Lifeboat Foundation

It’s awful! The most hideous creation ever conceived! No one can laugh, or joke. It watches, saps the very spirit. And the worst thing of all is I watch it…

A European Space Agency satellite is expected to reenter and largely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday morning.

The agency’s Space Debris Office, along with an international surveillance network, is monitoring and tracking the Earth-observing ERS-2 satellite, which is predicted to make its reentry at 3:53 p.m. ET Wednesday, with a 7.5-hour window of uncertainty. The ESA is also providing live updates on its website.

“As the spacecraft’s reentry is ‘natural’, without the possibility to perform manoeuvers, it is impossible to know exactly where and when it will reenter the atmosphere and begin to burn up,” according to a statement from the agency.

CNS News– A dispute over a McDonald’s food order in Atlanta, Georgia, escalated to a tragic conclusion when Tamanika Woods, a mother of four, was fatally shot. The incident, which took place two days after Christmas, involved 19-year-old T’Niya Evans, who has since been charged with murder and aggravated assault.

This altercation represents a stark example of how quickly conflicts can escalate to violence. According to reports, the argument began over missing food items from an order placed by Evans and her sister. Woods, who was defending a McDonald’s employee and friend, became inadvertently involved.

The dispute tragically ended when Evans allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Woods at point-blank range inside the restaurant. The event was captured on surveillance video, showing Evans confronting and shooting Woods. In a swift response, another patron apprehended Evans, preventing her escape until police arrived.

Recent regional space developments also include South Korea’s spy satellite launching aboard SpaceX amid North Korea’s surveillance satellites deployment.

Explore the latest in space tech – Japan’s spy satellite, South Korea’s success with SpaceX, and North Korea’s bold plans.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command, the Defense Department’s combatant command responsible for space operations, has achieved full operational capability, its commander Gen. James Dickinson announced Dec. 15.

In short, this means that U.S. Space Command is now fully up and running. It has the staff, infrastructure and plans it needs to handle its mission of conducting space operations and protecting American and allied assets and interests in space.

U.S. Space Command, established in 2019 in Colorado Springs, is tasked to monitor space activity and threats, support other military units with space capabilities like communications and surveillance, respond to crises involving space, deter aggression and defeat enemies if needed.

Elucidating human contact networks could help predict and prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and future pandemic threats. A new study from Scripps Research scientists and collaborators points to which public health protocols worked to mitigate the spread of COVID-19—and which ones didn’t.

In the study, published online in Cell on December 14, 2023, the Scripps Research-led team of scientists investigated the efficacy of different mandates—including stay-at-home measures, social distancing and travel restrictions —at preventing local and regional transmission during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They found that local transmission was driven by the amount of travel between locations, not by how geographically nearby they were. The study also revealed that the partial closure of the U.S.-Mexico border was ineffective at preventing cross-border transmission of the virus. These findings, in combination with ongoing genomic surveillance, could help guide public health policy to prevent future pandemics and mitigate the new “endemic” phase of COVID-19.

When it comes to spurring the development of cutting-edge technologies, the Chinese government is rather pragmatic in its policymaking process. In the field of autonomous driving, the country has made some big strides in defining the parameters and limitations for service providers, removing regulatory ambiguity and granting industry players the freedom to test the nascent technology.

The trial guidelines, unveiled by the Ministry of Transport recently, target AV services like robotaxis, self-driving trucks and robobuses. The release arrived about 16 months after the department began seeking public opinions on the regulatory framework, and policymakers have reached a consensus that self-driving vehicles are subject to rigorous surveillance measures to ensure utmost safety.

Prior to the introduction of the nationwide guidelines, policymaking for AVs in China had been playing out in a more decentralized fashion, with local governments formulating their own rules for service providers on their turf. Major tech clusters like Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, for example, have been frontrunners in allowing companies to test AVs with minimum human interference.

LONDON (AP) — European Union negotiators clinched a deal Friday on the world’s first comprehensive artificial intelligence rules, paving the way for legal oversight of technology used in popular generative AI services like ChatGPT that has promised to transform everyday life and spurred warnings of existential dangers to humanity.

Negotiators from the European Parliament and the bloc’s 27 member countries overcame big differences on controversial points including generative AI and police use of facial recognition surveillance to sign a tentative political agreement for the Artificial Intelligence Act.

“Deal!” tweeted European Commissioner Thierry Breton, just before midnight. “The EU becomes the very first continent to set clear rules for the use of AI.”

Are bright cities making it worse for birds during their migrations? Find out here!

A recent study published in Nature Communications examines how increased levels of artificial light, specifically in urban areas, has contributed to increased bird deaths during their annual migrations. This study comes as hundreds of birds were killed after colliding with a Chicago building, and despite a 2021 study recommending that reduced building lights would reduce bird collisions by 60 percent. This recent study holds the potential to help scientists and the public better understand how rapidly expanding urban areas are impacting bird migration and their safety.

For the study, the researchers used the Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD), which is jointly operated by the U.S. Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration, and the U.S. National Weather Service, to track bird migration stopover density during spring (March 15 to June 15) and fall (August 15 to November 15) seasons between 2016 and 2020. After analyzing more than 10 million radar observations, the researchers found that light pollution was the second-highest ranked reason for birds stopping for breaks out of 49 reasons measured for the study, with the top reason being elevation.

Continue reading “The Dark Side of Urbanization: Light Pollution’s Toll on Bird Migration” »