Look we all want a robo dog but if you kill someone with a sledgehammer to steal theirs, they are going to find you. There’s no way a 75k$ dog doesn’t have gps
we are killing the dog
NO.
ALL DOGS ARE PRECIOUS.
Even robot ones.
its not a dog, its a machine used and designed for police surveillance and the entire reason they made it dog shaped is so idiots like you would go “awwww robot dog how precious” instead of seeing them as the oppressive tools they are.
we’re killing the fucking dog
That’s not a robot dog.
It’s a four-legged robot spider.
It is not a dog, a spider, a chicken, a horse, a fish, a tick, a mosquito, a tapeworm or a baby
It is a
weapon
There is nothing morally wrong about breaking weapons that are hurting people for any reason other than to prevent those people from hurting others worse
the dog robots are fully capable of hurting people, and badly. failsafes that would prevent that have not been installed. the police are deploying a thing out in public that can maim anyone who touches it wrong.
look, when i was a kid i was passionately in love with the idea of robots–that humans would one day create another sort of intelligence to share our world with– and believed very firmly that we should respect and protect all our robot friends from the start, so there would be no violent humans-against-robots revolution or anything.
anyway it turns out that the people trying to keep end-stage capitalism running are really banking on us feeling more love for the robots than for the kind of people they’re going to be using the robots to oppress.
so like. maybe lets all agree right now that if a robot is being used to hurt a person, you need to smash the fucking robot. they’re going to make the robots really cute. they’re going to show us so many movies about how much robots need to be loved. and then they are going to use robots to hurt people.
let’s try not to fall for it, okay?
And don’t forget that scary af episode of Black Mirror, Metalhead. Robot dogs can fuck right off.
They created a weapon, told you to call it a friend and watched as your empathy became their trap and tool.
Real life dogs are oftentimes weapons as well
People who exploit animals will often exploit humans too. They’re exploiting the cuteness of animals to manipulate you and the potential danger of dogs to control you.
So if we’re being intersectional about this, also be cautious about people who use animals as tools.
Boston Dynamics publicly condemned the project for using its robot “in any way that cpromotes violence, harm, or intimidation.” The day after Spot’s Rampage debuted, Boston Dynamics rolled out a partnership with the NYPD.
Boston Dynamics remotely disabled MSCHF’s legally-purchased Spot® robot via an undisclosed backdoor.
If it ain’t three laws safe, it ain’t friend shaped.
Bludgeon it.
Sooooo the company I work for works with law enforcement. As in, they’re our main customers. (Which I’m actually all for, because the amount of accountability we’re loading into the back end while “making their jobs easier” is ASTONISHING. My very leftist old hippy Dad is excited about me working here.)
Anyway, I have seen these robot dogs in person at a conference, and it took under a minute for my brain to go “Doggo! Friend shaped!” When I stepped back and thought about it, it was unnerving as HELL.
So yeah. Go buy that hammer. Bet you can find similar ones at thrift stores, too.
no no no no, listen to me: remove smashing technology with a hammer from your mindset.
the type you’d need for this is heavy, expensive, unwieldy, without practice you are just as likely to hurt yourself more, and genuinely at the end of the day you are not going to break this with a hammer.
forget“hammer == best way break technology”
if you wanna fuck up technology you get a can of
expanding foam. it’s small, incredibly easy to carry/conceal and it WILL fuck up any technology WAY MORE than even an expertly wielded hammer hitting every weak point every single time.
you break something with a hammer and unless you know precisely what you’re doing (and have the time to do it), that shits reusable anyway. but expanding foam? there is no coming back from that for anything.
Behold the dazzling colors of an iridescent ammonite (Placenticeras intercalare)! A relative of today’s squids, this ammonite lived some 80 million years ago near what is now Alberta, Canada. This fossil’s spectacular coloration is the result of millions of years of high temperatures and pressures. As these forces acted on nacre in this ammonite’s shell, it was transformed into a gemstone known as an ammolite. Along with amber and pearl, ammolite is one of only a handful of gems made by living organisms. You can spot this rare specimen in the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Collections Core in the Museum’s Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation!
The interfaces were often experimental and ramshackle—or to put it another way, confusing. You remember how some early websites had designs where you never knew where to click? CD-ROM menus were like that, multiplied to 11.
Former taxi driver George King is interviewed by psychiatrist Dr Stafford Clark. George’s extraordinary story began when he claimed he was spoken to by the voice of the Interplanetary Parliament one Saturday morning while doing the dishes. He further claims to have been visited by UFOs and become a conduit for a psychic alien from Venus. He then enters a trance so that the Venusian Aetherius can give Dr Clark a warning about mankind’s future. Also present are a Cambridge astronomer and another psychiatrist. You can judge the nature of their reactions for yourself. Clip taken from Lifeline: Mars and Venus Speak to Earth, originally broadcast on BBC Television, Thursday 21 May, 1959.
Forced to learn how tumblr works because quotev has officially killed itself ☹️ (please tell me terms and stuff i should know) (and explain it like youre talking to your mom about your favorite media)
OP- Original Poster
Asks- Messages sent to an inbox, anonymous or otherwise.
Tags- The hashtags at the bottom of the post. Used for trigger warnings (tw) content warnings (cw) community tags, Fandom tags, personal tags you can search later on your own blog, and minor commentary.
Comments- the speech bubble at the bottom of the post, for talking about things relating to the post or other comments without interacting with the post itself.
Reblogs- Sharing a post by clicking the little green arrows at the bottom of the post. This shares the post to your blog, so people who follow you can see it. There is no algorithm for seeing posts, so posts are only shared when people interact with them by reblogging the.m.
Likes- clicking the little heart at the bottom of a post. This adds it to your ‘likes’ list, but does not share it to your blog. (People may be able to see your likes unless you go into settings and make your likes private.)
No Algorithm- Because there’s no system for auto-sharing posts “based on your likes”, posts must be reblogged in order to gain
notes (reblogs, comments, and likes) in order to be seen. As a consequence, you will often see posts that are over a decade old, that happened to get popular.
Notes and notifications- Your activity page will show you every time someone interacts with a post you interacted with first. “Flooding your notes” means a post or re-post of yours got popular and people are interacting with it so much that you have to dig through your notifications to find updates on anything else. You can mute a post, delete a post, or turn off comments or reblogs to make this stop, but keep in mind that people might screenshot the post itself to keep sharing it if you delete it or impair activity. (I am going to ruin your notes by reblogging this. I am sorry.)
Ads- The ads here are wildly unpredictable and often make no fucking sense. There was a common one for a long time with a creepy dude dressed as Pikachu that became a meme. I get a lot of religious Christian ads. Sometimes you get ads where it isn’t clear what is being advertised, or why. Tumblr is a famously unprofitable website and most of us just seem to ignore them even when they are coherent.
Crabs- “Crab Rave” is a music video with dancing crabs that reached meme status here. Dancing crab gifs come up usually when someone famous and terrible experiences a deserved misfortune. There was a brief feature where you could send people little cartoon crabs. I don’t understand this as well as I would like.
“
Blaze”- You can pay money to make random people see a post. This is a combination of “pay to become popular” type thinking and an act of warfare amongst users.
Mutuals- Someone you follow who follows you back.
Followers- The people who follow your blog and see your posts and reblogs. This number is not public. Nobody cares
“
Investing at X notes”- A common comment used to imply that someone’s post, usually only having a handful of notes, is about to go wildly popular. This is usually regarded as a curse, because having a post blow up means getting your notes flooded and having to see a load of bad-faith messages from idiots.
Staff- Tumblr site staff have made a lot of dumb fucking choices since the dawn of the sisite'creation and people tend to @ staff, much in the way that a helpless peasant may shake their fist skywards to an uncaring god. Just roll with it.
Anons- You can turn anons off, meaning nobody can send you anonymous messages. Because some of these fuckers are hateful cowards, this will cut down on harassment, bigotry, and general stupid talk shoeing up in your inbox. Unfortunately, this will also limit messages from shy people who genuinely wanna be nice.
Bots- If you get a weirdly flirty message out of nowhere by someone who hasn’t followed you long and has a weird username, it’s it’s bot. Flag and block. If you’re scrolling through an unrelated tag and suddenly see a supermodel looking person with their tits out and a bunch of random tags, it’s spam and it’s a bot. Flag and block. It’s been a problem for a while, like roaches.
Dipshits- If you see a blog with “rad”, “radical”, “fem”, “female”, “vulva”, “uterus”, “terf”, “radfem”, or “critical” in their username, check their blog to verify if they’re a radfem or a terf. If you don’t know what those terms mean, you can Google 'em, but they’re weirdly aggressive offshoots of feminism that wrap back around to being mysoginistic, transphobic, and racist, and they aren’t very popular here. The common move is to just block 'em and move on. We also have trolls and white supremacists but again, not very popular, pretty easy to block, report them if you can.
Other common etiquettes:
Always assume OP is reading your comments.
Reblog posts, don’t just “like” them. Again, no algorithm- this site doesn’t work without sharing.
Don’t share personal information. Always assume you can be doxxed. Keep it vague.
Don’t be a dick.
Fact check before sharing info if you can- theres a lot of misinformation and misinterpretation.
Always read twice- Reading comprehension has been so bad on so many posts here that it’s become a meme too. If you don’t understand, read it twice before commenting.
Have fun, and do it for yourself. This isnt isn’t clout website.
Other longtime residents are welcome to add on if I’ve forgotten anything.
Skellig Michael is an island 7.2 miles (11.6 km) west of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. Its landscape is steep and inhospitable, but it contains the site of a 6th century Gaelic monastery and serves as a habitat for puffins, razorbills and grey seals. The island is named after the archangel Michael, with “Skellig” derived from the Gaelic word sceilig, meaning a splinter of stone.
For those not in the know, this is one of the Amanita mushrooms referred to as a Destroying Angel. Never, ever, ever, ever forage with an app. Especially for mushrooms.
With the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, many of the former empire’s resources were sold off to the highest bidder, and their $14 billion space shuttle program was no exception.
Seeking to recoup some of that eyewatering spend, in 1998, the “Buran” (Russia’s answer to the American Space Shuttle) was offered up for sale on eBay for $10 million.
No serious offers were received - with most people assuming the listing to be a joke, until the New York Post confirmed the sale, with Russian authorities stating they “actually have two” if anyone is interested.
(Pictured: A later auction of a smaller scale Buran in 2005)
Sensing an opportunity, a group of Aussie entrepreneurs including Australia’s first astronaut and the lawyer for Prime Minister Paul Keating offer to lease the shuttle from Russia, to put it on display in Australia during the Sydney Olympics.
After gaining permission from the Kremlin for the lease, in 1999 the Russian military briefly stops bombing Chechnya in order to dismantle the Buran, and it is placed on a barge to be shipped to Sydney on the (soon to be infamous for other reasons) Tampa shipping vessel at a cost of $5 million.
Once in Sydney, after a disastrous few months on display where crowds failed to flock to the shuttle exhibition featuring such compelling educational offerings as “activities is to assist in the development of issues of nutrition and hygiene at home” (an actual quote from their website) - the leasing company declared bankruptcy and washed their hands of the space shuttle completely.
The Buran Gift shop where you could buy soviet space ship themed football jerseys, in case you needed one of those
One of four people listed on the lease, described as a business partner of the Prime Minister, also claims he never knew he was a director of the company, which went on to cause a lot more problems.
This whole debacle presented a slight issue for the cash strapped Russian authorities, who had now only been paid $100,000 for the 9 year lease of the shuttle instead of the $600,000 they were owed. Eventually the decision was made to abandon the once $1 billion Soviet pride and joy in a Sydney carpark, where it resided for a year under a small tarpaulin.
Failed attempts to be rid of the shuttle included a 12 day auction hosted by an LA radio station, where listeners were offered the chance to buy the shuttle for $6 million, however all bids turned out to be pranks and the shuttle remained.
Multiple attempts were also made to sell the shuttle to Tom Cruise, with the exacerbated movie star’s representatives repeatedly telling the insistent traders that he was not interested in owning a Russian spaceship.
Eventually a Singaporean group dismantled the shuttle and shipped it overseas, however Russian authorities soon reported they once again had been failed to be paid for the lease. Singaporean representatives responded that they definitely had paid for the shuttle, and that they simply couldn’t remember when or how much was paid.
Representing the Russian government, Lawyer Suhaila Turani told the Wall Street Journal “I feel sorry for the Russians. They’re good in space, but they’re very naive in business.”
For a time the shuttle was abandoned in the storage yard of event company Pico, with the company owner telling the Wall Street Journal “I just want this thing out of my life” after three years of being stuck with it.
A few years later the shuttle was found by German journalists dismantled in a junkyard, and it was then bought and shipped to Germany to be put on display a museum, so all’s well that ends well (except they dropped it from a crane while trying to set it up, but it polished up okay).
One of my favourite bits of media history trivia is that back in the Elizabethan period, people used to publish unauthorised copies of plays by sending someone who was good with shorthand to discretely write down all of the play’s dialogue while they watched it, then reconstructing the play by combining those notes with audience interviews to recover the stage directions; in some cases, these unauthorised copies are the only record of a given play that survives to the present day. It’s one of my favourites for two reasons:
It demonstrates that piracy has always lay at the heart of media preservation; and
Imagine being the 1603 equivalent of the guy with the cell phone camera in the movie theatre, furtively scribbling down notes in a little book and hoping Shakespeare himself doesn’t catch you.
From this study, the most important result, in my opinion, came from a basic question we asked: “How effective do you think antidepressants are?” We analyzed the responses by year of study, from first to sixth-year medical students.
When we asked first-year students about the effectiveness of antidepressants, they rated it just above no effect, essentially saying the effect was modest. This aligns with the most positive meta-analyses, like the Cipriani study, which also describes the effect as modest. So, the first-year students basically got it right.
However, by the second year, the perceived effectiveness started to rise. By the fourth year, their perception had increased significantly, rating antidepressants between moderate and high effectiveness. This change highlights how education can shape and sometimes distort perceptions over time.
From the very beginning of medical studies, we’re driven to trust medicine and the drugs we prescribe. We’re taught that what we do is inherently good. I think this was the most interesting part of our findings because it shows that we need a complete overhaul—not just in psychiatry, but at the root. We need to address the culture, the media, and the education system to help people understand that things aren’t always as they’re presented. We need to start in medical schools.
– Demedicalizing Depression: An Interview with Milutin Kosti
Interested to know other lecturers’ thoughts here. The university has just released the latest templates for our assignment briefs, and they now include this table:
I have to select which areas I will allow generative AI to be used for in every assignment brief I write (with the obvious caveat that this is showing them how to use it as a tool, not giving them the green light to generate a whole essay and submit that.)
My immediate thought is that the ‘research’ section is dangerous, and the 'creative’ one is immoral.
How do we know that we’re doing the right thing? What are our politics? A group of us decided to do our own political education to help inform our demands. Once we started reading, debating, reshaping, and reformulating our demands, we realized that some of the things we had been fighting for didn’t move us much closer to liberation. Some were good and important, but we could fight for something much more transformational. That’s why political education is indispensable to anyone doing freedom work. And every organizing space I’ve been in since already knew that lesson. Look at Action St. Louis or the Dream Defenders. These are organizations that have committed to political education. Look at their demands from when they started to do some of their abolitionist campaigns. You can see that change. What it means for them to read and study Du Bois as an organizer. To figure out, what does abolition democracy mean to our movement today versus when Du Bois wrote about it in
Black Reconstruction(1935) over eighty years ago. That’s indispensable. And it’s not something you do to just get smart or get woke or have arguments. You’re reading to figure out what tradition you’re in and how to keep moving toward liberation.
– Demanding Justice for the Living, an interview with Derecka Purnell in Boston Review.
New Article - Conceptualising Grey Spaces in Skateboarding
This was one of those articles that just flowed. I was asked to do a talk for the SSHRED seminar series which is a exciting initiative working on issues of the environment and skateboarding. I thought I would take the opportunity to clarify the grey spaces concept I had generated in a previous paper ‘Skateboarding in the Anthropocene’ and then it turned into a mission statement about theory and method in skateboard studies. Here is the link to the article…
Martí Guixé’s Ex-Designer Project Bar, an exceptional project that turns a digitally designed interior, produced entirely using full-size 3D printing techniques into a standalone object, will be on display at the
Disseny Hub Barcelona (DHub) from
May 23 to August 25.
The project was born in November 2015, when
Martí Guixé, one of Barcelona’s most internationally influential 21st century designers, set out to design and 3D-print, independently and without help, all the components of a bar on Barcelona’s C/ Entença in collaboration with architect
Pau Badia. The bar, an empty commercial unit with minimal structure, was gradually redesigned and built over a period of almost five years, using three on-site printers while still in operation. Thus, all the bar’s components were gradually printed: everything from the tiles on the walls and the furniture down to the smallest utensils, such as glasses of different types, plates and cutlery.
According to Martí Guixé, the process itself is what matters, so the project became something performative, incorporating coincidence in a natural way.
The use of the establishment as a bar—where concerts, presentations, talks and other events were also held—was just as important as its role as a laboratory for experimenting on the possibilities of additive printing, and the utopia of digital autonomy. The project explores the true potential of digital fabrication technologies to achieve the dream of self-sufficiency for local production, without having to rely on large global manufacturing systems.
Just as the bar was finished, with the grand opening scheduled for February 2020, the pandemic and subsequent lockdown forced it to close. It then underwent a process of “deconstruction”, which was carried out behind closed doors and in an orderly manner, like a work of archaeology, in order to preserve it in full. The
Ex-Designer Project Bar thus ceased to be a bar or a work of interior design to become a standalone “
object” adapted for other possible uses.
Martí Guixé’s Ex-Designer Bar is a reflection on the potential for democratising industrial production and the industrial process: “The use of 3D technology makes artisans redundant and unifies materials. The world is made up of ideas, not of people’s energy”. He also said that “bringing the Ex-Designer Bar to a museum turns it into an object, a ruin and an archaeological site of the future”.
The first full-size reconstruction of the bar With
Ex-Designer Project Bar, the DHub is exhibiting this monumental object in its original format, after assembling the walls and other various components: A total of 30 wooden panels measuring 122 cm x 150 cm, plus over six thousand 14 cm x 14 cm tiles. The result is an
installation that measures 8.75 x 3.56 m and is 5.02 m high, whose component parts have been
3D-printed in full size using
polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable polymer made from 100% renewable resources, such as corn or plant starch.
The interior walls include the front of the bar, which features figurative motifs from other projects by Martí Guixé, the side bars with experiments with bas-reliefs and pseudo-geometric figures in various sizes and thicknesses, and unsuccessful attempts to create a series of bag and coat hooks. There is also a notice board with backlit tiles for posting information about events and food and drink prices, as well as a front panel in which the main figure represents Artificial Intelligence, a representation of all the 3D printers used, including the one for printing food.
*How exactly would you automate the production of an AI spam inage tike that, so that it would get Facebook traction without you ever having to do anything “creative” at all
The Jiaozhou Bay Bridge — connecting Qingdao and Huangdao, China — is the world’s longest bridge, spanning 25.84 miles (41.58 km). The construction used 450,000 tons of steel and 2.3 million cubic meters of concrete. The bridge is T-shaped with an over-water, semi-directional interchange to allow for a third directional exit/entry from Hongdao Island.
“
In a first-ever human clinical trial, an mRNA cancer vaccine developed at the University of Florida successfully reprogrammed patients’ immune systems to fiercely attack glioblastoma, the most aggressive and lethal brain tumor.
The results in four adult patients mirrored those in 10 pet dog patients suffering from brain tumors whose owners approved of their participation.
The discovery represents
a potential new way to recruit the immune system to fight treatment-resistant cancers using an iteration of mRNA technology and lipid nanoparticles, similar to COVID-19 vaccines, but with two key differences: use of a patient’s own tumor cells to create a personalized vaccine, and a newly engineered complex delivery mechanism within the vaccine.
“Instead of us injecting single particles, we’re injecting clusters of particles that are wrapping around each other like onions,” said senior author Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., a UF Health pediatric oncologist who pioneered
the new vaccine, which like other immunotherapies attempts to “educate” the immune system that a tumor is foreign.
“These clusters alert the immune system in a much more profound way than single particles would.”
Among the most impressive findings was how quickly the new method spurred a vigorous immune-system response to reject the tumor, said Sayour, principal investigator at the University’s RNA Engineering Laboratory and McKnight Brain Institute investigator who led the multi-institution research team.
“In less than 48 hours, we could see these tumors shifting from what we refer to as ‘cold’—very few immune cells, very silenced immune response—to ‘hot,’ very active immune response,”he said.
“That was very surprising given how quick this happened, and what that told us is we were able to activate the early part of the immune system very rapidly against these cancers, and that’s critical to unlock the later effects of the immune response,” he explained in a video (below).
Glioblastoma is among the most devastating diagnoses, with median survival around 15 months. Current standard of care involves surgery, radiation and some combination of chemotherapy.
The new report,published May 1 in the journal
Cell, is th
e culmination of seven years of promising studies, starting in preclinical mouse models.
In the cohort of four patients, genetic material called RNA was extracted from each patient’s own surgically removed tumor, and then messenger RNA (mRNA)—the blueprint of what is inside every cell, including tumor cells—was amplified and wrapped in the newly designed high-tech packaging of biocompatible lipid nanoparticles, to make tumor cells “look” like a dangerous virus when reinjected into the bloodstream to prompt an immune-system response.
The vaccine was personalized to each patient with a goal of getting the most out of their unique immune system...
While too early in the trial to assess the clinical effects of the vaccine,
the patients either lived disease-free longer than expected or survived longer than expected. The 10 pet dogs lived a median of 4.5 months, compared with a median survival of 30-60 days typical for dogs with the condition.
The next step, with support from the Food and Drug Administration and the CureSearch for Children’s Cancer foundation,
will be an expanded Phase I clinical trial to include up to 24 adult and pediatric patients to validate the findings. Once an optimal and safe dose is confirmed, an estimated 25 children would participate in Phase 2.”
-via Good News Network, May 11, 2024
-video via University of Florida Health, May 1, 2024
I worked for a community daily newspaper, the New Jersey Herald in Newton, NJ, 1985-89. I drove 40 minutes each way from the newsroom to cover city government meetings in Vernon, NJ. After the meeting, I’d write my article on the Model 100 in the lobby of the city municipal building.
To submit the article, I’d use a gadget called an “acoustic coupler.” This was two suction cups with speakers and microphones inside them, attached to each other by wires and plugged into the computer by another wire. I’d drop a bunch of quarters into the phone—later I used a calling card—punch the number into the phone, attach a suction cup each to the earpiece and mouthpiece of the payphone, press a couple of buttons on the Model 100, and the article would upload automatically to the newspaper publishing computer. It took a minute or two to finish. Connetions were shockingly slow then. When the article was done, I’d call in to the newsroom to double-check to be sure the article made it and then hop in my Honda Accord and drive back, chain-smoking the whole way.
When I arrived at the newsroom, my editor would have already edited the article and it would be ready for my revision.
I suppose I’d like to play with a Model 100 for a minute sometime in the future, but I have no desire to own one today. Today’s technology is so much nicer. Still, the Model 100 was great for its day.
The former head of the
Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly
threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian can reveal.
Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.
That investigation, launched in 2021, culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct in its war in Gaza.
The prosecutor’s decision to apply to the ICC’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, alongside three Hamas leaders, is an outcome Israel’s military and political establishment has long feared.
[…]
Cohen, who was one of Netanyahu’s closest allies at the time and is emerging as a political force in his own right in Israel, personally led the Mossad’s involvement in an
almost decade-long campaign by the country to undermine the court.
Four sources confirmed that Bensouda had briefed a small group of senior ICC officials about Cohen’s attempts to sway her, amid concerns about the increasingly persistent and threatening nature of his behaviour.
Three of those sources were familiar with Bensouda’s formal disclosures to the ICC about the matter. They said she revealed Cohen had put pressure on her on several occasions not to proceed with a criminal investigation in the ICC’s Palestine case.
According to accounts shared with ICC officials, he is alleged to have told her: “
You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”
One individual briefed on Cohen’s activities said he had used “despicable tactics” against Bensouda as part of an ultimately unsuccessful effort to intimidate and influence her.
They likened his behaviour to “stalking”.
The Mossad also took a keen interest in Bensouda’s family members and obtained transcripts of secret recordings of her husband, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Israeli officials then attempted to use the material to discredit the prosecutor.
The revelations about Cohen’s operation form part of a forthcoming investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, revealing how
multiple Israel intelligence agencies ran a covert “war” against the ICC for almost a decade.
Kropotkin’s insistence on solidarity is critical to understanding that to speak of animal politics is not to indulge in anthropomorphism (…) nor is it a misrepresentation of instinctual, ‘natural kinship’ behaviours. Rather, it is the full acknowledgement that we share a world.
James Bridle. 2022.
Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence. Penguin.
For the past few years, electric vehicles have flooded onto America’s roads: Tesla Model 3s, Hyundai Ioniq 5s, even the occasional electric Hummer. In 2023, automakers sold almost 1.2 million all-electric cars to U.S. consumers, accounting for over 7 percent of total new car sales and a new national record.
But all those cars also need a place to plug in. And while the country is also expanding public charging, data show that EV sales are far outpacing growth in the U.S. charging network— endangering the transition to electric cars just as it’s starting to take off.
Between 2016 and 2023, EV registrations in the United States grew almost three times faster than the United States’ public charging infrastructure. In 2016, there wereseven electric cars for each public charging point; today, there’s more than 20 electric cars per charger.
“You often hear about the chicken and the egg question between chargers and electric vehicles,” said Corey Cantor, senior associate for electric vehicles at BloombergNEF, an energy research organization. “But overall the U.S. needs more public charging.”
For several years, I was the President of the Mojave Desert Land Trust, the organization described in this story. The story describes the work of Madena Asbell, who started up, organized and manages the seed bank. Madena is an amazing person. Low key but intensely brilliant and practical.
Excerpt from this story from
CNN/Call to Earth:
Inside a Mojave aster flower, a tiny bee is fast asleep. At night, the pale lavender petals close, providing a safe resting place. In the morning, as birdsong rings out across the desert, the flower opens, revealing its tenant.
Here in southern California, in the middle of the Mojave Desert’s vast and arid landscape, it’s just one of many natural treasures hidden from view.
In long sleeves, pants, and wide-brimmed hats to guard against a harsh sun in a cloudless blue sky, a team of four led by Madena Asbell crouches in the dirt, looking for another treasure.
They are searching for a plant called erodium texanum, (common names Texas stork’s bill or heronbill), a type of herb native to California. More specifically, they are looking for its seeds.
“There’s so much life here,” Asbell says, “but it’s easy to not realize that when you’re in the desert.”
Asbell is the director of plant conservation for the Mojave Desert Land Trust (MDLT), a non-profit land conservancy that works to preserve and protect the Mojave and Colorado desert landscapes of California.
A quarter of the state is desert, home to roughly 2,400 plant species, according to MDLT. Eight years ago, Asbell had an idea. What if there was a way to preserve the ecosystem, centered around the seeds that facilitate all the life here? The result was the Mojave Desert Land Trust seed bank.
“The goal is to preserve this amazing genetic diversity that we have and make it available for restoration or reintroduction of species, should there be a disaster that wipes out a population,” Asbell says. “Plants are the foundation of most ecosystems,
so when we protect these plants, we’re protecting everything that depends on them, like desert tortoise, burrowing owls and pollinators.”
In an ever-changing climate, the seed bank was just the type of “proactive” idea the organization was looking for, says Kelly Herbinson, executive director of MDLT.
“As a land trust, we’re realizing that just protecting land or buying land to protect it wasn’t going to be enough – that we had to take extra steps to really invest in that land,” Herbinson says.
In 2016, Mojave Desert Land Trust officially launched the seed bank project, which has since been described as a “Noah’s Ark” for southern California.
Three white refrigerators at MDLT headquarters in Joshua Tree, California, house the collection. There are over 5 million seeds from nearly 250 species and counting, according to the land trust.
Seeds come in from the field teams and undergo a “cut test” to determine viability – confirming the seed pods are full, and that there hasn’t been too much damage from insects or mold, making the seeds worth saving.
La Hauss. Máster Online en Diseño Editorial 2021-22. Diseño de cubiertas y páginas interiores de revista
Lativa. Trabajo de Ana Carmen González Brenes.
“Clothing tags, travel cards, hotel room key cards, parcel labels … a whole host of components in supply chains of everything from cars to clothes. What do they have in common? RFID tags.
Every RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag contains a microchip and a tiny metal strip of an antenna. A cool 18bn of these are made – and disposed of – each year. And with demands for product traceability increasing, ironically in part because of concerns for the social and environmental health of the supply chain, that’s set to soar.
And guess where most of these tags end up? Yup, landfill– adding to the burgeoning volumes of e-waste polluting our soils, rivers and skies. It’s a sorry tale, but it’s one in which two young graduates of Imperial College London and Royal College of Art are putting a great big green twist. Under the name of PulpaTronics, Chloe So and Barna Soma Biro reckon they’ve hit on a beguilingly simple sounding
solution: make the tags out of paper. No plastic, no chips, no metal strips. Just paper, pure and … simple … ? Well, not quite, as we shall see.
The apparent simplicity is achieved by some pretty cutting-edge technical innovation,
aimed at stripping away both the metal antennae and the chips. If you can get rid of those, as Biro explains, you solve the e-waste problem at a stroke. But getting rid of things isn’t the typical approach to technical solutions, he adds. “I read a paper in Nature that set out how
humans have a bias for solving problems through addition – by adding something new, rather than removing complexity, even if that’s the best approach.”
And adding stuff to a world already stuffed, as it were, can create more problems than it solves. “So that became one of the guiding principles of PulpaTronics”, he says: stripping things down “to the bare minimum, where they are still functional, but have as low an environmental impact as possible”.
…how did they achieve this magical simplification?
The answer lies in lasers: these turn the paper into a conductive material, Biro explains, printing a pattern on the surface that can be ‘read’ by a scanner, rather like a QR code. It sounds like frontier technology, but it works, and PulpaTronics have patents pending to protect it.
The resulting tag comes in two forms: in one, there is still a microchip, so that it can be read by existing scanners of the sort common within retailers, for example. The more advanced version does away with the chip altogether. This will need a different kind of scanner, currently in development, which PulpaTronics envisages issuing licences for others to manufacture.
Crucially, the cost of both versions is significantly cheaper than existing RFID kit – making this a highly viable proposition. Then there are the carbon savings: up to 70% for the chipless version – so a no-brainer from a sustainability viewpoint too. All the same, industry interest was slow to start with but when PulpaTronics won a coveted Dezeen magazine award in late 2023, it snowballed, says So.
Big brands such as UPS, DHL, Marks & Spencer and Decathlon came calling. “We were just bombarded.” Brands were fascinated by the innovation, she says, but even more by the price point, “because, like any business, they knew that green products can’t come with a premium”.”
-via Positive.News, April 29, 2024
–
Note: I know it’s still in the very early stages, but this is
such a relief to see in the context of the environmental and human rights catastrophes associated with lithium mining and mining for rare earth metals, and the way that EVs and other green infrastructure are massively increasing the demand for those materials.
I’ll take a future with paper-based, more humane alternatives for sure! Fingers crossed this keeps developing and develops well (and quickly).
“
As solar panels heat up beyond 25°C, their efficiency decreases markedly. Green roofs moderate rooftop temperatures. So we wanted to find out: could green roofs help with the problem of heat reducing the output of solar panels?
Our researchcompared a “biosolar” green roof— one that combines a solar system with a green roof —
and a comparable conventional roof with an equivalent solar system. We measured the impacts on biodiversity and solar output, as well as how the plants coped with having panels installed above them.
The green roof supported much more biodiversity, as one might expect. By reducing average maximum temperatures by about 8°C, it increased solar generation by as much as 107% during peak periods.And while some plant species outperformed others, the vegetation flourished.
These results show we don’t have to choose between a green roof or a solar roof: we can combine the two and reap double the rewards...
How did the panels affect the plants?
In the open areas, we observed minimal changes in the vegetation cover over the study period compared to the initial planted community.
Plant growth was fastest and healthiest in the areas immediately around the solar panels. Several species doubled in coverage. We selected fast-growing vegetation for this section to achieve full coverage of the green roof beds as soon as possible.
The vegetation changed the most in the areas directly below and surrounding the solar panels. The Baby Sun Rose,
Aptenia cordifolia, emerged as the dominant plant. It occupied most of the space beneath and surrounding the solar panels, despite having been planted in relatively low densities.
This was surprising: it was not expected the plants would prefer the shaded areas under the panels to the open areas. This shows that shading by solar panels will not prevent the growth of full and healthy roof gardens.
ALT
What were the biodiversity impacts?
We used environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys to compare biodiversity on the green roof and conventional roof.Water run-off samples were collected from both roofs and processed on site using portable citizen scientist eDNA sampling equipment to detect traces of DNA shed by the species on the roof.
The eDNA surveys detected a diverse range of species. These included some species (such as algae and fungi) that are not easily detected using other survey methods.The results confirmed the presence of bird species recorded by the cameras but also showed other visiting bird species went undetected by the cameras.
Overall, the green roof supported four times as many species of birds, over seven times as many arthropods such as insects, spiders and millipedes, and twice as many snail and slug species as the conventional roof. There was many times the diversity of microorganisms such as algae and fungi.
Encouragingly,
the green roof attracted species unexpected in the city.They included blue-banded bees (
Amegilla cingulata) and metallic shield bugs (
Scutiphora pedicellata).
How did the green roof alter temperatures?
The green roof reduced surface temperatures by up to 9.63°C for the solar panels and 6.93°C for the roof surfaces. An 8°C reduction in average peak temperature on the green roof would result in substantial heating and cooling energy savings inside the building.
This lowering of temperatures
increased the maximum output of the solar panels by 21-107%, depending on the month. Performance modelling indicates an extensive green roof in central Sydney can, on average, produce 4.5% more electricity at any given light level.
These results show we don’t have to choose between a green roof or a solar roof. We can combine them to take advantage of the many benefits of biosolar green roofs.
Biosolar roofs can help get cities to net zero
The next step is to design green roofs and their plantings specifically to enhance biodiversity.Green roofs and other green infrastructure may alter urban wildlife’s activities and could eventually attract non-urban species.
Our green roof also decreased stormwater runoff, removed a range of run-off pollutants and insulated the building from extremes of temperature.A relatively inexpensive system provides all of these services with moderate maintenance and, best of all, zero energy inputs.
Clearly, biosolar green roofs could make major contributions to net-zero cities. And all that’s needed is space that currently has no other use.”
That’s not just cell phones, laptops, electric toothbrushes, and tools. Scooters, e-bikes, hybrids, and electric vehicles all rely on rechargeable lithium batteries to get going.
Fortunately, this past week, Natron Energy launched its first-ever commercial-scale production of sodium-ion batteries in the U.S.
“Sodium-ion batteries offer a unique alternative to lithium-ion, with higher power, faster recharge, longer lifecycle and a completely safe and stable chemistry,”said Colin Wessells — Natron Founder and Co-CEO — at the kick-off event in Michigan.
The new sodium-ion batteries charge and discharge at rates 10 times faster than lithium-ion, with an estimated lifespan of 50,000 cycles.
Wessells said that using sodium as a primary mineral alternative eliminates industry-wide issues of worker negligence, geopolitical disruption, and the “questionable environmental impacts” inextricably linked to lithium mining.
“The electrification of our economy is dependent on the development and production of new, innovative energy storage solutions,” Wessells said.
Why are sodium batteries a better alternative to lithium?
The birth and death cycle of lithium is shadowed in environmental destruction.The process of extracting lithium pollutes the water, air, and soil, and when it’s eventually discarded, the flammable batteries are prone to bursting into flames and burning out in landfills.
There’s also a human cost.Lithium-ion materials like cobalt and nickel are not only harder to source and procure, but their supply chains are also overwhelmingly attributed to hazardous working conditions and child labor law violations.
“Unlike lithium, sodium can be produced from an abundant material: salt,” engineer Casey Crownhart wrote in the MIT Technology Review. “Because the raw ingredients are cheap and widely available, there’s potential for sodium-ion batteries to be significantly less expensive than their lithium-ion counterparts if more companies start making more of them.”
What will these batteries be used for?
Right now, Natron has its focus set on AI models and data storage centers, which consume hefty amounts of energy. In 2023, the MIT Technology Review reported that one AI model can emit more than 626,00 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent.
“We expect our battery solutions will be used to power the explosive growth in data centers used for Artificial Intelligence,” said Wendell Brooks, co-CEO of Natron.
“With the start of commercial-scale production here in Michigan, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for efficient, safe, and reliable battery energy storage.”
The fast-charging energy alternative also has limitless potential on a consumer level, and
Natron is eying telecommunications and EV fast-charging once it begins servicing AI data storage centers in June.
On a larger scale, sodium-ion batteries could radically change the manufacturing and production sectors — from housing energy to lower electricity costs in warehouses, to charging backup stations and powering electric vehicles, trucks, forklifts, and so on.
“I founded Natron because we saw climate change as the defining problem of our time,” Wessells said. “We believe batteries have a role to play.”
-via GoodGoodGood, May 3, 2024
–
Note: I wanted to make sure this was legit (scientifically and in general), and I’m happy to report that it really is!x,x,x,x
“
With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures — and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.
In the face of a rapidly heating planet, the City of Eternal Spring — nicknamed so thanks to its year-round temperate climate — has found a way to keep its cool.
Previously,
Medellín had undergone years of rapid urban expansion, which led to a severeurban heat island effect
— raising temperatures in the city to significantly higher than in the surrounding suburban and rural areas. Roads and other concrete infrastructure absorb and maintain the sun’s heat for much longer than green infrastructure.
“Medellín grew at the expense of green spaces and vegetation,” says Pilar Vargas, a forest engineer working for City Hall. “We built and built and built. There wasn’t a lot of thought about the impact on the climate.
It became obvious that had to change.”
Efforts began in 2016 under Medellín’s then mayor, Federico Gutiérrez (who, after completing one term in 2019, was re-elected at the end of 2023). The city launched a new approach to its urban development — one that focused on people and plants.
The $16.3 million initiative led to
the creation of 30 Green Corridors along the city’s roads and waterways, improving or producing more than 70 hectares of green space, which includes 20 kilometers of shaded routes with cycle lanes and pedestrian paths.
These plant and tree-filled spaces — which connect all sorts of green areas such as the curb strips, squares, parks, vertical gardens, sidewalks, and even some of the seven hills that surround the city — produce fresh, cooling air in the face of urban heat.
The corridors are also designed to mimic a natural forest with levels of low, medium and high plants, including native and tropical plants, bamboo grasses and palm trees.
Heat-trapping infrastructure like metro stations and bridges has also been greened as part of the project and government buildings have been adorned with green roofs and vertical gardens to beat the heat. The first of those was installed at Medellín’s City Hall, where nearly 100,000 plants and 12 species span the 1,810 square meter surface.
“It’s like urban acupuncture,” says Paula Zapata, advisor for Medellín at C40 Cities, a global network of about 100 of the world’s leading mayors.
“The city is making these small interventions that together act to make a big impact.”
“The technical team thought a lot about the species used. They selected endemic ones that have a functional use,” explains Zapata.
The 72 species of plants and trees selected
provide food for wildlife, help biodiversity to spread and fight air pollution. A study, for example, identified
Mangifera indica as the best among six plant species found in Medellín at absorbing PM2.5 pollution — particulate matter that can cause asthma, bronchitis and heart disease — and surviving in polluted areas due to its “biochemical and biological mechanisms.”
And the urban planting continues to this day.
The groundwork is carried out by 150 citizen-gardeners like Pineda, who come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds, with the support of 15 specialized forest engineers. Pineda is now the leader of a team of seven other gardeners who attend to corridors all across the city, shifting depending on the current priorities…
“I’m completely in favor of the corridors,” says [Victoria Perez, another citizen-gardener], who grew up in a poor suburb in the city of 2.5 million people.
“It really improves the quality of life here.”
Wilmar Jesus, a 48-year-old Afro-Colombian farmer on his first day of the job, is pleased about the project’s possibilities for his own future. “I want to learn more and become better,” he says. “This gives me the opportunity to advance myself.”
The project’s wider impacts are like a breath of fresh air.
Medellín’s temperaturesfell by 2°Cin the first three years of the program, and officials expect a further decrease of 4 to 5C over the next few decades, even taking into account climate change. In turn, City Hall says this will minimize the need for energy-intensive air conditioning…
In addition, the project
has had a significant impact on air pollution. Between 2016 and 2019,
the level of PM2.5fell significantly, and in turn the city’s morbidity rate from
acute respiratory infections decreased from 159.8 to 95.3 per 1,000 people [Note: That means the city’s rate of people getting sick with lung/throat/respiratory infections.]
There’s also been
a34.6 percent risein cycling in the city, likely due to the new bike paths built for the project, and
biodiversity studies show that wildlife is coming back — one sample of five Green Corridors identified 30 different species of butterfly.
Other cities are already taking note. Bogotá and Barranquilla have adopted similar plans, among other Colombian cities, and
last year São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America, beganexpanding its corridorsafter launching them in 2022.
“For sure, Green Corridors could work in many other places,”says Zapata.”
“
Amsterdam’s roofs have just been converted into a giant sponge that will make the city more climate resilient.
The Dutch have always been famous for their ability to control water, born out of the necessity of their homeland, much of which is below sea level.
Now, their expert water management skills are
transforming the city skyline in the capital city of Amsterdam from one of terracotta tile, concrete, and shingles into green grass and brown earth.
It’s part of
a new climate-resiliency trend in architecture and civic planning known as the ‘sponge city concept,’in which a garden of water-loving plants, mosses, and soil absorbs excess rainwater before feeding it into the building for use in flushing toilets or watering plants on the ground.
If heavy rains are predicted, a smart valve system empties the stored rainwater into the municipal storm drains and sewers in advanceof the weather, allowing the roof to soak up water and reduce flooding in the city.
In this way, the rooftops of buildings can be wrung out and filled up just like a sponge.
In Amsterdam, 45,000 square meters, or 11 acres of flat metropolitan rooftops have already been fitted with these systems, and the contracting firms behind the technology say
they make sense in dry climates like Spain just as much as in wet climates like Amsterdam...
A 4-year project of different firms and organizations called Resilio, the resilient network for smart climate adaptive rooftops, rolled out thousands of square meters of sponge city technology into new buildings. As with many climate technologies, the costs are high upfront but tend to result in savings from several expenditures like water utilities and water damage, over a long-enough time horizon…
All together, Amsterdam’s sponge capacity is over 120,000 gallons.
“We think the concept is applicable to many urban areas around the world,” Kasper Spaan from Waternet, Amsterdam’s public water management organization, told Wired Magazine.
“In the south of Europe–Italy and Spain–where there are really drought-stressed areas, there’s new attention for rainwater catchment.”
Indeed the sponge city concept comes into a different shade when installed in drought-prone regions. Waters absorbed by rooftops during heavy rains can be used for municipal purposes to reduce pressure on underground aquifers or rivers, or be sweated out under the Sun’s rays which cools the interior of the building naturally.
Additionally, if solar panels were added on top of the rooftop garden, the evaporation would keep the panels cooler, which has been shown in other projects to improve their energy generation.
“Our philosophy in the end is not that on every roof,
everything is possible,” says Spaan, “but that on every roof,
something is possible.”
Matt Simon, reporting on the Resilio project for Wired, said succinctly that perhaps science fiction authors have missed the mark when it came to envisioning
the city of the future, and that
rather than being a glittering metropolis of glass, metal, and marble as smooth as a pannacotta, it will look an awful lot more like an enormous sculpture garden.”
Wait are we called mammals after mammary glands? Are mammals named after tits???
ARE WE THE BOOBS CLASS?
OH
We are. And we also named our galaxy after boob juice. Twice.
“milky way” is obviously milk, but the hidden part is that “galaxy” comes from the Greek γάλα (gála), meaning “milk”.
It’s the tit-goo path tit-goo-thing. We are very, very breast focused as a species.
Eukaryote (good-kernels) as opposed to prokaryotes(before-kernels). We are the Domain of Fortunate Cellular Nuclei.
Animalia (of the anima.) we are in the Kingdom of the Breathing, or the Air-Souled.
Of the Phylum (tribe or clan) Chordata (having a string). We are the Clan of the String, referencing the spinal cord.
Class Mammalia, of course. the division of the titties.
Order Primate, which is a bit stuck-up, but I suppose the people doing the naming get to pick. Primate is of course primary, or First/Highest. Interestingly, this is in the sense of it being a job; a primate is a bishop of Christianity. This is reflected in the medieval Scala Naturae, where “primate” is an office held by the “natural” or divinely appointed top being in each tier of existence. Seraphim are the primate angels; humans are the primate people; lions are the primate animals; oak trees are the primate plants; and diamonds are the primate minerals. Translating the intent here, we are the Order of Ordained Authority, which we share with other natural bosses such as lemurs.
Depending how you want to do this, we are also suborder Haplorhini, the dry-nosed. This is separated from wet-nosed apes.
After this we land in the repetition of Homina-homina-homina-homina where there are several classes that drill down ever further, all of them rooted in “hominid.” Everyone knows homo is “man, human” but the root of
why it’s “man” is because it is first “earth”. Human means “earthling”, and is rooted in “not-divine.” We are the family, subfamily, tribe and genus of earthlings.
By the time you get to species we are very lonely indeed, with only one species in our genus. This is actually a terrifically lonely place, and in this we are “sapiens.” This doesn’t mean just “wise” but “
being wise,” which is more of a duty than a descriptor.
When you put it in context: Domain of Fortunate Nuclei, Kingdom of the Air-Souled, Clan of the String, Class of Milky Boobs, Order of the Bosses, Family of Earthlings, Tribe of Earthlings, People of Earth, Earthlings, Thinking Earthlings.
The point of taxonomy does seem to be making oneself a box that excludes all others in order to feel properly lonely and alone in it; one’s place in the world defined until one is alone. however, zooming out a bit, it does make for some stirring company.
“..the astonishing thing is not that some people steal or that others occasionally go out on strike, but rather that all those who are starving do not steal as a regular practice, and all those who are exploited are not continually out on strike: after centuries of exploitation, why do people still tolerate being humiliated and enslaved, to such a point, indeed, that they actually want humiliation and slavery not only for others but for themselves?”
In eastern China, Lake Tai (Tai Hu) has become almost surrounded by urban development in recent decades. Three cities — Huzhou, Suzhou, and Wuxi — have grown dramatically since 1985, their collective populations increasing from 1.7 million to more than 12.5 million. In 2007, the Chinese government pledged more than $14 billion to clean up Lake Tai, which had been contaminated for years by improper disposal of chemicals and sewage.
The release of z\w\a\r\t nr. 27 will coincide with the ‘C.R.U.D.E. exhibition’.
This is a new and extra program of the 3rd CRUDE Transmissions festival at Resisistor in Leiden, The Netherlands. Organized by Charnel Ground.
Askratx, Jonathan Bergen, Dean Lloyd Robinson and Max Kuiper will be exhibiting their visual works on both the 25th and 26th of may 2024 and will be performing (alternative) sets at the gallery on the 26th.
The C.R.U.D.E. exhibition is at the Troef gallery, Middelstegracht 87, across the street from Resistor. Open 14:00 - 18:00.
CRUDE Transmissions Line up saturday May 25th:
Psychward (AU)
Urall (BE)
Fleshlicker (UK)
Kastrata (PT)
Svartvit (NL)
Jonathan Bergen (DE)
Viimeinen (UK)
Awenydd (NL)
Knifedoutofexistence (UK)
Snake Oil Merchants (BE/US/NL)
Birthed (NL)
Dystopian Control (PL)
Sumnja (DE)
Line up sunday May 26th at Troef:
Les Horribles Travailleurs (NL)
Kastrata (PT)
Jonathan Bergen (DE)
Knifedoutofexistence (UK)
Hesker (NL)
Only in Japan can you find a concrete brutalist house that looks like a Fallout prefab building menu choice. Like it was just dropped there for its Sims occupant from a factory dispenser.
“Seventy-eight per cent of people in England and Wales think that crime has gone up in the last few years, according to the latest survey. But the data on actual crime shows the exact opposite.
As of 2024, violence, burglary and car crime have been declining for 30 years and by close to 90%, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) – our best indicator of true crime levels. Unlike police data, the CSEW is not subject to variations in reporting and recording.
The drop in violence includes domestic violence and other violence against women.Anti-social behaviour has similarly declined. While increased fraud and computer misuse now make up half of crime, this mainly reflects how far the rates of other crimes have fallen.
All high-income countries have experienced similar trends, and there is scientific consensus that the decline in crime is a real phenomenon.
ALT
The perception gap
So why is there such a gulf between public perception and the reality of crime trends?A regular YouGov poll asks respondents for their top three concerns from a broad set of issues. Concern about crime went from a low in 2016 (when people were more concerned with Brexit), quadrupled by 2019 and plummeted during the pandemic when people had other worries. But in the last year, the public’s concern about crime has risen again.
There are many possible explanations for this, of which the first is poor information. A study published in 1998 found that
“people who watch a lot of television or who read a lot of newspapers will be exposed to a steady diet of crime stories” that does not reflect official statistics.
The old news media adage “if it bleeds, it leads” reflects how violent news stories, including crime increases and serious crimes, capture public attention. Knife crime grabs headlines in the UK, but our shock at individual incidents is testament to their rarity and our relative success in controlling violence – many gun crimes do not make the news in the US.
Most recent terrorist attacks in the UK have featured knives (plus a thwarted Liverpool bomber), but there is little discussion of how this indicates that measures to restrict guns and bomb-making resources are effective.”
“[The United States experienced a spike in crime rates in 2020, during the pandemic.] But in 2023, crime in America looked very different.
"At some point in 2022 — at the end of 2022 or through 2023 — there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall,” said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics.
In cities big and small, from both coasts, violence has dropped.
“T
he national picture shows that murder is falling. We have data from over 200 cities showing a 12.2% decline … in 2023 relative to 2022,” Asher said, citing his own analysis of public data. He found
instances of rape, robbery and aggravated assault were all down too.
Yet when you ask people about crime in the country, the perception is it’s getting a lot worse.
A Gallup poll released in November found 77% of Americans believed there was more crime in the country than the year before. And 63% felt there was either a “very” or “extremely” serious crime problem — the highest in the poll’s history going back to 2000.
So what’s going on?
What the cities are seeing
What you see depends a lot on what you’re looking at, according to Asher.
“There’s never been a news story that said, ‘There were no robberies yesterday, nobody really shoplifted at Walgreens,’”he said.
“
Especially with murder, there’s no doubt that it is falling at [a] really fast pace right now. And the only way that I find to discuss it with people is to talk about what the data says.” …
For cities like San Francisco, Baltimore and Minneapolis, there may be different factors at play [in crime declining]. And
in some instances, it comes as the number of police officers declines too.
Baltimore police are chronically short of their recruitment goal, and as of last September
had more than 750 vacant positions, according to a state audit report…
In Minneapolis, police staffing has plummeted. According to theStar Tribune,
there are about 560 active officers — down from nearly 900 in 2019. Mannix said
the 2020 police killing of George Floyd resulted in an unprecedented exodus from the department…
In Minneapolis, the city is putting more financial resources into nontraditional policing initiatives. The Department of Neighborhood Safety, which addresses violence through a public health lens, received $22 million in the 2024 budget.“
My favorite response to “that’s not a word” is “then why do you know what it means?”
Every time someone within 30 miles of me says “that’s a made up word” I am uncontrollably compelled to respond “ALL WORDS ARE MADE UP!”
In a college language class I took, we talked about the Jabberwocky poem and the professor had us try to explain every word in it. When we got to ‘outgrabe’ she asked why it was past tense and my response was “Cause the present tense is outgribe”. Her response was “That doesn’t answer the question but that brings up a better one. Why do you know that?”
Metallic balloon satellite inflation test at Langley Research Center, part of the Project Echo that sent the eye-catching spheres, made of ultra-thin mylar sandwiched between even thinner layers of aluminum foil, into low Earth orbit as passive reflectors of microwave transmissions.
Omg this is like 800 metaphors rolled into one megaphor
I would like everyone to know that vulture vomit is very stinky. It smells of rotting flesh and they use it to drive away predators
Direct action
hey, at least have a picture of the American vultures doing this, not eurasian/african vultures, they are very different creatures!
Apparently vultures are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so there is nothing ICE can do about this except politely try to shoo the birds away.
So gods finally stopped fucking around and started with the Omens huh
There are Omens and then there’s whatever the fuck is going on here
There are Omens and
then there’s whatever the fuck
is going on here
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
hey remember this from 2021? When one of the many transgressions against the environment perpetrated by the trump administration was the dismantling of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act?
With two weeks left in office, on National Bird Day, the Trump administration—defying opposition from the general public, scientists, tribal governments, international treaty partners, and a federal judge who last summer all but laughed its legal arguments out of court—today announced it has finalized a rule allowing companies and individuals to kill migratory birds as long as they “didn’t mean to.”
Conservation groups blasted the decision as a desperate attempt by the administration to give industry a free pass to kill birds on its way out the door. “Secretary Bernhardt’s former oil industry clients have explicitly asked for this policy change, and now he is delivering, just days before returning to the private sector,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, in a statement referring to Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the energy industry. “By finalizing this proposal, the Trump administration is signing the death warrants of millions of birds across the country.”
Why are Hundreds of Climbers Heading into the ‘Death Zone’ on Mt Everest This Spring?
Thick murky clouds fill the sky, with freezing winds carrying snow faster than 100 miles per hour. With a frigid –30 degrees Fahrenheit temperature, life-threatening snowstorms and avalanches are frequent.
And these are typical conditions on the world’s highest mountain: Mount Everest.
The behemoth towers 29,032 feet (8,849 meters) between Nepal and Tibet in the Himalayas, with its peak surpassing most clouds in the sky.
An attempt to climb Everest requires months, sometimes years, of training and conditioning – even then, reaching the summit is far from guaranteed. In fact, more than 300 people are known to have died on the mountain.
And yet the mountain still draws hundreds of climbers who are determined to reach its peak every spring. Here’s what it takes to make the climb and what has motivated some climbers to summit the world’s highest peak.
‘I thought I was in pretty good shape’
Dr. Jacob Weasel, a trauma surgeon, successfully summited Everest last May after conditioning for nearly a year.
“I would put on a 50-pound backpack and do two hours on a stair stepper with no problem,” Weasel said. “So, I thought that I was in pretty good shape.” However, the surgeon said he was humbled after discovering that his fitness was no match for the lofty athleticism required by the mountain.
“I would take five steps and have to take 30 seconds to a minute to catch my breath,” Weasel recalled of his struggle with the lack of oxygen available while ascending Everest.
Climbers aiming for the summit usually practice an acclimatizing rotation to adjust their lungs to the thinning oxygen levels once they arrive on the mountain. This process involves mountaineers traveling upward to one of the four designated camps on Everest and spending one to four days there before traveling back down.
This routine is repeated at least two times to allow the body to adapt to declining oxygen levels. It increases a climber’s chances of survival and summiting.
“If you took somebody and just plopped them up at the high camp on Everest, not even on the (top), they would probably go into a coma within 10 to 15 minutes,” Weasel said.
“And they would be dead within an hour because their body is not adjusted to that low of oxygen levels.”
While Weasel has successfully summited dozens of mountains, including Kilimanjaro (19,341 ft), Chimborazo (20, 549 ft), Cotopaxi (19,347 ft), and most recently Aconcagua (22,837 ft) in January, he said none of them compares to the high-altitude of Mount Everest.
“Because no matter how well you are trained, once you get to the limits of what the human body can take, it’s just difficult,” he continued.
At its highest altitude, Everest is nearly incapable of sustaining human life and most mountaineers use supplementary oxygen above 23,000 feet. The lack of oxygen poses one of greatest threats to climbers who attempt to summit, with levels dropping to less than 40% when they reach the Everest “death zone.”
Tents of mountaineers are pictured at Everest base camp in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district on April 18, 2024.
‘It’s difficult to survive up there’
The first target for mountaineers is Everest base camp at approximately 17,000 feet, which takes climbers about two weeks. Then they ascend to the three remaining camps stationed along the mountain.
Camp four, the final one before the summit, sits along the edge of the death zone at 26,000 feet, exposing climbers to an extremely thin layer of air, subzero temperatures, and high winds powerful enough to blow a person off the mountain.
“It’s difficult to survive up there,” Weasel said. He recalls passing bodies of climbers who died on the mountain – which isn’t uncommon. The bodies of the fallen mountaineers are well-preserved, exhibiting little to no decay due to the intense cold temperatures.
“I am probably more familiar with death and the loss of life than most people,” the surgeon said. “For me it was just a reminder of the gravity of the situation and the fragility of what life is… even more so motivation for appreciating the opportunity.”
High-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) is one of the most common illnesses climbers face while attempting to summit. “Your brain is starved of oxygen,” Weasel said.
HACE results in the brain swelling during its attempt to regain stable oxygen levels, causing drowsiness, trouble speaking and thinking. This confusion is often accompanied by blurred vision and sporadic episodes of delusion.
“I had auditory hallucinations where I was hearing voices [of friends] that I thought were coming from behind me,” Weasel recalled. “And I had visual hallucinations,” he added. “I was seeing the faces of my children and my wife coming out of the rocks.”
Weasel recalled crossing paths with a friend, Orianne Aymard, who was trapped on the mountain due to an injury. “I remember staring at her for like five minutes and just saying, ‘I’m so sorry,’” Weasel said.
“I’ve spent over a decade of my life training to help people as a surgeon, and being in a position where there’s somebody who requires your help and you are unable to offer any assistance… that feeling of helplessness was tough to deal with,” Weasel said.
Aymard survived. She was rescued and suffered from several broken bones in her foot, in addition to severe frostbite on her hands. Despite all her injuries, Aymard is considered one of the lucky ones.
Mountaineers climbing during their ascend to summit Mount Everest on May 7, 2021.
‘Their bodies will get frozen into the mountain’
Everest has long been a tomb for climbers who have succumbed to harsh conditions or accidents on its slopes.
When a loved one or fellow climber is severely injured or dies on the mountain, it’s routine to leave them behind if you’re unable to save them, according to Alan Arnette, a mountaineer coach who summited Everest in 2014.
“What most teams do out of respect for that climber, they will move the body out of sight,” he said. And that’s only if they can.
“Sometimes that’s just not practical because of the bad weather, or because their bodies will get frozen into the mountain,” Arnette said. “So, it’s very difficult to move them.”
Seeing a corpse on Everest is comparable to seeing a horrible car accident, according to the mountain coach. “You don’t turn around and go home,” Arnette said. “You respectfully slow down… or say a prayer for that person, and then you continue.”
It’s been 10 years since the single deadliest accident on the world’s highest mountain, after an avalanche killed 12 Sherpa guides. And 2023 was recorded as the deadliest year on Everest, with 18 fatalities on the mountain – including five people that are still unaccounted for.
The process of recovering bodies is extensive, sometimes impossible. Helicopter rescues and search missions are challenging due to the high altitude and frequently treacherous conditions, resulting in some rescuers dying in their attempt to save others.
Mountaineers as they climb during their ascend to summit Mount Everest on May 12, 2021.
‘Watching the sunrise from 29,000 feet’
The 3,000 feet climb from camp four to the summit can take anywhere from 14 to 18 hours. Therefore, mountaineers typically leave the camp at night.
“That entire night was cold,” Weasel recalled. “It’s dark, it’s windy.” But it was proven to be worth it in the morning, he said.
“Watching the sunrise from 29,000 feet and having that pyramid of Everest’s shadow projected onto the valley below you…,” Weasel said. “It was probably one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life,” he continued.
“It’s weird standing up there and knowing that everything else on the planet is below where you’re standing.”
The size of the mountain is humbling, the surgeon said. “I’ve never felt so small,” he recalled. “That mixture of humility and connectedness with something bigger than yourself is the proper place from which we ought to approach our existence on this planet.”
Like Weasel, Arnette summited at sunrise, and experienced this same feeling of “smallness.” At the top there were “more mountains than you can count,” Arnette remembered. “It was a sense of enormous gratitude and at the same time I knew I had to get back down.”
After about 20 minutes to an hour, climbers typically start to descend back to the base of the mountain.
Jacob Weasel.
‘Bigger than yourself’
Before leaving for Nepal, Weasel was gifted an eagle’s feather as a beacon for his Native American heritage.
He was determined to plant the feather on top of Everest “as a symbol of our people and what we’ve endured for the past several hundred years,” Weasel said. “Showing that our spirit is not broken, but we’re able to rise above the things that have happened to us,” he added.
“I remember planting that eagle’s feather on the top of the world and the feeling of real privilege that I felt in representing our people.” And this is why he decided to summit Everest, to be an example that anything is possible for young Native children and his tribe.
“Knowing what it’s like up there, for me personally, the only real justification for going and putting your life, and other lives, at risk is if you’re climbing for a reason that is much bigger than you,” said Weasel.
Arnette attempted to climb Everest three times before he successfully summited.
“My first three tries, I wasn’t clear on my why,” Arnette said. When his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he looked at his purpose for climbing differently.
“I wanted to do it to raise money for Alzheimer’s and honor my mother,” Arnette said.
There are approximately 300 people that have been issued a permit from the Nepal government to climb the mountain this year, according to Arnette. And he said the number is down from previous years.
“I think one of the reasons is because we had the 18 deaths last year, and people realize that Mount Everest is a dangerous mountain.”
However, he doesn’t believe that should deter climbers from attempting to summit. “I’m a big believer that when you go climb these mountains that you come home a better version of yourself,” Arnette said.
“Everest has become too commercialized with ‘you’re stepping over dead bodies’ and ‘it’s littered with trash,’” the mountain coach said. “The reality is that it is a very small degree all of that, but there’s a lot of joy that people get out of doing it,” he continued.
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