[OBSCURA] Planet Earth by EPIC

From Universe Today:

This picture of our home planet truly is EPIC – literally! The full-globe image was acquired with NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (aka EPIC; see what they did there) on board NOAA’s DSCOVR spacecraft, positioned nearly a million miles (1.5 million km) away at L1.

L1 is one of five Lagrange points that exist in space where the gravitational pull between Earth and the Sun are sort of canceled out, allowing spacecraft to be “parked” there. (Learn more about Lagrange points here.) Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 on Feb. 11, 2015, the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) arrived at L1 on June 8 and, after a series of instrument checks, captured the image of Earth’s western hemisphere above on July 6.


The EPIC instrument has the capability to capture images in ten narrowband channels from infrared to ultraviolet; the true-color picture above was made from images acquired in red, green, and blue visible-light wavelengths.

More than just a pretty picture of our blue marble, this image will be used by the EPIC team to help calibrate the instrument to remove some of the blue atmospheric haze from subsequent images. Once the camera is fully set to begin operations daily images of our planet will be made available on a dedicated web site starting in September.

"Duran Duran - Planet Earth" (Watch on YouTube)

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• blogTO notes that Toronto won't get a second NHL team any time soon.


• Centauri Dreams looks at a design for an ion-drive interplanetary starship.


• The Dragon's Tales looks at Pluto's moons of Hydra and Nix.


• Joe. My. God. and Towleroad note that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled Italy should recognize same-sex partnerships.


• Marginal Revolution looks at the low median wage in many American states.


• The Planetary Society Blog notes an odd haze in a crater on Ceres.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer examines the unusually high crime rate in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.


• Torontoist looks at the National Post's mobile news van.


• Towleroad notes the closure of New York City's Chelsea STD clinic.


• The Volokh Conspiracy considers if the Iran deal is constitutional.


• Window on Eurasia notes that Ukrainians are against the federalization of their country.

[LINK] "A lake in the Northwest Territories is about to fall off a cliff"

The Globe and Mail shared Bob Weber's Canadian Press article describing how global warming will lead to a lake in the Northwest Territories falling off a cliff.

Some time in the next few months, a small northern lake will burst through the shrinking earthen rampart holding it back and fall off a cliff.

“It’s got a ways to travel,” says Steve Kokelj of the Northwest Territories Geological Survey. “This lake happens to be perched about 600 feet above the Mackenzie Valley.”

[. . .]

The doomed lake, which has no name and sits in the northern corner of the territory near the community of Fort McPherson, is a victim of the region’s geology and changing climate.

Permafrost in this part of the N.W.T. contains a high percentage of ice in headwalls, which can be up to 30 metres thick. That ice has been there since the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet 20,000 years ago.

Trouble starts when parts of the headwalls are exposed by erosion from wind or rain. The ice melts, which causes the soil and rock on top to collapse. That exposes more ice, which also melts and extends the collapse, and the cycle keeps repeating.

“It thaws in the summertime and will continue to work its way back upslope until you run out of ice or the headwall gets covered by sediment,” Kokelj says. “The slumps chew their way upslope.”

[LINK] "Should we geoengineer larger ice caps?"

The Dragon's Tales linked to a remarkable arXiv paper by Jacob Haqq-Misra, "Should we geoengineer large ice caps?". The abstract is below.

The climate of Earth is susceptible to catastrophes that could threaten the longevity of human civilization. Geoengineering to reduce incoming solar radiation has been suggested as a way to mediate the warming effects of contemporary climate change, but a geoengineering program for thousands of years could also be used to enlarge the size of the polar ice caps and create a permanently cooler climate. Such a large ice cap state would make Earth less susceptible to climate threats and could allow human civilization to survive further into the future than otherwise possible. Intentionally extending Earth's glacial coverage will require uninterrupted commitment to this program for millenia but would ultimately reach a cooler equilibrium state where geoengineering is no longer needed. Whether or not this program is ever attempted, this concept illustrates the need to identify preference among potential climate states to ensure the long-term success of civilization.

Part of this reminds me of the episodes of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns found out that he was deathly ill with any number of diseases, but that they counterbalanced each other enough to let him live.

More relevantly, these are the sorts of decisions that people managing the environments of highly engineered worlds are going to have to make. This includes our dear Earth.

[LINK] On evidence of Australian Aborigine ancestry in Amazonia

The Nature paper "Genetic evidence for two founding populations of the Americas" has a remarkable abstract.

Genetic studies have consistently indicated a single common origin of Native American groups from Central and South America. However, some morphological studies have suggested a more complex picture, whereby the northeast Asian affinities of present-day Native Americans contrast with a distinctive morphology seen in some of the earliest American skeletons, which share traits with present-day Australasians (indigenous groups in Australia, Melanesia, and island Southeast Asia) Here we analyse genome-wide data to show that some Amazonian Native Americans descend partly from a Native American founding population that carried ancestry more closely related to indigenous Australians, New Guineans and Andaman Islanders than to any present-day Eurasians or Native Americans. This signature is not present to the same extent, or at all, in present-day Northern and Central Americans or in a ~12,600-year-old Clovis-associated genome, suggesting a more diverse set of founding populations of the Americas than previously accepted.

The Smithsonian goes into more detail.

Genetic studies have since connected both these ancient and modern humans to ancestral populations in Eurasia, adding to the case that a single migratory surge produced the first human settlers in the Americas. Aleutian Islanders are a notable exception. They descend from a smaller second influx of Eurasians 6,000 years ago that bear a stronger resemblance to modern populations, and some Canadian tribes have been linked to a third wave.

[David] Reich’s group had also previously found genetic evidence for a single founding migration. But while sifting through genomes from cultures in Central and South America, Pontus Skoglund, a researcher in Reich’s lab, noticed that the Suruí and Karitiana people of the Amazon had stronger ties to indigenous groups in Australasia—Australians, New Guineans and Andaman Islanders—than to Eurasians.

Other analyses haven’t looked at Amazonian populations in depth, and genetic samples are hard to come by. So the Harvard lab teamed up with researchers in Brazil to collect more samples from Amazonian groups to investigate the matter. Together they scrutinized the genomes of 30 Native American groups in Central and South America. Using four statistical strategies, they compared the genomes to each other and to those of 197 populations from around the world. The signal persisted. Three Amazonian groups—Suruí, Karitiana and Xavante—all had more in common with Australasians than any group in Siberia.

The DNA that links these groups had to come from somewhere. Because the groups have about as much in common with Australians as they do with New Guineans, the researchers think that they all share a common ancestor that lived tens of thousands of years ago in Asia but that doesn’t otherwise persist today. One branch of this family tree moved north to Siberia, while the other spread south to New Guinea and Australia. The northern branch likely migrated across the land bridge in a separate surge from the Eurasian founders. The researchers have dubbed this hypothetical second group “Population y” for ypykuéra, or “ancestor” in Tupi, a language spoken by the Suruí and Karitiana.

When exactly Population y arrived in the Americans remains unclear—before, after or simultaneously with the first wave of Eurasians are all possibilities. Reich and his colleagues suspect the line is fairly old, and at some point along the way, Population y probably mixed with the lineage of Eurasian settlers. Amazonian tribes remain isolated from many other South American groups, so that’s probably why the signal remains strong in their DNA.

[LINK] The Guardian interview with Tom Daley

The Guardian's Simon Hattenstone has a great, wide-ranging interview with Tom Daley. The man has grown into his own.

I first interviewed Daley four years ago, and the difference is striking. Back then, he seemed weirdly old for his age – 17 going on 40, so polite and proper it was unnerving. Today, he is still old for his age, but in a much more natural way – maybe 21 going on 30. I remember thinking his life experience seemed so limited, even for a 17-year-old – it didn’t extend beyond his much-loved parents, the younger brothers he’d play-fight with, diving and school. Now he has a hinterland. Black has introduced him to a new world – of activism, LA, the arts. The couple featured in David Hockney’s most recent work, and the diver still can’t quite believe it. “I researched David Hockney for my A-level photography project. He’s great. Then we went to have lunch with him at his studio, and he was like, ‘Oh, just stand there and I’ll take some photos.’” So now they’re friends? “I wouldn’t say we were best buds who go down the pub, but we’ve had lunch twice.”

There is still something grounded and endearingly old-fashioned about Daley. You sense it must be rooted in his family. He remains close to his brothers, who are singularly unimpressed by his achievements (or so they tell him), and he cites his father as his hero. “I try to live by all the lessons he taught me. He always used to say, make sure you go out of your way to help someone every day.” At times he sounds like a throwback to a previous generation, not least when talking about his responsibilities towards his mother. “I feel like I’m in charge and have to look after her, but she’s so independent. She’s doing really well.”

Daley is one of life’s planners, and he’s already mapping out the future – a gold medal in Rio, a future in television (he has to work because there is still no money in diving), and family. “At some point in my life I’d love to be able to settle down and have kids. Get married and lead a normal life,” he says.

[URBAN NOTE] "What are you like at your job?"

Torontoist hosts a guest opinion from one Jordan Foisy calling on readers to be compassionnate for city workers. While some eyebrows are raised by what he describes himself as having done, I agree with his points.

Toronto is not a city with a lot of compassion for the worker. Oh, we may vote NDP and worry over income inequality while we drink our craft beers, but when it comes down to supporting our fellow workers we are nowhere to be found. We are much more likely to attack them. I don’t know if it’s the result of an economy that has been squeezing and degrading most for the past 25 years leaving bitterness and resentment, or if it’s some weird Protestant work-ethic leftover, but Torontonians (like Canadians in general) love to shit on other workers. Especially if you are in a unionized force, people will have no problem describing you as lazy, bad at your job, and, of course, that you either deserve the hate or shouldn’t be making that much money.

TTC workers take a huge part of this resentment. Torontonians complaining about the TTC is maybe my least favourite part of this city. Every day on the internet there are people complaining about the service in the transit system, that a driver was rude or a booth collector didn’t know the answer to a question. This despite the fact that Ontarians react to new taxes, which would improve the TTC, as though they’d have to be paid with the blood of a family member. Furthermore, as evidenced above, my experience with TTC operators as usually been pleasant, if not great. Sometimes they have been rude, but I usually pay it no mind because it’s probably the worse dealing with tens of thousands of commuters every day. Plus, my self-esteem doesn’t usually rely on my interactions with public transportation operators.

The same callousness came to the fore during a recent protest by cab drivers against Uber at city hall. Cabbies were trying to bring attention to what they think is Uber’s unfair advantage in not needing to be licensed by the city, resulting in their own declining incomes. The protest was met with disdain instead of sympathy. People took it as an opportunity to unload their grievances about every horrible experience with a cab driver that they’d had, citing these grievances as proof that now cab drivers were getting “what they deserved.”

It’s this language of retribution that troubles me. The same thing sprouted up when former mayor Rob Ford was privatizing garbage collection. While it was occurring, there was strong undercurrent in the press and the populace that garbage collectors were getting what they deserved for their 2009 strike. Because obsolescence is apparently the fair return for engaging in a legal action to protect your wages and pensions.

[URBAN NOTE] "UPX bells a whole new nuisance along tracks"

The Toronto Star's Ben Spurr writes about people in the Junction who are disturbed by the late-night noises of the Union-Pearson Express.

When the Union Pearson Express launched last month, it came with plenty of bells and whistles, including onboard Wi-Fi, phone charging outlets, even dapper conductors decked out in retro-chic uniforms. But according to some of the UP Express’s new neighbours, the service is overdoing it with the actual bells.

UP Express trains ring their bells every time they approach or depart a station, and that happens often. The trains run every 15 minutes between 5:30 a.m. and 1 a.m., much more frequently and later than GO or VIA Rail vehicles along the same corridor. With trains going both directions, when the service is operating, UP Express bells sound an average of once every seven and a half minutes around stops, and some people living near the Bloor GO Station say the noise is keeping them up at night.

According to Corrine Humphreys, her basement apartment on Abbott Ave. is so well insulated that “the world could be falling apart” outside and she wouldn’t hear it. “But I hear those damn bells all the time.”

The 39-year-old has lived near the tracks for almost four decades, and said that normally the sound of the passing trains is as soothing to her as ocean waves. But the lateness and frequency of the UP Express bells is too much.

“When I have insomnia it’s really annoying because I’m trying to sleep, then all of a sudden, ‘ding ding ding ding ding!’ and I’m just like, ah darn, there goes another hour of no sleep,” she said.

[LINK] "Ontario, More Indebted Than California, Ignores S&P in Borrowing"

Katia Dmitrieva and Cecile Gutscher of Bloomberg Business write about the issue of Ontario's government debt.

Ontario, the world’s most indebted sub-sovereign borrower, is ploughing ahead with Canada’s most ambitious infrastructure plan -- risking the censure of Standard & Poor’s and underperformance for its C$307 billion ($237 billion) of bonds.

The nation’s most-populous province is keeping a goal of spending C$130 billion over the next decade on work such as roads and mass transit in Toronto even after S&P dropped its credit grade this month to the lowest level ever. Yield spreads on some of the province’s debt reached the widest since January after the ratings move.

Ontario, with about 13.7 million residents, wants to carry out some of the projects using public-private partnerships, or P3s, an approach it used to build the athlete’s village for this month’s Pan Am Games in Toronto. While bringing in the private sector may reduce risk or speed up work, Ontario would still have to borrow for the financing.

“It’s not free debt,” Mario Angastiniotis, an analyst at S&P in Toronto, said by phone Thursday. “The P3 is just an alternative vehicle for financing, it’s not a different way that doesn’t cost you anything. You’re still adding to your debt.”

While Ontario’s population is about one third of California’s, its debt load is more than double that of the biggest U.S. state. Ontario forecasts that it will pay C$10.7 billion in interest on its debt in the 2014-2015 period, or about 8.2 percent of expenses, figures from the province show.