureate for two years in 2009.

His familial ties to Edmonton run deep. His late father, Teddy, was a hip-hop DJ on campus radio while his grandfather, Rollie Miles, was a player with the CFL’s Eskimos for 11 years.

While accepting the Polaris award, Pemberton laid out early plans for using some of his “resources” to organize voter registration events around the Toronto municipal and Ontario provincial elections.

“We need some changes to our leadership and we need to make things more equitable for people in the city to be able to vote,” he said, calling on other interested musicians to join him in his quest.

In a news conference after the award announcement, he told reporters that he also plans to use a portion of the prize money to help some Toronto crowdfunding campaigns cross their goal, including one for the Little Jamaica community, which is being impacted by a light-rail transit line that will soon be passing through the area.

Pemberton also reflected on the political landscape of the nation a week after polls closed for the snap federal election.

“I also just want to take this time to mention that Justin Trudeau has worn blackface so many times he can’t even remember how many times, and he was just given a third term,” he said in his Polaris acceptance speech.

“And that’s exactly why I need to be making rap records that are political, that are about these subjects because that’s still a fact today.”

The Polaris Music Prize awards the artist or group that created the standout Canadian album of the previous year — irrespective of genre or sales — as chosen by a team of journalists, broadcasters and bloggers.

It is considered one of the country’s most prestigious music awards. Former winners include Backxwash, Haviah Mighty, Jeremy Dutcher and Kaytranada.

Cadence Weapon Wins 2021 Polaris Music Prize for Parallel World

The Edmonton-born, Toronto-based rapper won the Canadian award for the country’s best record of the year

By Allison Hussey and Matthew Ismael RuizSeptember 27, 2021

Cadence Weapon, photo by Colin Medley

Cadence Weapon has won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize, which celebrates the country’s best record of the year, for his album Parallel World. The award comes with a cash prize of $50,000 (Canadian) and promotional services for a future release.

Cadence Weapon is the rap moniker of Pitchfork contributor Rollie Pemberton. This year marked Cadence Weapon’s third time on the Short List for the prize. While accepting the award, he said:

If I won this, I wanted to announce that next year I’ll be using some of my resources to organize some voter registration events around the Toronto municipal election, as well as the Ontario provincial election because we need some changes to our leadership and we need to make things more equitable for people in this city to be able to vote. I also just want to take this time to mention that Justin Trudeau has worn Blackface so many times he can’t even remember how many times, and he was just given a third term. That’s exactly why I need to be making rap records that are political, that are about these subjects because that’s still a fact today.

Finally, this goes out to everybody in Edmonton and Alberta! I’m from Edmonton, 780, we’ve never been here before. I want to show everybody, all the young artists listening right now, and watching this, you don’t have to be from Toronto. Your experience is valuable. Your art matters. Coming from Edmonton, I don’t want you to forget that. The prairies got something to say. E-town.

The Polaris Music Prize is awarded to the “Best Canadian album of the year based on artistic merit without regard to genre, sales history or label affiliation,” as determined by a Grand Jury of 11 “music media professionals.” The Grand Jury is selected from the Polaris jury pool of 199 Canadian writers, editors, broadcasters, and DJs; this year’s jury pool included Pitchfork contributor Stuart Berman.

Daniel Lanois, Yves Jarvis, Bernice, and Fiver with the Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition were among those on the Long List for the 2021 Polaris Music Prize, which was narrowed down in July. Runners-up from the Short List receive a cash prize of $3,000 (Canadian).

Backxwash won for God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out Of It last year, following previous honorees Haviah Mighty, Jeremy Dutcher, and Lido Pimienta.

WELL OF COURSE THEY DID

Military leaders saw pandemic as unique opportunity to test propaganda techniques on Canadians, Forces report says

FEEL FREE TO REMOVE TINFOIL HAT

THEY DID CONSPIRE

A plan devised by the Canadian Joint Operations Command relied on propaganda techniques similar to those employed during the Afghanistan war.

Author of the article: David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date:Sep 27, 2021

Lt.-Gen. Mike Rouleau

PHOTO BY ADRIAN WYLD /The Canadian Press

Canadian military leaders saw the pandemic as a unique opportunity to test out propaganda techniques on an unsuspecting public, a newly released Canadian Forces report concludes.

The federal government never asked for the so-called information operations campaign, nor did cabinet authorize the initiative developed during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Canadian Joint Operations Command, then headed by Lt.-Gen. Mike Rouleau.

But military commanders believed they didn’t need to get approval from higher authorities to develop and proceed with their plan, retired Maj.-Gen. Daniel Gosselin, who was brought in to investigate the scheme, concluded in his report.

The propaganda plan was developed and put in place in April 2020 even though the Canadian Forces had already acknowledged that “information operations and targeting policies and doctrines are aimed at adversaries and have a limited application in a domestic concept.”

A copy of the Dec. 2, 2020, Gosselin investigation, as well as other related documents, was obtained by this newspaper using the Access to Information law.

The plan devised by the Canadian Joint Operations Command, also known as CJOC, relied on propaganda techniques similar to those employed during the Afghanistan war. The campaign called for “shaping” and “exploiting” information. CJOC claimed the information operations scheme was needed to head off civil disobedience by Canadians during the coronavirus pandemic and to bolster government messages about the pandemic.

A separate initiative, not linked to the CJOC plan, but overseen by Canadian Forces intelligence officers, culled information from public social media accounts in Ontario. Data was also compiled on peaceful Black Lives Matter gatherings and BLM leaders. Senior military officers claimed that information was needed to ensure the success of Operation Laser, the Canadian Forces mission to help out in long-term care homes hit by COVID-19 and to aid in the distribution of vaccines in some northern communities.

BLM organizers have questioned why military officials gathered information on their initiative, pointing out they followed pandemic rules and did not hold any gatherings outside LTC homes.

Then chief of the defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance shut down the CJOC propaganda initiative after a number of his advisers questioned the legality and ethics behind the plan. Vance then brought in Gosselin to examine how CJOC was able to develop and launch the propaganda operation without approval.

Gosselin’s investigation discovered the plan wasn’t simply the idea of “passionate” military propaganda specialists, but support for the use of such information operations was “clearly a mindset that permeated the thinking at many levels of CJOC.” Those in the command saw the pandemic as a “unique opportunity” to test out such techniques on Canadians.

The views put forth by Rear Adm. Brian Santarpia, then CJOC’s chief of staff, summed up the command’s attitude, Gosselin noted in his report. “This is really a learning opportunity for all of us and a chance to start getting information operations into our (CAF-DND) routine,” the rear admiral stated.

The command saw the military’s pandemic response “as an opportunity to monitor and collect public information in order to enhance awareness for better command decision making,” Gosselin determined.

Gosselin also pointed out CJOC staff had a “palpable dismissive attitude” toward the advice and concerns raised by other military leaders.

The directive for the propaganda plan was issued by CJOC on April 8, 2020, but it took until May 2 of that year before Vance’s order to shut it down took effect.

Gosselin recommended a comprehensive review of Canadian Forces information operations policies and directives, particularly those that may impact any activities for domestic missions.

There is an ongoing debate inside national defence headquarters in Ottawa about the use of information operations techniques. Some public affairs officers, intelligence specialists and senior planners want to expand the scope of such methods in Canada to allow them to better control and shape government information that the public receives. Others inside headquarters worry that such operations could lead to abuses, including having military staff intentionally mislead the Canadian public or taking measures to target opposition MPs or those who criticize government or military policy.

Military propaganda training and initiatives within Canada over the last year have proved to be controversial.

The Canadian Forces had to launch an investigation after a September 2020 incident when military information operations staff forged a letter from the Nova Scotia government warning about wolves on the loose in a particular region of the province. The letter was inadvertently distributed to residents, prompting panicked calls to Nova Scotia officials who were unaware the military was behind the deception. The investigation determined the reservists conducting the operation lacked formal training and policies governing the use of propaganda techniques were not well understood by the soldiers.

Yet another review centred on the Canadian Forces public affairs branch and its activities. Last year, the branch launched a controversial plan that would have allowed military public affairs officers to use propaganda to change attitudes and behaviours of Canadians as well as to collect and analyze information from public social media accounts.

The plan would have seen staff move from traditional government methods of communicating with the public to a more aggressive strategy of using information warfare and influence tactics on Canadians. Included among those tactics was the use of friendly defence analysts and retired generals to push military PR messages and to criticize on social media those who raised questions about military spending and accountability.

The Canadian Forces also spent more than $1 million to train public affairs officers on behaviour modification techniques of the same sort used by the parent firm of Cambridge Analytica, the company implicated in a 2016 data-mining scandal to help Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential election campaign.

The initiative to change military public affairs strategy was abruptly shut down in November after this newspaper revealed details about the plan. A military investigation determined what the Canadian Forces public affairs leadership was doing was “incompatible with Government of Canada Communications Policy (and the) mission and principles of Public Affairs.” None of the public affairs leadership was disciplined for their actions.

Several months ago, Acting Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre and DND deputy minister Jody Thomas acknowledged in an internal document that the various propaganda initiatives had gotten out of control. “Errors conducted during domestic operations and training, and sometimes insular mindsets at various echelons, have eroded public confidence in the institution,” noted a June 9, 2021, message signed by Eyre and Thomas. “This included the conduct of IO (Information Operations) on a domestic operation without explicit CDS/DM direction or authority to do so, as well as the unsanctioned production of reports that appeared to be aimed at monitoring the activities of Canadians.”

Shock waves in outflow gases could regulate 'volcano lightning'

by Anne M Stark, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Volcanic eruptions spew lava, rock and ash into the air. When fragments of these materials mix and collide in the outflow, they can create an electric potential large enough to generate lightning.

New research by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators has discovered that standing shock waves in the supersonic outflow of gases prevent electric discharges like sparks and lightning from propagating. This suggests standing shocks formed by a volcanic eruption may suppress or reduce volcano lightning during the initial phase of an eruption. The new research appears in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

In nature, electric discharges in the form of lightning are frequently observed not only in thunderclouds, but also in widely diverse environments that exhibit turbulent particle-laden ﬂows, such as volcanic plumes and dust devils.

During electric discharge, radio frequency (RF) emissions can be recorded, providing a means to track the progressive evolution in space and time of the lightning source. Similar to the detection of thunderclouds and storms, RF detection also is now being used to detect and inform on the hazards associated with ash-laden volcanic plumes and ash clouds. In particular, lightning at active volcanoes in a state of unrest can indicate the onset of hazardous explosive activity and the production of ash plumes. In addition, both observable discharges and RF emissions can reveal the mechanisms that initiate the lightning and offer clues about the makeup of the erupting material.

Explosive volcanic eruptions can generate lightning that emits RF signatures. At early times in the eruption, moreover, shock waves in the supersonic flow may act to mediate the path of the lightning, recognizably modifying the RF signatures.

The team imaged sparks and a standing shock together in a transient supersonic jet of micro-diamonds entrained in argon. Shock waves represent a sharp transition in gas density and hence in the tendency of the gas to ionize. Fluid dynamic and kinetic simulations of the experiment illustrated how the observed sparks are bounded by the standing shock.

"We show that sparks transmit an impression of the explosive flow and open the way for novel instrumentation to diagnose currently inaccessible explosive phenomena," said lead author Jens von der Linden, former LLNL scientist now at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics.

Explosive volcanic eruptions produce supersonic ﬂows through the sudden release of over-pressurized gases contained in the erupting magma, resulting in shock waves.

Observations of erupting volcanoes in Alaska, Iceland and Japan have revealed that in the ﬁrst few seconds following the onset of an explosive eruption, RF signatures distinct from those produced by leader-forming lightning are recorded in the vicinity (within tens to hundreds of meters) of volcano vents.

"If the sources of near-vent continual radio frequency emission are regulated by standing shock waves, then distributed antennas could pinpoint their locations, tracking the evolution of the regulating standing shock and providing insight into the pressure and particle content of the explosive ﬂow," said Jason Sears, LLNL scientist and principal investigator for the project. "The fast decompression experiments and simulations that Jens led permit observation and analysis of explosive events producing RF at their onset."

Volcanic ash modifies the height, width and lifetime of a standing shock wave that can occur during volcanic eruptions

More information: Jens von der Linden et al, Standing shock prevents propagation of sparks in supersonic explosive flows, Communications Earth & Environment (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-021-00263-y

Journal information: Communications Earth & Environment

Provided by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Dinosaurs' ascent driven by volcanoes powering climate change

by University of Birmingham

The rise of dinosaurs coincided with environmental changes driven by major volcanic eruptions over 230 million years ago, a new study reveals.

The Late Triassic Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE) saw an increase in global temperature and humidity—creating a major impact on the development of animal and plant life, coinciding with the establishment of modern conifers.

Researchers analyzed sediment and fossil plant records from a lake in northern China's Jiyuan Basin, matching pulses of volcanic activity with significant environmental changes, including the CPE's 'mega monsoon' climate, some 234 million to 232 million years ago.

The international research team, including experts at the University of Birmingham, today published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)—revealing four distinct episodes of volcanic activity during this time period, with the most likely source being major volcanic eruptions from the Wrangellia Large Igneous Province, the remnants of which are preserved in western North America.

Co-author Jason Hilton, Professor of Palaeobotany and Palaeoenvironments at the University of Birmingham's School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, commented: "Within the space of two million years the world's animal and plant life underwent major changes including selective extinctions in the marine realm and diversification of plant and animal groups on land. These events coincide with a remarkable interval of intense rainfall known as the Carnian Pluvial Episode.

"Our research shows, in a detailed record from a lake in North China, that this period can actually be resolved into four distinct events, each one driven by discrete pulses of powerful volcanic activity associated with enormous releases of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These triggered an increase in global temperature and humidity."

The researchers found that each phase of volcanic eruption coincided with large perturbation of the global Carbon cycle, major climatic changes to more humid conditions, as well the lake's deepening with a corresponding decrease in oxygen and animal life.

Geological events from a similar timeframe in Central Europe, East Greenland, Morocco, North America, and Argentina, among other locations indicate that increased rainfall resulted in widespread expansion of drainage basins converging into lakes or swamps, rather than rivers or oceans.

"Our results show that large volcanic eruptions can occur in multiple, discrete pulses -demonstrating their powerful ability to alter the global carbon cycle, cause climate and hydrological disruption and drive evolutionary processes," added co-author Dr. Sarah Greene, Senior Lecturer also in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham.

Dr. Emma Dunne, a Palaeobiologist also at the the University of Birmingham, who was not involved in the study, commented:

"This relatively long period of volcanic activity and environmental change would have had considerable consequences for animals on land. At this time, the dinosaurs had just begun to diversify, and it's likely that without this event, they would never have reached their ecological dominance we see over the next 150 million years"

Professor Hilton also added "In addition to dinosaurs, this remarkable period in Earth history was also important for the rise of modern conifer groups and had a major impact on the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems and animal and plant life—including ferns, crocodiles, turtles, insects and the first mammals."

The research team investigated terrestrial sediments from the ZJ-1 borehole in the Jiyuan Basin of North China. They used uranium-lead zircon dating, high-resolution chemostratigraphy, palynological and sedimentological data to correlate terrestrial conditions in the region with synchronous large-scale volcanic activity in North America.Discovery of a new mass extinction

More information: Volcanically driven lacustrine ecosystem changes during the Carnian Pluvial Episode (Late Triassic), PNAS (2021). doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109895118

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Provided by University of Birmingham

Slow moving turtle delays five planes at Japan airport

Airport workers occasionally remove stray cats and racoon dogs from the runway but turtle sightings are rare

A Nippon Airways Airbus A380 plane decorated with images of sea turtles at Narita airport in Tokyo, where a turtle has caused havoc after walking onto the tarmac.

Photograph: Aflo Co. Ltd./Alamy

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Tue 28 Sep 2021

Turtles on a Runway probably will never rival Snakes on a Plane for dramatic effect, but one reptile has made headlines after an innocent amble along the tarmac at Japan’s second-busiest airport, delaying five planes.

The turtle, which weighs just over 2kg, was seen moving slowly along the tarmac at Narita international airport near Tokyo on Friday morning, prompting a pilot preparing for takeoff to contact air traffic control.

Staff removed the animal with a net and checked the 4,000-metre runway for other foreign objects, causing a 15-minute delay to five flights, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.

Radioactive snakes help scientists monitor fallout from Fukushima nuclear disaster

They included an All-Nippon Airways Airbus A380 whose fuselage is decorated with light and dark blue images of sea turtles, an embellishment that debuted in July last year to celebrate the carrier’s service to Hawaii, where the animals are regarded as sacred.

While airport workers are occasionally called on to remove stray cats, racoon dogs and rabbits from the runway, turtle sightings are extremely rare, the Mainichi said. Narita officials believe the creature may have come from the airport’s retention pond, located about 100 metres from the runway, the newspaper added.

After ANA had to cancel its 14 weekly flights to Honolulu due to the coronavirus pandemic, the airline has been using its fleet of A380s on domestic routes. The plane in question was about to take off on a flight to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa when the turtle made its appearance.

The airline has shrugged off the disruption. “In Hawaii, sea turtles are seen as bringing good luck, and we hope this turtle that came to see the flight off signals a bright future,” it said in a statement.

Art flourishes on the walls of Morocco

Issued on: 28/09/2021

Moroccan street artist Omar Lhamzi works on a mural during the "Jidar" street art festival in the capital Rabat

FADEL SENNA AFP

Rabat (AFP)

Artist Omar Lhamzi donned a bright yellow vest and paint-splattered shoes, selected a brush and set to work on his latest canvas -- the wall of a house in Morocco's seaside capital Rabat.

Lhamzi is one of a new generation of artists whose murals are changing the face of Morocco's cities.

A wander through Rabat's avenues and alleyways reveals an array of freshly painted works, in which larger-than-life fantasy creatures co-inhabit with realistic portraits and scenes of daily life.

Their creators flocked from across the North African kingdom and beyond to Rabat last week for Jidar -- Arabic for "wall" -- a festival dedicated to street art.

Lhamzi used the side of a house in the working-class district of Yaacoub Al Mansour for his latest work, a man with six ears and green and pink skin floating in darkness, with clouds that echo Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night".

The 25-year-old, who goes by the alias Bo3bo3, completed his first murals in the seaside city of Agadir four years ago.

But he had not been expecting it to become his main field when he graduated in 2018 from the prestigious National School of Fine Arts in the northern city of Tetouan.

Lhamzi used the side of a house in the working-class district of Yaacoub Al Mansour for his latest work

FADEL SENNA AFP

"I never imagined that my work would be visible in the public space," he said.

Today, however, he covers walls with bright colours, creating a surrealist world full of references to skating and video games, breaking the monotony of the urban landscape.

- Growing interest -

In another part of the capital, Imane Droby perches on a stool in front of a school wall, tracing out a realistic portrait of a woman embroidering.

The 36-year-old from Casablanca says she, too, fell into painting murals "sort of by accident".

"I got a taste for it. It's great to transform a blank wall into a work of art," she said.

She added that street art "is difficult for everyone but even more so for women. You have make double the effort to make your mark."

Imane Droby, a female street artist who also took part in the festival, says women have to "double the effort" to make their mark

FADEL SENNA AFP

It is an art form that has flourished since the early 2000s in Morocco's commercial capital of Casablanca.

A decade later in 2013, the Sbagha Bagha festival stirred a new level of public interest in murals.

"At first it was really complicated, because unlike graffiti or stencilling, painting murals requires organisation," said Salah Malouli, artistic director of Sbagha Bagha and Jidar.

"At the time, nobody felt comfortable working in public. There was lots of apprehension."

But today both residents and institutions show more interest in murals, Malouli said, and in recent years the artworks have graced walls not just in big cities like tourist hub Marrakesh but also in more remote areas.

- Portraits erased -

The artworks are not always valued by landlords or the authorities.

The municipality of the northern port city of Tangiers sparked outrage over the summer by starting to erase a tribute to French-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, who was killed in a 2016 jihadist attack in Burkina Faso. The authorities later reversed the decision.

Malouli said the artworks are most vulnerable in Casablanca, where flyposting often covers walls.

"Public space is invaded by informal advertising, which complicates our work," he said.

Two works by Italian street artist Millo were erased in recent years.

A woman looks on from her window next to a mural by Moroccan street artist Omar Lhamzi

FADEL SENNA AFP

Yet for the artists involved in Jidar, there is no question of giving up.

"It's the price of working in public space -- you have to accept what happens, both good and bad," Malouli said.

Despite the challenges, Lhamzi sees street art as a way of "learning to speak and listen to people".

And every year, the scene is growing, with new artists contributing to a collective wall -- just as Lhamzi and Droby started out.

For visual artist Yassine Balbzioui who managed the wall this year, the art form has wings.

In the street, "everything is possible", he said.

© 2021 AFP

Ontario farm with migrant worker who died of COVID-19 hit with 20 charges
Andrew Lupton

© Submitted by Chaparro Family Juan Lopez Chaparro died June 20, 2020, after contracting COVID-19 from Scotlynn Group farm where he was employed. The Ontario farm now faces 20 charges.

An Ontario farm where an outbreak of COVID-19 affected more than 200 workers, including a man from Mexico who later died, now faces 20 charges following an inspection by the provincial Labour Ministry.

Charges filed with the Ontario Court of Justice under the Occupational Health and Safety Act say Scotlynn Sweetpac Growers Inc. and its owner, Scott Biddle, failed to take "every precaution reasonable" to protect workers from COVID-19 infection on the vegetable farm in Vittoria, located about 75 kilometres south of Hamilton.

Scores of workers tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak in the spring of 2020. Juan Lopez Chaparro, a 55-year-old from Mexico, died in June that year after working at the farm.

The charges, which have not been proven in court, say the farm and its owner failed to protect workers in the following ways:
Workers weren't informed about the need to wear face coverings.
Workers didn't have access to hand hygiene facilities.
There was a lack of cleaning on touch surfaces.
Workers with a higher likelihood of transmitting COVID-19 and those showing symptoms weren't given information or instructions to self-isolate.

CBC News called Scotlynn group for comment on Monday after 5 p.m. ET and was told by an employee who answered the phone to call back on Tuesday.

Chaparro — like thousands of workers who come to Ontario each growing season — was in Canada as part of the federal Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, which allows farmers to hire temporary foreign workers.

One worker at Scotlynn Sweetpac, Luis Gabriel Flores, was fired after speaking out about conditions at the farm. He was Chaparro's bunkmate.

The province's Labour Relations Board ordered Scotlynn Growers to pay Flores $20,000 in lost wages and $5,000 in damages.

Migrant workers typically live in communal bunkhouses with shared kitchens and bathrooms, conditions health officials and advocates for migrant workers had warned, prior to the outbreak, created unsafe conditions in a pandemic. Advocates say the workers' families rely on money they earn in Canada, and many don't speak out for fear of losing their jobs and the ability to earn during the growing season.

Karen Cocq, who's with the group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said the charges should have come much sooner than a year after Chaparro's death.

"[The delay] means the systems that we currently have in place, that are supposed to enforce laws and protect workers, clearly are not working," she said.

Cocq said the case involving Chaparro marks the first time any Ontario employer has been charged in response to a worker's death due to a COVID-19 outbreak.

The penalties section of the Occupational Health and Safety Act list possible penalties ranging from jail sentences of up to a year and fines that range up to $1.5 million.

The labor shortage may have an old-fashioned solution: carpenters, electricians, and other trades are good jobs that make workers happy

insider@insider.com (Madison Hoff)

Employment for electricians, carpenters, and plumbers could help address the labor shortage.

Skilled trade workers typically get paid well, get to learn on the job, and aren't saddled with student loan debt.

Two experts told Insider that employers in the space have a rare opportunity to attract new workers.

The jobs of the future are in part the jobs of the past: Work for electricians, carpenters, and plumbers could help fix the labor shortage.

With millions of Americans reevaluating their careers during the pandemic and quitting jobs, skilled trades that typically offer relatively high pay and on-the-job training may be a promising new career choice.

A new annual report from Angi, a marketplace for home services, highlights not only the situation of skilled trades during the pandemic but also how skilled trades can take advantage of the Great Resignation in other industries - if done right.

"If home trades recognize the connection between what their trades offer and what workers are seeking during the Great Resignation, we could begin to see a narrative change around trade labor and start to reverse the labor shortages that have impacted the trades for years," the marketplace wrote in the report.

People in skilled trades are happy with their work, and 83% of tradespeople in the Angi report said they were at least somewhat satisfied.

"So when two-thirds of the labor force aren't engaged in their work, this is an area where people should be going because it's booming," Mischa Fisher, chief economist for Angi, told Insider.

Angi notes that there's a demand for these workers owing to booming markets in homes and home improvements during the pandemic. This demand is also seen in an analysis of job data from industrial staffing agency PeopleReady:

Even before the pandemic, there was a shortage of skilled trade workers.

Kevin Ponder, construction director at PeopleReady Skilled Trades, told Insider some Baby Boomers decided to retire early because of the pandemic. A shortage of workers in construction has also contributed to a record backlog of homes authorized but not started.
Skilled-trade employers need to change how they attract talent

Per Angi, 46% of skilled-trade employers said they recruit new workers by word-of-mouth recommendations, but Fisher said this may not be very effective for finding new workers.

"Because for the most part, tradespeople know other tradespeople. And so word of mouth, it's a very closed ecosystem," Fisher said. He added that recruiters instead should increase their digital presence.

Fisher said recruiters need to change their messaging as well. Most tradespeople say they're satisfied with their work mainly because they find meaning and value in it, per Angi's results. But that isn't being prioritized in recruitment efforts as shown in the below chart:

"They have to make sure they're communicating [that] people really like this work. You're going to like your job if you do this," Fisher said. "And so both the message and the medium have to be improved."

Ponder added trades need to highlight benefits like good compensation and being paid while learning on the job through an apprenticeship program and without the burden of student loans.

The following table shows the typical education, training, and pay in some trades:

Fisher added that there also needs to be more of an effort to hire women and people of color, as skilled trades are predominantly white men. Women only make up 3.1% of electricians; 2.3% of plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters; and 3.8% of construction laborers in 2020 per BLS data. Last year's data also shows 86.6% of construction laborers were white.

"What people [in skilled trades] are looking for - willingness to work hard, willingness to learn, customer service skills, planning, craftsmanship skills - there's no reason why we couldn't see that rate of women in the trades be much, much higher," Fisher said.

Ponder said if you're interested in being outside or building something that will be around for years, "you get that in construction, you get that in the skilled trades. And that's an opportunity where you get to see something that you've done that may be here 20, 30, 40 years later, and be able to look at your kids or grandkids and say I was a part of that."

"So many people that I saw start off at barely over minimum wage, 10 years later they were running million-dollar projects because they worked hard and they learned, and there's just not a lot of industries out there that still have that flexibility and freedom to allow you to grow based on what you're learning on the job," Ponder said.

Did you quit your job during the pandemic and have made the switch into a skilled trade position? Email this reporter at mhoff@insider.com.Expanded Coverage Module: what-is-the-labor-shortage-and-how-long-will-it-last
Read the original article on Business Insider

UPDATED

Lava spewing again from Canary Islands volcano, airport remains closed

GAIA LIVES PELE VOCIFERATES

Issued on: 28/09/2021 -
Text by: NEWS WIRES|
Video by: Fraser JACKSON

A volcano began spewing out ash again Monday after a brief lull in the Canary Islands, where coastal residents are confined to their homes over fears of toxic gases when the lava hits the sea.

La Cumbre Vieja, which straddles a southern ridge in La Palma in the Atlantic archipelago, erupted on September 19, spewing out rivers of lava that have slowly crept towards the sea.

But on Monday morning, the lava and ash flow had stopped, and the week-long rumble of the eruption faded to silence, before resuming its activity several hours later, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Smoke had continued to emerge from the top during the lull.

"In the last hours, the volcanic tremor has almost disappeared, as well as the explosive strombolian activity," tweeted Involcan volcanology institute, using the scientific term for a mix of explosions and lava flow.

"Volcanic activity in La Palma has reduced significantly in the last few hours," Madrid's Institute of Geosciences tweeted.

"We must be very vigilant about how it evolves because the scenario can change quickly."

Several hours later, the volcano started pumping out ash again.

Fits and starts

Speaking to AFP after the resumption, Involcan spokesman David Calvo said it was "just ash, for the time being". La Cumbre Vieja had been switching between "explosive episodes and lulls for quite a while", he added.

Overnight, 300 residents living in coastal areas were ordered to stay at home to avoid harm from the release of toxic gases when the lava finally reaches the sea, the regional government said.

"The population must follow the instructions of the authorities and remain at home, with doors and windows closed," it said.

The lava, moving very slowly, is currently between 800 and 1,000 metres (around half a mile) away from the shore, it said. An evacuation order affecting four areas is in place around Tazacorte, where it is expected to enter the sea.

Officials have also set up an exclusion zone to head off curious onlookers.

Experts say the entry of lava into the seawater will send clouds of toxic gas into the air, causing explosions and a fragmentation of the molten rock like gunshots.

"Inhalation or contact with acid gases and liquids can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tract, and may cause breathing difficulties, especially in people with pre-existing respiratory diseases," Involcan warned.

Air traffic disrupted

The molten rock has so far scorched its way across more than 235 hectares of land, burning up many banana plantations, devoured 513 properties and destroyed nearly 20 kilometres of road, the European Union's Copernicus Earth Observation Programme said.

And eruption has so far force more than 6,000 people from their homes, although 160 were allowed to return home on Sunday.

The authorities also said clouds of ash from the volcano had started to affect areas on the eastern side of the island.

At La Palma's airport, where air traffic was halted on Saturday for 24 hours due to the ash, local airline Binter said it had been unable to resume flights.

"We have halted our La Palma operations again after trying to make a first flight today and finding conditions were not safe enough," tweeted the airline, which is based in the Canary Islands, saying it would try again on Tuesday.

(AFP)

Lava from Spanish island volcano rolls slowly toward the sea

by Daniel Roca and Barry Hatton

In this Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021 satellite photo from Planet Labs Inc. lava and ash from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain can be seen. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: Planet Labs Inc. via AP

Lava flowing from a volcano in Spain's Canary Islands picked up its pace on its way to the sea Tuesday, but scientists said it was impossible to estimate when the black-and-red stream of molten rock would reach the shore.

Authorities said the lava had moved on the island of La Palma to within 800 meters (875 yards) of the Atlantic Ocean as of Tuesday morning, nine days after the volcano's eruption. When it eventually meets sea water, the lava could trigger explosions and the release of toxic gas.

By the afternoon, officials said various factors dictated the unpredictable speed of the lava flow, including its departure from a path over an earlier flow that had hardened. The river of cooled lava had helped the moving flow slide along.

"The lava cools down as time passes and it meets uneven ground, which slows it down," said Miguel Ángel Morcuende, technical director of the Canary Islands emergency volcano response department. "And if it comes off the highway it was going along, that slows it even more because it spreads out wider."

A small hill and a built-up area also stood in the lava's way, and the shore area is flatter than the hills the lava has been flowing down.

For days, officials have nervously awaited the time when lava from the Sept. 19 eruption reaches the Atlantic, but the volcano has been erratic. After calming down on Monday, the volcano became more explosive again overnight.

Lava flows from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain on Monday Sept. 27, 2021. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Roca

Authorities said they don't expect the slow-moving lava to create a large disruption on the coast. But Eugenio Fraile, a researcher at the Spanish Oceanography Institute, told Cadena Ser radio that only scientists wearing protective gear will be inside a security perimeter when the flow hits the ocean.

The National Geographic Institute detected six earthquakes Tuesday in the area of the eruption, with the strongest measured at magnitude 3.3.

La Palma, home to about 85,000 people, is part of the volcanic Canary Islands, an archipelago off northwest Africa. The island is roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide at its broadest point.

Lava from the eruption has devoured everything in its path, destroying 589 buildings and 21 kilometers (13 miles) of roads on La Palma. The lava now covers 258 hectares (637 acres), mostly farmland, according to a European Union satellite monitoring agency.

A woman takes a selfie as lava flows from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain on Monday Sept. 27, 2021. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Roca

In this Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021 satellite photo from Planet Labs Inc. lava and ash from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain can be seen. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: Planet Labs Inc. via AP

Lava flows from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain in the early hours of Tuesday Sept. 28, 2021. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: AP Photo/Saul Santos

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported, thanks to the prompt evacuations of over 6,000 people.

But local people have lost their homes and their livelihoods at the same time. Farming is one of the island's economic mainstays, along with tourism, and the lava and ash has ruined crops and irrigation systems, endangered aviation and poses a significant health risk to those nearby.

No flights went in or out of La Palma's airport for a fourth straight day because of a huge ash cloud. Volcanic ash is hazardous for aircraft engines.

The Spanish government announced after its weekly Cabinet meeting Tuesday it's providing an immediate grant of 10.5 million euros ($12.3 million) to buy 107 properties to rehouse local people and also provide them with income aid.

More aid, including for the rebuilding of public infrastructure, will be sent once the current emergency is over, government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez said.

The volcano has so far spewed out more than 46 million cubic meters (1.6 billion cubic feet) of molten rock, according to the Canary Island Volcanology Institute.

Explore furtherSpanish volcano still packs a punch 5 days after eruption

© 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Dinosaurs' ascent driven by volcanoes powering climate change

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