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Lawmakers accuse tech giants of using privacy as a weapon to hurt competition – CNET

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Tech CEOs swear in to testify to Congress.

In the last few years, onlineprivacy and cybersecurity have become a public concern, with tech giants like Facebook, Google and Apple backing a national law on data privacy regulations. But lawmakers at an antitrust hearing on Wednesday accused the tech companies of being disingenuous with their support for privacy -- arguing that they've used it as an excuse to snub out their competition.

The CEOs of tech giants Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google faced a five-hour series of questions from the House Judiciary's subcommittee on antitrust, specifically on whether or not they engaged in anti-competitive behavior.

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Members of Congress gave several examples of times tech giants took actions that would directly benefit themselves while harming their competitors, like Google announcing it would phase out third-party tracking cookies by 2022 or Apple removing parental control apps shortly after it launched its own "screen time" feature.

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In both of those cases, the companies said the actions were taken to protect the privacy and security of their users, but House members argue that it was specifically to boost their own profits.

"You're using privacy as a shield, and what you're really doing is using it as a cudgel to beat down competition," said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican from North Dakota. "It's a great word that people care about, but not when it's utilized to control more of the marketplace and squeeze out smaller competitors."

The lawmaker was referring to a 2015 decision from Google to stop allowing third parties to buy YouTube ads, forcing them to buy directly from the company itself. At the time, Google said it was for privacy reasonsand CEO Sundar Pichai defended the change on Wednesday.

"It's a service we provide to our users, we obviously want to make sure we protect the privacy of our users there," Pichai said.

Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat from Georgia, called out Apple for removing parental control apps that were in direct competition with Screen Time, a feature the tech giant rolled out in 2018.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said it removed the apps out of a security concern, not to gain a competitive advantage.

"We were concerned, congresswoman, about the privacy and security of kids," Cook said. "The technology that was being used at the time was called MDM, and it had the ability to take over the kid's screen, and a third party could see it and so we were worried about their safety."

Read more:What is Tor? Your guide to using the private browser

Lawmakers and privacy advocates were skeptical of the tech giants' defense.

For example, by phasing out third-party tracking cookies, Google, with its widely popular set of services like YouTube, Google Maps and Android, would have a competitive advantage through its first-party tracking.

Essentially, it would be providing privacy from others, but not from Google itself, experts said. All while benefiting their own profits.

"Because Google knows who you are when you register an account or connect to their software via phone or browser, they don't need cookies to predict your behavior or know who you are," said Liz O'Sullivan, technology director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. "Google has GPS, they have your email, your search history. All of that is way more valuable than a simple cookie. So eliminating them won't even be a drop in the bucket in protecting privacy."

Gabriel Weinberg is a direct competitor to Google, as the CEO of DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine. In 2018, he called out Google for owning the domain name Duck.com, which was redirected to the search giant.

At the time, Weinberg said it frequently confused DuckDuckGo users, and also raised issues with how difficult it was to add the search engine into Chrome.

"Google and Facebook routinely engage in privacy-washing, a deliberate attempt to use privacy to help their brand, but not actually deliver it to users," Weinberg said in a message after the hearing. "It misleads people into a false sense of privacy, and also is a primary contributor to the powerlessness people feel when they find out they aren't really getting what they were promised."

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Lawmakers accuse tech giants of using privacy as a weapon to hurt competition - CNET

Tech giants should not be arbiters of truth – Bangor Daily News

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Monday, a group calling themselves Americas Frontline Doctors staged a press conference outside the steps of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., in order to speak out about their belief that the medication hydroxychloroquine was an effective tool to fight COVID-19.

The star of the show was Dr. Stella Immanuel, a physician at Rehoboth Medical Center in Houston, who spoke about her own experience treating patients. Said Immanuel, In the past few months, after taking in over 350 patients, we have not lost one. Not a diabetic, not somebody with high blood pressure, not somebody with asthma, not an old person.

The video of the press conference was loaded onto social media channels quickly, where it was shared widely by many people, including, of course, President Donald Trump.

Of course, the statements made by Immanuel were contrary to the official position of both the Food and Drug Administration as well as the National Institute of Health, both of which say that hydroxychloroquine is not beneficial in the treatment of COVID. Thus, reporters began looking into her background and left wing outlets had a field day ridiculing her as someone who believes in Alien DNA and Demon Sperm.

Thats when Facebook, Twitter and Youtube jumped into our story by removing the video from their platforms.

The justification for the removal of the video was pretty simple. The tech giants all claimed that the video spread dangerous misinformation, and contradicted the scientific consensus in the medical community.

By my estimation, they are almost certainly right that Immanuel and friends were peddling misinformation, but even if the claims in the video were utter nonsense, that should have been no justification for social media companies taking it down.

The concept of free speech is about so much more than just the Constitutional protection afforded to citizens against government restrictions on speech. It is in fact a bedrock American principle that rightly holds that the free expression of ideas, even if you are wrong, and even if no one agrees with you, is vital to the healthy functioning of our republic.

Yes, even if you are wrong. Because in a free society, progress is always made by those who reject the majority opinion. Scientific advancement is made by those that break the established order, and carve a new path.

That means that a lot of liars, hucksters and morons will have to be heard. We have to tolerate that to ensure that we are able to hear the geniuses and the revolutionaries that are telling us things we arent ready to hear, but one day will be.

Ignaz Semmelweis was an obstetrician, and was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures in medicine. Observing that the mortality rate for women in his ward in Vienna went radically down if he simply washed his hands prior to treating patients, he ultimately published a book of his findings.

Unfortunately, his observations conflicted with established scientific and medical opinions among his contemporaries, and suggested doctors were causing deaths. Thus many in the medical community rejected his advice, condemning untold numbers of women to death.

Of course Semmelweis isnt alone. Aristarchus and then later Copernicus had their theories of heliocentrism widely opposed and dismissed in their time. Gregor Mendel, who conducted pioneering work on genetic inheritance was not taken seriously until more than three decades after his observations were published. The list goes on.

The point of this isnt to suggest that Immanuel is Copernicus. Quite the opposite, as I am rather certain she is no sage of truth.

But that doesnt matter. The point is that when adherence to consensus opinion becomes the thing that allows you to be heard, while contradicting it gets you suppressed and silenced, we are living in a terrifying period in American history.

The answer to troubling speech is not to shut it down. Rather it is more speech. Respond. Reflect. Debate. Engage. But dont erase, and suppress.

Besides, trying to silence unpopular or heterodox opinions just makes that troubling speech far more popular.

Today, trust in authority figures and experts has eroded. Theyve misled us too often, and it seems like their own personal agendas always twist and warp everything.

So when agents of the status quo take action to suppress contrary opinion, even if they are ultimately right, it inspires heightened interest in the thing being hidden. Any teenager who has ever been told that they cant watch a certain movie or listen to an album is well acquainted with this phenomenon.

Tech giants should not be making themselves the arbiters of what is true, and what isnt.

Matthew Gagnon, of Yarmouth, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a free market policy think tank based in Portland. Prior to Maine Heritage, he served as a senior strategist for the Republican Governors Association in Washington, D.C. Originally from Hampden, he has been involved with Maine politics for more than a decade.

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Tech giants should not be arbiters of truth - Bangor Daily News

Billionaire bosses to feel the heat over tech giants’ massive wealth and power – The Guardian

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Some of the richest men in history representing the most valuable companies ever created will be grilled by Congress on Wednesday , as US authorities get increasingly serious about whether tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet have become too powerful.

The extraordinary hearing will see Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook, Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and Google owner Alphabets Sundar Pichai called to account for the market dominance of their companies dominance that many say was achieved through anti-competitive business practices.

When the US House judiciary committee gavels into order its upcoming antitrust hearing the four star witnesses will represent more than $275bn in combined personal net worth and more than $4.8tn in market value.

Wednesdays hearing follows more than a year of investigation by the House antitrust subcommittee, whose chair, representative David Cicilline, began a broad inquiry into the market power of the tech giants after the Democrats retook control of the House in 2018.

The House investigation, along with separate moves by the Federal Trade Commission and justice department, represents the first time that federal regulators have taken a hard look at the tech industry since the Microsoft case in the 1990s. Over the intervening decades, a new generation of tech behemoths have come to dominate even more aspects of the economy with little if any scrutiny from regulators in the US.

The issues at question are complex and important; the questioning at congressional hearings often is not. When Pichai last testified before the House, one congressman asked him a question about his granddaughters iPhone, giving Pichai a chance to point out that, dominant as Google may be, it is not responsible for Apple products.

Heres a preview of some questions these titans of technology should face on Wednesday:

Amazon is not only the largest retailer in the world, but the largest cloud computing company as well. The company has grown even larger by running a marketplace where third-party companies can sell their products, for a fee. Many critics argue that Amazon should not be allowed to both run the marketplace and compete within it, comparing the situation to Amazon being both player and referee an unfair advantage over the other team. Why should it be allowed to maintain this advantage?

For years, third-party sellers that use Amazons marketplace have suspected that Amazon uses sales data to launch competing products under its own private labels. Last year, an Amazon executive testified under oath that Amazon does not do this; but in April, the Wall Street Journal reported that it was standard operating practice. Did Amazons executive lie?

Amazon is a provider of cloud computing services, and some of its customers are also its competitors. Does it ever use data from its cloud customers to inform decisions about competing products?

Amazon is also an investor. Has Amazon ever used its role as a startup investor to inform the development of competing products?

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in demand, driving Amazons business to near peak holiday season levels. Have Amazon executives discussed taking advantage of the pandemic to move into new markets or extend its dominance of existing markets?

There are 900m iPhone users in the world, and the only way they can download apps to their phones is through the App Store, which Apple controls. Apple gets to decide which apps can be in the store, and takes a substantial cut of their sales. How does that gatekeeping affect consumers?

Apple has repeatedly copied features from third-party apps, incorporating them into its operating system and rendering them obsolete. Why should that practice continue to be allowed?

Last month, the developers behind the email app Hey went public with a chilling complaint: that Apple was requiring it to use its in-app payment tools and fork over a 30% commission or the app would be booted from the App Store. Why does Apple deserve such a large cut of other companies revenues?

Earlier this month, many major US tech companies said they would stop cooperating with law enforcement requests for user data from Hong Kong authorities following the passage of national security laws imposed by Beijing. Apple did not. Does Apples reliance on China as a market and supplier compromise its commitment to human rights? Will Apple provide Beijing with the personal data of dissidents?

Google had $162bn in revenues last year, but that number hardly captures its dominance in products such as maps, email, web browsing and more. It all stems from the first product, search: Google handles more than 90% of all search queries worldwide. How is this a healthy competitive market?

Googles dominance in search gives it unprecedented power to shape the information that reaches billions of people around the world. And Google has at times struggled to ensure that that information is of high quality. How does the company plan to improve search results? And should a single company have that much power in defining what the world gets to read?

For a time, the number of people using Facebook was larger than any other category of humans on Earth other than followers of Christianity; then Facebook grew even bigger. In recent years, Facebook has acquired Instagram, WhatsApp, Onavo, Oculus, CrowdTangle and Giphy. It tried to acquire SnapChat, then copied its most popular feature. It recently launched copycat versions of rivals Houseparty and TikTok. Is there a rival social media app that has gained popularity in recent years that it did not either acquire or copy?

On 26 June, amid a growing ad boycott over Facebooks failure to curb hate speech, Zuckerberg reassured employees that all these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough. What made him so confident that advertisers would have no choice but to return to the platform, whether or not it fixed the hate speech problem?

Facebook has responded to criticism of its record on hate by pointing to the vast amount of content published every day claiming that it automatically deletes nearly 90% of hate speech before anyone flags it. If Facebook is too big to prevent its product from being used to incite genocide and mob violence, isnt it too big to exist?

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Billionaire bosses to feel the heat over tech giants' massive wealth and power - The Guardian

Lawmakers grill tech giants over their influence on consumers – WSYR

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WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google testified remotely on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, defending their business practices as lawmakers questioned how they wield their power over American consumers.

The CEOs Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg fielded questions from lawmakers during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, which comes after a yearlong bipartisan investigation into unfair business practices by the tech giants.

Rep. David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, argues that their power over the marketplace is killing small businesses across the country.

Simply put: They have too much power, Cicilline said. Any single action by one of these companies can affect hundreds of millions of us.

Why does Google steal content from honest businesses? he asked while questioning Pichai.

We support 1.4 million small businesses, Pichai answered. We see many businesses thrive.

But lawmakers argue theres little room left for competition. The CEOs pushed back, however, arguing that theres still plenty of room for competition and opportunity on their platforms.

We nurture entrepreneurs and startups, Bezos said.

If Apple is a gatekeeper, what we have done is open the gate wider, Cook said.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, questioned Zuckerberg on his companys efforts to crack down on fake accounts spreading misinformation.

Zuckerberg said Facebook invests billions of dollars a year in doing so.

Republican lawmakers also raised concerns over the platforms censorship of conservative voices.

Big techs out to get conservatives thats not a suspicion, thats not a hunch thats a fact, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said.

Zuckerberg argued that his companys goal is to offer a platform for all ideas.

So far, lawmakers havent agreed on the right way to take a more active role in policing the top tech companies.

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Lawmakers grill tech giants over their influence on consumers - WSYR

Billionaire bosses to feel heat over tech giants wealth and power – The Irish Times

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Some of the richest men in history representing the most valuable companies ever created will be grilled by Congress on Wednesday , as US authorities get increasingly serious about whether tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet have become too powerful.

The extraordinary hearing will see Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook, Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and Google owner Alphabets Sundar Pichai called to account for the market dominance of their companies - dominance that many say was achieved through anti-competitive business practices.

When the US House judiciary committee gavels into order its upcoming antitrust hearing the four star witnesses will represent more than $275 billion (233.8 billion) in combined personal net worth - and more than $4.8trillion in market value.

Wednesdays hearing follows more than a year of investigation by the House antitrust subcommittee, whose chair, representative David Cicilline, began a broad inquiry into the market power of the tech giants after the Democrats retook control of the House in 2018.

The House investigation, along with separate moves by the Federal Trade Commission and justice department, represents the first time that federal regulators have taken a hard look at the tech industry since the Microsoft case in the 1990s. Over the intervening decades, a new generation of tech behemoths have come to dominate even more aspects of the economy with little if any scrutiny from regulators in the US.

The issues at question are complex and important; the questioning at congressional hearings often is not. When Mr Pichai last testified before the House, one congressman asked him a question about his granddaughters iPhone, giving Mr Pichai a chance to point out that, dominant as Google may be, it is not responsible for Apple products.

Preview

Heres a preview of some questions these titans of technology should face on Wednesday:

Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Amazon is not only the largest retailer in the world, but the largest cloud computing company as well. The company has grown even larger by running a marketplace where third-party companies can sell their products, for a fee. Many critics argue that Amazon should not be allowed to both run the marketplace and compete within it, comparing the situation to Amazon being both player and referee - an unfair advantage over the other team. Why should it be allowed to maintain this advantage?

For years, third-party sellers that use Amazons marketplace have suspected that Amazon uses sales data to launch competing products under its own private labels. Last year, an Amazon executive testified under oath that Amazon does not do this; but in April, the Wall Street Journal reported that it was standard operating practice. Did Amazons executive lie?

Amazon is a provider of cloud computing services, and some of its customers are also its competitors. Does it ever use data from its cloud customers to inform decisions about competing products?

Amazon is also an investor. Has Amazon ever used its role as a startup investor to inform the development of competing products?

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in demand, driving Amazons business to near peak holiday season levels. Have Amazon executives discussed taking advantage of the pandemic to move into new markets or extend its dominance of existing markets?

Tim Cook, Apple

There are 900million iPhone users in the world, and the only way they can download apps to their phones is through the App Store, which Apple controls. Apple gets to decide which apps can be in the store, and takes a substantial cut of their sales. How does that gatekeeping affect consumers?

Apple has repeatedly copied features from third-party apps, incorporating them into its operating system and rendering them obsolete. Why should that practice continue to be allowed?

Last month, the developers behind the email app Hey went public with a chilling complaint: that Apple was requiring it to use its in-app payment tools - and fork over a 30 per cent commission - or the app would be booted from the App Store. Why does Apple deserve such a large cut of other companies revenues?

Earlier this month, many major US tech companies said they would stop cooperating with law enforcement requests for user data from Hong Kong authorities following the passage of national security laws imposed by Beijing. Apple did not. Does Apples reliance on China as a market and supplier compromise its commitment to human rights? Will Apple provide Beijing with the personal data of dissidents?

Sundar Pichai, Google

Google had $162 billion in revenues last year, but that number hardly captures its dominance in products such as maps, email, web browsing and more. It all stems from the first product, search: Google handles more than 90 per cent of all search queries worldwide. How is this a healthy competitive market?

Googles dominance in search gives it unprecedented power to shape the information that reaches billions of people around the world. And Google has at times struggled to ensure that that information is of high quality. How does the company plan to improve search results? And should a single company have that much power in defining what the world gets to read?

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

For a time, the number of people using Facebook was larger than any other category of humans on Earth other than followers of Christianity; then Facebook grew even bigger. In recent years, Facebook has acquired Instagram, WhatsApp, Onavo, Oculus, CrowdTangle and Giphy. It tried to acquire SnapChat, then copied its most popular feature. It recently launched copycat versions of rivals Houseparty and TikTok. Is there a rival social media app that has gained popularity in recent years that it did not either acquire or copy?

On June 26th, amid a growing ad boycott over Facebooks failure to curb hate speech, Mr Zuckerberg reassured employees that all these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough. What made him so confident that advertisers would have no choice but to return to the platform, whether or not it fixed the hate speech problem?

Facebook has responded to criticism of its record on hate by pointing to the vast amount of content published every day claiming that it automatically deletes nearly 90 per cent of hate speech before anyone flags it. If Facebook is too big to prevent its product from being used to incite genocide and mob violence, isnt it too big to exist?

- Guardian News and Media

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Billionaire bosses to feel heat over tech giants wealth and power - The Irish Times

How the Tech Giants are Adjusting to Working From Home – Tech.co

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Google has announced that its staff will work from home until at least July 2021.

The change will affect nearly all of Googles 200,000 employees, including contractors and full-time workers, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.

In a blog post in May, Google announced it would begin reopening its offices from early July this year. This was only to allow those staff who wanted or needed to come back, and was done on a limited, rotating basis, the blog said.

Google has stressed to its staff that coming back to the office would be voluntary through the end of the year, and we encourage you to continue to work from home if you can.

To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30 2021, for roles that don't need to be in the office. I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months. Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, wrote in an email to employees

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How the Tech Giants are Adjusting to Working From Home - Tech.co

ABC, SBS exclusion from tech giants’ payments a ‘government’ decision – Sydney Morning Herald

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Under the draft code Google and Facebook will have three months to negotiate revenue-sharing deals with media companies before independent arbitrators are called in to impose a compulsory arrangement. The platforms will potentially face hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for breaches.

Mr Sims said in March that any revenue that came to the ABC as a result of the new code "would be applied to the delivery of ABC Charter objectives" and that there was a legitimate interst in ensuring that the value was put back into the broadcaster's journalism.

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In a submission to the ACCC about what the code should look like, SBS advocated for a collective bargaining model that would also allow for news media businesses to agree to individual commercial arrangements.

ABC's submission, which was made public on Friday, said that if the digital platforms were gaining value from using ABC news content, the public broadcaster had a "legitimate" interest in ensuring that revenue was reinvested into its journalism.

The ABC is a proven public policy tool for delivering quality news and information. A further argument is that exclusion of the ABC from this aspect of the Code could have the unintended consequence of compromising the effectiveness of the regime, by distorting the playing field in the market for public-interest journalism," its submission said.

But commercial media companies including Nine Entertainment Co (owner of this masthead) argued that the two public broadcasters shouldn't be compensated because they don't rely on advertising to fund journalism and their operating models haven't been undermined by the platforms' dominance. News Corps submission to the inquiry, which is available publicly, lobbied for the ABC to be included.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said on Friday that it was important for Australia's democracy to have a sustainable news media ecosystem and the code was focused on businesses whose viability and news production was threatened by advertising revenue losses.

"That is a policy problem that does not arise for Australia's public broadcasters, which have secure government funding, and accordingly the ABC and SBS are not the policy focus when it comes to remuneration aspects of the proposed mandatory code," he said.

An SBS spokesperson said the broadcaster was "disappointed" to have been excluded from the remuneration provisions.

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"Nearly a third of our funding comes from commercial sources, so it is appropriate that Google and Facebook contribute to investment in our valued news content, which benefits all Australians," the spokesperson said. "We will continue to engage constructively in this process prior to the finalisation of the code." ABC declined to comment.

The ACCC's approach is almost identical to one method proposed by News Corp. Mr Sims said that when the regulator decided to pursue an arbitration model, News Corp proposed "final offer arbitration". The idea was embraced by the ACCC as a proven way of bringing the parties together.

"In the end we thought that was the right way forward," he said. "But [News Corp] suggested it before we did."

Nine and other media organisations had proposed an alternative model whereby the government would calculated, collect and allocate a pool of revenue. Mr Sims said that the Nine proposal was problematic because the government would have too much involvement."You really don't want government determining these things. You want this to be a result of commercial negotiation," he said.

The code was largely welcomed by the industry when it was released, but Google managing director Mel Silva expressed disappointment. Ms Silva said that the code threatened the ability of Google to deliver services effectively to Australian consumers. In other markets where Google has been forced to pay publishers, it has withdrawn some services.

News publishers and the digital platforms are expected to provide responses to the draft legislation by August 28.

Zoe Samios is a media and telecommunications reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Fergus Hunter is an education and communications reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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ABC, SBS exclusion from tech giants' payments a 'government' decision - Sydney Morning Herald

The Perseverance rover is our best bet for finding life on Mars – TNW

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Next spring is going to be a busy time for Mars. In close succession, three spacecraft will arrive at the planet, joining the dozen or so craft already circling Mars. Two of the spacecraft were launched in the past couple of weeks by newcomers to martian exploration: the United Arab Emirates Al-Amal (meaning Hope) and Chinas Tianwen-1 (which means Question to Heaven).

The third vessel will be NASAs Mars 2020, containing the Perseverance rover, which just took off successfully from Florida. While this rover will be just one of many on the red planet, it is our best bet for finding life there for the time being.

The sudden flurry of activity is a result of planetary dynamics: every two or so years, the orbits of Earth and Mars align so that the two bodies are at their closest to each other. This results in a shorter interplanetary transit time, of just over six months. The next such launch window will not be until 2022 when it is expected that the European Space Agencys ExoMars 2022 will join the throng.

It is legitimate to question why we keep sending rockets to Mars. Surely we have acquired enough images of the surface and its landscapes to know that water used to be there, but has now vanished? True enough but there are still mysteries to solve: when did the water go, and why? And, of course, the biggest question of all: is (or was) there life on Mars?

The three missions have different objectives: Hope will orbit the planet for at least two Earth years (one Martian year), acquiring data on Mars weather just like the weather satellites orbiting Earth. Tianwen-1 will orbit Mars and is carrying a rover that will be parachuted down to the surface at Utopia Planitia, where it will analyze the soil and take images of the surface.

Perseverance will arrive almost at the same time but a couple of thousand kilometers away in Jezero Crater. It will be deposited on the surface by sky-crane technology (see the video below), the same method that delivered Curiosity so successfully in 2012.

Perseverance carries a full complement of scientific instruments that will measure all the usual things that get measured on Mars: the chemistry and mineralogy of the rocks and soil, the amount and type or organic material present at and just below the surface, and so on. But there are two other features of the mission that make it unique.

First of all is the helicopter/drone called Ingenuity that will be released from beneath the rover. This will fly from Perseverance and circle around before landing away from the rover. It is not certain what the range of the drone will be although the flight will only last a few minutes and Ingenuity will land only a few meters away from the rover.

The idea behind the flight is to test the concept of atmospheric flight on Mars. Eventually, it is anticipated, drones will be able to fly for much longer and for greater distances. This could help guide rovers, identifying features worth investigating and hazards to avoid.

The ingenuity drone. NASA/JPL-Caltech

The second unique feature is a drilling and caching system. Perseverance is the first rover to have the capability to drill a core, about ten centimeters long and one centimeter in diameter, and extract it intact from the drill hole. Perseverance will take samples from a range of different rock types as it traverses the crater floor. The drill cores will be left in a small pile a cache for collection, possibly in early 2027, and subsequent transport back to Earth (estimated arrival time is still not known, but maybe around spring 2032).

Why is it so important to bring samples back from Mars? The instruments carried by Perseverance will be able to undertake fairly sophisticated chemical analyses of the rocks and soil. But even though the instruments and measurements are a tremendous achievement, they do not have the full range of equipment that we employ on Earth to squeeze every drop of information from a rock.

Tests to check for organic compounds and whether they might have a biological origin require a chain of different analyses that are far too elaborate and complex to be undertaken on Mars. Boiling acids, alcohol rinses, addition of chemicals, subtraction of solids, are steps in the chemistry needed to extract and separate organic molecules from their rocky hosts. This just cannot (as yet) be done on Mars.

The rocks will be weighed and measured practically on a grain-by-grain basis and analyzed, in some cases down to the individual atoms from which the material is composed. This will be an international effort there is already a multi-national panel (called MSPG-2) which will draft the requirements for the first sets of analyses and how the samples will be stored, curated and subsequently distributed to the wider scientific community.

There is another set of reasons to bring samples back from Mars the future of human exploration of Mars. If we send humans to Mars, we have to know how to bring them back again. We have not returned anything directly from another planetary body since the Apollo 17 astronauts left the Moon in December 1972. Yes, we have captured bits from a comet and an asteroid and returned them to Earth but those missions did not land, collect and come back.

We have been investigating Mars for a long time: for over 150 years by telescope, 50 years from orbit and 20 years by rovers. Only another 12 years, then, before we can analyze Mars in our own laboratories.

Perseverance to get things done is a gift of humanity. Heres hoping that the rover will live up to its name.

This article is republished from The ConversationbyMonica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open Universityunder a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The Perseverance rover is our best bet for finding life on Mars - TNW

This Week: Mars in 4K and Silence on Earth – Eos

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Bringing Mars Rocks to Earth: Our Greatest Interplanetary Circus Act. With the latest Mars missions heading toward their destination, there is growing anticipation about what all this new robotic instrumentation might soon reveal of the Red Planet. Of course, planetary scientists and engineers have also long had the goal of bringing bits of Mars back to Earth for much closer, hands-on investigations. The complex plan taking shape to do that has a certain Are you kidding me? feel to it yet also sounds just plausible enough to inspire optimism (in this observer at least). Its reminiscent of the rescue effort in The Martian, but just replace Matt Damon with a soccer ball filled with rocks and dust.Timothy Oleson, Science Editor

The Seismic Hush of the Coronavirus.By now weve all seen photos of eerily empty streets and public spaces during regional shutdowns, and earlier this year the media covered the pandemics effect on air quality. But who would have thought that a decrease in human activity would register on seismometers around the world? Well, every seismologist and a lot of other scientists, Im sure, but it hadnt occurred to me. Of particular note, data collected during the pandemic could help scientists distinguish human-caused tremors from natural ones, and seismic monitoring could also be used to monitor human activity during this pandemic and in the future.Faith Ishii, Production Manager

Astro(wildlife)biology.

Just a fun thread of the various critters your everyday astronomer might encounter while studying the universe. My wildlife encounters include moths, spiders, roadrunners, cats and dogs, and *shudder* ladybugs.Kimberly Cartier, Staff Writer

Revealed: Oil Giants Help Fund Powerful Police Groups in Top U.S. Cities. In an investigation by the Public Accountability Initiative, researchers found that big oil and gas companies like Chevron and Shell are funding private police foundations in U.S. cities. The police foundations support local policing groups with training, weapons, equipment, and surveillance technology and face less oversight than publicly funded organizations. These companies have also been accused of producing toxic pollution that disproportionately hurts communities of color. As Black Lives Matter protests renounce state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism, it is important to look at the ties between environmental and racial justice.Jenessa Duncombe, Staff Writer

Trump Administration Says Massive Alaska Gold Mine Wont Cause Major Environmental Harm, Reversing Obama. Controversy about Alaskas proposed Pebble Mine has churned for decades. The site sits in the headwaters of the worlds most productive salmon fishery. There are concerns about faults under the site of a 500-foot (152-meter) earthen dam required to contain the billions of tons of rock expected to be removed during the mines operation. The mining company is angling for approval of a smaller footprint, with the option to expand (to where most of the gold is) later. Locals, who dont see the big payouts from mining that oil offers and are unlikely to be hired by the mining company, are lukewarm on the project. Opponents have complained that the Army Corps of Engineers environmental impact statement isnot scientifically rigorous. Lawsuits expected!Liza Lester, Staff Writer

Mars In 4K.

Mars never looked so good, but its the voice-over that makes this a classic. In a (red) world.Caryl-Sue, Managing Editor

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This Week: Mars in 4K and Silence on Earth - Eos

Return of the extremely elongated cloud on Mars – EarthSky

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View larger. | The Mars Express orbiter, which has been studying Mars for the past 16 years, captured these images of a strange, very elongated cloud on Mars on July 17 and 19, 2020. The cloud can reach up to 1,100 miles (1,800 km) in length. Image via ESA.

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For the past couple of years, the Mars Express orbiter of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been keeping an eye on a mysteriously long, thin cloud that periodically shows up over Arsia Mons, the 12-mile-high (20-km-high) volcano on Mars.

In a July 29 statement, ESA said the cloud has appeared again, illustrated by the images above, acquired by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Mars Express on July 17 and 19, 2020.

Mars Express first noticed and photographed the cloud in September 2018. A recurrent feature, the cloud is made up of water and ice and can stretch for over 1,100 miles (1,800 km). Despite its location and appearance, scientists say its not a plume linked to volcanic activity. Instead, the curious stream forms as airflow, influenced by the volcanos leeward slope (the side that does not face the wind).

Jorge Hernndez-Bernal, at the University of the Basque Country (Spain), is leader of a team studying the cloud. He said in a statement:

We have been investigating this intriguing phenomenon and were expecting to see such a cloud form around now. This elongated cloud forms every Martian year during this season around the southern solstice, and repeats for 80 days or even more, following a rapid daily cycle. However, we dont know yet if the clouds are always quite this impressive.

A Martian day, or sol, is slightly longer than an Earth day at 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds long. A Martian year consists of 668 sols approximately 687 days so the seasons last for twice as long. The southern solstice is the period of the year when the sun is in the southernmost position in the Martian skies, just like the December 21-22 solstice here on Earth. In the early mornings during this period, this fleeting cloud grows for about three hours, quickly disappearing again just a few hours later.

Most spacecraft in orbit around Mars tend to observe in the Martian afternoon. However, Mars Express is in a position to gather and provide crucial information on this unique effect. Mars Express mission team member Eleni Ravanis works specifically for the VMC instrument. She said:

The extent of this huge cloud cant be seen if your camera only has a narrow field of view, or if youre only observing in the afternoon. Luckily for Mars Express, the highly elliptical orbit of the spacecraft, coupled with the wide field of view of the VMC instrument, lets us take pictures covering a wide area of the planet in the early morning. That means we can catch it!

The Mars Express science team has named the cloud the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, AMEC. So, how long has it been disappearing and reappearing? Why does it only form in the early morning? Scientists continue to investigate.

Bottom line: Images from the Mars Express spacecraft show that a mysteriously long, thin cloud has again appeared over the Arsia Mons volcano on Mars.

Via ESA

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Return of the extremely elongated cloud on Mars - EarthSky

Ice sheets, not rivers, carved valleys on Mars, new study says – UPI News

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Aug. 3 (UPI) -- The majority of Mars' valleys were carved by ice sheets, not flowing rivers, calling the Red Planet's supposed warm, watery past into question, according to new research published Monday in Nature Geoscience.

"Valley networks on Mars have historically been interpreted as surface water flows, either sourced by surface liquid water or by ground water," study lead author Anna Grau Galofre told UPI.

"The problem is that there are thousands of them and they all have very different morphologies," said Grau Galofre, former doctoral student in the department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences at the University of British Columbia.

Earth has similarly diverse valley networks, created by a range of processes. Grau Galofre and her colleagues wondered whether a diversity of processes might be responsible for Mars' varied valley networks, too.

Many of the valleys on Mars reminded Grau Galofre of the subglacial channels found beneath ice sheets on Earth.

"Their patterns, isolation from each other and the fact that some flow uphill, all these are consistent with what we know about subglacial channels on Earth," said Grau Galofre, now a post-doctoral researcher at Arizona State University.

"Introducing this hypothesis then turned out to be a useful perspective to address a longstanding question regarding the climate of early Mars: warm and wet versus cold and icy," she said.

First, Grau Galofre and her research partners performed statistical analysis to identify similarities and differences among valley structures on Mars. After identifying a group of similar-looking valleys not explained by river flows, researchers compared the valleys to subglacial channel patterns found on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic.

According to researchers, Devon Island -- a cold, dry polar desert -- is as close an approximation of Mars' climate as can be found on Earth.

In total, researchers surveyed more than 10,000 Martian valleys. Only a small percentage of the surveyed valleys featured patterns consistent with surface water erosion, suggesting rivers and lakes were less abundant on early Mars than previously hypothesized.

Though Mars is Earth's closest neighbor, it is considerably farther from the sun. At the time that Mars' valleys were forming, 3.8 billion years ago, the sun was dimmer than it is today. Models suggest Mars would have been quite frigid.

While researchers say evidence suggesting the Red Planet's features were mostly formed by glacial activity isn't surprising, the findings don't preclude freshwater environs, nor the possibility of ancient life.

"I would like to highlight that the study finds both evidence for riverine erosion and subglacial erosion among the valley networks," said Grau Galofre. "Sometimes both origins are represented by channels that are close, implying that the climate on early Mars probably changed considerably through time."

Grau Galofre said she would like to see NASA's Martian rovers take a closer look at the geochemical signatures found in clay found on Mars.

"Clays and other hydrated rocks which have been found on Mars also appear in subglacial environments," she said.

If Mars' ancient climate was erratic, as some evidence suggests, subglacial environs might have offered a haven for microbial life.

"The subglacial environment could provide a stable setting, with readily available water, a temperature without large oscillations, and protection from solar energetic particles and radiation without need for a magnetic field," Grau Galofre said.

Researchers have previously identified microbial communities living in subglacial lakes on Earth.

Grau Galofre said she and her research partners hope further comparisons between valley patterns on Mars and Earth will help more precisely model the Red Planet's ancient climate.

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Ice sheets, not rivers, carved valleys on Mars, new study says - UPI News

Lake in Turkey may yield answers on life on Mars – Anadolu Agency

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BURDUR, Turkey

Similarities between a lake in southwestern Turkey and the Jezero Crater on Mars has captured the interest of US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in its research on possible life on the Red Planet, according to a scientist.

The mineral makeup between the Martian crater and Lake Salda in Burdur province, Turkey, was established with morphological and remote sensing, Candan Gokceoglu, a professor of geological engineering at Hacettepe University in Turkey's capital Ankara, told Anadolu Agency.

The 28-mile wide Jezero Crater is the planned landing site for NASA's Perseverance rover in February when it will begin a mission set to last for one Mars year, the equivalent of 687 Earth days. The depression is thought to have been home to a large lake -- and perhaps microbial life -- according to the space agency.

Gokceoglu, who is also a member of Turkey's Environmental and Natural Assets Science Board, recalled a recent Twitter post by NASA on Friday, in which it pointed out the similarities between Jezero and Salda.

"Though located a world away, Lake Salda, #Turkey, has geological similarities to Jezero Crater on #Mars. In fact, researchers even did field work at Lake Salda to prepare for #CountdownToMars," it said, juxtaposing top-view images of Jezero and Salda.

"You may not be able to travel to Jezero Crater on Mars, but you can visit the next best thing: Lake Salda, Turkey," said NASA's Earth Observatory.

"Though it is located a world away, Lake Salda shares similar mineralogy and geology as the dry Martian lakebed."

Gokceoglu explained that scientists had found similarities between a kind of sediment found in Salda that is formed by algae -- microorganisms critical to the creation of suitable atmospheric conditions for life formation -- and minerals detected in Jezero.

NASA is now trying to understand if Mars is now similar to Earth the way was 3.5 billion years ago, he said.

"So, the samples that the spacecraft will bring to Earth about whether there is really activity of primitive lifeforms will provide a full understanding of this," he said.

Emphasizing that Lake Salda is unique both visually and scientifically, Gokceoglu stressed that it must be conserved for its scientific value as well.

He noted that Salda is under the highest conservation regime as a "Special Environmental Protection Area."

"We shouldn't just leave the protection activity to the state, we as individuals should do our part."

Salda may become more popular in the world in mid-2022, he said, after the research conducted by NASA's Perseverance rover.

"If it is truly mineralogically similar, then human beings will be able to say, 'Now, Mars is 3.5 billion years younger than the earth, it's on its way to become a planet like Earth.'"

He said the research on the Mars samples and Salda would be "the most important proof of this."

Also known as Turkey's Maldives, the lake in Turkey's central Burdur province has been a popular destination for tourists in recent years with its white beach and clear water.

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Lake in Turkey may yield answers on life on Mars - Anadolu Agency

Paul Begala on Trump: ‘Nothing unites the people of Earth like a threat from Mars’ – The Guardian

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In the New York Times in January 2016, David Axelrod, former campaign strategist for Barack Obama, published The Obama Theory of Trump. Voters rarely seek the replica of what they have, he wrote. They almost always seek the remedy, the candidate who has the personal qualities the public finds lacking in the departing executive.

Ten months later, America elected Obamas polar opposite, Donald Trump: Moriarty to his Holmes, Joker to his Batman, antimatter to matter. According to Paul Begala, a doyen of Democratic politics, the theory bodes well for Joe Biden.

Too many Democrats were trying to be just as pugilistic in their way as Trump is, he says, by phone from a farm in Virginias Shenandoah Valley. Ive known Joe a very long time and I think his most dominant character feature is empathy. Hes bright and hes experienced but hes so empathetic. Weve seen him through tragedy. Hes been very good to me and my family.

If there were a time where we needed empathy, its now. He has experience, which used to be a bad thing, he has competence and empathy and thats exactly the opposite of Trump. So if we want the replica, were not going to vote for Joe. But if we want the remedy and I think we do hes very well positioned to win.

Now 59, Begala was a chief strategist for Bill Clintons 1992 campaign and served in the White House as counselor to the president, then advised a Super Pac that helped elect Barack Obama in 2012. He describes Lyndon Johnson, Clinton and Obama as the three Rushmore-worthy presidents of his lifetime. He is also a familiar face on CNN and has written six books, the latest of which is Youre Fired: The Perfect Guide to Beating Donald Trump.

Chapter one is entitled Mea Culpa, as Begala reflects on the catastrophe of Hillary Clintons utterly unexpected defeat in 2016.

I have some personal responsibility for failing to stop the worst man whos ever been president

Begala explains: I have some personal responsibility here for failing to stop the worst man whos ever been president and I think also the worst president weve ever had. Heres what I got wrong. I was so appalled by Trumps sewer-level character, I couldnt avert my eyes.

I didnt connect my attacks on Trumps character, on the racism, the misogyny, the Islamophobia, mocking the disabled, mocking a PoW, to the lives of the voters. When you dont close that loop, all youre doing is saying, Hes a bad guy. A lot of people said, Gee, hes a terrible guy, but Im going to take a chance on him because he looks like hes a wrecking ball we might need in Washington. So what I should have said is, When you deploy a wrecking ball he very often destroys your house, and this is what Im urging in the book for the Democrats to do.

The chaos, the cruelty, the outrages, the constant throwing of shiny objects for the media to chase: the reality TV presidency is the point.

Begala continues: In addition to saying and doing racist things, there is a method to his madness. He uses those things to distract us from the fact that hes looting the treasury, wants to destroy social security and Medicare and Medicaid, has rained hell on farmers and working people, the very people who elected him.

What, then, would be his number one piece of advice to Biden as heads into an election that, against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice protests, online disinformation and Trumps countless falsehoods, is likely to be one of the most combustible and unpredictable in history?

It is to make it always about voters, not about Trump, and this is what coronavirus has done for Joe, Begala says. Trumps gift is to convince enough voters that politics is just spectacle, it is just show, it is just a Twitter war with Rosie ODonnell like when he was a TV star but now its a Twitter war with Colin Kaepernick or Nancy Pelosi.

Thats terribly wrong but a lot of people accepted that and agreed with it. But now voting for your president is a life-and-death matter and no matter how hard he tries to reignite these divisive social issues, I think it is not enough to divert people from the fact that their mother, their brother, their child could get sick and, God forbid, die.

His incompetence and his callousness and his corruption: these all now have a cost to me the voter, to you the voter. I think Joes done a very good job of keeping the focus on voters and not every day rising to the bait of every crazy thing that Trump says.

An old political saw holds that Democrats fall in love while Republicans fall in line. Some have blamed Hillary Clintons loss in 2016 on bitter infighting between moderates and progressives who voted for Bernie Sanders. There were fears of a repeat in 2020 but Biden won the primary with room to spare and now the party appears remarkably united behind him.

He is consolidating the base and thats for two reasons, Begala says. Hes doing his job but you know what? The left is doing theirs. I come from the Clinton wing, Im a more moderate guy, but I got to tell you, the left of my party has been terrific in rallying to Joe and people like me need to note that and salute that.

Its been really impressive. My hat is off to the left wing of my party. Theyre not taking their marbles and going home. Theyre mobilising, organising, registering. Its just been great. Now, will this last forever? Of course not. But for right now, nothing unites the people of Earth like a threat from Mars.

He adds: I am publicly urging Biden and the Democrats to spread the map, to run very hard in North Carolina, in Georgia, in Arizona and in my beloved Texas, where I grew up, because how long can the Democrats hold together a coalition which right now consists of four-star generals and Black Lives Matter? Thats not going to hold forever, but thats OK. Hell get static probably from the centre of his party and from the left of his party.

Democrats tend to embrace generational change. Their past four presidents were John F Kennedy (aged 43), Jimmy Carter (52), Clinton (46) and Obama (47), all with photogenic young families. Biden, by contrast, would be 78 on inauguration day, eclipsing Trumps record as the oldest person sworn in as US president. Is there a danger Biden belongs to a less charismatic group of Democratic nominees Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry all of whom lost?

Begala insists: I actually think Joes quite charismatic and Ive seen him give terrific speeches but we cant have stadiums full of people anyway. What we want is empathy and thats what he has. At another moment, we want something else. But I think the Democrats did a very wise thing in picking this man at this moment.

Indeed, Bidens empathy is anchored as deep as the ocean. His wife, Neilia, and baby daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car crash in 1972. His adult son, Beau, died from brain cancer in 2015. Jon Stewart, the satirist and film director, observed recently that we are fearful and we are angry and we are in pain. And when I see Biden, past the shtick, I see a guy who knows what loss is. Who knows grief. And I think that that kind of grief humbles him.

Seriously, if we had a fully functioning mental health system, Trump would be in a rubber room, not an Oval Office

His age, however, is bound to be a recurring theme. The Trump campaign is hammering away at Bidens mental and physical fitness.

Does Begala fear that will stick? No, because its compared to what? Joes not the guy telling people to drink bleach. Trump is batty. I dont know if its age-related maybe hes always been batty but Trump is completely unhinged. Hes not just unstable, hes unhinged. Seriously, if we had a fully functioning mental health system, hed be in a rubber room, not an Oval Office.

So the notion thats a valid critique on Biden is fatuous and I dont think its where the Republicans should want to go. If they had a [Mitt] Romney, a [George] Bush, somebody kind of stable and middle of the road for their party, that might be an effective attack. But this is always a comparison. Theres a great old comedian, Henny Youngman, who wouldve been a great political strategist because his famous one-liner was, Hows your wife? Compared to what? Thats all a presidential campaign is. Compared to what?

He adds: I think that the people who took a chance on Trump now are chastened. A whole lot of people voted for Obama and then Trump and I accept that but I think youre going to have an awful lot of people who go back, Trump to Biden.

I cant count the number of people, including friends of mine, who said, Look, I voted for Trump, I took a chance, I thought we could use a little business experience in shaking things up. But oh, my God, hes been a disaster and we must never have him again. Hundreds of people have told me that. I never had one say to me, I voted for Hillary but you know what, Trumps done a really good job and we need to keep him. So I think that tells us something.

Should Biden prevail, Begala fears it will be an uphill task to repair Americans reputation abroad.

Lets say that Biden wins and hes inaugurated, Im going to go see my friends in Europe and Im going to say, Everythings better, everythings better, and theyre going to say, Yeah, you guys could do it again. How do I argue that my country is incapable of electing a Trump? I will. Ill say once youve been through it, you dont want it again. But I think the damage is really devastating. Its incalculable.

Has Begala ever known America so divided? No, I was too young in the 60s. I love being partisan but its negative partisanship. So many of the people who were for Trump are for him because they hate me and thats no way to live a life.

I do think its asymmetrical. The crisis in America is not both sides. It is one side thats gone insane and seems to be consuming itself with hatred. My party has its problems, believe me, but it is not both sides. This negative partisanship from the right: they will do anything to own the libs.

Historians will perhaps invoke Caligula, King George III and assorted authoritarians of the 20th century. But they will surely also dwell on how the Republican party both produced Trump and succumbed to his will, and ponder what it says about human nature.

A drubbing in November, Begala argues, is just what Republicans need.

They are getting a shrinking percentage of a shrinking portion of the country. Most of the guys I grew up with were high-school-educated white men and didnt go to college and so I have a lot of friends that way. Theyre a smaller cohort every day and hes doing less well with them.

They have to reform and the best way to make that happen, paradoxically, is for the Democrats to have a crushing victory. If the Democrats win Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona states that we rarely carry the Republican party will have to reassess and it will actually pull the Republicans to the centre.

Im a great believer in revivification because I saw Reagan do it as a kid and I saw Clinton do it as an adult. I believe they can but they have got to find a way to communicate with this rising American electorate, to women especially unmarried women young people, people of colour. Theyre just haemorrhaging the folks.

A practising Catholic, Begala reflects: Theres two kind of churches. Those that seek out converts and those that hunt down heretics and right now Joe Bidens leading a party thats seeking out converts. Even George Conway and Bill Kristol are on the same side Im on. I love it.

But meanwhile, Trump is leading a hunt for heretics. When Jeff Sessions is not rightwing enough for you, you got a problem!

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Paul Begala on Trump: 'Nothing unites the people of Earth like a threat from Mars' - The Guardian

It Only Took Twitter 11 Years to Ban Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke – VICE UK

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David Duke is gone from Twitter.

The social media platform has permanently shut down the account of the 70-year-old white supremacist, former Louisiana legislator and former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (1974-1980). Hed joined the platform in 2009.

"[Duke] has been permanently suspended for Twitter Rules on hateful conduct," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to CNET Thursday night.

The rules, which bar the promotion of violence or harassment against groups and individuals based on their race, ethnicity, nationality sexual orientation, gender, and more, were unsurprisingly violated by Duke numerous times, according to the spokesperson.

Though Twitter did not clarify what Duke posted to earn himself the permanent ban, the Washington Post reports he recently shared anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including an interview with Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf and false claims that the Jewish media had plans to incite violence against white Americans. Duke also shared misinformation about the spread of COVID-19, calling Americans who refuse to wear masks in public the real heroes.

Duke had over 53,000 followers on Twitter as of Thursday.

Twitter users were ecstatic to see the proud racist leave the platform.

Duke was just suspended from YouTube in June, alongside the likes of Canadian white nationalist Stefan Molyneux and alt-right leader Richard Spencer.

Like many other social media platforms, Twitter has long struggled with policing harmful speech online. But since 2017, Twitter has slowly ramped up efforts to find and punish users for harmful and discriminatory information on its website.

Since the start of the pandemic, however, Twitter hasnt been afraid to bring down the hammer on people who violate its new anti-hate guidelines or contribute to the spread of fake news. In the last month alone, the website has deleted over 7,000 accounts associated with the Q-Anon conspiracy movement, suspended the account of Donald Trump Jr. for tweeting false information about COVID-19, and suspended the accounts of several Black celebrities for disseminating false and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Even President Trump has felt some pressure from the Twitter crackdown. In June, Twitter publicly flagged a tweet from the president as manipulated media in order to prevent the spread of a digitally altered video.

Cover: Former Louisiana State Representative David Duke arrives to give remarks after a white nationalist protest was declared an unlawful assembly, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va. (Shaban Athuman/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)

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It Only Took Twitter 11 Years to Ban Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke - VICE UK

Yoho and Cotton – Chicago Reader

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Its been about two weeks since a bunch of well-intended liberals and lefties wrote an open letter in Harpers Magazine, denouncing intolerance on the left.

Well, if the conservative crowd appreciated the gesture, they have a funny way of showing it. Lets just run down a few of the insulting, degrading, racist, anti-Jewish broadsides emerging from figures on the right over the last few days . . .

Congressman Ted Yoho called congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a fucking bitch. Then when she called him out for it, he said he didnt say iteven though a reporter for the Hill said he did say it.

Senator Tom Cotton said slavery was a necessary evil. When he was called out, he said hed been misquoted and that what hed actually said was that the founding fathers thought slavery was a necessary evil.

As if that clarification is any less offensive. Or historically accuratecause its not at all clear that many slave-owning founding fathers thought there was anything evil about owning slaves.

Tribune columnist John Kass wrote what I call a twofer column in which he dragged out an alt-right, anti-Jewish trope regarding George Soros to malign Black officials like Cook County states attorney Kim Foxx.

Thus, he managed to degrade Jewish and Black people in one swoop.

Meanwhile, Lori Lightfoots right-wing critics have called her a communist whose base, as Tucker Carlson put it, consists of angry Marxist rich kids with spray paint.

All because they didnt agree with her decision to take down the Columbus statues.

In the aftermath, there are no apologies, no regrets. Apparently, theyre proud of what they say and would say it again. As far as I can tell, they feel free to say just about anything they want.

It seems as though there are almost no consequences for right-wingers who spew mean-spirited, hate-filled invective. Tucker Carlson still has his job. As does Sean Hannity. Laura Ingraham. Rush Limbaugh. And John Kass. OK, the Tribune moved Kass from page two to the editorial page.

By the waymuch love to the Tribunes guild for taking a strong stand against Kasss Soros column.

The rights done a masterful job of flipping the switch on free expression. Theyve got the left on the defensive. As though right-wingers are innocent victims whose free speech has been stifled by the lefty political-correct police.

I almost have to give them credit. Theyve rigged the debate so that even many well-intended liberals have been brainwashed into thinking that political correctness exists only on the left.

Well, the right has its own version of rigidly enforced political correctness.

Among other things, you cant criticize Trump supporters for being utterly batshit crazy even when theyre saying things that are, you know, utterly batshit crazy. Like the people in Florida who testified against an ordinance requiring masks in public places. Becauseoh, hell, just watch them if you havent done so already.

But if you criticize them, youre an elitist.

Similarly, you cant criticize Trumpsters for forcing their religious beliefs on everyone else. Like the bakers in Colorado who went to court to win the right not to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple.

Then youre a secular humanist whos intolerant of religious beliefs.

The right recently convinced the Supreme Court to protect the religious rights of corporations to not cover the cost of contraceptives in their employees health-care plans. They even got two liberal justicesElena Kagan and Stephen Breyerto sign on to sending the case back to a lower court.

And they say the left is intolerant? Im still waiting for Justice Brett Kavanaugh to rule that doctors have a First Amendment protected right to talk about abortion with their patients.

Now, I guess were supposed to defend Tom Cottons right to describe slavery as a necessary evil and John Kasss right to employ anti-Jewish tropes. All in the name of free speech.

Generally, Im pretty open to free-speech arguments. But I dont get the feeling that its a two-way street.The obvious case is Colin Kaepernick. I dont recall many (or any) prominent Republicans defending his right to free speech when he got kicked out of the NFL for taking a knee during the national anthem.

Similarly, Trump says he supports the rights of his supporters to wave the Confederate flag.

Well, I guess I should say Trump doesnt limit that right to just his supporters. Though lets face itwho else but a Trump supporter would want to wave the Confederate flag?

Trump says waving the confederate flag is freedom of speech, even if that flag symbolizes an evil institution that is offensive to many people.

But then he turns right around and says flag burning should be against the law. "We ought to come up with legislation that if you burn the American flag, you go to jail for one year. One year, Trump said.

He says burning the flag is desecration that many people find offensive.

Oh, so when one group of people are offended, we need a law to protect them.

But when another group of people are offended, itsstop whining, snowflake!

Want another example?

Consider John Catanzara, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police. A few years back he made news when he posted a picture of himself in a Chicago police uniform holding a sign that read: I stand for the anthem. I love the American flag. I support my president. And the 2nd Amendment.

That president he supported was Trump. Well, you didnt think it was Obama, did you?

As a believer in free speech, I defended his right to post that picture.

But now hes threatening to expel any union member who takes a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters.

And so it goes. When it comes to free speech, the right only wants it for themselves.v

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Yoho and Cotton - Chicago Reader

‘Living people’: who are the sovereign citizens, or SovCits, and why do they believe they have immunity from the law? – The Conversation AU

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You might have seen articles or comments on social media lately alluding to sovereign citizens, or SovCits for short, with some reports suggesting COVID-19 government restrictions have driven a surge of interest in this movement.

So, who are these self-styled sovereign citizens, and what do they believe?

Sovereign citizens are concerned with the legal framework of society. They believe all people are born free with rights but that these natural rights are being constrained by corporations (and they see governments as artificial corporations). They believe citizens are in an oppressive contract with the government.

SovCits reportedly believe that by declaring themselves living people or natural people, they can break this oppressive contract and avoid restrictions such as certain rates, taxes, and fines or particular government rules on mandatory mask-wearing.

The SovCit movement arose in America decades ago, with roots in the American patriot movement, some religious communities, and tax protest groups. It has also been known as the free-man movement.

Read more: 'Alt-right white extremism' or conservative mobilising: what are CPAC's aims in Australia?

SovCits see themselves as sovereign and not bound by the laws of the country in which they physically live. Accepting a law or regulations means they have waived their rights as a sovereign and have accepted a contract with the government, according to SovCit belief.

The SovCit movement doesnt have a single leader, central doctrine or centralised collection of documents. It is based on their reinterpretation of the law and there are many legal document templates on the internet for SovCit use to, for example, avoid paying fines or rates they see as unfair.

SovCits tend not to follow conventional legal argument. Some have engaged in repeated court action and even been declared vexatious litigants by the courts.

The SovCit movement has many local variations but there are some key commonalities across the Australian SovCit movement.

A central belief, according to news reports, is that the Australian government, the police, and other government agencies are corporations. Believers feel they must be on guard to avoid entering into a contract with the corporation. They often do this by stating, I do not consent and trying to get the police officer or official to recognise them as a living or natural being and therefore as a sovereign.

SovCits are often careful to avoid showing ID such as drivers licences or giving their name and address. Saying I understand also risks being seen to agree to the contract so SovCits will repeat the phrase I comprehend to show they are refusing the contract.

Many reject their countrys constitution as false and reportedly refer to the Magna Carta of 1215 as the only true legal document constraining arbitrary power.

SovCits often come to the attention of authorities due to driving offences. It is a core belief of the movement that sovereigns have the right to travel freely without the need for a drivers licence, vehicle registration, or insurance.

Until COVID-19, the main threat seems to have been in committing road offences. More recently, actions protesting measures aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 have been linked to the sovereign citizen movement.

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'Living people': who are the sovereign citizens, or SovCits, and why do they believe they have immunity from the law? - The Conversation AU

Finding the women of the White nationalist movement – CNN

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I recently spoke with Darby about what White nationalism looks like in the Trump era, how America's perception of Whiteness is undergoing a slow but necessary change, and why it's crucial to pay attention to backlash dynamics amid a season of racial reckoning.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

There are so many ways to grapple with White nationalism. What motivated you to approach the issue from the angle of women's involvement in the movement?

I was very curious to dig into where White women fit into the far right. I started from the point of: Where are the women? Once I started looking for them, they weren't terribly hard to find. They were right there on the internet.

Had you thought about White nationalism in a focused way before the 2016 election?

I think that I was aware of it maybe more than the average person, just because I grew up in the South. My family's been in the South for a really long time. There was a Ku Klux Klan rally pretty regularly in the town next door to where I grew up. So White nationalism was something I was aware of.

But it wasn't something I'd spent a lot of time thinking too hard about -- other than worrying about it, I guess. 2016 really was the catalyst for me.

Did your thinking on Whiteness change as you worked on your book?

I'm really glad that you feel that way about the book. One of the things I feel was most illuminating to me in working on this project was how I hadn't necessarily considered my own Whiteness. As you said, in America, culturally, we tend to treat it as the default against which everything else is compared, and that itself is a measure of power.

It's interesting to me that we, as a country, haven't really had a meaningful reckoning with what Whiteness is, what it means, and how the far right, especially, is positioned to capitalize on Whiteness as an identity in a way that's incredibly toxic.

I obviously dig into the extreme end of White identity in my book. But everything exists on a spectrum. White nationalists are essentially saying that there's no problem with Whiteness being at the top of the hierarchy, that there's no problem with preserving White supremacy, if we think of White supremacy not just as a belief but also as a system of institutions and structures and even as a way of talking about history.

Conversations about Whiteness that are measured and fact-based are important. But you can't divorce them from an understanding of what the extreme end of the spectrum is.

What was the most surprising thing you learned from your reporting?

Whenever I talk with friends and family about the book, I keep coming back to the fact that you don't have to feel deep hatred to be a part of the hate movement. Often, hatred is secondary, even tertiary. It's something that can be learned over time by being a part of the space.

Think of hate more as a social bond, as a currency between people. I think that there's this misapprehension that if people get involved in the hate movement, they must have a particularly deep-seated disdain for people who aren't like them. But actually, they can get involved in the space -- whether we're talking about an organized group or, especially in the digital age, online networks -- for reasons that are actually really mundane and really familiar to pretty much anybody. They're looking for a way to understand the world that helps them have a narrative for their own lives. They might be looking for camaraderie. They might be looking for power. They might be looking for a way to have a voice, a way to have a platform.

The rhetoric of hate -- and then certainly the violence of hate in some cases, for some people -- that comes later. And it's a way of reinforcing a place in a community. It was very instructive for me to see hate like that, because if you think of hate as a kind of poison or as something that's just curdling in someone, that's not a terribly constructive way to think about hate as a social phenomenon.

Something else that was surprising to me was how little the rhetoric of the far right has changed over time, specifically in the post-Civil War era, because before the Civil War, it was pretty clear where the country stood in terms of hierarchy. Whether you're talking about the Ku Klux Klan or various neo-Confederate groups or Aryan Nations or the alt-right, the consistency in messaging over time is really striking. The rhetoric has been about how the White race is under threat, how the real racism is against White people, how White people are the true and rightful Americans and their way of life must be protected.

That stood out to me because there are people today who run White nationalist social media platforms and try to say: Well, I'm not in the Klan. Or: I'm not a neo-Nazi. And, OK, fine, but you're a part of the same ecosystem, and your rhetoric is remarkably similar.

That reminds me of how your book unpacks how even people who are progressive can gradually make their way to White nationalism.

The book is structured around three women. The first woman is by most people's standards the most extreme, in terms of the things she's done in her life and what she believed (before she disavowed White nationalism). But then I try to move through women who might be more familiar to people, because, again, there's a spectrum of people -- from the most unusual people you've ever heard of to people you could've gone to college with.

There are lots of people who go to this space because they're seekers. America is full of people who are seeking. I think that it's frightening to realize that some people can find their way to a surprising end.

What's also important here is that White nationalism isn't some totally alien environment. It's just making explicit things that are already coded and veiled -- maybe not even code and veiled, frankly -- in mainstream cultural and political conversations. People in the hate movement are explicit. They're very overt about what they believe. But they're drawing from a communal well, essentially. So it's not as though people who were more progressive or apolitical or whatever go to a totally new thing. White nationalism is building on something that's already very present in American life. Which goes back to your earlier point about why it's so important to have these conversations about race: We shouldn't disassociate White nationalism from the greater American experience.

Right. Schlafly was the object of sexism and misogyny. But everybody has a choice. To make the choice to run what was ultimately an exclusionary movement isn't a choice that had to be made.

It's possible to acknowledge that somebody can be the object of a negative cultural force and also be at the forefront of a negative cultural force. A lot of the time, we're not very good at recognizing that reality.

Since the police killing of George Floyd in May, has your thinking on what you want your book to accomplish -- how you want it to fit into conversations about race -- changed at all?

I've been very excited and heartened by what's been happening, with this very public resurgence of protests and demands. I think that it's incredible.

I spend time on parts of the internet that I don't recommend other people spend time on, but that's very much been the rhetoric: See, we told you that they'd come for White people. See, we told you that they actually hate White people. See, we told you that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization. All these things that are -- to me and I assume to you -- untrue, but they exist in echo chambers. I think that it's very important not to lose sight of the fact that there will be people who find something in these spaces to believe in.

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Finding the women of the White nationalist movement - CNN

Cosmic tango between the very small and the very large – ScienceBlog.com

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While Einsteins theory of general relativity can explain a large array of fascinating astrophysical and cosmological phenomena, some aspects of the properties of the universe at the largest-scales remain a mystery. A new study using loop quantum cosmology a theory that uses quantum mechanics to extend gravitational physics beyond Einsteins theory of general relativity accounts for two major mysteries. While the differences in the theories occur at the tiniest of scales much smaller than even a proton they have consequences at the largest of accessible scales in the universe. The study, whichappears onlineJuly 29 in Physical Review Letters, also provides new predictions about the universe that future satellite missions could test.

While a zoomed-out picture of the universe looks fairly uniform, it does have a large-scale structure, for example because galaxies and dark matter are not uniformly distributed throughout the universe. The origin of this structure has been traced back to the tiny inhomogeneities observed in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation that was emitted when the universe was 380,000 years young that we can still see today. But the CMB itself has three puzzling features that are considered anomalies because they are difficult to explain using known physics.

While seeing one of these anomalies may not be that statistically remarkable, seeing two or more together suggests we live in an exceptional universe, said Donghui Jeong, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and an author of the paper. A recent study in the journal Nature proposed an explanation for one of these anomalies that raised so many additional concerns, they flagged a possible crisis in cosmology. Using quantum loop cosmology, however, we have resolved two of these anomalies naturally, avoiding that potential crisis.

Research over the last three decades has greatly improved our understanding of the early universe, including how the inhomogeneities in the CMB were produced in the first place. These inhomogeneities are a result of inevitable quantum fluctuations in the early universe. During a highly accelerated phase of expansion at very early times known as inflation these primordial, miniscule fluctuations were stretched under gravitys influence and seeded the observed inhomogeneities in the CMB.

To understand how primordial seeds arose, we need a closer look at the early universe, where Einsteins theory of general relativity breaks down, said Abhay Ashtekar, Evan Pugh Professor of Physics, holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Physics, and director of the Penn State Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos. The standard inflationary paradigm based on general relativity treats space time as a smooth continuum. Consider a shirt that appears like a two-dimensional surface, but on closer inspection you can see that it is woven by densely packed one-dimensional threads. In this way, the fabric of space time is really woven by quantum threads. In accounting for these threads, loop quantum cosmology allows us to go beyond the continuum described by general relativity where Einsteins physics breaks down for example beyond the Big Bang.

The researchers previous investigation into the early universe replaced the idea of a Big Bang singularity, where the universe emerged from nothing, withthe Big Bounce, where the current expanding universe emerged from a super-compressed mass that was created when the universe contracted in its preceding phase. They found that all of the large-scale structures of the universe accounted for by general relativity areequally explained by inflationafter this Big Bounce using equations of loop quantum cosmology.

In the new study, the researchers determined that inflation under loop quantum cosmology also resolves two of the major anomalies that appear under general relativity.

Diagram showing evolution of the Universe according to the paradigm of Loop Quantum Origins, developed by scientists at Penn State.

IMAGE: ALAN STONEBRAKER. P. SINGH, PHYSICS 5, 142 (2012); APS/A. STONEBRAKER

The primordial fluctuations we are talking about occur at the incredibly small Planck scale, said Brajesh Gupt, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State at the time of the research and currently at the Texas Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas at Austin. A Planck length is about 20 orders of magnitude smaller than the radius of a proton. But corrections to inflation at this unimaginably small scale simultaneously explain two of the anomalies at the largest scales in the universe, in a cosmic tango of the very small and the very large.

The researchers also produced new predictions about a fundamental cosmological parameter and primordial gravitational waves that could be tested during future satellite missions, including LiteBird and Cosmic Origins Explorer, which will continue to improve our understanding of the early universe.

In addition to Jeong, Ashtekar and Gupt, the research team includes V. Sreenath at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in Surathkal, India. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Penn State Eberly College of Science, and the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India.

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Cosmic tango between the very small and the very large - ScienceBlog.com

Telescope Market Report 2020: Acute Analysis of Global Demand and Supply 2025 with Major Key Player: Celestron, Meade, Vixen Optics, TAKAHASHI,…

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Global Telescope Market Trends, In-Depth Research on Prime Manufacturers, Market Size, Emerging Growth Factors, SWOT Analysis, Key Regions, Global 2020 Trends and Forecasts 2025

Market Info Reports Added New Latest Study On Overviewof Telescope Market: The Research Report is one of the most comprehensive and important dataabout business strategies, qualitative and quantitative analysis of Global Market and describes necessary factors like Top manufacturers, production worth, leading growth drivers, restraints, challenges, trends, key regions and CAGR,numerous stakeholders, SWOT analysis. This report focuses on Professional Global Telescope Market volume and value at Global level, regional level and company level.

The researchers have considered almost all important parameters for company profiling, including market share, recent development, gross margin, future development plans, product portfolio, production, and revenue. The report includes detailed analysis of the vendor landscape and thorough company profiling of leading players of the Telescope market.

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Leading players covered in the Telescope market report: Celestron, Meade, Vixen Optics, TAKAHASHI, ASTRO-PHYSICS, Bushnell, Bresser, ORION, Barska, Sky Watcher, Bosma, SharpStar, Visionking, TianLang and More

Market Segment By Type:Refracting telescopeReflector TelescopeCatadioptric telescope

Market Segment By Application:Amateur astronomy hobby (Enter-level telescope)Professional research (Advanced astronomical telescope)Others (Intermediate level)

Global Telescope Market is valued at USD XX million in 2020 and is projected to reach US$ XX million till 2025, rising at a CAGR of XX% during the period 2020 to 2025.

Regional analysis covers:North America(USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe(Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific(China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America(Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa(Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)

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Overview: Along with a broad overview of the global Telescope market, this section gives an overview of the report to give an idea about the nature and contents of the research study.

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Segmental Analysis: The report provides accurate and reliable forecasts of the market share of important segments of the Telescope market. Market participants can use this analysis to make strategic investments in key growth pockets of the market.

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Telescope Market Report 2020: Acute Analysis of Global Demand and Supply 2025 with Major Key Player: Celestron, Meade, Vixen Optics, TAKAHASHI,...

The universe is nearly 10 percent more homogeneous than expected – Tech Explorist

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The latest KiDS map made with the OmegaCAM on ESOs VLT Survey Telescope at Cerro Paranal in Northern Chile- shows that the universe is nearly 10 percent more homogeneous than the Standard Model of Cosmology (-CDM) predicts.

The standard model of Cosmology relies on rather mysterious physics that we call dark matter and dark energy.

KiDS uses the galaxies to map the distribution of matter in the Universe. To create this new map, KiDS used 31 million galaxies that lie up to 10 billion light-years away, which means their light was emitted when our Universe was less than half its present age.

The galaxies were mapped through weak gravitational lensing, where the light from distant galaxies is slightly deflected by the gravitational effect of large amounts of matter, such as galaxy clusters. That effect is used to determine the clumpiness of the distribution of the galaxies.

Over time, the gravity of the matter in the Universe makes it less and less homogeneous; areas with a little more mass than average attract matter from their surroundings, so increasing the contrast. Meanwhile, the expansion of the Universe counteracts this growth. Both of these processes are gravity-driven and are therefore of great importance for testing the Standard Model of Cosmology (-CDM), which reasonably accurately predicts how density variations increase with the age of the universe.

The results show a discrepancy: the universe is nearly 10 percent more homogeneous than the standard model predicts.

Dr. Marika Asgari, from the University of Edinburgh, who co-led the analysis, calls the result intriguing. The standard model of Cosmology relies on rather mysterious physics that we call dark matter and dark energy. Scientists have to test this remarkable model in as many ways as possible, and that is exactly what we are doing.

The KiDS results may indicate small cracks in the standard model, just like another discrepancy in the expansion rate of the Universe, the so-called Hubble constant.

Dr. Tilman Trster (University of Edinburgh):The question is whether these can be solved with a small adjustment, for example, with a somewhat more complex behavior of dark matter than the simple hypothesis of totally inert cold dark matter.'

Leiden professor and KiDS lead Koen Kuijken cannot saywhether this will eventually lead to a fundamentally different theory, for example, replacing Einsteins General Theory of Relativity with a new one. For now, I consciously try to stay away from possible theoretical interpretations, and focus on the measurements and how to make them as accurate as possible.

Prof. Hendrik Hildebrandt (Ruhr University Bochum) adds:As an observing cosmologist, you try to remain impartial and make the measurements as accurate as possible without theoretical prejudices. One thing is clear, we live in exciting times!

However, scientists will need more data to be sure about the results.

Dr. Benjamin Joachimi (University College London) said,There is a 1 in a 1000 chance that our findings could be caused by us just having looked at a particularly unusual part of the Universe.

Scientists have described the KiDS-1000 result in five articles, the last three of which appeared online today. They have been submitted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

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The universe is nearly 10 percent more homogeneous than expected - Tech Explorist