tobychev @tobychev@qoto.org

The framing on this story is wild. Summary: as a deadly fungal epidemic in bats spread across the US, increased insect activity resulted in an average 31% increase in pesticide use by local farmers, resulting in an average 8% increase in human infant mortality in affected areas.

And the message is: bats provide important economic benefits.

And yes, very true.

But also: The correlation between pesticide use & infant mortality is that well known & it's still allowed???

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/bats-north-america-research-1.7314579

Don’t fuck with moon dust. No seriously, do not fuck with moon dust.

Absent any moisture or atmosphere, millennia of asteroid impacts have turned lunar regolith (soil) into a fine powder of razor sharp, glass-like particles. What’s more, the solar wind imparts an electric charge on the dust, causing it to cling to any and every surface it touches through static electricity. On earth, sand tends to get smoother over time as wind and water tumble the grains about, eroding their sharpness. Not so on the moon – lunar dust is sharp and deadly. This is Not A Good Time if you’re an explorer looking to visit our celestial neighbor.

During Apollo, the astronauts faced a plethora of unexpected issues caused by dust. It clung to spacesuits and darkened them enough that exposure to sunlight overheated the life support systems. Dust got in suit joints and on suit visors, damaging them. It ate away layers of boot lining. It covered cameras. Upon returning to the cabin, astronauts attempting to brush it off damaged their suit fabric and sent the dust airborne, where it remained suspended in the air due to low gravity.

Inhaling moon dust causes mucus membranes to swell; every Apollo astronaut who stepped foot on the moon reported symptoms of “Lunar Hay Fever.” Sneezing, congestion, and a “smell of burnt gunpowder” took days to subside. Later Apollo missions even sent a special dust brush with the team to help clean each other and equipment. We don’t know exactly how dangerous the stuff is, but lunar regolith simulants suggest it might destroy lung and brain cells with long-term exposure. 1

In fact the dust is so nasty that it destroyed the vacuum seals of sample return containers. We no longer have any accurate samples of lunar dust, “Every sample brought back from the moon has been contaminated by Earth’s air and humidity […] The chemical and electrostatic properties of the soil no longer match what future astronauts will encounter on the moon.” 2

Whats worse, the solar-charged dust gets thrown up off the moon’s surface via electrostatic forces. The moon doesn’t technically have an atmosphere, but it does have a thin cloud of sharp dust itching to cling to anything it can find.

And it probably isn’t just the moon. “A 2005 NASA study listed 20 risks that required further study before humans should commit to a human Mars expedition, and ranked "dust" as the number one challenge.” 3

The coolest solution I’ve heard about in next-gen spacesuit design is a mesh of woven wires layered into the suit. When activated, the wire mesh would form an anti-static electric field that repels dust. Quite literally a force field. 4
#astronomy #apollo #moon #lunardust

Don't listen to websites telling you to "learn more". These days, basically every Unix system comes with less, which is a drop-in replacement that's more comfortable to use and has a lot of additional features.

'In their new paper 'Do large language models have a legal duty to tell the truth?', published by the Royal Society Open Science, the Oxford researchers set out how LLMs produce responses that are plausible, helpful and confident but contain factual inaccuracies, misleading references and biased information. They term this problematic phenomenon as ‘careless speech’ which they believe causes long-term harms to science, education and society.'

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-08-07-large-language-models-pose-risk-society-and-need-tighter-regulation-say-oxford

no no no *you* can't freely scan through the collected works of humanity, that right is reserved for the large language models.

Stockholm Resilience Centre "advances science for a liveable planet"

We are hiring

3 Postdocs
4 PhD positions
and 1 project manager

to work on:

+emerging pests and pathogens

+resilience and transformations in fragile contexts

+resilience and sustainability in food systems

+Building models of, with and for sustainability transformations

+financial risk analysis

+manager for Global Resilience Partnership

https://www.https://www.stockholmresilience.org/about-us/careers.html

Another deep dive into Putin’s private life with Alina Kabaeva from The Dossier Center. The main takeaway is that Putin leverages his inner circle's wealth to provide a princely life for his two young sons. dossier.center/succession-en/

Some other takeaways: they hire private tutors through publicly placed ads. Foreign national tutors (South Africans preferred) get healthcare at the same elite clinic that treats elites' prostitutes. Despite heavy isolation, there are strange loopholes in the family's security (unless Putin is visiting).

Their eldest son apparently loves Disney heroes despite Putin’s hatred of Hollywood decadence. Kabaeva and Putin are grooming the boys for major sports exploits, but it's unclear if they've got mom's talents. A planned stint at the Sirius Lyceum in Sochi fell through due to security concerns.

Kabaeva has a whole coterie of Putin’s rich friends and their wives. She's also apparently recruited her own family, especially two cousins, to basically raise the kids for her.

The family has whole fleets of yachts and planes, all owned and made available by Putin’s inner circle through a network of companies and shareholdings that made my eyes go crossed.

All in all, maybe a bit tabloidy of an investigation, but Putin’s royal secrecy makes it all public interest in the end, I'd argue, given that this whole lavish lifestyle is ruling class politics in the end. Thank goodness for one thing: it doesn't seem that Putin is grooming his boys for politics, though sometimes politics finds such people...

Sweden’s foreign minister announces shock departure from politics
https://apnews.com/article/sweden-tobias-billstrom-foreign-ministry-quits-politics-bf0d386980ec945f589040ac48a07231

Important news from BepiColombo, ESA’s Mercury mission, due to below par performance of its key ion thrusters:

1. This week’s 4th Mercury flyby (23:48CEST on 4 Sep) has been deliberately altered to be 35km lower than originally planned, just 165km above the surface.

2. This is the first part of a new lower-power cruise trajectory that will see Bepi now enter Mercury orbit in Nov 2026, 11 months later than originally scheduled.

More below 👇

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo/Fourth_Mercury_flyby_begins_BepiColombo_s_new_trajectory

#SpaceScience

On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, explore two #RStats packages that provide crucial data on Latin American disappearances.

Digital tools can be important for understanding, documenting, and advocating for the victims and their families.

🇨🇱 pinochet: Data About the Victims of the Pinochet Regime, 1973-1990: https://danilofreire.r-universe.dev/pinochet

🇦🇷 presentes: Registry of Victims of State Terrorism in Argentina https://diegokoz.r-universe.dev/presentes