#FRB: Working Papers

[1handedecon]

FEDS Paper: Your Friends, Your Credit: Social Capital Measures Derived from Social Media and the Credit Market

Jesse Bricker and Geng Li Chetty et al. (2022a) introduced an array of social capital measures derived from Facebook friendships and found that one of these indicators, economic connectedness (EC), predicted upward income mobility well. Bricker and Li (2017) proposed the average credit score of a community's residents as an indicator of local social trust. We show in this paper that the average credit scores are robustly correlated with EC, negatively correlated with the friending-bias measure introduced in Chetty et al. (2022b), and predict economic mobility to a comparable extent after controlling for EC. The consistency and complementarity between these two indicators, despite being derived from individuals' activities in distinct contexts, underscore trust as a crucial component of social capital and provide insights that are useful for understanding the formation and accumulation of social capital. from FRB: Working Papers https://ift.tt/4heV1Tf via IFTTT

#IFTTT #FRB: Working Papers

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Newly discovered Fast Radio Burst 190520 prompts more questions due to strange behavior Newly discovered fast radio burst (FRB) 190520 shows unique behavior compared to other FRBs discovered so far. This deviant cosmic burst was observed by an international team, co-led by researchers at West Virginia University and the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology. Just when you think you understand the pattern, a strange outlier comes along and forces you to re-evaluate all that you know. Professor Sarah Burke-Spolaor along with Graduate Assistant Kshitij Aggarwal, both of the WVU Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, published their findings in Nature. In the paper, they describe observing the unique behavior of the fast radio burst called FRB 190520. Additionally, West Virginia University Graduate Students Jessica Sydnor and Reshma Thomas both played critical roles in the discovery. Thomas worked closely with Burke-Spolaor to obtain follow-up data on the FRB to better understand some of the interesting properties found by the initial discovery. Snyder aided Burke-Spolaor in imaging and image interpretation to cross check results seen by the FAST collaborators. The odd one FRBs are transient radio pulses caused by astrophysical sources located well beyond our galaxy, the Milky Way. While the origins of these millisecond duration, bright, extragalactic flashes are still not fully understood, researchers are closing in on the mystery with each new discovery. This FRB, FRB 190520, proved to be unique enough to be considered an outlier among all known FRBs. First, it was classified as a repeater. A repeater is an FRB that repeats its pulses randomly. Typically, FRBs are unpredictable, but repeaters are more reliable but are also rare. With repeating behaviors, researchers can better focus and observe the data with relative precision and map out repeating bursts which assists in future observations. FRB 190520 is one of the most active repeating FRBs to ever be observed. Furthermore, this is only the second localized FRB, out of over 20 localized FRBs, with a persistent radio source associated with it. Localization is when an FRB location is pinpointed to a very small area in space, connecting the FRB to a host galaxy near that location. Observations of host galaxy of FRB 190520 showed that it is much closer than expected. Overall, it was behaving very differently than other FRBs, prompting more questions from the team. Why was this one different? What was making it behave differently? Is the behavior due to the actual FRB itself, or its host galaxy? Could this host galaxy give astronomers more clues which could fill in more pieces of the cosmology puzzle? Let’s begin to understand how the discovery unfolded. The first FRB was discovered in 2007 by West Virginia University Professor Duncan Lorimer, Professor Maura McLaughlin, and an undergraduate student working with Lorimer, D. Narkevic, while analyzing archival data recorded by the Parkes Observatory. This burst was originally dubbed the Lorimer Burst. This discovery opened the doors for a whole field of study around FRBs. FRB 190520 was discovered by researchers using the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope) in 2019. In 2020, a team of researchers observed FRB 190520 using the VLA (Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array) observatory and found remarkable characteristics, very unique to this particular FRB. Fast forward 14 years, FRB 190520 sparks a host of new questions. How do you know the location of an FRB? Quite like the Doppler effect, astronomers use what is called redshift, or the wavelength of the light that is stretched as sound waves move through space. Much like the sound an ambulance makes; it changes and peaks in pitch as it moves towards you and then drops in pitch as it moves away from you. Light waves move similarly. The light drifts towards the red side of the spectrum for objects that are far away and moving away from us and allows astronomers to measure and calculate the speed of a galaxy relative to Earth. Combining all that they knew about the FRB, the team used the Realfast observing system at VLA to observe and collect data where they detected a persistent radio source (PRS) colocated with FRB 190520. Using the position of the FRB with realfast, the team searched for the host galaxy and identified the host galaxy, a dwarf galaxy, at distance of ~0.2. The team isn’t sure whether the PRS is related to the FRB, or something near the FRB in its environment. Many theories around both scenarios exist. This is the beginning of a better understanding of repeaters that are also co-localized. Trip Calculations using Dispersion Measure Plasma occupying the “empty” space between stars and galaxies actually cause light to slow down, and this effect becomes more extreme at lower radio frequencies. This causes high-radio-frequency signals to arrive first and low-radio-frequency signals to arrive later, causing FRBs to demonstrate a descending “whistle” in the data. The duration of that descending tone can be used to calculate the amount of gas and matter it has passed through, giving them an idea of how far it originated from.The Dispersion Measure (DM) gives us a lot of information about our universe because it tells us about the electron distribution out in space. As the pulses from an FRB far away move through matter, like gas and plasma within the universe, the sounds of the pulses are bouncing off of electrons within the intergalactic medium (outside our own galaxy) causing changes in the pulse. Astronomers can calculate the dispersion within the Milky Way, our own Galaxy. Beyond the Milky Way, dispersion in the intergalactic medium is unknown, so researchers need to fill in the blanks with calculated estimates. There may be lots of matter hiding within the intergalactic medium; another puzzle for another day. DM of FRB 190520 When calculating its dispersion measure, the team discovered it was very large. The dispersion measure (DM) is used to estimate how far the FRB could be, and based on the DM alone, it should have been very far away, but combined with the redshift, it wasn’t at all far away; just the opposite. It was very close. Based on existing observations using the redshift/DM relationship, characteristics of this FRB proved to be vastly unique, even an outlier. This breakthrough calculation now challenges the DM-redshift relations that are routinely used in FRB analysis to determine the distances to FRBs. The Outlier FRB 190520 again had to prove its uniqueness. Its DM was very large, which is typically used to estimate how far the FRB could be located. Based on the DM alone, it should've been very far, but the redshift proved otherwise. It was actually very close to Earth. If all FRBs behave the same way, then we can use them to serve as an average point. But if we have deviant FRBs, like FRB 190520, the averages aren’t as evenly presented. In other words, it could cause the known average to be wider due to the obvious outliers in the mix. According to Aggarwal, FRB 190520 could throw initial estimates and assumptions out the window. FRB 190520 is proving to be a portal of continuous unknowns. This outlier and its host galaxy has now opened more questions around the cosmic world of FRBs, intriguing researchers with more scientific curiosity. Researchers have used these FRBs to draw important conclusions around other areas of research pertaining to the universe, like its evolution. “If you count up all the stars, gas, and other luminous things we can see, based on cosmological observations, there should be more missing matter accounted for, but we don’t fully have those direct measurements,” Burke Spolaor explains. FRBs can probe the space between galaxies, helping to fill in those unknown details about the intergalactic medium including the hidden matter. Something is going on with FRB 190520, and we want to know more! The host galaxy, or the environment around this FRB has something unique going on, which could contribute to such a high dispersion. Localization is the key to better understanding outliers like FRB 190520, by pinpointing the FRB to its parent galaxy and estimating its exact distance. With every discovery, the puzzle becomes more complex, offering more answers to questions pertaining to the evolution of the universe and beyond. While currently an anomaly, it's quite possible that in five or ten years, it could be considered normal as more details around repeating FRBs, like FRB 190520, are uncovered.

#space #science #Astronomy #physics #news

[myfeeds]

Doubling the number of sources of repeating fast radio bursts

A new way of identifying FRBs Thanks to the radio telescopes such as those at CHIME, which scan the entire northern sky every day, the number of detected FRBs has grown exponentially in recent years. The research team used a new set of statistical tools they developed to go over the data gathered by CHIME between September 30, 2019, and May 1, 2021, to confirm whether what they were saying were indeed FRBs. “We combed through the data to find every repeating source detected so far, including the less obvious ones,” says Ziggy Pleunis, the first author of the paper who started working on the research as a PhD student at McGill University. He is now a Dunlap Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics. “These new tools were essential for this study because we can now accurately calculate the probability that two or more bursts coming from similar locations are not just a coincidence. It should be very useful for similar research going forward.” “These new discoveries will allow the scientific community to study more repeating FRBs in fantastic detail across the full electromagnetic spectrum and help answer a major open-question in the field: Do repeating and non-repeating FRBs originate from distinct populations?” Adds Aaron Pearlman, an FRQNT postdoctoral fellow at McGill University’s Trottier Space Institute who also collaborated on the paper. “I’m excited for the new insights that will be unlocked as a result of our study.” “It is exciting that CHIME/FRB saw multiple flashes from the same locations, as this allows for the detailed investigation of their nature,” says Adaeze Ibik, a PhD student in the David A. Dunlap Department for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, who has led the search for the galaxies in which some of the newly identified repeating FRBs are embedded. “We were able to hone in on some of these repeating sources and have already identified likely associated galaxies for two of them.” Shedding light on the mysterious origins of FRBs FRBs are considered one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy, but their exact origins are unknown. Astronomers do know that they come from far outside our Milky Way and are most likely produced by the cinders left behind after stars die. One unexpected finding described in the paper is that contrary to what has previously been thought, all FRBs may be repeaters rather than one-offs. It is simply that many repeating FRBs are surprisingly inactive, producing fewer than one burst per week, and that the apparently one-off FRBs have simply not been observed for long enough until now for a second burst to be detected. Pleunis notes that this new research brings us closer to understanding what FRBs are. “FRBs are likely produced by the leftovers from explosive stellar deaths. By studying repeating FRB sources in detail, we can study the environments that these explosions occur in and understand better the end stages of a star’s life. We can also learn more about the material that’s being expelled before and during the star’s demise, which is then returned to the galaxies that the FRBs live in.”

[macronotmarco]

Chapter 11

The cash in my wallet is pretty important to the money supply because cash makes up a part of what the money supply is. What it it considering cash though. Because people are carrying less and less actual paper cash. I almost exclusively use my debit or credit cards. I only have cash if someone has given it to me as a tip or payment for assisting another glassblower. The only time I take cash out is to pay my bills and thats only because the house accounts are at my partners bank and it's easier to hand him cash than figure out how to transfer it.

The FRB was created by the government when they realized they needed a central bank, and the chair is appointed by the president. It regulated banks and ensures the health of the system so it essentially is the government of banks. They're supposed to make independent, non-political decisions, the long terms for the board of governors is supposed to help them not be politically driven, the chair is appointed by a politician though so...

The FRB probably spent the first two years of the pandemic increasing the money supply in an attempt to get the economy moving again. During the pandemic people stopped spending so much money because they were staying home instead of vacationing or buying lunch for work. People need to buy stuff for the economy to work and they wanted to make it more feasible and likely that people would buy because they didn't have the pressure keeping them from making purchases that they would have otherwise. I have no idea whether they have overshot or not. Would our property taxes on our home going up be a sign that they have overshot or undershot? In the last year our taxes have gone up nearly $200. I am worried about future inflation because we are landowners and will soon own more land and we plan to grow our business and stake in the economy exponentially. I feel absolutely lost on how all this works and it stresses me out to even think about it.

The Fed has likely begun reigning in the money supply growth because it has overgrown and is causing inflation to rise too far. They will sell securities to the public to pull money out of the supply and start lowering inflation. They can raise the banks reserve requirements and/or pay interest on those reserves causing the banks to hold more.

[scifigeneration]

Fast radio burst with steady 16-day cycle observed

A large team of space scientists working in Canada has found evidence of a fast radio burst with a steady 16-day cycle. The team has published a paper describing their findings on the arXiv preprint server.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are, as their name suggests, short bursts of radio emissions that are detected by space scientists listening for signals from outer space. They appear randomly for a very short period of time, making them difficult to find and very hard to study. One was first observed back in 2007—since that time, several others have been observed—but only 10 of them have been found to repeat themselves. In this new effort, the researchers have observed the first instance of a repeating FRB, which repeats in a steady cycle.

Despite a lot of effort, space scientists do not know the source of FRBs, and have been developing theories—some suggest they might be nothing more than the noise created when two stars collide. Some non-professionals have suggested they are messages from aliens.

In this new effort, the researchers were studying data from the radio telescope used by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment. When they spotted the FRB, they traced back 400 observations made using the telescope and determined that the FRB repeated in a steady, 16-day pattern. The FRB signals were observed to arrive approximately once an hour for four days and then suddenly cease—only to start up again 12 days later.

The repeating pattern suggests the source could be a celestial body of some kind orbiting around a star or another body. In such a scenario, the signals would cease when they are obstructed by the other body. But that still does not explain how a celestial body could be sending out such signals on a regular basis. Another possibility is that stellar winds might be alternately boosting or blocking signals from a body behind them. Or it could be that the source is a celestial body that is rotating.

The researchers traced the source of the FRB to a spiral galaxy approximately 500 million light-years away. They suggest future technology might be able to pinpoint which of the objects in the galaxy is sending out the FRBs and perhaps reveal how it is doing so.

#science #science news #astronomy #fast radio bursts #frbs #extraterrestial life #featured

[maddyp12]

Chapter 11

Cash is important to the overall money because in theory it always exists to back up the actual amount of currency one has. That being said if I have 25,000 in my bank account at any point I can go request that 25,000 in little paper slips from the bank and they should have it. For every dollar there is in theory a paper dollar.

The FRB is related to the federal government as just like the federal government in that it regulates a portion of our society that is the money and banks.  They recently injected a bunch of money into the supply by quantitive easing, where they purchase long term securities from the open market to put more cash into circulation.

They did all of this during the pandemic to lessen the effects of the inevitable recession as a result of COVID, they may have done too much but it seemed to have mostly worked. We are now just left with the problem of excess jobs and inflation. I am worried about future and current inflation as many appear rich and well off right now and are spending money which is a false sense of security and it is only gonna get worse and inflate prices more. We are hardly near the end of effects from the measures taken to avoid recession. 

I think they are trying to rein the money supply back in now to slowly bring the inflation back down, and slowly and carefully get us back to normal without causing that feared recession.

[klmbh]

DIRECTIONS TO KLMBH #284 @ SUNGAI BULOH PRISON WEST, 30 SEPTEMBER 2018

Hares: Mark Boogaers, Patrick Lew, James Bukovsan, Karen Goh, Peter Wong, Suerd Polderdijk, Phonn Srisongkram

Date: 30th September 2018

Time: Briefing 9.15am sharp, Start ride 9.30am

Coordinates: 3o14’46.20” N  /  101o28’27.84”  E

Address: Jalan BSC 2B/1, Bandar Seri Coallfields

Google Maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/S2D4uchqN1q

Waze link: https://waze.com/ul/hw284mngqm

Directions:

Coming from KL city center drive to Sungai Buloh then on towards Kuala Selangor. Keep going and cross under the Guthrie highway. About 2km after the Guthrie highway there is the famous prison. After the prison another 3km then turn right. Gathering place is behind the shoplots on your right.

The ride:

The upcoming KLBH ride will be held at a place we have called Sungai Buloh Prison West. We thought it would be fitting to draw a bit of your attention to the nearby former home of opposition leaders and hopefully future home of world’s most wanted whale. Apart from that the real name of the place is just too boring.

The ride will go mainly through palm tree plantations and was fine for most of the time we did the recce rides in the dry. This Sunday expect it to be a bit slippery here and there. The climbs along the ride used to be 99.9% rideable with gradients that even two dogs with one leg in a cast would be able to get up cycling. Let’s hope the rain, which will likely come down the afternoon before the ride, will not make this a lot harder so we can all go for a longer ride. The areas with direct exposure to the sun are limited to about 3km in each of the loops. Places where you might get your feet wet or do some cleaning on your bike are a few crossings of a small streams with water just over the ankles before the rain season started.

When you follow paper the way we intended there are 4 flavours to choose from this Sunday:

Kiddie is about 10km with 250m elevation gain. The split is at km 5

The short is about 18km with 400m elevation gain.

The Long Has the nicest bits of single track and adds another 12km, with 250m elevation gain. The long loop starts at km 13.

An extra long FRB loop has also been added as we noticed the FRBs are back from the ride way too early. So for the quickest 10-15 riders there is a possibility to extend the ride with another 12km, 250m elevation gain. E-bikers showing up in larger numbers every ride should also take this loop so they will have some idea they have done some exercise.

Cut off time for the long and the FRB loop will be 11.30am. After that time there will be no signs at junctions so you will be on your own. Before that time you are also on your own as we have no sweeper and limited manpower on the trail.

A few cautions:

A cow and/or cow herder encounter is quite likely during the ride. Although cows are generally not dangerous they can behave erratically. Sing your favourite rock song as loud as you can to let them know you are coming and you will be fine. The herders usually just smile and wave at you.

Around the places where the estate workers live there are quite a few dogs running around who have taken up the hobby of chasing cyclists. A good shout seems to scare them off.

The plantation workers will be working during the ride so expect to see them riding on motorbikes or tractors. The tractors seem to be equipped with extra turbo boost button so be careful especially on the wider roads going downhill.

Repeating that there is no sweeper so you are on your own if you are at the back

Expect it to be hot and sunny so bringing at least 2ltr water packed somewhere on the bicycle is not overkill. There are no shops and restaurants anywhere near the trail.

Stay on paper at all time !!!

#klmbh #directions #284 #sungai buloh prison west #no hitchhiking

[fumpkins]

Astronomers observe unprecedented detail in pulsar 6,500 light-years from Earth

IMAGE: The pulsar PSR B1957+20 is seen in the background through the cloud of gas enveloping its brown dwarf star companion. view more 

Credit: Dr. Mark A. Garlick; Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto

[TORONTO] A team of astronomers has performed one of the highest resolution observations in astronomical history by observing two intense regions of radiation, 20 kilometres apart, around a star 6500 light-years away.

The observation is equivalent to using a telescope on Earth to see a flea on the surface of Pluto.

The extraordinary observation was made possible by the rare geometry and characteristics of a pair of stars orbiting each other. One is a cool, lightweight star called a brown dwarf, which features a “wake” or comet-like tail of gas. The other is an exotic, rapidly spinning star called a pulsar.

“The gas is acting as like a magnifying glass right in front of the pulsar,” says Robert Main, lead author of the paper describing the observation being published May 24 in the journal Nature. “We are essentially looking at the pulsar through a naturally occurring magnifier which periodically allows us to see the two regions separately.”

Main is a PhD astronomy student in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, working with colleagues at the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics and Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, and the Perimeter Institute.

The pulsar is a neutron star that rotates rapidly—over 600 times a second. As the pulsar spins, it emits beams of radiation from the two hotspots on its surface. The intense regions of radiation being observed are associated with the beams.

The brown dwarf star is about a third the diameter of the Sun. It is roughly two million kilometres from the pulsar—or five times the distance between the Earth and the moon—and orbits around it in just over 9 hours. The dwarf companion star is tidally locked to the pulsar so that one side always faces its pulsating companion, the way the moon is tidally locked to the Earth.

Because it is so close to the pulsar, the brown dwarf star is blasted by the strong radiation coming from its smaller companion. The intense radiation from the pulsar heats one side of the relatively cool dwarf star to the temperature of our Sun, or some 6000°C.

The blast from the pulsar could ultimately spell its companion’s demise. Pulsars in these types of binary systems are called “black widow” pulsars. Just as a black widow spider eats its mate, it is thought that the pulsar, given the right conditions, could gradually erode gas from the dwarf star until the latter is consumed.

In addition to being an observation of incredibly high resolution, the result could be a clue to the nature of mysterious phenomena known as Fast Radio Bursts, or FRBs.

“Many observed properties of FRBs could be explained if they are being amplified by plasma lenses,” say Main. “The properties of the amplified pulses we detected in our study show a remarkable similarity to the bursts from the repeating FRB, suggesting that the repeating FRB may be lensed by plasma in its host galaxy.”

###

Additional notes:

1. The pulsar is designated PSR B1957+20. Previous work led by Main’s co-author, Prof. Marten van Kerkwijk, from the University of Toronto, suggests that it is likely one of the most massive pulsars known, and further work to accurately measure its mass will help in understanding how matter behaves at the highest known densities, and equivalently, how massive a neutron star can be before collapsing into a black hole.

2. Main and his co-authors used data obtained with the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope before Hurricane Maria damaged the telescope in September 2017. The collaborators will use the telescope to make follow-up observations of PSR B1957+20.

Paper: Extreme plasma lensing of the Black Widow pulsar

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Robert Main Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics University of Toronto p: 416-978-6261 e: [email protected]

Chris Sasaki Communications Coordinator | Press Officer Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics University of Toronto p: 416-978-6613 e: [email protected]

The Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto is an endowed research institute with over 70 faculty, postdocs, students and staff, dedicated to innovative technology and instrumentation, ground-breaking research, world-class training, and public engagement. The research themes of its faculty and Dunlap Fellows span the Universe and include: optical, infrared and radio instrumentation; Dark Energy; large-scale structure; the Cosmic Microwave Background; the interstellar medium; galaxy evolution; cosmic magnetism; and time-domain science.

The Dunlap Institute, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, and Centre for Planetary Sciences comprise the leading centre for astronomical research in Canada, at the leading research university in the country, the University of Toronto.

The Dunlap Institute is committed to making its science, training and public outreach activities productive and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, nationality or religion.

For the complete press release and high-resolution image: https://www.dunlap.utoronto.ca/astronomers-observe-unprecedented-detail-in-pulsar-6500-light-years-from-earth/

Password: PSRB1957

Disclaimer: We can make mistakes too. Have a nice day.

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New post published on: http://www.livescience.tech/2018/05/24/astronomers-observe-unprecedented-detail-in-pulsar-6500-light-years-from-earth/

#astronomy #astrophysics #SPACE/PLANETARY SCIENCE #STARS/THE SUN

[sciencespies]

These 10 amazing physics stories were massive news in 2020

https://sciencespies.com/physics/these-10-amazing-physics-stories-were-massive-news-in-2020/

These 10 amazing physics stories were massive news in 2020

Let’s admit it: It’s been a pretty rough year for our neck of the Solar System. But it’s been a great year for scientists studying more distant reaches of the Universe. From a colossal explosion to mystery burps deciphered, here were some of the top stories in physics in 2020.

10. Boom!

What might have been the Universe’s most powerful known explosion was detected back in 2016 – but it really happened over 390 million years ago. While the first four-legged critters crawled onto land, a supermassive black hole in the Ophiuchus cluster launched a jet that blew a gargantuan cavity in the surrounding gas.

(X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/NRL/S. Giacintucci, et al., XMM-Newton: ESA/XMM-Newton; Radio: NCRA/TIFR/GMRT; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF)

In 2020, astronomers revisited the old data and realized just how powerful that explosion was: five times 10^54 joules of energy. For perspective, that’s enough energy to literally rip apart all 300 billion stars in the Milky Way and a hundred more galaxies.

9. I can see my Solar System from here

If you want to navigate among the stars, you’re going to need a map. And that’s exactly what the European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory created, using data on over 1.8 billion cosmic objects.

The haul includes stars near and far, asteroids, comets and more. Want to know the position, velocity, spectrum and more for 0.5 percent of the population of our galaxy? You’re in luck. Over 1,600 papers have already been published with Gaia data, and astronomers will be sure to mine the database for years to come. And here’s the best part: There’s even more data to come.

8. Loss of a legend

In 2020, the world lost one of its foremost and celebrated supersmart folks, Freeman Dyson. A man of unbounded imagination, he is perhaps best known in popular science circles for his conception of the Dyson sphere. (He didn’t name it after himself; that came later.)

A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encloses a star to harvest 100 percent of its solar energy – exactly the energy a hyper-advanced civilization might need to do hyper-advanced things.

So far, astronomers have not detected any Dyson spheres in our galaxy or any others, but Freeman’s dream lives on. 

7. We found life on Venus, and then we didn’t

It was too good to be true: claims of solid evidence for life in the cloud tops of Venus, an otherwise hellhole of a world. The reasoning was based on phosphine, a peculiar (and stinky) chemical emitted on Earth by anaerobic bacteria.

To get as much phosphine in the atmosphere as was claimed, scientists proposed, Venus would need a large population of airborne microbes. Alas, further analysis reduced the observed amount of the stinky stuff (to levels barely considered noteworthy, let alone a sign for life), and in some analyses, removed it altogether as just another noisy signal.

Don’t worry, alien life: If you’re out there, we’ll keep looking.

6. 2020’s hottest new toy: FRBs

Everyone loves a good fast radio burst (FRB), right? The source of these enigmatic, energetic signals has been an annoying puzzle to astronomers for more than a decade. FRBs are fast, high-powered, frequency-hopping radio signals coming from all over the sky, which makes it hard to pinpoint their origin.

But finally, in 2020, astronomers got lucky: They found an FRB source in our own cosmic backyard. Follow-up observations revealed the culprit: an exotic star known as a magnetar (a super-magnetized dead stellar core).

Apparently, magnetars sometimes burp out a tremendous amount of pent-up energy, which appears to Earthbound observers as a quick blast of radio emission.

5. Wet Mars after all

Mars has liquid water. No, it’s bone-dry. No, wait; it sometimes has water. No, nope, never mind. The Red Planet has been teasing astronomers for decades on the vital question of whether it’s home to any liquid water at all.

Astronomers care because, where there’s water, there’s a potential home for life. Earlier this year, astronomers claimed that there isn’t just one, but four lakes of liquid water on Mars. The catch?

They’re incredibly salty – more like a briny sludge than something to take a dip in – and buried under a mile of frozen carbon dioxide at the southern polar cap. Not everybody is convinced, though, so don’t pack your Martian swimsuit just yet.

4. Taking it home

2020 was surely the year of the Solar System. Three independent spacecraft have successfully acquired samples and sent them on their way back to Earth.

(NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

NASA launched its OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu, which collected so much material that its sample container leaked. The Japanese Hayabusa2 mission took a poke at the asteroid Ryugu and landed the material safely back to Earth.

And the Chinese Chang’e 5 lander went on a mission to the Moon, managing to launch a sample back to Earth before the lander broke down. 

3. That’s a big black hole!

Astronomers have used gravitational waves (ripples in the fabric of space-time) to observe so many black hole collisions that by now, it’s hardly newsworthy.

But in 2020, astronomers announced the discovery of the biggest collision yet: a titanic merger of an 85-solar-mass black hole and a 66-solar-mass black hole. Post-merger, the resulting black hole tipped the scales at 142 times the mass of the Sun. (About nine Suns’ worth of mass was converted into pure energy.)

In other black hole news, the Universe’s ultimate Pandora’s box was the subject of this year’s Nobel Prize in physics.

2. Is it getting hot in this superconductor?

Superconductors are super-neat. Due to the weirdness of quantum mechanics, under very special conditions, electrons can buddy up, with the pairs traveling together without losing energy. That means a game-changing technology where electricity can flow forever without resistance.

(University of Rochester/J. Adam Fenster)

Unfortunately, to make superconductors work, physicists have had to make everything super-cold. But in 2020, researchers announced the discovery of a superconductor at nearly room temperature, just 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius). The catch? You need to re-create the pressures found in Earth’s center.

1. Take that, COVID-19

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has devastated humanity, reaching pandemic levels in only a couple of months and washing across the globe. But we’re fighting back with one of our most powerful weapons: vaccines.

(Jason McLellan/Univ. of Texas at Austin)

The current vaccines target a very specific part of the virus, a “spike” protein that it uses to invade our cells. One of the first steps in the war against COVID-19 was to identify and map that protein, which researchers accomplished earlier this year, using a physics-based technique called cryogenic electron microscopy.

Using this map, drugmakers could target this feature of the virus for vaccines to mimic, giving our immune systems a fighting chance.

This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.

#Physics

#Physics

[1handedecon]

FEDS Paper: Why Does the Yield Curve Predict GDP Growth? The Role of Banks

Camelia Minoiu, Andres Schneider, Min Wei We provide evidence on the effect of the slope of the yield curve on economic activity through bank lending. Using detailed data on banks’ lending activities coupled with term premium shocks identified using high-frequency event study or instrumental variables, we show that a steeper yield curve associated with higher term premiums (rather than higher expected short rates) boosts bank profits and the supply of bank loans. Intuitively, a higher term premium represents greater expected profits on maturity transformation, which is at the core of banks’ business model, and therefore incentivizes bank lending. This effect is stronger for ex-ante more leveraged banks. We rationalize our findings in a portfolio model for banks. from FRB: Working Papers https://ift.tt/MK0h4j8 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #FRB: Working Papers

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New paper explores four nearby fast radio burst sources

Fleeting blasts of energy from space, known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), are a cosmic enigma. A Canadian-led international team of researchers has published new findings suggesting that supernovae are the predominant contributors to forming sources that eventually produce FRBs.

"Fast radio bursts are one of astronomy's greatest mysteries," said lead author Mohit Bhardwaj, a member of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst (CHIME/FRB) collaboration and a McWilliams Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. "These extremely powerful radio blasts can travel cosmological distances and emit more energy than the sun does in a thousand years, despite lasting only a few thousandths of a second. Even more intriguing is that, though they hit the Earth roughly every minute from all over the sky, their origin is still unknown."

The researchers, led by scientists from Canada and including teams in the U.S., Mexico, Chile, and Australia, examined 18 nearby FRB hosts, all of which were spiral or late-type galaxies. The prevalence of late-type galaxies suggests that FRB sources predominantly occur in relatively young galaxies, with the sources possibly produced by supernovae that involve the core collapse of a massive star.

"This work identifies an intriguing trend that suggests most local FRBs likely come from core-collapse supernovae," said Bridget Andersen, a co-author on the paper and current Ph.D. student at McGill University working under the supervision of Professor Victoria Kaspi. "In future studies, it will be particularly interesting to see if this trend persists with a larger number of localized host galaxies."

The work holds particular significance because, a year ago, following the detection of an FRB source in a globular cluster of the Messier 81 galaxy—housing an extremely old stellar population—there was speculation that such sources might dominate the FRB population.

Bhardwaj said that the team's findings disfavor such a scenario and instead support the hypothesis that the majority of FRB sources originate from the demise of massive stars, often resulting in the formation of either black holes or neutron stars.

"Looking ahead, as we amass larger samples of more precisely observed FRBs, we can further scrutinize these distinctions for both nearby and distant FRBs," he said. "By conducting more in-depth analyses, we hope to refine our understanding of the diverse origins of FRBs and potentially unveil the underlying mechanisms that drive these cosmic phenomena, shedding light on the intricacies of the universe's radio signal bursts."

The CHIME/FRB team recently doubled the catalog of known repeating FRBs and has continued to make progress in the field. The collaboration's most recent paper, which is available on the arXiv preprint server and will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, is significant because it pinpoints the host galaxies of the new nearby FRBs, which are promising candidates for identifying the proposed prompt or afterglow counterparts beyond radio wavelengths.

Understanding the origins of FRBs is a pivotal challenge in contemporary astronomy, and so far, extragalactic FRBs have exclusively manifested as radio phenomena. By identifying their sources, cosmologists can gain new insights into the extreme astrophysical environments that give rise to these signals, and the physical mechanisms responsible for them.

"The ability to pinpoint the galaxy from which the FRB originated was key to this study. But with CHIME, we can only identify the host galaxies of the closest FRBs," said co-author Daniele Michilli, now a postdoctoral scholar at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. "We are building new CHIME "Outrigger" telescopes in Canada and the U.S. to enable precise sky localizations for all FRBs detected by CHIME. This will revolutionize the field and enable us to test the ideas put forth here."

One prevailing hypothesis connecting these intense bursts of radio waves to astrophysical processes involves neutron stars, Bhardwaj said. He added that the prominence of this hypothesis increased in 2020 when CHIME/FRB observed FRB-like bursts from a known highly magnetized neutron star (SGR 1935+2154) in our own galaxy, leading to the identification of magnetars—young, highly magnetized neutron stars—as a likely source.

"Regardless of their origin, these short bursts hold great promise for cosmological studies," Bhardwaj said. "For each FRB, we can estimate the amount of ionized matter the FRB signal traveled through on the way to Earth. This unequivocally positions FRBs as a very promising probe for studying the distribution of ionized gas in the cosmic web."

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #astrophysics

[denniswongftc]

Employment Contract Attorney Denis Wong Fixed Term Contract

A laid-back agreement is additionally a shorter term contract, although laid-back agreements would be a lot more typical for freelancers and also job employees that may practically be self-employed. Laid-back agreement staff members might fill up comparable positions to complete or part-time fixed term agreement staff members, yet an informal employee may not be ensured a minimum variety of hrs or ongoing employment.

Left unmitigated, these threats can do a company real injury. Businesses that prepare properly, however, ought to have nothing to fear. A fixed-term staff member dismissed before the expiry of their contract might be qualified to the compensation they would have gotten if they had functioned to the contract's end date. Employers can prevent this challenge by consisting of an "early discontinuation provision." This will give standards for ending the partnership early "without reason" and also state plainly the severance amount the company will certainly pay in lieu of the term's complete salary.

However, it is very important to bear in mind the opposite can likewise hold true: a thoughtfully-written agreement will certainly shield the employer's interests along with their employees. As we have actually formerly created, companies should take care that their words match their actions. Indicated agreements are those which are not composed or explained in words, however which can be theorized from the employer's habits.

Companies may also wish to stay clear of carrying out a collection of successive, set term agreements for the very same reason. If a company can manage these sticky circumstances, a fixed-term contract can supply a company many benefits: The possibility to gain from the expertise as well as abilities of a professional for an established period Increased versatility for both employers and also employees Reliable forecasting of resources as well as budget plans according to labor force demands There are several points to maintain in mind when developing a set term employment agreement.

Fixed Term Contracts Legislation - Truthfulness

Task title and summary Settlement and benefits Benefits, ill leave, and also getaway terms Any type of applicable collective negotiating arrangements Efficiency evaluation requirements Discontinuation benefits as well as notice durations. This can be a fixed day, the end of a job, or completion of a season. An early. As we discussed above, set term agreement discontinuation clauses will certainly assist the company to prevent paying a staff member's wage for the fixed term also after the worker has been dismissed.

Language determining. In some states, such as The golden state, fixed term contracts can not be at-will. It is better to compose this explicitly to prevent confusion in the future. Other states may enable companies to forge set term at-will agreements, in which instance this ought to be specified additionally. Procedure for fixed term work.

Is it automatic? Does it call for sign-off from one party or both? This will certainly clarify the employment arrangement as well as clear the means for future settlements. Using fixed term work contracts might be the finest method for your business to maintain the budget balanced while getting moving essential projects onward. By waging care, your business can stay clear of infringing on fixed term employee rights.

Listed: Shutao Cao Enchuan Shao Pedro Silos This paper constructs a theory of the coexistence of fixed-term and also long-term work agreements in an environment with ex-ante identical employees and also companies. Workers under fixed-term contracts can be dismissed at no charge while irreversible workers delight in labor defense. In a labor market defined by search and matching rubbings, companies locate optimal to discriminate by using some workers a fixed-term contract while providing various other workers a permanent contract.

Some Known Details About Fixed Term Contract Vs Day Rate

Blog

Dennis Wong

We analytically characterize the company's hiring as well as shooting guidelines. Utilizing matched employer-employee data from Canada, we estimate the wage formulas from the model. The results of shooting costs on wage inequality differ significantly depending upon whether search surfaces are taken or otherwise into account. Shutao Cao & Enchuan Shao & Pedro Silos, 2010 (Dennis Wong FTC).

Deal with: RePEc: ces: ceswps: _ 3150 Shutao Cao & Enchuan Shao & Pedro Silos, 2010. "," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2010-13, Federal Get Bank of Atlanta. Pedro Silos & Enchuan Shao & Shutao Cao, 2011. "," 2011 Meeting Papers 872, Culture for Economic Characteristics. Shutao Cao & Enchuan Shao & Pedro Silos, 2011. "," Team Working Documents 11-21, Financial institution of Canada.

"," IZA Conversation Documents 1129, Institute of Labor Business Economics (IZA). Galdn Snchez, Jos E. & Fernndez Villaverde, Jess & Alonso-Borrego, Csar, 2004. "," UC3M Working papers. Business economics we042307, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economa. Csar Alonso-Borrego & Jess Fernndez-Villaverde & Jos E. Galdn-Snchez, 2005. "," NBER Working Papers 11519, National Bureau of Economic Study, Inc.

Galdon-Sanchez, 2004. "," Working Papers 10, Princeton College, Department of Business Economics, Industrial Relations Section. Csar Alonso-Borrego & Jess Fernndez-Villaverde & Jos E. Galdn-Snchez, 2004. "," PIER Working Paper Archive 04-016, Penn Institute for Economic Study, Department of Economics, College of Pennsylvania. Pierre Cahuc & Fabien Postel-Vinay & Jean-Marc Robin, 2006.

[scifigeneration]

Evidence of aliens? What to make of research and reporting on 'Oumuamua, our visitor from space

by Steven Tingay

An artist’s impression of `Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in the Solar System. ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESO, M. Kornmesser, CC BY

This article is part of our occasional long read series Zoom Out, where authors explore key ideas in science and technology in the broader context of society and humanity.

As an astrophysicist, probably the most common question I get asked is: “Are we alone in the universe and do aliens exist?”

There is no doubt: people love to think and talk about aliens. Hence, stories about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence get picked up and reported with gusto in the media.

But what really lies at the heart of this complicated and popular topic is evidence – the nature of any evidence of alien life, how we view and respect this evidence, and how this is communicated to the public.

Nowhere is this more important than in the coverage of scientific studies of a mystery object – ‘Oumuamua – that was recently discovered passing through our Solar System. For example, two publications in two respected peer-reviewed journals prompted very different reactions.

Hello 'Oumuamua

'Oumuamua, meaning scout or messenger in Hawaiian, is the name given to the first detected interstellar object to visit our Solar System. On discovery last year, 'Oumuamua was classified as a comet, but this was later withdrawn when no evidence for cometary activity was detected.

'Oumuamua was quickly found to have an orbit that does not belong to our Solar System. It has an origin elsewhere in our galaxy, and a trajectory that saw it traverse the inner Solar System over the course of a few months.

It passed close to the Sun and to Earth, and was found to have an unusual geometry, about 200 metres long and some 35 metres wide, rotating every seven hours.

Observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope and others have shown that this unique object is dark, reddish in colour, and highly elongated. Credit: ESO.

The discovery of 'Oumuamua generated a lot of attention in the scientific community, and in the media. Given its unusual geometry and its origin outside the Solar System, questions were soon asked as to whether 'Oumuamua could be a spacecraft.

Observations were made with radio telescopes to search for any direct evidence of transmissions indicating intelligent life, including by a team led by me using an Australian telescope (the Murchison Widefield Array). We listened around FM radio frequencies, on the basis that any intelligent life on 'Oumuamua may recognise FM frequencies popular on Earth.

No direct evidence of intelligent life was ever found in these searches.

Data from the Murchison Widefield Array, showing no detection of radio signals from ‘Oumuamua in the frequency range 70-105MHz (containing the FM band). Steven Tingay and co-authors, Author provided

More hard data on 'Oumuamua

Extensive and impressive observations with a range of telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, were made to accurately determine 'Oumuamua’s trajectory. Results of the study, by a team of astronomers led by the European Space Agency’s Marco Micheli, were published in Nature in June.

These very careful observations showed that 'Oumuamua accelerated as it left the Solar System, revealing the existence of “non-gravitational forces”. This means that the trajectory of the object could not be explained just by the gravity of the Sun and other major objects in our Solar System.

A range of possible explanations for the acceleration exist. One is that heated gas escaping from 'Oumuamua (outgassing) could produce a force that caused the observed acceleration. This is commonly seen in normal comets.

But 'Oumuamua still shows no evidence for cometary activity. Micheli’s team ran through six possible explanations and concluded that outgassing is the most likely option, even though there is no direct evidence that this is the case.

They showed that the acceleration of 'Oumuamua is unusual, but within the bounds of what has been seen previously for Solar System comets.

One of the explanations discounted by the study team is that 'Oumuamua was accelerated by radiation pressure from our Sun. Radiation from the Sun can push objects away from it.

But they concluded that this explanation is not preferred, because it means that the density of 'Oumuamua would have to be very low. An object needs have a large surface area and low mass (low density) to be accelerated by radiation pressure.

Could it be aliens?

Another study by postdoctoral researcher Shmuel Bialy and distinguished astronomer Avi Loeb, from Harvard University, took a different approach.

Details of the study have just been published in November’s The Astrophysical Journal Letters, but were available online earlier.

The authors chose to assume solar radiation pressure to be the cause of the acceleration, and then determined the properties of 'Oumuamua required to make this work. They require an object with thickness less than 1mm, an areal mass density of 1 to 2 grams per square centimetre, and a large area.

It is unlikely that nature would produce such an extreme geometry. The authors quickly mention this, before moving to a discussion that, under the assumption that solar radiation is the cause for the acceleration, 'Oumuamua is artificial - that means the product of an alien civilization.

The properties the authors derive under their assumptions are similar to those of solar sails being designed and built by humans as a possible way to travel interstellar distances.

Bialy and Loeb spend half of their article discussion section on the idea that 'Oumuamua could be a defunct or active solar sail belonging to an alien civilization.

Artist’s impression of the IKAROS mission using a solar sail. Wikimedia/Andrzej Mirecki, CC BY-SA

The nature and communication of evidence

Bialy and Loeb did not issue a press release about their study, but the media picked up the paper once it was accepted and available online, prior to this week’s journal publication.

(This is something that happened to me in 2012, leading to my published non-detection of aliens being run on the front page of the BBC news website.)

Bialy and Loeb’s publication attracted headlines such as this, for example: “Harvard astronomers claim Oumuamua is ALIEN PROBE - 'Nothing like we’ve ever seen!’”. Most other reporting was more balanced.

This is pretty normal. A lot of the media jump to aliens in the reporting of space and astronomy, even when the original reported studies have never mentioned aliens. Recent reporting of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) is an example.

What surprised me was the reaction of some of my colleagues to Bialy and Loeb’s paper. On social media, there have been some pretty personal attacks by scientists – on Loeb in particular – for being in the media for this work.

Both new studies lay out their assumptions, cite substantial evidence, and undertake rigorous calculations. Both were accepted by top-quality journals after independent peer review.

Both finish with bottom lines that the studies of ‘Oumuamua are inconclusive and we will need to examine more such objects that come through the Solar System in the future.

Both sets of authors also come up with different perspectives and motivate different questions. But Loeb has ended up in the media, talking about his paper, and is being panned by some colleagues for it.

Since the pre-journal paper was picked up he told me he has been swamped by media interest.

I use the discussions with the media as a platform for highlighting the standard scientific methodology: an anomaly is observed in data, the standard explanation fails to explain it, and so an alternative interpretation is proposed.

I encourage anyone with a better explanation to write a paper about it and publish it. Wrong interpretations can be ruled out when more data will be released on 'Oumuamua or other members of its population in the future.

As for the negative reactions he has received, he referred to an article he recently published where he paraphrased another scientist known for his once-controversial theories.

As Galileo reasoned after looking through his telescope, “in the sciences, the authority of a thousand is not worth as much as the humble reasoning of a single individual”.

Let’s talk about evidence

Given my work on observations of 'Oumuamua, a few journalists have contacted me for comment.

These have been great opportunities to discuss in depth with journalists the nature of evidence, the difference between something being consistent with observations and direct evidence for a conclusion, and the need for evidence to be commensurate with the impact of a claim.

If aliens are claimed, direct and robust evidence is required – not a conclusion based on a few observations that are difficult to explain, plus a bunch of assumptions.

But no scientist has claimed 'Oumuamua is alien in this discussion – they have just raised questions and explored answers.

There is no point in shying away from a proper discussion on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or in being personally critical of colleagues.

Scientists should take every opportunity to engage with the public and the media on the topic, given the public’s interest and the media’s willingness to report.

It is interesting, fun, and scientific, and a great opportunity to discuss the scientific method and science in an engaging manner. The media reporting of 'Oumuamua shows that (aside from a few headlines), the content of reports is generally pretty good and responsible.

Whatever 'Oumuamua is (almost certainly not made by aliens, in my view), it is a fascinating object and presents lots of interesting scientific questions that will trigger further studies and observations.

We will never see 'Oumuamua again, and we may never know exactly what it is. But seeing 'Oumuamua in the news is likely to inspire some kids to take up a career in science.

About The Author: 

Steven Tingay is a John Curtin Distinguished Professor of Radio Astronomy at Curtin University.

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

#science #Astronomy #Aliens #extraterrestrial life #oumuamua #featured

[miex-official]

Fed Partners With MIT Based Digital Currency Initiative To Explore Central Bank Digital Currency

Two events took place on August 13. One was a speech from Lael Brainard at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Innovation Office Hours. The other was the publication of a paper in the FEDS notes series on “Comparing Means of Payment: What Role for a Central Bank Digital Currency?”. It is no coincidence that both events happened on the same day. The Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) wants to communicate that it takes CBDCs seriously and is engaged in efforts to research a path toward implementation.

 The Fed’s primary purpose is to ensure the financial stability of the US in the service of its citizens. It has been an open secret that the FED had been working on researching CBDC. They were in stealth mode. Some indications came up during the House Finance Committee hearings on June 17. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell made it clear that as CBDC is an extremely important part of the national infrastructure and under the purview of the Fed, the Fed would be in charge of the core infrastructure of CBDC.

 The latest news reveal how the Fed has gone about researching and testing technologies to support a CBDC. The speech gives broad strategic direction while the note is more narrowly focused on the rationale for a central bank digital currency.

 Dr. Brainard is a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. As the chair of the Committee on Payments, Clearing and Settlements, she is the leader on CBDC research at the Fed. Brainard is also prominent in the FedNow project, which is housed at the Boston Fed.

 Central Bank Digital Currency will complement cash, not replace it entirely. This was one of the central messages of the speech. CBDCs present opportunities but also risks. Risks in the form of privacy, enhanced illicit activity and financial stability. An impetus for the Fed’s efforts is the possibility of widespread global adoption of Libra, which can threaten the Fed’s control of monetary policy. Digital Currency Electronic Payments (DCEP) from China is much further ahead in terms of implementation. DCEP and Chinese international strategy threatens the primacy of the dollar as the international unit of account and means of payment.

 Dr. Brainard also laid out the steps taken by the Fed to research and study CBDCs in this environment. A technology lab (TechLab) was established by the Federal Reserve Board (FRB)to build and test distributed ledger based solutions for CBDCs . The TechLab is a multidisciplinary team consisting of technologists from the Federal Reserve Banks of Cleveland, Dallas and New York supporting a policy team studying the monetary policy, financial stability and payments infrastructure through the lens of the Fed’s primary purpose.

 Dr. Brainard announced a partnership with MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) with the Boston Fed taking the lead as the liaison with DCI. The multi-year partnership is aimed at building and testing a hypothetical CBDC. This research project will result in the open publication of results as well as the release of the resulting code base into open source.

 Researching the publications and activities from the DCI is one way to get a good idea about the possible direction of the DCI-Fed collaboration. One of the prominent DCI researchers is an co-inventor and implementer of Lightning, the layer 2 bitcoin protocol. A response to the Bank of England’s blockchain paper published by the DCI contains multiple references to layer 2. Hence, layer 2 is expected to figure conspicuously in the CBDC research conducted by the DCI. However in light of the Federal Reserve Act, there may be legal tender limitations on CBDCs, especially the layer 2 part of the solution. The Federal Reserve Act is more than a hundred years old.

 A job posting on the DCI site for a CBDC developer asks for expertise in C/C++, Go and Rust. Go is the language used in Go-Ethereum as well as in Hyperledger Fabric. C/C++ is used in bitcoin core. Rust is heavily used in Libra as well as in modern cryptographic library development. Thus this job posting offers some hints on what blockchains are being examined as part of the collaboration.

 All indications, including associated interviews with the DCI and Boston Fed personnel point to a multi-year, multi-blockchain testing effort in the CBDC context. However, it does not seem like the DCI will be building their own blockchain. Only time will tell.

For more economic news and events visit: https://miex.io/ #MIEX #tradingplatform

[nimbleminded]

What Happens Next

Keynes, who famously argued for fiscal stimulus during the Great Depression, said "in the long-run we’re all dead" and perhaps an appropriate equivalent is "if we fail to act, in the short-run we’re all dead too". No matter how we choose to handle COVID-19, there are economic ramifications, some of which are already being felt throughout the community.

Economic health problems require economic prescriptions, and there are two types of prescriptions we can choose: monetary policy or fiscal policy. Monetary policy is conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank (specifically the Board of Governors; we have one of 12 banks here in Richmond), while fiscal policy is conducted by governments.

The Great Recession saw heavy use of monetary policy by the FRB, such as quantitative easing (buying bonds or mortgage backed securities from banks in exchange for cash, injecting cash and increasing the availability of money), as well as fiscal policy in the form of stimulus, such as the $250 check you may have received in 2009. While the stock market has seen some heavy volatility over the last two weeks, markets should remain open (with circuit breakers in effect) and be allowed to clear, providing liquidity.

While the FRB has responded to COVID-19 seriously (lowering the target federal funds rate, changing the reserve requirement, restarting quantitative easing), the market’s reaction has been generally negative. In my view, this is directly because of the lack of Federal government response, and commitment from fiscal policy. The market rallied last Friday when Trump finally addressed the nation’s response, and we heard some fiscal policy proposals. The more we can concretely address how to mitigate COVID-19’s effects on the factors of production (land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship) the less pain our economy will feel.

What made the Great Depression so terrible was the FRB not acting appropriately by making money more liquid and readily available, instead raising the discount rate. As my former professor and mentor Dr. Hoffer once said, "money is to the economy as fuel is to the automobile", and that is precisely true: without money flowing, our economy grinds to a halt. A simple example is the FRB using quantitative easing to inject cash and increase the availability of money. The bank, now with excess reserves, can lend that excess out to consumers to spend.

This matters because the dirty secret is that consumption makes the world go round, responsible for about 70% of our GDP (hence why if we're all diligent savers, the economy will grind to a halt). The role of FRB in many ways, is to tell everyone that it will be okay, to assuage and allay fears. As the philosopher Berkeley posited, "esse est percipi", or perception is reality – if you think the economy will be worse off tomorrow, you don’t buy today, and then the economy really is worse off tomorrow.

What makes this economic time so different? During the Great Recession, the issue stemmed from improperly classifying risk (likelihood multiplied by effect size) related to mortgage-backed securities, and the credit default swaps associated with those. The source of contagion here is not a financial one, so markets (and the American public) are not primarily concerned with a monetary response. The roles have reversed a bit: now we look to the federal government to assuage and allay fears, and the lack thereof is why markets have had their reaction – in theory a stock price contains all current and future estimated profits of a company, so the longer the uncertainty with the response to how those profits could be affected, the more negative they appear to be. Remember, empirical claims require empirical evidence, so it simply has not been enough to dismiss the threat – markets and citizens deserve a well-thought and well-intentioned plan that is effectively communicated to properly estimate forthcoming economic hardships.

What happens next? Many of the COVID-19 effects can already be felt in our community. Small businesses, particularly in the service and hospitality industries will be negatively disproportionately affected and will shutter. These businesses rely heavily on cash-flow to be successful. The effect is compounded in college towns, where these businesses already struggle during summer, and now that period has effectively doubled. Not everyone can work from home. The entertainment and transportation industries will also be negatively affected.

Shutting down is not the same as going out of business. Microeconomics dictates that if you can’t cover average variable cost, you shut down. The loss is then equal to total fixed cost, usually rent (and here, perishable inventory also contributes to cost). So, a coffee shop closes its doors. Now those employees are unemployed, but the coffee shop’s suppliers are also affected (with swaths of perishable inventory). And both the coffee shop and its suppliers rely on transportation for orders, which is also affected. Don't forget importers or brokers. Remember that many of these businesses are on terms, so the wholesalers are already taking a loss on what’s been delivered, plus what isn’t being ordered. Now the banks begin to be affected.

At the city-level, we can expect declines in revenues from the 1% local option sales tax, meals tax, lodging tax, admissions tax, and vehicle rental tax, among others. The City may need to tap the rainy day fund, but at a minimum must have a plan for these expected declines in revenue.

The FRB announced Tuesday that it was ready to fulfill its role as lender of last resort, establishing both a commercial paper and primary dealer facility, and a joint statement with the FDIC and OCC encouraging banks to use resources to support households and businesses. This is a great move, but monetary policy alone is not enough.

As we learned with the Great Depression and Great Recession, we have got to keep the money flowing. There have been talks of a $1,000 paycheck, a form of fiscal policy stimulus, but that alone is not enough.

Think of all of the people affected by the coffee shop’s closure, but reproduce that over and over to other small businesses and their employees throughout Richmond and the U.S. There are approximately 205 million people who make up the "working age population" in the US, and we should consider [the option to exercise] multiple monthly checks at twice or more than what is being proposed. At $2,000 a check, over three months, that comes to $1.2 trillion. A more targeted approach is doing this by industry, or perhaps using AGI as a threshold; having different amounts per dependent. The point here is that $1,000 will be enough to cover rent and some food (if there’s no program for mortgage deferment without penalty). But what we need is to create discretionary income, so that income can quickly make its way back into the local economy. Some time should be spent thinking how that excess can make its way to local small businesses during the outbreak, helping those hit hardest.

We should also consider other impacts from these businesses. While purchasing gift cards is helpful, it’s probably not enough to cover average variable cost, so the business remains shuttered. Should a business "lay off" its employees so they can file an unemployment insurance claim? Initial claims are already surging, nationally and in Virginia. Will the Commonwealth freeze unemployment insurance premium increases during this period, or will they skyrocket to the point that it’s not rational for the business to open again? What must be done, and how quickly can funds be disbursed through the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program? If Governor Northam orders no more than 10 persons in restaurants, who compensates the restaurant's quashed revenue? Is a low interest loan even viable – why keep payroll open if you can only have 10 people in sales at a time? The trade of livelihood for health is easier when it's our life on the line but not our livelihood.

Though the government cannot (and should not) coerce private businesses, banks can also step up to the plate here after receiving their share of assistance during the Great Recession. Wells Fargo, having fraud after fraud in the news, might gain some currency by simply acting as if the next three months never existed (that is, everything just moves out by N-months, so payments remain the same and the period missed is not calculated back in). For securitized mortgages in tranches, we might see similar action by the FRB as the Great Recession. This is likely the first serious test of Dodd-Frank and Basel III, products of the Great Recession designed to strengthen banks in times of crisis and contagion. If banks are too big to fail, why aren't the American people, who make up the banks and so much more?

The breadth and depth of this economic hardship is affected by how hard we dampen the curve. The tradeoff is the flatter the curve, the wider, so the longer some of these hardships will be felt. We certainly shouldn't risk overburdening our healthcare system and the unnecessary loss of life, but if we feel a longer economic pain, the government must step up in easing that pain. Another form of fiscal policy could be subsidized testing (read: free) and expanding those who can be tested, since the incubation period is so long and there are many with no or mild symptoms. Falling oil prices will likely be helpful in recovery: as travel prices remain 'sticky' from the oil and demand shock, consumers feeling safe again will see good value in travel, change their taste and preferences, and shift the demand curve.

Some of the best advice I've seen is to turn the asymmetric information on its head: rather than fret if you have the virus or not, assume you have it, and behave in ways to prevent its spread to others. We will be okay; we will get through this. The ease at which we navigate these choppy waters wholly depends on the Federal government's response and seriousness in approach. This is not a game show, but the world is watching, and America will either fire or hire a president come November.

[badgersmash9-blog]

2:00PM Water Cooler 11/13/2018

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Trade

“Port Tracker report points to increased import activity ahead of next round of tariffs” [Logistics Management]. “United States-bound imports trended down from the pre-holiday peak while still coming in at higher-than-usual levels, with retailers importing merchandise in advance of a coming tariff increase in January, according to the new edition of the Port Tracker report issued today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and maritime consultancy Hackett Associates…. ‘Imports have usually dropped off significantly by this time of year but we’re still seeing numbers that could have set records in the past,’ NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said in a statement. ‘Part of this is driven by consumer demand in the strong economy but retailers also know that tariffs on the latest round of goods are set to more than double in just a few weeks. If there are shipments that can be moved up, it makes sense to do that before the price goes up.'”

“Growing trade restrictions are triggering tensions between companies in automotive supply chains. … [Q]uestions over tariffs have prompted some blunt warnings between buyers and suppliers and even a lawsuit between a major auto parts maker and a key components provider” [Wall Street Journal]. “Pierburg US LLC says a supplier is trying to exact ‘extortion’ by refusing to ship parts from China unless the 25% tariff cost is paid in full. The disputes highlight the complexity of supply chains that may take in roughly 30,000 individual parts and hundreds of direct or downstream suppliers. The business is underpinned by thousands of detailed long-term contracts that now have big new costs and uncertainty thrown into the mix.”

Politics

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

2020

Perhaps not entirely safe for work:

Ojeda and Avenatti as candidates are like the guy who thinks good sex is pumping away while you’re making a grocery list in your head wondering when he’ll be done.

O’Rourke is like the guy who is all sweet and nerdy but holds you down and makes you cum until your calves cramp.

— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) November 12, 2018

2018

“Most House Democrats Will Be in Majority for First Time Ever” [Roll Call]. “Of the 227 Democrats who are guaranteed to be serving in the 116th Congress — 10 House races remained uncalled as of Tuesday morning — 58 percent will be new to the majority. That includes 79 members who have served in Congress already and 53 new members. Only 95 Democrats returning next year have experienced life in the majority.” • And I can’t imagine anybody better equipped to show them the ropes than Nancy Pelosi….

Pelosi (1):

Nancy Pelosi: “None of us is indispensable, but some of us are just better at our jobs than others.” https://t.co/R0h3X8auA1

— Taegan Goddard (@politicalwire) November 13, 2018

Pelosi (2):

Now @Ocasio2018 has joined the sit-in by @sunrisemvmt & @justicedems at Pelosi's office calling for a #GreenNewDeal.

Pelosi has planned to relaunch a weak committee from 2008 to "study" the effects of climate change — essentially denying the serious reality of climate change. pic.twitter.com/tSjuJ5OTTU

— Waleed Shahid (@_waleedshahid) November 13, 2018

“Black Lawmakers Set to Assume More Powerful Roles in U.S. House” [Bloomberg]. “The Congressional Black Caucus is on the verge of becoming the most powerful bloc in the U.S. House when Democrats take control in January, with members to lead at least five committees and more than a dozen subcommittees.” • For more on the CBC, see Black Agenda Report: “The Black Political Class? The Congressional Black Caucus? These Joes Ain’t Loyal.” The black misleadership class, BAR calls them.

“Democrats Say Their First Bill Will Focus On Strengthening Democracy At Home” [NPR]. “The bill would establish automatic voter registration and reinvigorate the Voting Rights Act, crippled by a Supreme Court decision in 2013. It would take away redistricting power from state legislatures and give it to independent commissions. Other provisions would overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which declared political spending is First Amendment free speech; they would mandate more disclosure of outside money and establish a public financing match for small contributions.” • We’ll need to see the details, of course, but this sounds good. However, I don’t see anything about hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public. If the ballot system is broken, everything is broken, because no vote count can be trusted.

AZ Senate: “Kyrsten Sinema becomes first Democrat to win a Senate race in Arizona in 30 years” [Salon]. “Kyrsten Sinema has been elected as Arizona’s next senator — as well as the first openly bisexual United States Senator ever.” • She’ll immediately join the “Bisexuals Opposed to Medicare for All” caucus.

CA Leg: “Nearly a Week After Election Day, California Democrats Regain Supermajority in Legislature” [Governing]. “Democrats claimed victory Monday in two state Senate races, giving them back the two-thirds supermajority they lost in June when Orange County Democrat Josh Newman was recalled after he voted in favor of Gov. Jerry Brown’s gas tax increase.” • Great! Maybe now they can fix CalPERS without those pesky Republicans obstructing everything.

FL Vote: “Bay County accepted ballots through email—which state law doesn’t allow: report” [Florida Politics]. “Elections officials in Bay County, a Republican stronghold recently battered by Hurricane Michael, accepted votes via email. The catch: That’s counter to state law.”

ME-02: “Poliquin sues in federal court to stop ranked-choice vote count” [Portland Press-Herald]. “Republican 2nd District Rep. Bruce Poliquin filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap in an attempt to stop a tabulation of ranked-choice ballots in his race against Democratic challenger Jared Golden.” • This is ridiculous. Poliquin knew the rules going in.

The suit filed in federal court in Bangor is asking for an injunction against Dunlap to stop what would be the first congressional race in the nation to be decided through ranked-choice voting.

“The Week in Public Finance: How Tax Policies Fared at the Ballot Box” [Governing]. “With a few exceptions, voters across the country on Election Day approved statewide proposals to reduce or limit taxes while also widely rejecting any efforts to raise them. But that wasn’t the story at the local level, where several tax increases passed.”

2018 Post Mortems

Why you’ve got to focus on the districts:

I feel like the broad take I come away from 2018 is that voters don’t process ideology the way pundits do and the relationship between campaign coverage, candidate rhetoric, actual candidate positions and actual candidate votes is tenuous. https://t.co/VgVNsSxHBR

— we&#39;re going to abolish ICE (@SeanMcElwee) November 12, 2018

Focusing on the districts is something I wish I had had more time to do. It’s not just a useful corrective for the media critique, it’s more important.

“How Did Medicare for All Candidates Fare in the Midterms?” [Splinter News]. “This year, a majority of House Democratic candidates endorsed Medicare for All, according to the union National Nurses United. If you had told me in 2014, or even 2016, that this would happen, I would have frowned at you, walked away, and possibly tried to contact someone who cares about you out of concern for your mental health. This was pretty damn huge….Only seven candidates in the 30 races Cook labeled as toss-ups endorsed Medicare for All; of those candidates, two won, three lost and two races are still undecided, but only one reduced the vote share over 2016. Harley Rouda, who supports Medicare for All, increased the Democratic share of the vote by 10 percent to beat Dana Rohrabacher, per current totals. Incredibly, a district that previously looked at Dana Rohrabacher and said yes, I want him, now wants a guy who supports single-payer instead.”

Realignment and Legitimacy

A very unfair portrait of the Democrats:

pic.twitter.com/BG4IqS9qKB

— Max Jerneck (@MaxJerneck) November 12, 2018

An even more unfair portrait of the Republicans:

For the sake of fairness, I should provide the Republican credo as well pic.twitter.com/qK35PlEml7

— Max Jerneck (@MaxJerneck) November 12, 2018

Stats Watch

NFIB Small Business Optimism Index, October 2018: “Optimism among small business owners remains near record levels” [Econoday]. “Along with glowing business optimism, the NFIB October survey also showed inflation heating up, with the net percent of owners raising selling prices up… The survey results should thus reinforce the Federal Reserve’s resolve to continue in its current policy of gradual increases in the Fed funds rate.” But: “Small Business Optimism Index decreased in October” [Calculated Risk]. “Most of this survey is noise, but there is some information, especially on the labor market and the ‘Single Most Important Problem’…. Usually small business owners complain about taxes and regulation… However, during the recession, ‘poor sales’ was the top problem. Now the difficulty of finding qualified workers is the top problem.”d

Banks: “New Supervisory Rating System for Large Banking Organizations” [Sullivan & Cromwell]. “On November 2, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “FRB”) issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) that establishes a new rating system for the supervision of large financial institutions (“LFIs”). The LFI rating system applies to all bank holding companies with total consolidated assets of $100 billion or more…. [T]he new rating system still involves substantial subjectivity in the rating process.[25] Both the capital and liquidity components emphasize planning and risk management, as well as actual financial positions. The governance and control component is inherently subjective. The element of subjectivity may be intensified because an institution will not be considered well managed unless it is rated at least “Conditionally Meets Expectations” for each of the three rating components.” • Well, I imagine that whatever the banks can come up with, including the books, would involve a considerable amount of subjectivity in any case. No worries!

Retail: “How the ‘dark stores’ loophole helps big-box retailers evade millions in property taxes” [The New Food Economy]. “Since 2013, national retailers have successfully sued local governments in Midwest states to lower their property taxes. They claim that assessors shouldn’t determine their stores’ property value based on what they cost to build, or how much money the stores are taking in. In other words, they shouldn’t be taxed like occupied, functioning stores. Instead, say the stores (which also include supermarkets like Meijer, hardware stores like Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Menards, and pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens), the tax assessments should be based on what comparable stores sold for elsewhere. And that’s where things get tricky. For comparison, they’re pointing to so-called “dark stores”—those empty supercenters that blight small-town America…. The retailers were collectively seeking over $700 million in tax revenue.”

Shipping: “Think small when it comes to warehousing” [Logistics Management]. “[A]s the folks [ugh] at CapRock put it in a press release: ‘Typically less than 200,000 square feet in size and in a nearby infill location, and surrounded by housing with substantial purchasing power, small-box warehouses are now the linchpin in the e-commerce ecosystem.'” • My town used to have several small stores. Maybe now we’ll have a small warehouse instead. Exciting times.

Shipping: “Disruption in global oil trade is giving the tanker industry a much-needed boost. Daily freight rates for big crude carriers have soared four-fold to the highest levels in two years, WSJ Logistics Report’s Costas Paris writes, as buying patterns and shipping routes adjust to U.S sanctions on Iran and the trade battle with China” [Wall Street Journal]. “Tanker owners fear the rebound is short-lived, but they’re reaping the benefits now.”

Transportation: “Self-Driving Hotel Rooms May Soon Become a Reality” [Traveler (J-LS)]. “Imagine a world where you no longer fly between your house and your hotel. You drive there. Or more accurately, your hotel room drives you there.” • We call this a “train.”

Transportation: “Driverless cars will lead to more sex in cars, study finds” [MarketWatch]. “People will be sleeping in their vehicles, which has implications for roadside hotels. And people may be eating in vehicles that function as restaurant pods,” Scott Cohen [of Annals of Tourism Research said.] ‘That led us to think, besides sleeping, what other things will people do in cars when free from the task of driving?'” • Indeed. This works if the robot car industry retains today’s ownership model. If robot cars are hailed and rented, a la Uber, not so much. Who wants to find food, or body fluids, in their robot car?

Tech: “Apple’s new bootloader won’t let you install GNU/Linux — Updated” [Boing Boing]. “The chip comes with a user-inaccessible root of trust that allows for the installation of Apple and Microsoft operating systems, but not GNU/Linux and other open and free alternatives…. To make things worse, publishing tools to allow for bootloader overrides is legally risky under section 1201 of the DMCA, which provides for 5 year prison sentences and $500,000 fines (for a first offense) for anyone who trafficks in tools to override access controls for copyrighted works….. Update: After some doing, it’s possible to install GNU/Linux by disabling boot security altogether, though some further tweaking is required.”

Gaia

“Why did the Catastrophic Camp Fire Start Where it Did?” [Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog]. Good use of maps: “The power line failure occurred on the northeast side of a terrain feature, where the canyon narrowed. The terrain features would have blocked the flow and thus the winds could well have been substantially accelerated at EXACTLY the location of the failure.”

“Meat Has a Replacement But No One Knows What to Call It” [Bloomberg]. “Lab-grown. Cell-based. Clean. In vitro. Cultured. Fake. Artificial. Synthetic. Meat 2.0. These are all terms that refer to the same kind of food, one that’s not even on the market yet. But the companies making it have already raised hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investor cash and earned the close attention of U.S. regulators. Rather than methodically slaughtering animals, this industry uses science to grow what it claims is essentially the same thing as traditional meat. Given the planetary damage wrought by mass-market animal husbandry, such cellular agriculture is seen as the future of meat. But what to name it, and getting people to eat it, is another matter altogether.”

Guillotine Watch

“I understand your house is on fire….”

Fuck work. Fuck bosses. Fuck capitalism. pic.twitter.com/VPl3hu7yFp

— Los Angeles SRA (@LA_SocialistRA) November 11, 2018

I would love for this to be a hoax…..

Class Warfare

Interestingly, the Long Island City Amazon so-called HQ is on DSA’s patch. They’re on it. Thread:

As news spreads of a possible Amazon headquarters in Queens, let&#39;s review Amazon&#39;s history of worker abuses, shall we? https://t.co/3HiP0VGkHA

— New York City DSA 🌹 (@nycDSA) November 6, 2018

And DSA is canvasssing:

Wanna come canvass with us in Queens? https://t.co/F8cTuiKKwY

— Aaron Taube🌹 (@aptaube) November 13, 2018

Amazon is on AOC’s patch as well:

Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 13, 2018

So certainly the possibility for some interesting dynamics here. Chance for DSA to flex its muscles, if any.

* * *

“UPS Freight avoids strike, plans to accept new volumes ‘immediately'” [Supply Chain Dive]. “Teamsters Local 25 member and UPS Freight employee for 12 years Nicholas Mayo told Supply Chain Dive that closing the network and “threatening closure” of the UPS Freight business, as he described it, left voters fearing for their jobs. ‘Look, I and everyone else that voted ‘no’ understood their need to get the freight out of the system protecting the customers’ interests, but it was the initial planted threat that caused the about-face creating fear amongst those that knew no better,’ said Mayo. The Teamsters’ main issues with the contract as it stands approved are around the prevalence of subcontracting and a two-tiered wage system.” • Ugh. So UPS muscled the Teamsters.

“When low-income families can meet their basic needs, children are healthier” [Boston Medical Center]. Ya think? More: “The study team created a composite measure of hardships that included a family’s ability to afford food, utilities, and health care, and maintain stable housing. All hardships described in the study have previously been associated with poor child and caregiver health. This study, however, examined the differences between children living in hardship-free families versus those in families with any or multiple hardships. In all cities, living in a hardship-free family was associated with good overall health for children and caregivers, positive developmental outcomes for young children, and positive mental health among mothers.”

“The unequal vulnerability of communities of color to wildfire” [PLOS One]. “[O]ver 29 million Americans live with significant potential for extreme wildfires, a majority of whom are white and socioeconomically secure. Within this segment, however, are 12 million socially vulnerable Americans for whom a wildfire event could be devastating. Additionally, wildfire vulnerability is spread unequally across race and ethnicity, with census tracts that were majority Black, Hispanic or Native American experiencing ca. 50% greater vulnerability to wildfire compared to other census tracts. Embracing a social-ecological perspective of fire-prone landscapes allows for the identification of areas that are poorly equipped to respond to wildfires.”

“Plans to microchip UK workers spark privacy concerns” [Independent]. “Several legal and financial firms in the UK are reportedly in discussions with a company responsible for fitting thousands of people with chips in Scandinavia… ‘These companies have sensitive documents they are dealing with,’ Biohax founder Jowan Österlund told the publication. ‘[The subdermal microchips] would allow them to set restrictions for whoever.'” • “For whoever.”

Workerdote:

When you work alone a lot.

pic.twitter.com/DPdkVC5B0i

— laney (@misslaneym) November 12, 2018

News of the Wired

“New Study Details Toxic Particles Spewed by 3D Printers” [Gizmodo]. “A newly published, two-year investigation to assess the impacts of desktop 3D printers on indoor air quality, conducted by scientists at UL Chemical Safety and Georgia Institute of Technology, now overcomes these shortcomings. The results, published in two separate studies in Aerosol Science and Technology (here and here), were not encouraging; in tests, the researchers were able to identify hundreds of different compounds, some of which are known health hazards. These findings come at a time when these low-cost machines are increasingly appearing in commercial, medical, and educational settings.” • Of course. I should have known….

“Mother of Invention” [Nnedi Okorafor, Slate]. Short SF story. The premise: “The post-oil city New Delta is now the greenest place in the world, thanks to the innovative air-scrubbing superplant known as periwinkle grass, a GMO grass created in Chinese labs by Nigerian scientist Nneka Mgbaramuko.” • Also, smart houses.

“Stan Lee, Marvel Comics’ Real-Life Superhero, Dies at 95” [Hollywoood Reporter]. “Born Stanley Martin Lieber on Dec. 28, 1922, he grew up poor in Washington Heights, where his father, a Romanian immigrant, was a dress-cutter. A lover of adventure books and Errol Flynn movies, Lee graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project, where he appeared in a few stage shows, and wrote obituaries. In 1939, Lee got a job as a gofer for $8 a week at Marvel predecessor Timely Comics. Two years later, for Kirby and Joe Simon’s Captain America No. 3, he wrote a two-page story titled “The Traitor’s Revenge!” that was used as text filler to qualify the company for the inexpensive magazine mailing rate. He used the pen name Stan Lee.”

“What Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee Thought About Death and the Afterlife” [E! News]. “‘I don’t fear death. I’m curious. I can’t imagine what it could be like, because I personally feel when you die, that’s the end. It’s the machine that the engine is off,’ Lee said on Hulu’s Larry King Now. ‘But how can there be nothing forever? You know what I mean? I can’t believe it.'”

“The ‘me’ illusion: How your brain conjures up your sense of self” [New Scientist]. “A mind is just an object that some brains can model, and so become aware of. Moreover, it is hard to establish whether this ability is associated with uniquely complex biological machinery.” • Hmm.

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (EM):

EM writes: “Calocybe carnea possibly but I’m not sure. There are some brownish ones but no pink.” Readers?

* * *

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This entry was posted in Guest Post, Water Cooler on November 13, 2018 by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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