I should probably be turning the news off and going to bed.
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I should probably be turning the news off and going to bed.
Inigo Montoya
The New Dread Pirate Roberts.
What to tell your children about the Sydney siege
As families learn of the dramatic end to the Sydney siege, parents may grapple with how much they should tell their children about what happened and how to approach the subject.
Queensland psychiatrist Dr Chris Cantor has told 612 ABC Brisbane that parents should be honest with their children about the event.
Two hostages and the gunman at the centre of a 16-hour siege at a cafe in Sydney's CBD were shot dead.
Police stormed the building after explosions and yelling were heard from inside the Martin Place Lindt cafe about 2:10am (AEDT).
The hostages who died have been identified as Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34, and Sydney lawyer Katrina Dawson, 38.
You need to explain to your children that a vast majority of people in life are good people, but in all countries there will always be bad people who will do unpleasant things.
Dr Chris Cantor, psychiatrist
Dr Cantor said it was fine to explain to realities of life to children.
"You need to explain to your children that a vast majority of people in life are good people, but in all countries there will always be bad people who will do unpleasant things," he said.
"It is good to explain to them that this a reality of life; it is horrible for those affected in Sydney and it is uncommon and new to us because we have been privileged and not had these problems that many other countries have grown up with."
Dr Cantor said children do not need to see every news bulletin.
"You have to be honest, but what is desirable is not to play every edition of the news to your children," he said.
"Hearing it once is sufficient, then let them watch their favourite shows or go and play rather than watch the doom and gloom."
Post-traumatic stress psychologist Dr Vanessa Cobham also told 612 ABC Brisbane that answers to children's questions need to be age appropriate.
"The same parent my have three children at different ages, so the detail you go into may change," she said.
"It is important to be thoughtful about the detail, some children may not be interested in it at all; it also comes down to deciding where the children get their information from."
Dr Cobham said it is important to watch children for post-traumatic stress symptoms.
"You might see temporary things for example bed wetting, more aggression, increased fearfulness, or [children] wanting to be close to you all the time," she said.
"You can see a range of things and it does not have to be so bad that it reaches a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, but you could see these things occur and then the child naturally recovers with time."
Managing anxiety
As more information about the deadly siege is released, Dr Cantor hopes that people will challenge their fear and anxiety.
"If you are feeling afraid ask yourself if it is accurate and necessary to be afraid, if the risk is as great as the fear, it is important that life goes on despite this," he said.
"We have been remarkably lucky to be spared this violence as a country for as long as we have.
"When managing anxiety, bare in mind that often these instances occur to make people fearful and it really is helpful to be a bit defiant and not allow yourself to get too upset, more than you need to be."
He said there is a need to be sympathetic to the families and friends involved in Sydney but to also remain mindful.
"Fear is a vital emotion for preserving life and pain is another one and they direct us to avoid hazards," he said.
"But fear is a very primitive emotion and people can feel disproportionate fear in wrong situations, for example we are heavily programmed to be fearful of sharks but not cars; cars are infinitely more dangerous then sharks."
Remaining strong
Before residing in Australia, the now Sunshine Coast-based psychiatrist Dr Cantor grew up in England during the IRA unrest in the United Kingdom.
Dr Canter said through his and his family's experience, a little strength and defiance goes far.
"Having a defiant orientation that you are not going to change my lifestyle due to fear is a healthy way to go," he said.
"One qualification I would add is also do what the police request of you, though I say you should not change your lifestyle, you may change your actions.
"For example, if the police ask you to be on the look out for suspicious packages or people, we should do that, but in other respects we should go on as normal."
If you are feeling concerned, contact LifeLine on 13 11 24.
Kids Helpline: If you need to speak to a counsellor, call 1800 55 1800, 24 hours a day.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/what-to-tell-your-children-about-the-sydney-siege/5969916
As families learn of the dramatic end to the Sydney siege, parents may grapple with how much they should tell their children about what happened and how to approach the subject.
Queensland psychiatrist Dr Chris Cantor has told 612 ABC Brisbane that parents should be honest with their children about the event.
Two hostages and the gunman at the centre of a 16-hour siege at a cafe in Sydney's CBD were shot dead.
Police stormed the building after explosions and yelling were heard from inside the Martin Place Lindt cafe about 2:10am (AEDT).
The hostages who died have been identified as Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34, and Sydney lawyer Katrina Dawson, 38.
You need to explain to your children that a vast majority of people in life are good people, but in all countries there will always be bad people who will do unpleasant things.
Dr Chris Cantor, psychiatrist
Dr Cantor said it was fine to explain to realities of life to children.
"You need to explain to your children that a vast majority of people in life are good people, but in all countries there will always be bad people who will do unpleasant things," he said.
"It is good to explain to them that this a reality of life; it is horrible for those affected in Sydney and it is uncommon and new to us because we have been privileged and not had these problems that many other countries have grown up with."
Dr Cantor said children do not need to see every news bulletin.
"You have to be honest, but what is desirable is not to play every edition of the news to your children," he said.
"Hearing it once is sufficient, then let them watch their favourite shows or go and play rather than watch the doom and gloom."
Post-traumatic stress psychologist Dr Vanessa Cobham also told 612 ABC Brisbane that answers to children's questions need to be age appropriate.
"The same parent my have three children at different ages, so the detail you go into may change," she said.
"It is important to be thoughtful about the detail, some children may not be interested in it at all; it also comes down to deciding where the children get their information from."
Dr Cobham said it is important to watch children for post-traumatic stress symptoms.
"You might see temporary things for example bed wetting, more aggression, increased fearfulness, or [children] wanting to be close to you all the time," she said.
"You can see a range of things and it does not have to be so bad that it reaches a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, but you could see these things occur and then the child naturally recovers with time."
Managing anxiety
As more information about the deadly siege is released, Dr Cantor hopes that people will challenge their fear and anxiety.
"If you are feeling afraid ask yourself if it is accurate and necessary to be afraid, if the risk is as great as the fear, it is important that life goes on despite this," he said.
"We have been remarkably lucky to be spared this violence as a country for as long as we have.
"When managing anxiety, bare in mind that often these instances occur to make people fearful and it really is helpful to be a bit defiant and not allow yourself to get too upset, more than you need to be."
He said there is a need to be sympathetic to the families and friends involved in Sydney but to also remain mindful.
"Fear is a vital emotion for preserving life and pain is another one and they direct us to avoid hazards," he said.
"But fear is a very primitive emotion and people can feel disproportionate fear in wrong situations, for example we are heavily programmed to be fearful of sharks but not cars; cars are infinitely more dangerous then sharks."
Remaining strong
Before residing in Australia, the now Sunshine Coast-based psychiatrist Dr Cantor grew up in England during the IRA unrest in the United Kingdom.
Dr Canter said through his and his family's experience, a little strength and defiance goes far.
"Having a defiant orientation that you are not going to change my lifestyle due to fear is a healthy way to go," he said.
"One qualification I would add is also do what the police request of you, though I say you should not change your lifestyle, you may change your actions.
"For example, if the police ask you to be on the look out for suspicious packages or people, we should do that, but in other respects we should go on as normal."
If you are feeling concerned, contact LifeLine on 13 11 24.
Kids Helpline: If you need to speak to a counsellor, call 1800 55 1800, 24 hours a day.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/what-to-tell-your-children-about-the-sydney-siege/5969916
Inigo Montoya
The New Dread Pirate Roberts.
With the Sydney Siege people are all, 'how could this happen here' yet this is a common occurrence in America. We are lucky such things are so rare. Instead a lot of people are all going nuts with hatred and fear.
Inigo Montoya
The New Dread Pirate Roberts.
Australia Has a Night Sky You’ve Never Seen
Indigenous Australia is the longest living continuous culture on earth. Despite this, modern researchers have just started to look at the wisdom that comes with 50,000 years of residency, and that's especially true of astronomy. First Australians tracked and predicted interstellar movements in highly sophisticated ways, looking up at the night with eyes intriguingly different to our own. To hear some examples, I met with Swinburne University's Dr Alan Duffy who specialises in indigenous astronomy.
Astrophysicist Dr Alan Duffy in his Swinburne office. Image by David Allegretti
It's an unusually cold summer afternoon in Melbourne when I meet the 31-year-old astrophysicist. I start by asking about the evidence for pre-European astronomy.
"There are stone arrangements all over Australia which accurately align with known astronomical directions called cardinal points," says Alan. Most interesting is the accuracy with which they're placed. Alan says this indicates that First Australians recognised celestial cycles over decades, and aligned the stones in a surprisingly accurate way. "I was shocked to learn this too," he says enthusiastically. "And I'm supposed to know a little about astronomy. I mean, I don't think most people these days could point out east or west — we've become so used to having GPS and phones."
He pulls up another photo on his laptop and explains the way Indigenous Australians imagined their constellations. While westerners make out shapes from stars and bright points, kind of like a join-the-dots puzzle, indigenous Australians saw pictures in the dark areas as well. Alan points to an image on the screen as an example. It's a smudgy brown nebula with a line of black running down the middle. In that black line Aboriginal people saw an emu, while to western astronomy most of the arrangement is called the Coalsack Nebula. "So you end up with the same sky seen in a completely different way."
He goes on to describe how for Aboriginals, there was a also practical aspect to their constellations. The Emu was only visible in late April and early May, which is also when emus lay their eggs. "So in essence it was a calendar; a guide for dinner time, to go out and get this incredibly valuable protein."
The Magellanic Clouds. Notice the shape of the river with the small smudges to the right. Image via NASA.
Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that indigenous Australians managed to seamlessly weave social lessons into their astronomy stories. Alan points to a star cluster called the Magellanic Clouds, which is a fog of nearby galaxies. There are stars grouped around a black streak, which forms something like the shape of a river. Then, away from the main group, are two smaller sets of stars. People in Arnhem Land see this arrangement as campfires along a river, while the stars further away are an elderly couple who were too frail to complete the journey.
"So the young people actually come across and look after the elderly. Every time you looked up at the night sky you'd be reminded of your duties as a society – look after the old," says Alan with a smile.
The same stars but from an Australian perspective - Djulpan. Image via Professor Ray Norris
Next he points to the Orion constellation on his laptop monitor. He explains that when seen from an Australian vantage point, Orion is upside down, so the Yolngu people of northeastern Arnhem Land saw three brothers and a canoe. They called this Djulpan,which is a prominent Aboriginal story.
One day, three brothers decided to go fishing against the advice of their elders. It was storm season and far too dangerous. The three brothers ignored the warning and went anyway. They found themselves sitting in a canoe for hours catching nothing but kingfish, which is a problem as it's the totemic animal for their tribe. To eat it would be akin to cannibalism.
Eventually one of the brothers cracked and ate one causing Walu, the Sun Woman, to become furious. Walu took the storm clouds and turned them into a whirlwind which lifted the boat up and cast the brothers into the sky where they remain today.
This story is an excellent example of the moral lessons engrained in astronomy storytelling. There's both a lesson about keeping sacred law, and paying heed to the words of elders. Not only that, but there's also a practical application. Djulpan is only visible from February to March, which is when the Monsoon begins. That tells you it's no longer safe to go out and fish.
The Pleiades Cluster. Image via NASA, Palomar Observatory
Finally, bringing up an image of the Pleiades cluster, Alan explains his favourite quirk of indigenous astronomy. "In a lot of cultures this is called the seven sisters," he says. "They lie just below Orion the Hunter so as the night sky wheels over, the seven sisters are fleeing from Orion." He then goes on to tell me there are similar stories of a hunter or fishermen pursuing seven women in Australia too, originating at a time when there was no contact between the Greeks and the Aborigines. "So the idea is that we told this story around campfires in Africa, and in the last 40,000 years we've been telling that same story as we spread out across the earth, which I absolutely love and I'm willing to buy into."
As we finish up, the conversation takes on a more sombre tone. Looking up at the stars on a clear night sky is a beautiful and humbling experience, and it seems Alan shares this sentiment. The issue is that we're losing our stars to light pollution, and this means we're also losing some of mankind's oldest stories. Alan ruminates on this for a moment. "I think if everyone turned the lights off so they could see what they're missing, I don't think we'd turn the lights back on. And if we did, maybe we wouldn't turn on as many."
http://www.vice.com/en_au/read/australia-has-a-night-sky-youve-never-seen
Inigo Montoya
The New Dread Pirate Roberts.
More than 120 people killed, including at least 100 children, in Taliban attack on Pakistan school
Updated 9 minutes agoTue 16 Dec 2014, 9:57pm
At least 126 people have been killed and 122 injured in an attack by Taliban militants on a Pakistani high school.
More than 100 of the dead were school children, director of information for the chief minister's secretariat Bahramand Khan said, adding that the death toll could rise.
Hundreds of students and teacherswere taken hostage in the bloodiest insurgent attack in the country in years.
Troops surrounded the building and an operation was under way to rescue the remaining children, the army said.
Police said four of the Taliban attackers have been killed and the search continues for the remaining gunmen.
Police were struggling to hold back distraught parents trying to break past a cordon and get to the school when three loud explosions went off, police officials told Reuters.
Outside, helicopters hovered overhead and ambulances ferried wounded children to hospital.
This is a national tragedy unleashed by savages. These were my kids.
The school on Peshawar's Warsak Road is part of the Army Public Schools and Colleges System, which runs 146 schools nationwide for the children of military personnel and civilians. Its students range in age from around 10 to 18.
The schools educate the children of both officers and non-commissioned soldiers and army wives often teach in them.
Prime minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack and said he was on his way to Peshawar.
"I can't stay back in Islamabad. This is a national tragedy unleashed by savages. These were my kids," he said in a statement.
"This is my loss. This is the nation's loss. I am leaving for Peshawar now and I will supervise this operation myself."
Gunmen moved classroom by classroom, says local journalist
Disturbing reports have emerged of how the attack unfolded, according to Pakistani journalist Wajahat Khan, who is based in Islamabad.
"It started around home time, when most of the parents were about to receive the kids and school was about to get done," he told ABC News24.
"From what we know from military sources on the ground ... 10 to 11 assailants, all equipped with suicide jackets and all wearing local paramilitary and police uniforms, essentially walked into the school and started picking off kids, classroom by classroom."
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the gunmen had been ordered to shoot older students but not children.
A spokesman for the group said the attack was retaliation for the Pakistan army's continuing operation against militants in the North Waziristan tribal area close to Peshawar.
"They include target killers and suicide attackers," TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani told AFP.
"This attack is a response to Zarb-e-Azb and the killing of Taliban fighters and harassing their families."
Zarb-e-Azb is the official name for the army's offensive against strongholds of the Taliban and other militants in North Waziristan.
The offensive has killed more than 1,600 militants, according to an AFP tally.
The military has hailed the operation as a major success in disrupting Taliban militancy.
The semi-autonomous tribal areas that border Afghanistan have for years been a hideout for Islamist militants of all stripes - including Al Qaeda and the homegrown TTP as well as foreign fighters such as Uzbeks and Uighurs.
The United States pressed Islamabad for years to wipe out the sanctuaries in North Waziristan, which militants have used to launch attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/taliban-gunmen-attack-military-run-school-in-peshawar/5971484
Updated 9 minutes agoTue 16 Dec 2014, 9:57pm
At least 126 people have been killed and 122 injured in an attack by Taliban militants on a Pakistani high school.
More than 100 of the dead were school children, director of information for the chief minister's secretariat Bahramand Khan said, adding that the death toll could rise.
Hundreds of students and teacherswere taken hostage in the bloodiest insurgent attack in the country in years.
Troops surrounded the building and an operation was under way to rescue the remaining children, the army said.
Police said four of the Taliban attackers have been killed and the search continues for the remaining gunmen.
Police were struggling to hold back distraught parents trying to break past a cordon and get to the school when three loud explosions went off, police officials told Reuters.
Outside, helicopters hovered overhead and ambulances ferried wounded children to hospital.
This is a national tragedy unleashed by savages. These were my kids.
The school on Peshawar's Warsak Road is part of the Army Public Schools and Colleges System, which runs 146 schools nationwide for the children of military personnel and civilians. Its students range in age from around 10 to 18.
The schools educate the children of both officers and non-commissioned soldiers and army wives often teach in them.
Prime minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack and said he was on his way to Peshawar.
"I can't stay back in Islamabad. This is a national tragedy unleashed by savages. These were my kids," he said in a statement.
"This is my loss. This is the nation's loss. I am leaving for Peshawar now and I will supervise this operation myself."
Gunmen moved classroom by classroom, says local journalist
Disturbing reports have emerged of how the attack unfolded, according to Pakistani journalist Wajahat Khan, who is based in Islamabad.
"It started around home time, when most of the parents were about to receive the kids and school was about to get done," he told ABC News24.
"From what we know from military sources on the ground ... 10 to 11 assailants, all equipped with suicide jackets and all wearing local paramilitary and police uniforms, essentially walked into the school and started picking off kids, classroom by classroom."
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the gunmen had been ordered to shoot older students but not children.
A spokesman for the group said the attack was retaliation for the Pakistan army's continuing operation against militants in the North Waziristan tribal area close to Peshawar.
"They include target killers and suicide attackers," TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani told AFP.
"This attack is a response to Zarb-e-Azb and the killing of Taliban fighters and harassing their families."
Zarb-e-Azb is the official name for the army's offensive against strongholds of the Taliban and other militants in North Waziristan.
The offensive has killed more than 1,600 militants, according to an AFP tally.
The military has hailed the operation as a major success in disrupting Taliban militancy.
The semi-autonomous tribal areas that border Afghanistan have for years been a hideout for Islamist militants of all stripes - including Al Qaeda and the homegrown TTP as well as foreign fighters such as Uzbeks and Uighurs.
The United States pressed Islamabad for years to wipe out the sanctuaries in North Waziristan, which militants have used to launch attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/taliban-gunmen-attack-military-run-school-in-peshawar/5971484
Deja
Well-Known Member
Who the heck is throwing all this crap in the oceans?
Nearly 300,000 Tons of Plastic is Floating in the World's Oceans
By Katherine Tweed
December 12, 2014 | 9:05 am
Plastic seems to be everywhere in our lives and, according to new research, it has also become a ubiquitous part of the world's oceans.
An international team of scientists joined forces to survey the expansive array of plastic items found afloat in the seas. What they found was everything from buoys and bags to polystyrene pieces and microplastics, totaling about 268,940 tons. The figure does not even include plastic that washes up on beaches and seashores, floats in the water column, or sinks down to the seabed.
Many researchers, journalists, and photographers have documented the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and other waste islands, as well as the increasing amounts of microplastics in the water. But the weight and abundance of global ocean plastic pollution has been hard to quantify, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere.
"There's a vast amount of this stuff in a place it doesn't belong," Kara Lavender Law, principal investigator with Plastics at SEA, told VICE News.
The irony of petroleum-based plastics is they were designed to be long lasting but are now the de facto choice of disposable packaging. Every year, 280 million tons of plastic is produced, according to the nonprofit Algalita, a marine research institute.
'You are what you eat and what you eat is coming from an environment with trash floating in it.'
About half of the plastic produced makes its way to the landfill and less than 10 percent is recycled, according to the 5 Gyres Institute, a non-profit that works to eliminate plastic pollution. Some items are durable goods that are used for the long-term. But the rest finds its way into the environment as pollution — often ending up in the water.
The group of ocean researchers took 24 expeditions in international waters, costal regions, and enclosed seas, such as the Mediterranean, scouring the surface with nets or making visual estimates of the number and weight of plastic objects in the water. They then made models to estimate the total amount of plastic in the oceans. Their findings, which provide a baseline for future research, were published December 10 in PLOS ONE.
Although large items make up more of the weight of ocean trash, it is microplastics that truly plague the oceans. Microplastics, defined as 0.33 to 4.75 millimeters, comprised about 92 percent of the more than five trillion particles estimated in the study.
Model results for global count density in four size classes. Model prediction of global count density (pieces per square kilometer; see colorbar) for each of four size classes (0.33-1.00 mm, 1.01-4.75 mm, 4.76-200 mm, and >200 mm).
No part of the world's waters have been spared, but the North Pacific is the worst affected by plastic pollution. The North Pacific has a little more than a third of the total plastic found in the oceans. The PLOS ONE study's findings were similar to a previous study that found the total microplastic load of just the North Pacific was about 35,000 tons.
"That's encouraging that two very different approaches are coming up with a very similar number," Law told VICE News.
The figures are conservative, Captain Charles Moore, one of the paper's coauthors and founder of Algalita, told VICE News. For large floating debris, each piece was estimated to be about a third of an ounce. But Moore said about 90 percent of the pieces he's weighed for other studies was "way more" than that — and sometimes more than a pound. The modeling also took conservative estimates of the amount of plastic waste from urban areas that washes into the ocean.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the study found the Indian Ocean has more pieces of plastic than the South Atlantic and South Pacific oceans combined. What surprised the authors in this study was there is nearly as much total plastic in the Southern Hemisphere as there is in the Northern Hemisphere, even though there are far more sources of plastic pollution in the Northern Hemisphere. The Southern Hemisphere, which includes many rapidly developing nations, like Indonesia, are quickly catching up, said Moore.
But there is far less data for the Southern Hemisphere, and so the findings from this study should be interpreted with caution, said Law.
Model results for global weight density in four size classes. Model prediction of global weight density (pieces per square kilometer; see colorbar) for each of four size classes (0.33-1.00 mm, 1.01-4.75 mm, 4.76-200 mm, and >200 mm). The majority of global weight is from the largest size class.
Researchers know that larger pieces of plastic are broken down into increasingly smaller and smaller pieces. Some is broken down through UV degradation. Other plastic undergoes biodegradation, a process where microorganisms break down the chemicals that make up the plastic. But more often it is marine life - from fish to birds to mammals — that ingests the plastic trash that is everywhere.
For years consumers have been warned about specific plastic items harming charismatic ocean mammals, such as turtles, being caught in the plastic rings that hold six packs of soda or beer. But now researchers know that everything from small invertebrates to large predators are ingesting plastic. And scientists are increasingly asking how much of it is not just impacting aquatic life but also the seafood that finds its way to our plates.
"You are what you eat and what you eat is coming from an environment with trash floating in it," said Law. She cautioned that there is still a lot of research that needs to be done to better understand how plastics might transfer to animal tissue that animals eat. There is also research to better understand how plastics absorb other contaminants in the ocean, such as DDT, and whether that can transfer to the organisms that eat the plastic.
"There's a natural reason to be concerned," Law told VICE News.
Cruise ships legally dump massive amounts of shit into the oceans. Read more here.
So far, global estimates have only looked at the trash on the surface and not the total amount suspended in water or sitting on the bottom. Many types of plastic are certainly further down, either because they break down on the ocean's surface or because many types of plastic resins don't float at all. Moore told VICE News about one third of fish his expeditions have surveyed have ingested plastic.
To curb the amount of plastic that makes its way into the ocean, Moore said those that produce the plastic, half of which goes to packaging, need to be responsible for it.
"So, if you can't imagine vacuuming the planet from Tierra del Fuego to Northern Canada, just think: Cleaning the ocean would be much more difficult," Moore told VICE News. "Society needs to make things that don't require cleanup."
https://news.vice.com/article/nearly-300000-tons-of-plastic-is-floating-in-the-worlds-oceans
I've posted 4 videos Here that relate to this subject...
Stuff gets washed into sewers, but honestly from what I have seen in my worldly travels. Most of the word does not give a shit about litter. You see people just walking down the street, the open a candy bar and drop the rapper on the ground. Bits of rubbish everywhere mixed with dirt and dust.
One pretty extreme example was in Myanmar (Burma) at this beautiful tropical beach. Ngapali Beach. Beautiful long curved beach white white sand lined with big palm trees. Then down one end there was a little stream a bit of coral out cropping sticking out and not far past that there was basically dividing line in the sand where the local fishing village started. Lots of fishing boats and stuff. However the beach was insanely polluted. Rubbish everywhere. Not just plastics, but rusty cans, light bulbs and all sorts of shit. You walk in from the beach and yeah just sand and stuff mixed with bits of rubbish.
Deja
Well-Known Member
That is terrible. We humans are sometimes worse than animals.
Here are some pictures I took to illustrate.
Down the beach along the fishing village.
Just behind the beach, where people live?
And now the lovely tourist part
Jam
I don't like it
Australia Has a Night Sky You’ve Never Seen
Indigenous Australia is the longest living continuous culture on earth. Despite this, modern researchers have just started to look at the wisdom that comes with 50,000 years of residency, and that's especially true of astronomy. First Australians tracked and predicted interstellar movements in highly sophisticated ways, looking up at the night with eyes intriguingly different to our own. To hear some examples, I met with Swinburne University's Dr Alan Duffy who specialises in indigenous astronomy.
Astrophysicist Dr Alan Duffy in his Swinburne office. Image by David Allegretti
It's an unusually cold summer afternoon in Melbourne when I meet the 31-year-old astrophysicist. I start by asking about the evidence for pre-European astronomy.
"There are stone arrangements all over Australia which accurately align with known astronomical directions called cardinal points," says Alan. Most interesting is the accuracy with which they're placed. Alan says this indicates that First Australians recognised celestial cycles over decades, and aligned the stones in a surprisingly accurate way. "I was shocked to learn this too," he says enthusiastically. "And I'm supposed to know a little about astronomy. I mean, I don't think most people these days could point out east or west — we've become so used to having GPS and phones."
He pulls up another photo on his laptop and explains the way Indigenous Australians imagined their constellations. While westerners make out shapes from stars and bright points, kind of like a join-the-dots puzzle, indigenous Australians saw pictures in the dark areas as well. Alan points to an image on the screen as an example. It's a smudgy brown nebula with a line of black running down the middle. In that black line Aboriginal people saw an emu, while to western astronomy most of the arrangement is called the Coalsack Nebula. "So you end up with the same sky seen in a completely different way."
He goes on to describe how for Aboriginals, there was a also practical aspect to their constellations. The Emu was only visible in late April and early May, which is also when emus lay their eggs. "So in essence it was a calendar; a guide for dinner time, to go out and get this incredibly valuable protein."
The Magellanic Clouds. Notice the shape of the river with the small smudges to the right. Image via NASA.
Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that indigenous Australians managed to seamlessly weave social lessons into their astronomy stories. Alan points to a star cluster called the Magellanic Clouds, which is a fog of nearby galaxies. There are stars grouped around a black streak, which forms something like the shape of a river. Then, away from the main group, are two smaller sets of stars. People in Arnhem Land see this arrangement as campfires along a river, while the stars further away are an elderly couple who were too frail to complete the journey.
"So the young people actually come across and look after the elderly. Every time you looked up at the night sky you'd be reminded of your duties as a society – look after the old," says Alan with a smile.
The same stars but from an Australian perspective - Djulpan. Image via Professor Ray Norris
Next he points to the Orion constellation on his laptop monitor. He explains that when seen from an Australian vantage point, Orion is upside down, so the Yolngu people of northeastern Arnhem Land saw three brothers and a canoe. They called this Djulpan,which is a prominent Aboriginal story.
One day, three brothers decided to go fishing against the advice of their elders. It was storm season and far too dangerous. The three brothers ignored the warning and went anyway. They found themselves sitting in a canoe for hours catching nothing but kingfish, which is a problem as it's the totemic animal for their tribe. To eat it would be akin to cannibalism.
Eventually one of the brothers cracked and ate one causing Walu, the Sun Woman, to become furious. Walu took the storm clouds and turned them into a whirlwind which lifted the boat up and cast the brothers into the sky where they remain today.
This story is an excellent example of the moral lessons engrained in astronomy storytelling. There's both a lesson about keeping sacred law, and paying heed to the words of elders. Not only that, but there's also a practical application. Djulpan is only visible from February to March, which is when the Monsoon begins. That tells you it's no longer safe to go out and fish.
The Pleiades Cluster. Image via NASA, Palomar Observatory
Finally, bringing up an image of the Pleiades cluster, Alan explains his favourite quirk of indigenous astronomy. "In a lot of cultures this is called the seven sisters," he says. "They lie just below Orion the Hunter so as the night sky wheels over, the seven sisters are fleeing from Orion." He then goes on to tell me there are similar stories of a hunter or fishermen pursuing seven women in Australia too, originating at a time when there was no contact between the Greeks and the Aborigines. "So the idea is that we told this story around campfires in Africa, and in the last 40,000 years we've been telling that same story as we spread out across the earth, which I absolutely love and I'm willing to buy into."
As we finish up, the conversation takes on a more sombre tone. Looking up at the stars on a clear night sky is a beautiful and humbling experience, and it seems Alan shares this sentiment. The issue is that we're losing our stars to light pollution, and this means we're also losing some of mankind's oldest stories. Alan ruminates on this for a moment. "I think if everyone turned the lights off so they could see what they're missing, I don't think we'd turn the lights back on. And if we did, maybe we wouldn't turn on as many."
http://www.vice.com/en_au/read/australia-has-a-night-sky-youve-never-seen
That is truly fascinating, Inigo! Thanks for posting it. If there is one thing I love, it's star gazing. I wish I knew more about astronomy.
Jam
I don't like it
We are animals, though. We're just lucky that the rest of the animal kingdom aren't as careless of their environment as we are. We are by far the most destructive creatures around.
Well to be fair, animals and life through out it's history on the earth has shaped the environment a lot. We're just doing things on a speed up and large scale.
There is no balance in nature and plants and animals all have been negatively affecting each other and the environment for as long as they have been around.
Even going back to the most basic life, over 2 billions years ago cyanobacteria terraformed the planet. The earth had something like a purple to orange sky and green oceans. There was very little oxygen in the atmosphere and the oceans had massive amounts of iron with in them. The cyanobacteria through photosynthesis released oxygen from the oceans into the sky. This rusted out the iron which fell to the bottom and caused the iron ore deposits we mine today. With out the oxygen in the atmosphere, life as we know it would have never come about.
Pretty cool to think about.
Deja
Well-Known Member
Actually, you kind of freaked me out. I want to LIVE!
Sleep epidemic in Kazakhstan town:
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world...no-one-knows-why/story-e6frfqbr-1227159898812
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world...no-one-knows-why/story-e6frfqbr-1227159898812
Inigo Montoya
The New Dread Pirate Roberts.
This is amazing news. Go New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo.
New York State Just Banned Natural Gas Fracking
New York State won't allow the use of hydraulic fracturing to drill for natural gas after a state review found too many "red flags" raised by the controversial technique, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday
High-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) has fueled a nationwide boom in US natural gas production over the past decade. But critics say that the large amounts of toxic chemicals used in the process pose a serious threat to drinking water supplies, wildlife populations, and agricultural production.
In Pennsylvania, oil and gas production is now a $34 billion industry that supports 300,000 jobs, according to industry figures. But New York State officials placed a moratorium on the practice six years ago until environmental and health regulators could review the practice. The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) gave it the thumbs-down on Wednesday, presenting their findings to Cuomo in a year-end cabinet meeting.
The agency's report says: "The overall weight of the evidence from the cumulative body of information contained in this Public Health Review demonstrates that there are significant uncertainties about the kinds of adverse health outcomes that may be associated with HVHF." The report adds that public health would likely be "adversely" impacted by fracking.
Joe Martens, the head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said the risks of fracking "substantially outweigh" any potential economic benefits.
In a comment posted on twitter, Cuomo said, "As much as existing studies have found health risks, there are many red flags & questions that still need to be answered."
The decision was quickly criticized by America's Natural Gas Alliance, which represents independent drilling and production companies.
"This is an ill-advised decision that denies New Yorkers the opportunity to take advantage of the many environmental and economic benefits that natural gas offers," said Paul Hartman, the group's Northeast director. "This has always been a political, rather than a public health decision."
New York is "forgoing the advantages its neighbors enjoy from natural gas production," Hartman said.
But environmentalists quickly hailed the decision.
"Governor Cuomo has kept his promise to let only sound science — not pressure from powerful oil and gas companies — be his guide on fracking," the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a written statement. "Mounting scientific evidence points to serious health risks from fracking operations. New Yorkers have made it loud and clear that we want to keep this reckless industry at bay."
Zephyr Teachout, the Fordham University law professor who challenged Cuomo in the state's Democratic primary earlier this year, said the prohibition was "the most extraordinary news."
"It's a total surprise," Teachout told VICE News. "Andrew Cuomo will probably deny that politics played any part of it, but I see this powerful grassroots movement as really having changed things."
Actor Mark Ruffalo, one of the most prominent fracking opponents, let out a whoop in a video he posted on Instagram and thanked Cuomo and other state officials for the decision.
"And thanks to all the beautiful dedicated people in the anti-fracking movement who used science, their guts, their brains, and their hearts to make this day a reality," he said before adding, "Love you."
https://news.vice.com/article/new-york-state-just-banned-natural-gas-fracking
New York State Just Banned Natural Gas Fracking
New York State won't allow the use of hydraulic fracturing to drill for natural gas after a state review found too many "red flags" raised by the controversial technique, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday
High-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) has fueled a nationwide boom in US natural gas production over the past decade. But critics say that the large amounts of toxic chemicals used in the process pose a serious threat to drinking water supplies, wildlife populations, and agricultural production.
In Pennsylvania, oil and gas production is now a $34 billion industry that supports 300,000 jobs, according to industry figures. But New York State officials placed a moratorium on the practice six years ago until environmental and health regulators could review the practice. The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) gave it the thumbs-down on Wednesday, presenting their findings to Cuomo in a year-end cabinet meeting.
The agency's report says: "The overall weight of the evidence from the cumulative body of information contained in this Public Health Review demonstrates that there are significant uncertainties about the kinds of adverse health outcomes that may be associated with HVHF." The report adds that public health would likely be "adversely" impacted by fracking.
Joe Martens, the head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said the risks of fracking "substantially outweigh" any potential economic benefits.
In a comment posted on twitter, Cuomo said, "As much as existing studies have found health risks, there are many red flags & questions that still need to be answered."
The decision was quickly criticized by America's Natural Gas Alliance, which represents independent drilling and production companies.
"This is an ill-advised decision that denies New Yorkers the opportunity to take advantage of the many environmental and economic benefits that natural gas offers," said Paul Hartman, the group's Northeast director. "This has always been a political, rather than a public health decision."
New York is "forgoing the advantages its neighbors enjoy from natural gas production," Hartman said.
But environmentalists quickly hailed the decision.
"Governor Cuomo has kept his promise to let only sound science — not pressure from powerful oil and gas companies — be his guide on fracking," the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a written statement. "Mounting scientific evidence points to serious health risks from fracking operations. New Yorkers have made it loud and clear that we want to keep this reckless industry at bay."
Zephyr Teachout, the Fordham University law professor who challenged Cuomo in the state's Democratic primary earlier this year, said the prohibition was "the most extraordinary news."
"It's a total surprise," Teachout told VICE News. "Andrew Cuomo will probably deny that politics played any part of it, but I see this powerful grassroots movement as really having changed things."
Actor Mark Ruffalo, one of the most prominent fracking opponents, let out a whoop in a video he posted on Instagram and thanked Cuomo and other state officials for the decision.
"And thanks to all the beautiful dedicated people in the anti-fracking movement who used science, their guts, their brains, and their hearts to make this day a reality," he said before adding, "Love you."
https://news.vice.com/article/new-york-state-just-banned-natural-gas-fracking
Inigo Montoya
The New Dread Pirate Roberts.
ENVIRONMENT
People in Bangladesh Are Cleaning Up A Huge Oil Spill With Their Bare Hands
In a skiff stacked with branches coated in fuel oil, a 15-year-old boy scraped oil off mangrove roots with his bare hands.
"I know it's bad for my health," he told VICE News, "but I'm poor and the government is paying me 400 takas [around $5] a day to do this work, so that's why I'm doing it."
Hundreds of others like him were busy collecting oil along the muddy banks of the Shela River, a UNESCO world heritage site in Bangladesh's southern Sundarbans region.
On the edge of the jungle, home to hundreds of Bengal tigers and the world's largest mangrove forest, locals are busying cleaning up what Sharif Amed, one of the country's leading environmental activists, called "an unprecedented environmental catastrophe for Bangladesh."
Visiting the deadly ship-breaking yards of Bangladesh. Read more here.
The oil tanker that leaked oil into the Shela river. (Photo by Gilles Bonugli Kali)
The spill occurred last Tuesday morning when an empty tanker rammed another anchored oil tanker in heavy fog. An estimated 93,000 gallons of fuel oil — the type used in furnaces and boilers — seeped into the river, which is located 220 miles southwest of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The tanker, which is now moored to another vessel in the small port of Mrigamari, was chartered by the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, a government agency that is now paying locals to collect the spilled oil.
The slick has already spread over 50 square miles, and it's only expected to grow as tides spread the oil across the floor of the mangrove forest. Environmentalists have criticized the government's inaction in the face of the ecological catastrophe, which is the region's first oil spill.
A week into the incident, the oil has completely blackened the shoreline, coating docks and tree roots with a thick, black sheen.
Pinaki Roy, a reporter with The Daily Star, one of Bangladesh's largest newspapers, told VICE News the landscape was "much worse" in the days immediately following the catastrophe. "Everything was black," he said.
An epidemic of brutal sexual assaults is terrorizing women in Bangladesh. Read more here.
Two fishermen who were paid to cover the oil with mud before the media arrived. (Photo by Gilles Bonugli Kali)
On a recent visit, plants on the forest floor were smeared with oil, and the surface of the river was coated with a thin, oily film. Under the palm and banana trees, the oil had already seeped into the ground.
"I walked into the forest and saw oil everywhere," Zahir Hossain, an attorney and environmental activist with the Save the Sundarbans Foundation, said.
Environmentalists warn that the spill threatens several endangered species in the region, including rare Irrawaddy dolphins.
"The oil is accumulating precisely where the dolphins are accustomed to coming up for air," A.K.M. Wahiduzzaman, an environmental activist and professor at Bangladesh National University, told VICE News. "If they try coming up, they will automatically breathe in toxic air. It's an ecosystem that is unique in the world because of its diversity, and it is now endangered."
The disaster could also have a tremendous negative impact on the region's economy, which plays an important role nationally. A handful of local fishermen are still going out on their boats — but to no avail.
"For one week, we've caught nothing," one fisherman told VICE News. "It's like everything died."
In photos: Bangladesh's trans pride parade was massive and fabulous. Read more here.
Oil-coated plants are heated to extract the oil, which is then sold back to locals. (Photo by Gilles Bonugli Kali)
The area is home to many aquaculture operations, and, according to Sheikh Faridul Islam, president of Save the Sundarbans foundation, "the worst thing for the region's economy would be a decline in shrimp farming."
Despite the ramifications of the catastrophe, the government of Bangladesh has so far refused to declare an environmental state of emergency, and failed to deploy adequate resources to clean up the spill. Locals have taken on the lion's share of cleanup efforts, relying on makeshift resources — like fishing nets strung between trees — to collect oil.
A local fisherman-turned-oil-collector told VICE News that the authorities paid him to camouflage the extent of the damage. "I'm covering the ruined shoreline with fresh mud, before the media and international organizations show up," he said.
People haul the oil on improvised boats to a local collection site, where they exchange the toxic bounty for cash. At the collection site, an elderly man heated oil-soaked plants to extract the precious liquid. He said he planned to bury the waste in the ground.
A young boy cleaning up oil. (Photo by Gilles Bonugli Kali)
Locals sell the "recycled" oil back to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, which pays them 30 takas for a liter of oil. The company resells it for around 70 takas per liter.
"The government should give us more," aquaculture farmer Suman Ahmed said. "We are putting our health at risk. They should send protective gear — at least masks and gloves."
The Ministry of Shipping was not able to answer questions when contacted by VICE News.
According to bdnews24.com, Shajahan Khan, the shipping minister of Bangladesh, discussed the spill with reporters on December 13. "The government and the shipping ministry are not indifferent," Khan reportedly said. "We are taking various measures to solve the problem."
Khan was quoted as saying the government has formed three investigation committees and detained the ship that caused the spill. He also said nets and cloths would prevent the spill from spreading.
"Experts have confirmed to me that this won't cause serious damage," Khan said. "The damage would've been far greater if it was diesel or petrol instead of furnace oil."
http://www.behindbigbrother.com/forums/threads/in-the-news.45179/page-137#post-2155123
Inigo Montoya
The New Dread Pirate Roberts.
ackers Have Scared Movie Theaters into Not Showing 'The Interview'
December 17, 2014
Image via Sony Pictures
The Interview was—spoiler—supposed to be a comedy about a pair of bumbling journalists (Seth Rogen and VICE contributor James Franco) who get instructed by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Now, thanks to the Sony hackers, it's taken a turn for the meta, and will ultimately be remembered as a film that resulted a terrorist threat against the United States.
Since November 14, an unknown person or persons have been leaking Sony's films, private emails, and executive salaries. There are rumors that the North Korean government itself is behind the threat, although officials there have denied them. But the story kicked up a notch yesterday, when the hackers threatened moviegoers who might want to go see the film. Calling themselves "Guardians of Peace," they issued this warning on the anonymous messageboard Pastebin:
We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places "The Interview" be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.
Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made.
The world will be full of fear.
Remember the 11th of September 2001.
We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time.
(If your house is nearby, you'd better leave.)
Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
All the world will denounce the SONY.
As a result of this over-the-top threat, the world premiere of the film, in LA, was scaled back to the point where reporters weren't even allowed interviews (kind of ironic, right?). New York's premiere was cancelled entirely. Now, rather than risk the unspecified consequences, both Regal and AMC have opted not to show the film. Several smaller cinema chains have followed suit. One, Bow Tie Cinemas, released a statement about the decision today.
"Given that the source and credibility of these threats is unknown at the time of this announcement, we have decided after careful consideration not to open The Interviewon December 25, 2014 as originally planned," it read. "We hope that those responsible for this act are swiftly identified and brought to justice.
Of course, making a film prohibitively difficult to see is just going to make people want see it more—it's why people still remember Piss Christ. (This phenomenon is basically the plot of Infinite Jest.) Who knows? Maybe this is a huge publicity stunt by the production company. Sony could probably release this movie on DVD tomorrow and make a trillion dollars.
Maybe that's why not all theaters are cowed by the threats. "If they play it, we'll show it,"Tom Stephenson, the CEO of Look Cinemas, told Variety. "Sony has a right to make the movie, we have a right to play it and censorship in general is a bad thing."
UPDATE: According to CNN, Sony just decided to cancel the movie's planned release altogether:
http://www.vice.com/read/hackers-ha...howing-the-interview?utm_source=vicetwitterus
December 17, 2014
Image via Sony Pictures
The Interview was—spoiler—supposed to be a comedy about a pair of bumbling journalists (Seth Rogen and VICE contributor James Franco) who get instructed by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Now, thanks to the Sony hackers, it's taken a turn for the meta, and will ultimately be remembered as a film that resulted a terrorist threat against the United States.
Since November 14, an unknown person or persons have been leaking Sony's films, private emails, and executive salaries. There are rumors that the North Korean government itself is behind the threat, although officials there have denied them. But the story kicked up a notch yesterday, when the hackers threatened moviegoers who might want to go see the film. Calling themselves "Guardians of Peace," they issued this warning on the anonymous messageboard Pastebin:
We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places "The Interview" be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.
Soon all the world will see what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made.
The world will be full of fear.
Remember the 11th of September 2001.
We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time.
(If your house is nearby, you'd better leave.)
Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
All the world will denounce the SONY.
As a result of this over-the-top threat, the world premiere of the film, in LA, was scaled back to the point where reporters weren't even allowed interviews (kind of ironic, right?). New York's premiere was cancelled entirely. Now, rather than risk the unspecified consequences, both Regal and AMC have opted not to show the film. Several smaller cinema chains have followed suit. One, Bow Tie Cinemas, released a statement about the decision today.
"Given that the source and credibility of these threats is unknown at the time of this announcement, we have decided after careful consideration not to open The Interviewon December 25, 2014 as originally planned," it read. "We hope that those responsible for this act are swiftly identified and brought to justice.
Of course, making a film prohibitively difficult to see is just going to make people want see it more—it's why people still remember Piss Christ. (This phenomenon is basically the plot of Infinite Jest.) Who knows? Maybe this is a huge publicity stunt by the production company. Sony could probably release this movie on DVD tomorrow and make a trillion dollars.
Maybe that's why not all theaters are cowed by the threats. "If they play it, we'll show it,"Tom Stephenson, the CEO of Look Cinemas, told Variety. "Sony has a right to make the movie, we have a right to play it and censorship in general is a bad thing."
UPDATE: According to CNN, Sony just decided to cancel the movie's planned release altogether:
http://www.vice.com/read/hackers-ha...howing-the-interview?utm_source=vicetwitterus
Inigo Montoya
The New Dread Pirate Roberts.
[Best of 2014] The Year in Art Discoveries
Róbert Berény’s avant-garde masterpiece, Sleeping Lady With A Black Vase, hangs in the background of Stuart Little.via
This year we saw museum-goers with the power to x-ray paintings on their phones, algorithms that could beat an art historian, and an easel that could probe artworks with hyperspectral imaging. From lost mosaics and never-before-seen underpaintings, to fresh insights on an artist's creative process, and even mind-boggling theories that reveal new threads of history, 2014 was a fruitful year for curious findings.
This is the Year in Art Discoveries:
+ The Mona Lisa’s alleged twin made her public debut in Singapore this week. According to its owners, scientific tests and expert analyses confirmed that the work is 10 years older than its famous sister.
The Mona Lisa (left) alongside it's long-lost cousin (right). via
+ While watching Stuart Little, historian Gergely Barki spotted a long-lost avant-garde masterpiece hanging in the Little family's living room.
+ Researchers unveiled the hidden portrait of a man in a bow tie lurking beneath Pablo Picasso’s The Blue Room.
The man hidden beneath Picasso's Blue Room. GIF by Dan Stuckey
+ We questioned if van Gogh was murdered after reading the case made by his biographers and a leading forensic scientist.
+ Reflective light technology showed that Leonardo da Vinci layered three different versions of his Lady with an Ermine atop one another.
Three versions of da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine. Image via BBC News
+ We learned that 40,000-year-old hand paintings found in Indonesia predated the oldest art by a few thousand years. Weeks later, a zigzag doodle on a shell—made 300,000 years before human evolution—took over as the new oldest art.
The above cave paintings, found on walls in Sulawesi, Indonesia, were discovered to be at least 40,000 years old. via
+ An audio recording of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1962 Emancipation Proclamation speech was unearthed at the New York State Museum in January.
+ The breasts of a mermaid sculpture in the Las Vegas Venetian popped open to reveal a diorama of the canals of Venice.
Toland Grinnell's sculpture, The Armillary Sphere, had even more artwork hidden inside. Image via
+ A rare Shakespeare first folio surfaced in a public library in Saint-Omer, France.
+ Around 1,400 masterpieces, including ones by Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso, were confiscated from the home of the son of a Nazi-era art dealer.
+ In October, archaeologists stumbled onto a mosaic of Hades and Persephone while digging through a massive tomb in Greece.
A recently-uncovered mosaic of Hades kidnapping Persephone. Image via
+ Only a single clip of Disney’s first Christmas film had been saved in MoMa’s archives, but the complete work was found on an unlabeled reel in Norway’s National Library earlier this month.
+ We discovered Banksy was a woman (maybe). But, at least we eliminated Paul William Horner this year from our list of possible Banksys.
+ Previously unknown Warhol works were discovered on floppy disks from 1985, thanks to Cory Arcangel, a team from Carnegie Mellon, and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Image: Andy Warhol, Campbell’s, 1985, ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visuals Arts, Inc., courtesy of The Andy Warhol Museum, used with permission.
This is the fifth part of our end-of-the-year series. Stay tuned as we continue to look back on 2014 and collect all of our favorite examples of modern creativity, fantastic innovations, and important trends.
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_au/blog/best-of-2014-the-year-in-art-discoveries
This year we saw museum-goers with the power to x-ray paintings on their phones, algorithms that could beat an art historian, and an easel that could probe artworks with hyperspectral imaging. From lost mosaics and never-before-seen underpaintings, to fresh insights on an artist's creative process, and even mind-boggling theories that reveal new threads of history, 2014 was a fruitful year for curious findings.
This is the Year in Art Discoveries:
+ The Mona Lisa’s alleged twin made her public debut in Singapore this week. According to its owners, scientific tests and expert analyses confirmed that the work is 10 years older than its famous sister.
+ While watching Stuart Little, historian Gergely Barki spotted a long-lost avant-garde masterpiece hanging in the Little family's living room.
+ Researchers unveiled the hidden portrait of a man in a bow tie lurking beneath Pablo Picasso’s The Blue Room.
+ We questioned if van Gogh was murdered after reading the case made by his biographers and a leading forensic scientist.
+ Reflective light technology showed that Leonardo da Vinci layered three different versions of his Lady with an Ermine atop one another.
+ We learned that 40,000-year-old hand paintings found in Indonesia predated the oldest art by a few thousand years. Weeks later, a zigzag doodle on a shell—made 300,000 years before human evolution—took over as the new oldest art.
+ An audio recording of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1962 Emancipation Proclamation speech was unearthed at the New York State Museum in January.
+ The breasts of a mermaid sculpture in the Las Vegas Venetian popped open to reveal a diorama of the canals of Venice.
+ A rare Shakespeare first folio surfaced in a public library in Saint-Omer, France.
+ Around 1,400 masterpieces, including ones by Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso, were confiscated from the home of the son of a Nazi-era art dealer.
+ In October, archaeologists stumbled onto a mosaic of Hades and Persephone while digging through a massive tomb in Greece.
+ Only a single clip of Disney’s first Christmas film had been saved in MoMa’s archives, but the complete work was found on an unlabeled reel in Norway’s National Library earlier this month.
+ We discovered Banksy was a woman (maybe). But, at least we eliminated Paul William Horner this year from our list of possible Banksys.
+ Previously unknown Warhol works were discovered on floppy disks from 1985, thanks to Cory Arcangel, a team from Carnegie Mellon, and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
This is the fifth part of our end-of-the-year series. Stay tuned as we continue to look back on 2014 and collect all of our favorite examples of modern creativity, fantastic innovations, and important trends.
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_au/blog/best-of-2014-the-year-in-art-discoveries
Inigo Montoya
The New Dread Pirate Roberts.
So it was NK that hacked Sony?
U.S. set to blame North Korea for Sony hack
The U.S. is getting ready to blame North Korea for the mega hack on Sony Pictures, as the studio said Wednesday it would cancel next week's planned release of its controversial comedy "The Interview."
U.S. investigators say an announcement pinning the blame on hackers working for the Pyongyang regime could come as soon as Thursday.
Because of the North Korean regime's tight control of the Internet in the reclusive country, U.S. officials believe the hack was ordered directly by the country's leadership.
North Korea experts say the country has spent scarce resources on building up a unit called "Bureau 121" to carry out cyber attacks.
Earlier Wednesday, Sony pulled the film, which depicts the assassination of North Korea's leader, following a threat that people should avoid going to theaters where "The Interview" is playing.
The country's major theater companies had said they had decided to postpone or cancel next week's showing.
"In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film "The Interview," we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release," Sony said in its first statement on the matter.
"Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. ... We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie. ... We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome."
The comedy was scheduled to come out on Christmas Day.
Related: Sony downplays possibility of video release of 'The Interview'
According to sources with direct knowledge with the situation and statements by some of the companies, among the top chains that had decided to drop the movie were AMC Entertainment, Regal (RGC), Cinemark (CNK) and Carmike Cinemas (CKEC).
Several smaller chains, including Bow Tie Cinemas and Southern, had decided to do the same thing.
Bow Tie said in a statement that it was "saddened and angered" by the threats against the film. "It is our mission to ensure the safety and comfort of our guests and employees," it said.
Another chain, Cineplex, which is based in Canada, also said it would postpone its showing.
"Cineplex takes seriously its commitment to the freedom of artistic expression, but we want to reassure our guests and staff that their safety and security is our number one priority," the company said. "We look forward to a time when this situation is resolved and those responsible are apprehended."
And Regal said it would "delay the opening" in its theaters, citing "the wavering support of the film "The Interview" by Sony Pictures, as well as the ambiguous nature of any real or perceived security threats."
"The Interview" became controversial because its plot involves the attempted assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
CNN has learned that State Department officials had a discussion with Sony executives but they did not weigh in on the production.
Sony Pictures has been devastated by the cyberattack that appears motivated by anger over the film.
The film's Los Angeles premiere went off without a hitch last week, but the New York premiere planned for Thursday was called off after the new threat on Tuesday.
The threat, which invoked the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, received widespread press attention.
Related: New York cinema cancels premiere after threat
Concerns about upholding freedom of artistic expression were countered by fears that families would heed the hackers' warning and bypass the box office for the remainder of the holiday season.
"The possibility that people will avoid theaters altogether is the problem," the person said. In other words, it's not just "The Interview" that could be hurt, it's other Christmas releases like Disney' (DIS)"Into The Woods" and Universal's "Unbroken."
Furthermore, according to The Hollywood Reporter, theaters were "wary of becoming liable if they show the movie and any violence occurs."
To many observers, however, that sounded like a far-fetched scenario.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said on CNN's "New Day" that "this is essentially a heckler's veto" of the film.
The FBI has been investigating the hack, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that "there is no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States."
All the attention had caused some people to pledge to see the film.
"I am not going to let a terrorist threat shut down freedom of speech. I am going to The Interview," screenwriter and director Judd Apatow wrote on Twitter Tuesday night.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/17/media/the-interview-sony-theater-owners/index.html?hpt=hp_t
U.S. set to blame North Korea for Sony hack
The U.S. is getting ready to blame North Korea for the mega hack on Sony Pictures, as the studio said Wednesday it would cancel next week's planned release of its controversial comedy "The Interview."
U.S. investigators say an announcement pinning the blame on hackers working for the Pyongyang regime could come as soon as Thursday.
Because of the North Korean regime's tight control of the Internet in the reclusive country, U.S. officials believe the hack was ordered directly by the country's leadership.
North Korea experts say the country has spent scarce resources on building up a unit called "Bureau 121" to carry out cyber attacks.
Earlier Wednesday, Sony pulled the film, which depicts the assassination of North Korea's leader, following a threat that people should avoid going to theaters where "The Interview" is playing.
The country's major theater companies had said they had decided to postpone or cancel next week's showing.
"In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film "The Interview," we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release," Sony said in its first statement on the matter.
"Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. ... We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie. ... We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome."
The comedy was scheduled to come out on Christmas Day.
Related: Sony downplays possibility of video release of 'The Interview'
According to sources with direct knowledge with the situation and statements by some of the companies, among the top chains that had decided to drop the movie were AMC Entertainment, Regal (RGC), Cinemark (CNK) and Carmike Cinemas (CKEC).
Several smaller chains, including Bow Tie Cinemas and Southern, had decided to do the same thing.
Bow Tie said in a statement that it was "saddened and angered" by the threats against the film. "It is our mission to ensure the safety and comfort of our guests and employees," it said.
Another chain, Cineplex, which is based in Canada, also said it would postpone its showing.
"Cineplex takes seriously its commitment to the freedom of artistic expression, but we want to reassure our guests and staff that their safety and security is our number one priority," the company said. "We look forward to a time when this situation is resolved and those responsible are apprehended."
And Regal said it would "delay the opening" in its theaters, citing "the wavering support of the film "The Interview" by Sony Pictures, as well as the ambiguous nature of any real or perceived security threats."
"The Interview" became controversial because its plot involves the attempted assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
CNN has learned that State Department officials had a discussion with Sony executives but they did not weigh in on the production.
Sony Pictures has been devastated by the cyberattack that appears motivated by anger over the film.
The film's Los Angeles premiere went off without a hitch last week, but the New York premiere planned for Thursday was called off after the new threat on Tuesday.
The threat, which invoked the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, received widespread press attention.
Related: New York cinema cancels premiere after threat
Concerns about upholding freedom of artistic expression were countered by fears that families would heed the hackers' warning and bypass the box office for the remainder of the holiday season.
"The possibility that people will avoid theaters altogether is the problem," the person said. In other words, it's not just "The Interview" that could be hurt, it's other Christmas releases like Disney' (DIS)"Into The Woods" and Universal's "Unbroken."
Furthermore, according to The Hollywood Reporter, theaters were "wary of becoming liable if they show the movie and any violence occurs."
To many observers, however, that sounded like a far-fetched scenario.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said on CNN's "New Day" that "this is essentially a heckler's veto" of the film.
The FBI has been investigating the hack, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that "there is no credible intelligence to indicate an active plot against movie theaters within the United States."
All the attention had caused some people to pledge to see the film.
"I am not going to let a terrorist threat shut down freedom of speech. I am going to The Interview," screenwriter and director Judd Apatow wrote on Twitter Tuesday night.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/17/media/the-interview-sony-theater-owners/index.html?hpt=hp_t