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I don’t think it’s something I have ever really thought of! Robotic explorers can travel around the Solar System visiting our neighbouring planets but when they arrive, sometimes a scientific package must be deployed to the surface. Never occurred to me just how that’s achieved! With a number of landers scheduled to visit the Moon, NASA are testing a new robotic arm called the Lightweight Surface Manipulation System AutoNomy capabilities Development for Surface Operations or LANDO for short! It will lift payloads off the lander and pop them down gently on the surface of the Moon. 

The Moon has always held a special place in our hearts. Since the first humans saw it as they gazed up at the sky, their descendents continued the fascination with our nearest neighbour. Artists, musicians, poets and writers are among just a few of the members of our society that have reflected on its beauty. It was only natural that it would be the first target for human exploration at the dawn of space flight. The Apollo missions saw the first human visitors to the Moon and now we wait with bated breath as Artemis looks set to take us back again very soon. 

Aldrin on the Moon. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle during the Apollo 11 mission. Mission commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, astronaut Michael Collins remained with the command and service modules in lunar orbit. Image Credit: NASA

Even with human explorers it’s likely only to be a few at a time so mission planners are turning to robotic helpers for the more mundane work. A team of researchers at the Langley Research Centre in Virginia have been working upon a piece of robotic hardware with new software that can operate autonomously to move objects around on the surface! The team, led by Dr Julia Cline from NASA demonstrated the LANDO system and it performed perfectly.

Looking like a movie set, the team established the arena to look like the Moon, complete with boulders that Hollywood would be proud of. The team undertook their first demo by lifting a payload off a tall black pedestal and onto the floor. They then upped the challenge and tried the same manouver but with a small rover instead. Both tests were succesful.

Closeup of lunar surface (Credit NASA)

Pivotal to the system is a series of sensors on the camera and encoders affixed to the side of the package. Once the system was ready the camera scanned the area looking for the payload which was outlined with the encoders (somewhat like a QR code.) Once it identified the item the robotic arm gently swung over the object and carefully manoeuvred its hook to snare the package. With a destination already defined using a graphical interface of the scene, the robotic arm moved around and dropped the placed the package just where the team commanded it too. 

After a succesful delivery the hook slowly disengaged, returned to its home position and paused, ready for the next command. The testing nicely demonstrated the reliability of the system setting the scene for further more advanced tests. Now the team are looking to develop a larger more robust version that can be tested ahead of its first lunar mission.

The use of robotic arms like LANDO are of immense benefit, helping us to explore the Moon. Not only will they help with repetitive tasks but they can perform more precise scientific studies even in the relatively hostile environment of the lunar surface. Their high levels of dexterity and reliability mean they are an ideal tool for further development with lunar ready versions already being worked upon.

Source : Robotic Moving ‘Crew’ Preps for Work on Moon

The post Unloading Cargo on the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

Bret Weinstein became famous because of the 2017 Evergreen  State brouhaha, and I was firmly on his side on that one. Eventually he became so demonized that he had to leave the College, and since then has found a niche as a heterodox podcaster. But it’s been heterodoxy of the wrong stripe, including pushing Ivermectin as an anti-covid preventive and cure, warning against covid-shots, and now lapsing into bizarre conspiracy theories.

The criticism of Weinstein’s new heterodoxy is detailed in, of all places, a McGill University post on the University’s “Office for Science and Society”, calling him a “would-be Galileo” (i.e., someone who thinks he’s discerned important truths about the world but hasn’t really done so).  I’ve followed Weinstein’s career a bit, a career that I see as inimical to rational thinking despite his popularity (he has 1.1 million followers on “X” and appeared on the Joe Rogan Show).

Jonathan Jarry agrees with me, and you can read his article on Weinstein site by clicking the headline below. The title is, even by my lights, a bit mean:

It turns out that, to my dismay, Weinstein is still pushing Ivermectin for covid and questioning the efficacy of other covid treatments, including vaccines. I’ll quote the article in indented sections:

Galileo has many heirs. I don’t mean biological descendants; rather, some intellectuals see Galileo’s face in the mirror staring back at them. Freed from the shackles of academia (or simply kicked out of their university), they find a lucrative niche for themselves, telling their enraptured fans that, just like Galileo, they have an Earth-shattering theory… and a mysterious “they”don’t want you to know about it.

Bret Weinstein is a name you might be familiar with. An evolutionary biologist, now self-titled “professor in exile,” he hosts The DarkHorse podcast with his wife, fellow evolutionary biologist Heather Heying. The podcast has nearly half a million subscribers on YouTube alone and has featured high-profile guests like Russell Brand, Sam Harris, and Vivek Ramaswamy. Weinstein has himself guested on The Joe Rogan Experience, seemingly the largest podcast in the world. And while his calm tone of voice may denote sound judgment, Weinstein has become an über-conspiracy theorist, to the point where he believes the Powers That Be are crafting fake conspiracies specifically to make him look stupid.

Being Galileo is hard, but someone has to do it.

The ivermectin stuff, which abides:

But what made Weinstein particularly relevant in the eyes of the average science news consumer was his appearance on an “emergency podcast” of The Joe Rogan Experience, which in terms of sheer viewership eclipses the so-called mainstream media. Sitting next to Dr. Pierre Kory, Weinstein explained to Rogan that ivermectin worked against COVID-19 and that the vaccines were dangerous. (This was the exact opposite of reality.) Importantly, Weinstein painted himself as part of a group of “heretics,” independent of the structures controlling others, hence free to analyze the data accurately and report on it without being muzzled. He became one of the leading figures of the pro-ivermectin contingent during the pandemic.

To this day, Weinstein still believes in the effectiveness of this anti-parasitic drug in preventing and treating COVID-19, despite the clear evidence that it does not do so. On the September 17th, 2024 episode of their DarkHorse podcast, Weinstein and Heying double down on their pseudoscientific perspective on the pandemic: ventilators were “very negative” and “not necessary” for COVID; ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are the “best drugs” against the virus; and it appears we are facing a “pandemic of the vaccinated.”

Jarry argues that Weinstein’s popularity rests largely not only on his conspiracy theories (see below), but on his calm demeanor and also on the fact that he often takes the “JAQ” (“just asking questions”) approach as a way of really pushing his own views.

More covid stuff along with HIV and polio:

Over years of pumping out incredibly long, weekly podcast episodes, Weinstein and Heying have “hypothesized” a number of truly staggering things, both in the sciences and outside of them.

Weinstein wonders if the alleged “noisiness” of COVID diagnostic tests might be a feature not a bug, as it allows someone to claim anything at any moment. He tells Joe Rogan that the evidence for the HIV virus not causing AIDS is “surprisingly compelling.” Similarly, the poliovirus might not cause polio but might simply be a “fellow traveller” in people who have the disease, which is actually caused by pesticides. Also, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might be Fidel Castro’s son (“the evidence seems kinda good,” says Heying before dismissing its relevance) and he is also gay (“this is now officially known,” says her husband).

This denialism of facts and reality can easily lead you into conspiracy territory: how else to explain that you are right but everyone around you is wrong?

Indeed, we must now confront the Goliath in the room.

“Goliath” is the name Weinstein gives to what he sees is a massive and nefarious worldwide conspiracy aimed at him in particular:

Some conspiracy theorists fret over an alleged “deep state.” For others, it’s the Bildenberg Group, or the World Economic Forum at Davos, or a Satanic cabal, or history’s classic villain: the Jews. For Weinstein, it’s Goliath.

Goliath is the name he gives to the shadowy powers conspiring against the world and against Weinstein personally. The Israel-Palestine conflict unfurling now? That’s Goliath trying to bury the voices of the COVID dissidents like Weinstein under 24/7 news coverage of a world event. He has also hinted at Goliath trying to get him to die by suicide. One day, a browser window allegedly appeared on Weinstein’s phone with a DuckDuckGo search engine page with the search bar containing the word “suicide.” Weinstein believes this might have been a threat, because he and his wife have been “a sticky wicket” for Goliath.

Real conspiracy theories aren’t enough for Weinstein and Heying, however. They must be on their toes for fake conspiracy theories manufactured by Goliath to make them appear foolish. “Traps abound” as Weinstein likes to remind his listeners, and there are psy-ops (or psychological operations designed to influence the population’s attitudes) everywhere. That story about Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio? “Very believable,” Weinstein comments, but if it turns out there is no merit to this story, it was an irresistible trap, possibly set by Goliath, to discredit the people who will believe in disinformation. Indeed, Goliath is apparently trying to drive a wedge between Weinstein and his friends, a secret strategy he calls the coalition slicer-dicer. “It could be next-level chess by Goliath,” he calmly states.

Still with me?

Throughout all of this, Weinstein believes his thinking is scientific in nature, but it is not. . .

The author notes several other off-the-rails assertions of Weinstein (e.g., lab mice can’t be used for drug testing because their telomeres are too long), and then goes into a critique of Weinstein’s equally famous brother, Eric, saying that Eric’s “scientific” theories are also criticized (e.g, covid was due to Earth’s shifting magnetic fields).  The article finishes up by listing some of the questionable sponsors of Bret Weinstein’s podcast (e.g., AMRA, which sells cow colostrum as a palliative for leaky gut syndrome).

There’s one final note:

No longer satisfied with pontificating about how everything can be seen through an evolutionary lens, Bret Weinstein is now the co-founder of the Star-Wars-inflected Rescue the Republic. This weekend, they are meeting in Washington, D.C.—peacefully, Weinstein reminds us on his podcast—to give voice to their various antiestablishment grievances. They will be joined by similarly minded contrarians, such as Jordan Peterson, Pierre Kory, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Well, I don’t know much about Eric Weinstein, though I know some readers here, do. I have followed Bret to some extent, though, and all i can say is this: don’t trust anything that comes out of his mouth, be it about Covid, Ivermectin, or Goliath. Caveat emptor. 

h/t: Ginger K.

The Elder of Ziyon is an anonymous supporter of Israel who has a website worth reading if you care about the Middle East conflicts. In the article below (click to read), an anonymous guest poster on that site recounts in detail the anti-Israel actions and statements of the Biden/Harris campaign. The poster avers that these statements and actions will simply be intensified in a Harris/Walz administration. I know about many of these accusations and agree with nearly all of them. It’s true that Biden and Harris say they support Israel, but when you look at what they’ve really done, their “support” is not only guarded, but they’ve also supported Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

I strongly disagree with the poster’s conclusion that, given all this, one should vote for Trump.  The poster’s support for the Orange Man comes from his being a one-issue voter. But many of us are not.  There are a variety of issues that Americans are weighing in the election, and our treatment of Israel doesn’t rank high.  What does rank high are these issues (chart from Statista), and you don’t see Israel at the top of the list of “the most important problems facing America today”.  (In fact, Israel is at the bottom, with only 1% agreement.)

I consider Trump mentally ill and cannot vote for him. But I also consider Israel as an important issue and so will reproduce the problems with Biden/Harris/Walz that the post singles out. (The post is anonymous because, as he/she says, “in my place of work there is intense hostility to Israel. If I openly argued what I am about to argue, that anyone who cares about Israel cannot support the Democratic candidates for President and must seriously consider supporting the other candidate. . . my professional status would be seriously compromised.”)

It’s sad that it’s come to this: we can’t raise heterodox arguments without damaging our careers, but so be it. I’ll simply give the poster’s argument.

My brief here is to call out my party’s Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidate (and the acting President) in areas of Israel policy where they could have done better. (And it’s arguable that Trump, though insane, might have done better on Israel than Harris will.) But I won’t abide people telling me that I have to vote for Harris (as opposed to not voting for President at all in a state that will certainly go for Harris). Please do not tell me that I have to vote for Harris, for that’s not what this post is about. You can argue about whether the poster is wrong in his/her criticisms, but this is about the poster’s claims and his conclusion that he will vote for Trump. I certainly won’t.  The poster doesn’t say, either, that voters in general should vote for Trump. As you see above, in general don’t care much about Israel or the war.

This was published September 22, and also appeared on Andrew Pessin’s Substack site. Click to read:

The article is long and gives over twenty reasons why the author won’t vote for Harris/Walz. I’ll reproduce the author’s main claims in indented bold text below, and other words from the piece in indented plain text.  Any text that is flush left is by me.

Here we go:

Harris-Walz will be a disaster for Israel and for American Jewry.

There have been some positive moments. Biden-Harris said the right things immediately after October 7, and allowed the U.S. Navy to be present in the region at a couple of important times, for which an Israel-advocate rightly feels gratitude. But aside from these and their occasional banal remark about believing in Israel’s right to defend itself—doesn’t every country have the right to defend itself?—heaps and mounds of evidence point unambiguously toward that dire conclusion. As I write, in September of 2024, Hamas leader Khaled Meshal is praising Biden-Harris for helping Hamas to remain in power, for always waiting patiently for and listening to Hamas’s demands in negotiations and for pressuring Israel to submit, and for recognizing Hamas as a legitimate diplomatic partner. What Meshal is gushing over is not the behavior of an ally of Israel, but of an administration that has largely taken the side of Israel’s enemies.

Since Harris has so far given no indication that her relevant policies will differ from Biden’s, and also repeatedly expressed her support for Biden’s, we may treat the Biden-Harris record as an indication of her own tendencies. If anything, in fact, the evidence suggests that Harris’s policies and actions will be worse. In September of 2024 here is Harris gloating about withholding weapons from Israel in order to put leverage on Israel to “accept the deal”: the deal, that is, that does not return all the hostages, that leaves Hamas in power, and forces Israel to withdraw in defeat. That is not the behavior of an ally, again, but of a friend of the enemy.

The numbered claims (I’ve omitted the numbers as things get complex with numbers within numbers):

Biden-Harris supported the disastrous JCPOA treaty with Iran, have continued to make efforts to reestablish it, and Harris states that she will rejoin it if elected. That treaty enriched the Islamic Republic with hundreds of billions of dollars, enabling it to fund its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, and to fund its “Ring of Fire” surrounding Israel. . . 

Biden-Harris continued to waive the sanctions on Iran even after October 7, and even afterIran directly fired upwards of 300 missiles at Israeli homes.  . . . That treaty and the Biden-Harris administration have also failed to adequately monitor and prevent the regime’s uranium enrichment. Iran is now perilously close to the nuclear weapon they have repeatedly proclaimed they will use to destroy the Jewish state and murder its seven million Jews.

Harris has close ties with many members of and has received a top 100% rating from the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the pro-Khamenei lobby that advances the Islamic Republic’s interests in Washington D.C. 

Biden-Harris reinstated funding to the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), which supports its “pay-to-slay” program, thus incentivizing Palestinians to murder Jews. Numerous terrorist attacks, including and after October 7, and including those against American citizens, are thus rewarded with the American taxpayer money.

The one above particularly galls me: American taxpayer money goes in part to fund the “pay for slay” program to reward those in Israeli prisons who have attacked Jews. That happens to be true, like most of the contentions. More:

Biden-Harris also reinstated funding to UNRWA, thus providing a direct funding line to Hamas—which, the current war has revealed, has entirely infiltrated UNRWA.

I disagree with the one below one a bit, as the U.S. is sending weapons to Israel and not to Hamas. However, the U.S. has gone overboard in its insistence on humanitarian aid, when we do not do so in, for example, Syria or Yemen:

Biden-Harris have shown far more concern for Palestinian civilians than for Israeli civilians, at one point even dictating to Israel (through their Secretary of State) that Israel’s “Job Number One” in fighting Hamas had to be protecting and aiding Palestinian civilians.

Speaking of incompetence, Biden-Harris have bent over backwards to provide massive amounts of “humanitarian aid” to Gaza. That on its own isn’t necessarily objectionable, but the execution has been both laughable and directly harmful.

The relentless insistence that Israel focus on facilitating aid is only one of many ways in which Biden-Harris have consistently hampered Israel’s war effort. For only one particularly heinous example, they demanded that Israel not enter Rafah, causing a months-long delay in that essential operation. Biden threatened Israel with withholding weapons if they went in; Kamala “I’ve studied the maps” Harris condescendingly reproached Israel even for thinking about Rafah, claiming the operation was impossible and warning Israel about crossing her “red line.” She said, “We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake … I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go.”

Biden-Harris both regularly parrot Hamas talking points, including citing Hamas’s alleged numbers of casualties, repeatedly suggesting “far too many innocent civilians have died”—even after numerous analysts have demonstrated that Hamas’s numbers are simply not credible (just one example here), and despite it being notably striking that Hamas does not bother distinguishing civilians from combatants so there is literally no way to know how many “innocent civilians” have died.

Throughout the war Biden-Harris have pressured Israel not only to negotiate with the terrorist group responsible for October 7 but to make massive concessions to them. They have pressured Israel to accept defeat from Hamas, in other words, by withdrawing from Gaza without all the hostages and without removing Hamas from power, which is a sure guarantee that Hamas will rearm and rebuild (not least by stealing international aid) and do October 7 again and again—as they have openly said they plan to do.

Harris snubbed Netanyahu’s speech on [sic] Congress. This came after months of repeated Biden-Harris interference in Israel’s own democracy, including outright efforts to unseat Israel’s democratically elected leader. Whether one is for or against Netanyahu as a politician, he is the elected leader of an alleged ally in the midst of an existential war; the lack of respect, and the lack of support for that alleged ally while it is engaged in an existential war, was a disgrace.

Biden-Harris repeatedly demand that those who committed the October 7 atrocities should be rewarded with a “state” of their own. Harris repeats this demand every single time the question arises, including in the debate with Trump and the handful of interviews she has given since. Not only does this demand reward the barbaric massacre and incentivize jihadi violence both against Israel and the West in general—why wouldn’t they perpetrate mass violence, when they get their demands met by doing so?—but she constantly repeats the demand despite the fact that Hamas leaders repeatedly, openly, proclaim their intention to perpetrate October 7 again and again and again, until all the Jews are murdered.

Biden-Harris repeatedly denounce Israelis in Judea-Samaria for defending themselves from Palestinian violence, and have repeatedly imposed sanctions on numerous Israelis there while literally doing nothing about the far more serious and more frequent violence of Palestinians against Israelis.

Beyond some lip service denouncements, Biden-Harris have done nothing serious or substantial to support or defend Israel from the international lawfare being waged against it from the United Nations (U.N.), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

One of the very first Biden-Harris foreign policy decisions was to remove the Iran-funded Houthis from the list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. They have continued to resist relisting them as recently as this week, despite numerous calls by others to do so, despite the Houthis’ ongoing attacks on Red Sea shipping and their repeatedly attacking Israel. 

Many campus enemies of Israel and of the Jews responded to October 7 by celebrating, endorsing, and calling for more mass genocidal violence against Jews, demanding the destruction of Israel, and then spent eleven months ostracizing, harassing, and in dozens of instances physically assaulting Jewish students on our campuses. Harris has repeatedly expressed support for these people; “They’re showing exactly what the emotions should be” was only her most recent example. One might have thought that the appropriate emotions in response to an attempted genocide would be something other than celebrating it and calling for more. Meanwhile Harris has said essentially not a word in support of the Jewish students who have confronted a year of terror and record-setting antisemitism on their campuses.

The Biden-Harris Justice Department has been entirely missing in action this past year. It has not only ignored the widely reported mass wave of antisemitism occurring on campuses and in many major cities (including vandalism, incitement to mass murder, violence, and more), but has actively ignored requests that they get involved.

There is a lot more, but I’ll just add one thing about “personnel”:

 As one article title puts it, “Harris would fill her administration with anti-Israel radicals”—and supporters of Iran, the greatest enemy of Israel and of Jews on the planet.

Since I’m not a one-issue voter or political supporter, I cannot, however, agree with the author’s conclusion, which is what would get he/she in trouble were their identity revealed. After listing the positive things that Trump did about Israel, the author says this:

 As a lifelong Democrat, with the fate of Israel and American Jewry on the line, then, it is impossible for me to support this candidate [Harris].

. . . . The conclusion is indisputable:

Biden-Harris-Walz are and will be a disaster for Israel and for American Jews.

Trump was the most Pro-Israel President ever.

Nose held and deep breath taken, but:

Orange Man it is.

Not for me, of course! What I want to highlight here, and which worries me quite a bit, is the Biden/Harris record on Israel, which is likely to become more anti-Israel if Harris is elected. To the extent that Harris says she supports Israel, I still believe she’ll lessen America’s support of the Middle East’s only democracy if she’s elected, which is looking increasingly likely. But if you’re a Democrat, do be aware that your (our) party is becoming increasingly anti-Israel, and, in some cases (e.g., the Congressional “squad”) anti-Semitic. That’s what happened to Labour in the UK, too, and it’s a sign of a democracy that is failing.

For some reason I’ve forgotten to collect and post irritating terms, lists of  which used to be fairly common here.  I usually proffered at least three, but this week I have two.  The purpose here is to get readers to vent about their own annoying words or phrases.  And let’s not be Pecksniffs and say “but language evolves”!  This is a chance to vent and have fun, not defend the use of annoying terms.

My choices:

Deep dive. This phrase is increasingly used to denote a “hard look” at an issue or topic. I have two issues with this.

First, it’s used because it’s trendy. What’s wrong with “hard look” or “thorough examination”?

Second, very often the “deep dive” is not a thorough look, but a shallow belly flop. Here’s an example from a rag I used to read, the Huffington Post. Click to read:

The article is short, not a “deep dive” at all.  Using trendy language like this shows a lack of imagination, a way to demonstrate how cool you are by using the latest argot. You’ll never catch me saying this.

Passed (a synonym for “died”). This word is a double euphemism, for it is itself a synonym for “passed on” or “passed away”, which themselves are synonyms for “died.” What is wrong with “died”? Well, some people can’t bring themselves to say it, even if it’s true.

And there’s one bad side effect: to me, “passed” implies that your journey of life isn’t yet complete: that you’re “passing on” to some other phase of your existence. That is likely to be “heaven”. In other words, to me the phrase denotes belief in an afterlife, and atheists like me have no truck with it. Fortunately, the obituaries in newspaper and magazines don’t use it, and stick with the simple “died.” “Passed” is a word you hear from the mouths of your friends, not in the news.

Now, dear readers, what words or phrases curl the soles of your shoes?

Here’s Bill Maher’s latest (8-minute) comedy bit from “Real Time”. Surprisingly, it’s very patriotic. Maher extols the Harris’s campaign emphasis on patriotism and the privilege of being an American, but kvetches that the young folk aren’t buying it.  His example: the vocal attempts of pro-Palestinian protestors to bring down America. Yes, whether or not they’re aware of it, they are being useful idiots for the Islamist goal of taking over America and destroying our democracy. And why don’t people realize that? If America is so horrible, why are we flooded with immigrants and requests to become Americans.

Maher shows his own patriotism by extolling the Constitution (don’t miss the Google AI picture), yet bemoaning the young folks’ ignorance of the Constitution, to the point of rejecting much of what it specified about how our government is set up.  He admits that the document wasn’t perfect (it didn’t deal with slavery, though an amendment gook care of that), but says that Gen Z’s interpretation of the document is “white people did some very bad things.”  Well, maybe, but they did some good things as well.

This is one of Maher’s better videos, for it uses his humor to make a good point.  America is flawed, but it’s a great place to live. As Maher says, the Founders guaranteed the rights for “everything that makes life good for the very people who hate them so much.” Well, listen for yourself.

The Milky Way is special because it is our home. No matter where we are on Earth we can see its arc of light overhead if the night is dark enough. But how similar is our galaxy to others? Is it an unusual spiral galaxy, or is it rather typical in the cosmos?

Before we had discovered exoplanets, astronomers generally thought our solar system was rather typical. Sure, there would be differences, but the general arrangement of rocky worlds close to the Sun and cold gas giants in the outer system made sense. However when we studied planetary systems we found ours was rather unusual. Most planets orbit red dwarfs, not sun-like stars, and large gas giants often orbit close to their star. Now that we have sky surveys of galaxies throughout the Universe, we can answer the same question of the Milky way, as a recent study shows.

The study is based on the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey, which began collecting data in 2013. The goal of SAGA is to look at the small galaxies which orbit large galaxies. The team looked at 101 galaxies with masses similar to the Milky Way and found 378 satellite galaxies for them. Because of observational limits, this only covers satellites with a mass of about a million Suns or more. In this range our galaxy has four satellites. We know of many more, but most of them are below the mass cutoff.

This would seem to indicate that the Milky Way is rather typical. But then the team looked at those galaxies with a large companion, like the Large Magellanic Cloud we see in the southern hemisphere. For those galaxies the number of satellites is typically much larger than four. The Milky Way has an unusually low number of satellites. One reason for this may be that the Large Magellanic Cloud entered our sphere of influence rather recently on the cosmic timeline.

A second study based on the SAGA data looked at star formation in the satellite galaxies. It found that the closer a satellite is to the main galaxy the more likely it is to still be producing stars. This is similar to what we see among the Milky Way satellites. So it seems that while the Milky Way is a little unusual, it isn’t unique among galaxies of similar mass.

But it will always be our special spiral galaxy.

Reference: Mao, Yao-Yuan, et al. “The SAGA Survey. III. A Census of 101 Satellite Systems around Milky Way-mass Galaxies.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.14498 (2024).

Reference: Geha, Marla, et al. “The SAGA Survey. IV. The Star Formation Properties of 101 Satellite Systems around Milky Way-mass Galaxies.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.14499 (2024).

The post How Does the Milky Way Compare to Other Galaxies? appeared first on Universe Today.

Guest Rogue: Andrea Jones Roy; What's the Word: Pitch; News Items: Crystal Genome Storage, How Reliable are Political Forecasts, Myopia Epidemic, Biotwang Explained; Who's That Noisy; Science or Fiction

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sciencesalon/mss472_Adam_Kirsch_2024_09_28.mp3 Download MP3

Since Hamas’s attack on Israel last October 7, the term “settler colonialism” has become central to public debate in the United States. A concept new to most Americans, but already established and influential in academic circles, settler colonialism is shaping the way many people think about the history of the United States, Israel and Palestine, and a host of political issues.

This short book is the first to examine settler colonialism critically for a general readership. By critiquing the most important writers, texts, and ideas in the field, Adam Kirsch shows how the concept emerged in the context of North American and Australian history and how it is being applied to Israel. He examines the sources of its appeal, which, he argues, are spiritual as much as political; how it works to delegitimize nations; and why it has the potential to turn indignation at past injustices into a source of new injustices today. A compact and accessible introduction, rich with historical detail, the book will speak to readers interested in the Middle East, American history, and today’s most urgent cultural-political debates.

Adam Kirsch is the author of several books of poetry and criticism. A 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, Kirsch is an editor at the Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Review section and has written for publications including The New Yorker, Slate, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times Book Review, Poetry, and Tablet. He lives in New York. His new book is On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice.

Shermer and Kirsch discuss:

• Settler ideology
• Settler colonialism
• Colonialism
• Decolonization
• “The colonizers came to stay—invasion is a structure not an event.” —Patrick Wolfe
• Wolfe: “logic that initially informed frontier killing transmutes into different modalities, discourses and institutional formations as it undergirds the historical development and complexification of settler society.”
• Genocide and “necropolitical transfer”
• Kirsch: “If the definition of a progressive movement is that it believes the future can be better than the past, then the ideology of settler colonialism is not progressive, because it believe the past was better than the future.”

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support by making a $5 or $10 monthly donation.

The Kiffness is the screen name of David Scott, a South African famous for his cat videos accompanied by original music.  Wikipedia says that his videos are mostly political, criticizing the government, but of course we know him as The Cat Composer. Here are his top ten “cat jams”, courtesy of reader Divy. She likes #2, but my favorite is #7. the “num num” song.

Wikipedia adds this:

In September 2024, Scott produced a video satirising a claim made by the American Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the Trump-Harris presidential debate. Trump repeated unverified reports that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating cats and dogs kept as pets by members of the local community. The claim was subsequently denied by the mayor of Springfield, Rob Rue, and widely ridiculed in the media. Scott’s video, “Eating the Cats”, has since gone viral on social media.

And here’s that video, which is awesome. Its proceeds go to the SPCA in Springfield, Ohio, where the cat rumor started:

 

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Can you find 20 cats in this picture? I found nineteen. Click to enlarge:

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Finally, the NYT has a good cat story (click on screenshot below, or find it archived here), reporting that a two-year-old Siamese cat, who escaped on a family visit to Yellowstone National Park, has made its way home after an 800-mile journey:

When a cat dashed into the woods of Yellowstone National Park during a camping trip in June, his California owners, Benny and Susanne Anguiano, thought they’d never see him again.

The couple searched for five days through the woods near their campground at Fishing Bridge R.V. Park but never found their 2-year-old male Siamese cat, Rayne Beau, pronounced “rainbow.” Mrs. Anguiano said that Rayne Beau’s sister, Starr, started to meow through the screen door of the trailer. Eventually, when the couple made the tough decision to drive home to Salinas, Calif., Starr, who had never been away from her brother, meowed all the way back.

“Leaving him was unthinkable,” Mrs. Anguiano said. “I felt like I was abandoning him.”

But almost two months later, Rayne Beau was found wandering the streets of Roseville, Calif., three hours north of where the Anguianos live and more than 800 miles away from Yellowstone National Park, as first reported by the news station KSBW.

When a worker from a local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals notified the couple that rescuers had identified Rayne Beau from his microchip, Mr. Anguiano said they were shocked that the cat had made it back to California.

. . . . When a cat dashed into the woods of Yellowstone National Park during a camping trip in June, his California owners, Benny and Susanne Anguiano, thought they’d never see him again.

The couple searched for five days through the woods near their campground at Fishing Bridge R.V. Park but never found their 2-year-old male Siamese cat, Rayne Beau, pronounced “rainbow.” Mrs. Anguiano said that Rayne Beau’s sister, Starr, started to meow through the screen door of the trailer. Eventually, when the couple made the tough decision to drive home to Salinas, Calif., Starr, who had never been away from her brother, meowed all the way back.

“Leaving him was unthinkable,” Mrs. Anguiano said. “I felt like I was abandoning him.”

But almost two months later, Rayne Beau was found wandering the streets of Roseville, Calif., three hours north of where the Anguianos live and more than 800 miles away from Yellowstone National Park, as first reported by the news station KSBW.

When a worker from a local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals notified the couple that rescuers had identified Rayne Beau from his microchip, Mr. Anguiano said they were shocked that the cat had made it back to California.

. . . Both Mr. and Mrs. Anguiano believe at some point that their cat had hitched a ride or was picked up by a driver heading toward California for part of his journey, but they do not know for sure. The couple is hoping that someone who might recognize their cat could help explain how he made it back.

“The fact that he was in California and just three hours north of us — I think that proves more that Rayne Beau was the one trying to get towards his home,” Mrs. Anguiano said.

While not common, it’s not the first time a pet has inexplicably traveled hundreds of miles to return home. The distance from their campsite in Yellowstone National Park to Roseville, Calif., where Rayne Beau was found, is more than 800 miles, and a journey would have taken him through four states in mountainous and desertlike conditions.

When the couple reunited with him, they said that Rayne Beau had lost 40 percent of his body weight. He was restless in his carrier, but once they released him in the car he calmed down.

“He just looked at me, and then he put his head down and just fell fast asleep,” Mrs. Anguiano said. “He was so exhausted.”

Here’s an AP video of the rescued moggie:

h/t: Divy, Ginger K.

Today we have part 2 of Chris Taylor’s journey to Queensland (part 1 is here). His captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

In this part I will show some of the wild life around the reserve at Yourka.

Yourka is a Bush Heritage Australia reserve in the Einasleigh Uplands bioregion in Far North Queensland, not far from Cairns. Its 43,500 Ha covers the region from the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site in the east down to the Herbert River valley in the west, and protects a range of habitats. There are a number of endangered species on the reserve, including a population of Mareeba Rock Wallaby.

We took the bus up to Atherton, where we were met by reserve staff who drove us the rest of the way to the reserve, where we arrived in the lovely tropical twilight:

There had been a quite intense and long-lasting Wet Season this year, and so the billabong on Sunday Creek, just 100m from the accommodation, had plenty of water in it.

I went for a walk around the billabong. With plenty of water, there were also plenty of birds

A Great Egret, White-faced Heron, Egretta novaehollandiae, and a Royal Spoonbill, Platalea regia, hunted in the water among the waterlilies:

Further around was a White Ibis, Threskiornis molucca, next to another Heron:

A Great Egret, Ardea alba, was feeding amongst the waterlilies in the shallows. This is quite a big bird, standing up to 1m tall:

One of the Royal Spoonbills took off and landed in a Eucalypt tree:

I tried to get a photo of the bird’s remarkable beak. The bird stirs up the bottom of the pond and then swings the broad end of the bill through the water, detecting any arthropod or fish prey which it will then capture and swallow:

A Forest Kingfisher, Todiramphus macleayii, was diving from a tree branch to take small fish from the water. This photo was taken at Innisfail, not at Yourka, but I just wanted to show the glossy blue plumage of this bird!:

There was plenty to see around the Blue Waterlilies Nymphaea gigantea:

Many dragonflies were active.  This is an unidentified species, probably a female:

This is the male of the Blue Skimmer, Orthetrum caledonicum:

Mosquito larvae die after consuming hemp leaves because they react strongly to the cannabidiol in the foliage. The discovery might lead to the development of a new pesticide to control mosquito numbers

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Researchers have found new information about the strength of the so-called magic neutron number 50 shell closure in the silver isotope chain. The new more detailed information on the properties of the nuclei will contribute crucial information for refining our understanding of nuclear forces. The research improves state-of-the-art theoretical models and thus benefits the global description of the atomic nucleus.

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As power grids rely more on renewable energy sources like wind and solar, balancing energy supply and demand becomes more challenging. A new analysis shows how water systems, such as desalination plants and wastewater treatment facilities, could help enhance grid stability and create new revenue streams.

The Cosmicflows team has been studying the movements of 56,000 galaxies, revealing a potential shift in the scale of our galactic basin of attraction.

Although interactive online platforms, including esports platforms, aim to foster close connections between people, they often fall short of supporting the creation of bonds between the interaction partners. Researchers have discovered that sharing biological signals (biosignals), such as heart rate data, while playing online games can enhance the sense of cooperative play, even among complete strangers.

Asteroid Ryugu possibly did not travel as far from its place of origin to its current near-Earth orbit as previously assumed. New research suggests that Ryugu was formed near Jupiter. Earlier studies had pointed to an origin beyond the orbit of Saturn.

A crater-rich dwarf planet named Ceres located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter was long thought to be composed of a materials mixture not dominated by water ice. Researchers at Purdue used data from NASA's Dawn mission to show that Ceres' crust could be over 90 percent ice.

Orbital angular momentum monopoles have been the subject of great theoretical interest as they offer major practical advantages for the emerging field of orbitronics, a potential energy-efficient alternative to traditional electronics. Now, through a combination of robust theory and experiments, their existence has been demonstrated.