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Guest Column: Somebody Has To Say It | Your Wyoming News Source – Cowboy State Daily

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Another legislative budget session has finished up and legislators have now returned home to report to their constituents how things went.

This is where it gets interesting. The recent session seems to have had more fireworks than most.

From an outside perspective, it seems that the divide between members of our majority party is getting worse and distracting many away from the real reason they have been elected.

The recent discussion and vote of having a special session to override the Governors vetoes has once again exposed the divide that seems to be growing between our good ole Republican legislators.

With a super majority such as we have in Wyoming, we certainly have our disagreements among same party officials.This has always been the case.

But this time it seems different.A bit nastier and more direct.

When I see a Facebook post from current legislators, calling out the traitors or turn coats that voted against the special session, my skin begins to crawl.

Because Ive served in the Wyoming Senate, I wondered how I would react to such a public comment from a fellow legislator.

In my years of service, I saw more than my share of grandstanding moments from others that I worked with.

Most of the time I would ignore the attacks but the increase of these attacks and the trend of blowhards using social media to poke or stab at colleagues is starting to irritate me a great deal.

Heres why: it is self-promoting political grandstanding.

These caustic remarks are directed to politically hurt any opponent, while attempting to elevate the grandstander.

Now, Im a big boy and some may say its fair game or that it is politics, but what really irks me is when these same folks that make these attacks on fellow legislators cry foul when they are passed over for leadership positions in the body they serve in.

They tell their constituents that they are being mistreated because they dared to stand up to those in power or refused to kiss the ring.

The reality is that these folks can dish it out, but they cant take it.Much like the typical bully from school, when finally confronted they fold like a napkin. Sadly, the end game to all this poor behavior is nothing but wasted time.

Proof of this is the poorly crafted and passed bills that the governor elected to veto.

The logical person should ask themselves this question: if the governor knew that these vetoes would be political suicide, then why would he veto these bills?

Im sure he struggled with them and put himself on the line by using his veto power of bills that were supposed to be important to the citizens of Wyoming.

Yet he chose to apply his authority to provide a check and a balance by using his veto power.

Why would he do this unless he had valid concerns that he will now have to explain every time he is asked about his actions on these bills.

Having been in similar positions, I can tell you that his decision took a lot of thought and courage to make.

But rather than taking the high road, those that might disagree with their governor and these vetoes have taken to the social media outlets and labeled all those that opposed having a special session, with the usual banter, name calling while applying labels to any opponent that gets in the way of their efforts.

To those that have chosen to play to the crowd by slandering their fellow legislators, may I suggest a few ideas of how they may better respond to having a different opinion on a matter.

I cant speak for my colleagues that voted against having a special session, youll have to ask them why they voted as they did, I can only tell you why I voted in favor of having a special session.

Or maybe this, Ive tried to understand the concerns they may have with a special session but feel that the importance of these particular bills far outweighed the concerns that some had.

Its not that hard to say the right thing when you check your ego at the door and have a better understanding of mutual respect and honoring the position these people hold.

Words matter.Using correct language when speaking about colleagues such as my friendsor my good friends across the aisle.

As I served in the Senate, mutual respect was a constant practice. But this common decency among legislators seems to be more lacking with each passing session.

I attribute this downward trend to extremism, frustration, constant bombardment of violence from the world we live in with social media and 24-hour news and a tired and uninformed electorate.

We would rather get our information from a nasty Facebook post or blog that entertains us rather than asking the person directly.

We really dont want to know the truth of a matter but would rather assume the worst of an individual.Our standards have been lowered and we seem quick to judge or fight without getting the facts.

We assume that everyone is an enemy and we stand ready with gun in hand to shoot before asking questions.

There is no doubt that the differences between groups are magnified as we degrade ourselves by pointing out these differences rather than finding common ground.

It seems weve lost the art of compromise and substituted diplomacy with take no prisoners."

Some may think that its time we stood our ground and dig in if we are to save our values.

Sadly, the result of standing your ground is that nothing moves while the dead bodies continue to stack up, much like the trench warfare of World War I.

A great example of a futile exercise: when both parties are dug in and unwilling to move, the dead bodies will begin to stack up with little or no positive movement or effort.

I would point out to the reader that the attitude of these so-called true Republicans have set themselves up as the judge of who is a good Republican and who is not. It is nothing more than a mob mentality.

For a glimpse of the end game of this movement could be provided by a study of the extreme party in Germany that began much the same way.

They were looking for a change and the purists showed up promising reform.Their tactics were justified as a love for their country.

The tactics became more brutal as time went on and as the true extremists became more prominent.Justification and love for the country was the practice of the day.

Soon the radical ideas were casually accepted by the majority.

It came to an end when the rest of the world had seen enough and millions of lives were lost, bringing accountability to a power hungry few.

As we enter another election season, I would strongly recommend to the voters to ask your legislative candidates where they feel they stand on this important issue.

How will they be an effective legislator?What are their plans for leadership positions?

Do they have any experiences that would assist them while serving in this position?What ideas they may have or will work to introduce?

For the incumbent, you can ask them how they get along with their colleagues.Ask them if they feel they are being effective in representing us and our needs.

Ask them about the success theyve had in the bills that they have sponsored and gotten passed.Do they hold any leadership positions in the House or Senate?

Please do not let them off the hook with their typical answer such as, Well Im out-voted because conservatives like me are just few and far between.We are simply outnumbered.

Having served 13 years in the Senate, I can tell you that is only an excuse used by poor legislators.

How can any legislator come home after a grueling session and criticize other serving legislators by calling them traitors or turn coats or "RINOs" or just plain idiots and expect to be treated nice by them in return?

So why do they do these things?

Because they can come home and placate to the uninformed masses that they were the hero trying to do the right thing and the masses love them for it.

They become the poster child of fighting against the evil majority that are nothing but greedy, selfish, and power-hungry.

They will tell you how bad things are in Cheynne but, they, being the only purest in the group, are fighting an uphill battle.

And because we seem to be too lazy to discover the real deal in Cheyenne, we continue to elect these types because we think that the government is a bunch of criminals as well. When the real fact of the matter is that we elected an ineffective legislator.

Now thats tough talk but its real and its truthful.

I made many stands while serving for what I thought was right, but I never made enemies with those that I had to work with.

A good legislator knows how to make a stand without injuring fellow workers.

A good legislator knows that everyone is different and not everyone will agree with their positions and so they work to persuade others and to debate the issues with the goal of convincing others to see your view of things and to support your concept.

A good legislator also understands that many times they will fail in their attempts to get a great idea or cause passed because some may see things differently.

They dont take it personally.They dont allow themselves to be caught up in the get even" game.

This is what good legislators do.

When we elect folks that cant do these things effectively, or in the right way, we get to the point where we seem to be now, a we vs. them mentality.

The efforts to degrade the other position or the personal attacks to the opponents, are signs of a poor legislator struggling to elevate themselves by degrading another.

They cant run on their own merits because they dont have any to promote.

All they base their campaigns on are that they fight for freedom and liberty and are more conservative than the other person.

Personal integrity is gone as they allow the slander from extreme groups that happen to agree with them, to flood the mailboxes and commercials during a campaign against their opponents.

All of this because they are failing as a leader among their co-legislators.

When the campaigns start and we attend meetings to hear from our candidates, we should have a pretty good understanding of their views and positions before the meeting is over. If not, the meeting was a failure.

We need to ask the hard questions.

We need to see how fast the candidate can think on their feet, how they communicate their thoughts.Because those qualities will be required of that position.

We need to hold them accountable for their past record or lack of one.

Ask them about the issues of the day or their knowledge of state budgets and expenditures that will affect you.

By the time these meetings are over, the candidates should feel like theyve been run over because that is what a legislative session feels like.

If we have the desire to send our best candidate to Cheyenne, then we need to run these candidates through the mill and weed out the fake want-to-bes that fall back to the sound bites that seem to resonate with the majority of the voters.

That is the politician.Yet we elect them and then complain about the ineffectiveness of government. It might be a case of Ive met the enemy, and it is me.

Im getting crochety in my old age and I grow tired of the nonsense around us, especially from our so-called leaders that represent us.

I served my time in public service.I was in the ring.

For this reason, I have every right and the responsibility to call into question the lack of decorum of our state legislature and our state Republican party.

I served and I did my best to carry out that responsibility as a public servant and I grow tired of the backstabbing, and name calling that seems to control this divide we now have.

Wyoming is better than that and we deserve better than that.

Claiming to be more conservative than another is nothing more than a political stunt. Calling another Republican a "RINO" is not only short-sighted but smacks of arrogance and stupidity.

We need to go deeper into these candidates for office.

As for the other side, demeaning another for their position or labeling them a "rebel" or "hillbilly" is as ignorant as the other comments.

We all need to remember that everyone that serves was elected by the majority, and with that carries the representation of that area and that area deserves respect and opportunity to be heard and represented.

My suggestion is to leave the egos at home.Remember who you work for.

Bring honor back to the position and the entire body.Try to build the team rather than tear it apart.Listen more than you speak.

Understand that in Wyoming, we are all a pretty conservative bunch of folks with some occasional differences of opinions or ideas.

Remember that even though you may think it, you dont always have to say it.Understanding should be the key word and effort.All should have a place at the table and the opportunity to be heard.

My own photo is on the walls of the Wyoming Senate, and I remain proud of the product we made and how we made it.

I hope that those serving now will be able to say the same when they are finished.It does no one any good to say the ignorant things that Ive had to read about or listen to from supposedly the best of us and who represent us.

A legislator should not be surprised when they are not considered or supported by the very people that they poke or make enemies out of continually.

A good legislator builds bridges and friendships among those with a different position.A poor legislator digs in and lofts grenades into the supposed enemy.

Ive called for our legislators to pick up their game and make these improvements, the sooner the better.

I would also ask our voters to step up their game as well.Be engaged.Learn about the issues that affect our lives.

Do not accept the sound bites or one liner that fall short of real problem solving.

We need to send our very best. It is our responsibility to make sure we do.

Finally, to our Republican party leaders: be careful how you represent us.

We should never accept some of the practices of our partys leadership as they promote the divide that exists among us.

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Guest Column: Somebody Has To Say It | Your Wyoming News Source - Cowboy State Daily

Supreme Court to hear landmark case on social media, free speech – University of Southern California

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Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a pair of cases that could fundamentally change how social media platforms moderate content online. The justices will consider the constitutionality of laws introduced by Texas and Florida targeting what they see as the censorship of conservative viewpoints on social media platforms.

The central issue is whether platforms like Facebook and X should have sole discretion over what content is permitted on their platforms. A decision is expected by June.USC experts are available to discuss.

Depending on the ruling, companies may face stricter regulations or be allowed more autonomy in controlling their online presence. Tighter restrictions would require marketers to exercise greater caution in content creation and distribution, prioritizing transparency, and adherence to guidelines to avoid legal repercussions. Alternatively, a ruling in favor of greater moderation powers could potentially raise consumer concerns about censorship and brand authenticity, said Kristen Schiele, an associate professor of clinical marketing at the USC Marshall School of Business.

Regardless of the verdict, companies will need to adapt their strategies to align with advancing legal standards and consumer expectations in the digital landscape. Stricter regulations will require a more thorough screening of content to ensure compliance. Marketers may need to invest more resources to understand and adhere to the evolving legislations, which would lead to shifts in budget allocation and strategy development. In response, the industry will most likely see new content moderation technologies and platforms emerge to help companies navigate legal challenges and still create effective marketing campaigns, she said.

Erin Miller is an expert on theories of speech and free speech rights, and especially their application to mass media. She also writes on issues of moral and criminal responsibility. Her teaching areas include First Amendment theory and criminal procedure. Miller is an assistant professor of law at the USC Gould School of Law.

Content:emiller@law.usc.edu

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Jef Pearlman is a clinical associate professor of law and director of the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Clinic at the USC Gould School of Law.

Contact:jef@law.usc.edu

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Karen Northis a recognized expert in the field of digital and social media, with interests spanning personal and corporate brand building, digital election meddling, reputation management, product development, and safety and privacy online. North is a clinical professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Contact:knorth@usc.edu

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Wendy Wood is an expert in the nature of habits. Wood co-authored a study exploring how fake news spreads on social media, which found that platforms more than individual users have a larger role to play in stopping the spread of misinformation online.

Contact:wendy.wood@usc.edu

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Emilio Ferrara is an expert incomputational social sciences who studies socio-technical systems and information networks to unveil the communication dynamics that govern our world. Ferrara isis a professor of computer science and communication at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Contact:emiliofe@usc.edu

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(Photo/Benjamin Sow/Unsplash)

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Supreme Court to hear landmark case on social media, free speech - University of Southern California

Why Online Free Speech Is Now Up to the Supreme Court – Bloomberg

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Conspiracy theories, election lies and Covid misinformation before the 2020 US presidential election led social media companies to implement rules policing online speech and suspending some users including former President Donald Trump. That practice, known as content moderation, will be put to the test after two Republican-led states, Florida and Texas, passed laws in 2021 to stop what they believed were policies censoring conservatives. The fate of those social media laws now rests with the US Supreme Court, which could fundamentally reshape how platforms handle speech online in the run-up to the 2024 election and beyond.

The central issue is whether the laws violate the free speech rights of social media platforms by limiting the companies editorial control. The laws apply to companies including Meta Platforms Inc.s Facebook, Alphabet Inc.s Google, X Corp. (formerly Twitter) and Reddit Inc. The justices will scrutinize provisions of the new laws that require the companies to carry content that violates their internal guidelines and to provide a rationale to users whose posts are taken down.

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Why Online Free Speech Is Now Up to the Supreme Court - Bloomberg

Supreme Court justices appear skeptical of GOP states in major internet free speech case – Washington Examiner

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The Supreme Court appeared skeptical of arguments Monday by the states of Florida and Texas that they are justified in regulating social media content moderation in a landmark case with major implications for speech on the internet.

The court heard oral arguments for two major speech-related cases on Monday: NetChoice v. Moody and NetChoice v. Paxton. The technology industry group NetChoice sued the states of Texas and Florida over laws imposed by Republicans meant to hold social media platforms accountable for banning users based on viewpoint.

Floridas law would allow residents to take legal action and the state to fine companies if they remove political candidates from social media platforms. The Texas law would require platforms to be content-neutral and allow the states attorney general and residents to sue platforms for removing content or blocking accounts. The court pressed the states to provide a justification for restricting speech. The justices, though, also asked questions aimed at determining the extent of Big Techs power over speech on the internet.

NetChoice v. Moody

Florida Solicitor General Henry Whitaker was the first to appear before the court to argue in NetChoice v. Moody. He said that platforms had to be neutral when it comes to content moderation and that the law merely regulates the conduct of a platform rather than the content. He also alleged that platforms such as Facebook and Google need to be treated as common carriers. Being defined as a common carrier, a term initially used for public transportation services and utilities but expanded to include radio stations and telephone services, would subject platforms to additional restrictions, including anti-discrimination regulations.

Multiple members of the court appear skeptical of Floridas law, noting that it was very broad and affected more platforms than some claimed it would. [Floridas law is] covering almost everything, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. The one thing I know about the internet is that its variety is infinite.

Justice Samuel Alito noted there is also no list of platforms covered by Floridas statutes. This broadness makes it challenging to deal with the cases particulars, Justice Clarence Thomas argued. Were not talking about anything specific, Thomas said. Now were just speculating as to what the law means. The e-commerce platform Etsy was brought up multiple times by the court as an example of a platform that would be inadvertently affected by Floridas law.

Paul Clement, NetChoices representative, responded in his arguments by saying that Floridas law violated the First Amendment multiple times over. He also tried to create a distinction between content moderation decisions made by government entities versus private entities. There are things that if the government does, its a First Amendment problem, and if a private speaker does it, we recognize that as protected activity, Clement argued.

The Biden administrations Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar seemed to affirm Clements arguments, arguing in favor of NetChoice and limiting Floridas power over speech.

Netchoice v. Paxton

The court reconvened a short time after to hear arguments about Texass law. Clement returned to represent NetChoice, arguing that Texass law requiring neutrality on the platform would make social media less attractive to users and advertisers since it would require platforms to host both anti-suicide and pro-suicide content as well as pro-Semitic and antisemitic content.

He also emphasized to the justices that a social media company was more like a parade or newspaper than a common carrier, trying to focus on the state of speech on the platform.

Aaron Nielson, Texass solicitor general, emphasized that social media platforms are a lot like telegraphs and that this nature should be why the state should restrict the sorts of censorship that platforms allow.

Nielson was questioned multiple times about how the state would handle its viewpoint-neutral emphasis. When asked how platforms could regulate viewpoint-neutral approaches to subjects such as terrorism, Nielson said platforms could just remove it. Instead of saying that you can have anti-al Qaeda but not the pro-al Qaeda, if you just want to say, Nobody is talking about al Qaeda here, they can turn that off, Nielson argued.

Court conclusions

The court appeared divided on the extent to which content moderation was allowed. On one hand, they saw government-enforced moderation as questionable, mainly if it focused on content. On the other hand, they criticized the power exerted by Big Tech companies. Justice Neil Gorsuch brought up the example of private messaging services such as Gmail deciding to delete communications due to them violating certain viewpoint communications, a matter that multiple justices brought up before Clement.

The court appeared bothered by the two cases being facial challenges, a legal term for cases in which a party claims that a specific law is unconstitutional and should be voided. This approach offers little flexibility for the Supreme Court since the court could not limit the laws effect to only a specific form of speech but leave other parts of the law intact.

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Section 230, a part of the Communications Decency Act that protects platforms from being held accountable for content posted by third parties, was also brought up by the justices multiple times. The justices tried to weigh how that law would interact with the states attempts to block speech, as well as NetChoices arguments in favor of the platforms. Thomas argued that NetChoices argument that platforms had editorial control undermined its defense under Section 230.

The court is expected to release a decision on both cases sometime before July. The court will only be ruling on the preliminary injunction, which means that the decision will come quicker than other cases and that the decision will decide if the lower courts blocking of the laws will be upheld or overturned.

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Supreme Court justices appear skeptical of GOP states in major internet free speech case - Washington Examiner

Supreme Court Will Decide What Free Speech Means on Social Media – Gizmodo

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The Supreme Court is hearing two cases on Monday that could set new precedents around free speech on social media platforms. The cases challenge two similar laws from Florida and Texas, respectively, which aim to reduce Silicon Valley censorship on social media, much like Elon Musk has done at X in the last year.

Twitter Verification is a Hot Mess

After four hours of opening arguments, Supreme Court Justices seemed unlikely to completely strike down Texas and Floridas laws, according to Bloomberg. Justice Clarence Thomas said social media companies were engaging in censorship. However, Chief Justice John Roberts questioned whether social media platforms are really a public square. If not, they wouldnt fall under the First Amendments protections.

At one point, the lawyer representing Texas shouted out, Sir, this is a Wendys. He was trying to prove a point about public squares and free speech, but it didnt make much sense.

The cases, Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, both label social media platforms as a digital public square and would give states a say in how content is moderated. Both laws are concerned with conservative voices being silenced on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms, potentially infringing on the First Amendment.

Silencing conservative views is un-American, its un-Texan and its about to be illegal, said Texas Governor Greg Abbott on X in 2021, announcing one of the laws the Supreme Court is debating on Monday.

If Big Tech censors enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable, said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a 2021 press release, announcing his new law.

NetChoice, a coalition of techs biggest players, argues that these state laws infringe on a social media companys right to free speech. The cases have made their way to the United States highest court, and a decision could permanently change social media.

The laws could limit Facebooks ability to censor pro-Nazi content on its platform, for example. Social media companies have long been able to dictate what kind of content appears on their platform, but the topic has taken center stage in the last year. Musks X lost major advertisers following a rise in white supremacist content that appeared next to legacy brands, such as IBM and Apple.

NetChoice argues that social media networks are like newspapers, and they have a right to choose what appears on their pages, litigator Chris Marchese told The Verge. The New York Times is not required to let Donald Trump write an 0p-ed under the First Amendment, and NetChoice argues the same goes for social media.

NetChoices members include Google, Meta, TikTok, X, Amazon, Airbnb, and other Silicon Valley staples beyond social media platforms. The association was founded in 2001 to make the Internet safe for free enterprise and free expression.

Social and political issues have consumed technology companies in recent months. Googles new AI chatbot Gemini was accused of being racist against white people last week. In January, Mark Zuckerberg, sitting before Senate leaders, apologized to a room of parents who said Instagram contributed to their childrens suicides or exploitation.

Both of these laws were created shortly after Twitter, now X, banned Donald Trump in 2021. Since then, Musk has completely revamped the platform into a free speech absolutist site. Similar to Governors Abbot and DeSantis, Musk is also highly concerned with so-called liberal censorship on social media.

The Supreme Courts decision on these cases could have a meaningful impact on how controversy and discourse play out on social media. Congress has faced criticism for its limited role in regulating social media companies in the last two decades, but this decision could finally set some ground rules. Its unclear which way the Court will lean on these cases, as the issues have little precedent.

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Supreme Court Will Decide What Free Speech Means on Social Media - Gizmodo

Why the Odysseus Moon Landing Is So Important – TIME

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Early this week, Facebook provided me with a sweet piece of serendipity when it served up a picture of the late Gene Cernan. I had taken and posted the picture in 2014, when Cernan, the last man on the moon, was being feted at the premiere of the documentary about his life, titled, straightforwardly, The Last Man On the Moon. I had gotten to know Gene well over the course of many years of reporting on the space program, and was keenly saddened when we lost him to cancer three years later.

But this week, on Feb. 22, Cernan made news in a bank-shot sort of way, when the Odysseus spacecraft touched down near the south lunar pole, marking the first time the U.S. had soft-landed metal on the moon since Cernan feathered his lunar module Challenger down to the surface of the Taurus-Littrow Valley on Dec. 11, 1972. The networks made much of that 52-year gulf in cosmic history, but Odysseus was significant for two other, more substantive reasons: it marked the first time a spacecraft built by a private company, not by a governmental space program, had managed a lunar landing, and it was the first time any ship had visited a spot so far in the moons south, down in a region where ice is preserved in permanently shadowed craters. Those deposits could be harvested to serve as drinking water, breathable oxygen, and even rocket fuel by future lunar astronauts.

Today, for the first time in more than a half century, the U.S. has returned to the moon, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a livestream that accompanied the landing. Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company and an American company launched and led the voyage up there.

Nelsons enthusiasm was not misplaced. The six Apollo lunar landings might have been epochal events, but they were also abbreviated ones. The longest stay any of the crews logged on the surface was just three days by Cernan and his lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt. The shortest stay was less than 21 hours, by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission, the first lunar landing, in 1969. That so-called flags and footprints model was fine for the days when the U.S. lunar program was mostly about doing some basic spelunking and, not for nothing, beating the much-feared Soviet Union at planting a flag in the lunar regolith.

But the 21st-century moon program is different. Ever since NASA established its Artemis program in 2017, the space agency has made it clear that the new era of exploration will be much more ambitious. The goal is in part for American astronauts to establish at least a semi-permanent presence on the moon, with a mini-space station known as Gateway positioned in lunar orbit, allowing crews to shuttle to and from the surface. NASA also plans to create a south pole habitat that the crews could call home. And all of this will be done by a much more diverse corps of astronauts, with women and persons of color joining the all-white, all-male list of astronauts who traveled to the moon the first time around.

There is, however, a catch: money. In the glory days of Apollo, NASA funding represented 4% of the total federal budget; now its just 0.4%. That means taking the job of designing and building spacecraft off of the space agencys plate and outsourcing it to private industry, the way SpaceX now ferries crews to the International Space Station, charging NASA for the rides the way it charges satellite manufacturers and other private customers. The Commercial Crew Program, of which SpaceX is a part, was established in 2011, and has been a rousing success, so much so that, in 2018, NASA took things a step further, announcing the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, similarly outsourcing the delivery of equipment that astronaut-settlers will need.

CLPS, however, stumbled out of the gate. On Jan. 8 of this year, the Peregrine lander, built by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology, was launched to a similar lunar region that Odysseus targeted, carrying 20 payloads, including mini-rovers, a spectrometer designed to scour the soil for traces of water, and another to study the moons exceedingly tenuous atmosphere. Peregrine was not destined to make it out of Earths orbit, however, after an engine failure stranded itleaving the ship to plunge back into the atmosphere 10 days after launch.

There will be some failures, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton told TIME before the Peregrine mission launched. But if even half of these missions succeed, it is still a wild, runaway success.

Odysseus landed in that second, happier column. Built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, the spacecraft carries six science instruments, including stereoscopic cameras, an autonomous navigation system, and a radio wave detector to help measure charged particles above the surfacecritical to determining the necessary sheathing in an eventual habitat. NASA has at least eight other CLPS missions planned, including two more by Intuitive Machines and another by Astrobotic, through 2026. After that, the program is expected to go on indefinitelysupplying lunar bases for as long as Artemis has astronauts on the moon.

Just when those explorers will arrive is unclear. The Artemis II mission, which was expected to take astronauts on a circumlunar journey in November of this year, has been postponed until September of 2025, due to R&D issues in both the Space Launch System moon rocket and the Orion spacecraft. Artemis III, set to be the first landing since the Apollo 17 astronauts trod the regolith, will likely not come until 2026 at the earliest.

That 52 year wait would not have sat well with that long-ago crew. In the same year in which they flew, the National Football Leagues Miami Dolphins made a less consequential history of their own, when they became the first and so far only team to go through an entire season undefeated. The surviving members of that legendary squad have waited out the seasons that have followed, pulling for their record to standand conceding relief when the final undefeated team at last records a loss. Cernan, for his part, wanted nothing to do with his own last man record. We leave here as we came and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind, he said before he climbed back up the ladder of his lunar module and left the moon behind. The success of Odysseus does not make the fulfillment of Cernans wish imminent, but it does nudge it closer.

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Why the Odysseus Moon Landing Is So Important - TIME

Akamai CEO Tom Leighton on Q4 results: Cloud computing is our strongest growth area – CNBC

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Akamai Technologies CEO and co-founder Tom Leighton joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the company's quarterly earnings results, which beat Wall Street's profit expectations but missed on revenue, growth outlook for its cloud computing services, and more.

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Akamai CEO Tom Leighton on Q4 results: Cloud computing is our strongest growth area - CNBC

Tech Installs and Maintenance for Crew Ahead of Cargo Launch – NASA Blogs

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Expedition 70 Flight Engineers (from left) Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral OHara, both from NASA, pose for a portrait inside the Destiny laboratory module.

Equipment installs and station maintenance topped the in-orbit schedule aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. The Expedition 70 crew members expanded on work that began yesterday while completing some maintenance around station as they await the arrival of an upcoming cargo craft.

The Progress 87 cargo craft is scheduled tolaunchfrom the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:25 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Feb. 14.Loaded with nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, Progress will dock to the station around 1:12 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 17.

As one cargo resupply ship readies for launch, two cosmonautsOleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chubwere on duty last night, Feb. 12, to monitor the departure of the Progress 85 cargo craft. Progress undocked from the orbital lab at 9:09 p.m. before it reentered Earths atmosphere three hours later and harmlessly burned up over the Pacific Ocean.

Kononenko and Chub had a light duty day afterward, focusing on cargo audits and preparations for future experiments.

Meanwhile, ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen spent the bulk of his day working in the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock. He installed the Nanoracks-GITAI S2 modular robotic arm, which demonstrates the design, build, and operations of extravehicular robotic systems. This tech demonstration aims to aid in the development of robots for in-space assembly and manufacturing, supporting future commercial lunar missions.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli spent her day on a few different tasks, collecting blood pressure data for the Vascular Aging investigation, stowing the Bio-Monitor garment and headband she donned yesterday, and collecting atmosphere samples throughout the station.

NASA astronaut Loral OHara assisted Mogensen with the Nanoracks-GITAI S2 install before photographing Plant-Microbe Interactions in Space (APEX-10) petri plates, which launched aboard Northrop Grummans 20th commercial resupply mission to the station. The new investigation examines whether beneficial microbes can mitigate some of the negative effects the space environment can have on plant growth and development.

In the Kibo Laboratory, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa spent his day recording space demonstrations suggested by students for JAXAs Try Zero-Gravity educational activity. Students can vote for and suggest tasks for JAXA astronauts to carry out on station, such as putting in eye drops, performing push-ups on the ceiling, and more, to allow the youth to interact with station residents and learn about living and working in microgravity.

In the Roscosmos segment, Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov completed some orbital maintenance tasks and ran a distillation cycle on the Roscosmos water management system.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Cygnus Cargo Ship Launching on SpaceX Rocket Live on NASA TV – NASA Blogs

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The Cygnus cargo craft from Northrop Grumman sits atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at its launch pad in Florida. Credit: SpaceX

NASA Television coverage is underway for the launch of Northrop Live NASA coverage is underway for the launch of Northrop Grummans 20th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station for the agency. The launch of the companys Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled for 12:07 p.m. EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Loaded with more than 8,200 pounds of supplies, the spacecraft will arrive at the orbiting outpost Thursday, Feb. 1. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli will capture Cygnus using the stations Canadarm2 robotic arm, and NASA astronaut Loral OHara will be acting as a backup. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity modules Earth-facing port.

Northrop Grumman named the Cygnus S.S. Patricia Patty Hilliard Robertson in honor of the former NASA astronaut.

Live launch coverage will continue on NASA Television and the agencys website, as well as YouTube, X, Facebook, and NASAs App.

Learn more about station activities by following thespace station blog,@space_stationand@ISS_Researchon X, as well as theISS FacebookandISS Instagramaccounts.

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Russia likely to menace NATO Eastern Flank in ‘three to five years,’ Kallas tells UK daily – ERR News

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Europe has between three and five years to prepare a resurgent Russian military as a serious threat to NATO's eastern flank, including Estonia's eastern border, Kaja Kallas told British daily The Times.

"Our intelligence estimates it to be three to five years, and that very much depends on how we manage our unity and keep our posture regarding Ukraine," the prime minister told The Times.

"What Russia wants is a pause, and this pause is to gather its resources and strength. Weakness provokes aggressors, so weakness provokes Russia," she added.

Kallas conceded that it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain NATO unity, with signs of war fatigue present in several western nations, and the possibility of Donald Trump returning as U.S president, which would undermine NATP deterrence, the paper wrote.

"It's becoming harder [to maintain unity] all the time because the topics are getting harder as well," Kallas added.

"We are all democracies, and in democracies you have domestic problems that kick in and the war has been going on for some time so that it sort of becomes wallpaper," the prime minister continued, adding that it is nonetheless the obligation of leaders to continued to explain why Ukraine must be supported and must triumph, for the sake of all of Europe's security.

In the longer term, NATO needs to to adopt a Cold War-style "containment" strategy towards Russia, Kallas added, with defense spending of 2.5 per cent of GDP per year as a baseline minimum for western nations.

A report by the Foreign Intelligence Service (Vlisluureamet) which Kallas had cited says Moscow regarded Estonia as among the most vulnerable parts of the NATO alliance and thus the most likely location for any potential attack.

This is the case even with Russia's losses in its invasion of Ukraine so far estimated at up to 300,000 casualties, while irredentism and never having had to take responsibility for past atrocities being among the driving forces of Russian aggression.

The rest of the interview deals with a recent spate of disruption to GPS navigation across the southern Baltic Sea, which Kallas has said was likely conducted or at least caused by Russia Kallas was the first NATO leader to suggest this, shortfalls in relation to NATO capabilities LINK, and different theorized windows of time which Russia might require to rebuild its military fully after the Ukraine war.

As noted Kallas put this time-frame at around five years, while other estimates have put the figure at up to nine years.

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STEMonstrations, Station Upkeep, and Hearing Assessments Top Wednesday’s Schedule – NASA Blogs

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The suns first rays begin illuminating Earths atmosphere in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

A STEMonstration, station upkeep, and routine hearing assessments kept the Expedition 70 crew busy on Wednesday. The seven orbital residents split up duties aboard the International Space Station as they continue their microgravity research missions into the new year.

NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli began her day recording a STEMonstration for teachers and students grades 5-8, demonstrating how to use a microscope for cell research aboard the station. To connect with students and teachers around the world, crew members will routinely record short three- to five-minute educational videos that demonstrate popular STEM topics in microgravity. Afterward, Moghbeli moved onto some station and spacesuit upkeep to install restraint straps and stowage bags on spacesuits that will be used for upcoming spacewalks this year, and perform inspections of various modules around the station.

Experiencing 16 sunrises and sunsets per day can affect crew members circadian rhythms while in low-Earth orbit. To counter this, the Circadian Light investigation tests a new lighting system to help astronauts maintain an acceptable circadian rhythm, which could in turn boost cognitive performance. ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen began his day performing a Circadian Light assessment before moving into surveying various station segments to send to grounds teams for assessments of station configuration.

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa focused his day on prepping the Life Sciences Glovebox for upcoming research and measuring acoustic levels within the orbiting laboratory.

Near the end of the day, NASA Flight Engineer Loral OHara was joined by cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Konstantin Borisov to complete routine hearing assessments using specially designed space software to measure auditory function while exposed to the microgravity environment.

Kononenko also spent part of his day removing and replacing hardware in the Zvezda service module and running the 3D printer once more, while Borisov picked back up on inventory audits that began yesterday.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Spacesuit Loop Scrubs and Routine Station Maintenance for Crew on Thursday – NASA Blogs

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NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli configures spacewalking tools inside the International Space Stations Quest airlock.

Another day of station upkeep is underway aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. The Expedition 70 crew spent most of the day on spacesuit and station maintenance, auditing equipment, and wrapping up experiments started earlier this week.

In the morning, NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli was joined by ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen to perform a loop scrub on spacesuits that will be used during upcoming spacewalks this year. Moghbeli then reconfigured the hardware to initiate iodination, which is performed to remove contaminants from transfer loops.

Mogensen had a busy rest of the day, completing a VR Mental Care session, which demonstrates the use of virtual reality for mental relaxation. He then moved on to station upkeeprestocking the battery pantry and completing monthly maintenance on the orbital labs treadmillbefore rounding out the day with a hearing assessment.

NASA Flight Engineer Loral OHara began the day setting up a microphone to be worn on her shoulder to take sound measurements around the station and then completed some orbital plumbing tasks, removing and replacing the filter in the waste and hygiene compartment.

Earlier in the week, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa hydrated and incubated production packs for the BioNutrients-1 investigation. On Thursday, Furukawa retrieved the samples to inspect and photograph, which will help researchers better understand on-demand production of human nutrients over long-duration missions. He then wrapped up his day installing the Robotics Work Station for upcoming research.

All three cosmonauts aboard the station continued audit and inventory tasks that started earlier this week. Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko inventoried the Rassvet module, while Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub audited medical kits and Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov audited light units throughout Roscosmos segments. Borisov also ran a Pilot-T session, an ongoing experiment to practice piloting techniques, while Chub replaced the carbon monoxide sensor in the Zarya module.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Spacesuit Loop Scrubs and Routine Station Maintenance for Crew on Thursday - NASA Blogs

How to use Audiobox, Meta AI’s new sound and voice cloning tool – Android Police

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Meta introduced its generative AI model for speech, Voicebox, in mid-2023. Meta aims to take AI sound generation to the next level with Audiobox, Voicebox's successor. The innovative tool generates sound effects from text prompts, eliminates noise from speech recordings, creates a restyled voice, generates speech in the style of an audio clip, and more. Before we take it for a spin, let's learn more about Meta's Audiobox.

The Audiobox demo is available on the web only. Try it on your Mac, Windows desktop, or a top Chromebook.

Creating high-quality audio can be a challenging process. Not everyone is a sound engineer and has access to extensive tools to create audio. Here's where Meta's Audiobox comes into play. It's a sound-generation tool from Facebook AI Research (FAIR). Meta's latest offering generates audio and sound effects using voice inputs, text prompts, and a combination of both.

With Audiobox, Meta aims to lower the barrier of audio creation and make it easy for general users to create high-quality sound samples. Whether you want to create audio for a podcast, YouTube video, audiobook, or video game, Audiobox can be your helping hand to get the job done.

Generative AI has made audio creation and voice cloning popular. There is no shortage of such tools. Meta's Audiobox easily stands out from the crowd due to its unique capabilities. Here's what you can do with it:

All Audiobox features are available to try from the company's official website. You can generate audio samples, check previews, and download them to your device.

You can also move to the Sound Effects menu and describe the sound sample you want to create. Add enough details to get astute results from Audiobox. We ran several text prompts and were impressed with the generated sound effects.

Audiobox can produce sound samples that are close to how people speak naturally. It has led to concerns about AI-powered deepfakes. Especially since the US presidential elections are around the corner, you can't rule out misuse of such AI tools. Meta implements automatic audio watermarking on audio generated by Audiobox.

The embedded signal in the generated audio is negligible to the human ear but can be tracked to the frame level. Meta will also add a voice authentication to prevent impersonation. The person must speak a voice prompt while registering their voice. The text prompt refreshes every 50 seconds, so playing someone else's pre-recorded voice is difficult.

Meta decided against making the AI model open source to prevent potential misuse.

Meta has done a remarkable job with Audiobox. It's accurate and very good. Try it with different prompts and voice samples, and check the results. Besides Facebook, tech giants like Google and Microsoft are exploring generative artificial intelligence to create content.

The search giant recently launched Google Bard to take on Open AI's (and Microsoft) ChatGPT. Read our dedicated post to learn more about Google Bard. We also compared Google Bard with ChatGPT to find their capabilities, limitations, and potential.

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Meta’s New Image-Generating AI Is Trained on Your Instagram and Facebook Posts

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Earlier this week, Meta announced a new AI image generator dubbed

Cashing In

Earlier this week, Meta announced a new AI image generator dubbed "Imagine with Meta AI."

And while it may seem like an otherwise conventional tool meant to compete with the likes of Google's DALL-E 3, Diffusion, and Midjourney, Meta's underlying "Emu" image-synthesis model has a dirty little secret.

What's that? Well, as Ars Technica points out, the social media company trained it using a whopping 1.1 billion Instagram and Facebook photos, per the company's official documentation — the latest example of Meta squeezing every last drop out of its user base and its ever-valuable data.

In many ways, it's a data privacy nightmare waiting to unfold. While Meta claims to only have used photos that were set to "public," it's likely only a matter of time until somebody finds a way to abuse the system. After all, Meta's track record is abysmal when it comes to ensuring its users' privacy, to say the least.

So Creative

Meta is selling its latest tool, which was made available exclusively in the US this week, as a "fun and creative" way to generate "content in chats."

"This standalone experience for creative hobbyists lets you create images with technology from Emu, our image foundation model," the company's announcement reads. "While our messaging experience is designed for more playful, back-and-forth interactions, you can now create free images on the web, too."

Meta's Emu model uses a process called "quality-tuning" to compare the "aesthetic alignment" of comparable images, setting it apart from the competition, as Ars notes.

Other than that, the tool is exactly what you'd expect. With a simple prompt, it can spit out four photorealistic images of skateboarding teddy bears or an elephant walking out of a fridge, which can then be shared on Instagram or Facebook — where, perhaps, they'll be scraped by the next AI.

Earlier this year, Meta's president for global affairs Nick Clegg told Reuters that the company has been crawling through Facebook and Instagram posts to train its Meta AI virtual assistant as well as its Emu image model.

At the time, Clegg claimed that Meta was excluding private messages and posts, avoiding public datasets with a "heavy preponderance of personal information."

Instead of immediately triggering a massive outcry and lawsuits over possible copyright infringement like Meta's competitors, the social media company can crawl its own datasets, which come courtesy of its users and its expansive terms of service.

But relying on Instagram selfies and Facebook family albums comes with its own inherent risks, which may well come back to haunt the Mark Zuckerberg-led social giant.

More on Meta: Facebook Has a Gigantic Pedophilia Problem

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Meta's New Image-Generating AI Is Trained on Your Instagram and Facebook Posts