First Mode and Western Washington Univ. win NASAs nod to make Mars geology tool – GeekWire

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A goniometer is a tool that either measures an angle or helps position an object at a very precise angle for measurement. (First Mode Illustration / Peter Illsley)

Seattles First Modeteam and Western Washington University say theyve won a NASA contract to advance the technology for sizing up rocks on Mars.

The project, funded under NASAs Solar System Workings program, will support the development of an automated tool known as a goniometer. Such a tool could be used on future Mars missions to measure angles precisely in three dimensions.

If you used a protractor in grade school to measure angles, you used a simple version of a goniometer, First Modes Kathleen Hoza and Rhae Adams explained in a blog posting about the project.

On Mars, such a device should facilitate spectral observations of rock samples at different angles, opening the way for more detailed chemical analyses. One of the cameras on NASAs Curiosity rover has been used to make goniometer measurements in Mars Gale Crater.

Melissa Rice, a planetary scientist at Western Washington University, is principal investigator for the newly announced project.

This contract is $150,000 to design and build the goniometer plus the scientific library of measurements, Adams, vice president of strategy and business development at First Mode, said in an email. Its a smaller one for now, but fits right in with the other Mars work the team is doing for NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

First Mode was founded just in the past year as an employee-owned technology development company. Its founders include veterans of JPL as well as Planetary Resources, a Redmond, Wash.-based asteroid mining venture that was assimilated by the ConsenSys blockchain studio last year.

The focus of First Modes work with JPL is the Mars 2020 mission, which is due to launch a 1-ton rover to the Red Planet next July. That rover has instrumentation that will make measurements similar to those expected from the prototype goniometer, which is expected to take shape at First Mode and be delivered to Western Washington University for use in Earth-based experiments.

The Mars 2020 science team could benefit from the work being done for the WWU-First Mode project in Seattle and Bellingham, Wash.

First Mode is excited to partner with Western Washington University and NASA as we seek to improve our understanding of the Martian surface, Chris Voorhees, First Modes president and chief engineer, said in a news release. As we prepare for further surface missions, including the Mars 2020 Rover and Mars Sample Return, a solid base of scientific research and understanding is essential in getting the most from our robotic systems.

The research also could be relevant for other First Mode clients and partners in the natural resources industry.

The problems we like the most cross industry boundaries. By drawing from our teams experience in geology, automation, and the mining and metals industry, we can create a better tool for deep-space exploration, Voorhees said. Were also pleased to share that after development, the entire goniometer design and software package will be publicly released.

Hoza, a systems engineer and geologist at First Mode, helped lay the groundwork for the 3-D goniometer project. She was responsible for creating a 2-D prototype goniometer while pursuing her M.S. degree in geology at Western Washington University under Rices tutelage.

I couldnt be more excited about continuing to work on this research, Hoza said. The science potential is significant and far-reaching, and we have a powerful combined team with experts from First Mode and Western Washington University.

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OAHS students in Easton join the space program – Wicked Local

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EASTON NASA is looking for someone to create a design and create flag capable of flying on the moon and they are asking for help from students including some here at Oliver Ames High School.

Florence Gold of NASA visited OAHS last week to welcome the students into the High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH).

For the first time, OAHS students in the fashion design, construction and technology class will be designing and creating products and media students will be working on a video challenge for NASA.

Our mission is to inspire young people and give you an opportunity to work on a real world project for NASA, Gold said during her visit on Sept. 25.

The HUNCH program is a national project-based learning program where students participate in the design and fabrication of real products for NASA. HUNCH is currently in over 200 schools in 38 states. The only other HUNCH class in Massachusetts is in Franklin. OAHS is the only school in the state taking part in soft goods design.

You can put down on your resume or college application that you are NASA HUNCH contractors. Now you work for NASA, Gold told the students as she described how the district will be signing a Space Act agreement with NASA similar to companies like Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Were very excited about bringing this program to Oliver Ames, family and consumer science teacher Betti Almeida said.

Almeida learned about the HUNCH program after her mother saw a television segment on "the women behind the scenes who have stitched vital spacecraft components."

I am always looking for ways to show my students in family and consumer science students how the skills we use can be applied to daily life with family and careers, she said. I found the NASA HUNCH webpage and was fascinated by the program and what it entails.

After submitting the proposal/request in December last year, OAHS was selected to be the first NASA HUNCH Softgoods program in Massachusetts. HUNCH founder Stacy Hale visited OAHS to see the facility and meet some of the students who had signed up for the future classes in fashion.

NASA HUNCH Softgoods Manager Marcy Dickson invited Almeida to attend the Softgoods training at the Johnson Space Center in Texas last June. Almeida met with teachers already involved with HUNCH whose students had designed items there.

There are soft goods all over the place. Soft goods is a huge part of space exploration, she said. Other educators there were so excited to see the things their students made.

The goods are used to hold and store equipment, create dividers on the Space Station, footwear and straps. In a video from the Space Station, astronaut Reid Weisman demonstrated how a crew organizer created by students was being used. The organizer was an item astronauts asked for. During a flight, the astronauts review the item and provide feedback to the students. Weisman was using the organizer, which hangs vertically in his bedroom which is the size of a phone book to store, pens, vitamins, lip balm and other items.

During her trip, Almeida assembled a bag designed by students for use on the International Space Station. OAHS students will have the chance to assemble more of the bags for use in space.

This opportunity prepared me to teach the use of industrial sewing machines, she said.

The school will receive four industrial machines paid for by NASA for the program use.

The OAHS students will be learning how to interpret and use cut lists and industrial prints. Topics will include tolerance tables, assembly processes, quality control, and overall NASA standards of construction.

The students are then challenged to design and make a flag which astronauts can leave on the moon surface. Other students in other schools in the engineering program will work on a flagpole.

In the HUNCH video media students learn about NASAs mission and create videos to share their knowledge. One award-winning past video from a school in New Jersey focused on the science accomplished on the International Space Station.

Real-world work that results in a tangible product is an excellent way for our students to apply the skills they have learned in the classroom, OAHS Principal Wes Paul said. This program will be a valuable way for students to get hands-on experience and introduce them to the many career paths that are available in the aerospace field.

Whether and when there will be a mission to the moon and Mars was the number one questions with students.

In 2024 were going to the moon. Thats our plan, Gold said. Were going to Mars as well. Thats why going to moon.

Gold explained that NASA plans to construct a lunar gateway, a small ship in orbit around the moon that will provide access to more of the lunar surface with living quarters for astronauts, a lab for science and research and ports for visiting spacecraft.

Thats also the way well go to Mars, she said.

She said space exploration needs support from all nations as well as industries.

We are planning to go to Mars. Elon Musk (founder of SpaceX) really wants to go and thats what it takes other nations and commercial industries.

We want this to be an international goal for every nation to benefit from - going out the moon and Mars. Its such a huge project we need everyone. We need that diversity.

For more information about HUNCH go to Nasahunch.com

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OAHS students in Easton join the space program - Wicked Local

A Step By Step Walkthrough Of The Astronaut Training Process – msnNOW

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Ask a group of school children what they want to be when they grow up and you'll always find the kid who wants to be an astronaut. Who wouldn't? It's one of the most prestigious jobs in the world and gives people the opportunity to boldly go where few have gone before. But space is a brutal, desolate environment where tiny mistakes can be the difference between life and death. That's why prospectiveastronauts have to go through one of the most rigorous training processes in the world.

It's not easy being an astronaut, but becoming one might actually be the hardest part of the job.Training for space travel is no joke, and the NASA training process aims to prepare astronauts for all sorts of situations. Space exploration is still in its infancy, so there are plenty of things that can go wrong. This is especially true for new recruits who have the chance at being the first to do all sorts of amazing things, including pioneering the first manned mission to Mars. If you've ever been curious what is astronaut training like, these are all the steps that our space cadets must take in order to catch a flight to the stars.

Visit Ranker.com for similar lists and rankings.

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A Step By Step Walkthrough Of The Astronaut Training Process - msnNOW

Titomic and Gilmour Space developing high-performance 3D printed rocket parts – 3DPMN

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Titomic, an Australia-based metal AM company, has partnered with Gilmour Space Technologies, a Queensland-based aerospace company, to explore the use of the formers Titomic Kinetic Fusion technology and other digital manufacturing solutions to produce high-performance rocket and aerospace components. The companies have formalized the partnership through a Statement of Strategic Intent and Technical Development.

Founded in 2014, Titomic has brought to market a solid-state metal AM process first pioneered by Australian research group CSIRO. The technology, Titomic Kinetic Fusion, is capable of producing large-scale metal parts (up to 9m in length and 3m in width) as well as achieving high-volume production rates for complex parts made from dissimilar metals. Considering these capabilities, it is no surprise that the technology is being explored for aerospace applications (as well as defense, mining and other areas).

According to Titomic, its additive manufacturing platform is currently the only metal additive manufacturing process capable of manufacturing rockets in a single piece as well as other space components.

Gilmour Space, for its part, was founded in 2013 by brothers Adam and James Gilmour and has become one of the leading players in Australias space industry. The company has stood out for its development of new hybrid propulsion technologies that aim to make space travel and exploration more cost effective.

Through their agreement, the companies will collaborate on R&D for fabricating rocket components using Titomics TKF technology, as well as explore, design and develop a digital manufacturing process specifically for high-performance rocket parts. Overall, both companies have the goal of producing next-gen rocket components that will benefit Australias space industry and activities.

James Gilmour, Co-Founder and COO of Gilmour Space, commented on the partnership, saying: Gilmour Space is developing new launch vehicles to support todays global small satellite market, and this partnership could see us leveraging on Titomics innovative manufacturing processes to produce lighter and stronger components for our orbital launch vehicles.

I am excited to get started on our joint tech-development program, Nathanael Miller, CTO of Titomic, said, echoing Gilmours enthusiasm. Between the Gilmour Space focus on launch economics and the scale and quality performance of Titomic Kinetic Fusion capabilities, I am expecting significant implications for the launch vehicle community.

Jeff Land, Founder and Managing Director of Titomic, concluded: This is an exciting new development for Titomic to share a commercially strategic vision to deliver unique capabilities of advanced technologies to assure growth of the Australian space eco-system. The Gilmour Space strategy, for lower cost access to launch satellites into space by affordable high-performance rockets, is in synergy with Titomics capability to provide an affordable alternative to traditional manufacturing by utilising the unique capabilities of Titomic Kinetic Fusion technology.

Titomic is increasingly becoming a significant player in the global Aerospace, Defence and Space industries and by partnering with Gilmour Space it is further evidence that TKF technology has the potential for a multiplicity of applications for future industries to improve manufacturing affordability and sustainability of resources.

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Advances Vs. Consequences: What Does The 21st Century Have In Store For Humanity? – Forbes

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The southern Milky Way as viewed above ALMA is illustrative of one way we search for signals of intelligent aliens: through the radio band. If we found a signal, or if we transmitted a signal that was then found and responded to, it would be one of the greatest achievements in our planet's history. As with many of humanity's greatest endeavors, we have not made the critical breakthrough we so desperately seek, but we continue to look, explore, and learn with the best tools we can possibly construct.

It's pretty easy to look at the world we live in today and come away feeling either extremely pessimistic or optimistic, depending on which aspects you focus on. Optimistically, you could look at our life expectancy, our technological conveniences, our high standard of living and the scientific breakthroughs we continue to make and pursue. From biotech to space exploration, from robotics to artificial intelligence, the present is incredible and the future looks even brighter.

Of course, there's the flipside: a pessimistic point of view. Even a coarse look at the world shows agrowing rejection of science in favor of ideology on issues from climate change to vaccinations to dental health to whether the Earth is flat or humans have landed on the Moon. We are rolling back environmental protections and seeing a rise in bigotry, isolationism, and authoritarianism.Our prospects are simultaneously both bright and dim, and what the 21st century holds will depend largely on our collective actions during the next critical decade.

This 1989 image was taken just one year after a catastrophic wildfire destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of land and burned down countlessly many lodgepole pine trees. However, the very next year, wildflowers littered the burned forest landscape, one of the first major steps in the regrowth and regeneration of this ecosystem. Humans may wreak havoc on the planet, but nature will recover. The question of how resilient human civilization is has not yet been determined.

When you think about your own dreams for the future of humanity, what does it include? Do you think about the existential, large-scale problems the world is facing today, and how we might improve them? Depending on where you live and what issues plague your local corner of the globe, you might see:

all while we burn more fossil fuels and consume more energy, as a planet, than ever before.

The Patagonian glaciers of South America are sadly among the fastest melting in the world, but their beauty is undeniable. This photo was taken by the International Space Station, which completes a full orbit around Earth in approximately 90 minutes. Just minutes earlier, the ISS was flying over a tropical rainforest, showcasing how small our planet truly is and how a huge diversity of ecosystems are threatened by the changes humans have wrought upon our planet.

The history of humanity is a history of survival through endurance, tool-making and tool use, and through outsmarting every other form of nature: animal, plant, fungus, and even non-living threats. We have leveraged our acquired knowledge of the natural world including the laws and rules that govern how it works to rise to prominence and defeat so many of the natural challenges that every other species has been constrained by.

The development of agriculture, first by farming and later through ranching, revolutionized humanity's relationship with food. Sanitation, through infrastructure projects like granaries, sewers, and (more recently) transit systems have enabled our population centers to grow from villages to towns to cities to the modern metropolis. And the industrial revolution, coupled with the rise of electricity, has led humanity to conquer a multitude of inconvenient obstacles, including even the darkness of night itself.

This composite image of the Earth at night shows the effects of artificial lighting on how our planet appears along the portion that isn't illuminated by sunlight. This image was constructed based on 1994 and 1995 data, and the intervening 25 years have seen approximately a twofold increase in the amount of light humans create at night on Earth. We have conquered the night, but only at a great environmental cost.

But our dominance over the environment and our technological progress comes with a cost: as we've gained the ability to transform our planet, we've ended up transforming it in more ways than we imagined. This was true in the 20th century as well, as problems like:

all plagued our society. Each one of these problems, at the time, seemed like an existential threat to our advanced civilization continuing as we know it.

The famed 'dust bowl' of the 1930s occurred in the United States as a combination of sustained drought, winds, and sub-optimal farming practices led to an agricultural disaster. Elsewhere in the world, these conditions, even with better farming practices, are still at risk of arising. Here, young Australian boy Harry Taylor plays on the dust bowl his family farm became during the 2018 drought. This drought was cited by many as the worst in recorded history, rivaling the catastrophe of 1902 that no one who lived through it is still alive to recount. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

However, for each of these problems, humanity was able to band together and address these obstacles. Improved sanitation practices and new medical therapies help manage or even cure those afflicted with a myriad of infectious diseases and illnesses. Better farming practices have ended the risk of another dust bowl. Air and water regulations make it safe for us to breathe air and drink water.

Even the two most recent problems we faced acid rain and the ozone layer were able to be solved. Through worldwide agreements on what can and cannot be produced and sold to consumers, we've seen the pH of rain return to normal and the hole in the ozone has not only stopped growing, but has begun to repair itself.

From 1998 to the present, the mid-latitudes of Earth have seen a rise in ozone levels in the upper stratosphere. However, the lower stratosphere indicates an offset of the same magnitude. This is evidence that even as the hole in the ozone repairs itself, we must remain vigilant in ensuring this problem is as thoroughly 'solved' as we think our actions should have rendered it.

Of course, the 21st century poses challenges for humanity that we've never faced before. The internet has been a great force for the worldwide spread and access of factual information in places where it had previously never reached, but it's also a great force for the spread of misinformation. We've explored more of our planet than ever, and are realizing that humanity is responsible for a currently ongoing mass extinction that Earth has not witnessed for tens of millions of years.

The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is higher than humans have ever experienced. Global average temperatures continue to rise, as do sea levels, now at an accelerated rate, and will continue to do so for decades. The human population continues to grow, and the past 12 months has seen our species add more CO2 to the atmosphere than any other 12 month span in history.

Although the CO2 emissions produced by the United States this past year is still 13% below the 2005 maximum produced in this country, the world's total emissions have jumped by 23% since that same time. The past few years have seen a continued increase in global greenhouse gas emissions, as energy use has taken off largely due to the rise of new computing practices like Blockchain and Cryptocurrency.

We now live in a time where the actions of a small group of people whether through malicious or benign intentions are capable of leading to global catastrophe. It's not just climate change or the threat of nuclear war that hangs over us; it's a slew of facts.

It matters that a mass extinction is occurring right now: we're destroying this planet's proverbial "book of life" before we've even read it.

It matters that computers are permeating ever-increasing facets of our life, as humanity's recently rising electricity use (after a plateau earlier this decade) is almost entirely due to new computational uses, like cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

It matters that the population is greater than ever before, as managing and distributing the edible food and drinkable water we produce is a greater challenge than ever before.

This August 2019 photograph shows wheat fields (foreground) and canola fields (towards the horizon) grown for food and oil to be pressed from the plant's seed, respectively. According to the South African government's statistical service, "The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry decreased by 13,2% in (2019's) first quarter. The decrease was mainly because of a drop in the production of field crops and horticultural products". Drought, climate change, economic downturn, security issues in rural areas, and uncertainty about the future of land reform in South Africa all pose difficulties for the food, water, and even the economic security of the country. (RODGER BOSCH/AFP/Getty Images)

The big questions facing our species now is how we will tackle these problems, and many of the other existential worries facing humanity today. Can we survive our technological infancy? Can we overcome our greed, our bigotries, and our squabbling nature? Can we band together to find and enact solutions that benefit us all: friend and foe alike?

This Wednesday, October 2, 2019, at 7 PM Eastern Time (4 PM Pacific Time), Sir Martin Rees of Cambridge will deliver a public lecture at Perimeter Institute entitled "Surviving the Century." Martin's latest book, On The Future: Prospects For Humanity, was released in 2018, and his lecture will closely follow much of the ground covered in that tome.

I'm so pleased to be able to live-blog this talk, which you can follow along with in real-time below, or by reading at any time after the conclusion of the lecture. It's always wonderful to get a firsthand perspective on science and society from someone who's concerned with the ever-changing role of a good scientist who pushes our understanding forward for the betterment of humanity and their responsibility to society.

After all, as climate scientist Ben Santer eloquently put it:

"[I]f you spend your entire career trying to advance understanding, you can't walk away from that understanding when someone criticizes it or criticizes you. There's no point in being a scientist if you walk away from everything you devoted your life to."

Our understanding of practically everything is more advanced than ever. Maybe, if we listen to that understanding, we can figure out the best way forward.

(The live-blog will begin, below, just before 7 PM Eastern/4 PM Pacific time. All times are displayed in bold and in Pacific time, and correspond to the actual time the commentary was published.)

The relationship between distance modulus (y-axis, a measure of distance) and redshift (x-axis), along with the quasar data, in yellow and blue, with supernove data in cyan. The red points are averages of the yellow quasar points binned together. While the supernova and quasar data agree with one another where both are present (up to redshift of 1.5 or so), the quasar data goes much farther, indicating a deviation from the constant (solid line) interpretation. Note how quasar redshifts are not quantized in any way.

3:55 PM: Welcome! The public lecture is just a few minutes away, and I realize that many of you might not know who Martin Rees is or why he's such a big deal. Martin is an astrophysicist and cosmologist who's worked on black holes, quasars, the cosmic microwave background, and understanding how cosmic structure forms.

To the older people in physics/astronomy, he's probably best known for using quasar distributions to disprove the idea of the steady-state theory even after the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background. To younger people, he's best known for working on uncovering how the "dark ages" ended (when enough stars had formed that the UV radiation flooding the Universe reionized it), and uncovering the link between black holes and quasars.

The prediction of the Hoyle State and the discovery of the triple-alpha process is perhaps the most stunningly successful use of anthropic reasoning in scientific history.

3:59 PM: More recently, Martin Rees has been more interested in the intersection of science, ethics, and policy/politics, but also in anthropic reasoning: the idea that we can say meaningful things about reality just from the fact that we exist, and therefore the Universe must exist in such a way that makes our existence possible.

If you worry that this treads troublingly close to religion, the short answer is: it can. Let's see how well Martin Rees toes the line tonight!

The signs of the zodiac and horoscopes are common, but the motion of the planets do not affect the lives or dispositions or personalities of humans in any discernible scientific fashion.

4:04 PM: No, Martin Rees will not do your horoscopes. He says that scientists are rotten forecasters, but they're not as bad as economists.

Ha ha.

Let's hope that's the end of "punching down" towards less rigorous disciplines than physics and astronomy.

4:07 PM: Martin Rees is talking about population growth. And yes, it's been fast and enormous recently, but there's not going to be a population explosion that last for infinitely long (or increase exponentially indefinitely). Instead, most models predict that population will plateau at around 10-11 billion humans, and that's it. But yes: 9 billion by mid-century is a big number to feed by mid-century, and it's coming fast.

Agricultural sprinklers giving water by intermission to Leek plants. Conventional farming may not be enough to feed a rising population.

4:09 PM: He's speaking about the need to feed the planet, and talking about Gandhi's famous "there's enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed." He's talking about population projections far into the future, and the big problem of "how do we feed all these people," but there are many reasons to hope.

For one, population levels off as economic prosperity increases. This is happening in Asia already, has already happened in the Americas and Europe, and the biggest uncertainty is when will this happen in Africa. Rees's prediction that "Nigeria alone will have 900 million people" by the end of the century is the most pessimistic one I've heard since Paul Ehrlich's discredited "population bomb" idea.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere can be determined from both ice core measurements, which easily go back hundreds of thousands of years, and by atmospheric monitoring stations, like those atop Mauna Loa. The increase in atmospheric CO2 since the mid-1700s is staggering, and continues unabated.

4:13 PM: And yes, of course, CO2 is increasing, the planet is getting warmer, the sea levels are rising, and all of these problems are getting worse, faster, as time goes on.

Rees is also being careful about mentioning uncertainties: in population, in CO2, and in the range of uncertainty of climate models and fossil fuel scenarios.

4:15 PM: This is a good point and one that I normally make in different contexts: world policy is made by the voters (and the incumbents who court those voters for re-election) of first-world countries and what their representatives think will be popular. However, the roadmap to a low-carbon future is challenging, as the benefits will mostly trickle to relatively underdeveloped countries.

That's a hard political sell: do something that makes things more expensive for you, in the short-term, to make the quality of life better for others in the long-term.

A fusion device based on magnetically confined plasma. Hot fusion is scientifically valid, but has not yet been practically achieved to reach the 'breakeven' point.

4:18 PM: So, what are the solutions? For energy, Rees mentions solar, wind, conservation, and new nuclear reactors, as well as research into fusion. This should be a no-brainer option: we need to introduce clean and economical systems of energy generation, because energy use is predicted to continue rising; the only way to reduce our carbon footprint under those conditions is to produce more electricity, and to do it in a greener fashion.

Signs and protesters from the 2013 March Against Monsanto in Vancouver, BC. While there may be legitimate complaints over our modern agricultural system, GMOs are not the evil technology that people make them out to be.

4:21 PM: "We should be advocates of scientific advances and new technologies, not luddites." (Paraphrase.) You would think this would be a non-controversial statement, but there are a large number of green energy advocates who see a rejection of science and technology as the only path towards a sustainable future.

Well, not if we want to meet the modern challenges that we're actively facing and creating. More nutrient dense food, greater food production, better energy usages, and improved resiliency to financial disasters, natural catastrophes, and food/water/political instability are necessities we should all be investing in.

The Patagonian glaciers of South America are sadly among the fastest melting in the world, but their beauty is undeniable. This photo was taken by the International Space Station, which completes a full orbit around Earth in approximately 90 minutes. Just minutes earlier, the ISS was flying over a tropical rainforest, showcasing how small our planet truly is and how a huge diversity of ecosystems are threatened by the changes humans have wrought upon our planet.

4:24 PM: This is a problem that Martin Rees is identifying (specific to vaccines, biotech, or particular public health initiatives): how can we regulate the use (and misuse) of these technologies in a responsible way. As Rees put it, "even the global village will have its village idiots."

Balancing freedom, privacy, and security is of paramount importance. It's hard to see how it will be implemented, of course, but my visceral reaction is to look to the locations that got it the most wrong (*cough* Facebook *cough*), and to learn the lessons of opting out/in, the need for curation of factual, truthful information, and responsible actions.

Ed Fredkin joined contract research firm Bolt Beranek & Newman (BBN) in the early 1960s where he wrote a PDP-1 assembler (FRAP) and participated in early projects using the machine. He went on to become a major contributor in the field of artificial intelligence.

4:28 PM: As AI systems become more intrusive, pervasive; as the cloud begins storing information about all our actions, our locations, our emotions, etc.; as our face gets recognized everywhere we go; we lose our privacy. We lose our connection with technologies whenever computers outpace humans. And we lose our connection with each other (something Rees isn't touching on) as we layer technological barrier upon technological barrier between our old-style face-to-face interactions.

Robots can't learn by watching human beings. Common sense and etiquette cannot be learned by a robot (yet). And agility/dexterity of a robot is far below that of a small child. And yes, computers can defeat humans at Go, but only by using about a million times the energy of a human brain.

4:32 PM: I am not a fan of this current Rees proposal: everyone must work and this should be work that cannot be done by computers. He thinks we can re-employ every unskilled laborer doing this. I just don't see the demand being there, but this is not a question that has a scientific answer.

I just don't see it happening; people are better than a well-programmed machine at only a small number of tasks, and what can be automated out of our error-prone ways should be.

Graduate students might love their work and the knowledge they gain from doing it, but they can ill-afford to be the highest-taxed Americans. Here, Michael Hopkins, left, and Bryce Lee, both graduate students at Virginia Tech. are shown demonstrating autonomous robots.

4:35 PM: There are a lot of fears around autonomous robots, and then brings up Kurzweil's immortality fantasies of AI outpacing humanity, becoming more intelligent, and then humans would begin to transcend biology.

I have thought, for a long time, that people who think along these lines need to understand something: you are not your brain. You are not a computer program; you do not reason the way a computer does, and a computer/brain interface is extraordinarily limited.

Instead, you are the electrical signals that propagate through your brain and body. That, after all, is the difference between a living and dead human: the electrical activity in your brain. Kill someone and the activity stops. Copying your brain to a computer would not keep that electrical signal the same; it would cease to be you. Kurzweil's dream, of downloading your intelligence to a computer, is basically doing "copy, paste, and then delete the original."

Therefore, you die. Only if we accept that aspect of reality can we effectively do something meaningfully positive with the lives we have. (At least, that's what I think.)

The curvature of space, as induced by the planets and Sun in our Solar System, must be taken into account for any observations that a spacecraft or other observatory would make. General Relativity's effects, even the subtle ones, cannot be ignored in applications ranging from space exploration to GPS satellites to a light signal passing near the Sun.

4:38 PM: Martin Rees thinks that the Solar System will be filled, in the future, with militarized probes. Yes, Cassini, New Horizons, Juno, Messenger, and other recent planetary/Solar System missions are now outdated and will be superseded by new technologies. We will be better at doing astronomy, science, and understanding our Universe.

But militarized? I don't see it. Martin Rees also thinks that the era of crewed spaceflight is over. And sure, if we're willing to abandon our bodies, of course there's no point in crewed spaceflight.

My recommendation would be twofold: accept our physical reality as it is (i.e., as we understand it to be), and then invest in science, technology, R&D, and forward-looking endeavors that better the future of humanity as a whole as much as possible. But this is a tall order, too.

The very first launch of the Falcon Heavy, on February 6, 2018, was a tremendous success. The rocket reached low-Earth-orbit, deployed its payload successfully, and the main boosters returned to Cape Kennedy, where they landed successfully. The promise of a reusable heavy-lift vehicle is now a reality, and could lower launch costs to ~$1000/pound. Private spaceflight may play a role in our future, but I hope it's not the only one.

4:42 PM: Now I'm disappointed. After all the talk about banding together as a world for the good of humanity, and what's difficult to sell to various countries with various national ideologies and values, Martin Rees sees privatized spaceflight as the only prospect for humans traveling to worlds other than Earth.

Maybe he's right; maybe I'm the one who's unrealistic. But I still hope that the civilization-scale adventures and enterprises we dream of can be accomplished by humanity if we band together as a world in cooperation. It's my hope for the future of space exploration, for the future of our energy needs, for the future of agriculture and food/water production and distribution, and for the future of basic research, particle and low-temperature physics, and so much more.

I am not looking forward to a post-human era. I am looking forward to a pro-human era.

This is an aerial view of a Solar Farm in the Ukraine, which is a carbon-free power plant once fully set up and installed. (Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

4:47 PM: Here's something you won't get in Martin Rees's talk: what a tremendous tipping point will look like. Right now, sunlight is the most important tool for agriculture: it determines what we grow, where, and in what quantities. But someday, technology will reach a point where it's going to be more efficient to:

We will someday reach the point where this will be better than growing crops with direct sunlight, outdoors. That's quite a dream, but when we reach the tech level, it will transform our civilization.

An artist's rendition of a potentially habitable exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star. When it comes to life beyond Earth, we have yet to discover our first inhabited world, but TESS is bringing us the star systems which will be our most likely, early candidates for discovering it.

4:50 PM: What about life in the Universe? We have detected thousands of exoplanets, and will have the prospect of detecting life beyond our Solar System, from microbial life to intelligent aliens. This will be a tremendous advance that we can expect (and maybe even hope) to start probing this century.

Today on Earth, ocean water only boils, typically, when lava or some other superheated material enters it. But in the far future, the Sun's energy will be enough to do it, and on a global scale.

4:54 PM: Let's remember something important: life on Earth is organic, but organic life won't be possible forever. Rees sees that human intelligence will outpace human intelligence, and will become the dominant force of "intelligence" not only on our planet, but in the Universe.

He thinks that any alien signal we find won't be biological in nature, but electronic.

I must be crazy to be on the pro-biology side... but I can't help but be sentimental about our own lives and existences. Somehow, to me, they have value intrinsic to themselves, that electronic beings, even an electronic intelligence, wouldn't have. There are my biological biases, laid bare for the whole world to see.

An illustration of multiple, independent Universes, causally disconnected from one another in an ever-expanding cosmic ocean, is one depiction of the Multiverse idea.

4:58 PM: Was there more than one Big Bang, or just one? If there were many, are there varieties in the physical laws and constants that they obey?

If we take inflation as we understand it today, the answers are: many, occurring in forever causally disconnected regions, with the same laws and constants everywhere.

But people do sure love to speculate that there may be more, and if (that's a really big if), as Martin Rees contends, they may have varying laws and constants, then maybe we can use anthropic reasoning (which is a very unappealing substitute for science) to speculate, and then maybe (which I doubt) it will be a question that falls into the realm of physics, not metaphysics.

Ermin Omerovic, a 19-year-old man living in the central town of Jajce, is seen eating pizza using his bionic hand. Ermin had a work accident and lost his right arm. After a surgery, carried out for the first time in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Balkans, he reaches his brain-controlled prosthetic hand. But there is a big difference between a technologically augmented human versus a machine that could be considered alive. (Elman Omic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

5:02 PM: "Technology needs to be wisely directed, and directed by a value that science alone cannot decide." Well, at least this should be non-controversial: if we wish to act ethically, we need a code of ethics and morality for humanity, and that code transcends science.

Will that include machine intelligence. (Is Data from Star Trek alive, and am I arguing the opposite position from Captain Picard?)

5:06 PM: What about designer babies? Where do we draw the ethical line?

I have a feeling it will be very much like the early days of any technology: things we're uncomfortable with today will become commonplace tomorrow. Ethics erode quickly with the acceleration of the enabling technology's ubiquity.

5:09 PM: Martin Rees is now fielding a question about the anti-science trend, but instead focuses on the optimistic take: people are actually interested in science. Kids love dinosaurs and kids love space: even things that are divorced from their reality and their experience appeals to people. Extreme and ill-informed opinions get more traction, and Rees believes this is what magnifies the rise of populism.

This is astute, to me.

But Rees says it's important that everyone have a feel for science, as most of the decisions that have to be made by politicians involve science (and economics and ethics), and so to be an informed citizen, you need to have some feel for science and for quantitative numbers. And it's a part of our culture, too; it's the only universal culture that straddles all bounds of faith and nationality. (Man, if the rest of this talk was like the answer to this question, I'd be fawning!)

The Future Circular Collider is a proposal to build, for the 2030s, a successor to the LHC with a circumference of up to 100 km: nearly four times the size of the present underground tunnels. This will enable, with current magnet technology, the creation of a lepton collider that can produce ~10^4 times the number of W, Z, H, and t particles that have been produced by prior and current colliders.

5:12 PM: If we wish to succeed as a species, we have to band together as a planet, with multi-national bodies that regulate technology, otherwise the potential for abuses will be too great. This includes a worldwide carbon policy, but not a worldwide energy initiative, as new innovations and technologies will have a monetary payback/payoff, so there's an incentive to benefit the entire world on this front.

5:14 PM: The final question is to speculate about alien life, but maybe it's better to speculate about our own future instead.

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Advances Vs. Consequences: What Does The 21st Century Have In Store For Humanity? - Forbes

Space can solve our looming resource crisis but the space industry itself must be sustainable – The Conversation AU

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Australias space industry is set to grow into a multibillion-dollar sector that could provide tens of thousands of jobs and help replenish the dwindling stocks of precious resources on Earth. But to make sure they dont flame out prematurely, space companies need to learn some key lessons about sustainability.

Sustainability is often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Often this definition is linked to the economic need for growth. In our context, we link it to the social and material needs of our communities.

We cannot grow without limit. In 1972, the influential report The Limits to Growth argued that if societys growth continued at projected rates, humans would experience a sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity by 2070. Recent research from the University of Melbournes sustainability institute updated and reinforced these conclusions.

Our insatiable hunger for resources increases as we continue to strive to improve our way of life. But how does our resource use relate to the space industry?

Read more: Dig deep: Australia's mining know-how makes it the perfect $150m partner for NASA's Moon and Mars shots

There are two ways we could try to avert this forecast collapse: we could change our behaviour from consumption to conservation, or we could find new sources to replenish our stocks of non-renewable resources. Space presents an opportunity to do the latter.

Asteroids provide an almost limitless opportunity to mine rare earth metals such as gold, cobalt, nickle and platinum, as well as the resources required for the future exploration of our solar system, such as water ice. Water ice is crucial to our further exploration efforts as it can be refined into liquid water, oxygen, and rocket fuel.

But for future space missions to top up our dwindling resources on Earth, our space industries themselves must be sustainable. That means building a sustainable culture in these industries as they grow.

Triple bottom-line accounting is one of the most common ways to assess the sustainability of a company, based on three crucial areas of impact: social, environmental, and financial. A combined framework can be used to measure performance in these areas.

In 2006, UTS sustainable business researcher Suzanne Benn and her colleagues introduced a method for assessing the corporate sustainability of an organisation in the social and environmental areas. This work was extended in 2014 by her colleague Bruce Perrott to include the financial dimension.

This model allows the assessment of an organisation based on one of six levels of sustainability. The six stages, in order, are: rejection, non-responsiveness, compliance, efficiency, strategic proactivity, and the sustaining corporation.

In my research, which I presented this week at the Australian Space Research Conference in Adelaide, I used these models to assess the sustainability of the American space company SpaceX.

Using freely available information about SpaceX, I benchmarked the company as compliant (level 3 of 6) within the sustainability framework.

While SpaceX has been innovative in designing ways to travel into space, this innovation has not been for environmental reasons. Instead, the company is focused on bringing down the cost of launches.

SpaceX also relies heavily on government contracts. Its profitability has been questioned by several analysts with the capital being raised through the use of loans and the sale of future tickets in the burgeoning space tourism industry. Such a transaction might be seen as an exercise in revenue generation, but accountants would classify such a sale as a liability.

The growing use of forward sales is a growing concern for the industry, with other tourism companies such as Virgin Galactic failing to secure growth. It has been reported that Virgin Galactic will run out of customers by 2023 due to the high costs associated with space travel.

Read more: NASA and space tourists might be in our future but first we need to decide who can launch from Australia

SpaceXs culture also rates poorly for sustainability. As at many startups, employees at SpaceX are known to work more than 80 hours a week without taking their mandatory breaks. This problem was the subject of a lawsuit settled in 2017. Such behaviour contravenes Goal 8 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which seeks to achieve decent work for all.

Australia is in a unique position. As the newest player in the global space industry, the investment opportunity is big. The federal government predicts that by 2030, the space sector could be a A$12 billion industry employing 20,000 people.

Presentations at the Australian Space Research Conference by the Australian Space Agency made one thing clear: regulation is coming. We can use this to gain a competitive edge.

Read more: From tourism to terrorists, fast-moving space industries create new ethical challenges

By embedding sustainability principles into emerging space startups, we can avoid the economic cost of having to correct bad behaviours later.

We will gain the first-mover advantage on implementing these principles, which will in turn increase investor confidence and improve company valuations.

To ensure that the space sector can last long enough to provide real benefits for Australia and the world, its defining principle must be sustainability.

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Space can solve our looming resource crisis but the space industry itself must be sustainable - The Conversation AU

View the International Space Station at its best from the UK – Astronomy Now Online

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The International Space Station (ISS) is in the midst of a series of evening flights over the British Isles and Western Europe. You can obtain predictions of when and where to look for it by using our interactive online Almanac as explained in the article below. This illustration shows a wide-angle view of the ISS track centred on the west as seen from Cardiff at 8:24pmBST on 30September 2019, when the spacecraft passes close to the bright star Arcturus. AN graphic by Ade Ashford.If you chance upon a moving star rivalling planet Venus in brilliance, burning with a steady light that glides across the night sky from west to east, then you can be confident that youre witnessing the International Space Station (ISS) any object that flashes rapidly, or possesses red and green running lights is an aircraft. The ISS is easily seen from the most light-polluted city, and its current orbit enables it to be well seen from the British Isles and Western Europe over the next few nights.

ISS fact file:The International Space Station orbits Earth every 92.7minutes at an altitude that varies between 411 and 421kilometres, travelling at an average speed of 27,500kilometres per hour (7.6kilometres per second). The spacecraft completes 15 circuits of our planet each day in a path inclined to the equator by 51.6 degrees, meaning that it can appear overhead at all latitudes between 51.6N and 51.6S. For observers in the British Isles, the ISS can therefore be seen overhead at all locations south of a line drawn between Swansea and London, appearing lower in the sky for all places north of this line.The International Space Station on 23 May 2010 as seen from the departing Space Shuttle Atlantis during STS-132. Image credit: NASA/Crew of STS-132/Wikimedia Commons.Using Astronomy Nows Almanac to make ISS viewing predictionsIn our online Almanac, select the closest city to your location from the Country and City pull-down menus before ensuring that the box beside AddISSpasses? has a tick in it. The UK uses British Summer Time (BST) until 27October in 2019, so the DaylightSavingsTime? box should be checked. The table underneath the Moon phase data then shows any visible nighttime passes of the International Space Station over your chosen location during the next few days.

Here is a current example computed for Cardiff:For the given Date in year/month/day format, LocalTime is the instant the ISS first becomes visible and Duration indicates the length of the sighting in minutes. At the given LocalTime, look in the direction indicated by Approach and, assuming no clouds, you should see the ISS as a slow moving star.

Max.elevation is how high the Station will get above your horizon (90 is overhead, while 20 is about the span of an outstretched hand at arms length) and Departure indicates where the ISS will be when it vanishes from sight. Sometimes an appearance or disappearance occurs well up in the sky when the Station emerges into sunlight or slips into Earths shadow, respectively.

In the example above, as seen from the Welsh capital on the evening of Monday, 30September, the ISS first appears 18 above the western (W) horizon at 8:22pm in a viewing window lasting three minutes. It attains a peak altitude of 67, still in the west, before fading into Earths shadow 58 above the eastern (E) horizon around 8:25pm (all times BST).

Important note: the precise timing of an ISS pass is highly location-specific, plus the spacecrafts track is subject to change due to periodic boosts to a higher orbit or to avoid debris, hence predictions made on the day are more accurate.

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View the International Space Station at its best from the UK - Astronomy Now Online

Brimstone battery bags on board Space Station – FW Business

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A fire protection products company in the Fort Wayne area has collaborated with a Reston, Virginia-based science and technology company to supply the International Space Station with lithium-ion Battery Fire Containment Bags.

Spencerville-based Brimstone Fire Protection partnered with Leidos on the project for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, according to a prepared statement.

Leidos had NASAs ISS Vehicle Office and Johnson Space Center Battery Group cargo mission contract to develop a safe new packing product for lithium-ion batteries stored on the space station and teamed up with Brimstone for that.

Their new product was brought aboard the space station the last weekend of September.

NASA safety standards previously relied on extensive pre-flight screening of lithium-ion batteries and storage constraints once they were on board the space station.

But, the ISS has seen an influx of new, smaller payload providers, each using their own type of battery packs to power the equipment they are transporting there for experiments, the statement said.

This created a need for a standardized battery packaging product for NASAs Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, it said.

NASA, Leidos and Brimstone started an extensive process early this year of designing, then testing, packaging made specifically for battery storage in space.

A detailed series of frequent, repeated tests on Brimstones Fire Containment Bags, which started early this year, showed when used with an insulating wrap they prevented thermal runaway into other bags touching them.

This meets all the criteria for the envisioned NASA implementation, including size, materials, accessibility, packing density, and cost, the statement said.

Daniel Barineau, a Leidos senior project manager who has supported ISS and Space Shuttle hardware development projects for 30 years, praised Brimstone and its leadership for rapid delivery and frequent consultation, which included offering historical expertise on the development of the battery stowage bags.

I have had the chance to work with many subcontractors and suppliers. In all those years, I have never come across a company that was as responsive, customer focused, and easy to work with as Brimstone, he said.

They have modified their off-the-shelf designs to meet our needs and have shown a willingness to go above and beyond to make our efforts a success under a compressed schedule.

Recreational vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and dealers celebrated the opening of the newly renovated, 18,000-square-foot RV Technical Institute facility in Elkhart last month.

A grand opening for the facility there at 3333 Middlebury St. took place Sept. 23. Visitors had a chance to see its new office space, student lounge, seven classrooms and 10,000-square-foot bay area with RVs for hand-on training as well as component parts lesson areas.

Our dedicated staff have created a visionary, forward-thinking program designed to solve our industry-wide need for trained technicians, Curt Hemmeler, executive director for the institute, said in a statement.

Today marks the first step on that journey as we officially open our doors and invite students into our new facility to become trained technicians, expand on their existing education and launch the program to regional partners across the country.

The RV Industry Associations board approved a comprehensive strategic plan and a multi-million-dollar investment in the institute a couple of years ago to boost RV owner satisfaction and strengthen repeat business.

I believe in our new model for technician training and the impact increased tech training will have on the entire industry, Matt Miller, the institutes chairman, said in the statement.

This initiative will help close the skills gap, draw new talent into the growing RV industry, retain existing RV techs and ultimately create a better experience for our customers, the RV consumer, said Miller, who also is president of the luxury motor coach manufacturer, Newmar Corp.

The institutes strategic plan called for it to address the industrys trained technician shortage and establish metrics to track the RV customer experience with a goal of reducing repair event cycle times. The statement said it has received broad industry support.

We now have a standard, a uniform process for training, testing and certification that will be incorporated at a national level through a vast network of regional partners, Craig Kirby, the associations interim president, said in the statement.

Curt came into the process with a vision that combines both his business acumen and his experience within the education and training world. Curt will also tell you that as someone who got his start in the Air Force as a technician, at heart, he is still a tech himself, Kirby said.

Thinking like a technician allows Curt to view the Institutes mission through this lens, developing a program that includes improving the career path so we can better recruit and retain technicians across the country.

The association established the institute with a $5 million investment, which was matched by Go RVing, a consumer outreach campaign it manages with the RV Dealers Association.

Comcast Corp. is increasing broadband speeds for a most of its Indiana customers, who are on some of its most popular Xfinity Internet packages.

The Philadelphia-based provider of broadband, Cable TV and internet phone services started the upgrades late last month. It said it was increasing its Performance tier to 100 megabits per second from 60 Mbps, Blast! to 200 from 150, Extreme to 300 from 250 and Extreme Pro to 600 from 400.

Close to 85% of the companys Indiana customers are on one of the plans scheduled for the faster speeds and the upgrades will take place whether customers are buying Xfinity Internet as part of a package or on a stand-alone basis, the company said in a statement.

Comcast increased speeds for its Blast! and Extreme Indiana subscribers last year, and during the past two years its Indiana customers have seen speeds increase more than 50% on average, it said.

The increases are designed to keep pace with growing demand for high-capacity, extremely fast connections capable of handling an explosion of smart home devices with features requiring Internet access.

Comcast has doubled its fiber miles and quadrupled its network capacity to bring gigabit speeds to more homes than any other internet service provider during the past four years, it said.

Were not only delivering the broadband speed and capacity that customers need to run more sophisticated home networks, were setting the bar for coverage and control, too, Tim Collins, regional senior vice president for Comcast Indiana, said in the statement.

Modern homes require fast Internet, wall-to-wall Wi-Fi, and a way to manage the connectivity needs of the entire household. With xFi, were giving our Internet customers the tools to manage the growing number of connected devices, apps and technologies in their homes.

Customers who lease a gateway from the company will receive the upgrade without needing to reset their modems for it, the statement said.

The company recommends subscribers with their own modems check online to see if they will need a new one to handle the faster speeds.

Jason West of Digital Watchdog was scheduled to speak at the next meeting of the Networking Information Technology Associations Fort Wayne chapter.

West was to speak on internet protocol-based security trends and best practices to help protect employees and assets during the meeting scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Oct. 4 at Catablu, 6372 W. Jefferson Blvd. in Fort Wayne.

With a video security career of more than 15 years, West has helped design and install those types of systems for a variety of industrial, commercial, education, retail and residential customers.

In addition to creating safe environments, he works to design systems that are easy to use and are capable of providing court admissible evidence quickly.

For the rest of this year and next year, the local chapter of NITA said it plans to meet on the first Friday instead of the first Thursday of each month.

The Fort Wayne Inventors Club has scheduled its next meeting for 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at TekVenture, 1550 Griffin St. in Fort Wayne.

The group, formed to advance invention in the region, requires no dues or fees and asks only that individuals come to its meetings with a curious mind, desire to learn and a willingness to help fellow inventors.

More information about it is available from http://www.fortwayneinventorsclub.org or by contacting Dave Gross, president and CEO of Collision Control Communications.

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Brimstone battery bags on board Space Station - FW Business

Unpiloted Japanese Cargo Ship Delivers Fresh Batteries and More to Space Station – Space.com

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A robotic Japanese cargo ship successfully arrived at the International Space Station Saturday (Sept. 28) carrying more than 4 tons of supplies, including new batteries for the outpost's solar power grid.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) HTV-8 cargo ship pulled up to the space station at 7:12 a.m. EDT (1112 GMT), where it was captured by a robotic arm wielded by NASA astronaut Christina Koch inside the orbiting lab. The station and HTV-8, also known as Kounotori 8 (Kounotori means "white stork" in Japanese), were soaring 262 miles (422 kilometers) over Angola in southern Africa at the time.

"What you all have done is a testament to what we can accomplish when international teams work together towards a common goal," Koch radioed to NASA's Mission Control in Houston and flight controllers at JAXA's Tsukuba Space Center in Japan. "We're honored to have Kounotori on board, and look forward to a successful and productive mission together."

Later today, flight controllers on Earth will use the station's robotic arm to attach HTV-8 to an Earth-facing berth on the station's U.S.-built Harmony module.

Video: How Japan's HTV Cargo Ships WorkRelated: Japan's HTV Space Truck Explained (Infographic)

JAXA launched the HTV-8 spaceraft on a H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan on Sept. 24. The spacecraft is packed with food, water, experiment hardware and other supplies for the station's crew.

Chief among HTV-8's cargo are six new lithium-ion batteries to replace aging nickel-hydrogen batteries on two of the outpost's power channels. NASA astronauts will replace the batteries during a series of spacewalks next month, NASA officials have said. During those spacewalks, astronauts will also make repairs to a $2 billion cosmic ray detector, called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, using tools delivered by HTV-8, according to Spaceflight Now.

Photos: Japan's Robotic Space Cargo Ship Fleet

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's HTV-8 cargo ship arrives at the International Space Station on Sept. 28, 2019 to deliver more than 4 tons of supplies to the orbiting laboratory.

(Image credit: NASA TV)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's HTV-8 cargo ship arrives at the International Space Station on Sept. 28, 2019 to deliver more than 4 tons of supplies to the orbiting laboratory.

(Image credit: NASA TV)

HTV-8 is also carrying a novel prototype laser communications system, called the Small Optical Link for International Space Station, developed by JAXA and the Sony Computer Science Laboratories to boost data communication speeds with the space station.

"Long-distance laser communication technology enables transformation of our society with real-time broad-band communication around the globe as well as expanding the humanosphere and increased activity in space," Sony CSL President Hiroaki Kitano said in a statement.

Other cargo on HTV-8 include a new Cell Biology Experiment Facility, several small CubeSats and an experiment called Hourglass to test gravity's effects on powder and granular material.

Japan's HTV spacecraft are part of a robotic fleet of spacecraft designed to ferry fresh supplies to the International Space Station. At the end of its mission, HTV-8 will be packed with trash and unneeded items, detached from the station and commanded to burn up in Earth's atmosphere for disposal.

Email Tariq Malik attmalik@space.comor follow him@tariqjmalik. Follow us@SpacedotcomandFacebook.

Need more space? You can get 5 issues of our partner "All About Space" Magazine for $5 for the latest amazing news from the final frontier!

(Image credit: All About Space magazine)

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Unpiloted Japanese Cargo Ship Delivers Fresh Batteries and More to Space Station - Space.com

Exploring Regenerative Medicine in Microgravity Aboard the International Space Station – UPJ Athletics

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Learning how everyday things work in space, such as how to effectively brush teeth or how hair grows, is intriguing, but knowledge of how medical research translates from Earth's surface to above its atmosphere is limited.

A new alliance between the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory aims to drive the progress of regenerative medicine research in microgravity environments specifically, aboard the ISS.

The questionis What can we do in space that we can't do on Earth that makes a difference?" said William Wagner, director of the McGowan Institute. "That's a pretty exciting question, because it's currently unanswered; we don't know what the key value of microgravity is. I think when we find that, we can attract investment, we're going to begin to identify what the most promising technology is."

The ISS National Laboratory and the McGowan Institute will collaborate with partners from industry as well as other academic research centers and government agencies to drive the progress of regenerative medicine research aboard the ISS. As part of this alliance, Pitt will develop facilities on campus to advance research and meet with potential partners, while working in coordination with the ISS National Laboratory on flight opportunities to the orbiting laboratory. The program will focus on microgravity life sciences research and development, with a line of sight toward products and services for clinical application on Earth.

"What has to happen now is knowing how we can leverage research into a treatment or technology that someone will invest in because it will replace the current way we do things here on Earth," Wagner said. "We are very enthusiastic about this, because we believe the time is right to move from the observational to the more practical, moving things toward commercialization. One of the things we're going to try to do is give industry the best and brightest research in our country, not just at Pitt, but other universities as well, to pitch different concepts and partner with those concepts to help develop them."

An example of this research in action could include exploiting the unique behavior of stem cells in microgravity in order to improve cell-based therapies for a variety of diseases and impairments, such as traumatic brain injury and type I diabetes. Similarly, microgravity could allow 3D printers to create complex tissue structures that are difficult to achieve in the presence of full gravity.

This alliance a core element of the ISS National Laboratory Industrial Biomedicine Program was unveiled at the 8th annual ISS Research and Development Conference held in Atlanta earlier this year.

University leaders are optimistic this alliance will be the next big step in space research and commercialization.

The McGowan Institute has built on its deep history advancing the development of artificial organs to establish a position of internationally recognized leadership in regenerative medicine, said Rob A. Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research at Pitt. The ISS National Laboratory will benefit from that deep expertise, as well as our commitment to rapid clinical translation.

The products of the Industrial Biomedicine Program will help build the fundamental business case for the industrialization of crewed platforms in low Earth orbit. In future alliances, the ISS National Laboratory will work with companies and research partners who seek to find solutions to common problems on Earth through space-based experimentation on the ISS National Laboratory.

The ISS National Laboratory is proud to announce this alliance with Pitt and McGowan in order to develop biomedical products in space that could benefit human health on Earth, said ISS National Laboratory Chief Strategy Officer Richard Leach. Part of the role of the ISS National Laboratory is to create and implement innovative strategies to enhance the research capacity of the orbiting laboratory, and we believe alliances like this will pave the way for future collaborations to advance the discoveries of space-based science.

More details about the alliance are available on the ISS National Laboratorys website.

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Exploring Regenerative Medicine in Microgravity Aboard the International Space Station - UPJ Athletics

Jessica Meir conducting experiments on space station that could aid cancer treatment – Bangor Daily News

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Dmitri Lovetsky | AP

Dmitri Lovetsky | AP

Astronaut Jessica Meir, a member of the main crew of the expedition to the International Space Station, waves prior the launch of Soyuz MS-15 space ship at the Russian-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Sept. 25, 2019.

Maine astronaut Jessica Meir has been aboard the International Space Station only a few days, but she is already at work on experiments that could prove key to cancer patients down here on Earth.

Meir on Tuesday tweeted pictures of herself observing protein crystals growing in microgravity during her third microscopy session.

Without gravity, crystals can grow bigger and more pure, she said in the tweet.

A new class of drugs, made from engineered proteins, stimulate the bodys own immune system to fight cancer and other ailments, but typically need to be delivered in large quantities at a hospital, where it may take several hours for a patient to receive a single dose, according to NASA.

This research Meir is engaged in, which isnt possible on Earth, could yield highly concentrated protein crystals that, according to NASA, would allow such drugs to be delivered as a simple injection in a doctors office. Besides potential applications for cancer treatment, NASA says this research may prove beneficial for developing treatments for Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, viral infections and liver disease.

On Sept. 25, Meir became the third Mainer, and first Maine woman, to go into space when the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft carried her from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. Meir is from Caribou.

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Jessica Meir conducting experiments on space station that could aid cancer treatment - Bangor Daily News

International Space Station flying over Cape Hatteras Thursday Night – Island Free Press

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Images courtesy of NASA and heavens-above.com

Per a recent update from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS), the International Space Station (ISS) will be flying over Cape Hatteras on Thursday night starting at 7:57 p.m. Assuming skies are clear, the ISS will look like a bright star arriving from the West-Northwest before disappearing in the Southeastern sky at 8:02 p.m.

Per the CHNS, there are currently two cosmonauts from Russia and four astronauts from the U.S. and Italy on board the ISS, and they are conducting a variety of science experiments ranging from the 3-D printing of human organs to studying the structure of car tires. Among the U.S. group is North Carolina State graduate Christina Koch who, upon her return to Earth in February of 2020, will set the record for the longest spaceflight for a woman providing NASA with information about how the body reacts in space for future missions to the Moon and Mars.

For more information on the ISSs current location, visit https://heavens-above.com/

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International Space Station flying over Cape Hatteras Thursday Night - Island Free Press

Sustainability in Space: What California Green Building Standards and the Von Braun Space Station Have in Common – ArchDaily

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Sustainability in Space: What California Green Building Standards and the Von Braun Space Station Have in Common

As California makes strides in sustainability, the Von Braun Space Station is taking rather large steps for humankind. Exploring the great unknown does not have to mean abandoning our planet it can mean just the opposite. In fact, this space station could be our most monumental step toward a sustainable future.

Pioneered by the Gateway Foundation, the project is named after the father of American space flight, rocket scientist and space architect Wernher von Braun who popularized the rotating space station concept. Picture the setting from 2001: A Space Odyssey but unlike the cold-feeling contemporary interiors from the film, the Von Braun is designed to feel like home a hotel for tourists and a research area for scientists equipped with bedrooms, bars and restaurants brought down to earth (in a sense) by artificial gravity and natural materials.

Senior design architect for this astronomical endeavor is Tim Alatorre. The name of his Sacramento based firm, Domum, means coming home in Latin. After all, coming home is a universal feeling.

Just like many terrestrial projects, our goal on the Von Braun is to help you feel at home, Alatorre says.

By 2025, one hundred fifty passengers will experience a completely sustainable lifestyle in space powerful inspiration for how we can save our home from the impending climate crisis.

Responding to this vital need, The California Green Building Standards Code became law in 2009. The Standards require sustainable construction practices for energy, water and material efficiency among other green initiatives growing with each code cycle.

To refine sustainable design in our ever-changing environments, Alatorre expands upon Californias building philosophy within the realm of space architecture, exploring sustainability for the states homes and businesses and beyond.

Space architecture can take sustainability to the extreme. The Von Brauns furniture will be made in orbit with 3D printers, and those plastics can always be melted back into filament and used again.

At its essence, space architecture explores ways to reuse and recycle. Every kilogram that goes into orbit comes at a significant cost. So sustainability is critical. While architects are confined by certain boundaries on Earth, space architects get even more creative out of necessity. Here, many pour water down the drain and dont bat an eye. In space, every ounce of water gets purified and reused. Toilet water can be purified and then cycled to be flushed again or used as a ballast system to balance the ship or to make fuel to power the rockets.

Sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie at first glance, but think about all the commonplace tools we use today. The GPS and the microchip started out in space and became integral parts of our lives, seemingly at the speed of light.

The possibilities are out of this world, Alatorre says. Our goal is to take lessons learned in space and then bring them back down to Earth.

Even as the space station is being designed, architectural advances are tackling climate change and California is taking a leading role.

Starting in 2020, new residences must be built with on-site energy generation. Past decisions forecast that within a decade, commercial buildings will likely follow suit. The architecture community can lead the way for environmental stewardship.

Alatorre adds, Over the next five years the cost savings of the solar panels on my home will have paid for itself from then on, free power.

Space architects also consider how to create indoor-outdoor connection. The ever-important sense of arrival, as explored for a custom home or commercial structure, applies in this setting as well. How do you arrive? What will the first experience feel like?

Journeying from Earth to the Von Braun, each passengers awareness will be heightened. In the Lunar Gravity Area, two concentric rotating rings will create the gravitational force of the surface of the moon. The outer habitation ring is for tourists to vacation and, in the future, buy real estate.

Two weeks in the Heavens could be paradise, but only if its well designed, Alatorre says. Like a carpet pulled from under you, space architecture replaces your day-to-day with an alternate reality.

On Earth, the sun rises in the morning and sets at night. While on the station, our planet will seem to rotate around the window once every 45 seconds, sunlight will be constant, and the floors will curve.

Window design is essential to how inhabitants experience this phenomenon. Indoor-outdoor connections on Earth may be achieved through large window panes, yet the Von Braun team considers the psychological need for transition in an unfamiliar environment so that travelers feel free to draw the curtains.

Reaching outward and inward, the design seeks to both intrigue those on board and bring them comfort and security. Curved walls and floors will highlight the sensation of alternative gravity, while cork flooring provides a sense of grounding, also avoiding the expense of hauling heavy lumber into space.

A more practical factor is air quality. On Earth, we take air for granted. For the space station, the team is finding answers to crucial questions: How do we get the air here and control it? How much fresh air do humans need to feel healthy? Like water, no air will be wasted.

The Sick Building Syndrome is one the Gateway Foundation wants to avoid in this new territory, following in the footsteps of NASA which has only approved certain materials that have a minimum level of off-gassing. Where theres reduced gravity, floating particles could damage electronics and potentially risk peoples safety.

So to gift Von Braun passengers security and spectacle, this careful consideration of lines and materials balances the feelings of space and earth, of new and old, of there and home.

Project Name:Von Braun Space Station for the Gateway Foundation

Projected Start and Completion Dates:Start construction by 2021. Have station fully occupied by 2025.

Owner(s):The Gateway Foundation

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Will cadavers in medical school soon be a thing of the past? – The Daily Briefing

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Cadavers have been a "cornerstone" of medical education for centuries, but cost concerns and clinical limitations are leading some medical schools to stop using cadavers and instead uses virtual reality (VR), Bahar Gholipour reports for Scientific American.

Innovation 101: Cheat sheets for today's digital world

Training with cadavers has been regarded as essential to western medical education for nearly a millennium, Gholipour reports. Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor who ruled over much of Europe, in the 13th century issued a decree that schools that trained doctors must hold a dissection with a cadaver every five years.

But while the practice has endured for centuries, it's not without its limitations, one of which is the cost. Cadavers can be expensive to keep at a medical school, Gholipour reports. They require a cadaver laboratory, which can cost millions of dollars.

And while cadavers are donated, medical schools bear the cost of preparing the bodies and maintaining them and later burying them, Gholipour reports.

The cadavers can also be difficult to obtain, according to a 2018 study, as many countries face a shortage of cadaver donations and often must rely on unclaimed bodies for dissection, Gholipour reports.

Along with potentially prohibitive costs, cadavers come with clinical limitations, Gholipour writes. For instance, a dissection is time consuming, and in some instances, body parts can be so hard to reach that they're destroyed during dissection.

The insides of cadavers also don't look exactly like the insides of live human beings, Gholipour reports.

James Young, chief academic officer of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine noted that he experienced a "massive disconnect" between his anatomy education in the 1970s and what he saw during his clinical training in cardiology. "They're totally different," Young said. "The embalmed cadaver has a very flat, compressed organ presentation. The colors are not the vibrant colors of a living human." That difference can distract from learning, Young said.

That's why some schools, like Young's Lerner College, are going "cadaverless," and instead, are relying on virtual anatomy tools, Gholipour reports.

These tools, like VR headsets or augmented-reality goggles, provide students with a more realistic view of living organs, and students are able to examine the organs from every angle, Gholipour reports. They can even select views that add different organs to the circulatory and nervous systems to see how structures are related.

Mark Schuster, dean of Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, said he "was amazed" by the tools. "I wished I had that when I'd been learning anatomy," he said. "It really helped make it all come together." Kaiser, which will host its first class in 2020, will have a cadaverless curriculum for its first-year students.

However, virtual anatomy tools are not without their drawbacks, Gholipour reports. For example, it can be difficult to develop a depth perception of a virtual body, and students won't be able to see the natural anatomical variations that occur in bodies, according to Darren Hoffman, an assistant professor of anatomy and cell biology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

Students also won't have the emotional and potentially philosophical impact of working with an actual body, Gholipour reports. "There's a sort of awe and respect that comes from that," Hoffman said. "You recognize how amazingly cool and intricate the human body is, and you start to realize that everybody on the planet is this amazingand so am I."

There's also the question of how well students learn with digital tools, Gholipour reports. Educators are currently studying whether replacing older techniques with new technology actually improves education rather than harms it.

Still, educators like Young see a significant shift happening. "We're at the beginning of a paradigm shift, no question about that," Young said. "That shift is going to take several years. But if you asked me how is anatomy education going to be done in a decade? It's not going to be done with cadavers. That's my prediction" (Gholipour, Scientific American, October 2019).

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In the Spotlight: ‘You’re never going to get into medical school’ – Scope

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Omar Sahak failed his first college biology class. The second time, he got a C. And by the end of college, he was pretty sure medicine was a failed dream. But thanks to a few people who believed in him, he eventually did get that MD -- along with a master's degree in public health -- and he's now a second-year resident in psychiatry at Stanford.

Sahak shared his story with me:

Where did you grow up?

I lived in Flushing, Queens until I was about 10 years old. My parents had escaped Afghanistan, and they had one friend in New York. Everybody was an immigrant in our neighborhood. My dad got a coffee truck and sold coffee and bagels on the street from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. Then we moved to California -- Marin County -- and I totally stood out. That was uncomfortable.

When did you get interested in science and medicine?

When I was a kid, I loved memorizing things because I could do it really quickly. I remember being excited to read that the sun was 93 million miles from the earth.

By the end of high school, my intuition was to study film, but I wanted to do something that helped other people. I listened to my family and my parents, who told me I could study science and have a good career. My mom was a nurse and one of my aunts was a pharmacist, and they said medicine could be a good fit for me.

Ultimately, they were right, but when I tried to actually do pre-med at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I didn't know how to study or ask for help. I was trudging through the mud in my science classes, getting an F and then taking it again and getting a C. My guidance counselor told me, "You're never going to get into medical school." He saw me as a failure.

By the time I was a senior, I was getting B's and A's in my science classes, but I didn't have the GPA to apply to medical school.

So how did you get in?

After graduation, I was doing community organizing work for a nonprofit in Sacramento, and doing really well. My boss, who was always looking out for me, gave me a flyer for a master's of public health distance-learning program at San Jose State University. The director looked at my college transcript and said, "It looks like when you wanted to do well, you did well." I thought, here was this man really seeing me.

I never worked that hard in my life. I was working full-time and writing these papers I didn't feel qualified to write. I would spend hours and hours writing one page, but after each paper, I kept getting better. It was very validating. I got straight A's. I left that program with a totally different brain and attitude. I felt like I could do anything I want -- I just had to figure out what I want to do.

So then I thought about medicine again. I knew in my bones I could be a really good doctor.

I had done a ton of volunteer work and public health policy work, but I had to prove myself academically. I enrolled in an organic chemistry class -- which I had failed many times -- and for the first time, it made sense. I took one class after another and was getting A's and finally finding mentors.

I was accepted at University of California, Davis, where my mom was a nurse. The year I graduated was the year she retired. It was kind of like passing a baton.

Why did you choose your specialty, psychiatry?

Psychiatry brought together a lot of interests I had. I naturally think about people's inner worlds and how their life experiences affect them.I could see myself being motivated over decades to go to work.

What do you do for fun?

What I really like is unstructured time. Once the weight of expectation comes off, other things start to come up --like general musings about life and what I'm seeing around me. Medical school gave me so much to think about and worry about, so when I have unstructured time, I take it.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

I'd like to go to an urban, underserved area that's associated with an academic center, where I can live in that community and also serve as an advocate for it. I want kids coming home from school to be like, "Hey Doc," and come up to me and ask me for help.

Photo by Daphne Sashin

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Rutgers’ Brain Health Institute continues to expand its research capabilities – RU Daily Targum

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Located on the second floor of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Research Building on Busch campus, the institute oversees more than 270 neuroscience labs at Rutgers

The Rutgers Brain Health Institute was formed five years ago under the guidance of director Dr. Gary Aston-Jones. Since then, Aston-Jones has been creating centers for neuroscience research and investing in both talent and technology under the institutes umbrella.

Located on the second floor of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Research Building on Busch campus, the institute oversees more than 270 neuroscience labs at Rutgers, Aston-Jones said.

The institute was formed a year after the consolidation of UMDNJ (University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey) and Rutgers, which created a very large neuroscience environment, he said. Two medical schools, two psychology departments, two biology departments its a lot.

During the consolidation, Robin Davis, a professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, and Teri Wood, a professor in the Department Of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, started connecting the neuroscience landscape at the University.

I took off of where they had started and created the Brain Health Institute, Aston-Jones said.

His first year as director was spent talking to senior leaders in Rutgers neuroscience to identify four areas of strength that could be further developed: neurodevelopment, neurodegeneration, motivational and affective neuroscience and cognitive and sensory neuroscience, Aston-Jones said.

What I'm doing to develop each of those areas is creating centers in each area and hiring directors for the centers, he said. Then those directors for the centers will grow and recruit other faculty.

Within the neurodegeneration focus area, The Rutgers Brain Health Institute has already started an Alzheimers disease research center based in Newark. The center is searching for a director, Aston-Jones said.

All of it is supported by philanthropy from Herbert Klein and his wife Jacqueline, who had Alzheimer's disease. He was a Rutgers graduate, so he's been very generous with us and that's allowed us to put that research center together, he said.

The Rutgers Brain Health Institute also collaborated with Princeton University to create the Center for Cognitive Computational Neuropsychiatry (CCNP). Addressing the focus area of cognitive and sensory neuroscience, this center is funded by both universities and is based at Rutgers.

It's a space in the basement of the research tower. It's basically three behavioral testing rooms where patients with different disorders are tested with a computer task that investigators design with a particular disorder in mind, Aston-Jones said. Its a way of probing cognitive abilities and disabilities in people that have depression or addiction or OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), or any number of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Within the next few years, two more centers will be created to address the motivational and affective neuroscience and neurodevelopment focus areas. For example, the institute is currently recruiting faculty for a new addiction research center.

Chris Pierce from the University of Pennsylvania will join us in January and weve got a couple other recruitments in mind. We are right now searching for a director for that center I actually just got off the phone with a candidate for that, Aston-Jones said.

In neurodevelopment, the center will also be opening an autism research center on Easton Avenue. The Rutgers University Center for Autism Research, Education and Service (RUCARES) will be separate from the New Jersey Center of Autism Excellence (NJACE), which is a state-funded research initiative, Aston-Jones said

That will be directed by Wayne Fisher who will come in December. His colleague Brian Grier is already here he arrived a couple of weeks ago. This center is a collaboration with Children's Specialized Hospital. It has a lot of autism patients, more than Rutgers. It's a great collaboration, he said.

In addition to these centers, the Rutgers Brain Health Institute coordinates animal and human preclinical work, Aston-Jones said. Beyond preclinical work, the institute aims to include clinical research and clinical trials.

I named the effort the Brain Health Institute because I wanted to emphasize the importance of translational approaches. Everything we do has some clinical goal in mind, he said. All the basic research is basic research, but it has some clinical, therapeutic endpoint.

The rapid growth of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute is in part due to the consolidation between UMDNJ and Rutgers as well as Rutgers recent partnership with RWJBarnabas Health, Aston-Jones said.

In a way, we were very fortunate to already have in the process a lot of recruiting and center development. Now this new support comes along to further support that effort that already had a lot of momentum. So, it'll keep going even faster, he said.

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Pepe the protest frog? Hong Kong kids aren’t alt-right – FRANCE 24

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Issued on: 03/10/2019 - 03:36

Hong Kong (AFP)

He may have become a far-right internet meme in the West, but Pepe the Frog's image is being rehabilitated in Hong Kong where democracy protesters have embraced him as an irreverent symbol of their resistance.

Throughout the more than 100 days of protests rocking the international finance hub, banners featuring the cartoon frog and stuffed toys of the amphibian have become ubiquitous, providing much-needed moments of levity as the violence escalates.

Pepe fervour reached new heights on Monday night when hundreds of demonstrators -- many festooned with stickers or holding cuddly toys -- formed a human chain along the city's harbourfront, chanting slogans and singing protest songs.

Some of the Pepe toys brought by the largely young participants were decked in the yellow hard hats and gas masks worn by protesters in their clashes with police.

"In the United States it's a hate symbol, but now it is reborn in Hong Kong as a symbol of love and freedom," a 21 year-old animation student, who gave her name as Phoenix, told AFP.

"Even in a really tough situation, we still want to feel hope and be happy. If we can maintain our minds in a positive way, then maybe we can keep protesting and find a way to win," she added.

Pepe's embrace by Hong Kongers is the latest bizarre twist in the fate of a cartoon character who went from relative internet obscurity to international notoriety.

But it also shows how popular digital trends can mean very different things depending on where you live in the world.

- Alt-right appropriation -

Created in 2005 by American artist Matt Furie as a "chill frog-dude", Pepe became an internet meme within online forums.

During Donald Trump's election campaign he was embraced by the alt-right and white nationalist corners of the internet, leading Furie to pronounce his original creation dead in 2017.

But in Hong Kong and China, Pepe never had those connotations and was instead known as the "sad frog".

The character became especially popular earlier this year when he appeared within downloadable WhatsApp sticker packs which users add to messages.

When huge pro-democracy rallies broke out in June, young Hong Kongers were already pinging Pepe stickers to each other.

But new protest-themed variations of Pepe quickly emerged, transforming him into a pro-democracy Everyman.

Soon Pepe was being graffitied onto pavements, plastered across protest "Lennon Walls", even painted on finger-nails.

"The creator of Pepe said he was dead, but now he's alive again here," declared a 26-year-old graphic designer surnamed Leung, who attended Monday's protest with friends.

Many of those at Monday's rally said the quirky nature of Pepe provided some light-hearted relief in a dark time.

A day after the Pepe-themed protest the city saw the most most violent clashes to date as China celebrated 70 years of Communist Party rule.

"Because we have the masks on our faces, we have to express our feelings in other ways," explained Dennis, a 26 year-old physics graduate who has set up an Instagram account that gathers the new Pepe memes.

Yet Pepe's new appeal also lies in his flexibility, Dennis said.

- Pepe v Popo -

In Hong Kong, he is no longer just mainland China's "sad" frog meme. Instead he is a defiant expression of the frustration many Hong Kongers feel under China's rule and its Beijing-loyalist local leaders.

"My own definition is that Pepe is for the people, in contrast to the 'Popo' -- the police -- who are not," he said.

Protesters are increasingly aware of Pepe's inadvertent connection to the far right.

When the New York Times ran an article in August on the controversial character's adoption in Hong Kong, it sparked an extensive debate on the online forums and social media platforms used to organise the protests.

Would continuing to use their much-loved icon harm their cause?

A consensus appeared to emerge. Hong Kong's Pepe was a distinctly local meme. And if his notoriety in the West would help keep international attention focused on the protest movement, so be it.

Phoenix believes Pepe is both a symbol of the protest movement but also a rejection of the idea that anyone else -- be it Beijing or the West -- gets to speak for them.

"He could represent a lot of things, so he is what we make it. For me that's about freedom," she said.

2019 AFP

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How the alt-right co-opted the OK hand sign to fool the media – The Guardian

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Another day, another seemingly harmless symbol you cant use without appearing to be a purveyor of hate.

The alt-rights latest trophy is the OK hand sign, which was officially recognised as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League over the weekend. And on Tuesday, it was reported that a Universal Orlando Resort employee was fired after concerned parents found a photo of him making the hand sign on their six-year-olds shoulder (their child is biracial and has autism).

The OK sign joins a number of surprising symbols co-opted by the alt-right, such as the milk emoji, Pepe the frog and even, at one point, Taylor Swift.

Sometimes, trolls choices are far-fetched and innocuous the milk emoji was appropriated because of the allegedly superior ability of white people to drink milk (large numbers of people in the rest of the world are lactose intolerant). But the transformation of mundane symbols into something to be feared is part of a broader aim to garner media attention, and getting one up on the people they think theyre fooling.

Reporters dont always understand that [trolls] seek media attention when they see something get media uptake, they capitalise on it, says Dr Joan Donovan, a media manipulation expert who is the director of Harvards Technology and Social Change (TaSC) Research Project.

She explains how these media manipulators see an opportunity for example, when something goes viral or becomes popular and choose it as a moment to insert themselves into the conversation. In the case of the Facebook Trash Doves sticker, for example, 4chan users noticed the cartoon go viral and sent out the rallying cry: Lets make this normie meme a Nazi symbol!

The trolls have a laugh when the journalists are fooled

With this process, they flex their muscles, showing that what the Lord giveth, the alt-right can take away. And its done through elaborate means, too: with Trash Doves, 4chan-users began to photoshop swastikas on to the viral Facebook cartoon. Sometimes theyre even more sophisticated, creating fake content cards like that of the ADLs. They circulate the content online through social media, leaving it out as bait for undiscerning journalists who perpetuate the hoax by writing about it as if it is an authentic hate-threat.

This is their trick: they are hoping journalists will uncritically look at the OK symbol, find these infographics that claim it stands for white power and then write about it. The trolls have a laugh when the journalists are fooled, says Donovan.

These become symbols of hate pretty much exclusively because of journalistic coverage, says Wendy Phillips, who wrote This is Why We Cant Have Nice things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture.

Ultimately, this a game about power: if rightwing trolls can make the so-called liberal media look gullible, then it has a delegitimising effect, supporting the idea that journalists are oversensitive, easily triggered snowflakes. Soon enough, the news begins to feels like it belongs to a parody website rather than real life.

What memes do is they create in-groups and out-groups. The in-groups know its satirical, the out-groups think its something to fear, says Donovan.

Part of the effect is to make you think that white supremacists could be everywhere, hiding in plain sight. If someone as important as the president could be one of them Trump likes to flash the gesture when he speaks who else is? Heck, maybe youre a white supremacist, because the last time you sent an OK emoji you were unwittingly signalling your belief in the superiority of the white race.

At some point, life begins to imitate their art, and what began as a media hoax takes on dangerously radical connotations. This point came when the Australian man charged with killing 51 people at mosques in New Zealand, made the OK gesture during a courtroom appearance after being arrested.

Phillips says even if stories written about these memes are incredulous or mocking, they might help the cause, since media attention is what those groups are after.

Many of us tend to be very fascinated in the bad guys themselves which is understandable but they are the smallest part of the story, she says.

So what does this mean for journalists? Phillips argues that media organisations cant ever truly separate themselves from the amplification of white nationalists if they have to report on them.

Instead, she advocates for the media to shift the camera away from the white supremacists and focus on its real victims. That means looking at its impact on minority communities in places like Texas, and on the people who live in the small towns that neo-Nazis turn up in. It means highlighting the toxic resentment of women that the patriarchal ideology of white nationalism results in, and what it feels like for a mother to have white supremacists take her daughter away.

Ultimately, it means reporting the news but in a different way, says Phillips: I dont think the media shouldnt tell the truth, you should just tell a bigger truth: about the impact of these behaviours, instead of just reporting on the genesis of them.

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The ‘OK’ Hand Gesture Is Now Listed As A Symbol Of Hate – NPR

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The "OK" hand gesture is among 36 new entries in the Anti-Defamation League's "Hate on Display" database. lucapierro/Getty Images/RooM RF hide caption

The "OK" hand gesture is among 36 new entries in the Anti-Defamation League's "Hate on Display" database.

The "OK" hand gesture, commonly seen as a way of indicating that all is well, has now been classified as something else: a symbol of hate.

On Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization, added 36 symbols to its "Hate on Display" database including the index finger-to-thumb sign that in some corners of the Internet has become associated with white supremacy and the far right.

Oren Segal, director of the ADL's Center on Extremism, told NPR that for years on fringe online message boards such as 4chan and 8chan, the "OK" sign has been deployed in memes and other images promoting hate. Given the number of white supremacists who have adopted it, he said it can now carry a nefarious message.

"Context is always key," Segal said. "More people than not will use the OK symbol as just 'OK.' But in those cases where there's more underlining meaning, I think it's important for people to understand that it could be used, and is being used, for hate as well."

According to the website Know Your Meme, as a prank, 4chan users in 2017 launched a campaign to flood social media with posts linking the "OK" hand gesture to the white power movement. Commenters on the message board appropriated images of people posing in the White House and other locations making the hand symbol as proof that it was catching on.

Segal said that while many of those images were misconstrued by users on the online message boards, the number of people espousing hate while using the gesture has grown so widespread that it can no longer be considered a prank.

Segal pointed to the suspected white supremacist in Christchurch, New Zealand, accused of killing 51 worshippers at two mosques in March, who flashed the "OK" hand gesture during an initial court appearance.

"Over the past couple years, we've seen that the hoax was essentially successful in being applied by actual white supremacists," Segal said.

"In many ways, they took what was a trolling effort and added it to their list of symbols," he added.

The ADL established its "Hate on Display" database in 2000 as a way to help track hate groups and their symbols for law enforcement, educators and other members of the public hoping to spot potential warnings signs of anti-Semitism and other types of extremism. Since then, the database has grown to include 214 entries.

One of the more prominent additions to the database, back in September 2016, was Pepe the Frog, the big-eyed green cartoon that became a kind of mascot of the alt-right.

Other symbols among the 36 added on Thursday include "Dylann Roof's Bowlcut," a reference to the haircut worn by the white supremacist gunman who killed nine African-Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

Followers of Roof have incorporated the distinctive haircut into screen names such as "Bowltrash" or "The Final Bowlution" or collectively have referred to themselves as the "Bowl Gang," according to the ADL.

Another addition is "The Moon Man," a meme derived from 1980s-era McDonald's commercials that has since been hijacked by members of the alt-right, who attach racist songs, language and imagery around it.

Among the white nationalist group symbols in the database include the Rise Above Movement out of Southern California, which, according to the ADL, claims to have "the goal of fighting against the 'destructive cultural influences' of liberals, Jews, Muslims and non-white immigrants."

The ADL also featured the newly-formed American Identity Movement, which is a rebranding of Identity Evropa, considered one of the largest white supremacist groups. Members of the group participated in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 that resulted in a woman's death, and some members were "doxxed," which is when someone's private information is shared publicly online. "For all practical purposes, AIM is essentially Identity Evropa with a new name and logo," the ADL said.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL's CEO, said in a statement that old symbols, gestures and other images are rapidly acquiring new, hateful associations that may be too obscure for the general public to understand.

"We believe law enforcement and the public needs to be fully informed about the meaning of these images, which can serve as a first warning sign to the presence of haters in a community or school," he said.

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World Travel & Tourism Council, UNFCCC and over 50 member CEOs call on sector to be Climate Neutral by 2050 – Travel Daily News International

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NEW YORK, NY The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the global body that represents the private sector of the Travel & Tourism industry, in conjunction with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), brought together over 50 CEOs, Heads of State, ministers and industry leaders at its first-ever Climate and Environment Action Forum this past week and called for climate-neutrality by 2050.

The event, taking place during New York Climate Week, included the announcement of an action plan called 0SCARS to encourage its members leaders from a sector that spans airports, airlines, hotels, GDS, tourism boards, travel, technology and cruise companies to adopt and accelerate sustainability programs and to share best practices.

The framework for 0SCARS is as follows:

A (Act) WTTC and its Members will:

Identify and implement new sustainability strategies and innovative business models.

Seek to align sustainable development efforts with the UN SDGs.

Commit to prioritise sustainability by setting ambitious, time-bound sustainability targets.

Collaborate and share data and best practices to improve sustainability.

Engage consumers in efforts to make travel more sustainable.

WTTC will produce an annual report of action that will articulate and show demonstrable movement towards Climate Friendly Travel and progress towards sustainability commitments.

R (Recognition) Through the Sustainable WTTC Travel & Tourism Partners, WTTC will invite all companies, large and small, to sign up to the programme so that they can be recognised for their commitments and progress towards sector sustainability. - S (Share) WTTC will launch a Sustainable Travel & Tourism Hub which will fuel our research, drive best practice sharing, and foster collaboration with key partners including the UNFCCC and UNEP and other experts to find climate solutions that are applicable across the sector.

Gloria Guevara, President & Chief Executive Officer, World Travel & Tourism Council, called the new program a culmination of nearly two years of work, building on a partnership with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC] to accelerate towards climate neutrality for a sector that has climate and environment action as a top priority.

As the leaders within the Travel & Tourism industry, we have the power to drive real change, said Guevara. The WTTC has the opportunity to convene the industry so we can move faster, contribute, and address the significant environmental and sustainability challenges facing our world."

From a consumer standpoint, 0SCARS aims to help travellers recognise, with a simple and visible stamp in the form of a turtle, the suppliers with sustainable practices.

Within a year, the WTTC plans to establish this identifier and with the involvement of experts, members, UNFCCC, and UNEP, will create future higher levels, based on performance. WTTC, UNFCCC and UNEP will invite experts including the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, NGOs and academia to join the efforts to define different levels of sustainability within STTP.

Climate change is outpacing us, outpacing our collective ability to get a handle on it, and could soon outpace global business and have a devastating impact on the global economy itself, said Patricia Espinosa, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary.

The WTTCs Sustainability Action Plan is a timely and important initiative and a welcomed opportunity to work together to identify ways to achieve climate neutrality in the sector by 2050.

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World Travel & Tourism Council, UNFCCC and over 50 member CEOs call on sector to be Climate Neutral by 2050 - Travel Daily News International