After death threats from a far-right group, Russian restaurant pulls ad featuring Black man

Moscow — A Russian sushi delivery chain issued an apology on its social media accounts after posting an ad featuring a Black man. The restaurant's owner said he was bombarded by death threats from a nationalist hate group and forced to take down the advertisement. 

Yobidoyobi, which has stores in 65 Russian cities, posted its first ad featuring a Black model — a man surrounded by three women with Slavic features — on August 14. It followed up on the campaign two weeks later posting another picture of the same man easting sushi, and the chain's social media accounts were quickly flooded with hateful comments.

Yobidoyobi founder, Konstantin Zimen, attributed the attacks to a hate group called "Male State," and said the barrage of threats came after the movement's leader, Vladislav Pozdnyakov, shared the chain's ad on his accounts.

Male State and Pozdnyakov, which describes itself as a movement promoting "traditional values" in Russia, have previously threatened Russian women with biracial children, LGBTQ and feminist activists, and others.

The group boasts on its social media pages of having over 100,000 members. Pozdnyakov has been convicted previously of inciting hatred toward women and was given a suspended sentence in 2018, which was overturned a year later.

"On Pozdnyakov's telegram channel, his followers call for 'real' actions, they publish links to the social media accounts of the girls who were also featured in the ad, and write negative reviews on all sites, online maps, AppStore, and Google Play," Zimen wrote in a letter published on his blog.

He added that he had received numerous deaths threats and that his personal phone number was leaked online, leading to dozens of hateful calls.  

Pozdnyakov also called on his supporters to post fake orders and then refuse to pay for the food in an effort to hurt Yobidoyobi's business, Zimen said.

"Yobidoyobi is known for its provocative marketing, but this time we did not pursue these goals — we just made a very ordinary promo for social networks. Many brands use images of different models, which may differ in skin color, gender, and so on," Zimen told the Inc. Russia outlet. "There was no provocation in this — it is just the voice of the times. I am sorry that someone thinks that a photo of a Black man (especially next to supposedly "Slavic" girls) on the Internet is unacceptable."

Yobidoyobi took down the ads and posted an apology to its Instagram page: "On behalf of the entire company, we want to apologize for offending the public with our photos. We have removed all content that caused this hype."

On their Vkontakte page, the Russian Facebook-like social media network where the Male State rose to prominence, Yobidoyobi said it apologized "to the Russian nation" for having "hurt the Russian people" with the photographs. 

Many of Yobidoyobi's Instagram followers were outraged that the ads had been deleted.

"Are you yourself not ashamed of this shameful apology, written as if the Taliban with machine guns was standing over you?" asked one person.

The incident with Yobidoyobi comes weeks after a Russian grocery chain, VkusVill, deleted an ad campaign featuring an LGBTQ family, causing a massive backlash. The same-sex family who appeared in the promo have since fled Russia, citing death threats.

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Article available here.

How small was the universe at the start of the Big Seed?

 

Entire article available here.

No matter how tempting it may be to think that the Universe arose from a singular point of infinite temperature and density, and that all of space and time emerged from that starting point, we cannot responsibly make that extrapolation and still be consistent with the observations that we’ve made. We can only run the clock back a certain, finite amount until the story changes, with today’s observable Universe — and all the matter and energy within it — allowed to be no smaller than the wingspan of a typical human teenager. Any smaller than that, and we’d see fluctuations in the Big Bang’s Seed's leftover glow that simply aren’t there.

Before the hot Big Bang Seed, our Universe was dominated by energy inherent to space, or to the field that drives cosmic inflation, and we have no idea how long inflation lasted for or what set up and caused it, if anything. By its very nature, inflation wipes our Universe clean of any information that came before it, imprinting only the signals from inflation’s final fractions-of-a-second onto our observable Universe today. To some, that’s a bug, demanding an explanation all its own. But to others, this is a feature that highlights the fundamental limits of not only what’s known, but what’s knowable. Listening to the Universe, and what it tells us about itself, is in many ways the most humbling experience of all.

Former US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs: "American and Israeli values diverged long ago"

Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Chas Freeman says "American and Israeli values diverged long ago. There is no interest in the United States in a war with Iran."

Former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia tells The Cradle:

"The age of Euro-American global ascendancy is past."

The Cradle.co

Ambassador Charles “Chas” W. Freeman Jr. is a former United States diplomat who served on behalf of the US Foreign Service and State Department in Saudi Arabia, India, Thailand, and China. Fluent in Arabic and Mandarin, he acted as US President Richard Nixon’s main interpreter during the latter’s historic 1972 trip to China.

Among his other prominent positions within Washington’s elite policy-making and influencing circles, Freeman has also served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, is a Distinguished Fellow at both the US Institutes of Peace and Defense Department-funded Institute of National Security Studies, and a lifetime Director at the Atlantic Council.

He was selected to chair the National Intelligence Council under the administration of US President Barak Obama, but withdrew from consideration when he came under scorching attacks by the US’s “Israel lobby.” I have often thought I would never have had the fortune to meet Chas Freeman had it not been for that very-public calamity. Freeman is one of those rare statesmen who, freed from the restraints of official service, will bowl you over with his candor, depth of knowledge, and searing logic. Agree with him or not, you will not leave one of his eloquent lectures or read one of his books without thinking the US could have reached its potential with more Freemans at its helm.

Without further ado, here is Chas Freeman, speaking to The Cradle:

The Cradle: First of all, we’re not the ‘Middle East’ anymore. We are now ‘West Asia’ for various strategic, historically accurate, and post-colonial reasons. More of us are using this term every day – it is a hard rule at The Cradle, for instance. Do you get why, and is Washington capable of making this switch?

Freeman: The term ‘Middle East’ was coined by the American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, but reflects a Eurocentric view of the world. West Asia and North Africa is how the region is described in places like China, where western terminology didn’t take hold. The United States hasn’t been able to adopt the metric system. Why should anyone expect us to be able to adopt a ‘wertfrei’ geographical terminology?

The Cradle: I’m interviewing you from Beirut, Lebanon right now. The country is effectively under a US economic siege – no international loans, critical infrastructure builds, open border crossings, or vital commodity imports allowed until Washington says so. I’d estimate that up to 20 percent of the public here are keen to get on the US’s good side, with whatever restrictions and hoop-jumping that necessitates; another 30 percent are hellbent on moving eastward, and the remaining 50 percent don’t care where the assistance comes from; they just want relief. Which way do you think things will go, and why?

Freeman: I have no idea at all where Lebanon is headed, but hope that is decided by Lebanese rather than others. Lebanon is clearly a failed state. The role of Israel’s archenemy, Hezbollah, in its governance has made the country a pariah in American eyes, which almost automatically follow Israeli perspectives. Left unaddressed are fundamental issues like the obsolescence of Lebanon’s confessional constitutional arrangements and its status as a political battleground in the Saudi-Iranian and Saudi-Syrian proxy wars. Something will have to give. But what?

Unlike the Trump administration, which treated Lebanon like an Iranian-aligned enemy, the Biden administration has increased support for the Lebanese army. Sadly, this appears to be a move that is directed at Hezbollah rather than at stabilizing Lebanon. As in Syria, the United States is pursuing an Israeli-inspired agenda in Lebanon. The tragedy for Lebanon is that the United States, which is home to such a large Lebanese diaspora, has few, if any, direct interests of its own in the country and its future.

The Cradle: The Biden administration has not shown the Trump ‘love’ that the Israelis, Saudis, and Emiratis had become accustomed to. What’s on Biden’s mind as he looks at the region these days? And does it have anything to do with his eye being on China?

Freeman: For better or ill, the United States has become obsessed with what it calls ‘great power rivalry.’ This is the notion that the world can be understood and foreign policy can be formulated by reference to struggles with China and Russia, with middle-ranking and smaller powers reduced to the status of impotent bystanders. Add to this is the politically appealing but ill-founded assertion that the world is engaged in an epic contest between democracy and an imagined but nonexistent ideology of ‘authoritarianism.’ Neither conviction is backed by evidence, but ‘the Middle East’ fits into neither strategic framework. So, American interest in the region is receding, helped along by war fatigue, disillusionment with Zionism, strategic narcissism, and paranoid fixations with China.

The Cradle: Your expertise on the Persian Gulf Arab states runs deep, especially in regard to Saudi Arabia. Post-Trump, how do you see these states recalibrating their regional policies and objectives? And what are their chances of success?

Freeman: I have argued elsewhere that events in West Asia and North Africa are now driven by the countries there, rather than, as in the past, in large part by external great powers. The age of Euro-American global ascendancy is past. Every country in the region, whether aligned with or against the United States, is now seeking to adjust to this reality by diversifying its international relationships. Some are trying to work out their own solutions to long standing disputes that they were able to dismiss as insoluble but tolerable when the Pax Americana prevailed. As the US recedes from the region, the countries in it will have to find their own regional balances to sustain stability and development. In the meantime, none take direction from any external great power or even pretend to defer to one.

The Cradle: What are your views on Israel’s current regional predicament and its increasingly knee-jerk aggressions? What war options do the Israelis have left? And how far can Tel Aviv take its not-so-stealthy ship battle with Iran before something gives and/or the US gets dragged in?

Freeman: There is growing disillusionment with Israel among American Jews and other former knee-jerk supporters of the Zionist state. American and Israeli values diverged long ago. American and Zionist strategic interests are no longer congruent. There is no interest in the United States in a war with Iran, which Israel keeps plumping for. I do not believe that the Biden administration, despite its strong residual identification with Zionism, will allow itself to be dragged into the low-intensity conflict between Israel and Iran.

Israel has essentially exhausted its military options. It can do more of the same but more of the same will not bring it peace. Only a reconciliation with the Palestinians and Israel’s Arab neighbors can do that. In this context, it must be said, the so-called Abraham accords are a diversion, not a path to peace. Despite the opposition of Israel’s Arab partners to Iran, they do not wish to be caught in the crossfire of a war between Israel and Iran.

The Cradle: Do you see genuine prospects for normalization of Arab states with Israel? Especially the UAE, which is taking the lead on these efforts?

Freeman: Formal ties are one thing. Relationships are another. The public in the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco is able to see the Realpolitik arguments for cooperation with Israel. Among other things, as long as the US Zionist lobby holds sway, this secures American support even as it buttresses the American stand against Iran. It also facilitates the transfer of technology and the purchase of equipment relevant to the maintenance of Arab police states. But Israel’s blatant cruelty to its captive Arab populations makes any relationship with it beyond that dictated by raison d’état deeply unpopular and sets a natural limit to cooperation with it.

The Cradle: What’s it going to take to conclude the Saudi/US/UAE-led war on Yemen?

Freeman: Saudi Arabia will have to admit defeat and withdraw. The Houthis will not let it retreat without exacting a significant degree of humiliation in return.

The only stake the United States has had in Yemen, other than a desire to curb terrorist attacks from its territory, has been to demonstrate continuing support for Saudi Arabia to offset the decline of other aspects for the US–Saudi relationship. But there is no popular support and much opposition in the United States to helping the Saudis continue their misadventures in Yemen. American diplomacy on the war is largely ineffectual. Lacking a relationship with Tehran, the American mediation effort cannot address the contest between it and Saudi Arabia in Yemen. And Washington is not seen as a valuable interlocutor by the Houthis.

The Cradle: What’s your personal timeline on the removal of US military forces from Iraq, and what bearing will that have on the remaining US troops in Syria?

Freeman: The presence of US forces in Iraq has become a focus of Iraqi nationalist resentment that buttresses Iranian influence in Baghdad. The sooner the US forces are withdrawn, the sooner Iraq will be able to adopt a more balanced relationship with Iran. When the US withdraws from Iraq, it is difficult to see how logistical support for the troop presence in Syria can be maintained. If the Biden administration’s professions of a desire to return to constitutionality and legality are sincere, removing the unconstitutional and internationally illegal US military outpost in Syria will be essential. But there are no signs of concern about this in Washington at present, where Israel’s interest in perpetuating the anarchy and crippling the government in Syria continues to direct policy.

The Cradle: Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran – the US looks to be on the most public losing streak in all of human history. How does Biden spin that, and isn’t he really fulfilling what Trump promised?

Freeman: I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s true that lots of chickens are coming home to roost and it seems clear that the administration has bungled its negotiations with Iran. ‘America First that speaks French’ – as someone has described the ‘Biden doctrine’ – is neither an improvement nor a viable policy in the ‘Middle East’ or anywhere else for that matter.

US allies were alienated by the unilateralism of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the focus of US military commanders on force protection rather than the evacuation of civilians that dishonored NATO and produced the fiasco at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Nobody’s talking about Syria, but the US has disengaged from its minor role in Yemen. The Iraqis will end the US military presence there in the near future. Iran is entering an entente with Russia and China in a bid to become part of a post-dollar-dominated world. It may now emulate Israel by clandestinely developing nuclear weapons as the Israelis have expected it to do.

The Cradle: Please explain the current state of the US–Turkish relationship to us. Erdogan is complicated, but he is your NATO ally, after all. Yet he bought the Russian S-400s, which represents (on paper, at least) a critical route on China’s Belt and Road Initiative from West Asia to Europe; he flirts with SCO membership, organizes Syrian de-escalation with Moscow and Tehran, and spars with Europe all the time. What’s left for Turkey in NATO? For that matter, what’s left of NATO?

Freeman: Turkey was an ally against the Soviet Union in the Cold War but the Cold War is long past. Turkey’s centuries-long bid to attach itself to Europe has ended.  It is now reasserting a West Asian and Central Asian identity. Ankara remains in NATO because it gains influence and leverage from this but its commitment to the alliance is greatly attenuated. NATO went ‘out of area’ to avoid ‘going out of business.’ It may yet become a cooperative security organization spanning Europe but its days as a collective security organization acting beyond Europe are over. I expect NATO to be increasingly dominated by European states rather than America, and Europe no longer includes Britain as a surrogate American voice. Europe’s middle-ranking powers are about to become more assertive on European security issues and to adjust their relationships with the great powers (China, Russia, the United States) outside Europe. But it is too early to make detailed predictions of when and how this will shape up.

The Cradle: Why did CENTCOM move its troops from Qatar to Jordan?

Freeman: Perhaps it reflects no more than the sudden inclusion of Israel in its ‘area of responsibility’ (AOR). The removal of stored military equipment from Qatar to Jordan makes it less vulnerable to attack from Iran. Qatar, by geopolitical necessity, seeks to maintain good relations with Iran. Jordan does not feel comparable pressure to do so. This potentially provides the US military with options against Iran that it could not exercise from Qatar.

The Cradle: To what extent have US foreign policy ‘snafus’ in West Asia paved the way for China’s easy entry into this region, and do you expect China’s future here, with investment, infrastructure builds, strategic partnerships, to be as smooth-sailing as it looks?

Freeman: China is being drawn into the region not by a desire to emulate the United States or past European politico-military dominance but by demands from the countries of the region for its goods, services, and presence. Beijing has been careful not to become embroiled in the numerous disputes that divide the region. This has not changed. But, as China’s economy expands and its technology advances, it is gradually displacing other external powers in regional markets and becoming the primary market for the region’s oil, gas, and other minerals.

Countries in the ‘Middle East’ want Chinese capital and construction services as well as weaponry. China is now active in the region’s arms market but makes its sales without any military commitment to the purchasers, as has been the case with US, Russian, and other vendors. China’s relationship with Iran is being driven by American hostility to both. The abuse of dollar sovereignty to impose unilateral sanctions is generating a common interest with Iran, Russia and others in finding alternatives to dollar-based banking, though this process is probably years away from fruition.

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Now available at Free Speech Library

New class of habitable exoplanets represent a big step forward in the search for life

"A biosignature detection would transform our understanding of life in the universe," said Madhusudhan. "We need to be open about where we expect to find life and what form that life could take, as nature continues to surprise us in often unimaginable ways."

A new class of exoplanet very different to our own, but which could support life, has been identified by astronomers, which could greatly accelerate the search for life outside our Solar System.

In the search for life elsewhere, astronomers have mostly looked for planets of a similar size, mass, temperature and atmospheric composition to Earth. However, astronomers from the University of Cambridge believe there are more promising possibilities out there.

The researchers have identified a new class of habitable planets, dubbed 'Hycean' planets—hot, ocean-covered planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres—which are more numerous and observable than Earth-like planets.

The researchers say the results, reported in The Astrophysical Journal, could mean that finding biosignatures of life outside our Solar System within the next two or three years is a real possibility.

"Hycean planets open a whole new avenue in our search for life elsewhere," said Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, who led the research.

"Hycean worlds are likely quite common, meaning that the most promising places to look for life elsewhere in the Galaxy may have been hiding in plain sight."

These planets also allow for a far wider habitable zone, or 'Goldilocks zone', compared to Earth-like planets. This means that they could still support life even though they lie outside the range where a planet similar to Earth would need to be in order to be habitable.

Thousands of planets outside our Solar System have been discovered since the first exoplanet was identified nearly 30 years ago. The vast majority are planets between the sizes of Earth and Neptune and are often referred to as 'super-Earths' or 'mini-Neptunes': they can be predominantly rocky or ice giants with hydrogen-rich atmospheres, or something in between.

Most mini-Neptunes are over 1.6 times the size of Earth: smaller than Neptune but too big to have rocky interiors like Earth. Earlier studies of such planets have found that the pressure and temperature beneath their hydrogen-rich atmospheres would be too high to support life.

Hycean worlds are likely quite common, meaning that the most promising places to look for life elsewhere in the Galaxy may have been hiding in plain sight.

However, a recent study on the mini-Neptune K2-18b by Madhusudhan's team found that in certain conditions these planets could support life. The result led to a detailed investigation into the full range of planetary and stellar properties for which these conditions are possible, which known exoplanets may satisfy those conditions, and whether their biosignatures may be observable.

The investigation led the researchers to identify a new class of planets, Hycean planets, with massive planet-wide oceans beneath hydrogen-rich atmospheres. Hycean planets can be up to 2.6 times larger than Earth and have atmospheric temperatures up to nearly 200 degrees Celsius, but their oceanic conditions could be similar to those conducive for microbial life in Earth's oceans. Such planets also include tidally locked 'dark' Hycean worlds that may have habitable conditions only on their permanent night sides, and 'cold' Hycean worlds that receive little radiation from their stars.

Planets of this size dominate the known exoplanet population, although they have not been studied in nearly as much detail as super-Earths. Hycean worlds are likely quite common, meaning that the most promising places to look for life elsewhere in the Galaxy may have been hiding in plain sight.

However, size alone is not enough to confirm whether a planet is Hycean: other aspects such as mass, temperature and atmospheric properties are required for confirmation.

When trying to determine what the conditions are like on a planet many light years away, astronomers first need to determine whether the planet lies in the habitable zone of its star, and then look for molecular signatures to infer the planet's atmospheric and internal structure, which govern the surface conditions, presence of oceans and potential for life.

Astronomers also look for certain biosignatures which could indicate the possibility of life. Most often, these are oxygen, ozone, methane and nitrous oxide, which are all present on Earth. There are also a number of other biomarkers, such as methyl chloride and dimethyl sulphide, that are less abundant on Earth but can be promising indicators of life on planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres where oxygen or ozone may not be as abundant.

"Essentially, when we've been looking for these various molecular signatures, we have been focusing on planets similar to Earth, which is a reasonable place to start," said Madhusudhan. "But we think Hycean planets offer a better chance of finding several trace biosignatures."

"It's exciting that habitable conditions could exist on planets so different from Earth," said co-author Anjali Piette, also from Cambridge.

Madhusudhan and his team found that a number of trace terrestrial biomarkers expected to be present in Hycean atmospheres would be readily detectable with spectroscopic observations in the near future. The larger sizes, higher temperatures and hydrogen-rich atmospheres of Hycean planets make their atmospheric signatures much more detectable than Earth-like planets.

The Cambridge team identified a sizeable sample of potential Hycean worlds which are prime candidates for detailed study with next-generation telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is due to be launched later this year. These planets all orbit red dwarf stars between 35-150 light years away: close by astronomical standards. Planned JWST observations of the most promising candidate, K2-18b, could lead to the detection of one or more biosignature molecules.

"A biosignature detection would transform our understanding of life in the universe," said Madhusudhan. "We need to be open about where we expect to find life and what form that life could take, as nature continues to surprise us in often unimaginable ways."

So-called 'junk' DNA plays a key role in speciation

More than 10 percent of our genome is made up of repetitive, seemingly nonsensical stretches of genetic material called satellite DNA that do not code for any proteins. In the past, some scientists have referred to this DNA as "genomic junk."

Over a series of papers spanning several years, however, Whitehead Institute Member Yukiko Yamashita and colleagues have made the case that satellite DNA is not junk, but instead has an essential role in the cell: it works with cellular proteins to keep all of a cell's individual chromosomes together in a single nucleus.

Now, in the latest installment of their work, published online July 24 in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, Yamashita and former postdoctoral fellow Madhav Jagannathan, currently an assistant professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, take these studies a step further, proposing that the system of chromosomal organization made possible by satellite DNA is one reason that organisms from different species cannot produce viable offspring.

"Seven or eight years ago when we decided we wanted to study satellite DNA, we had zero plans to study evolution," said Yamashita, who is also a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "This is one very fun part of doing science: when you don't have a preconceived idea, and you just follow the lead until you bump into something completely unexpected."

The origin of species: DNA edition

Researchers have known for years that satellite DNA is highly variable between species. "If you look at the chimpanzee genome and the human genome, the protein coding regions are, like, 98 percent, 99 percent identical," she says. "But the junk DNA part is very, very different."

"These are about the most rapidly evolving sequences in the genome, but the prior perspective has been, "Well, these are junk sequences, who cares if your junk is different from mine?'" said Jagannathan.

But as they were investigating the importance of satellite DNA for fertility and survival in pure species, Yamashita and Jagannathan had their first hint that these repetitive sequences might play a role in speciation.

When the researchers deleted a protein called Prod that binds to a specific satellite DNA sequence in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the flies' chromosomes scattered outside of the nucleus into tiny globs of cellular material called micronuclei, and the flies died. "But we realized at this point that this [piece of] satellite DNA that was bound by the Prod protein was completely missing in the nearest relatives of Drosophila melanogaster," Jagannathan said. "It completely doesn't exist. So that's an interesting little problem."

If that piece of satellite DNA was essential for survival in one species but missing from another, it could imply that the two species of flies had evolved different satellite DNA sequences for the same role over time. And since satellite DNA played a role in keeping all the chromosomes together, Yamashita and Jagannathan wondered whether these evolved differences could be one reason different species are reproductively incompatible.

"After we realized the function [of satellite DNA in the cell], the fact that satellite DNA is quite different between species really hit like lightning," Yamashita said. "All of a sudden, it became a completely different investigation."

Entire article available here.

Mapping the Universe's Earliest Structures with COSMOS-Webb

When NASA's James Webb Space Telescope begins science operations in 2022, one of its first tasks will be an ambitious program to map the earliest structures in the universe. Called COSMOS-Webb, this wide and deep survey of half-a-million galaxies is the largest project Webb will undertake during its first year.

With more than 200 hours of observing time, COSMOS-Webb will survey a large patch of the sky—0.6 square degrees—with the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). That's the size of three full moons. It will simultaneously map a smaller area with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).

It's a large chunk of sky, which is pretty unique to the COSMOS-Webb program. Most Webb programs are drilling very deep, like pencil-beam surveys that are studying tiny patches of sky," explained Caitlin Casey, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin and co-leader of the COSMOS-Webb program. "Because we're covering such a large area, we can look at large-scale structures at the dawn of galaxy formation. We will also look for some of the rarest galaxies that existed early on, as well as map the large-scale dark matter distribution of galaxies out to very early times."

COSMOS-Webb will study half-a-million galaxies with multi-band, high-resolution, near-infrared imaging, and an unprecedented 32,000 galaxies in the mid-infrared. With its rapid public release of the data, this survey will be a primary legacy dataset from Webb for scientists worldwide studying galaxies beyond the Milky Way.

The ambitious COSMOS-Webb program will build upon previous discoveries to make advances in three particular areas of study, including: revolutionizing our understanding of the Reionization Era; looking for early, fully evolved galaxies; and learning how dark matter evolved with galaxies' stellar content.

Goal 1: Revolutionizing Our Understanding of the Reionization Era

Soon after the big bang seed, the universe was completely dark. Stars and galaxies, which bathe the cosmos in light, had not yet formed. Instead, the universe consisted of a primordial soup of neutral hydrogen and helium atoms and invisible dark matter. This is called the cosmic dark ages. 

After several hundred million years, the first stars and galaxies emerged and provided energy to reionize the early universe. This energy ripped apart activated the hydrogen atoms that filled the universe, giving them an electric charge and ending the cosmic dark ages. This new era where the universe was flooded illuminated with light is called the Reionization Era.

The first goal of COSMOS-Webb focuses on this epoch of reionization, which took place from 400,000 to 1 billion years after the big bang seed. Reionization likely happened in little pockets, not all at once. COSMOS-Webb will look for bubbles showing where the first pockets of the early universe were reionized. The team aims to map the scale of these reionization bubbles.

"Hubble has done a great job of finding handfuls of these galaxies out to early times, but we need thousands more galaxies to understand the reionization process," explained Casey.

Scientists don't even know what kind of galaxies ushered in the Reionization Era, whether they're very massive or relatively low-mass systems. COSMOS-Webb will have a unique ability to find very massive, rare galaxies and see what their distribution is like in large-scale structures. So, are the galaxies responsible for reionization living in the equivalent of a cosmic metropolis, or are they mostly evenly distributed across space? Only a survey the size of COSMOS-Webb can help scientists to answer this.

Goal 2: Looking for Early, Fully Evolved Galaxies

COSMOS-Webb will search for very early, fully evolved galaxies that shut down star birth in the first 2 billion years after the big bang seed. Hubble has found a handful of these galaxies, which challenge existing models about how the universe formed. Scientists struggle to explain how these galaxies could have old stars and not be forming any new stars so early in the history of the universe. 

With a large survey like COSMOS-Webb, the team will find many of these rare galaxies. They plan detailed studies of these galaxies to understand how they could have evolved so rapidly and turned off star formation so early.

Goal 3: Learning How Dark Matter Evolved with Galaxies' Stellar Content

COSMOS-Webb will give scientists insight into how dark matter in galaxies has evolved with the galaxies' stellar content over the universe's lifetime.

Galaxies are made of two types of matter: normal, luminous matter that we see in stars and other objects, and invisible dark matter, which is often more massive than the galaxy and can surround it in an extended halo. Those two kinds of matter are intertwined in galaxy formation and evolution. However, presently there's not much knowledge about how the dark matter mass in the halos of galaxies formed, and how that dark matter impacts the formation of the galaxies.

COSMOS-Webb will shed light on this process by allowing scientists to directly measure these dark matter halos through "weak lensing." The gravity from any type of mass—whether it's dark or luminous—can serve as a lens to "bend" the light we see from more distant galaxies. Weak lensing distorts the apparent shape of background galaxies, so when a halo is located in front of other galaxies, scientists can directly measure the mass of the halo's dark matter.

"For the first time, we'll be able to measure the relationship between the dark matter mass and the luminous mass of galaxies back to the first 2 billion years of cosmic time," said team member Anton Koekemoer, a research astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who helped design the program's observing strategy and is in charge of constructing all the images from the program. "That's a crucial epoch for us to try to understand how the galaxies' mass was first put in place, and how that's driven by the dark matter halos. And that can then feed indirectly into our understanding of galaxy formation."

Entire article available here.

Multiple supernovas may have implanted our solar system with the seeds of planets

A nearby star-forming region may explain the mystery of tiny grains from beyond the solar system.

A wave of exploding sprouting stars may have provided the conditions required to build the solar system. 

New research probing a nearby star-forming region examines conditions that may have been similar to those found in the early solar system to try to solve the outstanding mystery of how radioactive elements essential to planet formation arrived in the environment around the sun. The new finding concludes that such particles are common in star-forming regions, suggesting that the processes that formed the solar system are readily available throughout the galaxy.

Scientists used the tiny clues of some of the first solid material that condensed from the cloud of dust surrounding the newborn sun, material that later built the planets. A key ingredient here is aluminum-26, an element built inside of stars and one that has a relatively short lifetime of roughly 100,000 years. Because the first planets likely took a billion years or so to form, this element's presence suggests a nearby source.

By observing the conditions found in the nearby star-forming region Ophiuchus, scientists have determined that the most likely source of aluminum-26 for our solar system is a series of nearby supernovas, rather than a single fortunate event.

"Most of the work on understanding the source of aluminum-26 and other short-lived radionuclides in the solar system has, by necessity, been quite idealized," John Forbes, an astronomer at the Flatiron Institute in New York City and lead author of the new research, told Space.com by email. "Ophiuchus offers us a real example for how this may play out, which is extremely useful when dealing with such a complex process."

The research was published today (Aug. 16) in the journal Nature.

Death to life

[ed.: " Death to life" - perhaps the worst heading ever?]

Coalescence of life

[ed.: " Coalescence of life" - much better IMHO]

The researchers hunted aluminum-26 by focusing on calcium-aluminum rich inclusions (CAIs), which are submillimeter-sized grains found in meteorites. Planets form when material left over from the birth of a star condenses into smaller clumps. CAIs provide a substantial source of heat during planetary formation, drying out worlds and reducing the amount of water that survives. But where did these tiny fragments come from?

Aluminum-26 is one of many metals produced in the fiery heart of massive stars. When the star goes supernova and explodes, it spreads its innards across the nearby galaxy. Theoretically, a single supernova could be the source of all of the aluminum in the solar system. However, according to Forbes, current estimates for the aluminum yield of supernovas just aren't high enough most of the time to explain our solar system.

[section omitted]

The new research has important implications for understanding the early solar system.

"The finding that aluminum-26 is going to be readily available to some forming planetary systems is very exciting," Fred Ciesla, a planetary scientist at the University of Chicago, told Space.com by email. Ciesla, who was not part of the new research, studies early solar system formation and how CAIs contributed.

"Given the many roles that aluminum-26 played in the formation of our solar system, this means those same processes may have operated in other planetary systems," Ciesla said.

Reheating the disk 

The explanation of aluminum-26's arrival from multiple stellar deaths doesn't come without its challenges. In order to match observations from meteorites, scientists need to not only address the quantity of aluminum, but also to explain a so-called "global reset" of the aluminum in the stellar disk to synchronize their radiogenic clocks to give them the same apparent formation period. Such a reset would require a global heating event that would vaporize all of the solids in the solar system.

Such a reset could have been caused by an outburst from the forming sun or from an extremely nearby supernova, but Forbes admits both these hypotheses have drawbacks. Although outbursts have been seen in forming protostars, such explosions would only be capable of heating the disk out to roughly the orbit of Mars, while planetary formation continues farther out. Meanwhile, explaining it with a nearby supernova would require extreme precision — it would have to be close enough to sufficiently heat the disk but far enough away to avoid destroying it completely, which Forbes calls "quite an unusual situation."

The researchers favor a variant of the first option, one in which the angular momentum of the planetary disk is turbulent enough to eventually bring all of the material within reach of the young star as it flares.

But Ciesla is wary of that explanation. He points to dust grains in meteorites that show signs of formation around other stars. These grains would be destroyed in a global heating event. Water would also be a problem. Scientists think that some of the water in the Earth, asteroids and comets came from the early solar environment based on these objects' concentration of heavy water. In the global heating event called for by the authors, that water would react with other hydrogen molecules and the heavy water enrichment would be lost.

"This has not happened, as we see that heavy water, so the global heating must not have happened," Ciesla said.

[section omitted]

"The fact that there's abundant aluminum-26 available right next door to this star-forming region is really suggestive that the enrichment happens by mixing in aluminum-26 produced by nearby massive stars," Forbes said.

Ciesla remains heartened by the idea that aluminum-26 would be available to other worlds in the galaxy.

"While we know that planetary formation is robust, the question is how unique were the conditions and evolutionary pathway that our solar system followed," Ciesla said.

"This paper tells us that having aluminum-26 is not a very unique aspect of our solar system's story."

Entire article available here.

French prosecutors open probe into antisemitic sign raised at anti-vaccine rally

ZOG-French prosecutors open probe into antisemitic truth sign raised at anti-vaccine rally

Poster lists names of public figures, including prominent Jews, implying they control the media and calling them ‘traitors’; politicians, Israeli embassy decry ‘despicable’ display.

The truth hurts.

ZOG-French prosecutors opened an investigation Sunday into a “sign with a clearly antisemitic message” brandished during an anti-vaccination demonstration against COVID-19 restrictions a day earlier in the city of Metz.

The demonstration against the introduction of a public health pass gathered 3,800 people on Saturday, according to the police.

A photo posted on social media showed a woman holding up a sign bearing the names of several politicians, businessmen and intellectuals, some of whom are Jews.

The sign’s headline said: “But who?” in an apparent reference to a June interview given by retired general Daniel Delawarde to the CNEWS TV network, in which he was asked “who controls the media?” and answered: “The community you know well.”

The sign also says “Traitors!!!” and then lists a series of names, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Hungarian Jewish billionaire George Soros, Jewish intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy, World Economic Forum Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab and French-Israeli telecom magnate Patrick Drahi.

The Moselle prefecture said prefect Laurent Touvet “strongly condemns this message.”

“This sign is despicable. Antisemitism is a crime, by no means an opinion. Such remarks will not go unpunished,” said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Twitter, adding the police were trying to identify the author of the sign.

Metz Mayor Francois Grosdidier said he was “outraged, scandalized, but unfortunately not surprised,” expressing hope that the bearer of the sign will be sanctioned.

The International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) told AFP that it would file a complaint against the sign, and SOS Racisme also said it was “studying” the possibility of legal action.

The Israeli Embassy in France said it was “appalled at such an expression of the most despicable antisemitic hatred.”

ZOG prepares to close Tholian web

Haaretz: Israel Wants a Massive Supercomputer - No Matter the Cost

The computing network will be powerful enough to enable a large number of researchers and developers to run different tasks in tandem, including those that demand especially large volumes of data (such as simulations, computerized models, training of AI systems, genomic analysis, etc.).

According to Zeevi, the supercomputer will be able to create a model of artificial intelligence capable of processing and understanding Hebrew as what is termed a “natural language.” Natural language processing, or NLP, is something with a large demand in almost all areas of tech today - and Israel is no different.

Israeli army soldiers working on artificial intelligence for the IDF

Credit:  IDF's Spokesman Unit

Why does Israel need a supercomputer?

  

According to the plan’s formulators, a supercomputing infrastructure will enable heavy-duty tasks that cannot be performed by private or local servers to be carried out - or, at least those that can be run on cloud services such as those provided by Amazon, Microsoft and Google - but for a very high cost.

The budget plan says that the supercomputer will support R&D and an innovation environment in Israel which will enable local universities, industry and the defense establishment to work together, running trials for experimental hardware and software components independently of the public cloud systems run by international companies. Israel announced recently that Google and Amazon will operate its official state cloud, known as Project Nimbus.

The computing network will be powerful enough to enable a large number of researchers and developers to run different tasks in tandem, including those that demand especially large volumes of data (such as simulations, computerized models, training of AI systems, genomic analysis, etc.).

"An AI researcher with a background in high-tech and the academic world says that this “supercomputer will impinge on people’s independence and undermine their ability to be dynamic."

According to Zeevi, the supercomputer will be able to create a model of artificial intelligence capable of processing and understanding Hebrew as what is termed a “natural language.” Natural language processing, or NLP, is something with a large demand in almost all areas of tech today - and Israel is no different.

“In order to study and understand a language, an enormous amount of texts must be analyzed first. The academic world needs this tool for research, the Defense Ministry will use it for gaining insights from intelligence reports and Israeli companies will use it for constructing smart chatbots,” he says.

Even though consultations were held with a wide range of experts and companies in this area over the last year or two, the company most actively promoting the construction of this computer is Mellanox. Senior company officials have been trying to promote such a project for years and they are now very involved in the process, providing information and active counselling to the Innovation Authority and other involved players. Mellanox and Nvidia are very prominent global suppliers of components for supercomputers. It is reasonable to assume that their components will be integrated into Israel’s supercomputer, making its construction lucrative for them.

The people promoting this project are aware of these arguments, admitting that there are discussions and debates around the model of operating this project. Despite this, they claim that concerns are overblown, since ultimately, the supercomputer will serve the R&D needs of universities and industry, as well as other national needs.

“There are dozens of countries with supercomputers. You can’t argue that the need is baseless,” says Zeevi. “Claims that industry can do without it and that there is a misunderstanding of the market here may be true in the short run, but not if you want to create a revolution.”

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