Daily Archives: September 27, 2021

How neutron star collisions flooded Earth with gold and other precious metals – Space.com

Posted: September 27, 2021 at 6:06 pm

Paul M. Sutteris an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of "Ask a Spaceman" and "Space Radio," and author of "How to Die in Space."

The universe is pretty good at smashing things together. All kinds of stuff collides stars, black holes and ultradense objects called neutron stars.

And when neutron stars do it, the collisions release a flood of elements necessary for life.

Let's explore how astronomers used subtle ripples in the fabric of space-time to confirm that colliding neutron stars make life as we know it possible.

Related: When neutron stars collide: Scientists spot kilonova explosion from epic 2016 crash

Just about everything has collided at one point or another in the history of the universe, so astronomers had long figured that neutron stars superdense objects born in the explosive deaths of large stars smashed together, too. But starting about a decade ago, astronomers realized that the collision of neutron stars would be particularly interesting.

For one, a neutron star collision would go out with a flash. It wouldn't be as bright as a typical supernova, which happens when large stars explode. But astronomers predicted that an explosion generated from a neutron star collision would be roughly a thousand times brighter than a typical nova, so they dubbed it a kilonova and the name stuck.

As the name suggests, neutron stars are made of a lot of neutrons. And when you put a bunch of neutrons in a high-energy environment, they start to combine, transform, splinter off and do all sorts of other wild nuclear reaction things.

With all the neutrons flying around and combining with each other, and all the energy needed to power the nuclear reactions, kilonovas are responsible for producing enormous amounts of heavy elements, including gold, silver and xenon. Together with their cousins, supernovas, kilonovas fill out the periodic table and generate all the elements necessary to make rocky planets ready to host living organisms.

In 2017, astronomers witnessed their first kilonova. The event occurred about 140 million light-years from Earth and was first heralded by the appearance of a certain pattern of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, washing over Earth.

These gravitational waves were detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo observatory, which immediately notified the astronomical community that they had seen the distinct ripple in space-time that could only mean that two neutron stars had collided. Less than 2 seconds later, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a gamma-ray burst a brief, bright flash of gamma-rays.

A flurry of scientific interest followed, as astronomers around the world trained their telescopes, antennas and orbiting observatories at the kilonova event, scanning it in every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. All told, about one-third of the entire astronomical community around the globe participated in the effort. It was perhaps the most widely described astronomical event in human history, with over 100 papers on the subject appearing within the first two months.

Kilonovas had long been predicted, but with an occurrence rate of 1 every 100,000 years per galaxy, astronomers weren't really expecting to see one so soon. (In comparison, supernovas occur once every few decades in each galaxy.)

And the addition of gravitational wave signals provided an unprecedented glimpse inside the event itself. Between gravitational waves and traditional electromagnetic observations, astronomers got a complete picture from the moment the merger began.

That kilonova alone produced more than 100 Earths' worth of pure, solid precious metals, confirming that these explosions are fantastic at creating heavy elements.

In short, the gold in your jewelry was forged from two neutron stars that collided long before the birth of the solar system.

But that wasn't the only reason the kilonova observations were so fascinating. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted that gravitational waves travel at the speed of light. But astronomers have long been trying to develop extensions and modifications to general relativity, and the vast majority of those extensions and modifications predicted different speeds for gravitational waves.

With that single kilonova event, the universe gave us the perfect place to test this. The gravitational wave signal and the gamma-ray burst signal from the kilonova arrived within 1.7 seconds of each other. But that was after traveling over 140 million miles (225 million kilometers). To arrive at Earth that close to each other over such a long journey, the gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves would have had to travel at the same speed to one part in a million billion.

That single measurement was a billion times more precise than any previous observation, and thus wiped out the vast majority of modified theories of gravity.

No wonder a third of astronomers worldwide found it interesting.

Learn more by listening to the episode "What's so groovy about gravitational waves? (Part 2)" on the "Ask A Spaceman" podcast, available oniTunesand askaspaceman.com. Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul @PaulMattSutter and facebook.com/PaulMattSutter. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Over 150 participants from Romania enter the NASA Space Apps Challenge competition, the largest space and science hackathon in the world – Business…

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Over 150 participants from Romania have registered for NASA Space Apps Challenge, the largest space and science hackathon in the world, which will take place on October 2-3., online. The grand award of the global competition is the chance to participate in the launch of a space shuttle in 2022.

Those who want to register can complete the application available on the pages dedicated to the virtual event organized in Romania in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timioara and Iai.

The teams will have to solve one of the 28 proposed challenges in areas such as Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, Apps, Data Organization, Game, Hardware, Knowledge, Lunar Surface Operations, Risk, Science Applications, Space Travel.

Participants can create their own challenge, but it will not enter the final jury.

The two winning teams from each city will qualify for the global stage and enter the competition for the grand award: the chance to witness a space shuttle launch in 2022. In addition, NASA offers ten other awards. The winning teams will upload their solutions on Sunday, October 3, to the global platform for the next stage.

During the hackathon in Romania, the competitors will receive help and advice from dedicated mentorsand a team of experts from Romania will judge the projects. The teams will be assisted during the 48 hours of competition by representatives of Vodafone Romania, Bosch, Google, Thales, Profi, Endava, Tradesilvania and Cloud Software Development.

NASA Awards for the winners

The winning teams from Romania will be evaluated together with the other winning projects globally by the experts of the space agency.

The ten global awards are: Best Use of Science, Best Use of Data, Best Use of Technology, Galactic Impact, Best Mission Concept, Most Inspirational, Best Storytelling Award (new), Global Connection Award (new), Art & Technology Award (new), Local Impact Award (new).

In 2020, Space Apps enjoyed internationally approximately 26,000 participants who created 2,303 projects. The full list of 2020 hackathon finalists can be accessed here. Last year, four teams from Romania qualified for the international judging stage of the competition.

The NASA Space Apps Challenge International Hackathon is an innovative NASA incubation program organized annually. The program gathers thousands of people worldwide who work with NASAs open data in a 48-hour sprint. Since its launch in 2012, NASA Space Apps Challenge has engaged over 150,000 people from over 150 countries and territories.

The Space Apps concept relies on collaboration, creativity and critical thinking, stimulates interest in science and space and Earth exploration, and encourages growth and diversity among the next generation of scientists, technologists, designers and engineers. Space Apps is managed by the Division of Earth Sciences, Science Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

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Immersion tank study will explore the impact of space travel on the female body | Space – BollyInside

Posted: at 6:06 pm

There is almost no knowledge about the physiological and psychological effects on women in this research area, said Angelique Van Ombergen, the Esa scientist leading the experiment at the Medes space clinic in Toulouse. We really hope that this study could help address some of the knowledge gaps of how people react to this extreme environment. The weightlessness experienced by astronauts can have striking effects on the body in a short space of time. Without gravity to load the spine, water and other molecules are able to move into the discs between vertebrae, meaning that astronauts tend to become taller in space but also weaker as supporting muscles and ligaments are doing less work.

The absence of gravity also leads to fluids shifting towards the head, which has been linked to hearing and vision problems. Previous studies have found the immune system can go quiet in the sterile environment of a spaceship, which can lead to a reactivation of old viruses. Many of these effects are likely to vary significantly between men and women. Based on previous dry immersion experiments a Russian cohort spent 21 days in a similar setup Van Ombergen said the experience was likely to be quite challenging for the volunteers, rather than relaxing. It requires dedication from the volunteers to stick to it, she said.

In the latest study, the volunteers will first be swathed in a cotton sheet and then a waterproof tarp, before being suspended in an immersion tank with only their arms and head left outside. The volunteers will remain in their tank for five days in a monotonous environment, only coming out for brief hygiene breaks to shower and go to the toilet, while remaining in a horizontal position to minimise fluid shifts in the body. The scientists will collect blood and urine samples, while making continuous measurements to see how the body is adapting. The proportion of female astronauts has slowly increased over the past decade, with the first all-female spacewalk in 2019, Nasa having announced its goal to put the first woman on the moon and China expected to include a female astronaut on next months mission to its new Tiangong space station.

Until now, though, there has been a dearth of data making it difficult to tailor exercise programmes during missions and rehabilitation on return to Earth for female astronauts. Women seem less susceptible to vision impairment than men, related to headward fluid shifts, but women are more susceptible to fainting when they come back to Earth, said Prof Alan Hargens, who researches the impact of microgravity on the human body at Surgery University of California San Diego.

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Hubble Shows Winds in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Are Speeding Up – HubbleSite

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Like the speed of an advancing race car driver, the winds in the outermost "lane" of Jupiter's Great Red Spot are accelerating a discovery only made possible by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which has monitored the planet for more than a decade.

Researchers analyzing Hubble's regular "storm reports" found that the average wind speed just within the boundaries of the storm, known as a high-speed ring, has increased by up to 8 percent from 2009 to 2020. In contrast, the winds near the red spots innermost region are moving significantly more slowly, like someone cruising lazily on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

The massive storm's crimson-colored clouds spin counterclockwise at speeds that exceed 400 miles per hour and the vortex is bigger than Earth itself. The red spot is legendary in part because humans have observed it for more than 150 years.

When I initially saw the results, I asked 'Does this make sense?' No one has ever seen this before," said Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the analysis published today in Geophysical Research Letters. "But this is something only Hubble can do. Hubble's longevity and ongoing observations make this revelation possible."

We use Earth-orbiting satellites and airplanes to track major storms on Earth closely in real time. "Since we don't have a storm chaser plane at Jupiter, we can't continuously measure the winds on site," explained Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who contributed to the research. "Hubble is the only telescope that has the kind of temporal coverage and spatial resolution that can capture Jupiters winds in this detail."

The change in wind speeds they have measured with Hubble amount to less than 1.6 miles per hour per Earth year. "We're talking about such a small change that if you didnt have eleven years of Hubble data, we wouldn't know it happened," said Simon. "With Hubble we have the precision we need to spot a trend." Hubble's ongoing monitoring allows researchers to revisit and analyze its data very precisely as they keep adding to it. The smallest features Hubble can reveal in the storm are a mere 105 miles across, about twice the length of the state of Rhode Island.

"We find that the average wind speed in the Great Red Spot has been slightly increasing over the past decade," Wong added. "We have one example where our analysis of the two-dimensional wind map found abrupt changes in 2017 when there was a major convective storm nearby."

To better analyze Hubble's bounty of data, Wong took a new approach to his data analysis. He used software to track tens to hundreds of thousands of wind vectors (directions and speeds) each time Jupiter was observed by Hubble. "It gave me a much more consistent set of velocity measurements," Wong explained. "I also ran a battery of statistical tests to confirm if it was justified to call this an increase in wind speed. It is."

What does the increase in speed mean? "That's hard to diagnose, since Hubble can't see the bottom of the storm very well. Anything below the cloud tops is invisible in the data," explained Wong. "But it's an interesting piece of data that can help us understand what's fueling the Great Red Spot and how it's maintaining energy." There's still a lot of work to do to fully understand it.

Astronomers have pursued ongoing studies of the "king" of solar system storms since the 1870s. The Great Red Spot is an upwelling of material from Jupiter's interior. If seen from the side, the storm would have a tiered wedding cake structure with high clouds at the center cascading down to its outer layers. Astronomers have noted that it is shrinking in size and becoming more circular than oval in observations spanning more than a century. The current diameter is 10,000 miles across, meaning that Earth could still fit inside it.

In addition to observing this legendary, long-lived storm, researchers have observed storms on other planets, including Neptune, where they tend to travel across the planets surface and disappear over only a few years. Research like this helps scientists not only learn about the individual planets, but also draw conclusions about the underlying physics that drive and maintain planets' storms.

The majority of the data to support this research came from Hubble's Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, which provides annual Hubble global views of the outer planets that allow astronomers to look for changes in the planets' storms, winds, and clouds.

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Hubble telescope finds six dead galaxies of the early universe – Market Research Telecast

Posted: at 6:05 pm

Astronomy experts note that when the universe was about 3 billion years old, it experienced the most prolific star birth in its long history. However the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array (ALMA) located in northern Chile, in the Atacama Desert, observed cosmic objects from that period and found true rarities: six galaxies of the early universe, massive and dead. Despite belonging to a time with a lot of activity, these galaxies ran out of cold hydrogen, the fuel with which stars are created.

Those galaxies are believed to have expanded since then, not through the creation of stars but by merging with other smaller pairs and gas.

Hubble and ALMA found these strange galaxies increasing their capabilities, by taking advantage of a natural lensOf space that is created by massive galaxy clusters in the foreground. As explained by scientists in the study published in the journal Nature, the gravity of these clusters stretches and amplifies the light of the background galaxies, allowing researchers to use them as magnifying glasses and thus study their characteristics in detail.

At that time in our universe, all galaxies should be forming many stars. It is the time of maximum formation , commented astronomer Kate Whitaker, lead author of the study. By using strong gravitational lenses like natural telescopes, we can find the distant, most massive galaxies and the first to stop star formation, Whitaker added.

As NASA, one of the main responsible for the Hubble project, notes, approximately 11,000 million years later, in the current universe, these previously compact galaxies are believed to have evolved to be larger, but they are still dead in terms of any new star formation .

The six galaxies found had short lives, creating their stars in a short time. According to the US space agency, the reason why star formation abruptly ceased (that is, the loss of cold hydrogen) is a puzzle.

Whitaker establishes some hypotheses in this regard. Did a supermassive black hole create in the center of the galaxy and heat up all the gas? If so, the gas might still be there, but it would be hot now. Or it could have been kicked out and is now preventing it from accumulating back into the galaxy. Or did the galaxy just use it all up and the supply was cut off? These are some of the open questions that we will continue to explore with new observations in the future, said the specialist.

The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperation project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Disclaimer: This article is generated from the feed and not edited by our team.

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The Morning After: Already hyping the iPhone 14 – Engadget

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Is this a record? No sooner has the iPhone 13 hit store shelves than the rumor mill is already up and churning about the next one. Rumors from the weekend suggest the iPhone 14 will be a complete redesign, but the details are thin gruel at this point. Hold not these rumors close to your chest in hope, my friends, lest they disappear into a puff of whimsy.

This complete redesign will reportedly see the 14 look a lot more like the iPhone 4, with a band running around the outside of the device. That makes sense given how beloved the 4s design was, and how those square edges have recently returned to Apples design language. The hints also suggest that, with a marginally thicker body, the camera lenses will be flush with the back.

Another rumor says the 14 may ditch the notch in favor of a hole-punch front camera, or maybe only for the Pro models. Plus, there are the usual rumor hits, including the launch of in-display TouchID and the end of the iPhone Mini. Just remember, were a year away from any of this being confirmed, so lets focus instead on all the delights of the 13 we have yet to discover.

Dan Cooper

Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Astronomers using the Hubble telescope and Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found six dead galaxies. These are galaxies that have run out of the cold hydrogen necessary for star formation, despite being formed during the stellar equivalent of a baby boom. The discovery of these galaxies is testament both to the enduring power of the Hubble and the ingenuity of the astronomers to pull these images from the heavens. But the question of what happened to those galaxies is one that will dog scientists from now until weve developed some pretty impressive faster-than-light travel.

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Valentina Palladino

If your brand new iPad Mini is operating a little weird, dont worry, you are not the only person in this particular predicament. There are multiple reports of users talking about jelly scrolling, where one side of the screen moves at a different rate to the other. Apple hasnt responded yet to the claims, but its probably already scrambling to work out the cause as we speak. At the same time, Apple has reportedly revealed that TV+ has fewer than 20 million subscribers in the US and Canada. The reason for the potentially embarrassing admission? The smaller size apparently means it can pay its film and TV crews lower rates compared to Netflix.

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NASA

To celebrate National Comic Book Day, NASA has published a graphic novel, First Woman, to tell the story of the first woman to walk on the moon. The (currently fictional) tale is designed to spark the publics interest in the Artemis missions and encourage more people to sign up as astronauts. Download the app for Android or iOS, and you can also explore the Orion spacecraft and tour the lunar surface in AR.

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Researchers at Harvard and engineers at Samsung believe they can create better artificial intelligences if the chips used to make them mirror the structures of our own brains. The teams are proposing a method to copy the way our neurons are wired on to a 3D neuromorphic chip. Dont worry if that sounds like a lot because its not likely to happen in the real world for a while at the very least. The human brain has more than 100 billion neurons and a thousand times more synapses, so its not as if anyone could just build one of these in their garage.

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Amazon says James Bond movies will still be released in theaters

Nintendo is releasing a six-button Genesis controller for Switch, but only in Japan

Tesla drivers can now request Full Self Driving beta tests

Galaxy S22 Ultra leak suggests Samsung will include the Note's S-Pen slot

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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Employee Health, Corporate Compliance, and the New COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate: Are You Prepared? – Marketscreener.com

Posted: at 6:04 pm

COVID-19 vaccination mandates are upon us. States, localities, and specific business sectors have created a range of approaches to combat the spread of the virus and protect their employees as they navigate evolving regulations around returning to work.

As of September 9, the U.S. government has stepped in, announcing that it will require businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested once a week. This mandate poses multiple challenges for organizations that need to respond immediately to avoid the risk of fines. Businesses are looking for robust solutions to facilitate the process of securely uploading vaccination and testing status data.

Agility and scalability are top of mind. With a pandemic that is constantly evolving, organizations need a configurable solution that can adapt as regulations change and scale as programs ramp up. At the same time, employees may have strong feelings about the mandate - and some may object. While compliance is a must, so is listening and trust-building. Organizations need a transparent and noninvasive approach to collecting data that helps generate employee buy-in.

SAP and Qualtrics have been helping organizations worldwide navigate the global pandemic and offer solutions to help with vaccine mandates. With powerful vaccination and testing management capabilities, organizations can meet evolving vaccination requirements and improve employee safety and well-being. The result is fewer regulatory, legal, and workplace health risks.

With Qualtrics Vaccination & Testing Manager, also known as an employee vaccine management system, organizations can more quickly and simply gather COVID-19 vaccination status and ongoing test results from employees, contractors, and on-site visitors and spot issues in real time. All relevant information is securely maintained, helping businesses to comply with requirements, reduce risks, and avoid fines.

Qualtrics Vaccination & Testing Manager also provides a critical tool for following through on the most important objective: protecting employee health and well-being. Data is managed in a more secure manner that helps protect employee privacy. And while employee perspectives on the mandate will likely remain diverse, the solution helps organizations better listen to employee perspectives as regulations evolve while enabling the transparency and insight needed to have honest and informed conversations moving forward.

Pre-built and run in the cloud, Qualtrics Vaccination & Testing Manager helps organizations get up and running in days - versus weeks to months with other solutions. It also uses a combination of mobile-friendly digital forms, automated workflows and reminders, and intuitive dashboards that have been designed to confirm vaccination status and test results more securely and at scale.

What sets Qualtrics Vaccination & Testing Manager apart from many other offerings is its breadth, agility, and intuitive use:

As for helping keep sensitive employee data secure, Qualtrics Vaccination & Testing Manager includes built-in features that maintain personal health information and vaccination data separately from employee records. In addition, the solution is ISO 27001 and FedRamp compliant and HITRUST certified, which means its technology platform provides customers the tools to manage HIPAA compliance if needed. Learn more about Qualtrics Vaccination & Testing Manager here.

For existing customers using the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central solution, SAP also offers a health and vaccine tracking portlet free of charge.

Available through the upgrade center of the SAP SuccessFactors solution, this portlet uses the flexible metadata framework technology already built into SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central. Organizations can customize and extend the portlet to meet a variety of monitoring needs as vaccination and testing requirements evolve.

Additionally, the portlet can produce analytics to identify and support high-risk employees based on location, business unit, department, age, work area, and more. Businesses can use practical, real-time dashboards and reporting to safely bring the workforce back to the office. For more information about the portlet, read this article on Safely Returning to the Workplace with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central.

At SAP, we know that we're all in this pandemic together, and a big part of SAP's mission today is to help our customers make it through. These solutions enable organizations to tackle vaccination and testing requirements with confidence and without delay. They can get up and running more quickly with a cloud-based, pre-built solution that is intuitive, transparent, and flexible enough to adapt to change.

For a live demo, visit the SAP SuccessFactors booth at the HR Technology Conference September 28 - October 1.

Amanda Crittenden is global solution marketing lead for Employee Experience Management for SAP SuccessFactors.

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Hope Shehnaaz Gill gets back to normal life, Sidharth Shukla must be wishing the same, says Pavitra Punia – The Indian Express

Posted: at 6:04 pm

Bigg Boss 14 contestant Pavitra Punia said she prays Shehnaaz Gill returns to her normal life soon, as thats what even her late friend and actor Sidharth Shukla wouldve wishes for. Pavitra responded to queries around Shehnaazs current state of mind post the demise of her rumoured beau Sidharth earlier this month.

It is still very difficult to accept that we lost Sidharth. I spoke to Shehnaaz and I think she needs to be left in peace. To ask her if she is alright, well, we all know she isnt in a good state of mind right now and I dont think she can reply to anyone.

On being asked whether shes aware about the viral throwback videos of SidNaaz which fans have been uploading on social media to remember their favourite couple, Pavitra added, Im not aware about the video her fans have uploaded online but Im sure it must be something to motivate her and give her strength.

Sidharth and Shehnaaz struck a deep bond during their stint in Bigg Boss 13. While Sidharth emerged its winner, Shehnaaz finished third. The two continued to remain close friends. Though Shehnaaz was also honest about her fondness for the Balika Vadhu actor, Sidharth Shulkla always called her his close friend.

Sidharth passed away on September 2, leaving the entire film and television fraternity shocked. His untimely demise also saw Shehnaaz in a state of shock. Infact, Shehnaazs brother Shehbaz was one of the first ones to arrive soon after the news of Sidharths death broke. He was also by his sisters side throughout the tough time.

Sidharth and Shehnaaz have a massive fan following. Their fans have been dedicating videos and picture edits for the two on social media ever since.

Pavitra concluded at the event, I pray that Shehnaaz gets back on her feet because Im sure Sidharth must be watching over her somewhere from up there wishing she gets back to normal life. And we are also waiting to see that.

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Hope Shehnaaz Gill gets back to normal life, Sidharth Shukla must be wishing the same, says Pavitra Punia - The Indian Express

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Opinion | Rising indie pop star Arlo Parks discusses the influences that shaped her debut album ahead of her first Canadian show – TheSpec.com

Posted: at 6:04 pm

In a collection of essays written during the height of the pandemic, English writer Zadie Smith describes the misery of lockdowns as very precisely designed, and different for each person. Often, it is art that rescues us from seclusion and reminds us of our connection to others.

Arlo Parks debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams which takes its title from a line in a 2005 novel by Smith does just that. Released in January, it is a perfect companion for these challenging times. Navigating weighty themes like loneliness, mental health and sexuality, the album is an exercise in vulnerability and introspection. Its sad, but affirming, like a late night heart-to-heart with a close friend.

Its so cruel / What your mind can do for no reason, she sings on Black Dog, a devastatingly poignant song about living with depression.

Those months (during lockdown) were some of the toughest that a lot of people have ever experienced, Parks said in an interview with the Star. It brings me comfort to know that my record was a sort of soothing balm for people.

Since Parks breakout in 2018, the 21-year-old artist has attracted an intensely loyal fan base and has become one of the defining voices in contemporary indie pop. Earlier this month Collapsed in Sunbeams was awarded the 2021 Mercury Prize for the best British album.

Now, after months of delays caused by the pandemic, shes finally embarked on a tour, which includes a stop at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto on Tuesday her first ever Canadian show.

There was definitely a sense of frustration, said Parks. But the way I chose to look at because its always about perspective is that when I finally did get to play these songs live, they would have grown deep roots in peoples lives. People would know all the words and it would feel even more special because it was something that we had waited so long for.

Born Anas Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho in West London, Parks grew up surrounded by music from Prince, to Miles Davis and Charles Mingus, music kind of infused the household, she said.

As a teen, after discovering indie bands and hip-hop groups like Odd Future, Parks started playing guitar and writing her own music. At first, her ambitions were limited.

I was not cool enough to be in any scene, she said. I was very much in my own room doing my own thing. Music is a very personal, internal, insular kind of thing. It was something that I did for myself, by myself. The idea of sharing didnt really occur to me until a bit later.

Eventually, she began uploading demos to BBC Music Introducing, a platform that supports under-the-radar U.K. talent. This caught the attention of the folks at Beatnik Records, who released her breakout hit Cola in 2018.

After releasing two EPs in 2019, Parks teamed up with songwriter and record producer Gianluca Buccellati in early 2020 to record her debut album.

Recorded in various Airbnbs throughout East London at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Collapsed in Sunbeams is a reflection of Parks increasingly eclectic musical taste. Over 40 minutes, the album borrows sounds from indie rock, alternative rock, trip hop and neo-soul.

Theres definitely some Radiohead and Portishead (on the album). But a lot of the influences for this record came from across the pond, she said. DAngelo and Elliott Smith, Yo La Tengo, Joan Armatrading; I guess Ive just taken tidbits from everywhere. I try to have a kaleidoscope, or a collage, of all the things Im interested in.

Lyrically, Parks has described the album as a series of vignettes and intimate portraits surrounding my adolescence and the people that shaped it.

An avid reader, Parks approaches her songs with a literary sensibility and a focus on storytelling. Specifically, she cites James Baldwins classic 1956 novel Giovannis Room a landmark exploration of queer sexuality as an inspiration for her debut album.

Theres something about the way (Baldwin) writes, I cant even quite describe it, but theres a sense of, like, humanity and patience. I feel like hes very wide-eyed when he writes and theres this attention to detail.

Parks taps into the spirit of Baldwin on Eugene, a delicately rendered story about the narrators unrequited love for a straight girl. I had a dream, we kissed / And it was all amethyst, she sings over a bass line that would sound at home on the Radiohead album In Rainbows.

On the more upbeat Hope, Parks drops the details in favour of a more universal affirmation: Youre not alone, like you think you are.

Speaking backstage ahead of a sold-out show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York, Arlo Parks sounded exceedingly relaxed. Performing in front of a live audience, she said, feels like coming home.

Every performance has had this sense of safety. People are excited to see me and sing and dance. Theres just, like, a purity to the feeling.

Parks is tight-lipped about her plans for the future. I usually try to keep it a secret, she said. For the next two years, Im just touring and writing, and reading my books.

As a Mercury Prize winner, Parks joins the ranks of U.K. music royalty; James Blake, Skepta, Portishead, PJ Harvey and Anohni are among the previous recipients. But that doesnt seem to faze her.

I feel like with most prizes and external things, I see them as wonderful and special, but I try not to think about them too much, she said. You can never control what people are going to get out of the work; you can only control what you put in. So just continue making music that youre into.

Thats all I can do. So I guess thats what Ill do.

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iOS 15 Child Safety Explained: New and Top Features to Know – The Android Soul

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Since its inception, Apple has always prioritized privacy and security. It is not satisfied with making best-in-class, best-selling smartphones and tablets, it also wishes its customer to feel comfortable using their devices. With iOS 15, Apple is bringing another layer of security to their devices, thanks to Child Safety.

Today, we will tell you pretty much everything you need to know about Child Safety and help you understand how Apple is bringing this filtering system on board. Now, without further ado, let us check out what Child Safety is and how it can impact your day-to-day life.

Child Safety is an iOS 15 feature that is meant to curb the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and help protect children from predators who use communication tools to exploit them. Apple is set to roll out the feature first in the United States and then other regions would follow. It is a three-fold feature that has the potential to put the parents minds at ease. As always, this new addition is being implemented free of cost. The only pre-requisite being iOS 15.

Apple is working closely with top child safety experts to make the system as fool-proof as possible.

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The Child Safety feature set was not built overnight; Apple has perfected it over many iterations. In its current form, Child Safety in iOS 15 is broken into three sections. The first part is communication safety in the default Messages app. The second one is CSAM scanning in iCloud Photos. And finally, the third part comes in the form of safer guidance in Siri and search. Below, we will learn what these mean.

The default Messages app in iOS is arguably one of the most compelling parts of an Apple device, which is why this filtering system has the potential to be particularly effective. Communication safety adds an added layer to your childs Messages UI. When they receive a sexually explicit image, the photo is blurred and they are told of the sensitive nature of the photo. If they still wish to continue, there is a provision to send an alert to parents or guardians. The same filtering system comes into play if the minors choose to send sexually explicit photos. The parents are alerted if their child chooses to ignore the warning and pressed send.

This feature is exclusive to accounts set up as families in iCloud in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey.

CSAM detection in iCloud Photos is the most widespread implementation of the Child Safety program. It affects every user who backs up their photos to iCloud, which has caused a bit of a ruckus in the media lately. To detect and prevent the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) Apple is making use of advanced cryptography techniques. After an image is detected and proved to violate the guidelines, iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 devices will report the instances to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC is the hub for all CSAM-backed reports and works closely with law enforcement offices across the United States to punish the offenders.

The scanning of photos might raise some red flags, but Apple ensures that it does not scan all photos on iCloud. It only scans photos that fit a certain profile. The profile is given by NCMEC and other child safety services. On-device machine learning plays a massive role in CSAM detection. It limits exposure and accurately analyzes sensitive photos to offer parents peace of mind.

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While CSAM detection in iCloud and Communication safety focus on shielding under-age children from exposure. Safer guidance in Siri and Search is teaching users about problematic behavior. If a user employs Siri voice search or regular Search to search for queries related to Child Sexual Abuse Material, iOS 15 intervenes with a warning message. The warning explains that interest in such topics is problematic and harmful. iOS 15 even provides resources to help someone with the issue.

Child Safety is inherently built into iOS 15. So, you cannot shrug it off for good. However, there are a couple of conditions that you must meet to keep the service working as intended. First, the Communication safety feature is exclusive to accounts that are set up as Families. Isolated accounts do not have this feature. Also, as of now, CSAM detection only comes into play in iCloud photos. If you do not have iCloud, iOS 15 will not scan your private library for CSAM.

There is no distinct toggle to turn off the service, only indirect ways to disabling it.

No, Communication safety cannot be accessed by standard account holders. Your account is required to be set up as Family in iCloud settings before you can make the Child Safety feature work in iOS 15.

Apple is already facing a lot of flak regarding the photo scanning announcement. However, the company ensures that it has no intention of scanning all your photos and will not have access to any of your photos or messages. It will simply crosscheck your photos and messages with known CSAM profiles and report to the authorities if necessary.

No Apple will not scan all your photos in your iOS 15-powered iPhone. It will use on-device machine learning to cross-reference the photos you are uploading to iCloud, taking note of the suspected CSAM entries. If you do not upload photos to iCloud, the CSAM service is disabled by default.

CSAM detection applies to both old photos and new ones. If someone has media files that hint at sexual abuse of children, CSAM would notify the authorities right away and appropriate actions would be taken.

CSAM detection for photos in iCloud works by cross-checking photos with known CSAM images. If no matches are identified then the photo is given a green light. So, if you are worried about Apple reporting nude/semi-nude images of your children on your smartphone, rest assured that the company is working with multiple organizations to make sure no false reports are registered.

Apple has always been a vocal supporter of privacy, so much so that it prides itself as the most private company out there. So, when Apple came up with on-device scanning, alarms started to go off. Apple, however, has assured that the Child Safety system will not be used by the government or any other party to scan through users personal files. The entire system is completely auditable and there are many fail-safes to protect user data.

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iOS 15 Child Safety Explained: New and Top Features to Know - The Android Soul

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