Daily Archives: January 17, 2021

Essenes in Judaean Society: the sectarians of the Dead Sea Scrolls – OUPblog

Posted: January 17, 2021 at 9:45 am

The sectarians reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls, identified with the Essenes, were not the isolated community of popular imagination that spent their days praying, studying scriptures, and waiting for one or two messiahs in the desert. Some of them did do so, especially those who lived at a site near the Dead Sea known as Khirbet (ruins of) Qumran, but most of them did not. Four thousand of them lived in towns, villages, and large groups throughout Judaea. They were in Jerusalem, where a gate was named after them, and also at Masada, where their writings were found. They worked in agriculture, animal husbandry, bee-keeping, and crafts of various kinds, but did not produce weapons.

They participated in public life by trading with other Jews and gentiles, and some of them could read and speak Greek. They were peace-loving, but that conviction did not prevent them from participating in the first Jewish revolt against Rome, 66-70 CE, preferring to be tortured and killed as martyrs rather than blaspheme the lawgiver or eat forbidden food.

The sectarians knew about the Romans, whom they designated by the cipher the Kittim, and described them as swift and mighty in war as they mercilessly destroyed many with the sword under Roman rule. The Roman commanders, as the Essenes described them, mockingly sneered at and besieged fortresses, symbols of the power of kings, princes and people, and all the nations were in fear and dread of them. The sectarians were familiar with the practices of the great army of the Romans, detailing as they did how it crushed and plundered the towns of the earth as the army marched across the expanse of the lands of the eastern Mediterranean, coming from afar and the coastlands, devouring all the peoples as an eagle. The sectarian commentator (pesherist) of the prophecy of the biblical book of Habakkuk described the Roman armys tactical use of horses and beasts in trampling the earth underfoot. The pesherist knew that the Romans imposed a payment of tribute of corn, money, and forced labour upon the nations, including Judaea in the province of Coele-Syria, and celebrated their success by sacrificing to the ensign of their military standards.

Political and military strategies of the Romans were known to the Essenes. They knew that the Romans made allies and friends of those who feared to confront them. They understood that the Romans were cunning, wily and the Essenes considered them deceitful as the Romans patiently planned to control the whole region. They described the Roman Senate as the council of the house of [their] guil[t] that dispatched a succession of praetors or governors to Judaea to devastate the land. With this antipathy towards the Romans it is not surprising to learn that one of them, named John the Essene, participated in the first Jewish revolt against Rome. He, being one of three men of exceptional strength, was appointed as general in charge of the areas north and west of Judaea, the toparchy of Thamma, Lydda, Joppa, and Ammaus.

The Essenes were a Jewish sect or school of philosophy with two branches: some were celibate, disdained marriage and adopted children; others believed that marriage and procreation were needed if the group was to continue and not disappear. Their community was hierarchical, structured, and disciplined. They cared for the elderly and the ill, and they shared their belongings with each other. They studied the holy books of Judaism, notably prophecy, and were punctilious in their observance of Jewish law, especially as regards purity and sabbath laws. They wore white linen, renounced pleasure, and regarded continence as a virtue. The Jewish historian Josephus compared them to the Greek Pythagoreans.

The Essenes practised a form of prophecy that involved the prediction of the fate of political figures. Judas the Essene foretold the death of Mattathias Antigonos at an underground place called Stratos Tower. Manaemus prophesied that the boy Herod would one day become king of the Jews, and as a result the Essenes were spared the requirement to take an oath of loyalty to the monarch. It is thought that this consequent favour was the reason why there was an Essene Gate in the first wall of Herodian Jerusalem. And Simon the Essene divined the demise of Archelaus as ethnarch of Judaea, and his banishment to Gaul.

Most of the Essenes lived life within Judaean society. Philo described them with the triple definition of piety: love of God, love of virtue, and love of men. Like other Jews, they relied on God and venerated the lawgiver. But they also held beliefs that distinguished them from other Jews: they believed in providence and fate, the resurrection of the flesh, and immortality of the soul. Distinct to all others in the ancient world, they were against slavery, condemning slave-ownership as both unjust and ungodly, and against the law of nature that made all men equal at birth.

Featured image byJad LimcacoviaUnsplash.

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‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ and ‘Ham on Rye’: Odds and ends – People’s World

Posted: at 9:45 am

Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons as Jake in 'I'm Thinking Of Ending Things.' | Mary Cybulski / Netflix

In Im Thinking of Ending Things (134 minutes), Jake (Jesse Plemons) drives Louisa (Jesse Buckley) through snow-covered country roads to meet his parents at their remote farm. Both are extremely uncomfortable. Louisa thinks repeatedly about terminating their seven-week relationship. Jake seems intent on displaying his shaky self-worth. They need to prove something to themselves.

Discomfort rises to terror as Louisa meets Jakes parents, played intensely by Toni Collette and David Thewlis. The parents dramatically age and regress throughout the evening. Jake disappears and appears. The farmhouse seems to change shape, furnishings and configuration. Are we here alone?

Jake tries to persuade Louisa to spend the night at the house. Increasingly fearful Louisa insists on returning to her own apartment. With the snow falling heavily, the ride back itself may only substitute one danger for another.

Director Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) ratchets up American gothic to psychological horror as he distorts time, place and relationships, scattering uneasy references to the musical Oklahoma, the film Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and poetryIntimations of Immortality. Louisa may be thinking of ending itbut Jake may actually be the one to end it after all!

First time director Tyler Taorminas landscape in Ham on Rye (85 minutes) is both smaller and larger than Kaufmans Im Thinking of Ending Things. Taormina sets us in suburban America, among high school students, walking through a social ritual of conversation, dance, and food at a local deli. We learn more from the young peoples dress, groupings and actions than from the sparse and often inaudible dialogue.

Where Kaufman jams his long sweeping camera shots and claustrophobic car journey with anxious forced repartee, Taormina pushes his lens uncomfortably close for extended runs with little dialogue. His young people reveal themselves in their dress and facial expressions. Taorminas youth are on their way to adulthood through ritual. It is an uneasy journey where some find purpose, escaping their suburban constraints, as others remain behind, their blank faces reflecting more circumscribed lives.

Both Ham on Rye and Im Thinking of Ending Things deal with the tensions of young Americas uncertain future. These films are unlike earlier genres of self-satisfied materialism or later rebellious promise. They are as uneasy with the past as they are nervous about the future. Cinematic didacticism has given way to filmmakers content to raise questions they wont or cant answer. Where are the writers and directors who are thinking of beginning things?!

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Lord Of The Rings: 10 Things About Arwen and Aragorn’s Relationship That Make No Sense – Screen Rant

Posted: at 9:45 am

The Arwen and Aragorn relationship is the main romantic relationship from The Lord of the Rings series, but some of it just makes no sense.

The Arwen and Aragorn relationship is the main romantic relationship from The Lord of the Rings series. Many people were engaged in their love story and wanted them to be together and happy. However, there are a lot of things about their relationship that dont make a lot of sense.

RELATED: The Lord of the Rings: 10 Fan Fiction Relationships We Wish Were Real

For people who only watched the movies and didnt read the books, things about Arwen and Aragorn and what keeps them apart can be even more confusing. Theres also the fact that the movies often add things in to tell a more watchable story, so there are definitely many aspects of their relationship that dont make sense.

While in many fantasy stories, especially newer ones, there are often relationships between different races, this wasnt the case in Tolkiens world. The reasons for this are kind of confusing and hard to explain, but the premise is that they basically have different gods.

Also, since elves live so long, its always going to be a lesson in heartbreak to be with someone who dies so quickly. However, it still seems way rarer than is realistic.

In the movies, Arwen gives this necklace to Aragorn as a representation of her love for him, but its not very well explained. Theres a sense that it is somewhat magical or contains her grace, but this is very vague.

While Arwen in the books did wear a white jewel, she actually gave it to Frodo. This necklace was mostly a movie invention, so its hard to say precisely how powerful its supposed to be.

In many ways, the world of Middle-Earth is fairly old-fashioned when it comes to gender roles. There are some exceptions to this for sure, but Arwen seems very much like an old-fashioned lady or princess whose father, Elrond, has a lot of say in her life.

However, since the movies tried to update things somewhat and give the women more of a storyline, this comes across as weird and patronizing.

While its technically possible for any human and elf pairing to fall in love, the thing that sets Arwen and Aragorn apart is that she has the ability to choose to be mortal or immortal like her ancestor Luthien.

RELATED: Lord of the Rings: 5 Times Aragorn Was Inspiring (& 5 Fans Felt Sorry For Him)

The reasons for this are a bit weird and have to do with the god figures in the world. While this is the explanation, its still not presented well in the movies. And, it seems like Arwen could realistically just live out Aragorns life and find happiness, but things are complicated.

In the books, Arwen is hardly mentioned at all in the main plot. The love story of Aragorn and Arwen is told in the appendices, but Arwen has very little role in the series.

However, the creators of the films wanted to include some of this love story while also giving Arwen more of a role. This means fans see her also as a capable warrior, so the fact that she never goes to see Aragorn again doesnt make a lot of sense.

In the books, Aragorn is a bit less of a reluctant hero than he is in the films. However, since that makes for a more interesting story with character development, Aragorn in the movies doesnt want to become the King of Gondor.

However, the reasons for this are rather shaky, and it makes him seem unwilling.

In one way, this makes a lot of sense. Aragorn clearly carries a lot of guilt over their relationship because he doesn't want Arwen to give up her immortality for him. He obviously loves her and doesnt want her to be hurt because of him.

RELATED: Lord Of The Rings: 10 Best Quotes From The Women Of Middle-Earth

However, it can also come across as if he doesnt respect Arwens choice in the manner. He is rather back and forth about things in an attempt to push her away.

Even if Arwen chose not to give up her immortality, theres a chance she would have died young anyway. Elves are immortal but they can die of things like battle wounds, and they can also die of a broken heart.

This is kind of a dramatic trope, but it is something that Tolkien laid out. And, in Arwens case, almost all of the elves would be gone from Middle-Earth by the time Aragorn died, but its a very weird concept in the first place.

Given how loyal Aragorn is, it always felt a bit weird in the movies when he did seem briefly to consider being with Eowyn. While at that point he technically had tried to break things off with Arwen, it did feel out of character.

Its clear that Eowyn would be the easier, sensible choice in a way, but its hard to see how this makes sense for him given the epic nature of his love for Arwen.

This is another thing that only happens in the movies, not in the books. This was definitely a way to create even more drama and desperation for Aragorn and drive his story forward, but it also just doesn't make sense.

If at this point fans presume shed already given up her immortality, then she would obviously be at risk if Sauron had his way. However, this applies to every person left in Middle-Earth. The movies make it seem like Arwens life force is almost linked to Saurons power, and this is strange.

NEXT:Lord of the Rings: Arwens 10 Best Dresses

Next The Batman: 5 Reasons It Shouldn't Be Part Of The DCEU (& 5 Reasons It Should)

Amanda is a freelance writer in NYC. She is a professional writer and storyteller who loves TV, activism, and fandom. She would definitely die for Captain America.

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Elon Musk is the worlds richest person. Is he giving his money away? – Vox.com

Posted: at 9:44 am

The richest person in the world would like your help giving away his billions of dollars.

One of the first things that Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla, did upon climbing to the top of American capitalism last week was to ask for any advice about how to climb the ranks of philanthropy. Now that he has more money than anyone else on the planet, Musk is likely to come under far greater scrutiny than he ever has about how he gives it away or doesnt.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whom Musk displaced from the top ranking, drew more and more negative attention for his penny-pinching philanthropy as he became wealthier and wealthier, and Musk will probably encounter a similar dynamic. Bezos turned to Twitter for advice as that scrutiny mounted, and Musk is following the same playbook.

Musks tweet lays bare two truths: He is certainly correct that billionaire philanthropy is difficult many of his fellow tech titans have struggled to give away their money effectively. But its also true that many billionaires have declined to give away large amounts of their money, partially out of fear of screwing up at making a difference, and that describes Musks own giving up to this point. Musk has given relatively small amounts of his wealth, a history that his tweet and his rise to top-billionaire status is highlighting.

Musks main charitable vehicle has been the Musk Foundation, which he founded in 2002. In an age of philanthropic showmanship, the Musk Foundation is almost entertaining in its simplicity and yet is strikingly opaque: The entire website is 33 words on a plain-text Yahoo page with no links, staff information, or contact forms (I wrote that masterpiece myself in HTML 1.0, Musk said at one point.) All that is included is five bullet points outlining the fields that the foundation supports.

Musk has also signed the Giving Pledge the commitment to give away at least half of ones money to charity but he is one of its few signatories not to make their pledge letter publicly available on the programs website.

The main place where Musk has been more voluble, naturally, is on Twitter, where he periodically reveals tidbits about his philanthropic thinking to Tesla fans who beseech him for gifts or details. Sometimes hell promise to award money from his foundation to followers who tweet at him.

Until 2016, Musk gave relatively little money to his foundation which then gave little to nonprofits, according to the tax filings that foundations must file. Then in May 2016, Musk donated $250 million in Tesla stock to his foundation, but that money has also been slow to get out the door. So during the 16-year period between the foundations founding in 2002 and mid-2018, the last year on file, the philanthropy has only given about $25 million directly to nonprofit groups, with $10 million of that going to support OpenAI, a nonprofit founded by Musk and entrepreneur Sam Altman.

After 2016, the foundation routed about $50 million to donor-advised funds (DAFs), which are separate philanthropic vehicles that dont disclose their gifts and also allow foundations to circumvent a requirement to send 5 percent of their assets elsewhere every year. A Musk spokesperson told Forbes last year that those DAFs had donated a total of $75 million over their lifetimes to nonprofits.

That $75 million, when combined with his foundations $25 million worth of direct gifts through 2018, means Musk has given away about $100 million to charity through his foundation and his DAFs. (This figure doesnt include money possibly donated by his foundation after 2018 or money donated not through a foundation or DAF.) That math works out to Musk donating about 0.05 percent of his current net worth to charity so far. That figure also tracks with what Musk has said publicly in 2018, he said that he had sold about $100 million worth of Tesla stock to finance his charity.

Representatives for Musk didnt respond to Recodes request for comment.

Because around three-quarters of Musks donations to date have come through DAFs, which dont have to file similar public tax documents, it is harder to track what specific nonprofits he is supporting. Thats somewhat intentional: Musk has said his grants are (almost always) anonymous, although that would only be technically true for donations from outside the walls of the foundation (though Musk has said incorrectly that his foundation donations are anonymous, too.)

There have been some announcements of major gifts from grantees, though. In addition to the $10 million from the foundation to OpenAI, Musk donated at least $10 million to the Future of Life Institute, which researches safety in artificial intelligence; $10 million for a prize focused on promoting global literacy; and $6 million to the Sierra Club, a donation that was originally anonymous and then made public after Musk encouraged the organization to do so. Musk has also said that he is one of the top donors to the American Civil Liberties Union, without disclosing a precise amount.

But those donations all happened at a quainter time in Musks wealth history. Just a year ago, Musk was testifying under oath that he was worth about $20 billion, although as with other billionaire tech founders, most of that money resides in illiquid stock that a CEO is often reluctant to sell. Now Bloomberg estimates his net worth as over 10 times that.

And as he is now the worlds wealthiest person, more eyeballs will be on his every move. Progressive activists and politicians have increasingly turned their ire on a few high-profile billionaires sending a guillotine to Bezoss mansion at one point, for instance as a way to criticize American income inequality. Billionaires, though, have used their philanthropy as a counterargument to higher taxes that would close inequality, pointing to the good they are doing today for the world with the fortunes.

Musk, who has bristled at the label billionaire and recently moved himself and his foundation to Texas, has said that his big philanthropic investments are still decades away, which could frustrate the left. The entrepreneur has said that while he would sell some more Tesla shares every few years for philanthropy, major disbursements from his charities will only come in about 20 years, when Tesla is in steady state. That would be around when Musk is nearing 70 years old.

But he does appear to have a clear idea of how he wants to spend his fortune at that point. He has already outlined two broad buckets for his wealth: half for Earth, and half for Mars.

Will use that to make life multiplanetary, help education & environment on Earth w my foundation. Just dont want us to be sad about the future, he said of his wealth in 2018. About half my money is intended for problems on Earth, half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life in case we get hit by a meteor or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves, he told another follower a few months later.

Hes already starting to make some more gifts. On Friday, Barstool Sports announced that Musk had made a fund that it organized to support by Barstool Sports for small businesses.

Musk is not as showy with his material comforts as other tech billionaires he is in the process of selling all of his homes, and has not displayed the same taste for yachts or other trifles. From Musks point of view, hes saving up.

Its going to take a lot of resources to build a city on Mars, he told an interviewer last month. I want to be able to contribute as much as possible.

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Gab appears to flirt with Elon Musk in tweet – Fox Business

Posted: at 9:44 am

Parler CEO John Matze argues Amazon, Apple and Google's suspension of the social media platform is 'a pretty prime example' of antitrust.

Gab seems to know how to get people talking.

The social media platform, which is seen as an alternative to Twitter, sent out a cryptic tweet early Tuesday that showed a picture of a satellite in Earths orbit.

Call me, Elon, is written in green and the text reads, It needs to happen. @ElonMusk.

Emails from Fox News to Musks lawyer and Tesla were not immediately returned, but the post stirred debate online onwhat the potential could be if the worlds second-richest manworth about $172 billiondecidedto enter the social media game.

Musk responded to Big Techs recent crackdown on President Trump and his supporters in a tweet that read, A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech.

FOX Business reported that Musk once called out Amazon for reportedly censoring the publication of a book about the coronavirus.

Gab did not immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment.

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Elon Musk Told Twitter to ‘Use Signal.’ Investors Plowed Into the Wrong one – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 9:44 am

TipRanks

Watching the markets with an eye to the main chance, Raymond James strategist Tavis McCourt sees both risk and opportunity in current market conditions. The opportunity, in his opinion, stems from the obvious factors: the Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats in the recent runoff vote, giving the incoming Biden Administration majority support in both Houses of Congress and increasing the odds of meaningful fiscal support getting signed into law in the near term. More importantly, the coronavirus vaccination program is proceeding, and reports are showing that Pfizers vaccine, one of two approved in the US, is effective against the new strain of the virus. A successful vaccination program will speed up the economic recovery, allowing states to loosen lockdown regulations and get people back to work. The risks are also coming from the political and public health realms. The House Democrats have passed articles of impeachment against President Trump, despite the imminent natural closure of his term of office, and that passage reduces the chances of political reconciliation in a heavily polarized environment. And while the COVID strain is matched by current vaccines, there is still a risk that a new strain will develop that is not covered by existing vaccinations which could restart the cycle of lockdowns and economic decline. Another risk McCourt sees, beyond those two, would be a sharp rise in inflation. He doesnt discount that, but sees it as unlikely to happen soon. product/service inflation is only really a possibility AFTER re-openings, so the market feels a bit bullet proof in the very near term, and thus the continued rally, with Dems winning the GA races just adding fuel to the stimulus fire, McCourt noted. Some of McCourts colleagues among the Raymond James analyst cadre are keeping these risks in mind, and putting their imprimatur on strong dividend stocks. Weve looked into Raymond James' recent calls, and using the TipRanks database, weve chosen two stocks with high-yield dividends. These Buy-rated tickers bring a dividend yield of 7%, a strong attraction for investors interested in using the current good times to set up a defensive firewall should the risks materialize. Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) Well start in the energy sector, a business segment long known for both high cash flows and high dividends. Enterprise Products Partners is a midstream company, part of the network that moves hydrocarbon products from the wellheads to the storage farms, refineries, and distribution points. Enterprise controls over 50,000 miles worth of pipelines, shipping terminals on Texas Gulf coast, and storage facilities for 160 million barrels oil and 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The company was hurt by low prices and low demand in 1H20, but partially recovered in the second half. Revenues turned around, growing 27% sequentially to reach $6.9 billion in Q3. That number was down year-over-year, slipping 5.4%, but came in more than 6% above the Q3 forecast. Q3 earnings, at 48 cents per share, were just under the forecast, but were up 4% year-over-year and 2% sequentially. EPD has recently declared its 4Q20 dividend distribution, at 45 cents per common share. This is up from the previous payment of 44 cents, and marks the first increase in two years. At $1.80 annualized, the payment yields 7.9%. Among the bulls is Raymond James' Justin Jenkins, who rates EPD a Strong Buy. The analyst gives the stock a $26 price target, which implies a 15% upside from current levels. (To watch Jenkins track record, click here) Backing his bullish stance, Jenkins noted, "In our view, EPD's unique combination of integration, balance sheet strength, and ROIC track record remains best in class. We see EPD as arguably best positioned to withstand the volatile landscape With EPD's footprint, demand gains, project growth, and contracted ramps should more than offset supply headwinds and lower y/y marketing results" Its not often that the analysts all agree on a stock, so when it does happen, take note. EPDs Strong Buy consensus rating is based on a unanimous 9 Buys. The stocks $24.63 average price target suggests an upside of 9% from the current share price of $22.65. (See EPD stock analysis on TipRanks) AT&T, Inc. (T) AT&T is one of the markets instantly recognizable stock. The company is a member in long standing of the S&P 500, and it has reputation as one of the stock markets best dividend payers. AT&T is a true large-cap industry giant, with a market cap of $208 billion and the largest network of mobile and landline phone services in the US. Its acquisition of TimeWarner (now WarnerMedia), in a process running between 2016 and 2018, has given the company a large stake in the mobile content streaming business. AT&T saw revenues and earnings decline in 2020, under pressure from the corona pandemic but the decline was modest, as that same pandemic also put a premium on telecom and networking systems, which tended to support AT&Ts business. Revenues in 3Q20 were $42.3 billion, 5% below the year-ago quarter. On positive notes, free cash flow rose yoy from $11.4 billion to $12.1 billion, and the company reported a net gain of 5.5 million new subscribers. The subscriber growth was driven by the new 5G network rollout and by premium content services. The company held up its reputation as a dividend champ, and has made its most recent dividend declaration for payment in February 2021. The payment, at 52 per common share, is the fifth in a row at current level and annualizes to $2.08, giving a yield of 7.2%. For comparison, the average dividend among tech sector peer companies is only 0.9%. AT&T has kept its dividend strong for the past 12 years. Raymond James analyst Frank Louthan sees AT&T as a classic defensive value stock, and describes Ts current state as one with the bad news baked in. [We] believe there is more that can go right during the next 12 months than can get worse for AT&T. Throw in the fact that shares are heavily shorted, and we believe this is a recipe for upside. Large cap value names are hard to come by, and we think investors who can wait a few months for a mean reversion while locking in a 7% yield should be rewarded for buying AT&T at current levels, Louthan opined. In line with these comments, Louthan rates T an Outperform (i.e. Buy), and his $32 price target implies room for 10% growth from current levels. (To watch Louthans track record, click here) What does the rest of the Street think? Looking at the consensus breakdown, opinions from other analysts are more spread out. 7 Buy ratings, 6 Holds and 2 Sells add up to a Moderate Buy consensus. In addition, the $31.54 average price target indicates ~9% upside potential. (See AT&T stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for dividend stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Elon Musk Signed A Roadster That Later Died And Was Resurrected (Videos) – CleanTechnica

Posted: at 9:44 am

Cars

Published on January 16th, 2021 | by Johnna Crider

January 16th, 2021 by Johnna Crider

Gruber Motor Company has shared a special story about the last Tesla Roadster, VIN 1459, which marked the end of Roadster production. This Roadster was signed by Elon Musk and preceded the final five, which were five specially painted Roadsters with carbon fiber plaque. VIN 1459 came to Gruber like many other vehicles dead and unable to charge. It had dying battery packs. Gruber shared the story of bringing it back to life in a blog post titled Elon Signed This Roadster.

The blog noted that transport took longer than originally planned, since the Roadsters wheels had locked, making it hard to move. Despite these challenges, Gruber Motors repaired the pack and brought this gem of an iconic car back to life.

We see a lot of low mileage collectible Roadsters, pampered and flawless. This one is over the top, with only 2400 miles (after 10 years), never in the rain (came from FL), and once we put it up on the lift, we realized this undercarriage and [the] internals were so clean and undisturbed, we thought we were looking at a Roadster that had just rolled off the assembly line (take note of the gallery images). This Roadster looked like it was in a time warp. Meticulously stored and preserved, nothing as we have ever seen, Gruber wrote in their blog post.

According to Gruber, the autograph by Elon Musk on the PEM appeared as fresh as the day it was signed. Gruber also pointed out that if the service plug being pulled on the battery pack, this particular Roadster would have been a Level 1 battery recovery that wouldnt even require pulling the battery pack. Aside from the transport delays, it would have been done super quickly.

Level 1 battery recovery is a procedure for Roadsters that have been bricked for 4 months or less or have been stabilized upon being bricked by pulling the service disconnect plug to prevent any further battery drain. However, this Roadster wound up having what the company calls Level 3 battery recovery which is simply a battery pull along with service on any of the 11 sheets inside the ESS battery pack. In this case, theres usually some cell degradation that requires Gruber to isolate and neutralize any resistive cells. In some cases, a sheet replacement is required. These come from donor packs, which are a scarce commodity.

VIN 1459 needed a sheet replacement since, as the company writes, one sheet had a battery brick which had been below 2 VDC for too long. Fortunately, Gruber was indeed able to bring this beautiful car back to life.

This Roadster was so perfect, we were able to reverse engineer and document much of the chassis and frame, providing a rare glimpse of what these cars looked like fresh off the assembly line. Using current state-of-the-art hi-res camera equipment, we were able to generate high-quality images of the mechanical portions of the Roadster. That is one fun weekend project!

Head on over to Gruber Motors to look at a couple dozen photos of this special Roadster and the companys work reviving it. Or watch the videos above.

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Tags: Elon Musk, Gruber Motor Company, Gruber Motors, Tesla, Tesla Roadster

Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge artist, gem and mineral collector, member of the International Gem Society, and a Tesla shareholder who believes in Elon Musk and Tesla. Elon Musk advised her in 2018 to Believe in Good. Tesla is one of many good things to believe in. You can find Johnna on Twitter at all hours of the day & night.

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‘Super Bowl of Astronomy’ kicks off online due to global pandemic – Space.com

Posted: at 9:44 am

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) is making the most of online opportunities during its 237th meeting, which will fully take place virtually this week due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The self-proclaimed "Super Bowl of Astronomy," which runs through Friday (Jan. 15), typically covers a wide range of topics, and this year's edition will be no different even though it will be fully online. The full agenda is available here. Some hot topics attendees can expect include fast radio bursts, dark matter, sky surveys, gravitational waves, and trying to understand why different teams have different measurements to calculate the expansion of the universe, among others.

AAS was already including iPosters (PowerPoint-like posters with combinations of text, images, video and audio) at its in-person meetings, along with short science talks, before the pandemic erupted last March. The society tested these meeting formats online with the June 2020 meeting, which was quickly moved online only weeks before starting as quarantine restrictions expanded across the United States.

Full coverage: The 237th American Astronomical Society meeting of 2021

Attendees can expect even more adaptations to online for AAS 237, press officer Rick Fienberg told Space.com in an e-mail interview.

"For AAS 237, we are adding 'Turbo Talks' 2-minute introductory videos by authors to draw attention and spur interest in their iPosters," he said. Other changes attendees can expect include Slack channels during the talks for people to "kibitz", Fienberg said, and spreading the meeting over five days instead of four to reduce the time attendees must spend at the computer each day.

The virtual exhibition hall will be very different than what attendees saw in June. This time around, AAS will use a meeting environment called vFairs, which allows sponsors and exhibitors to create custom-branded virtual booths, Fienberg said.

"They can post brochures and other files for download, have staff at the booth at certain times of day to interact with attendees one-on-one or in small groups, and offer webinars to introduce larger audiences of attendees to their products and services," he said.

Coronavirus and space: How the pandemic is affecting research and missions

The ultimate goal is to attract more attendees to the virtual exhibition hall, mirroring the "coffee break" and "cocktail hour" experience one typically gets by wandering into the physical hall during an in-person meeting, he added.

"At our first virtual meeting in June, exhibitors didn't get the traffic theyre used to, for obvious reasons," Fienberg said. "So for January, we've set aside some dedicated time each day where the only activity is in the exhibit hall, and we've successfully encouraged nearly all our exhibitors to offer webinars, which are being listed in the program along with everything else so as not to get lost in the shuffle."

Student attendees can also look forward to the first-ever virtual "graduate school" and undergraduate research "experience fair" which will allow students to share CVs, meeting via text and video chat, and learn more about participating institutions all without the need of paying for in-person travel. People at all stages of their career can also take advantage of various social networking events, such as a trivia night, speed networking and a virtual scavenger hunt.

Looking back at the June meeting, Fienberg said the AAS staff "really had to scramble" to shift all activities online, including assembling the infrastructure, find vendors, and to bring members and other stakeholders along for the ride. The hard work paid off, as roughly 1,400 people attended the virtual activities double the expected attendance AAS thought it would see in-person in Madison, Wisc.

Fienberg said AAS has listened closely to attendee feedback in June to prepare for January; another change they are making is including two days of workshops that were not offered in June. The winter meeting typically has higher attendance than the summer meeting, with more sessions and activities as well.

"With five days of science sessions and two slots daily for press conferences, Ive scheduled 10 briefings rather than my usual eight, so I have 25% more presenters to communicate with plus their institutional public information officers," Fienberg said. "All of us involved in planning and executing the meeting are really quite exhausted already, but that's true when doing in-person meetings too. What we've learned over these two meetings is that a virtual meeting involves just as much work as an in-person one."

Fienberg added that some attendees have expressed worry about high registration fees for the virtual meeting, but he noted the infrastructure is not free. While venues and caterers are not required for online conferences, AAS is still working with vendors and software to deliver the best experience possible. "It's a fairly even trade," he said of the cost to AAS.

With a vaccine slowly rolling out in the United States and other countries, AAS is thinking ahead to when in-person meetings will be possible again in the coming months. Even before the pandemic erupted, members already were asking for virtual options due to cost and environmental concerns associated with activities like flying, Fienberg said. Journalists have been able to attend virtual press conferences for many years now, and Fienberg said the pandemic has caused even more types of attendees to strongly consider the online option.

"I think its inevitable that the meeting of the future will be hybrid," he said. "We just have to figure out how to make it work financially."

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Astronomers document the rise and fall of a rarely observed stellar dance – UW News

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News releases | Research | Science

January 14, 2021

The sun is the only star in our system. But many of the points of light in our night sky are not as lonely. By some estimates, more than three-quarters of all stars exist as binaries with one companion or in even more complex relationships. Stars in close quarters can have dramatic impacts on their neighbors. They can strip material from one another, merge or twist each others movements through the cosmos.

And sometimes those changes unfold over the course of a few generations.

That is what a team of astronomers from the University of Washington, Western Washington University and the University of California, Irvine discovered when they analyzed more than 125 years of astronomical observations of a nearby stellar binary called HS Hydrae. This system is whats known as an eclipsing binary: From Earth, the two stars appear to pass over one another or eclipse one another as they orbit a shared center of gravity. The eclipses cause the amount of light emitted by the binary to dim periodically.

An image from the Digitized Sky Survey showing HS Hydrae in the center.Space Telescope Science Institute

On Jan. 11 at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, the team reported more than a centurys worth of changes to the eclipses by the stars in HS Hydrae. The two stars began to eclipse in small amounts starting around a century ago, increasing to almost full eclipses by the 1960s. The degree of eclipsing then plummeted over the course of just a half century, and will cease around February 2021.

There is a historical record of observations of HS Hydrae that essentially spans modern astronomy starting with photographic plates in the late 19th century up through satellite images taken in 2019. By diving into those records, we documented the complete rise and fall of this rare type of eclipsing binary, said team leader James Davenport, a research assistant professor of astronomy at the UW and associate director of the UWs DIRAC Institute.

The eclipses of the two stars that make up HS Hydrae are changing because another body most likely a third, unobserved companion star is turning the orientation of the binary with respect to Earth. Systems like this, which are called evolving eclipsing binaries, are rare, with only about a dozen known to date, according to Davenport. Identifying this type of binary requires multiple observations to look for long-term changes in the degree of dimming, which would indicate that the orientation of the binary is changing over time.

HS Hydrae has such an observational record because, at 342 light- years away, it is a relatively close and bright system and the two stars orbit each other every 1.5 days. Scientists first reported that HS Hydrae was an eclipsing binary in 1965. In a 2012 paper, astronomers based in Switzerland and the Czech Republic reported that the amount of dimming from HS Hydrae decreased from 1975 through 2008, indicating that the two stars were eclipsing smaller and smaller portions of one another over time. That team also predicted that the eclipses would end around 2022.

Davenport and his team checked in on HS Hydrae using observations of the system in 2019 by the NASAs Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. They saw only a 0.0075-magnitude drop in light from HS Hydrae, a sign that the two stars were barely covering one another during eclipses. For comparison, eclipses in 1975 saw a more than 0.5-magnitude drop.

Fifty years ago, these two stars were almost completely eclipsing each other. By the early 21st century, the degree of eclipse was around 10%, and in the most recent observations from 2019, they barely overlapped, said Davenport.

With these new data, the team now predicts that HS Hydrae eclipses will cease around February 2021.

Image of a photographic plate from 1945, which was digitized for the Digital Access to a Sky Century at Harvard, or DASCH, catalog.DASCH/Harvard University

The observations from the 1960s through 2019 catalogue the decline of HS Hydrae as an evolving eclipsing binary. But Davenport and his team also uncovered evidence for its rise. The Digital Access to a Sky Century at Harvard, or DASCH, is a digital catalog of photometric data taken from more than a centurys worth of astro-photographic plates at Harvard University. The team mined this record and found observations of HS Hydrae from 1893 through 1955 that they could analyze to search for signs of dimming.

The researchers broke down DASCH observations of HS Hydrae by decade. From the late 19th century through the roaring 20s, HS Hydrae showed no measurable dimming. But things began to change in the 1930s, where they measured a modest 0.1-magnitude drop in brightness. The degree of dimming rose through the 1940s and peaked in the 1950s with a 0.5-magnitude drop in brightness.

Based off this 126-year history of HS Hydrae observations, the team predicts that the system will start eclipsing again around the year 2195. But, that assumes that the third companion which other teams have predicted is a small, dim M-dwarf star continues to behave as it has to date.

Image of an astronomical log book from 1945. These observations are now part of the Digital Access to a Sky Century at Harvard, or DASCH, catalog.DASCH/Harvard University

We wont know for sure unless we keep looking, said Davenport. The best we can say right now is that HS Hydrae has been changing constantly over the course of modern astronomy.

Missions like TESS will likely identify more evolving eclipsing binaries in the coming years. This should open new opportunities for astronomers to understand how star systems are built, as well as how they change over time whether they are busy, dynamic systems like HS Hydrae, or more quiet systems, like ours.

Co-authors on the paper are UW graduate students Diana Windemuth and Jessica Birky; UW researcher Karen Warmbein; Erin Howard at Western Washington University; and Courtney Klein at UC Irvine. The research was funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the DIRAC Institute, the UW Department of Astronomy, the Charles and Lisa Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences and the Washington Research Foundation.

For more information, contact Davenport at jrad@uw.edu.

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Astronomers observe the death of a distant galaxy for the first time – CBS News

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Astronomers have, for the first time, witnessed the death of a distant galaxy, which they describe as a "truly extreme event."

When all of the stars in a galaxy die, and new ones are no longer forming, the galaxy itself ceases to exist. This occurs when all of the galaxy's gas is ejected, making it impossible for new stars to form.

According to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists were "thrilled" to be able to capture this rare phenomenon recently using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submilimeter Array of telescopes in Chile.

It has taken about nine billion years for the light from the starburst galaxy ID2299 to reach Earth. So, when astronomers happened to observe it by chance, they witnessed the universe as it appeared at just 4.5 billion years old.

Astronomers say that ID2299 is losing 10,000 suns worth of gas each year rapidly depleting fuel needed to form new stars. This startling release of gas appears to be the result of two galaxies violently colliding and merging together to create ID2299.

The galaxy is also currently forming stars at a rate hundreds of times faster than the Milky Way using up the rest of its precious gas supply. Because of this, ID2299 is expected to die relatively soon, in just a few tens of thousands of years.

"This is the first time we have observed a typical massive star-forming galaxy in the distant universe about to 'die' because of a massive cold gas ejection," lead author Annagrazia Puglisi said in a statement.

Astronomers believe the phenomenon is the result of galaxies merging because they were able to witness a rare "tidal tail," usually too faint to see in distant galaxies. This elongated stream of stars and gas, astronomers suggest, is the direct result of the galactic merger.

They only observed the galaxy for a few minutes, but it was enough to spot the elusive tidal tail.

"Our study suggests that gas ejections can be produced by mergers and that winds and tidal tails can appear very similar," says study co-author Emanuele Daddi. "This might lead us to revise our understanding of how galaxies 'die.'"

If the astronomers are correct that the merger led to the massive loss of gas, they will need to reconsider prior theories on how galaxies form and evolve and how they die. Other theories have suggested that wind from active black holes or intense star formations are responsible for such deaths.

"Studying this single case unveiled the possibility that this type of event might not be unusual at all and that many galaxies suffered from this 'gravitational gas removal', including misinterpreted past observations,"said co-author Dr. Jeremy Fensch.

"This might have huge consequences on our understanding of what actually shapes the evolution of galaxies."

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