The experiences of the Umbrella Movement and recent clashes with police have taught protesters what equipment they need at the front lines. To ensure new supplies can reach the front lines quickly, Hong Kong’s protesters have developed a unique system of hand signals, to send messages through the crowd about what equipment is required.
A sign is passed onwards through the crowd back to the supply depots where goods have been transported near to the protest site, and the requested items are then passed through the crowd along a human chain back to where they are needed. These human supply chains have stretched as far as a kilometre in length, and are an impressive sight to behold.
Some think people must “believe” in climate change in order to care about the issue, but this study suggests that people can work toward climate adaptations without necessarily “believing in” climate change or seeing the issue through a climate change frame.
“Many people think that belief in climate change is a necessary precursor to action on climate change, that only by understanding the enormous scale of climate change will people develop the sense of urgency to craft solutions quickly and the commitment to carry them through,” Orlove said.
But he and his colleagues found the community frame can also be a way to encourage people who “don’t believe in climate change” to work toward solutions. Orlove found people were inspired to participate in projects to help the community adapt to climate change when they believed these projects would help strengthen their community and advance it.
He also notes the language used in messaging is crucial, and he believes people may feel more connected to the concept of resilience rather than adaptation. “Resilience speaks more directly to the deeply-felt wish that communities will continue to thrive and flourish,” Orlove said. Being aware of language and messaging and what local communities want and need is crucial to successful climate communication.
Shuetso Sato (65) has no formal training as a graphic designer, but his handmade transit signs, made from pieces of colored duct tape, are considered works of art.
The desert libraries of Timbuktu are well known, and have been the subject of global concern. Almost all the manuscripts have now been removed to Bamako. But there’s another, largely forgotten ancient desert library in neighbouring Mauritania, in the ghost town of Chinguetti. 1/7 pic.twitter.com/9giM6OoyHy
“Can machines think?” Surprised to read that #Turing considered telepathy (for which he claimed the evidence was “overwhelming”) to be the strongest possibility against the view that the (retroactively-named) Turing Test could provide an affirmative answer. pic.twitter.com/XDWUvCSeAJ
— Dr Peter Sjöstedt-H (@PeterSjostedtH) July 30, 2019
The top image is a fictitious weather report imagining what the weather would be like in 2050 for a 2014 French TV documentary about climate change.
The bottom image is the real weather report from last week pic.twitter.com/wBpqq08LGN
— Emily ‘Bergson tragic’ Herring (@EtheHerring) July 30, 2019
I recently had the opportunity to visit an Arctic research station. One day we traveled four hours by speedboat to a stretch of exposed permafrost. The ongoing thaw had created a bizarre landscape: spongy terraces, hillocks of soil, disintegrating cliffs & scalloped walls of ice pic.twitter.com/zsezWheIr6
Pynchon on the secularisation of Sloth, as a sin no longer against God but “against a particular sort of time, uniform, one-way, in general not reversible—that is, against clock time, which got everybody early to bed and early to rise.” pic.twitter.com/r9CI67MiHA
I’m so obsessed with mine and @MelanieKKing & @SapphireGoss’s collaboration on micro/macro constellations and flipping the sky and the earth that I can’t even socialise like a normal person I just take a photo of someone’s beer because it looks like the moon pic.twitter.com/Ys5XKytNNf
The opposite of complexity is not simplicity, it’s reductionism. There’s nothing wrong with the reductionist method so long as we don’t confuse the method with how the world actually works.
the area 51 thing but someone makes an event called “Don’t Go To Work, They Can’t Fire All of Us” and then we trick everyone into a general strike by calling it a “meme”
— mike from summeяbruise (the band).com (@summerbruise69) July 27, 2019
Megadroughts – defined as intense droughts that last for decades or longer – once plagued the Desert Southwest. In fact, from the 9th to the 15th centuries, at least a dozen medieval megadroughts occurred across the region, scientists said.
Now, a study suggests that because of the drying influence of climate change, megadroughts could return to the region.
Megadroughts are defined more by their duration than their severity. They are extreme dry spells that can last for a decade or longer, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
They’ve parched the West, including present-day California, long before Europeans settled the region in the 1800s.
How do scientists know how wet or dry it was centuries ago? Though no weather records exist before the late 1800s, scientists can examine paleoclimatic “proxy data,” such as tree rings and lake sediment, to find out how much – or little – rain fell hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
If scientists can understand why megadroughts happened in the past, it can help better predict whether, how and where they might happen in the future, the new study said.
“In our paper, we present the first comprehensive theory for what caused historical megadroughts, which happened during the medieval period but not after about the year 1600,” said study lead author Nathan Stieger of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “We find that they were caused by severe and frequent La Niñas, a warm Atlantic Ocean, and a net increase in energy from the sun.”
The study also suggests an increasing risk of future megadroughts in the American Southwest because of climate change.
“I reflect now that the earth is only a pebble flicked off accidentally from the face of the sun and that there is no life anywhere in the abysses of space.” pic.twitter.com/8BRjkAN0f5
Tens of millions people in the Western Europe are experiencing the heat of the #climatecrisis as temperature records are being shattered across Europe.
Yesterday was the 65th anniversary of Operation Moon Bounce. In 1954, James Trexler spoke into a microphone at our Stump Neck radio antenna facility, and his words “bounced” back 2.5 seconds later after traveling 500k miles. First transmit and return beyond the ionosphere. 🌕🎧 pic.twitter.com/rKRrYnSyZV
— U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (@USNRL) July 25, 2019
Hands up if you think the 10,000 Year Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Markers Project (“THIS IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOR”) also works as a universal New Yorker cartoon caption in this year 2019.
Wikipedia has a list of gods of time. Damn. 30 years ago this would have been many tedious trips to the library, and *if* you got lucky you might have found a reference work containing such a list. Sometimes you just have to stop and marvel https://t.co/R1Y8oYNsCc
Ok is the first glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years, all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.
Ágúst 2019, 415ppm CO2
Okjökull, or Ok Glacier, was the subject of a 2018 documentary called Not Ok, made by Rice anthropologists Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer. Narrated by former Reykjavík mayor and comedian Jón Gnarr, Not Ok tells how in 2014, Ok became the first glacier in Iceland to melt and thereby “lose its title” as a glacier. Scientists credit Ok’s melting to global warming. According to the filmmakers, scientists fear that all of Iceland’s 400-plus glaciers will be gone by 2200.
“By marking Ok’s passing, we hope to draw attention to what is being lost as Earth’s glaciers expire,” Cymene remarked in the press release. “These bodies of ice are the largest freshwater reserves on the planet and frozen within them are histories of the atmosphere. They are also often important cultural forms that are full of significance.” The monument is said to be the first of its kind in the world.
In one year, a single acre of black soldier fly larvae can transform any kind of organic waste (Cafeteria refuse, manure, even toxic algae) into more protein than 3,000 acres of cattle or 130 acres of soybeans!!! pic.twitter.com/Yfid9rsRdg
Wastewater is pumped away from the Bełchatów Power Station in Gmina Kleszczów, Poland. Located near the city of Łódź in central Poland, Bełchatów is the world’s largest lignite-fired power station and its second largest fossil-fuel power station. In 2007, the World Wide Fund for Nature ranked it as Europe’s highest absolute carbon dioxide emitter, with 30.1 million tonnes of emissions per year.
A new report from the Institute For the Future on “state-sponsored trolling” documents the rise and rise of government-backed troll armies who terrorize journalists and opposition figures with seemingly endless waves of individuals who bombard their targets with vile vitriol, from racial slurs to rape threats.
The report traces the origin of the phenomenon to a series of high-profile social media opposition bids that challenged the world’s most restrictive regimes, from Gezi Park in Turkey to the Arab Spring.
After the initial rebellions were put down, authoritarians studied and adapted the tactics that made them so effective, taking a leaf out of US intelligence agencies’ playbook by buying or developing tools that would allow paid trolls to impersonate enormous crowds of cheering, loyal cyber-warriors.
After being blindsided by social media, the authoritarians found it easy to master it: think of Cambodia, where a bid to challenge the might of the ruling party begat a Facebook-first strategy to suppress dissent, in which government authorities arrest and torture anyone who challenges them using their real name, and then gets Facebook to disconnect anyone who uses a pseudonym to avoid retaliation.
The rise of authoritarian troll armies has been documented before. Google’s Jigsaw division produced a detailed report on the phenomenon, but decided not to publish it. Bloomberg, who have produced an excellent investigative supplement to the IFTF report that draws on a leaked copy of the Google research, implies that something nefarious happened to convince Google to suppress its research.
The IFTF and Bloomberg reports arrive just as Twitter has announced the deletion of 70,000,000 accounts alleged to be linked to authoritarian information control, and just as Facebook announced that it would delete “misinformation that incites violence.”
Implicated in the Bloomberg article and IFTF report are the campaigns of India’s Narendra Modi, Malta’s Labour Party, Argentine president Mauricio Macri, Austria’s Heinz-Christian Strache, Azerbaijan’s ruling families, Bahrain’s ruling elite, China’s Communist Party, the Ethiopian government, the outgoing Mexican president Peña Nieto, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, Russia and Putin, the Saudi royals, Turkey’s Erdogan, the People’s Army of Vietnam, South Korea’s internal spy agency, former Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, and the Venezuelan state.
The campaigns have striking similarities, suggesting that they may have a common contractor or state-sponsored supplier, and/or that they are closely observing one another and learning from each other.
1. Chill, eat, sleep
2. Basic triage ordering to get to minimum functional potential
3. Escapist leisure to more orderly places (TV/fiction)
4. Advanced order restoration, short of OCD
5. Energy reboot with exercise
6. Low-stakes creative work-play (poiesis)
Looking back, landing on the moon wasn’t just our job, it was a historic opportunity to prove to the world America’s can-do spirit. I’m proud to serve the country that gave me this historic opportunity. Today belongs to you. We must hold the memory of #Apollo11 close. #Apollo50th
Hanlon’s razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Hon’s razor: Never attribute to bureaucratic incompetence that which is adequately explained by executive-driven institutional lack of competency and unwillingness for systemic reform.
The glacier “Ok” used to be a glacier but lost its status as such in 2014 when it had shrunk too much. This is a brand new memorial shield in its honour. #climatechangepic.twitter.com/0YlIewvDJe
For the past nine weeks, the Star’s Undeniable project has brought readers to the frontlines of climate change in Canada. In every region chronicled in the 16-part series, climate change is already affecting people, infrastructure, wildlife and the natural environment. The effects of a warmer climate are, and will continue to be, felt in every facet of Canadian society, from farms, fisheries, schools and hospitals, to municipal, provincial and federal governments, local businesses and the largest corporations.
Canada is getting hotter. Between 1948 and 2016, Canada’s annual average temperature over land increased by 1.7 degrees, about double the global warming rate.
Cities and towns aren’t ready. Across Canada, municipalities are struggling to deal with aging infrastructure built for a different time as temperatures rise and precipitation becomes more intense.
Bad news for the Arctic. Northern Canada is warming faster than the rest of the country. The annual mean temperature in Canada’s north increased by 2.3 degrees between 1948 and 2016, about three times the global rate. This warming trend will continue, even if global greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, with average winter temperatures rising by as much as 4 degrees in the Arctic by 2050.
The way we farm and fish is changing.Climate change is presenting both challenges and opportunities to those who make their living from the land and sea.
Land is disappearing into the sea. While erosion is a natural process, rising ocean temperatures can contribute to increased storminess, resulting in larger and more powerful waves that eat into coastlines.
Indigenous peoples of Canada are being hit hard. Climate change is profoundly affecting Canada’s Indigenous peoples, whose cultures and livelihoods are closely linked to the land, water, snow and ice.
Wildfire seasons are becoming longer and the flames are getting bigger. While no individual event can be fully linked to climate change, wildfires have increased in frequency, intensity, size and duration as the climate has warmed.
Floods will get bigger and more frequent. Climate models are predicting that floods across the country will get larger, more frequent and more destructive.
It’s going to rain a lot more. Climate models predict that precipitation will increase, on average, across Canada. In many areas, precipitation has already increased, with a shift towards more rainfall and less snowfall. Atmospheric rivers, which can dumpintense rainfall in short periods of time, are expected to get a lot bigger, and make landfall on the west coast more often.
Balancing business interests with climate change mitigation will be a challenge. There is an irony of climate change in that while it brings with it a host of negative consequences, it could also present great economic opportunities.
Cornwall Council declared #ClimateEmergency in Jan. & plans a 20,000 acre “Forest For Cornwall”. Good for wildlife, people & climate. I esp. like that it’s distributed planting: new trees “on our streets, in our hedgerows, new woodlands & forested areas”.https://t.co/eksJHPHH5I
Been experimenting with steganographic approaches to image making lately. What are we permitted to See, Know / and what can we conceal in plain sight? pic.twitter.com/2oftvE23LD
I am so thankful and excited to win the incredible #CollideInternational award and residency and cant wait for my time at #Cern, its more than a dream come true.
Besides that, it means so much to me and my research to obtain acknowledgement for my research from this institution. pic.twitter.com/6eJJ0tLZn0
Wonderful tour of @SciGalleryLon by the brilliant @_johnoshea.
Their Dark Matter exhibition is fascinating and beautifully presented.
A topic dear to my heart, intelligently handled. pic.twitter.com/pSDXSBtP7J
“Nearly every book has the same architecture—cover, spine, pages—but you open them onto worlds & gifts far beyond what paper & ink are. Some books are wings. Some are horses that run away with you. Some books are puzzles, mazes, tangles, jungles…”
(Rebecca Solnit)
The Turing Police, but they don’t go after AI that cross “the Turing line” and become sentient, they go after inappropriate usages of Turing complete languages in domains where doing so is fundamentally insecure
Last but not least, the major enemy, the strategic adversary is fascism. And not only historical fascism, the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini - which was able to mobilize and use the desire of the masses so effectively - but also the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us.
Grasberg mine, located in the Papua Province of Indonesia, is the largest gold mine and second largest copper mine in the world. It consists of a mile-wide open pit mine, an underground mine, and four concentrators. In 2016, the mine’s 19,500 employees produced 1.063 billion pounds (482 million kg) of copper and more than one million ounces (28 million grams) of gold.
Reservoirs topped with ‘shade balls’ are my new obsession -their geometrical configuration is always shifting like the sentient ocean in Solaris. ‘How do you expect to communicate with the ocean, when you can’t even understand one another?’ pic.twitter.com/9waFNCwuIR
I’d like to file a feature request on the English language. For the sake of source code aesthetics one of the word pairs transmit/receive, send/receive, or read/write should be updated such that each word has the same number of letters. Prio 4.
Coded Matter(s): Terra Fiction | Stage II of Worldbuilding
FIBER and Brakke Grond present: Coded Matter(s): Terra Fiction. September 27, 2018, Amsterdam.
Speakers:
• Pippa Goldschmidt
• E.J. Swift
• Jay Springett
• Ivan Henriques
• Miha Turšič
• Maja Kuzmanovic& Nik Gaffney (FoAM)
• Films: Margaux Hendriksen, Matthew C. Wilson
The idea of terraformation was once the domain of writers and artists. We’re entering a new space race to colonise and terraform the universe. Silicon Valley companies like SpaceX, Google and Planetary Resources are in the front seat. As we edge closer towards inevitable environmental collapse these big tech companies are scrambling to colonise new habitable worlds on distant planets. By shooting a cherry-red Tesla car into space, they shape the future narrative of man in space. But what are we leaving behind on Earth? If today’s technological leaps aren’t improving our natural environments than what legacy will we inherit in worlds abroad?
