CAPITALI$M IN SPACE: BALLOON FLIGHTS

Space tourism startup flies test balloon 20 miles high over Florida


Space Perspective's test article for a planned passenger airship called Neptune is shown during a test on Friday at Space Coast Regional Airport. Photo courtesy of Space Perspective



A conceptual image shows the Spaceship Neptune, a project of aerospace firm Space Perspective, suspended from a hydrogen balloon in the stratosphere. Image courtesy of Space Perspective

ORLANDO, Fla., June 18 (UPI) -- Space tourism company Space Perspective successfully flew a prototype of its giant stratospheric balloon 20 miles high over Florida early Friday, the company announced.

The balloon lifted off at 5:23 a.m. EDT from the Space Coast Regional Airport near Kennedy Space Center and splashed down 6 hours and 39 minutes later in the Gulf of Mexico, the company reported. Crews recovered the balloon and a test article representing the Neptune capsule that eventually may carry people

The test of the prototype, Neptune One, kicks off an extensive test campaign, company co-founder Jane Poynter said in an interview before the test. She said Space Perspective aims for its first crewed flight in 2023 and first commercial flight in 2024.

"These test flights are designed to make sure that the particular geometry that we using, the shape of the capsule, will fly as we plan it to and splash down as planned, so there's nothing to take us by surprise later," Poynter said.

RELATED Space tourists might rise above Earth with hydrogen balloons

Exciting Announcement! We successfully completed our first, historic #Spaceship #NeptuneOne #TestFlight reaching 100,000 feet!

Making the first steps for #SpacePerspective towards flying #SpaceExplorers to space for an unrivaled experience.https://t.co/lcWuGKPtDP pic.twitter.com/Iz5ayCzavz— Space Perspective (@SpacePerspectiv) June 18, 2021

Space Perspective has joined a growing number of companies that plan to conduct space tourism, with the important qualifier that it would only bring passengers to the edge of space. The test flight height of 20 miles falls short of the definition of space -- which is the Kármán line at 62 miles high.

RELATED Balloon firm plans test to later take tourists to edge of space

The leaders are Blue Origin, which intends to fly its CEO, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to space in July, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Space Perspective intends to be the most affordable option at roughly $125,000 per ticket, whereas Blue Origin and SpaceX so far have multimillion-dollar seat prices, and Virgin Galactic proposes prices over $250,000. Space Perspective plans leisurely, six-hour flights, whereas the other companies launch on rocket engines.

The test flight on Friday also carried a few science payloads, such as an ozone sensor for the physics department at the University of Northern Florida in Jacksonville and experiments proposed by high school students that were selected through Virginia-based non-profit Higher Orbits, according to Space Perspective.

The company's announcement also carried a note of congratulations from Frank DiBello, president and CEO of Space Florida, the state's development agency for space.

"We look forward to the coming milestones for Space Perspective as they prepare to take private citizens to space," DiBello said.

WHAT ABOUT DEATH PENALTY SUPPORTERS
Nearly 60 House Democrats oppose denial of communion to abortion supporters


A group of nearly 60 House Democrats signed a "Statement of Principles" opposing a plan by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to deny communion to lawmakers who support abortion rights. File Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

June 19 (UPI) -- Nearly 60 House Democrats signed a document opposing the Catholic church's plan to deny the sacrament to elected officials who support abortion rights.

In a "Statement of Principles" released on Friday, the lawmakers led by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.; Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, and Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., described the vote by Catholic bishops in favor of a proposal to deny some lawmakers the right to participate in the tradition as "weaponization of the eucharist."

The document states that government "has a moral purpose" and noted that the co-signers are committed to Catholic principles such as reducing poverty and increasing access to education and healthcare.

They also said they support a separation of church and state, noting lawmakers have not been denied access to the sacrament for other stances that clash with the church's teachings.

"No elected officials have been threatened with being denied the Eucharist as they support and have supported policies contrary to the Church teachings, including supporting the death penalty, separating migrant children from their parents, denying asylum to those seeking safety in the United States, limiting assistance for the hungry and food insecure and denying rights and dignity to immigrants," they wrote.

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., called the Catholic church "hypocrites" for not seeking to deny former Attorney General William Barr communion for expanding use of the death penalty in a tweet on Friday.

"You are being nakedly partisan and you should be ashamed. Another reason you are losing membership," he wrote.

RELATED US Supreme Court rules Catholic adoption agency can refuse LGBT couples

The statement came in response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voting 168-55 with six abstentions in favor of drafting a document to examine the "meaning of the eucharist in the life of the church," earlier on Friday.

The bishops debate surrounding the eucharist comes as President Joe Biden, just the second Catholic to hold the office, proposed a healthcare plan that would expand access to contraception and abortion and restore funding to Planned Parenthood, during his campaign.

US Catholic bishops vote to approve new guidance on communion



Rev. Bob Evans gives communion to parishioners at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Maryland Heights, Missouri. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

June 18 (UPI) -- Catholic bishops on Friday voted to develop new guidelines on communion in a possible step toward denying the sacrament to elected officials such as President Joe Biden who support abortion rights.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, meeting virtually for its 2021 Spring General Assembly, voted 168-55 with six abstentions in favor of drafting a document to examine the "meaning of the eucharist in the life of the church."

The vote came following a lengthy and often emotional debate in which some bishops expressed strong reservations about the potential for the new guidelines to politicize the sacrament by denying it to Catholic politicians such as Biden who back abortion rights.

While campaigning for the presidency, Biden proposed a healthcare plan that would expand access to contraception and abortion and restore funding to Planned Parenthood. In addition, the plan sought to prevent states from passing laws to outlaw abortion.

RELATED Catholic bishops to consider communion guidance over abortion views

In a prerecorded opening statement, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., chairman of the bishops' doctrine committee, said it was never their intention to "produce national norms for denying Catholics holy communion" but rather "to present a clear understanding as to why the church has these laws."

The proposed guidelines -- part of a larger effort to revive the institution of the eucharist among Catholics -- are also not meant as "a statement about any one individual or about any one category of sinful behavior," he added.

But Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said there was "significant ambiguity" about the actual intention of the effort.

RELATED States challenge religious exemption for contractors in hiring, firing

"We have heard a number of bishops ... indicate, in fact, that it's time that we take a position with regard to these public officials receiving communion. So it's hard to know what direction you're going to go."

San Diego Archbishop Robert McElroy, meanwhile, warned that it will be "impossible to prevent [the eucharist's] weaponization, even if everyone wants to do so" and that it could become "a tool in vicious partisan turmoil."

If the church legitimizes "public policy-based exclusion" from communion, McElroy said, "we'll invite all political animosity into the heart of the Eucharistic celebration."

RELATED Biden expands ACA, Medicaid access, protects women's health rights

The vote allows the bishops' doctrine committee to proceed with drafting the document and present it for discussion when the bishops reconvene in person in Novembe

LGBTQ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Thousands march in LGBT Equality Parade in Poland

Thousands of people participated in an LGBTQ Equality Parade in Warsaw Saturday amid what marchers described as rising homophobia in Poland. Photo by Leszek Szymanski/EPA-EFE

June 19 (UPI) -- Thousands of LGBT people and allies marched through the streets for the 20th Equality Parade in Warsaw on Saturday.

Participants waved rainbow flags outside of the neo-Gothic Palace of Culture and Science as a DJ played dance music while marchers sought to combat what they described as rising homophobia throughout Poland in recent years.

"The equality parade is a celebration of LGBT people and all those who have to fight for their rights," Sylwester Cimochowski, a 22-year-old marcher, told The Guardian. "Homophobia is a huge problem in Poland ... there are lots of people who can't cope with it, they kill themselves. The situation of LGBT people in Poland is tragic and that's why I'm here -- to support them."

Rafal Wojtczak, a representative of the Voluntary Service for Equality Foundation, expressed the opposition LGBT people have felt in recent years from police and the government under the role of the conservative United Right coalition.

"After two years, during which we have been hurt as the LGBT community of Warsaw, we are going out stronger, we are united," said Wojtczak.

Foreign ambassadors and several members of the Polish parliament took part in the march on Saturday, along with Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

"This is a place where everyone smiles, no aggression," Trzaskowski said. "This the place where the heart of a smiling Poland is beating."

The 2020 Equality Parade was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2019 police used tear gas on crowds and arrested nearly 30 people in a September LGBT March.

Warsaw pride parade returns amid LGBT rights backlash


Issued on: 19/06/2021 

People with rainbow flags cool off in a sprinkler ahead of the Equality Parade, the largest LGBT pride parade in Central and Eastern Europe, in Warsaw, Poland, June 19, 2021. © Czarek Sokolowski, AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

The largest gay pride parade in central Europe took place again in Warsaw for the first time in two years after a pandemic-induced break — and amid a backlash in Poland and Hungary against LGBT rights.

Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski walked at the head of the Equality Parade on Saturday — a sign of support for LGBT rights by the liberal politician. Thousands of people joined the march and were cheered on by others waving rainbow flags from their apartment balconies.

But that level of acceptance is not universal in Poland, a heavily Catholic, largely conservative nation.

The joyful and colorful celebration was tinged with fear of what the future holds for the rights of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people after setbacks first in Russia and now in Hungary.

“The day of the parade is always a bitter-sweet moment for our community," said Rafal Wojtczak, a spokesman for the organizers. He described feelings of sadness and helplessness that LGBT people have not achieved rights like same-sex partnership or marriage in Poland, while also facing new threats.

The parade comes days after Hungary's parliament passed a law that makes it illegal to show any materials about LGBT issues to people under 18.

Hungary's conservative ruling party portrayed the law as an effort to fight pedophilia. But human rights groups see it as a cynical tool that will stigmatize and discriminate against LGBT people, and prevent youth from accessing critical information.

Poland's populist ruling party has taken a political direction very similar to that of Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orban in past years, pushing conservative policies and tightening ruling party control over courts and media. The European Union has denounced both these two member nations, accusing them of eroding democratic norms.

One prominent Polish activist, Bart Staszewski, carried a Hungarian flag in Saturday's march. He said it was a message to the EU to act in defense of LGBT people because he fears that “Poland will be next.”

A year ago, the Polish LGBT community faced a backlash from ruling conservative politicians, local communities and the church. In his successful bid for reelection against a challenge from Trzaskowski, President Andrzej Duda declared that “LGBT is not people; it's an ideology” while also claiming that it was “even more destructive” than communism.

A Polish archbishop warned of a “rainbow plague.” And dozens of local communities in Poland were passing resolutions against "LGBT ideology” in what was described as an attempt to protect the traditional family. These were strongly denounced by EU officials and a handful have since been rescinded.

“We’ve been through a very, very rough time, but at the same time we are going out in the streets and we are saying we are stronger and we are not going to give up,” said Miroslawa Makuchowska, vice director of Campaign Against Homophobia.

Wojtczak said “our community has been used in a political war.”

At the start of the march, some people chanted a vulgarity against Poland's ruling party.

This weekend’s Equality Parade comes 20 years since the event was first held in the Polish capital. It was banned twice in its early years by a conservative mayor, Lech Kaczynski, who feared it would promote homosexuality, and last year it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the first event in 2001, Polish society has become largely more open on the issue of gay rights, shaped by EU membership and cultural influences from the West.

This year's parade was smaller than the one in 2019 due to some pandemic restrictions.

(AP)

THIRD WORLD USA
Many 'high priority' patients not making it onto kidney transplant lists

By Amy Norton, HealthDay News

Many Americans who stand to benefit most from a kidney transplant may be missing a key window of opportunity, a new study finds.

The study focused on kidney failure patients who would be expected to live many years after receiving a kidney transplant. That generally includes relatively younger people without other major medical conditions.

In 2014, the U.S. kidney allocation system made changes to help ensure those patients receive a donor kidney that is likely to function for many years -- which typically means from a young, healthy donor.

A scoring system, called the estimated post-transplant survival, or EPTS, score, was introduced. Once transplant candidates are placed on the waitlist, they are given an EPTS score; those in the "top 20%" get priority whenever a particularly high-quality kidney becomes available.

RELATED  Study: Wait times for donor kidneys have not improved in two decades

But the new study found that many patients who would fall into that category are not making it onto the transplant waitlist in a timely manner.

Of more than 42,000 U.S. patients who would score in the top 20%, fewer than half were on the waitlist. And among the 34,000-plus who'd started kidney dialysis, only 37% were waitlisted for a transplant within three years.

"It's extremely discouraging," said study leader Jesse Schold, a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

RELATED Kidney trouble greatly raises odds for fatal COVID-19

These are patients who are very likely to do well after a transplant, he said. But by the time they get on the transplant list, many will no longer have a top EPTS score.

In fact, Schold's team found, of dialysis patients, 61% fell out of the top 20% group within 30 months. And, as seen throughout U.S. health care, there were disparities: Black patients and those from low-income groups were less likely to be waitlisted.

The findings were published online this week in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

RELATED  Texas hospital performs complicated, 10-person kidney swap

Kidney transplant is considered the best option for most people with end-stage kidney disease, or kidney failure. Currently, more than 90,000 Americans are on the donor-kidney waitlist, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, the nonprofit that manages the nation's donor organ system.

"It's much better to be referred for a transplant before you need dialysis, which is called preemptive waitlisting," said Dr. Joseph Vassalotti, chief medical officer of the nonprofit National Kidney Foundation. "Unfortunately, that doesn't happen enough."

The current study, he noted, looked at patients who would be optimal transplant candidates -- all with EPTS scores in the top 20% and an average age of 38.

"They should have a very high percentage of placement on the waitlist," Vassalotti said.

Yet of the 42,445 patients, only about 7,900 were preemptively waitlisted. The rest -- more than 34,500 -- started dialysis sometime between 2015 and 2017, and only 37% moved onto the transplant waitlist within three years.

Ideally, the issue needs to be addressed far "upstream," Schold said -- meaning more Americans with kidney disease need access to optimal care well before their kidneys fail.

Vassalotti said racial and income disparities in waitlisting might, at least in part, be related to lack of access to specialized kidney, or nephrology, care -- whether it's because primary care doctors are not referring patients, patients cannot afford it, or there are few specialists in patients' local areas.

But Vassalotti also said doctors need to do a better job of communicating about the benefits and risks of transplant versus dialysis. And those discussions, he said, should happen early, so patients can be "empowered" to plan for what they want when their disease progresses.

Darren Stewart, principal research scientist with UNOS, said the EPTS score has helped better "longevity match" transplant candidates with donor kidneys. Donor kidneys, themselves, are also subject to a scoring system.

"But this study highlights the disparities in access to the waitlist in the first place," Stewart said.

He noted that UNOS does not have the ability to create policies on what happens before patients are waitlisted. But he agreed that both better access to nephrology care, and better patient education about transplants, are needed.

Schold also said that education is critical, but the process of getting on the waitlist could be made less cumbersome, too.

He pointed to the idea of an automated system that refers all patients with late-stage kidney disease for a transplant - or at least a subset of patients, such as those who would have a top 20% EPTS score.

"We have to make these processes easier," Schold said.More information

The National Kidney Foundation has more on kidney transplantation.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

U.N. Report: Record number of people were displaced in 2020


A Yemeni woman leads a donkey transporting her daughter and food aid provided by Mona Relief Yemen in Bani Matar, Yemen on Thursday in the middle of an ongoing civil war. A new United Nations report Friday that a record number of people around the world were displaced in 2020, mostly because of violence. Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA-EFE

June 18 (UPI) -- The United Nations said Friday that a record number of people around the world were forcibly displaced by the end of last year because of ongoing conflicts and new violence.

The report, released by UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, said 82.4 million people were displaced. The record number is a significant jump from 2012 when 41 million were displaced and 79.5 million in 2019.

"Many also fled from climate-related emergencies such as floods and droughts, with no guarantee of a quick return," the report said. "As displacement grew, so did the number of people of concern to UNHCR, with almost 92 million refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced, stateless, recent returnees and host communities."

The report said 110 countries made asylum possible by the end of 2020 even though COVID-related border restrictions were in place.

RELATED U.N. discloses thousands of files related to North Korea human rights abuses

"As the COVID-19 crisis unfolded, governments acted rapidly to contain the spread of the virus," the report said. "Within a few short months, 100 countries had closed their borders, putting displaced populations under increasing stress and at growing risk. And yet, in a sign of solidarity and respect for human rights, some border restrictions were eased for people fleeing conflict and persecution."

The U.N. report said many people of concern to UNHCR were in areas with struggling health systems, limited COVID-19 testing and treatment and no provision for isolation or quarantine.

"UNHCR moved rapidly to build or rehabilitate hospital facilities and to bolster the health response while urging governments to bring displaced people into their COVID-19 response," the report said. "Although much of global transport was at a standstill, UNHCR sent protective equipment, rapid test kits and other critical supplies worth $186.1 million."

The report said the coronavirus added to the distress of people who were forced to flee their homes, complicating how governments and social service agencies dealt with them.

B.C. to begin DRIPA-based negotiations with Tahltan First Nation on two northwest mining projects

The province of B.C is set to negotiate its first consent-based decision making agreement based on Section 7 of the Declaration of the Rights Of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) with Tahltan First Nation.

The province is holding talks with the Tahltan Central Government (TCG) – the political arm of the Tahltan First Nation – mining companies and stakeholders to reach an agreement related to environmental assessment approvals for two mining projects in Tahltan Territory.

These include the expansion of the Red Chris copper and gold mine located 80 kilometres south of Dease Lake and operated by Australian company Newcrest Red Chris Mining Ltd., and the Eskay Creek Mine operated by Skeena Resources Ltd.

The Tahltan Nation is also an investor in Skeena Resources and has developed a strong relationship with Newcrest Red Chris Mining Ltd. Both projects represent up to $3.3 billion in potential investment.

The Red Chris JV (Newcrest Red Chris Mining Ltd.) and Eskay Creek Revitalization Project (Skeena Resources) mining projects in the core Territory of the Tahltan Nation represent up to $3.3 billion in potential investment.

The provincial government’s move to table negotiations with TCG and mining stakeholders came a week after both governments signed a Shared Prosperity Agreement to achieve long-term land-use predictability on June 10. As part of this agreement, the province committed $20 million to TCG to support economic growth and reconciliation.

READ MORE: Tahltan Nation, B.C. government sign agreement for shared decision-making

Welcoming the agreement, TCG president Chad Norman Day said that it provides “an opportunity to meaningfully advance reconciliation grounded in the principles of respect and recognition of Tahltan rights and title.”

“The ongoing evolution and growth of the Tahltan Nation shows outside governments, industry and the world how working alongside the Tahltan Nation as true partners can help secure certainty, economic benefits and pride for everyone involved,” said Day.

Spread across 95,933 square kilometres of northwestern British Columbia Tahltan territory covers 11 per cent of the province and includes 70 per cent of B.C.’s resource rich ‘golden triangle’.

Along with Newcrest and Skeena Resources other stakeholders such as Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, Mining Association of British Columbia, Association for Mineral Exploration and Business Council of British Columbia will also be part of the consultation.

The discussions are scheduled to take place under the framework of Section 7 of the DRIPA Act– which B.C. adopted in 2019– which sets out provisions for negotiating consent-based decision making agreements for the the purposes of reconciliation.

“If we are successful, the agreement would bring greater clarity in decision-making and forge a partnership with the Tahltan Nation on two projects. It would also support Tahltan self-government and promote significant economic development in the region,” said Murray Rankin, B.C.’s Indigenous Relations & Reconciliation Minister.

Binny Paul, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Terrace Standard

Scientists unravel shocking new 'chocolate' frog in New Guinea
Nathan Howes 

The Weather Network

Embedded content: https://players.brightcove.net/1942203455001/B1CSR9sVf_default/index.html?videoId=6256695700001

A new surprising discovery of a chocolate-coloured frog in the Southern Hemisphere is shedding light on the prehistoric links between Australia and New Guinea.

Because of its colouring, the chocolate moniker was picked -- and stuck -- for the new Litoria mira species since tree frogs are generally known for their green skin, according to the study's lead author Dr. Paul Oliver, of the Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security and Queensland Museum.

SEE ALSO: B.C.'s most endangered amphibians get new lease on life

“The closest known relative of Litoria mira is the Australian green tree frog. The two species look similar except one is usually green, while the new species usually has a lovely chocolate colouring,” said Oliver, in a Griffith University news release.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkChocolate frog (Litoria mira) was a strange finding for researchers. (Steve Richards/South Australian Museum)

The new Litoria frog species was named Mira, which means surprised or strange in Latin, Oliver said, since it was a shocking discovery to stumble upon an "overlooked relative" of Australia’s well-known and common green tree living in the lowland rainforests of New Guinea.

ANCIENT CONNECTION BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND NEW GUINEA

The news release stated that Australia and New Guinea were connected by land for much of the late Tertiary geologic period (2.6 million years ago) and share many of the same living elements. New Guinea is now dominated by rainforest, while northern Australia is controlled by savannah.

“Resolving the biotic interchange between these two regions is critical to understanding how the rainforest and savannah habitat types have the expanded and contracted over time of both,” Oliver said.

According to Oliver, the research estimates a connection between the two frog species can go as far back as the Pliocene Epoch (5.3 to 2.6 million years ago) across the lowland tropical habitats of northern Australia and New Guinea.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Chocolate frog. (Steve Richards/South Australian Museum)

“These results emphasize that the extent and connectivity of lowland rainforest, and savannah environments across northern Australia and southern New Guinea, and the profound shifts the region has undergone since the late Pliocene," said Oliver.

Steve Richards, who co-authored the paper and is from the South Australian Museum, said researchers believe the species is likely widespread in New Guinea.

“Because the frog lives in very hot, swampy areas with lots of crocodiles, all these things discourage exploration,” said Richards, in the release.

Full details of the findings can be found in a new paper published in the Australian Journal of Zoology.

Thumbnail courtesy of Steve Richards/South Australian Museum

A CANADIAN TRADITION

Lumberjack rescues crows from felled tree, teaches them to log roll

June 18 (UPI) -- A Nova Scotia lumberjack who rescued three young crows from a felled tree said the birds are now thriving -- and he's taught them how to log roll.

Darren Hudson of Barrington said he was on a job in early June when he felled a tree and discovered he had disturbed the nest of three young crows.

"When it came crashing to the ground these guys were sitting there looking up at me and I was like 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe this,'" Hudson told SaltWire.

He put the crows in a box and left them in a nearby open field, but there was no sign of the birds' parents.

"I kept them in a box wide open in the field I was working on that day, but the parents weren't around. And so I took them home that night," Hudson told Global News.

The lumberjack said he tried again the next day, but there was no sign of the mother and father crow, so he took it on himself to finish raising the birds to adulthood.

"We're just good buddies. We've really bonded, maybe spiritually," he said.

One of the crows has a foot injury and is currently living with some friends who have experience with animal rehabilitation, but the other two have become Hudson's near-constant companions.

Hudson, who has been chronicling his life with the crows on YouTube, said he has now taught the birds how to log roll.

"Of course, they have good balance, but these guys really took to it. It was no problem for them to jump on the log and they stayed right there, and I rolled that log back and forth and they really enjoyed it," he said.

Hudson said they showed real skill at the sport.

"They're not as fast as a dog but they can stay right up there and if they start to get too far back on the log, they flap their wings and it brings them right on top again so they might have got their tail feathers wet, but I couldn't dunk them," Hudson said.

ALL FATHER DAY

ALL FATHER--ODIN--WOTAN

 

 

HAPPY SOLSTICE 

SOL INVICTUS

NASA, USPS team up to create stunning sun stamps

The stamps showcase a decade of sun-watching from space

The U.S. Postal Service has issued a new set of stamps celebrating 10 years of sun-watching from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). 

On June 18, the stamps were presented during a ceremony at the Greenbelt Main Post Office in Maryland, according to a Friday NASA release.

"It’s such a pleasure to see these gorgeous stamps," Dr. Nicky Fox, Division Director for NASA’s Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in the announcement. "I look at each of these pictures from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and am reminded of how they help us learn more about the sun and the way its constantly changing atmosphere can affect Earth and the planets. I’m pleased that this imagery will be shared by the Postal Service with the whole country."

The sun, the heart of the solar system, may be almost 93 million miles from the Earth, but in SDO photos it appears in stunning detail.

The mission was first launched in February of 2010, providing researchers with a better understanding of how solar activity is created and impacts space weather in addition to obtaining critical measurements of the star's interior, atmosphere, magnetic field and energy output.

The dark area capping the northern polar region of the Sun is a coronal hole, a magnetically open area on the Sun from which high-speed solar wind escapes into space. Such high-speed solar wind streams can spark magnificent auroral displays on Earth when they collide with our planet’s magnetic field. These images were captured May 17-19, 2016, and the image on the stamp is from May 17. The images show the Sun in 211 Angstrom light, a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. This type of light is invisible to our eyes and is absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere, so it can only be seen by instruments in space. (NASA/SDO)

Using two imaging instruments – the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager – the SDO began collecting data a few months after its launch, providing ultra high-definition imagery of the sun in 13 different wavelengths of light.

After more than a decade of observation, SDO has provided scientists with hundreds of millions of pictures.

This view highlights the many active regions dotting the Sun’s surface. Active regions are areas of intense and complex magnetic fields on the Sun – linked to sunspots – that are prone to erupting with solar flares or explosions of material called coronal mass ejections. This image was captured on Oct. 8, 2014, in extreme ultraviolet wavelength 171 Angstroms. (NASA/SDO)

The 10 SDO images on the stamps display a range of solar activity witnessed by the spacecraft. 

For example, a coronal hole – a magnetically open area from which high-speed solar wind is released into space – caps the northern polar region on the sun.

These images show a burst of material from the Sun, called a coronal mass ejection. These eruptions of magnetized solar material can create space weather effects on Earth when they collide with our planet’s magnetosphere, or magnetic environment – including aurora, satellite disruptions, and, when extreme, even power outages. These images are a blend of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths 171 and 304 Angstroms, captured on Aug. 31, 2012. (NASA/SDO)

An active sun is shown on another stamp, highlighting areas of intense and complex magnetic fields on the sun that are prone to erupting with solar flares or explosions.

A plasma blast is shown with a coronal mass ejection – an eruption of magnetized solar material that can create space weather effects on Earth.

Coronal loops, sunspots and solar flares are also featured in hues of red, orange and blue.

HERE COMES THE SUN

 

  

  

SUMMER SOLSTICE

 

Canada

Families of victims of police violence call for action at rally outside Trudeau's office
Natalia Goodwin 

Natalia Goodwin/CBC A rally held Saturday in Ottawa featured the families of 10 people who either died or were injured during encounters with police.

A group of Black and Indigenous families brought their case for defunding Canadian police forces to the steps of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office across the street from Parliament Hill on Saturday.

The Ottawa rally included the families of 10 people who either died or were injured during encounters with police: Anthony Aust, Eishia Hudson, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Jermaine Carby, Jamal Francique, Chantel Moore, Andrew Loku, Abdirahman Abdi, Rodney Levi and Chantelle Krupka.

Each family shared their own stories, and some called on the federal government to make changes to defund, disarm and dismantle police forces across the country. Some who spoke said they want to see money that usually funds police groups go to the families affected by the violence.

The event was held one day after a video surfaced of Montreal police kneeling on a 14-year-old's neck. It also coincided with Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States that was just made a federal holiday.

"We're seeing police killings happening on the regular, where now it's just something that we see on the news and we just sort of move on with our lives," said Syrus Marcus Ware, one of the rally's organizers and a core team member with Black Lives Matter Toronto.

"It is outrageous that we've come to accept this level of brutality from a force that we pay for — billions and billions of dollars that could be reinvested into our communities."

Ware said it was important for families to tell personal stories about their loved ones instead of relying on reports from media or police, which Ware criticized as flawed.
Victim's mother wants action, not an apology

Nhora Aust spoke about her son, Anthony Aust, who died after he fell from a 12th-floor bedroom window in Ottawa during a no-knock raid at his home. Ontario's police watchdog was investigating his death.

Nhora Aust said she doesn't want an apology, but rather action from the federal government.

"They not only took my son's life. They took my life, they took his father's life, his siblings' [lives]," she said.

"I am asking you to stop doing this, because as we speak … every day there are children going through this, there are families going through this."

© Natalia Goodwin/CBC Syrus Marcus Ware, one of the organizers of Saturday's rally, said it's important the public hears stories from the victims' families.

'The system is built against us'

William Hudson told those in attendance about his 16-year-old daughter Eishia Hudson, who died after being shot by police in Winnipeg in April 2020.

"She had her whole life ahead of her," Hudson said. "She was a good kid, didn't have a criminal record."

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, one of Manitoba's police oversight agencies, looked into the case — but the officer who shot her was cleared of any wrongdoing. 

© Sylvain LePage/CBC Members of Eishia Hudson's family lean on each other at Saturday's rally.

"Why is it that former police, ex-cops, [are] working in these investigations units?" Hudson asked the crowd.

"The system is built against us, and it's why we're here today, standing together."

In an interview with CBC's The House, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said the federal government recognizes that systemic racism exists in Canada's criminal justice system and that they're committed to change th

 FROM MY EMAIL BOX

Last week, PressProgress broke a major news story that lit up social media and was shared by news outlets, MPs across the aisles, LGBTQ2 leaders and allies. Two of Erin O’Toole’s Conservative MPs are behind a video criticizing anti-conversion therapy legislation that features a youth evangelist who claims counselling helped him overcome his interest in gay “pornography” and “going to gay bars.” “Conversion therapy” is a discredited practice that falsely claims to be able to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. Such practices have been rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organization for decades. Conversion therapy hurts, some even describe it as torture and can lead the person to depression, anxiety, drug use, and suicide. That’s why readers were shocked to learn Conservative MPs Garnett Genuis and Tamara Jansen produced a video that appears on a website called “Fix The Definition” promoting a petition calling to soften the anti-conversion therapy Bill C-6. Within hours, it became one of the most talked-about stories story on Twitter in Canada

The Victorious Gay Greek Army That Got Canceled by History

Everybody names sports teams after the Spartans even though they were losers, 

 isn’t it high time we gave it up for the Thebans.


James Romm
Updated Jun. 20, 2021 

Public Domain

Why do we see so many football and rugby teams named for the Spartans, and only one for the Thebans, though Thebes in fact defeated Sparta in battle and ended its reign as superpower of Greece? The explanation lies deep in the prejudices of ancient Greek historians and thinkers, as does the inspiration for that one exception: The Caledonian Thebans, Scottish ruggers who define themselves as gay, bisexual, or LGBTQ-inclusive.

Let’s start by noting that Greek Thebes (not to be confused with the Egyptian city of the same name) had unusually gay-friendly laws and social customs. Plato, who examined male love relationships in his dialogue Symposium, singled out Thebes and one other city, Elis, as places where such bonds were natural and normal, whereas, in his native Athens, they were more “complicated.”

The Thebans drew on this normative view of male love in 378 BC by training male couples as infantry soldiers and stationing them together in battle. One hundred and fifty such couples formed a powerful regiment, the Sacred Band, that led Thebes to victories over the dreaded Spartans. One of those victories, at Leuctra in 371 BC, destroyed as much as a third of Sparta’s military manpower and ended its long supremacy.

Plato seems to allude to the Sacred Band’s stunning success in Symposium, a work written at about the time of Leuctra, when he has one of his characters say that “an army of lovers and their beloveds, fighting side by side, though few in number, might defeat nearly the entire world.” A version of that quote is proudly displayed on the website of Caledonian Thebans, who claim the Sacred Band as the inspiration for their team.

But Plato does not call this army of lovers the Sacred Band or credit Thebes with its creation. Indeed, he disparages Thebes in Symposium as a society of tongue-tied numbskulls. The Thebans only encourage male unions, he has his speaker assert, because they are clumsy at finding words for seduction, unlike the elegant, fine-spoken Athenians. This remark played into a widely held Greek bias against the Thebans, who were sometimes referred to as “swine” or mocked for their rustic accents.


Lost Sappho Poems Found
FOUND
James Romm


Plato’s contemporary, Xenophon, shared this anti-Theban bias and also admired the Spartans as models of moral perfection. He’d fought under a Spartan commander and received a country estate as a gift from Sparta, and in his many writings he did his best to glorify that city. That meant diminishing Thebes and casting its victories over Sparta in the worst possible light, or even pretending they’d never happened at all.

Xenophon’s Symposium, written in response to Plato’s work, reveals the full depth of these prejudices. Like Plato, Xenophon makes Socrates the central speaker of this dialogue (both men had been students of Socrates as youths). At one point this fictionalized Socrates derides the Theban custom of placing lovers side by side in battle. They only do so, “Socrates” asserts, as a safeguard against desertion; each man keeps an eye on his partner to stop him from running away.

Xenophon’s Socrates contrasts this system with that of the Spartans, whose soldiers may fall in love but, he claims, never have sexual contact (an assertion that flies in the face of known facts). The Spartans, he says, do not need to put couples together in battle, since each man is brave on his own and does not need a watchdog. The whole discussion, with its equation of male sexual love and cowardice, adds a layer of homophobia to the standard Greek slurs against Theban witlessness and poor speech.

Modern readers can sometimes spot and correct for these biases, but outright omissions are harder to overcome, because we depend on Xenophon for so much of our record of Greek history. His chronicle Hellenica (published by Penguin under the title History of My Times) is our sole surviving contemporary account of the decades that saw the rise of Thebes and the decline of Sparta, 379 to 362 BC, but they give a very slanted and partial version of events.

In moves we might today ascribe to cancel culture, Xenophon passed in silence over some of the Theban achievements in this era, including the victories of the Sacred Band. He never gives the Band their honorific name, referring to them blandly as “the chosen men of the Thebans.” He omits altogether their first victory over Sparta, in 375 BC, an event described by another ancient source as a seismic shock to the collective Greek world.

“The Theban “gay 300,” as some have cheekily called them, are little known today.”

Sparta by that time was in steep population decline. It maintained its hold over Greece by projecting a mirage of strength, filling out its infantry ranks with unwilling conscripts or second-rate troops. Supporters like Xenophon helped it maintain that mirage, emphasizing Spartan successes in their writings and minimizing setbacks or erasing them altogether.

The mirage endures to this day. Our popular versions of ancient Greek military life pay huge tribute to Sparta but take no notice of Thebes. Zack Snyder’s two 300 films, based on the battles of Thermopylae (as depicted by graphic novelist Frank Miller) and Salamis in 480 BC, made the line “This is Sparta!” a kind of macho rallying cry, and created the meme of a muscle-bound, largely naked male figure, sporting the Spartan Λ (lambda, for “Lacedaemon,” Sparta’s home region) on his shield, as an emblem of prowess and strength.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone, ever, will shout “This is Thebes!” with similar gusto. Xenophon largely effaced the fame of this city and its Sacred Band. The Theban “gay 300,” as some have cheekily called them, are little known today, in spite of the fact that they too, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, were destroyed to a man as they fought in a hopeless struggle. Alexander the Great mowed them down, in 338 BC, at the battle of Chaeronea in northern Greece. As a tribute to their courage, they were buried where they fell; their mass grave was excavated in 1880.

All of which makes one grateful that the Caledonian Thebans, “Scotland’s premier inclusive rugby team,” helps keep the memory of the Sacred Band alive.

VMD

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