Arctic Café

[ivica]

Browsing here, ELECTRIC AUTOS by Nikola Tesla, December 29, 1904:

There is no doubt that a highly-successful machine can be produced on these lines.  The field is inexhaustible, and this new type of automobile, introducing electricity between the prime mover and the wheels, has, in my opinion, a great future.
...
It is very likely that in the near future oil will be adopted as fuel, ...

Last year:



Society IQ 86 and falling down. Not just patheticaly primitive - also unable to evolve further then destruction phase?

========

forest man

[TerryM]

All good ivica, and I especially like the Assange poster!


Very few heros left, unfortunately.

Terry

[ivica]

Big Picture Science, the science radio show & podcast of the SETI Institute: Geology is Destiny

Will Earthlings of a hundred million years from now dig up our plastic refuse and study it the way we study dinosaur bones?

"They eated me, and blamed me for extinction."

[gerontocrat]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/22/the-billionaires-guide-to-surviving-global-warming-with-ian-the-climate-denialist-potato

The billionaire's guide to surviving global warming
– with Ian the Climate Denialist Potato
First Dog on the Moon

[Pmt111500]

The mostly unfrozen Baltic keeps pushing moisture over land and occasionally it's cold enough for the thin mist to freeze on surfaces. This may stack so much ice (or snow) on branches they will crack. The initial days of 'tykky' formation may be pretty.

Uh, explaining spoils it a bit, let's just see the image of a 19th century restaurant terrace (you may have just coffee too) looking over the frozen river :

[Tor Bejnar]

Another really bad day for sea ice... (DMI) 

[ivica]

Spaceweather announces 2 aurora webcams, Abisko National Park in Sweden.

Browsing Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery: 1, 2, 3, ... Weird fascination of a cosmic comm cable connecting to node Earth with
this one, Tromsø. 

Big Picture Science on Sci-Fi.

---

Pope Francis @Pontifex Jan 24:

I would like to invite everyone to promote a journalism of peace, a journalism created by people for people.

There is no such thing as harmless disinformation; trusting in falsehood can have dire consequences.

[TerryM]

Spaceweather announces 2 aurora webcams, Abisko National Park in Sweden.

Browsing Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery: 1, 2, 3, ... Weird fascination of a cosmic comm cable connecting to node Earth with
this one, Tromsø. 

Big Picture Science on Sci-Fi.

---

Pope Francis @Pontifex Jan 24:

I would like to invite everyone to promote a journalism of peace, a journalism created by people for people.

There is no such thing as harmless disinformation; trusting in falsehood can have dire consequences.

Ramen!
It's not often that a Pastafarian bolds a message from the Pope
Terry

[Tor Bejnar]

Possibly visible from much of the Canadian Arctic right now (wherever it is dusk or dawn darker) is the Humanity Star.  It will be over you at some point, so you can see it too.

(Edit:  The satellite is only visible when the Sun is shining on it, but the Earth's surface is fairly dark.)

[Sigmetnow]

After Hameister’s recent record-setting descent to the South Pole, the teenager offered a biting response to her critics with a Facebook post in which she posed alongside the Ceremonial South Pole flags while carrying a sandwich on a plate.

“I skied back to the Pole again … to take this photo for all those men who commented ‘Make me a sandwich’ on my TEDX Talk,” she wrote. “I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese), now ski 37 days and 600km to the South Pole and you can eat it xx.”

Record-setting polar explorer, 16, hits back at men who say she belongs in the kitchen
https://womenintheworld.com/2018/01/24/record-setting-polar-explorer-16-hits-back-at-men-who-said-she-belonged-in-the-kitchen/

[Susan Anderson]

re "Humanity Star" I got news of that yesterday, but on looking it up discovered its darker side.

Here's a contrarian view - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm - so I now have mixed feelings about it. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab

Other shared information here is wonderful, that Antarctic teenager's riposte and the webcams at Lapland. Thanks!

[Sigmetnow]

re "Humanity Star" I got news of that yesterday, but on looking it up discovered its darker side.

Here's a contrarian view - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm - so I now have mixed feelings about it. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab
...

Got a 404 on your first link, but found this one, which examines some negative aspects of the Humanity Star:  https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-say-giant-disco-ball-in-space-sets-a-bad-pr-1822454265/

I agree we shouldn’t start a trend of throwing lots of stuff into orbit just for something to look at, but I completely understand Rocket Lab’s desire to celebrate with the Humanity Star:  this was their first successful orbital launch, a momentous occasion.  Space is hard!

[Susan Anderson]

@Sigmetnow: Sorry about the 404. My link was also insufficient, but the article was about a complaint from New Zealanders about polluting their clear view of the night sky. Thanks for finding another link. I'm ambivalent, rather like the idea.

[Sleepy]

One of Swedens most famous entrepeneurs has passed away.
This is a good, but far from complete, story in the NYT.
Ingvar Kamprad, Founder of Ikea and Creator of a Global Empire, Dies at 91
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/obituaries/ingvar-kamprad-dies.html

[Sigmetnow]

 

“Mt. Fuji vs Clouds”
https://twitter.com/japaninpics/status/957290100077092864
Brief video at the link.

[ivica]

PROTECTING THE TRUTH: Safety for Journalists and Whistleblowers, event date: 30 Jan 18, European Parliament, Brussels.

In Honour of the journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia
...
Translation will be provided: EN-FR-EL-ES

WikiLeaks Retweeted: Julian Assange @JulianAssange 1hour ago

Honored to speak at EU Parliament yesterday to back whistelblower protection and celebrate assassinated journalist @dcgblog and her courageous sons @ACaruanagalizia & @mcaruanagalizia together with @crudo8, the brother of slain cameraman José Couso.

[ivica]

More efficient LEDs might be on horizon:

The landscape function maps the potential energy in the messy materials used to make LEDs. It tells you where electron waves will interfere to cancel each other out, and where electrons will localize, and at what energies. For engineers trying to make these devices, it’s like turning on a bright light in a dark room.

If so, what net result to expect? something related with intellect, or "hurray, we can make more light pollution with less money" 

[Sleepy]

Probably, there's no shortage of energetic entrepreneurs out there, eager to build lot's of new stuff.

[ivica]

Probably, there's no shortage of energetic entrepreneurs out there, eager to build lot's of new stuff.

That is possibility, yes. A part of the problem "How can one care about something of which is not aware", what extremised (as it is already, unfortunately) further lead to "Society 86--"? Sad.

What this society is wrt what it should be & how to achieve that in order to successfully deal with challenges of our time should be (continuously) discussed widely and globally.

--

Imagine election for control over our blood stream. Among N candidates how many are a blood-sucker?

Neil deGrasse Tyson @neiltyson Jan 17

Sometimes I wonder if people who aggressively seek political power are precisely those who should not be entrusted to wield it.
4,954 replies 31,662 retweets 131,308 likes

[ivica]

The Falcon Heavy launched StarMan in the space, video of StarMan 'driving' Midnight Red Tesla Roadster up there is here.

StarMan is a dummy, following video gives more "grounded" view on challenges for man up there:

What happens to the body in space? Why is movement different in space? Does spaceflight change the brain? If so, how? What countermeasures exist for the untoward effects of spaceflight on the body? What are the challenges to the future of human space exploration?

[Pmt111500]

Just to emphasize how far removed from science I've been this past year I present a lecture of Mike Brown. 'the Pluto killer' Brown and fellow professor Konstantin Batygin have possibly explained several previously unexplained observations of the Solar System by adding a new ninth planet in the astronomical circulation models.the planet they project to be in existence would be way fainter than Pluto at (educated guess) ~+23 of apparent magnitude, and currently at its far reach of the orbit around the sun. Thus it could have been observed by the largest backyard telescopes 10000 years ago, had there been any among the last Neanderthals. Anyway, the entertaining lecture of professor Mike Brown at Berkeley is below. The projected orbital period wouldn't be related to obliquity cycle, would it? (check the other planets before speculating more).

[Sleepy]

What this society is wrt what it should be & how to achieve that in order to successfully deal with challenges of our time should be (continuously) discussed widely and globally.

Sorry, lost your comment there.
I remember writing something similar on a swedish blog almost ten years ago. Guess Ancient Aliens on TV is a lot more popular.

Crossposting this crosspost:

Humanity better stop dreaming, you may wish to read this:
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,1102.msg141450.html#msg141450

Only one country comes even close to delivering the good life in a sustainable way: Vietnam succeeds on six social indicators — including a life expectancy above 65 years and providing sufficient nutrition — while staying within its limit on every environmental threshold except carbon emissions.

Bummer.

The other option is to wreck the living daylights out of this planet and try to be one of the lucky few who gets a ticket to Mars. At least we now have one dummy out there, in a Tesla.

[Pmt111500]

Someone had cleared a natural skating rink on the lake. I didn't wait for any fish to swim under my feet.

[Sleepy]

We better save our images with winter and snow, to the future, Pmt.

Reading old writings (from Lindome, Gothenburg); in 1887 the ice thawed on lakes around 1 May. During winter 1888 the papers wrote about eight metre high snow banks in Skåne and in Ystad some had to climb out through their roofs. Some who tried to walk on top of the snow crust, where tripped by telephone wires. Etc etc. Don't think a modern Krakatoa would be able to replicate any of that.

And oh, about the dummy above.
If someones interested, you can plot the the ephemerides for him here:
https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi
At "Target Body" enter -143205 and you will get that red roadster listed. 
SpaceX Roadster (spacecraft) (Tesla) [-143205]

Revised: Feb 08, 2018          Tesla Roadster (spacecraft)             -143205
          (solution #3)
 
 Tesla Roadster (AKA: Starman, 2018-017A)

 NOTE:
  The trajectory estimate will be updated here in the days ahead if more
  measurement data is reported.

 LAUNCHED:
  2018-Feb-06 20:45 UTC by Falcon Heavy (FH) from Kennedy Space Center, USA
  (launchpad 39A)

 BACKGROUND:
  Dummy payload from the first launch of SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle.
  Consists of a standard Tesla Roadster automobile and a spacesuit-wearing
  mannequin nicknamed "Starman".
 
  Also includes a Hot Wheels toy model Roadster on the car's dash with a
  mini-Starman inside. A data storage device placed inside the car contains
  a copy of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" novels. A plaque on the attachment
  fitting between the Falcon Heavy upper stage and the Tesla is etched with
  the names of more than 6,000 SpaceX employees.
 
  After orbiting the Earth for 6 hours, a third-stage burn-to-depletion was
  completed at approximately 02:30 UTC Feb 7, placing the dummy payload in
  a heliocentric orbit having a perihelion of 0.99 au and aphelion ~1.7 au.

[ivica]

Sleepy, thanks for heads-up. From your link:

Our blog often features stories about efforts to improve life for this planet's 7 billion inhabitants: how to make sure everyone has access to clean water and power, medical care to stay healthy, enough income to feed their kids, education for the children so they can fulfill their potential.

Over the years various discussions of similar type became spread over ASIF, perhaps more dedicated thread(s) with (re)collected/reconsidered info might be opened too - let me offer title, paraphrasing spiritually rich inhabitants of this planet, "let's spend money on sick, poor & education".

[Sleepy]

Thanks ivica. Agree, equality is nothing new, many have known for a very long time. We who belong to the top 10% are the real aliens on this planet. We are the ones who needs to stop but we still push for more, more of what? The real values in life can't be bought for money. We all know that by heart, don't we?

Edit; read about Joan Pick in this link, she seems to be totally miserable right?
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,1094.msg140405.html#msg140405

[ivica]

Sleepy wrote: "The real values in life can't be bought for money. We all know that by heart, don't we?"
Perhaps we should print that each other to forehead

I saw your link earlier (thanks), felt warm around heart for her. And I did that again

Old saying here (and possibly elsewhere), rough translation: "where dwellers are not furious, home is not tight"



Here is something anyone can do & costs no money: "try to be nonviolent".

[ivica]

"The length of the film is exactly the length of time it takes ISS to orbit the Earth once, 92 minutes & 39 seconds." Published on Feb 9, 2018.
"Meditate on the beauty of our home."



Credits: NASA / ESRSU / Phaeleh / Seán Doran

[Sleepy]

A bit late, but happy birthday Callendar. 

Happy 120th birthday to me!
https://twitter.com/GuyCallendar/status/961870704118448133

[ivica]

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/jedek-lost-and-found/article22715303.ece

A language spoken by just 286 people and unknown until now has been found in the Malay Peninsula by the linguists of Lund University, Sweden.
...
The researchers found that the society was more gender-equal, less competitive and had almost no interpersonal violence.
Typical to a hunter-gatherer way of life, there were no words for professions but a rich vocabulary for exchanging and sharing.

Listen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedek_language

[Sleepy]

Nice find ivica.
We can now add another "unknown" to the list. Here's some more:
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/listen-unknown-language-discovered-in-southeast-asia

“There are so many ways to be human, but all too often our own modern and mainly urban societies are used as the yardstick for what is universally human. We have so much to learn, not least about ourselves, from the largely undocumented and endangered linguistic and cultural riches that are out there”, states Niclas Burenhult.

“This work depends on devoted field workers with a strong passion for discovering more about linguistic diversity”, explains Niclas Burenhult.
An estimated 6 000 languages are currently spoken in the world. About 80 per cent of the world’s population speak one of the major world languages, while approximately 20 per cent speak one of the 3 600 smaller languages. Researchers believe that about half of the world’s languages will be extinct 100 years from now.

[ivica]

Compare worlds:
--------------
L)   costly health care, no decent wage, costly education: trillions $ millitary budget
H)   money spent on sick, poor & education: nonviolence promoted

Thinking about it one can raise many questions, such as:
Which world is more capable to deal with hard challenges?

<embracing nonviolence means leaving minimal trail of destruction>

[ivica]

Healthcare based on profit. Education based on profit. Whats next, humanity based on profit?

--

Artist Seb Lester creates calligraphy using ink and water, but not in the way you might expect.

[ivica]

Joe Rogan Experience #1078 - Jimmy Dore



PowerfulJRE, Streamed live on Feb 13, 2018, #Views currently: 551,406

[TerryM]

Ivica
I don't know if it was intentional but to me the best spots were at 1/2, 1, and 1 1/2hrs into the tape.
I've become a bit of a Dore fan, and this offers some background.
Thanks
Terry

[ivica]

https://twitter.com/Protect_Wldlife retweets https://twitter.com/_AnimalAdvocate

"In a world where #kindness is a rebellious act, let's all become rebels!"



--

< think about money as about fire: good - if under control >

[ivica]

"The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is the recognized authority on light pollution and is the leading organization combating light pollution worldwide."

Light Pollution:

Less than 100 years ago, everyone could look up and see a spectacular starry night sky. Now, millions of children across the globe will never experience the Milky Way where they live. The increased and widespread use of artificial light at night is not only impairing our view of the universe, it is adversely affecting our environment, our safety, our energy consumption and our health.

“The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago . . . had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.”
— Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life, 1923

62 Dark Sky Awareness Videos.

[Alexander555]

They were lucky so far this year in Moscow.

[ivica]

If society can not solve even light pollution problem - nature can, that and many others (and for free, no money needed).

Eh.

[ivica]

Thanks, Pmt111500.

Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell Feb 20

What you are missing in your urban, suburban, or even rural light-polluted night sky. (Hint: a LOT) http://www.darksky.org/dark-sky-week-2018/ … HT @MichaelGalanin

--

< How can one care about something of which is not aware? >

[Pmt111500]

Oops, accidental hit on deletion button. Leo constellation + urban glow + searchlight 1.7 miles (2720m) away. Magnitude +4.5 still visible in the original so would make probably 7 in the scale presented.

[ivica]

GUE/NGL in the EP Retweeted EFJ @EFJEUROPE 3h3 hours ago

@EFJEUROPE supports the call for new EU directive against lawsuits targeting journalists initiated by MEP @javorbenedek David Casa, @MonicaMacovei1 @AnaGomesMEP @maitepagaza @SteliosKoul @TheProgressives @EPPGroup @GUENGL @ecrgroup @ALDEgroup @GreensEP

http://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2018/02/23/six-meps-call-for-new-eu-directive-against-lawsuits-targeting-journalists/

--

< embracing nonviolence means minimizing trail of destruction left behind you >

[ivica]

Coffee Time

Emergent Sentience of the Individual Entity: Reactivity (nonconscious), Consciousness, Communality, Hypersociality, Galacticity, Universality. What is that supposed to mean? More further:

"Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization" by  Robert A. Freitas Jr.

14.3  Alien Consciousness and the Sentience Quotient

As noted earlier, smarter lifeforms tend to survive more often than dumber ones, so we should observe a strong evolutionary trend toward increasing intellect. Translating this into the language of information theory, we might say that the more bits per second a given creature can process, generally the more successful it will be and the stronger the evolutionary pressure to increase the bit rates that brains can handle. Furthermore, since more efficient organisms preferentially survive, all else being equal, there should also exist strong evolutionary tendencies to increase the efficiency of information processing -- that is, to process more information using less energy and less material supportive bulk.

If these notions are basically sound, then xenologists may define a "figure of merit" applicable to all sentiences in the universe, one which expresses both capacity and efficiency in a single number. This we shall call the Sentience Quotient (SQ).

...

Consider, as a purely speculative hypothesis, that there may exist a natural order of awarenesses in the cosmos. At each higher level of mentality, a new kind of thought process emerges which is unique to mental systems of equal or higher values of SQ. That is, there may exist a number of higher-order intellectual emergents, analogous to but qualitatively vastly superior to consciousness.

...

What might these higher-order emergents be? The author’s own speculations are offered in Table 14.1 below.

...

Note also that a conscious brain-based entity such as a human can only process communal-level data at the rate of 10^-10 bits/sec-kg (because communality has not yet emerged), which perhaps helps to explain why humans have such great difficulty comprehending the intricate workings of the societies in which they live.

/Bartender, one more please./

[Pmt111500]

This cafe at old river mill museum 20k upriver was expectedly closed for winter. Anyway I thought Arctic Cafe could use the image.

[Pmt111500]

Being in (southern) Finland, guess what is the building nearest the upper pool of river on a picturesque location? (hint: begins with an 's')

[Sleepy]

Nice location, no need to cut holes in the ice, just jump right in! 

[Pmt111500]

Small time pancake ice formation in the middle pool. The rapids are protected for trout, so no swimming or dipping anymore in the rapid since 1980s... Sorry Sleepy, you can't do it anymore. Or maybe if you're very good friends with the museum people.

[Sleepy]

Small time pancake ice formation in the middle pool. The rapids are protected for trout, so no swimming or dipping anymore in the rapid since 1980s... Sorry Sleepy, you can't do it anymore. Or maybe if you're very good friends with the museum people.

Too bad, at least I've had the same wonderful winter weather as you today, Pmt. Max temp of -1.9° C during the day.

[Pmt111500]

Yeah well, I don't know the exact rules there, it's of course true trout and the couple of salmon use this only part of the year so might still be possible at your own risk of course. Here it was ~-14C but the sun has started to warm the afternoons so now only -11C. Cold enough I'm glad it's not windy.

[ivica]

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is the largest organisation of journalists in Europe, representing over 320.000 journalists. They have 70 members in the following 44 countries: