United Airlines spends $15M for 200 electric air taxis

United Airlines is investing $15 million to buy 200 vertical take-off and landing electric vehicles from Eve Air Mobility, the company confirmed on Thursday. Image by United Airlines

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- United Airlines is investing $15 million to buy 200 vertical take-off and landing electric vehicles, the Chicago-based company said in a statement on Thursday.

The conditional purchase agreement is with Eve Air Mobility, a subsidiary of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, and calls for 200 of the four-seat electric aircraft.

United also has an option to purchase a further 200 of the flying taxis, with the first deliveries expected to occur as early as 2026.

The two companies also intend to work together on future projects and develop the application of the aircraft for use in what the airline is terming the "urban air mobility (UAM) ecosystem."

This isn't United's first foray into the eVTOL space. Last month, the world's fourth-largest airline gave a $10-million deposit to California-based Archer Aviation for 100 similar aircraft, as it attempts to be at the forefront of the new technology. At the time, Archer called it a "watershed moment" for the entire industry.

The purchase is part of United's goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 without the use of traditional offsets.

The air taxis do not rely on traditional combustion engines. Instead, the aircraft use carbon-free electric motors, "to be used as 'air taxis' in urban markets."

Eve's particular design uses conventional fixed wings, rotors and pushers to operate.

The vehicles have a range of 60 miles and are 90% quieter than current conventional aircraft.

The company plans to begin conducting simulation tests next week in Chicago, beginning with ground tests and followed by passenger flights, using helicopters powered by Blade Air Mobility.

"United has made early investments in several cutting-edge technologies at all levels of the supply chain, staking out our position as a leader in aviation sustainability and innovation," Michael Leskinen, president of the company's innovation wing, United Airlines Ventures said in a statement.

"Today, United is making history again, by becoming the first major airline to publicly invest in two eVTOL companies. Our agreement with Eve highlights our confidence in the urban air mobility market and serves as another important benchmark toward our goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 -- without using traditional offsets. Together, we believe our suite of clean energy technologies will revolutionize air travel as we know it and serve as the catalyst for the aviation industry to move toward a sustainable future."

‘It’s not just science fiction’: Zeva is taking its flying saucer concept to the next level

Alan Boyle - Friday - Geekwire

Eight months ago, Zeva Aero conducted a milestone flight test for an electric-powered flying saucer that would warm the heart of any sci-fi fan. Now the Tacoma, Wash.-based startup has changed the design ⁠— and although Zeva’s Z2 will look less like a UFO, it will look more real.


An artist’s conception shows Zeva’s Z2 electric air vehicle in horizontal flight. 

(Zeva Illustration)

“It’s not just science fiction,” Zeva CEO Stephen Tibbitts says.

Tibbitts explains what’s changed since January, and why, in the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, which focuses on the intersection of science and fiction.

The company’s first full-scale prototype, known as the Zeva Zero, was developed to compete in the GoFly Prize, a $2 million contest for single-person flying machines.

After Zeva put the Zero through its first untethered, controlled flight test in a pasture south of Seattle, Tibbitts and his team decided to change things around for the Z2. “We’re moving on to what we think solves some of the issues that the Zero has,” Tibbitts says.

Zeva’s goal for the Z2 is basically the same as it was for the Zero: to create a flying vehicle that takes off and lands vertically, but pivots for horizontal forward flight. Its range for flying a single person would be 50 miles, with enough power to hit a top speed of 160 mph.

The streamlined Z2 design still has something of a flying saucer look, but it calls for bigger, more efficient propellers that are mounted on four large motor pods. Zeva also plans to incorporate the latest in battery tech. The new design may not be as compliant with the GoFly Prize’s design specifications, but it’ll more stable on the ground for takeoff.

“We have not finished the prototype yet,” Tibbitts says. “We’re working on it. We have quite a bit of CAD [computer-aided design] work to do before we start cutting molds. But once we start cutting molds and making composite parts, it should go fairly quickly.”

Zeva is aiming to have a Z2 prototype ready for testing later this year.


Stephen Tibbitts is the co-founder and CEO of Zeva Aero. 

(Photo via LinkedIn)

Tibbitts is proud of how far his team has come since the company was founded in 2017. So far, Zeva has gotten its funding from founders, friends and family, plus an equity crowdfunding campaign that brought in more than $200,000. Tibbitts says the company currently has in the neighborhood of six “quasi-full-time” employees and 25 experts it can call upon for advice.

“The remarkable thing about Zeva, really, is that we’ve produced a 100% full-scale flying prototype over four and a half with a budget of $700,000,” Tibbitts says. Now Zeva is ramping up for what it hopes will be a multimillion-dollar Series A funding round.

Can Zeva keep up with much larger companies that are also working on electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles, or eVTOLs? Companies like Bell, Joby Aviation and Boeing-backed Wisk Aero? Tibbitts says Zeva can occupy a niche of its own.

“A lot of it has to do with focus,” he says. “We’re focused on trying to drive the technology down into the hands of people that just want to fly. Other companies are focused on urban air mobility. … I happen to believe that eVTOL technology has wide-ranging applications far outside the city.”


Artwork shows Zeva’s eVTOL parked in a driveway. 

(Zeva Illustration)© Provided by Geekwire

The way Tibbitts sees it, the first applications could include providing rapid-response air vehicles for first responders and law enforcement officials. He also notes that the U.S. military is looking at eVTOLs for a variety of applications.

“If you look at what the Navy’s asking for, they’re asking for a small, compact aircraft that can launch itself,” Tibbitts says. “They want to be able to store a bunch of these in a container ship … and then be able to launch them to either go ship-to-shore or ship-to-ship, and just supply goods. Not necessarily hauling humans around.”

Once Zeva gets its design figured out, the business plan calls for setting up a pilot production line, most likely in the Puget Sound region. “I would be so bold to say it also could be the site for the future Gigafactory — if we’re following the Tesla model, in terms of being able to set up a factor to stamp these things out and make lots of them,” Tibbitts says.

Zeva is planning on an initial price tag of $250,000.

“I think there’s margin in there for us at that price,” Tibbitts says. “But I also would want to be able to drive it down to a lower cost point eventually — five, six, seven years from now — into something that’s attainable for the consumer. So, you’d have your choice: You can buy a Lamborghini, or you can buy a Zeva.”


In this artist’s conception, a Zeva eVTOL is parked on the side of a building at a SkyDock. 

(Zeva Illustration)

Tibbitts admits that he’s been inspired by the flying cars of science fiction, going back to the bubble car that was featured in “The Jetsons” and the magnetic air car that popped up in the Dick Tracy comic strip starting in the ’60s. But he says the real-life flying machines due to emerge in the decades ahead will look a lot different.

“The ultimate goal, I think, for the next 20 years is to combine eVTOL technology with high-speed, cross-country travel,” Tibbitts says. “Everybody wants a business jet that can land and take off vertically, and there’s actually some Air Force work going on in that area.”

In February, the Air Force selected 11 companies to move ahead with high-speed eVTOL concepts. One of those companies is Jetoptera, which is based in Edmonds, Wash. Another company on the list, VerdeGo Aero, was co-founded by Bainbridge Island resident Erik Lindbergh, the grandson of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh.

Zeva may not have made the Air Force’s list this time around, but Tibbitts clearly has high-speed flights in his sights. “That’s the next big phase — to get to a point where you’ve got a machine that can land and take off virtually anywhere, but can also go 300-plus miles an hour and get you to your destination very quickly,” he says.

So, if Zeva stays in business long enough, make a note to watch the skies as the Z10 zips by.

Check out the original version of this item on Cosmic Log for Tibbitts’ top recommendation when it comes to far-out science fiction. 

Burning Man highlights the primordial human need for ritual

The Conversation
September 10, 2022

Burning Man (Shutterstock)

At the end of each summer, hordes of people flock to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to erect a makeshift city the size of the Italian town of Pisa. They call it Black Rock City. A few days later, they will burn it to the ground, leaving no trace.

During their time together, they partake in an extravaganza of unique experiences. Wearing wild costumes and riding carnivalesque vehicles, they attend colorful parades, spectacular light displays and interactive art installations.

Since its inception in 1986, attendance has increased from a few dozens of individuals to over 70,000 — and hundreds of thousands in various regional versions around the world.

In surveys, Burners, as they call themselves, report experiencing strong feelings of connection during the event. Over three-quarters say that their experience was transformative, over 90% say that these transformative effects lasted beyond their stay, and over 80% say that they made a permanent impact on their lives. The great majority return again, many of them every year.

What makes this bizarre event so meaningful to so many people?

The ceremonial experience

The overwhelming majority of Burners identify as nonreligious, yet the deeply spiritual experiences they report resemble those of religious groups. Indeed, the similarities with religion are no accident.

Burning Man, as the event became known, started as a solstice get-together by a handful of friends on Baker Beach in San Francisco. In 1986, they decided to build a wooden effigy and then torch it. Co-founder Larry Harvey called this a “spontaneous act of radical self-expression.” As people started gathering to watch, they realized they had created a ritual. The next year, they put up fliers and drew a bigger crowd. It has been growing ever since.

Harvey was an avid reader of anthropological theories of religion. He was particularly interested in the role of ritual in creating meaningful experiences. These experiences, he argued, address a primordial human need: “The desire to belong to a place, to belong to a time, to belong to one another, and to belong to something that is greater than ourselves, even in the midst of impermanence.”

As an anthropologist of ritual myself, I can see that ceremony is at the essence of Burning Man. It begins as soon as Burners walk through the gate. Upon entering, people signal their arrival by ringing a bell. They hug and greet each other by saying “Welcome home!” That home is treated as sacred, symbolically demarcated and protected from the polluting influence of the “default world,” as they call the outside. Upon their departure, they will perform a purification rite, removing all “matter out of place” – anything that doesn’t belong to the desert, from plastic bottles to specs of glitter.

Leaving their default name behind them, they use their “playa name.” It is a name gifted to them by another Burner and used to signify their new identity in the playa (the desert basin). They also abandon many of the comforts of the outside world. Monetary transactions are not allowed, and neither is bartering. Instead, they practice a gift economy, modeled on traditional ceremonial customs.

Anthropologists have noted that such ceremonial exchange systems can have important social utility. Unlike economic exchanges that produce equivalent outcomes, each act of donation creates feelings of gratitude, obligation and community, increasing both personal satisfaction and social solidarity.

The Burning Man Temple is yet another testament to the power of ritual. When sculptor David Best was invited to build an installation in 2000, he erected a wooden structure without any use in mind. But when a crew member died in a motorcycle accident, visitors started bringing mementos of people they had lost, and later gathered to watch it burn at the end of the event.

Since then, the temple has become a symbol of mourning and resilience.

Its walls are covered with thousands of notes, photographs and memorabilia. They are reminders of things people wish to leave behind: a personal loss, a divorce, an abusive relationship. It is all consumed by the fire on the final night as onlookers gather to watch silently, many of them in tears. Such a simple symbolic act seems to have surprisingly powerful cathartic effects.


The 2006 installation, which was called ‘Temple of Hope,’ is set on fire at Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
AP Photo/Ron Lewis

The weeklong event culminates with the ceremonial destruction of the two largest structures looming at the center of the ephemeral city. On the penultimate night, a wooden effigy known as “the Man” is reduced to ashes. And in the final act, everyone gathers to watch the burning of the temple.

The human thirst for ritual

The oldest known ceremonial structures, such as Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, predate agriculture and permanent settlement. Although they took enormous effort to build, they too, like Black Rock City, were only used by ephemeral communities: groups of hunter-gatherers who traveled long distances to visit them.

It is not until hundreds of years later that evidence of settlement in those areas was found. This led archaeologist Klaus Schmidt to propose that it was the thirst for ritual that led those hunter-gatherers to permanent settlement, paving the way for civilization.

Whether this radical hypothesis is historically true is hard to know. But phenomena like Burning Man could confirm the view that the human need for ritual is primeval. It both predates and extends beyond organized religion.

Burning Man defies a strict definition. When I asked Burners to describe it, they used term such as movement, community, pilgrimage or social experiment. Whatever it might be, Burning Man’s unprecedented success, I believe, is due to its ability to create meaningful experiences for its members, which reflect a greater human yearning for spirituality.

Dimitris Xygalatas, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

RIP

Bernard Shaw, pioneer anchor at CNN for 2 decades, dies at 82


CNN's Bernard Shaw holds an ACE award for Best Newscaster during the Academy of Cable Excellence Awards at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on January 14, 1990.

 File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Bernard Shaw, a pioneer Black broadcast journalist who was a staple on the anchor desk at CNN for two decades and provided numerous memorable on-air moments, died due to complications from pneumonia. He was 82.

Shaw died in a Washington, D.C., hospital on Wednesday, officials at the cable news network said on Thursday.

A constant presence on the air for CNN, Shaw had a distinguished journalism career for more than four decades.


A graduate of the University of Illinois, Shaw started his career at WNUS radio (now WGNB) in Chicago in 1964 before moving on to the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, where he eventually served as chief White House correspondent.

Shaw spent three years with ABC News before moving on to his renowned stint at CNN when the network launched in 1980. He retired at CNN in 2001 but continued to appear on the network on various occasions as recently as 2020.

"Even after he left CNN, Bernie remained a close member of our CNN family providing our viewers with context about historic events as recently as last year," CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht said in a statement Thursday. "The condolences of all of us at CNN go out to his wife Linda and his children."

There was no shortage of memorable or important moments over Shaw's lengthy career in news. He first gained widespread notice on March 30, 1981, for his continuous coverage of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

During the coverage, Shaw made multiple key observations on the air -- including "a very shaken" Secretary of State Alexander Haig after he appeared before the White House press corps and infamously declared, "I am in control here."

At one point in the continuous live coverage, Shaw and journalist Daniel Schorr were closely examining video footage of the shooting when Shaw pointed out that Reagan appeared to have been hit by the bullet a split second before he was shoved into the presidential limousine. It was later determined that the bullet had indeed struck Reagan at precisely the moment Shaw pointed to.

A decade later, Shaw again was noted for his live coverage of the start of the Gulf War in Iraq. He reported on the air for the network -- along with John Holliman and Peter Arnett -- from a Baghdad hotel even though they were in a very dangerous war zone, with rockets and gunfire exploding close enough to the team to be heard on the air.

"Clearly I've never been there, but this feels like we're in the center of hell," said at one moment during the coverage.

Shaw distinguished himself during other high-profile events, including the Tiananmen Square conflict in 1989 and the recount that followed the 2000 presidential election.

Shaw's family said funeral services will be private, but there will be a public memorial in the near future

USPS releases new stamp celebrating NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

Officials unveil the James Webb Space Telescope stamp at the

 Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington on Thursday.

 Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- A new postage stamp celebrating NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope, which is the most powerful scope ever put in space, was released on Thursday.

The U.S. Postal Service and NASA celebrated the new stamp at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum in Washington.


The image on the stamp is an artist's depiction of the groundbreaking telescope -- and the words "Webb Space Telescope" appear in white along its bottom edge. It's a "forever" stamp, meaning it will be good to send postage at any time in the future.

The release on Thursday came nine months after the telescope was launched into space.

"The James Webb Space Telescope orbits the sun about a million miles away from our planet. Now it will travel the United States mail system, with the launch of this new Forever stamp," Anton Hajjar, U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors vice chairman, said in a statement.

"The Webb telescope is sending truly astounding images, I'm sure you will agree! The telescope itself, which we celebrate in this stamp, is an engineering marvel, decades in the making."

The $10 billion telescope is composed of 18 hexagonal mirrors that are 21 feet across. The JWST sent its first dazzling images back to Earth in July.

This image, which was one of the first to be sent back to Earth from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, shows the edge of a young, star-forming region, NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula

. Photo by NASA/UPI

The telescope's infrared vision can peer 13.5 billion years into the universe's past -- seeing the light of the first stars and galaxies as they formed after the Big Bang. Unlike the Hubble Telescope, which orbits the Earth, Webb is floating at a certain location in space known as a Lagrange point, nearly 1 million miles away from Earth.

The telescope, which was first conceived in the 1990s as a successor to Hubble, is a joint venture by NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and European Space Agency. Northrop Grumman started building the giant piece of equipment in California in 2004.

NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana said in a statement Thursday that he'd like the new stamps to elicit the same excitement that the JWST does.

"When anyone who uses these stamps looks at this telescope, I want them to see what I see: its incredible potential to reveal new and unexpected discoveries that help us understand the origins of the universe, and our place in it," Cabana said.

Google, Amazon employees protest $1.2 billion deal with Israel


Employees of Google and Amazon are protesting the company's contract to provide cloud services to Israel. 

File photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Hundreds of employees of Google and Amazon will hold protests on Thursday outside the companies' headquarters, in opposition to the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus deal with the Israeli government and military.

The #NoTechForApartheid movement announced that the protests would be held in San Francisco, New York and Seattle. The movement is seeking to prevent Israel from using technology to surveil Palestinians.

"Technology can bring people together -- but when these tools are used to harm communities, they make the world less safe for us all," the movement's website said. "That's why workers at Google and Amazon are urging their employers to walk their talk on human rights.''

In April 2021, the two major tech companies signed a contract with the Israeli government and military to provide them with cloud technology.

In the wake of that agreement, the #NoTechForApartheid movement was founded to push back against the deal. The movement says that Amazon and Google are complicit in Israel's May 2021 assault on Gaza, roadblocks that restrict Palestinians from traveling, and the destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank.

The movement also cited instances of Amazon's technology being used to help ICE deport immigrants, and Google selling artificial intelligence to the Department of Defense to make its drone strikes deadlier.

Ahmad Abu Shammalh, a computer scientist in Gaza, said that Silicon Valley has limited the cellular connection of Palestinians.

"Silicon Valley's tech giants show deliberate and systematic censorship of the Palestinian narrative, which borders on a denial of our very existence," Shammalh said in a statement on the movement's website. "These companies support a living apartheid."

Google has said the deal is directed at everyday work that is not highly sensitive or classified.

"We are proud that Google Cloud has been selected by the Israeli government to provide public cloud services to help digitally transform the country," Google spokeswoman Newberry said, according to TechCrunch. "The project includes making Google Cloud Platform available to government agencies for everyday workloads such as finance, healthcare, transportation and education, but it is not directed to highly sensitive or classified workloads."

GRIFTER IN CHIEF
Federal grand jury investigates Trump's Save America PAC


Former President Donald Trump holds a "Save America" hat before speaking to supporters during a rally on Aug. 5, 2022. A federal grand jury is investigating former President Donald Trump's Save America political action committee. File Photo by Alex Wroblewski/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- The Justice Department has opened a probe into a political action committee opened by former President Donald Trump following his loss in the 2020 presidential election.

A federal grand jury investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol has issued subpoenas to several individuals seeking information about Trump's Save America PAC, ABC News, The New York Times and Politico reported.

The subpoenas showed the Justice Department is interested in the inner workings of Save America, specifically seeking to understand the timeline of its formation, fundraising activities and how it receives and spends money.

Save America's statement of organization filing to the Federal Election Commission says the committee was established days after the 2020 election and is affiliated with the Trump campaign and Trump Make America Great Committee. The small-dollar-focused, joint-fundraising committee between the president's campaign and the Republican National Committee has sent out donor solicitation emails on behalf of Save America.

The PAC can only accept donations of up to $5,000 per donor, well below the more than $800,000 donations previously raised by Trump Victory a high-dollar joint fundraising committee between Trump's campaign and the Republican Party.

Trump and his allies have regularly used claims about fraud in the 2020 election and investigations into Trump's actions surrounding the election and the Capitol riots, as well as his business dealings to solicit donations for Save America.

Following the FBI's search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home last month, Save America sent out a fundraising email urging the former president's supporters to "rush in a donation IMMEDIATELY to publicly stand with me against this NEVERENDING WITCH HUNT.

During a hearing held by the House select committee investigating the Capitol riots, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said the campaign raised $250 million after the election by claiming they were combatting election fraud.

"Throughout the committee's investigation, we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for. So not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off," Lofgren said. "Donors deserve to know where their funds are really going. They deserve better than what President Trump and his team did."

CLIMATE CRISIS IS A CAPITALIST CRISIS
Rising seas could destroy millions of U.S. acres in decades


A new report said that rising seas could swallow millions of acres by 2050. 

File photo by UPI/Gary C. Caskey. | License Photo

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Rising tides due to climate change could flood nearly 650,000 properties and $34 billion worth of real estate along the nation's coasts by the year 2050, a new report has concluded.

The nonprofit organization Climate Central found that as many as 4.4 million acres of land are projected to fall below tidal boundaries over the next 30 years. That number could swell to 9.1 million acres by 2100.

"As the sea is rising, tide lines are moving up elevation, upslope and inland," Don Bain, a senior adviser at Climate Central and an expert in sea level rise, who led the analysis, said. "People really haven't internalized that yet -- that 'Hey, I'm going to have something taken away from me by the sea.' "

Hudson County, N.J., has the distinction of having the highest estimated land value at risk: more than $2.4 billion. More than 15% of the county's total acreage is below the predicted water levels.

Galveston and Honolulu have $2.37 billion and $2.3 billion at risk respectively.

The majority of the 4.4 million acres at risk are located in just four states: Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina and Texas.

However, the southern states are not the only major areas at risk. New Jersey, New York and Maryland could each have thousands of buildings impacted, according to researchers.

"Your land is going to be taken from you by the rising seas," Bain said. "Nobody's talking about that."

Not only will the land under water be affected, but many towns and counties could have their entire budgets altered.

The loss of taxable value could greatly impact the budgets of many towns and counties, A.R. Siders, an assistant professor in the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center, warned.

"If a town has no other income and is relying solely on property tax values, that town is not sustainable," Siders said.

Bain said that the report was not meant to frighten people, but was instead meant to educate and give people information to combat climate change.

"I think we can have a bright and prosperous future but only if we put our minds and shoulders to it, and are well-informed and get after it."

'Sneering anti-British rubbish': ex-Thatcher aide whines about the 'ignorant woke American far-left'

Bob Brigham
September 10, 2022

Washington DC. USA, 29th September, 1983 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan speak at The South Portico of the White House after their meetings in the Oval Office / Shutterstock.

Analysis of the death of Queen Elizabeth II in a Washington Post column has angered a former aide to Margaret Thatcher.

The Karen Attiah column was titled, "We must speak the ugly truths about Queen Elizabeth and Britain's empire."

"In the wake of the queen’s death, propaganda, fantasy and ignorance are being pitted against Britain’s historical record and the lived experience of Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners, the Irish and others," Attiah wrote. "Hagiography of Queen Elizabeth and the fading British Empire obscures the truth not only about Britain but also about our current world order, which is built on that history. We can speak the truth about that history even as we pause to wish her spirit and her family well during this transition. And then we must get back to work — to dismantle the present-day vestiges of the racist, colonial empire she so dutifully represented."

Former Thatcher aide Nile Gardiner took offense.


"An ugly, nasty attack on the Queen and Great Britain from the ignorant woke American far-left," Gardiner wrote.

"The Washington Post and The New York Times publish an awful lot of sneering anti-British rubbish on their pages.

New monarch gives fresh impetus to Scotland's independence debate

Issued on: 12/09/2022 

Edinburgh (AFP) – Queen Elizabeth II's death in Scotland indelibly associates the nation with the handover to a new monarch, but her passing also reignites the debate over Scottish independence from the UK.

Thousands of people stood for hours on Sunday to see the 96-year-old's coffin arrive from her Balmoral estate to Edinburgh's Palace of Holyroodhouse, and the formal proclamation of Charles as king.

But there is a strong vein of republicanism in Scotland, and a few heckles could be heard amid the crowds massed along the Royal Mile.

One 22-year-old woman was detained for a breach of the peace for holding a placard with an obscene anti-monarchy slogan just before the proclamation, while there was also some booing.

For some in the crowd, Elizabeth -- and her son King Charles III -- represent the strength of the United Kingdom of Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

She was "one of the things that held (the UK) together", noted Archie Nicol, 67, who had earlier paid his respects at the royal Balmoral estate where the queen died Thursday.

Yet many others who expressed their admiration for the late monarch saw it as separate from their desire to be an independent nation.

"The queen clearly had a respect for Scotland," said Nicola Sandilands, 46, a primary teacher.

"The royal family is as much Scottish as they are anything else," she told AFP, while urging them to become "more relevant and current".

However, she acknowledged that the monarch's death "will maybe make it easier to become a republic".

"Some Scots will consider this end of an era a natural moment for a fresh start," Scottish journalist Alex Massie wrote in The Times.

Queen of Scots

The governing Scottish National Party (SNP), which wants another independence referendum following the 2014 "no" vote, is not calling for a republic.

Its founder Alex Salmond coined the term "Queen of Scots" and built close ties with Charles.

And SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was quick to express her "deepest condolences" when the queen died, praising her "extraordinary dedication and service".

But the transition to another monarch based in England -- albeit one educated at a Scottish boarding school, with several Scottish residences and a penchant for kilts -- risks fraying ties.#photo1

"The Union is probably in more jeopardy now she is gone," noted veteran journalist Andrew Neil in the Daily Mail newspaper.

"King Charles will love Scotland just as much as the queen. But he simply doesn't have her authority."

A poll by the British Future think tank in June suggested that 45 percent of Scots supported the monarchy while 36 percent wanted a republic.

Meanwhile 51 percent wanted to stay as part of the United Kingdom.

Discretion

Before becoming king, Charles was known for speaking out on a range of issues, including climate change -- a stance praised by Scotland's Daily Record tabloid, which urged him to make the environment his "defining mission" as king.

But as constitutional monarch, he will have to steer clear of anything remotely political, particularly independence.

"The passing of the Crown is a moment of frailty, perhaps even fragility," Adam Tomkins, a constitutional lawyer and professor at the University of Glasgow, noted in The Herald newspaper.#photo2

The "burning question", he said, was whether Charles could "emulate his mother in maintaining the discretion by which the monarchy stands or falls".

Queen Elizabeth II never spoke out about independence, although before the 2014 referendum, she told a member of the public she hoped Scots would "think very carefully about the future".

Then-prime minister David Cameron was caught saying that she "purred down the phone" when he reported victory for the anti-independence campaign -- an indiscretion for which he subsequently apologised.

Scottish audience

Charles will have his first audience with Sturgeon on Monday when he returns to Scotland to lead a procession of his mother's coffin to St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, and then hold a vigil.

On Tuesday, her coffin will be flown to London for four days of lying-in-state ahead of the funeral on September 19.

Back in Edinburgh, Theresa Brown, a 51-year-old receptionist, said she was happy for him to stay Scotland's king.

"It's mainly from Westminster I want independence. I don't mind the royal family," she said.

video-am/ar/jj/it

Opinion: King Charles III — just abdicate!

The House of Windsor has seen many reluctant royals, and King Charles III certainly fits that mold. It's a good time to lance the lot and bring a better democracy to the UK, says DW's Zulfikar Abbany.

The then-Prince Charles, sitting in for his mum, looking bewildered, at

 the state opening of Parliament in May 2022

So it goes. Two days after her kissing hands with Prime Minister Liz Truss, in a final act as head of state and mother to nations, the Queen was gone. It is a sad moment for many people, no doubt, but it could also be an opportunity for the UK right now.

I can't help but think back to the time that that other, significant royal — no, not the Queen's husband Philip — but Diana died. As with the Queen's death, Diana died soon after a change of power in government. 

The only difference was that Diana was a forward-looking individual and so was then-Prime Minister Tony Blair (not that I was a fan of either). 

Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, was more like an oxidized ornament. The same goes for the rest of the royal leftovers and their ruling, Conservative class. 

They are wardens of a past politic and society, a constant reminder, whether it's on coins, stamps or packets of biscuits and tea, that we are their subjects, we rank low in a totally undemocratic hierarchy. 

But times have changed, and so must they. 

They're a house of reluctant royals, anyway 

DW's Zulfikar Abbany

Prince — now King — Charles has waited his entire adult life, well into what should be his retirement, to take his seat on the throne. If Charles is ever crowned, he must feel he won't have long to serve.

Indeed, if any of his behavior over the past 35 years can be taken as evidence, I'd suggest that the last thing he wants to be is king. His wife Camilla has hardly expressed much appetite for the job of Queen Consort, either.

But then expressing opinions is not the royal thing to do, and hasn't Charles had to learn that lesson of late? In June, he was criticized for having reportedly described government plans to send migrants to Rwanda as "appalling."

It seems that Charles is less his mother's son than the line of succession dictates. And that may not be a bad thing. Charles may yet hand the reins to his eldest son William. After all, he's King. He should be able to do what he likes.

Royal chances of survival 

William is more difficult to assess. Despite all previous antipathy to royal regalia and evils in the media, Prince William and his wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge, have become the epitome of modern royalty. At least, outwardly. 

Unlike his brother Harry and wife Meghan in Stateside paradise and their disgraced uncle Prince Andrew, William has taken decisive steps to hone in on the throne. Just days before her death, William and Kate said they would move their family home closer to the Queen's own.  

So, Charles could abdicate and leave the spoils to William and Kate. A better outcome, however, would be their shuttering the entire shop.

Camilla, Queen Consort and King Charles III will have to get used to performing

We subjects serve the servant

The Queen was the patron of my secondary school, one founded in 1856 with a Latin motto to boot — non sibi sed omnibus (not for one but for all). And a terrible lie it was, too, for a royal institution. 

I believe she visited the school just once, the year I was born (1974), and was never to be seen again. But we still sent her birthday cards — tiny acts of unthinking duty. 

Even today, we hear people on the streets eulogize about a selfless servant of the people, a person and family that form the "fabric" of the nation. But I don't feel it.

That summer when Diana died, I went to Kensington Palace on a whim to ogle the crowds. The palace was across the road from my parents' menswear shop, so it was a short skip. There, I bumped into two old school friends, who had made the trip especially. One of them, Michael, was south Asian, and I asked him, "Why would you come here with flowers? Why would you honor people who have kept yours down?" They both peered back at me agog as though I were a pariah. The conversation stopped dead and we never spoke of it again.

We still don't have those conversations, because we are subjects of the monarchy, it's ours to be silent and suck it up. I'm fortunate to be in Germany now, where it's possible to speak out, but even here, one must be "careful, dear boy." The Germans love "die Qween" as though she had been their own. But they never lived under it like I did, and many others still do, or my dad did in colonial Kenya... But even he won't talk about it. 

All of which is a tragedy for a democratic union of nations, such as the UK. But now is the mother of all opportunities to change.

Edited by: Rob Mudge