Anniversaries: Ten Years of Mars Express

Mars Express orbiting spacecraft/satellite. Image Source: Wiki.

This year marks the ten-year anniversary of the European Space Agency's Mars Express, one of the most successful satellites in space exploration history, launched to orbit not our planet - but Mars. It was launched 2 June 2003 and entered Mars orbit on Christmas Day of that year. Its "relatively short interplanetary voyage, a result of being launched when the orbits of Earth and Mars brought them closer than they had been in about 60,000 years." It also carried a British lander, the Beagle 2, which was unfortunately unsuccessful. Below the jump, see the ESA's commemorative video for the orbiter's birthday. You can see their main mission page here, and all missions here.

Return from Local Extinction

Images Source: Mother Nature Network.

Here are some cutie-pie Sand Cat kittens, a desert feline once extinct in Israel. The species Felis margarita has been locally revived through the breeding of captive individuals and their reintroduction to the habitat (Hat tip: Trans-D Digital Art). There are several sub-species and the entire species actually has a near threatened status worldwide. See this litter on Youtube here. The report is from August 2012, so these kittens likely now look like this.

Image of the Day: Kragen Hunters

Fantastic Stories of the Imagination (July 1964).

Today's Lovecraftian image of naked kragen hunters and a surprise cephalopod comes courtesy of Michael May's Adventure Blog. The cover illustration here for Jack Vance's story The Kragen was later expanded into a 1966 novel entitled, The Blue World. It won the Nebula Award in 1966.

Ellen Ripley Meets Therapeutic Nihilism

Still from Alien3 (1992) © Brandywine Productions / 20th Century Fox. Image Source: Alien Explorations.

In 1991, David Fincher directed the Alien sequel, Alien3, which was a decade and a half ahead of its time. The film was nearly ruined by studio interference and production problems. It had previously gone through versions to which science fiction author William Gibson, Eric Red (writer of the cult horror films The Hitcher and Near Dark), future Riddick director David Twohy, and New Zealand director Vincent Ward all separately contributed.

What audiences and critics found more difficult was the gloomy, apocalyptic plot. Alien3 marked the new era of the compromised protagonist. It was a fraught with despair, a difficult narrative for audiences accustomed to triumphant cinematic conclusions. The heroine, Ellen Ripley, is even more heroic because she is not going to win.

PRISM's Millennial Omens: The War Over the Internet Begins

Anonymous, the hacker group, has just released some PRISM-related NSA documents, and claims that the NSA is spying on citizens of more than 35 countries. Image Source: RT.

The Internet is swirling with reports that America's National Security Agency has 'wiretapped' the Internet and scrutinized people's private messages, searches, phone calls and personal data in the PRISM program. Rumours suggest that Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, Youtube, and Google, among others, are all involved, although these Web giants are sharply denying that.

It started with a leak from the Guardian:

Guardian blogger Glenn Greenwald dropped a bombshell on Thursday [6 June 2013], with a story that showed the National Security Agency was collecting data from Verizon thanks to a secret court order. But that was just the beginning: the Washington Post later revealed an even broader program of surveillance code-named PRISM, which involved data collection from the web’s largest players — including Google, Facebook and Apple — and then the Wall Street Journal said data is also being gathered from ISPs [Internet Service Providers] and credit-card companies.

Leaked cover slide of the US Federal Government's data collection program PRISM (April 2013). Image Source: Wiki via Washington Post.

Leaked slides of the US Federal Government's data collection program PRISM (April 2013), including description of how global Internet traffic passes through the USA. Image Source: Washington Post.

In these days of cyberwar and Big Data, I'm not sure why this is a huge surprise to some. It is the tip of the iceberg in terms of how the Web is being and could be mobilized as a tool of social control. And this is why the counter voice of hackers is so interesting in terms of the evolution of Millennial politics. What hackers will do in response to defend online users - the virtual 99 per cent - and whether they can be trusted to shoulder the burden of power and immense wealth associated with Big Data, without also becoming corrupted, is another story. At any rate, here is an initial list of links to articles and Web debate on the subject:

• NSA Collecting Phone Records of Millions of Verizon Customers Daily
• U.S., British Intelligence Mining Data from nine U.S. Internet Companies in Broad Secret Program
• US Collects Vast Data Trove
• Through a PRISM Darkly: Tracking the Ongoing NSA Surveillance Story
• In Response to PRISM, Anonymous Leaks DoD Documents
• NSA Collects Data Directly from Servers of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and More
• 'How Little Rights You Have': Anonymous Leaks More PRISM-related NSA documents
• Obama Says Americans Must "Make Some Choices" in Balancing Privacy and Security
• Is Obama Lying about Big Brother?
• PRISM Biggest Contributor to Obama Intel Briefings
• NSA Dragnet Debacle: What it Means to IT
• PRISM: Here's how the NSA wiretapped the Internet
• Google and Facebook Double Down on PRISM Denials
• To Silicon Valley, PRISM Doesn't Square
• PRISM Scandal: Tech Giants Flatly Deny Allowing NSA Direct Access to Servers
• PRISM Spying Scandal: Tech Giants Share Shocking Amount of User Data with Government
• PRISM by the Numbers: A Guide to the Government's Secret Internet Data-Mining Program
• Uproar over PRISM Government Surveillance
• Obama Administration was Aggressively "Bullying and Threatening" Journalists Who Thought of Exposing PRISM 
• Operation PRISM = Another Mass Murder. Coincidence?
• GCHQ PRISM Spying Claims 'Quite a Scandal'
• PRISM's Legal Basis: How We Got Here, and What We Can Do to Get Back
• Doublespeak Denials of PRISM Hid the Truth About Participation
• Not Your Granddaddy's Metadata: Don't Believe the PRISM Anti-Hype
• NSA copyright used as censorship: The NSA Sent a Takedown Notice over My Custom PRISM Logo T-Shirts
• NSA Whistleblower: The Government is Still Telling You an "Outright Lie" About its Spying Programs
• PRISM: Ministers Challenged over GCHQ's Access to Covert US Operation
• No Evidence of NSA's 'Direct Access' to Tech Companies 
• US Surveillance Revelations Deepen European Fears
• NSA PRISM: 5 Ways to Stay Anonymous in the Post-Privacy World
• Silicon Valley Responds to PRISM with Coordinated PR Campaign
• Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page Deny Knowledge of PRISM
• Mark Zuckerberg's personal response on Facebook: "I want to respond personally to the outrageous press reports about PRISM:
  
  
  Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers. We have never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively. We hadn't even heard of PRISM before yesterday.
  
  
  When governments ask Facebook for data, we review each request carefully to make sure they always follow the correct processes and all applicable laws, and then only provide the information if is required by law. We will continue fighting aggressively to keep your information safe and secure.
  
  
  We strongly encourage all governments to be much more transparent about all programs aimed at keeping the public safe. It's the only way to protect everyone's civil liberties and create the safe and free society we all want over the long term." 

Zero Scrap Value

One Horse Shay. Image Source: Wiki.

We all have to die one day. Since the '60s in the west, death has no longer been considered a part of the social contract, so people don't talk about death and dying the way they used to. Instead, they talk about not dying, about cheating the Reaper - as though anti-ageing and potentially not dying at all somehow is the next stage after your retirement package. They do this rather than face mortality with dignity.

This blog sometimes explores anti-ageing from the perspective of the most high profile Baby Boomers who are interested in the topic. They are ever in search of the Fountain of Youth. For a different point of view, I asked my dad and his friend, both tough old septuagenarian Silent Generation fellows, about death. They liked Dennis Hopper's ad for retirement planning, pulled after his death from cancer in 2010, where Hopper sits at a crossroads and says, "Ya gotta have a plan."

The Ameriprise financial planning ad, aimed at Boomers, runs:

"So here you are, a little confused. Did you think the road to retirement was an expressway? Come on, this isn't some random road trip. Your dreams are out there somewhere. You can't start this journey without knowin' where you're goin'. You my friend, you need a plan." 

 You can see it here on Youtube. You can see other Ameriprise ads aimed at Boomers, here and below.

The Monster: A Silent Film First

Still from The Monster (1925) © Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. Image Source: History of Horror.

Tonight's offering is the silent film, The Monster (1925). It is one of the very first 'mad scientist' and 'old dark house' films. Aside from the precedents it set in style and camerawork, what is most interesting about this movie is that it was way ahead of its time. The scene opens when a couple get waylaid while driving at night in the countryside. They run to a nearby lunatic asylum for help and are held captive there by the mad scientist, played by Lon Chaney.

Genuinely frightening scenes are thrown off balance by horror shtick. Critics at the time found the humour in the movie to be incredibly puzzling. But the style is immediately recognizable to the Millennial movie fan, who is familiar with recent meta-horror and ironic horror from directors such as Wes Craven. You can see The Monster below the jump. It was directed by Roland West and is his oldest surviving film.

Nuclear Leaks 25: Radioactive Digest

Fallout Brown © (2013) by Theamat. Reproduced with kind permission.

What's new in the nuclear industry? Here is a round up. Bear in mind that the reports mentioned below come from pro-environmental, anti-nuke critics who are generally dismissed as 'alarmist' by nuclear industry counter-critics and government monitors. In the latter's favour, some commenters on anti-nuke Web pages indulge in New World Order conspiracy theories. With that debate in mind, this is the latest on what the 'alarmists' are saying.

Among the alarmists is Professor Takeda Kunihiko of Chubu University, who declares (based on incredibly flimsy evidence) that Japan will be uninhabitable by March 2015. From Fukushima Diary: 

Prof. Takeda Kunihiko from Chubu university roughly estimated anyone can no longer live in Japan after 3/31/2015. According to his explanation, the yearly dose will reach 5mSv/y (External dose and the slight internal dose) in 3 years and 4 months from January of 2012.

Let us hope he is wrong. This catastrophe would be both unimaginably tragic and a source of local, possibly international, conflict. One of the commenters on a related ENE report wonders: "What's the clock set at for the North American west coast? How long will it take for their allowance of the 80% of the radioactive contamination to rain out or wash up on the coast? [R]adioactive releases are continuing and will not end soon with Tepco at the helm." Someone answers: "[T]he so-called "safe" limit was recently hiked way up by the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency]. So we are not set for public warnings. The West Coast cannot possibly be safe ongoing, but it will probably take ongoing work to dig out the readings. Someone who does A LOT of that is Michael Collins on enviroreporter.com."

From a 29 May 2013 report, see below a picture of an inverted traffic cone and duct tape used to divert leaking materials at Fukushima Reactor 4. An ENE commented on the report: "I don't know how many times I have to tell TEPCO that foil tape is much better." Another commenter answered: "Foil tape is far too expensive. This is an economy operation."

Fukushima Reactor #4 patch job. Image Source: ENE Energy News.

Meanwhile, in California, they have been using masking tape, plastic bags and broomsticks to divert non-radioactive water leaks at Unit #3 of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. The report below is from December of 2012. From an ABC report, picked up by ENE:

An inside source gave Team 10 a picture snapped inside the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) showing plastic bags, masking tape and broom sticks used to stem a massive leaky pipe. ... Records obtained by Team 10 show SONGS staff were concerned about “hundreds of corrosion notifications” and “degraded equipment” throughout the plant. Staff sent a letter to management saying SONGS “clearly has a serious corrosion problem” in pipes throughout the plant. Inside Sources [state:]

• “If that’s nuclear technology at work and that’s how we’re going to control leaks I think the public should know”
• Sources also pointed to what appears to be corrosion on the pipe as a sign of the power plant’s age
• They claim rust is rampant throughout SONGS — including what sources call a fire suppression pipe, which protects both units
• “We are dealing with unknown territory here which has never been explored before”
• Two inside sources called restarting SONGS “risky”
• “This is nuclear, this should be tip top”
• “Everything in that plant should be tip top, not bottom of the barrel”

You can see a report about San Onofre's serious problems from the LA Times here.

San Onofre patch job and degraded equipment report: ABC Local News 10 via ENE Energy News.