Saturday, December 31, 2022

Workers at Iran’s Abadan refinery strike as protests continue


A general view of Abadan oil refinery in southwest Iran, is pictured from
Iraqi side of Shatt al-Arab in Al-Faw south of Basra, Iraq September 21, 2019. (Reuters)

Bloomberg
Published: 31 December ,2022

Workers at Iran’s biggest oil refinery went on strike on Saturday, impacting repairs and safety checks at the facility, according to unconfirmed reports and footage published on social media.

It wasn’t clear if production was affected at the Abadan site. A call for comment was unanswered outside regular business hours.

Commissioned more than a century ago, the Middle East’s oldest oil refinery is located in the southern Khuzestan province near the Gulf and has a reported processing capacity of 400,000 barrels per day.

Industrial strikes have become more widespread across Iran, including in the key energy sector, following protests that have swept the nation since mid-September, triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She was arrested for allegedly flouting strict Islamic dress codes.

Security forces used tear gas and opened fire on anti-government demonstrators in the western city of Javanroud near Iraq’s border on Saturday, according to media reports.

Videos showed clashes in a graveyard during a traditional religious ceremony marking the 40th day since the death of at least seven people that rights groups say were killed amid unrest in the city.

The Norway-based Hengaw Human Rights Organization, which monitors Iran’s protests, said riot police shot dead a 22-year-old man in Javanroud on Saturday while several others were wounded. Videos showed the man being stretchered with a bullet wound to the chest.

None of the reports or footage could be immediately verified by Bloomberg.
Authorities have so far hanged two men in connection with the unrest following fast-tracked trials.

More than 400 people have been killed in the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on protests, with thousands more in prison and at least 100 people facing execution, according to human rights groups.


Studies on moon mining and DNA


 December 31, 2022
By Giancarlo Elia Valori

Will moon mineral extraction soon be underway? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to build a moonbase. What makes it so anxious about such a new goal?

Compared to the vast universe, human beings are undoubtedly less than grains of sand. Although space exploration has been going on for more than half a century, the extraterrestrial bodies on which humans have set foot are limited to the moon, which is the closest to the earth. Moreover, only the United States of America has achieved manned moon landings and there is still a long way to go for human space exploration.

At the same time, space exploration activity by the People’s Republic of China has gradually expanded in recent years. Moon sampling, the Tianwen-1 space mission to the red planet, the Martian rover Zhurong and the Tiangong (Celestial Palace), a Chinese modular space station under construction, part of the fourth permanent space station programme in history (after the Saljut, Skylab, Mir and the International Space Station), all are important symbols of China’s turning into a space power.

However, with the progress of the Chinese space industry, NASA – which is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean – is also feeling much pressure, with its desire to initiate a plan to go back to the moon and maintain its leading position in space technology thanks to the Artemis project.

Faced with pressure from Chinese moon landings and space station research, NASA has announced that it will go back to the moon in 2024. This time, with the return to the moon, the United States of America has set two main goals for itself: a new manned lunar landing; and the return to the moon to look for ways to enable humans to live permanently on the surface of our satellite and exploit it scientifically and for mining.

The Artemis project aims to establish a moonbase in the meteorite crater near the satellite south pole, named after the explorer Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922). This is the first task. Once the moonbase is successfully established, NASA will be able to obtain in advance the technology for the future construction of the base on Mars.

Is mineral extraction part of the programme? NASA plans to build a moonbase. The peaks on the rim of Shackleton Crater are continuously exposed to sunlight, but the interior is permanently shaded. Scientists also call it the crater of eternal night. The permanent shadow inside leads to a low temperature, which has captured and frozen volatile components emitted by celestial bodies when they hit the moon. The Lunar Prospector, launched on 7 January 1998 by NASA, found a higher than normal amount of hydrogen gas in the craters during its measurement mission to the moon, indicating the presence of water ice. The Lunar Prospector, was designed for a short polar orbit analysing our satellite, mapping the surface and any polar ice deposits, measuring the magnetic field and gravity, and studying lunar events.

Once the water ice extraction technology is achieved, the construction of both the moonbase and the Mars base can be greatly improved. The water ice can break down into hydrogen and oxygen, the main components of rocket fuel. In the future, the moonbase could also serve as a space service station.

With a view to developing moon mining technology, NASA has also launched a competition called Break the Ice Lunar Challenge. Well-known technology companies such as Masten Space Systems, Lunar Outpost and Honeybee Robotics have currently joined the challenge.

They plan to use rocket engines to design a moon mining vehicle weighing over 800 kilograms. When the moon mining vehicle reaches a site containing water ice, its engine enclosed in the dome will start up, launching the water ice-laden debris into a vacuum device that separates and stores the water ice particles.

According to the plan, this moon mining vehicle is capable of mining operations from twelve craters per day. Each crater can produce about 100 kilograms of ice and more than 420,000 kilograms of lunar water ice can be recovered each year.

Besides lunar water ice, the Artemis programme also includes research into the extraction of helium-3. Helium-3 (He-3) is a very valuable resource in space, and its presence on earth is rather limited. It is formed by the decay of tritium (hydrogen-3, the third isotope of the element hydrogen, after protium and deuterium). In the soil of the moon surface, there is one million tonnes of helium-3.

Helium-3 can continuously supply energy to the moonbase. If the fusion energy of helium-3 is used, just 200,000 tonnes of helium-3 can enable a population of nearly one and a half billion people to use electricity for an entire year. It is also very likely that this type of space minerals will change the energy process of rockets and cause a qualitative transformation of human space technology.

NASA has quickly embarked on the project to return to the moon, mainly because the satellite soil collected by the Chinese probes on the moon contains this type of future energy.

NASA must also complete the technology to withstand space radiation for the Artemis project. The surface of the moon, like the surface of Mars, is not protected by an ozone layer. This is precisely the reason why space radiation there is very high. Studies have shown that space radiation can easily penetrate the bulkheads of manned spacecraft and pass through crew members’ bodies. Space radiation can damage the DNA of crew members, causing a number of irreparable consequences.

With a view to solving the threat of space radiation, NASA approached the research institutes of the University of Washington and Harvard University to ask for collaboration and participation in studies. In the high-tech competition, they found a very powerful small molecule. It plays an important role in repairing DNA damaged by space radiation and in restoring muscle and skeletal loss in weightlessness.

This molecule is involved in the synthesis of cofactors in human cells and is a substance found in the human body and in nature. People can restore or increase the level of cellular cofactors in the body by supplementing the molecule, which is able to restore declining mitochondria and repair damaged DNA. Likewise, astronauts can also repair damaged DNA by supplementing the molecule after having been exposed to space radiation.

NASA has collected a large amount of data on the radiation exposure of astronauts during space activities over the past decades. Based on this data, the Ames Research Center – one of NASA’s ten largest centres, located in California’s Silicon Valley at Moffett Field Airport – has developed a roadmap for radiation resistance in the human body. In the roadmap, NASA plans to use modern gene editing technology to modify astronauts’ DNA so that they can adapt to the high-radiation space environment.

Judging by the current level of technology, however, when we return to the moon in 2024, it is estimated that gene editing technology will not yet have reached the point where it can affect astronauts’ DNA. NASA can rely on the aforementioned molecule, which will be safe and reliable only after marketing. A few years ago, some biological companies focused on studying molecules against ageing and on restoring levels to cope with mitochondrial diseases.

Scientific tests and marketing have demonstrated the molecule safety, and NASA wants to use this material to complete the relevant tests on the moonbase before it can be used in large-scale space activities.

The moon is the closest celestial body to the earth, and is a unique outpost for humans to improve space technology. Although it looks desolate, it contains a lot of energy that the earth does not have. Humans can probably improve aerospace technology on the moon to a higher level than on earth.

It must be said, however, that if we are serious about mining or other activities on the moon, concluding relevant binding treaties is essential, and all countries carrying out space activities must be able to comply with them. In this way, the moon is protected and severe consequences are avoided for what will happen “in the sky” if there is conflict on earth.

Andrew Tate arrested: Philosophy can help combat the malign influence of social media stars like this self-described misogynist – Scotsman comment

The arrest of far-right conspiracy theorist and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate by police in Romania investigating allegations of human trafficking and rape throws a spotlight on the kind of person capable of achieving considerable influence in the 21st century.

By Scotsman comment



Andrew Tate is led away by police from an address in Ilfov, north of Bucharest, Romania 
(Picture: Observator Antena 1 via AP)

Without wishing to comment on the current allegations, it is worth noting that when the 36-year-old former kickboxer moved from the UK to Romania, he said part of the reason was because it was easier to avoid being charged with rape there. “I’m not a f****** rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free,” he said in a later deleted YouTube video.

It was by no means an untypical comment. In 2017, he was banned from Twitter for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted, although he was reinstated last month.

Following his arrest, a message on his Twitter account said “the Matrix sent their agents”, a reference to a far-right idea that the current world is as divorced from reality as the computer-generated one in the film series. Tate used the same concept during a spat with climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg, in which he said “she doesn’t realise she’s been programmed, she doesn’t realise she’s a slave of the matrix”.

As with the pro-Trump QAnon movement or David Icke’s ramblings about lizard-people, conspiracy theorists like to pretend they know something the rest of us do not. Once they could be ignored or laughed at, now their effects on society are very serious. QAnon supporting politicians have been elected in the US, while Tate has amassed billions of views on the TikTok social media site alone.

For reasons we need to explore, large numbers of confused young men appear drawn to Walter Mitty types gone bad. However, endlessly musing on the nature of masculinity in the modern world may not ultimately provide an antidote.

A more fruitful approach could lie in a greater emphasis on the teaching of subjects like religious, moral and philosophical studies, with a focus on how to be a good human being. A greater understanding of logic and moral philosophy, in particular, could help the young generation successfully navigate the pitfalls of social media and avoid falling under the sway of deeply unpleasant charlatans like Tate.

by P Kropotkin1922Cited by 240 — A realist and a revolutionist, Kropotkin regarded Ethics not as an abstract science of human conduct, but he saw in it first of all a concrete scientific ...
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Ankara agrees to withdraw forces from northern Syria: report

TEHRAN, Dec. 31 (MNA) – A Syrian media claimed that in the tripartite meeting of Syrian, Turkish, and Russian officials in Moscow, Ankara has committed to withdrawing all its forces from Syrian territory.

After the talks between Russian, Syrian and Turkish defense ministers in Moscow, Ankara has agreed to withdraw its troops from northern Syria, the Al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday, citing its sources.

According to the source, the talks yielded "Turkey’s consent to withdraw its forces from the areas in the north [of Syria]." Apart from that, Ankara reiterated its commitment to Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The source also said that the participants in the meeting agreed that Kurdish units linked with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party are "US and Israel’s agents and pose the biggest threat to Syria and Turkey." The sides also discussed the implementation of the agreement on the opening of the M4 strategic highway, which links Syria’s western and eastern regions, TASS reported.

The Russian defense ministry said on Wednesday that the Russian, Syrian and Turkish defense ministers had met in the Russian capital city to discuss ways of settling the Syrian crisis, the problem of refugees, and joint efforts to combat extremist groups in Syria. After the talks, the sides noted their constructive character and agreed that this dialogue should be continued in the interests of the further stabilization of the situation in Syria and in the entire region. The Syrian defense ministry described the meeting as positive.

Since 2017, Syria has held three military operations in Syria: Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, and Peace Spring. As a result, a buffer security zone between the cities of Azaz and Jerablus north of Aleppo has been established, Afrin and border areas east of the Euphrates were taken under control. On June 3, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Turkish army would stage another cross-border operation in northern Syria, on the territories on the Euphrates' western and eastern banks, which are currently controlled by the Kurds.

MNA/PR

In Afghanistan, coal mining relies on the labor of children

By Arezou Rezvani,
Fazelminallah Qazizai, Claire Harbage
Published December 31, 2022

A boy works in a coal mine north of Kabul. Afghanistan's state-run coal industry is going strong in an otherwise shattered economy. Many underage workers are the ones who are extracting the coal.


NAHRIN, Afghanistan — On weekdays, when most kids around the world are at school, 12-year-old Mansour is in the middle of a grueling shift at the coal mines.

Deep inside a tunnel carved into the side of a blackened mountain, the young boy waits under the flickering glow of his headlamp as older boys pry coal out of the earth by pickaxe and hand, while others shovel the piles into sacks strapped onto the backs of donkeys.

From there, it is Mansour's job — from dawn until dusk — to lead the coal-laden donkeys out of a labyrinth of crumbling tunnels down the mountain in this remote part of Baghlan province, 180 miles north of Kabul. Here, the so-called black gold is bagged and loaded onto trucks, mostly bound for neighboring countries.

"My family sent me to work here last year," he says. He's wearing no protective equipment — no mask, no goggles, just a pair of cheap rubber shoes he's sliced open to let his feet breathe, with toes blackened by coal dust peeking out. "What they pay me goes directly to my family."

Boys earn between $3 and $8 for a day's work in the coal mines.

The boys earn between $3 and $8 for a day's work, depending on how strenuous their assigned tasks are. Digging for coal, lining the brittle tunnel walls with rickety wood frames, loading the trucks all earn top dollar at the government-run mines.

They are enviable wages in cruel economic times.

Even in wealthy, developed nations with advanced technologies, heavy machinery and readily available protective equipment, mining can be a dangerous and sometimes deadly job. In Afghanistan, where much of the coal is mined by hand, every descent into the bowels of this mountain is a gamble.


Miners take a break with their donkeys and drink tea near the end of a shift.

A dozen workers were killed in January, after one of the mines collapsed due to heavy rains. No one, from the young miners to mining officials and labor and humanitarian groups, seems to know or is willing to say whether any of those who perished were kids. But the accident was enough to inspire a new ritual among the boys working here.

Whenever one of them emerges from the tunnels, the others greet him with a tune from a toy flute the boys pass around during breaks — a humble celebration for making it out alive.

Top left: Bags of coal ready to be loaded onto trucks. Top right: A boy puts a guiding hand on the neck of a coal-laden donkey. Bottom: A man runs, urging donkeys to quicken their pace up the hill to a mine entrance.

Coal production is increasing — and so is the number of child miners


Afghanistan's state-run coal industry is a rare bright spot in an otherwise shattered economy.

When the Taliban returned to power last year, donor governments and international institutions withdrew billions of dollars in assistance, triggering an economic and humanitarian crisis. Months of isolation prompted the cash-strapped Taliban government to ramp up production and export of one of Afghanistan's more abundant commodities to countries like Pakistan to help resuscitate the economy, which contracted last year by about 20%.

Coal exports increased by nearly as much in the first year under Taliban rule, according to the Ministry of Finance. Approximately 10,000 tons of coal are exported daily, according to the Ministry of Mining and Petroleum.

Left: Abdul Salaam, 17, has been working at the mine since he was 9 years old. Right: Mansour, 12, began working at the mine last year, after his parents sent him.

 Impoverished families are sending their children to work in the one industry that offers jobs and a steady wage. Children are more easily able than grown men to squeeze into the narrow mining tunnels and shafts.

The Taliban government also got an unexpected boost earlier this year from Russia's war in Ukraine. Disruptions in gas and supplies sent global demand for coal surging, bringing consumption to levels not seen since a decade ago, according to the International Energy Agency.

This cleared the way for the Taliban to significantly increase duties on exports as well as the price of coal — "from what used to be $90 per ton under the previous government to $200 now," says Esmatullah Burhan, spokesman for the Ministry of Mining and Petroleum.

Not only does the government have plans to build new roads for better access to China's markets, it's also eager to welcome foreign investment in the mining sector — for coal and especially rare minerals and metals, including lithium.


A boy unloads a bag from the back of a donkey after coming out of a mine.

Left to right: Mohammed Asif Faisel, 22, Amir Mohammad Sharin, 33, and Shamsurrahman Mirzada, 32, have all worked in the mines since they were underage.

"Our doors are open, especially for American and European companies," says Burhan. "The one condition we have: If a foreign company comes here, they must have an Afghan partnership."

The investment has been slow to materialize. But with more than 90% of Afghans lacking enough to eat, many impoverished families are seizing the opportunity to send their children to work in the one industry that can still offer jobs and a steady wage. Children are more easily able than grown men to squeeze into the narrow mining tunnels and shafts.


A boy guides a loaded donkey over paths on the steep mountain where the coal mine is located.

"Business is very good, it's growing," says Jawad Jahed, the head engineer who started managing the coal mines under the previous government.

Other than the increase in production, the only change he's noticed since the return of the Taliban is the number of minors who've been sent to work.

"Kids under 18 aren't supposed to work here, but our people are so poor, families have no choice," he says. "They send their children to work because they need the money and it's hard for us to turn them away."
The Taliban say they want to eliminate child labor, but it's risen since they returned to power

In Kabul, an old banner from the previous government declaring a mission to end child labor still hangs in the entrance of the Ministry of Labor.

Ramin Behzad, the International Labor Organization's Kabul-based senior coordinator for Afghanistan, says it's a mission the Taliban government has inherited and now supports, even though the group has a past record of recruiting child soldiers.


A group sits outside the mine after a day's shift is over.

"They highlight that the elimination of child labor is very important and they want to continue to work on that," says Behzad. "It's come up in all the conversations we've had."

But under both the current and previous authorities, action and enforcement have lagged. A U.S. Labor Department report published in 2021 found that "Afghanistan made no advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor."

While it's unclear how many children currently work in Afghanistan's mining industry, what is known is that child labor overall has grown significantly in the last year. A survey of more than 10,000 households by a coalition of aid organizations found that the number of Afghan families with male heads of household reporting at least one child working jumped from 13% in 2021 to 21% in 2022. For families with female heads of household, those figures increased from 19% in 2021 to 29% in 2022.

Some children have ended up at the coal mines, working around the clock with no protection or promise for a different life ahead.

Several of the older boys at the Baghlan mine say they have come to terms with whatever fate awaits them.


Mansour plays in the dirt on the edge of the mountain where the mine entrance is located.

Donkeys dot the mountains near the entrances to the coal mine.

"It is the work of destiny," says 17-year-old Abdul Salaam. He's been working here since he was 9. "If it is my destiny to die in these mines, then so be it."

But that destiny has already started taking shape.

At the end of a 10-hour work day, a few young miners sit on a ledge overlooking this vast, blackened landscape. One of them pulls out the flute.

He plays a mellifluous trill for a few seconds, then stops.

NPRBoys sit on the mountain after a 10-hour work day and play the flute.

"Carry on!" the other boys urge him, but he can't.

He doesn't have the breath to go on.


PHOTOS 
Claire Harbage / NPR
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


There is no worker revolt

Earlier this week, the cranky and long-retired founder of Home Depot belched out his considered opinion about the state of today's youth—by which he apparently means anyone under the age of 70:

Nobody works, nobody gives a damn...."Just give it to me. Send me money. I don't want to work — I'm too lazy, I'm too fat, I'm too stupid."

There is, needless to say, no reason to take this even remotely seriously. Nonetheless, the Wall Street Journal sprang into action to declare a trend. "Where have all the go-getters gone?" it asks.

What follows is excruciating. They actually printed this, for example:

“The passion that we used to see in work is lower now, and you find it in fewer people—at least in the last two years,” says Sumithra Jagannath, president of ZED Digital, which makes digital ticket scanners. The company, based in Columbus, Ohio, recently moved about 20 remote engineering and marketing roles to Canada and India, where she said it’s easier to find talent who will go above and beyond.

Since the onset of the pandemic, several employees have asked for more pay when managers asked that they do more work, she says. “It was not like that before Covid at all,” she adds.

Employees asked for more pay when they were asked to do more work! How intolerable. So the company shipped their jobs overseas.

This is followed by a few more anecdotes, including one about an engineer who watched a TikTok that gave her the nerve to ask for a raise. So she did. And she got one! If the point of this story eludes you, join the crowd.

Another manager noticed that workers suddenly wanted to use more of their vacation time. How odd. What could possibly explain this after two years of being cooped up by a pandemic? Obviously they must be reassessing their entire work-life balance.

Then there are few quickly googled surveys that are obviously junk. But you never see this:

Granted, this only goes through 2021 and both series are noisy. Still, it shows a steady rise in average hours worked over the past three decades for both managers (in all industries) and programmers. If you look at the same data for, say, retail or construction, you'll see no increase at all.

In other words, the kind of people the Journal is bitching about are precisely the people who have been working harder and harder over the years. They might want a little break or a vacation after the pandemic, and they might even want a raise after a year of 8% inflation. But this hardly means they're a bunch of lazy ingrates. The Journal should be ashamed for giving a platform to a few hastily telephoned people who apparently think so.

TRENDING: Students earn As on tests, essays with ChatGPT artificial intelligence

FINN MCCOLE - TRINITY COLLEGE 
•DECEMBER 31, 2022


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English professor: ‘The abilities of chatbots like ChatGPT are impressive, but they aren’t yet advanced enough to serve as a total shortcut for students — they will be soon, though’

A College of Staten Island student recently used ChatGPT on his final exams. He got As on both.

“I used it for my multiple choice finals, two of them, and got a 95 on one of them and the other one, a 100,” said the student in an interview with The College Fix.

“Half the kids in my class used it,” added the student, who asked to remain anonymous.

ChatGPT is OpenAI’s new artificial-intelligence chatbot, and apparently it’s becoming more common for both high school and college students to use it for homework and tests.

“ChatGPT Wrote My AP English Essay—and I Passed,” declared a Dec. 21 headline in The Wall Street Journal.

The College of Staten Island student told The College Fix it’s pretty easy to use.

“All you have to do is copy and paste the multiple choice questions, or take a picture of it so it converts from chat to text, and then paste it into ChatGPT, and out of the multiple answers it gives you the right one and explains why,” he said.

He said he did not use it for his final that required an essay, but that his friend at Baruch College “used it for his final paper, and got a near perfect score.”

“All he had to do was add some final citations, scattered randomly throughout the essay,” he said. “Our other mutual friend who goes to Wagner [College] used it on her final 7-page paper and got an A+, a near perfect score.”

Adam Ellwanger, a professor of English and rhetoric at the University of Houston-Downtown, tried out the service by importing a prompt for an essay similar to one he would give to his students.

He used the “text-davinci-003” model of ChatGPT and it “produced the entire essay in about five seconds,” he wrote in a piece for Campus Reform. Ellwanger then “graded” the essay as he would if it were produced by one of his students, looking at “the quality of the writing and the strength of the argument.”

“Where the writing itself is concerned, Davinci exhibits a total mastery of English grammar and syntax. There are no sentence-level errors in the entire essay,” Ellwanger wrote.

As for the quality of argumentation, Ellwanger wrote “Davinci doesn’t advance any arguments of its own – it merely recounts claims that it encountered in its research. What Davinci has really produced is a book report – not an essay that shows some evidence of critical thinking.”

“The abilities of chatbots like ChatGPT are impressive, but they aren’t yet advanced enough to serve as a total shortcut for students. They will be soon, though.”

In an interview with The College Fix, Ellwanger said that after studying ChatGPT for some time, he is confident that he would be able to “recognize if one of his students used ChatGPT.” However, he added, it would be difficult to prove because he would need to plug in the same prompt that the student used to get the same output.

To combat this, Ellwanger said “professors must anticipate innovative ways to ensure that students do not come to rely on AI for ‘their’ writing.”

Additionally, Ellwanger said other professors need to be aware that their students can use this program to answer multiple choice questions.

“There’s ways to write multiple choice tests to disable [this],” he told The Fix.

Ellwanger stressed that while the program may help students get good grades, it will not actually help them become better writers.

“The only way to become a better writer is to write,” he said. “Ultimately, good writing reflects the soul of the writer … and Davinci doesn’t have one. Depending on AI won’t just deprive you of refining a critical skill in college – it will ensure that ‘your’ writing is soulless and forgettable.”

MORE: Profs: Artificial intelligence can be ‘sexist and racist’

IMAGE: Alex Millos / Shutterstock

Japan to extend cyberdefense umbrella to private sector

Power, communications and other lifelines at risk of attack

Self-Defense Forces members attend a lecture on cyberdefense. 
(Photo by Keiichiro Sato)

SHUNSUKE SHIGETA, 
Nikkei staff writer
December 31, 2022 

TOKYO -- The Japanese government is weighing how to expand the Self-Defense Forces' cyber protection responsibilities to businesses as increasing attacks threaten both confidential data and infrastructure.

Under a framework to be put in place as early as 2024, the SDF's cyberdefense unit would also cover such private-sector entities as power and communications companies, as well as transportation networks.

The SDF cyberdefense unit, established in 2022, has been limited to protecting the common network of the Defense Ministry and SDF themselves. For civilian entities, a wait-and-see approach was taken on the grounds that the Self-Defense Forces Law did not specifically extend to the cyber domain.

The private sector will be protected under a newly introduced "active cyberdefense" concept -- a form of active defense that recently appeared in Japan's National Security Strategy for the first time.

Expert panels will be set up in 2023 to work out measures, with the framework seen enacted as law in 2024.

The changes will let the SDF cooperate with companies that are important for defense and for which SDF assistance is vital, and monitor for signs of cyberattacks. A mechanism under consideration would entail penetrating an enemy's system and neutralizing an attack if a serious one is detected.

As a first step, a system for protecting the defense sector will be put into place by fiscal 2027. Support will be extended to operators of such key infrastructure as power, transportation and communications in fiscal 2028 and later.

Private companies with inadequate cybersecurity could be targeted in attacks that compromise sensitive information. Stepped-up vigilance by Japan's public and private sectors is also a must, considering the country's close cooperation with the U.S. in troop operations and equipment.

With cyberattacks growing more sophisticated and frequent, Japan has decided that even under the current law, defense of civilian entities should be permitted to the extent necessary for the SDF's mission of ensuring peace and security.
A Town-by-Town Battle to Sell Americans on Renewable Energy

David Gelles
Fri, December 30, 2022 

Brendan Burton of Ospur, Ill., an ironworker and farmer, welcomes the wind farm and the jobs it would bring to the area. (Mustafa Hussain/The New York Times)

MONTICELLO, Ill. — Depressed property values. Flickering shadows. Falling ice. One by one, a real estate appraiser rattled off what he said were the deleterious effects of wind farms as a crowd in an agricultural community in central Illinois hung on his every word.

It was the 10th night of hearings by the Piatt County zoning board, as a tiny town debated the merits of a proposed industrial wind farm that would see dozens of enormous turbines rise from the nearby soybean and corn fields. There were nine more hearings scheduled.

“It’s painful,” said Kayla Gallagher, a cattle farmer who lives nearby and opposes the project. “Nobody wants to be here.”

In the fight against global warming, the federal government is pumping a record $370 billion into clean energy, President Joe Biden wants the nation’s electricity to be 100% carbon-free by 2035, and many states and utilities plan to ramp up wind and solar power.

But while policymakers may set lofty goals, the future of the American power grid is, in fact, being determined in town halls, county courthouses and community buildings across the country.

The only way Biden’s ambitious goals will be met is if rural communities, which have large tracts of land necessary for commercial wind and solar farms, can be persuaded to embrace renewable energy projects. Lots of them.

According to an analysis by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the United States would need to construct more than 6,000 projects like the Monticello one in order to run the economy on solar, wind, nuclear or other forms of nonpolluting energy.

In Piatt County, population 16,000, the project at issue is Goose Creek Wind, which has been proposed by Apex Clean Energy, a developer of wind and solar farms based in Virginia. Apex spent years negotiating leases with 151 local landowners and trying to win over the community, donating to the 4-H Club and a mental health center.

Now, it was making its case to the zoning board, which will send a recommendation to the county board that will make a final call on whether Apex can proceed. If completed, the turbines, each of them 610 feet tall, would march across 34,000 acres of farmland.

The $500 million project is expected to generate 300 megawatts, enough to power about 100,000 homes. The renewable, carbon-free electricity would help power a grid that is fed by a mix of nuclear, natural gas, coal and some existing wind turbines.

But with more and more renewable-energy projects under construction around the country, resistance is growing, especially in rural communities in the Great Plains and Midwest.

“To meet any kind of clean energy goals which brings consumer benefits and energy independence, you’re going to see an increase in projects,” said JC Sandberg, interim CEO of the American Clean Power Association. “And with those increases in projects, we are facing more of these challenges.”

On Election Day last month, Apex saw its development efforts for a wind farm in Ohio die when voters in Crawford County overwhelmingly voted to uphold a ban on such projects. On the same day, voters in Michigan rejected ordinances that would have allowed construction of another Apex wind project. This month, local officials in Monroe County, Michigan, extended a temporary moratorium on industrial solar projects, delaying plans by Apex to develop a solar farm in the area.

“Projects have been getting more contentious,” said Sarah Banas Mills, a lecturer at the school for environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan who has studied renewable development in the Midwest. “The low-hanging-fruit places have been taken.”

In Piatt County, the zoning board decided to conduct a mock trial of sorts. During the first nine hearings, Apex and its witnesses made the case that property values would not decline and that other concerns about wind farms — that they are ugly, that they kill birds or that the low frequency noise they emit can adversely affect human health — were not major issues.

They won some converts. Meg Miner, 61, a resident who was on the fence about the project, decided to support Apex after considering how the project would help fight climate change.

But others were worried about all the issues that the real estate appraiser mentioned, and more. “I moved here for nature, for trees, for crops,” said Sandy Coyle, who lives nearby and opposed the project. “I’m not interested in living near an industrial wind farm.”

Much of that skepticism appeared to be earnest concern from community members who weren’t sold on the project’s overall merits. On the fringe of the debate, however, was a digital misinformation campaign designed to distort the facts about wind energy.

The website of a group called Save Piatt County!, which opposes the project, is rife with fallacies about renewable energy and inaccuracies about climate science. On Facebook pages, residents opposed to the project shared negative stories about wind power, following a playbook that has been honed in recent years by anti-wind activists, some of whom have ties to the fossil fuel industry. The organizers of the website and Facebook groups did not reply to requests for comment.

As part of the Goose Creek Wind project, Apex has secured a commitment from Rivian, an upstart electric truck company, to buy power from the project, a development that drew skeptical replies in one Facebook group. “Scam artists in it together to fleece middle class taxpayers,” wrote one local resident in response to a news story about the deal. “Wake up.”

That milieu of misinformation appeared to sway some residents.

“These things are intrusive,” said Kelly Vetter, a retiree who opposed the project and disputed the overwhelming scientific consensus that carbon dioxide emitted from the burning of fossil fuels is dangerously warming the planet. “The company’s never going to have the community’s interest at heart.”

Apex declined to comment.

‘We All Want What’s Good for Society’

Smack in the middle of the area where Apex wants to erect its turbines sits the Bragg family’s farm, a roughly 1,500-acre plot that on a cold December afternoon was little more than an expanse of mud after the fall harvest and a week of rain.

Braxton Bragg, 40, who grew up on the land and returned after stints in the Peace Corps that took him to Mali and Mongolia, supports the project. He is concerned about climate change and said he already sees its effects. The rain is harder when it comes, the cold sets in later than it used to and, overall, the growing season is less predictable than it was when his grandfather worked the same land.

But his support for wind comes down to economics. Bragg has agreed to let Apex site one of its turbines on his property, and he expects to earn about $50,000 a year if it is built.

“It’s not going to save the farm or allow me to retire,” he said. “But just having that steady income every year, you know what you’re going to get.”

A few miles down the road is Gallagher Farms, another multigenerational operation. Like Bragg, Gallagher, 34, believes in climate change. She has invested in cover crops, which absorb carbon and lock it away in the soil, and other regenerative agriculture practices.

But Gallagher is opposed to the project. The aerial seeding of cover crops will cost more with wind turbines nearby and make it harder for her to sustainably farm. The use of heavy equipment to install turbines can disrupt drainage patterns in agricultural land, and Gallagher believes her farm will suffer.

Adding to her frustration is the fact that about 70% of the landowners who have agreed to let Apex put turbines on their property live outside Piatt County.

“They don’t live here, so they’re not impacted,” Gallagher said as she tended to her cattle before heading to yet another hearing.

More than anything else, Gallagher fears that the wind turbines, which she would see from her front porch, would disrupt the bucolic land she loves. In the predawn hours, she walks outside and listens to the crickets, which she worries will be drowned out by the low thrum of the turbines. At night, she watches the sun set over a grain silo in the west and doesn’t want the view marred by spinning turbines and flashing lights.

“We all want what’s good for society,” she said. “But it seems to be coming at the expense of our day-to-day lives.”

Bragg was sympathetic. “The only real argument that is valid, in my opinion, is that it’s going to change people’s sunsets and the beauty of living out in the country,” he said.

Still, he said, this was working farmland, and it was his right to put it to productive use.

“If you put your nice country house in the middle of my business, I’m sorry, there’s not much I can do about that,” Bragg said. “I think they probably would do the same thing if they were in my boat. The economics takes precedence over everything.”

Landowners such as the Braggs would receive about $210 million in lease payments over the project’s 30-year life, Apex said. And there would be other economic benefits, including $90 million in local taxes. And if the project is built, the company said it would create eight permanent jobs and employ nearly 600 people during construction, including men such as Brendan Burton.

Burton, an ironworker who has helped build several nearby wind farms, said the jobs would help fill the void created by factories that have closed or moved overseas.

“We’re not building things here like we used to,” he said. “We need the jobs.”

Burton added that he wanted to see his community contribute clean energy to the grid as well.

“We can’t keep burning coal or natural gas,” he said.

‘We’re Going to Make People Angry’

The debate in Piatt County has been remarkably civil. Similar hearings elsewhere have descended into shouting matches. In some cases, activists with ties to organizations that shield their donors have turned communities against proposed wind and solar projects.

That was the case in Michigan’s Monroe County, where local officials recently extended a moratorium that is blocking Apex from developing a solar project.

The opposition in Monroe County includes local residents, but also anti-wind activists with ties to groups backed by Koch Industries, which owns oil refineries, petrochemical plants, and thousands of miles of oil and gas pipelines. On Facebook, those skeptical of the Apex project shared negative stories about solar power, and opponents of the project went door to door distributing misinformation.

On another cold night in December, as the 11th hearing on the Goose Creek Wind project began at the Monticello community building, Phil Luetkehans, a lawyer hired by opponents of the project, called more witnesses, including an audiologist, who discussed what he said were the adverse health effects of wind turbines. A lawyer representing Apex cross-examined him, and the hearing stretched for more than four hours.

“Both sides are getting a full opportunity to portray their position and to put forth the facts, and the people who we elect will make those final decisions,” Luetkehans said. “Some communities end up saying, ‘No, we don’t want an industrial scale wind at this proximity to homes.’ Others say, ‘Yeah, we want the money.’”

Among those in the audience was Michael Beem, a newly elected member of the Piatt County board, which will ultimately decide whether Apex can build its wind farm. From the back of the room, Beem was bracing himself to make a choice that will undoubtedly leave this rural community divided.

“No matter what decision we make,” he said, “we’re going to make people angry.”

© 2022 The New York Times Company

 I Do Not Know The Number Of Books, Essays I Have Written —Prof. Toyin Falola

•Turns 70 tomorrow 

•Says without women’s contributions Africa won’t develop

INTERVIEW

By KEHINDE OYETIMI On Dec 31, 2022

https://tribuneonlineng.com/

Toyin Falola is one of Africa’s greatest historians. A professor in several universities, he is a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria and of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, and has served as the president of the African Studies Association. He is currently the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interest is African History since the 19th century in the tradition of the Ibadan School; his geographic areas of interest include Africa, Latin America and the United States; and his thematic fields include Atlantic history, diaspora and migration, empire and globalization, intellectual history, international relations, religion and culture. Falola is author and editor of more than two hundred books. In this interview woven around his 70th birthday, he takes KEHINDE OYETIMI on a tour of his world, scholarship, and humanity.

Is it true that you started caring for yourself at a young age? How old were you, and what were the contradictions foisted on you at that age?

Yes, it is true. I grew up in an environment where everything stands out as objects of knowledge transfer only if the individual is prepared to learn important things. People around you will educate you if you make yourself available. Events and activities can add to your knowledge only if you are discerning enough to learn. A polygamous family structure teaches you, for instance, that determination to achieve desired goals depends on what you make of it. In other words, you are educated through that marriage system alone, and in such a setting, indulgent child rearing is absent. For that reason, children who desire to achieve extraordinary results in their lives grow mentally from a young age, having the determination of go-getters. Such a background helps my resolve to take excellent care of myself in nearly all aspects of my existence.

I remember I was very young, and the world around me, even before my birth, had been shaped by several events, among which you would find the colonial imperialists expanding into the African continent. There was the misconception that people from polygamous backgrounds, for instance, are disposable to critical challenges that may potentially hamper the progress of polygamous products. In what would be discovered, the possibility of achieving success is heightened or shortened only when the individual is limited in their thinking and mindset. On the ideological front, such a mentality limits you as you already assume that success is unattainable. Meanwhile, you only need to be ready for the competition, which will help you improve yourself against what you were before. You are not in any competition with an individual; you are seeking to improve yourself, using yourself as the benchmark.

How did you do well at the University of Ife with limited resources?

I have always aspired to be the best I can be in all my endeavors. Every child dreams to achieve impressive results in life while growing up. However, following their goals and aspirations with the required zeal and determination is where serious-minded people are differentiated from others. I did not want to go to college, talk well of doing well. I tried my hands at masonry, and as a teenager, I had obtained diplomas in journalism and salesmanship as an external student at two institutions in London.

I was actually not conscious of the absence of a First-Class or Second Upper graduate before my time. It was not a time when A grades were awarded. What was important to me was the attainment of excellence so that there would be brighter opportunities for me to turn the events of my life around. History is an interesting course of study that demands extraordinary efforts from scholars to become well-known in their craft. Therefore, to gain an edge, I needed to do the unthinkable. To perform averagely is very easy; it does not require much effort from the students. But my interest was not limited to History. I grounded myself in Literature, Sociology, Philosophy, Religious Studies and Economics. Today, I follow the key ideas in eleven different fields.

However, average performance would most likely not lead one to the pathway to one’s relevance in life. In essence, I increased my dedication and study. During our time, we burned the midnight oil. We focused on our primary assignment as there was little distraction that could stand in the way of our progress. Sometimes I knew I was overworking myself in my desire to be the best. I knew I deserved some rest, just like many of my precious colleagues. But at the same time, I knew that the best time to relax was when one had achieved one’s goals. What one can do before that is re-evaluation of one’s journey. Otherwise, relaxation itself becomes distractive to one’s ambition. I understood, therefore, that the most appropriate time to relax was when I had achieved my goals.

But my way of relaxation in the university was more work! I attached myself to a Cartographer in Ibadan, learning how to make maps. And we travelled in northern Nigeria to sell those maps to schools. By the time I completed my degree, I had travelled to all the major cities in northern Nigeria. By 1976, I added the East to it. There is no major city in Nigeria that I have not travelled to.

Ibadan has many historical figures. Who among them would you consider your hero or heroine?

In all facets of human experience, one needs different philosophical and ideological approaches to excel. This means that what life throws at you determines how you respond. There are times when life knocks you down, testing your ability to confront challenges head-on. Sometimes, nature smiles at you, seeking to understand how you would embrace success or deal with failure. In these different experiences, it would be apparent that what is needed to deal decisively with these cases is not the same. In essence, we all need our different types in every situation so that it would be possible to be on top of the situation. What I am indirectly hinting at is that Ibadan, as you have conceded, has in its history, events, and contributions of outstanding values to the society, which at one point or the other has helped to push the society forward to the next level.

I found strength in the activities of all the great men and women whose very contributions have shaped us as a people. That Ibadan is not contested as an integral contributor to Yorùbá’s civilization is thus an attestation that it has produced exemplary individuals whose marks have continued to influence how we are perceived both locally and in the international community. For those who stood their ground in resisting predatory pressure, I found courage in their efforts. Their actions give me all the motivation I need to face my future with ultimate confidence. For those that initiated premier projects in the metropolis, I took the bragging rights from them to pursue my dream. In any case, these individuals all shape my life in different ways. They all make indelible marks in my career progression.

There is the belief about Efunsetan Aniwura that written history has not done justice to the person she actually was. It will be nice to hear your perspective on this matter, sir.

The beauty of academic engagements lies in the ability to come up with new findings with every season, evolution, and new scientific experience. In research, every generation or age may come with methodological skills developed through improved academic skills to evaluate areas that are either not given enough scientific appreciation or were weaned of satisfactory experiments. For this, it has become the norm to conduct intellectual activity on historical happenings using different mechanisms to get valid results. In essence, one would view experiences based on the specialization and specifications of research. For instance, an individual in literary writing could consider the glorious Efunsetan lifestyle, unpack the legions of Yorùbá folklore, legends, and tales and arrive at critical intellectual conclusions that are useful and required for the intellectual growth of the people. The same thing can be said of others in different academic fields. There lies the beauty of research.

But as a historian, we owe our professional audience the responsibility to paint issues the way they appeared to be so without giving in to the temptation of bloating the reality for provincial objectives. However, some things strike me about Efunsetan that I believe have not been exhaustively and satisfactorily explored. That the woman commanded a battalion of individuals among whom you will find slaves, soldiers, and economic instruments pinpoints the argument that females were not occupants of adjunct positions or auxiliary roles in the years of our forebears. In fact, the recency of that history indicates that gender inclusivity has been an integral part of African civilization for a long time. More than this, the story itself underpins the argument that women are courageous and confident and, by that nature, can control what happens in society with exemplary fervor. Such findings reveal why they are connected to the economy, politics, and spiritual lifestyle of their people.

You write all the time. Do you know how many books Toyin Falola has written, and what gives impetus to this output?

We should count in values not in objects. A character resume is far more valuable than a job resume. I appreciate this question because I understand it as a compliment. In every profession, the moment an individual stops in their track to calculate how much they have added and addressed in that line, fatigue is almost immediately around the corner. For the simple fact that they have done anything is enough to reduce how committed and energetic they are to the commitment. In a nutshell, you become affected one way or the other when you allow yourself to be invested in calculating how much you have done than doing something without ceasing until you are done with what you targeted. Apart from the ideological weakness that such an attitude brings to everyone seeking to achieve a goal, it also has proven not to be a good way for achievers. As a media professional, for instance, I am confident you can never have accurate figures of what you have published in your memory. I do not honestly know the number of books or essays that I have written or participated in, for I have dedicated myself to writing so much that I find nothing rewarding outside of that engagement except the comfort of my family and friends.

What have been the most remarkable moments of your teaching profession, especially in foreign universities outside Nigeria?

As a teacher outside of the continent, one thing that can never be unexpected is culture shock, especially when one finds oneself in countries with apparent ideological differences from one’s native country. In essence, everyone seeking to continue their professional career outside Nigeria already has in mind the expectations of varying social experience, political treatment, and even spiritual prospects. What cannot be overemphasized is that one would potentially do well because, while an individual does not choose their home country, countries of migration are, in most cases, chosen by them. The fact that my teachings have encouraged my students to learn more about Africa and, in some cases, take an increased interest in educating themselves about the world around them is a remarkable achievement that is added to the catalogue of my success in life. A teacher finds joy when their students are a success. He finds more fulfilment when these students use his intellectual productions as the compass with which they navigate their existence and for which they develop their minds. I have been fortunate to achieve success in these cases. Students feast on my educational services and get inspired to be like TF. That itself gives some level of fulfilment that money obviously cannot provide.

What have been the most challenging parts of your profession?

This question is ambiguous as I am caught between thinking about teaching as a profession or as my profession. But in any way you meant it, teaching has been a rigorous and exciting experience for me. Teaching in Nigeria, especially during our own time, comes with a social understanding that teachers are in loco parentis, which confers on them the responsibility to challenge students that are seen as morally deficient. This happens because teachers are seen as individuals who challenge every form of morally reprehensible engagement that would affect the collective society. However, that is not always the case in the environment I later found myself. In fact, students have more power than the teachers in many cases, and that became a source of caution for me when I came anew there. But with time, I mastered it and became carefully aware of what was expected of me and what was not so that I would not tarnish my image or that of my home country. Apart from this cultural difference, you must keep yourself updated as a teacher. Otherwise, the pace at which the system and education keep changing would leave you behind. This, therefore, requires continued education on the part of the teachers. You have limited time for everything and must spend it very judiciously.

For many, 70 presupposes retirement; many people at this stage dread old age. Do you have any fears?

I don’t have any fears. Every age comes with its legions of opportunities and challenges, and the surprises of the world are not reserved for the aged. We have mostly been inundated with fearful narratives that increase the trepidation of people in a certain age bracket rather than enjoy the moments and lead the best of life. Contrary to the general misconception that old age brings worries, isn’t it after the 70s that we begin to have time to ourselves? Is that not the period when we enjoy the companionship of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren? More importantly, that is when we take a permanent break from the work that has eaten much of our time, and in most cases, shown little results for it. I do not fear old age as I have already accustomed myself to the act and art of writing. I would have time to increase my research engagements at my will and also produce intellectual materials needed to enhance active educational engagements, policy making, and curriculum design, among other things. I find fulfillment in the understanding that I would become useful to people through the activities I would be engaged in. Conferences would continue, academic writing would not cease, and mentoring the younger ones would go on. All these experiences help to rekindle the spirit and redefine one’s purpose.

As a Nigerian/African who has worked decades in the West, what values of your African-ness have remained very dear to you, which in your estimation, are missing in these foreign countries of your employment?

Respect for elders remains one of the enduring legacies that Africa and Africanness have bequeathed to me. As thinking animals, respect for elders would be interpreted as respect for people because everyone would become an elder at the appropriate time. Africa taught me that being respectful towards others unlocks the door to openness, reliance, and trust in most cases. I have often been attracted to different kinds of individuals who are dumbfounded by my open-minded nature. They seek to collaborate with me on many occasions because they understand that they are safe around me and with me. Beyond being respectful, the traditional African culture encouraged accountability as accountability breeds responsibility. You must have a sense of responsibility towards your people before society considers you an asset.

Meanwhile, being accountable has aided my transformation in America. You will not win respect if you demonstrate a poor sense of accountability in previous experiences. I have a culture of being accountable, and that cannot be detached from my African roots. Once we understand how the lack of this behavior is affecting us today, we will make the necessary amendments.

Even at 70, you are a very handsome man, which leaves one to wonder how you have managed to navigate the world of women who gravitate towards brain and beauty. Let us in this world of yours.

No one has ever asked me this question before. I see beauty in all creations. And I warn people to look intelligent and not handsome. When God created the world, He made sufficient provision for those things that would beautify it. In this category, we would find nature, humans and non-humans. Without women, I cannot imagine how ordinary the world would be. You remember in one of Fagunwa’s novels, he created a city inhabited by only men, and yet another of only women. Both are dysfunctional.

Women are not objects of desire. I see them as friends, colleagues, and collaborators. I make no distinction between men and women as professionals. I rejoice in men who have done well, as I rejoice in women who have done well. Three of my favorite friends are current University Presidents. I am an adviser to one who is the current president in an African country. Another will soon announce her intention to run as president in another African country. Yet another one I know from the time she was a graduate student to the time that she became a Professor, Dr. Hauwa Yusuf of Kaduna State University, makes me proud all the time. A true Nigerian, totally detribalized, she just built the Center for Study and Resolution of Domestic Violence in Kaduna. She has demonstrated that what we do is far more important than what we say. All the conferences that I have organized in the last 30 years do not match this singular achievement by Professor Yusuf.

Without the contributions of women, Africa will not move forward. The three ideas that will move our continent forward is first, women empowerment; second, the recapitalization of the poor (the majority of who are women); third, community organizing that will let us create effective management at the lowest political units. The management of that lowest unit must be controlled by women.

How do you intend to face life after 70, any plans in particular?

Although I am a Christian, I love reading the Qu’ran. One noble passage, which I memorized, reminds us that “Every self will taste death. You will be paid your wages in full on the Day of Rising. Anyone who is distanced from the Fire and admitted to the Garden, has triumphed. The life of this world is only the enjoyment of delusion.” (Quran, 3:185)

We should not focus on the “enjoyment of delusion”! I have never been 70 before! So, I will lead the life that such an age brings. But more importantly, I will make myself available for humanitarian activities. This life is worthwhile when it is spent to affect the lives of others positively. I am a teacher. I am a professor in six universities, and my activities are intense. Teaching and research will continue. I am working on eight books at this time, and they will take me till the age of 75, insahallah.


https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/12/falola-transcendental-academic-giant-at.html