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Themes in Avatar – Wikipedia

Posted: October 25, 2022 at 10:06 pm

Academic analyses of Avatar

The 2009 American science fiction film Avatar has provoked vigorous discussion of a wide variety of cultural, social, political, and religious themes identified by critics and commentators, and the film's writer and director James Cameron has responded that he hoped to create an emotional reaction and to provoke public conversation about these topics.[1] The broad range of Avatar's intentional or perceived themes has prompted some reviewers to call it "an all-purpose allegory"[2][3] and "the season's ideological Rorschach blot".[4] One reporter even suggested that the politically charged punditry has been "misplaced": reviewers should have seized on the opportunity to take "a break from their usual fodder of public policy and foreign relations" rather than making an ideological battlefield of this "popcorn epic".[5]

Discussion has centered on such themes as the conflict between modern human and nature, and the film's treatment of imperialism, racism, militarism and patriotism, corporate greed, property rights, spirituality and religion. Commentators have debated whether the film's treatment of the human aggression against the native Na'vi is a message of support for indigenous peoples today,[6] or is, instead, a tired retelling of the racist myth of the noble savage.[7][8] Right-wing critics accused Cameron of pushing an anti-American message in the film's depiction of a private military contractor that used ex-Marines to attack the natives, while Cameron and others argued that it is pro-American to question the propriety of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The visual similarity between the destruction of the World Trade Center and the felling of Home Tree in the film caused some filmgoers to further identify with the Na'vi and to identify the human military contractors as terrorists. Critics asked whether this comparison was intended to encourage audiences to empathize with the position of Muslims under military occupation today.[9][10]

Much discussion has concerned the film's treatment of environmental protection and the parallels to, for example, the destruction of rainforests, mountaintop removal for mining and evictions from homes for development. The title of the film and various visual and story elements provoked discussion of the film's use of Hindu iconography, which Cameron confirmed had inspired him.[11][12] Christians, including the Vatican, worried that the film promotes pantheism over Christian beliefs, while others instead thought that it sympathetically explores biblical concepts. Other critics either praised the film's spiritual elements or found them hackneyed.[13]

"Avatar is a science fiction retelling of the history of North and South America in the early colonial period. Avatar very pointedly made reference to the colonial period in the Americas, with all its conflict and bloodshed between the military aggressors from Europe and the indigenous peoples. Europe equals Earth. The native Americans are the Navi. Its not meant to be subtle."

James Cameron on Avatar[14]

Avatar describes the conflict by an indigenous people, the Na'vi of Pandora, against the oppression of alien humans. Director James Cameron acknowledged that the film is "certainly about imperialism in the sense that the way human history has always worked is that people with more military or technological might tend to supplant or destroy people who are weaker, usually for their resources."[7] Critics agreed that the film is "a clear message about dominant, aggressive cultures subjugating a native population in a quest for resources or riches."[15] George Monbiot, writing in The Guardian, asserted that conservative criticism of Avatar is a reaction to what he called the film's "chilling metaphor" for the European "genocides in the Americas", which "massively enriched" Europe.[16] Cameron told National Public Radio that references to the colonial period are in the film "by design".[17] Adam Cohen of The New York Times stated that the film is "firmly in the anti-imperialist canon, a 22nd-century version of the American colonists vs. the British, India vs. the Raj, or Latin America vs. United Fruit."[18]

Saritha Prabhu, an Indian-born columnist for The Tennessean, wrote about the parallels between the plot and how "Western power colonizes and invades the indigenous people (native Americans, Eastern countries, you substitute the names), sees the natives as primitives/savages/uncivilized, is unable or unwilling to see the merits in a civilization that has been around longer, loots the weaker power, all while thinking it is doing a favor to the poor natives."[20] David Brooks, in The New York Times, criticized what he saw as the "White Messiah complex" in the film, whereby the Na'vi "can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration."[21] Others disagree: "First off, [Jake is] handicapped. Second off, he ultimately becomes one of [the Na'vi] and wins their way."[22]

Many commentators saw the film as a message of support for the struggles of native peoples today. Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, praised Avatar for its "profound show of resistance to capitalism and the struggle for the defense of nature".[19] Others compared the human invaders with "NATO in Iraq or Israel in Palestine",[9] and considered it reassuring that "when the Na'vi clans are united, and a sincere prayer is offered, the... 'primitive savages' win the war."[23] Palestinian activists painted themselves blue and dressed like the Na'vi during their weekly protest in the village of Bilin against Israel's separation barrier.[24][25] Other Arab writers, however, noted that "for Palestinians, Avatar is rather a reaffirmation and confirmation of the claims about their incapability to lead themselves and build their own future."[26] Forbes columnist Reihan Salam criticized the vilification of capitalism in the film, asserting that it represents a more noble and heroic way of life than that led by the Na'vi, because it "give[s] everyone an opportunity to learn, discover, and explore, and to change the world around us."[27] Si Sheppard on the other hand praised the film for drawing parallels between the corporate imperialism of the fictional RDA and its historical equivalents of the pre-industrial era (specifically the East India Company, which maintained its own private army in order to impose profit-driven territorial sovereignty on the Indian subcontinent).[28]

Cameron stated that Avatar is "very much a political film" and added: "This movie reflects that we are living through war. There are boots on the ground, troops who I personally believe were sent there under false pretenses, so I hope this will be part of opening our eyes."[29] He confirmed that "the Iraq stuff and the Vietnam stuff is there by design",[17] adding that he did not think that the film was anti-military.[30] Critic Charles Marowitz in Swans magazine remarked, however, that the realism of the suggested parallel with wars in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan "doesn't quite jell" because the natives are "peace-loving and empathetic".[31]

Cameron said that Americans have a "moral responsibility" to understand the impact of their country's recent military conflicts. Commenting on the term "shock and awe" in the film, Cameron said: "We know what it feels like to launch the missiles. We don't know what it feels like for them to land on our home soil, not in America."[32] Christian Hamaker of Crosswalk.com noted that, "in describing the military assault on Pandora, Cameron cribs terminology from the ongoing war on terrorism and puts it in the mouths of the film's villains... as they 'fight terror with terror'. Cameron's sympathies, and the movie's, clearly are with the Na'viand against the military and corporate men."[33] A columnist in the Russian newspaper Vedomosti traced Avatar's popularity to its giving the audience a chance to make a moral choice between good and evil and, by emotionally siding with Jake's treason, to relieve "us the scoundrels" of our collective guilt for the cruel and unjust world that we have created.[34][35] Armond White of New York Press dismissed the film as "essentially a sentimental cartoon with a pacifist, naturalist message" that uses villainous Americans to misrepresent the facts of the military, capitalism, and imperialism.[36] Answering critiques of the film as insulting to the U.S. military, a piece in the Los Angeles Times asserted that "if any U.S. forces that ever existed were being insulted, it was the ones who fought under George Armstrong Custer, not David Petraeus or Stanley McChrystal."[5] Other reviews saw Avatar as "the bubbling up of our military subconscious... the wish to be free of all the paperwork and risk aversion of the modern Armymuch more fun to fly, unarmored, on a winged beast."[37]

A critic writing in Le Monde opined that, contrary to the perceived pacifism of Avatar, the film justifies war in the response to attack by the film's positive characters, particularly the American protagonist who encourages the Na'vi to "follow him into battle.... Every war, even those that seem the most insane [are justified as being] for the 'right reasons'."[10] Ann Marlowe of Forbes saw the film as both pro- and anti-military, "a metaphor for the networked military".[37]

Many reviewers perceived an anti-American message in the film, equating RDA's private security force to American soldiers.[38] Commentator Glenn Beck on his radio show said that Avatar was "an antiU.S. human thing".[39] Russell D. Moore in The Christian Post stated that, "If you can get a theater full of people in Kentucky to stand and applaud the defeat of their country in war, then you've got some amazing special effects" and criticized Cameron for what he saw as an unnuanced depiction of the American military as "pure evil".[40] John Podhoretz of The Weekly Standard argued that Avatar revealed "hatred of the military and American institutions and the notion that to be human is just way uncool."[41] Charles Mudede of The Stranger commented that with the release of the film "the American culture industry exports an anti-American spectacle to an anti-American world."[42] Debbie Schlussel likewise dismissed Avatar as "cinema for the hate America crowd".[43]

Cameron argued that "the film is definitely not anti-American"[44] and that "part of being an American is having the freedom to have dissenting ideas."[29] Eric Ditzian of MTV concurred that "it'd take a great leap of logic to tag 'Avatar' as anti-American or anti-capitalist."[45] Ann Marlowe called the film "the most neo-con movie ever made" for its "deeply conservative, pro-American message".[37] But Cameron admitted to some ambiguity on the issue, agreeing that "the bad guys could be America in this movie, or the good guys could be America in this movie, depending on your perspective",[7] and stated that Avatar's defeat at the Academy Awards might have been due to the perceived anti-U.S. theme in it.[30]

The destruction of the Na'vi habitat Hometree reminded commentators of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center,[37] and one commentator noted Cameron's "audacious willingness to question the sacred trauma of 9/11".[36][46] Cameron said that he was "surprised at how much it did look like September 11", but added that he did not think that it was necessarily a bad thing.[32] A French critic wrote: "How can one not see the analogy with the collapse of the towers of the World Trade Center? Then, after that spectacular scene, all is justified [for the unified] indigenous peoples (the allied forces)... to kill those who [are] just like terrorists."[10] Another writer noted that "the U.S.' stand-ins are the perpetrators, and not the victims" and described this reversal as "the movies most seditious act".[46]

Commentators around the world sought to interpret the relationship between the Na'vi and humans in the film, mostly agreeing with Maxim Osipov, who wrote in the Hindustan Times and The Sydney Morning Herald: "The 'civilised humans' turn out as primitive, jaded and increasingly greedy, cynical, and brutaltraits only amplified by their machinerywhile the 'monkey aliens' emerge as noble, kind, wise, sensitive and humane. We, along with the Avatar hero, are now faced with an uncomfortable yet irresistible choice between the two races and the two worldviews." Osipov wrote that it was inevitable that the audience, like the film's hero, Jake, would find that the Na'vi's culture was really the more civilized of the two, exemplifying "the qualities of kindness, gratitude, regard for the elder, self-sacrifice, respect for all life and ultimately humble dependence on a higher intelligence behind nature."[47][48] Echoing this analysis, psychologist Jeffery Fine in The Miami Herald urged "every man, woman and child" to see the film and wake up to its message by making the right choice between commercial materialism, which is "steamrolling our soul and consciousness", and reconnection with all life as "the only... promise of survival" for humanity.[49] Similarly, Altino Matos writing for Journal de Angola saw the film as a message of hope, writing, "With this union of humans and aliens comes a feeling that something better exists in the universe: the respect for life."[50] Cameron confirmed that "the Na'vi represent the better aspects of human nature, and the human characters in the film demonstrate the more venal aspects of human nature."[29]

Conversely, David Brooks of The New York Times opined that Avatar creates "a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism", an offensive cultural stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic and that illiteracy is the path to grace.[21] A review in the Irish Independent found the film to contrast a "mix of New Age environmentalism and the myth of the Noble Savage" with the corruption of the "civilized" white man.[51] Reihan Salam, writing in Forbes, viewed it as ironic that "Cameron has made a dazzling, gorgeous indictment of the kind of society that produces James Camerons."[27]

Many critics saw racist undertones in the film's treatment of the indigenous Na'vi, seeing it as "a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people", which reinforces "the White Messiah fable", in which the white hero saves helpless primitive natives,[52][53] who are thus reduced to servicing his ambitions and proving his heroism.[26] Other reviews called Avatar an offensive assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades,[21] and "a self-loathing racist screed" due to the fact that all the "human" roles in the film are played by white actors and all the Na'vi characters by African-American or Native American actors.[dubious discuss][54][55]

Mori academic Rawiri Taonui agreed that the film portrays indigenous people as being simplistic and unable to defend themselves without the help from "the white guys and the neo-liberals."[56] Another author remarked that while the white man will fix the destruction, he will never feel guilty, even though he is directly responsible for the destruction."[26] Likewise, Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Die Zeit in Germany, said the film perpetuates the myth of the "noble savage" and has "a condescending, yes, even racist message. Cameron bows to the noble savages. However, he reduces them to dependents."[57] Slavoj iek argued that "the film enables us to practise a typical ideological division: sympathising with the idealised aborigines while rejecting their actual struggle."[58] The Irish Times carried the comment that "despite all the thematic elements from Hinduism, one thing truly original is the good old American ego. Given its Hollywood origins, the script has remained faithful to the inherent superiority complex, and has predictably bestowed the honor of the 'avatar' not on the movies native Navis, but on a white American marine."[59] Similarly, positing that "the only good humans [in the film] are deador rather, resurrected as 'good Navi'", a writer in The Jerusalem Post thought that the film was inadvertently promoting supremacy of one race over another.[60]

On the Charlie Rose talk show, Cameron acknowledged parallels with idea of the "noble savage", but argued: "When indigenous populations who are at a bow and arrow level are met with technological superior forces, [if] somebody doesn't help them, they lose. So we are not talking about a racial group within an existing population fighting for their rights."[1] Cameron rejected claims that the film is racist, asserting that Avatar is about respecting others' differences.[52] Adam Cohen of The New York Times felt similarly, writing that the Na'vi greeting "I see you" contrasts with the oppression of, and even genocide against, those who we fail to accept for what they are, citing Jewish ghettos and the Soviet gulags as examples.[18]

Avatar has been called "without a doubt the most epic piece of environmental advocacy ever captured on celluloid.... The film hits all the important environmental talking-pointsvirgin rain forests threatened by wanton exploitation, indigenous peoples who have much to teach the developed world, a planet which functions as a collective, interconnected Gaia-istic organism, and evil corporate interests that are trying to destroy it all."[61] Cameron has spoken extensively with the media about the film's environmental message, saying that he envisioned Avatar as a broader metaphor of how we treat the natural world.[8][62][63] He said that he created Pandora as "a fictionalised fantasy version of what our world was like, before we started to pave it and build malls, and shopping centers. So it's really an evocation of the world we used to have."[64] He told Charlie Rose that "we are going to go through a lot of pain and heartache if we don't acknowledge our stewardship responsibilities to nature."[1] Interviewed by Terry Gross of National Public Radio, he called Avatar a satire on the sense of human entitlement: "[Avatar] is saying our attitude about indigenous people and our entitlement about what is rightfully theirs is the same sense of entitlement that lets us bulldoze a forest and not blink an eye. It's just human nature that if we can take it, we will. And sometimes we do it in a very naked and imperialistic way, and other times we do it in a very sophisticated way with lots of rationalizationbut it's basically the same thing. A sense of entitlement. And we can't just go on in this unsustainable way, just taking what we want and not giving back."[17] An article in the Belgium paper De Standaard agreed: "It's about the brutality of man, who shamelessly takes what isn't his."[65]

Commentators connected the film's story to the endangerment of biodiversity in the Amazon rainforests of Brazil by dam construction, logging, mining, and clearing for agriculture.[66] A Newsweek piece commented on the destruction of Home Tree as resembling the rampant tree-felling in Tibet,[67] while another article compared the film's depiction of destructive corporate mining for unobtainium in the Na'vi lands with the mining and milling of uranium near the Navajo reservation in New Mexico.[68] Other critics, however, dismissed Avatar's pro-environmental stance as inconsistent. Armond White remarked that, "Camerons really into the powie-zowie factor: destructive combat and the deployment of technological force.... Cameron fashionably denounces the same economic and military system that make his technological extravaganza possible. Its like condemning NASAyet joyriding on the Mars Exploration Rover."[36] Similarly, an article in National Review concluded that by resorting to technology for educating viewers of the technology endangered world of Pandora, the film "showcases the contradictions of organic liberalism."[63]

Stating that such a conservative criticism of his film's "strong environmental anti-war themes" was not unexpected, Cameron stressed that he was "interested in saving the world that my children are going to inhabit",[69] encouraged everyone to be a "tree hugger",[29] and urged that we "make a fairly rapid transition to alternate energy."[70] The film and Cameron's environmental activism caught the attention of the 8,000-strong Dangaria Kandha tribe from Odisha, eastern India. They appealed to him to help them stop a mining company from opening a bauxite open-cast mine, on their sacred Niyamgiri mountain, in an advertisement in Variety that read: "Avatar is fantasy... and real. The Dongria Kondh... are struggling to defend their land against a mining company hell-bent on destroying their sacred mountain. Please help...."[71][72] Similarly, a coalition of over fifty environmental and aboriginal organizations of Canada ran a full-page ad in the special Oscar edition of Variety likening their fight against Canada's Alberta oilsands to the Na'vi insurgence,[73] a comparison the mining and oil companies objected to.[74] Cameron was awarded the inaugural Temecula Environment Award for Outstanding Social Responsibility in Media by three environmentalist groups for portrayal of environmental struggles that they compared with their own.[75]

The destruction of the Na'vi habitat to make way for mining operations has also evoked parallels with the oppressive policies of some states often involving forcible evictions related to development. David Boaz of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote in Los Angeles Times that the film's essential conflict is a battle over property rights, "the foundation of the free market and indeed of civilization."[76] Melinda Liu found this storyline reminiscent of the policies of the authorities in China, where 30 million citizens have been evicted in the course of a three-decade long development boom.[67][77] Others saw similar links to the displacement of tribes in the Amazon basin[66] and the forcible demolition of private houses in a Moscow suburb.[78]

Avatar comes from a childhood sense of wonder about nature... You fly in your dreams as a child, but you tend not to fly in your dreams as an adult. In the Avatar state, [Jake] is getting to return to that childlike dream state of doing amazing things.

James Cameron[17]

David Quinn of the Irish Independent wrote that the spirituality depicted "goes some way towards explaining the film's gigantic popularity, and that is the fact that Avatar is essentially a religious film, even if Cameron might not have intended it as such."[51] At the same time, Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online objected to what he saw in the film reviews as "the norm to speak glowingly of spirituality but derisively of traditional religion."[79]

James Cameron has said that he "tried to make a film that would touch people's spirituality across the broad spectrum."[64] He also stated that one of the film's philosophical underpinnings is that "the Na'vi represent that sort of aspirational part of ourselves that wants to be better, that wants to respect nature, while the humans in the film represent the more venal versions of ourselves, the banality of evil that comes with corporate decisions that are made out of remove of the consequences."[17][29][44] Film director John Boorman saw a similar dichotomy as a key factor contributing to its success: "Perhaps the key is the marine in the wheelchair. He is disabled, but Mr Cameron and technology can transport him into the body of a beautiful, athletic, sexual, being. After all, we are all disabled in one way or another; inadequate, old, broken, earthbound. Pandora is a kind of heaven where we can be resurrected and connected instead of disconnected and alone."[51]

Reviewers suggested that the film draws upon many existing religious and mythological motifs. Vern Barnet of the Charlotte Observer opined that Avatar poses a great question of faithshould the creation be seen and governed hierarchically, from above, or ecologically, through mutual interdependence? He also noted that the film borrows concepts from other religions and compared its Tree of Souls with the Norse story of the tree Yggdrasil, also called axis mundi or the center of the world, whose destruction signals the collapse of the universe.[80] Malinda Liu in Newsweek likened the Na'vi respect for life and belief in reincarnation with Tibetan religious beliefs and practices,[67] but Reihan Salam of Forbes called the species "perhaps the most sanctimonious humanoids ever portrayed on film."[27]

A Bolivian writer defined "avatar" as "something born without human intervention, without intercourse, without sin", comparing it to the births of Jesus, Krishna, Manco Cpac, and Mama Ocllo and drew parallels between the deity Eywa of Pandora and the goddess Pachamama worshiped by the indigenous people of the Andes.[9] Others suggested that the world of Pandora mirrored the Garden of Eden,[81] and reminded that in Hebrew Na'vi is the singular of Nevi'im which means "Prophets".[82] A writer for Religion Dispatches countered that Avatar "begs, borrows, and steals from a variety of longstanding human stories, puts them through the grinder, and comes up with something new."[83] Another commentator called Avatar "a new version of the Garden of Eden syndrome" pointing to what she viewed as phonetic and conceptual similarities of the film's terminology with that of the Book of Genesis.[84]

The Times of India suggested Avatar was a treatise on Indianism "for Indophiles and Indian philosophy enthusiasts", starting from the very word Avatar itself.[85] A Houston Chronicle piece critiqued the film in terms of the ancient Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, commenting on the Na'vi visual similarity with Rama and Krishnaavatars central to the respective epics and traditionally depicted with blue skin, black hair, and a tilak mark on the forehead.[86] Another critic found that elements of the film's plot resembled such teachings and concepts of Hinduism as reincarnation of the soul, ecological consciousness, and incarnations of deities on Earth, commending Avatar and its director for "raising the global stature of Hinduism... in months", while criticizing them for substantiating the western reluctance to accept anything oriental in its pristine form.[59]

Cameron calls the connection a "subconscious" reference: "I have just loved... the mythology, the entire Hindu pantheon, seems so rich and vivid." He continued, "I didn't want to reference the Hindu religion so closely, but the subconscious association was interesting, and I hope I haven't offended anyone in doing so."[12] He has stated that he was familiar with a lot of beliefs of the Hindu religion and found it "quite fascinating".[64]

Answering a question from Time magazine in 2007, "What is an Avatar anyway?" James Cameron replied, "It's an incarnation of one of the Hindu gods taking a flesh form. In this film what that means is that the human technology in the future is capable of injecting a human's intelligence into a remotely located body, a biological body."[87] In 2010, Cameron confirmed the meaning of the title to the Times of India: "Of course, that was the significance in the film, although the characters are not divine beings. But the idea was that they take flesh in another body."[64]

Following the film's release, reviewers focused on Cameron's choice of the religious Sanskrit term for the film's title. A reviewer in the Irish Times traced the term to the ten incarnations of Vishnu.[59] Another writer for The Hindu concluded that by using the "loaded Sanskrit word" Cameron indicated the possibility that an encounter with an emotionally superiorbut technologically inferiorform of alien may in the future become a next step in human evolutionprovided we will learn to integrate and change, rather than conquer and destroy.[88]

Maxim Osipov of ISKCON argued in The Sydney Morning Herald that "Avatar" is a "downright misnomer" for the film because "the movie reverses the very concept [that] the term 'avatar'literally, in Sanskrit, 'descent'is based on. So much for a descending 'avatar', Jake becomes a refugee among the aborigines."[48] Vern Barnet in Charlotte Observer likewise thought that the title insults traditional Hindu usage of the term since it is a human, not a god, who descends in the film.[80] However, Rishi Bhutada, Houston coordinator of the Hindu American Foundation, stated that while there are certain sacred terms that would offend Hindus if used improperly, 'avatar' is not one of them.[86] Texas-based filmmaker Ashok Rao added that 'avatar' does not always mean a representative of God on Earth, but simply one being in another formespecially in literature, moviemaking, poetry and other forms of art.[86]

Explaining the choice of the color blue for the Na'vi, Cameron said "I just like blue. It's a good color... plus, there's a connection to the Hindu deities, which I like conceptually."[11] Commentators agreed that the blue skin of the Na'vi, described in a New Yorker article as "Vishnu-blue",[89] "instantly and metaphorically" relates the film's protagonist to such avatars of Vishnu as Rama and Krishna.[59][90] An article in the San Francisco Examiner described an 18th-century Indian painting of Vishnu and his consort Laksmi riding the great mythical bird Garuda as "Avatar prequel" due to its resemblance with the film's scene in which the hero's blue-skinned avatar flies a gigantic raptor.[91] Asra Q. Nomani of The Daily Beast likened the hero and his Na'vi mate Neytiri to images of Shiva and Durga.[92]

Discussing explicit or implicit similarities between the film and the philosophy of Hinduism, reviewers suggested that, just as Hindu gods, particularly Vishnu, become avatars to save the order of the universe, the films avatar must descend to avert impending ultimate doom, effected by a rapacious greed that leads to destroying the world of nature and other civilizations.[59][80][90] Maxim Osipov observed that the film's philosophical message was consistent overall with the Bhagavad Gita, a key scripture of Hinduism, in defining what constitutes real culture and civilization.[47][48]

Critics saw an "undeniably" Hindu connection between the film's story and the Vedic teaching of reverence for the whole universe, as well as the yogic practice of inhabiting a distant body by ones consciousness[59] and compared the film's love scene to tantric practices.[92] Another linked the Na'vi earth goddess Eywa to the concept of Brahman as the ground of being described in Vedanta and Upanishads and likened the Na'vi ability to connect to Eywa with the realization of Atman.[93] One commentator noted the parallel between the Na'vi greeting "I see you" and the ancient Hindu greeting "Namaste", which signifies perceiving and adoring the divinity within others.[94] Others commented on Avatar's adaptation of the Hindu teaching of reincarnation,[95][96]a concept, which another author felt was more accurately applicable to ordinary human beings that are "a step or two away from exotic animals" than to deities.[31]

Writing for the Ukrainian Day newspaper, Maxim Chaikovsky drew detailed analogies between Avatar's plot and elements of the ancient Bhagavata Purana narrative of Krishna, including the heroine Radha, the Vraja tribe and their habitat the Vrindavana forest, the hovering Govardhan mountain, and the mystical rock chintamani.[97][98] He also opined that this resemblance may account for "Avatar blues"a sense of loss experienced by members of the audience at the conclusion of the film.[98][99]

Some Christian writers worried that Avatar promotes pantheism and nature worship. A critic for LOsservatore Romano of the Holy See wrote that the film "shows a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature, a fashionable pantheism in which creator and creation are mixed up."[8][100] Likewise, Vatican Radio argued that the film "cleverly winks at all those pseudo-doctrines that turn ecology into the religion of the millennium. Nature is no longer a creation to defend, but a divinity to worship."[100] According to Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, these reviews reflect the Pope's views on neopaganism, or confusing nature and spirituality.[100] On the other hand, disagreeing with the Vatican's characterization of Avatar as pagan, a writer in the National Catholic Reporter urged Christian critics to see the film in the historical context of "Christianity's complicity in the conquest of the Americas" instead.[101]

Ross Douthat, a conservative columnist of The New York Times, called Avatar "the Gospel According to James" and "Cameron's long apologia for pantheism [which] has been Hollywood's religion of choice for a generation now."[13] Replying to him, Jay Michaelson of the HuffPost wrote "The Meaning of Avatar: Everything is God (A Response to Ross Douthat and other naysayers of pantheism)".[102] In The Weekly Standard, John Podhoretz criticized the film's "mindless worship of a nature-loving tribe and the tribe's adorable pagan rituals."[41] Christian critic David Outten disputed that "the danger to moviegoers is that Avatar presents the Na'vi culture on Pandora as morally superior to life on Earth. If you love the philosophy and culture of the Na'vi too much, you will be led into evil rather than away from it."[103] Outten further added: "Cameron has done a masterful job in manipulating the emotions of his audience in Avatar. He created a world where it looks good and noble to live in a tree and hunt for your food daily with a bow and arrow.... Cameron said, 'Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected, all human beings to each other, and us to the Earth.' This is a clear statement of religious belief. This is pantheism. It is not Christianity."[104] The deleted scene "The Dream Hunt", which is included in the DVD extras, shows elements that reminded Erik Davis and others of ayahuasca experiences.

Other Christian critics wrote that Avatar has "an abhorrent New Age, pagan, anti-capitalist worldview that promotes goddess worship and the destruction of the human race"[33][105] and suggested that Christian viewers interpret the film as a reminder of Jesus Christ as "the True Avatar".[9][106] Some of them also suspected Avatar of subversive retelling of the biblical Exodus,[82] by which Cameron "invites us to look at the Bible from the side of Canaanites."[107] Conversely, other commentators concluded that the film promotes theism[81] or panentheism[93] rather than pantheism, arguing that the hero "does not pray to a tree, but through a tree to the deity whom he addresses personally" and, unlike in pantheism, "the film's deity does indeedcontrary to the native wisdom of the Na'viinterfere in human affairs."[81] Ann Marlowe of Forbes agreed, saying that "though Avatar has been charged with "pantheism", its mythos is just as deeply Christian."[37] Another author suggested that the film's message "leads to a renewed reverence for the natural worlda very Christian teaching."[93] Saritha Prabhu, an Indian-born columnist for The Tennessean, saw the film as a misportrayal of pantheism: "What pantheism is, at least, to me: a silent, spiritual awe when looking (as Einstein said) at the 'beauty and sublimity of the universe', and seeing the divine manifested in different aspects of nature. What pantheism isn't: a touchy-feely, kumbaya vibe as is often depicted. No wonder many Americans are turned off." Prabhu also criticized Hollywood and Western media for what she saw as their generally poor job of portraying Eastern spirituality.[20]

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Themes in Avatar - Wikipedia

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Theism – Wikipedia

Posted: at 10:06 pm

Belief in the existence of at least one deity; the opposite of atheism

Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities.[1][2] In common parlance, or when contrasted with deism, the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred to as classical theism) or gods found in polytheistic religionsa belief in God or in gods without the rejection of revelation as is characteristic of deism.[3][4]

Atheism is commonly understood as non-acceptance or rejection of theism in the broadest sense of theism, i.e. non-acceptance or rejection of belief in God or gods.[5][6] The claim that the existence of any deity is unknown or unknowable is agnosticism.[7][8]

The term theism derives from the Greek [9] (thes) or theoi meaning "god" or "gods". The term theism was first used by Ralph Cudworth (16171688).[10] In Cudworth's definition, they are "strictly and properly called Theists, who affirm, that a perfectly conscious understanding being, or mind, existing of itself from eternity, was the cause of all other things".[11]

Monotheism (from Greek ) is the belief in theology that only one deity exists.[12] Some modern day monotheistic religions include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bah Faith, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, some Sects of Hinduism, and Eckankar.

Polytheism is the belief that there is more than one god.[13]In practice, polytheism is not just the belief that there are multiple gods; it usually includes belief in the existence of a specific pantheon of distinct deities.

Within polytheism there are hard and soft varieties[citation needed]:

Polytheism is also divided according to how the individual deities are regarded:

The distinction between these two beliefs may be ambiguous and unhelpful, or a significant point of division.[15] Pantheism may be understood a type of Nontheism, where the physical universe takes on some of the roles of a theistic God, and other roles of God viewed as unnecessary.[16]

Deism typically rejects supernatural events (such as prophecies, miracles, and divine revelations) prominent in organized religion. Instead, Deism holds that religious beliefs must be founded on human reason and observed features of the natural world, and that these sources reveal the existence of a supreme being as creator.[18]

Autotheism is the viewpoint that divinity, whether also external or not, is inherently within 'oneself' and that one has the ability to become godlike. Indian religions like Buddhism and Jainism are Autotheistic. This can be in a selfless way, a way following the implications of statements attributed to ethical, philosophical, and religious leaders (such as Mahavira).

Autotheism can also refer to the belief that one's self is a deity, within the context of subjectivism. Hindus use the term, "aham Brahmsmi" which means, "I am Brahman".[19]

Mormons teach a type of Autotheism called Exaltation, where humans can attain godhood.[20]

Non-theism is the belief in no gods or god.

Atheism is the lack of belief in supernatural powers such as deities, gods/goddesses, or messiahs. Some atheists express an active disbelief or rejection of the existence of such entities.

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Pepe the Frog – ADL

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ALTERNATE NAMES: Sad Frog

Pepe the Frog is a cartoon character that has become a popular Internet meme (often referred to as the "sad frog meme" by people unfamiliar with the name of the character). The character first appeared in 2005 in the on-line cartoon Boy's Club. In that appearance, the character also first used its catchphrase, "feels good, man."

The Pepe the Frog character did not originally have racist or anti-Semitic connotations. Internet users appropriated the character and turned him into a meme, placing the frog in a variety of circumstances and saying many different things. Many variations of the meme became rather esoteric, resulting in the phenomenon of so-called "rare Pepes."

The majority of uses of Pepe the Frog have been, and continue to be, non-bigoted. However, it was inevitable that, as the meme proliferated in on-line venues such as 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit, which have many users who delight in creating racist memes and imagery, a subset of Pepe memes would come into existence that centered on racist, anti-Semitic or other bigoted themes.

In recent years, with the growth of the "alt right" segment of the white supremacist movement, a segment that draws some of its support from some of the above-mentioned Internet sites, the number of "alt right" Pepe memes has grown, a tendency exacerbated by the controversial and contentious 2016 presidential election. Though Pepe memes have many defenders, the use of racist and bigoted versions of Pepe memes seems to be increasing, not decreasing.

However, because so many Pepe the Frog memes are not bigoted in nature, it is important to examine use of the meme only in context. The mere fact of posting a Pepe meme does not mean that someone is racist or white supremacist. However, if the meme itself is racist or anti-Semitic in nature, or if it appears in a context containing bigoted or offensive language or symbols, then it may have been used for hateful purposes.

In the fall of 2016, the ADL teamed with Pepe creator Matt Furie to form a #SavePepe campaign to reclaim the symbol from those who use it with hateful intentions.

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America First Political Action Conference – Wikipedia

Posted: at 10:04 pm

American political conference

The America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC; AF-pak) is an annual white nationalist[2] and far-right[3] political conference. Many attendees are members of the "America First" movement and supporters of Nick Fuentes, also known as Groypers. The conference was described by The Daily Dot as a "white nationalist alternative" to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference.[4] The Arizona Republic and Rolling Stone have characterized it as an extremist rival of CPAC.[1][5]

As of 2022, the conference has featured two current United States House Republicans as speakers.

On December 21, 2019, in the wake of the "Groyper Wars", leaders of the Groyper movement held a speaking conference called the "Groyper Leadership Summit" in West Palm Beach, Florida. The event was invite-only and held at an undisclosed location. The date, location, and title of the event mirrored Turning Point USA's "Student Action Summit," a speaking event featuring conservatives including Ben Shapiro, who Fuentes would publicly confront outside the venue. In the confrontation, Nick said, "Ben, it's great to see you. Why did you give a 45-minute speech about me at Stanford? And you wouldnt even look in my direction." Shapiro did not respond as he walked into the venue.[6] The Daily Beast characterized the Groyper Leadership Summit as "aimed at embarrassing Turning Point, potentially by luring some of the Turning Point students to Fuentes white nationalist event".[7]

AFPAC was founded in 2020 by Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist[8] political commentator.[1]

The inaugural AFPAC was held on February 28, 2020, in Washington, D.C. Speakers included the political commentator Michelle Malkin;[9] former leader of the neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa, Patrick Casey; former Daily Caller editor Scott Greer; and Fuentes.[10] After his appearance at the inaugural AFPAC and immediately following the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Casey cut ties with Fuentes and declared that he would not be returning as a speaker or guest at future conferences.[11]

The second AFPAC was held on February 25, 2021, in Orlando, Florida. While it was open to the public, the organizers were secretive about where the conference would be held; it was later reported that it had been held at the Hilton in Orlando.[12] Speakers included Malkin, Vincent James of The Red Elephants radio show, former BlazeTV host and Glenn Beck Program writer Jon Miller,[13] and former Representative Steve King.[14] According to the Orlando Sentinel, the event "was more of a dinner than a multi-day conference".[12] ABC News reported, "speakers spread white nationalist rhetoric, organizers railed about the U.S. losing its 'white demographic core,' and some called for further engagement like the ire that drove the Capitol attack on Jan. 6".[15]

Arizona Representative Paul Gosar appeared as a surprise keynote speaker at the conference; his attendance was the subject of controversy.[15][16][17] In his speech, he discussed immigration and what he described as censorship by social media platforms.[17] Gosar skipped voting on a COVID-19 relief bill in order to attend AFPAC. Rolling Stone criticized Gosar for this decision, as well as other Republicans who, in order to attend CPAC, "play[ed] fast and loose with the rules" of a new provision allowing them to vote by proxy. Rolling Stone wrote, "In order to vote by proxy, members are required to sign a letter saying they can't attend 'due to the ongoing public health emergency,' and traveling to another state to appear maskless at an event with thousands of people doesn't seem to fit that situation."[1] Gosar, appearing on a panel at CPAC several hours after his appearance at AFPAC, stated, "I denounce when we talk about white racism. That's not appropriate."[1][15][16][18]

The third AFPAC was held on February 25, 2022, in Orlando, Florida, at the Orlando World Center Marriott. It was sponsored by the social media platform Gab, which resulted in backlash from Gab users due to Fuentes' harsh comments about Gab users. Many of Gab's donors stated that they would stop funding Gab due to this decision; in response to the backlash, Gab CEO Andrew Torba said that "Controversy is attention. Attention is influence" and that "The point of marketing is to influence people to get off Big Tech and get on Gab. In order to do that I need their attention."[19] It was later announced that Torba would be a guest speaker at the AFPAC.[20]

During his speech, Fuentes stated that the media had been comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler "and they say that's not a good thing", which Rolling Stone described as "giggling praise of Adolf Hitler".[21][22] Fuentes also asked the audience, Can we get a round of applause for Russia? which was followed by large applause and chants of "Putin! Putin!".[23]

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio spoke at the conference and received cheers when he stated, "I have the reputation of being the biggest racist in the country." In response to the applause, Arpaio asked the audience, "What are you clapping for?"[24][25]

The conference featured four elected officials as speakers: Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Arizona Representative Paul Gosar, Arizona Senator Wendy Rogers, and lieutenant governor of Idaho Janice McGeachin.[26][27] Greene and Gosar were subsequently met with criticism from members of the Republican party, including from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. Greene initially stated to CBS News that she was not aware of Fuentes' views,[28] but later defended her attendance in a statement which read, "It doesnt matter if Im speaking to Democrat union members or 1,200 young conservatives who feel cast aside and marginalized by society [...] The Pharisees in the Republican Party may attack me for being willing to break barriers and speak to a lost generation of young people who are desperate for love and leadership.[29] Rogers was censured by the Arizona State Senate for calling for political violence during her AFPAC speech.[30]

The conference additionally hosted a variety of far-right media personalities, including Gavin McInnes, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Jesse Lee Peterson, as well as white supremacists Jared Taylor and Peter Brimelow.[31] Fuentes claimed that Yiannopoulos was responsible for connecting him with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.[32]

Kari Lake, a Republican candidate in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, was advertised as a speaker on a flyer for the conference. Lake later denied plans to attend, with Fuentes claiming it was due to a scheduling conflict rather than ideological differences.[33][24] Thomas Homan, former Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed to The Huffington Post that he had been scheduled to speak at AFPAC, but cancelled his appearance on the day of the conference due to Fuentes' support of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[34]

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Paul Joseph Watson – Wikipedia

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English YouTuber, radio host, and conspiracy theorist

Paul Joseph Watson (born 24 May 1982)[1] is a British right-wing[11] YouTuber, radio host, and conspiracy theorist.[15] Until July 2016, Watson embraced the label "alt-right", but he now identifies as part of the new right.[16] In May 2019, Facebook and Instagram permanently banned Watson for violation of hate speech policies.[17][18]

Watson's career emerged through his work for conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones. As editor-at-large of Jones' website InfoWars, he helped promote fake news[19] and advocated for 9/11, chemtrail, and New World Order conspiracy theories.[1] Subsequently, reaching a significant audience, both Watson and Jones altered their focus. They now mainly focus on criticizing feminism, Islam, and left-wing politics.[20] Watson also contributes to InfoWars's talk radio program The Alex Jones Show, which he occasionally hosts or co-hosts. Watson has been working at InfoWars since October 2002.[21]

Since 2011, Watson has hosted his own YouTube channel, prisonplanetlive, on which he expresses his views on topics such as contemporary society, politics, and modern liberalism in an often mocking manner. He rose to prominence on his YouTube channel by criticizing and mocking the "woke mob", social justice warriors, feminism and anti-racist movements.[10] As of January 2021, his channel has over 1.9 million subscribers.[22]

In a 2016 interview for a student newspaper in his native Sheffield, UK, Watson said he grew up on a council estate with little financial resources, and that by 18, he was teetotal and exercising 3 hours per day.[23] However, a 2018 article for The Daily Beast said his birth certificate indicated the family lived in a house in Grenoside, a semi-rural district in the north of the city, which the Sheffield City Council stated they never owned. From just before the age of ten, Watson and his family lived in Loxley, another area of Sheffield.[1]

Watson described his formative moment as when, at the age of 18, he watched The Secret Rulers of the World, a documentary in which journalist Jon Ronson accompanied Alex Jones in infiltrating Bohemian Grove in California, a place where some conspiracy theorists believe global elites plot the New World Order. He has described British conspiracy theorist David Icke, whom he first read as a teenager, as the person who woke him up.[1] Following the Ronson documentary, according to Watson, he started his own website Propaganda Matrix. He registered Global Propaganda Matrix, the company behind his website, in 2004. Watson has said he was first asked to contribute by Alex Jones in 2002, quickly becoming highly paid for his InfoWars work, according to the ex-wife of the site's founder.[1]

Watson, along with Jones and InfoWars as a whole, has shifted from mainly commenting on conspiracy theories such as chemtrails, the New World Order and the Illuminati, to increasingly criticising feminism, Islam, and left-wing politics.[20] Watson has been described as a member of "the new far-right" by The New York Times, which wrote in August 2017 that his "videos are straightforward nativist polemics, with a particular focus on Europe" and convey his opposition to modernist architecture and modern art.[24] Iman Abou Atta, director of the anti-Islamophobia group Tell MAMA, has said that Watson "has become 'the' nexus for anti-Muslim accounts that we have mapped... He has become an influencer in promoting informationmuch of it bizarre and untruewhich has been regurgitated by anti-Muslim and anti-migrant accounts time and time again."[25]

Watson previously described himself as a libertarian and supported Ron Paul in the 2012 presidential election. In a 2016 tweet, he said he no longer considered himself a libertarian because Gary Johnson "made the term an embarrassment."[26] Watson has also called himself a conservative and considers modern-day conservatism a countercultural movement.[19] In a November 2016 Facebook post, he differentiated between the New Right and the alt-right. He claimed that the alt-right "likes to fester in dark corners of subreddits and obsess about Jews, racial superiority and Adolf Hitler."[16] He and Mike Cernovich have feuded with figures such as Richard B. Spencer and David Duke, who see white nationalism as necessary for the alt-right.[citation needed]

Although he endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, Watson declared in a tweet on 6 April 2017, he was "officially OFF the Trump train" after Trump's decision to launch missile strikes on Syria in response to a Khan Shaykhun chemical attack several days earlier, believing Trump had reneged on his promise not to intervene in Syria. He said Trump was "just another deep state/Neo-con puppet".[27] After a decrease in Twitter followers occurred, he denied he had "turned on Trump", saying he was only "off the Trump train in terms of Syria" and blaming the media for "fake news".[28] He declared in a separate tweet he would shift his focus to ensuring French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen of the National Front would be elected in the 2017 election, which she lost.[29] Donald Trump Jr. retweeted Watson's reference to French celebrities leaving France if Le Pen was elected and referred dismissively to similar reputed claims in the U.S. before Trump Sr. was elected.[30]

On 16 June 2018, Watson announced that he had joined the UK Independence Party along with Mark Meechan and Carl Benjamin.[31][32]

In 2016, Watson was an early proponent of allegations that Hillary Clinton suffers from numerous serious medical conditions, though he was unable to provide any evidence.[33] Watson's part in the manufacture and dissemination of the rumour was taken up by the National Enquirer[33] and mentioned in the mainstream media as part of a discussion of the role of rumour and conspiracy theory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[34][12][35]

In February 2017, Watson tweeted an offer to pay for a journalist to visit Sweden and stay in the "crime ridden migrant suburbs" of Malm, if they think it would be safe.[36] Many journalists took him up on the offer,[36][37] and Watson chose New York journalist and videographer Tim Pool, who was already planning a similar investigation.[38] Watson gave Pool $2,000 for the trip.[36][38] Pool's findings contradicted Watson's claims.[39]

At a November 2018 White House press briefing, persistent questioning of Trump led an intern to attempt to take a microphone from the hand of CNN's Jim Acosta.[40][41] Acosta's White House press credentials were subsequently revoked, allegedly for having "put his hands" on the intern.[42][43] Watson uploaded an edited version of the original footage in support of this claim. In this version, zoom and frame rate changes create the misleading impression that Acosta had behaved aggressively towards the intern.[42]

Watson confirmed that he had applied a zoom and denied making any other alterations, though expert analysis confirmed that "the clip repeats several frames that do not appear in the original footage" and that it had been sped up.[44][43] The video has generally been described as doctored, though some experts concluded that the changes do not necessarily represent deliberate manipulation but could be artefacts of accidental degradation during processing.[44][45] White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pointed to the video that Watson posted as clearly documenting Acosta's "inappropriate behaviour." The White House was criticised for sharing a doctored video and thereby spreading "actual fake news" rather than using the original footage.[46] A subsequent court ruling found that the action against Acosta was unconstitutional on due process grounds.[47]

On 2 May 2019, Watson and several other people considered to be extremists, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Jones, and right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, were permanently banned from Facebook, which called them "dangerous."[48] "We've always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology", a Facebook spokesperson said. "The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today."[49] Watson tweeted that he had broken "none of their rules" and complained of "an authoritarian society controlled by a handful of Silicon Valley giants" in which "all dissent must be purged."[17] Trump retweeted Watson, mocking the "dangerous" epithet.[50]

Watson is anti-immigration.[51][1] He has claimed[52] that "Malm is known as 'Sweden's Chicago'" due to mass immigration into the country.[53] According to a study published in Critical Studies in Media Communication, this claim is false.[54]

In 2022, Watson used the murder of a Jewish man in Paris to attack French President Emmanuel Macron and France's African migrant communities.[10]

Watson is opposed to Islam.[51][55][56] He has labelled Muslim culture "horrific" and declared that it produces mass rape, "Islamic ghettos" and the destruction of Western culture.[1] Watson has said that the western world needs "Islam control" rather than gun control. In an InfoWars article, Watson wrote, "Muslims living in both the Middle East and the west show alarmingly high levels of support for violent jihad"[57] and that there is "violent oppression of gays and Christians in the Middle East".[58] In August 2017, he said that YouTube had blocked monetisation on all his videos about Islam as part of the website's policies dealing with hate speech, and on other subjects including modern art.[59]

Watson has criticised perceived racial tokenism.[60] In 2017, he criticised the BBC for "portraying Roman Britain as ethnically diverse" after the broadcaster included a black Roman centurion in an educational cartoon. His criticism was contradicted by Mary Beard and Cambridge's Faculty of Classics, saying there was overwhelming evidence that Roman Britain was a multi-ethnic society, but noting that this would have been more noticeable in a military or urban setting than a rural one and the significant gaps in historians' understanding of the topic.[61]

Watson has released content falsely linking race to IQ, and lower IQ to aggression.[10]

In May 2022, Byline Times and the Southern Poverty Law Center published an account of a recording apparently of Watson at a party saying: "I really think you should press the button to wipe Jews off the face of the Earth" and making other homophobic and racist comments, such as saying: "I care about white people and not sand nigger Paki Jew faggot coons". The recording has been confirmed by three secondary sources. In response, Joe Mulhall of Hope not Hate said that while Watson was careful to follow social media platform moderation policy, it was not surprising that he would express such views in private.[9][10]

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Jack Posobiec – Wikipedia

Posted: at 10:04 pm

American commentator and conspiracy theorist

Jack Michael Posobiec III ( p-SOH-bik; born December 14, 1984)[1][2] is an American alt-right[8] political activist, television correspondent and presenter,[9] conspiracy theorist,[10] and provocateur.[11][12][13] Posobiec is known for his pro-Donald Trump comments on Twitter, as well as using white supremacist and antisemitic symbols and talking points, including the white genocide conspiracy theory.[14][15][16][17] He has repeatedly planted false and derogatory claims about political figures in an effort to damage his opponents. He has promoted fake news, including the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory claiming high-ranking Democratic Party officials were involved in a child sex ring.[18][19] He was also a promoter of the Stop the Steal movement.[2] From 2018 to 2021, Posobiec was employed by One America News Network (OANN), a far-right cable news television channel, as a political correspondent and on-air presenter.[9] He left OANN in May 2021 to begin hosting a show for the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, and to join conservative news site Human Events as a senior editor.[20]

Posobiec was born and raised in Norristown, Pennsylvania, to a family of Polish descent.[21] His parents were both Democrats.[22] He attended Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic High School[22] and went to college at Temple University.[22] While at Temple, he became the chairman of the Temple University College Republicans and started a chapter of Students for Academic Freedom, an organization run by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.[22] He also participated in a summer internship for U.S. Senator Rick Santorum and volunteered for U.S. Representative Curt Weldon's unsuccessful reelection campaign in 2006.[22] He graduated from Temple in 2006[23] with a double major in political science and broadcast journalism.[24]

After graduation, Posobiec worked for the United States Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, China.[22] He played a minor role in the film The Forbidden Kingdom, which was released in 2008.[21] He later worked for WPHT, a conservative talk radio station, and then for the campaign of Steve Johnson in the 2010 Pennsylvania lieutenant gubernatorial election.

Posobiec served several tours in the United States Navy Reserve from 2010 to 2017, reaching the rank of lieutenant junior grade. He was deployed for ten months at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base from September 2012, and worked at the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), where he later worked again as a civilian.[21][25]

During the 2016 election, Posobiec was a special projects director of Citizens for Trump, a pro-Trump organization[26] but not an official group.[27] In March 2017, Posobiec resigned from his full-time civilian position at ONI, saying that his support for Trump led to a "toxic work environment". As of August 2017, his security clearance was suspended[25] and was under review.[28]

Posobiec describes himself as a "Republican political operative".[29] During the 2016 election, Posobiec was a special projects director of the political organization Citizens for Trump.[26]

He said in 2017 that his work was "reality journalismpart investigative, part activist, part commentary",[30][31] and that "I'm willing to break the fourth wall. I'm willing to walk into an anti-Trump march and start chanting anti-Clinton stuffto make something happen, and then cover what happens."[24] Will Sommer, an editor at The Hill, said in 2017 that Posobiec "make[s] stuff up, relentlessly", and that "there's no one at that level."[32]

On June 16, 2017, Posobiec disrupted a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar that depicted the title character as a Trump-like figure. Posobiec was prompted by Mike Cernovich, another alt-right conspiracy theorist, who had offered a $1,000 prize for anyone who interrupted a performance.[33] "You are all Goebbels, you are all Nazis like Joseph Goebbels", he shouted at the audience in a video he posted on Twitter.[25] Posobiec was escorted from the event along with another protester, Laura Loomer, who was arrested for disorderly conduct after refusing to leave the stage.[29]

Posobiec has supported other conservative political figures with similar tactics. He promoted e-mails and files leaked to 4chan of Emmanuel Macron shortly before the French presidential election in 2017.[26] In a video shot for Rebel Media, he promoted the candidacy of Marine Le Pen of the National Front.[34] Posobiec celebrated the Macron leak at a party hosted by Milo Yiannopoulos. In October 2017, Posobiec and Cernovich formed a super PAC called #Rev18 and announced its support for Josh Mandel in the 2018 U.S. Senate election in Ohio.[35] In July 2017, Posobiec handed out flyers thanking Democratic senators for "protecting our quality violent porn content", including "ritual Satanic porn videos". The flyers were distributed outside the U.S. Senate at a demonstration in support of net neutrality.[36]

Posobiec organized a "Rally Against Political Violence" in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2017, to condemn the shooting of Steve Scalise. Richard Spencer, another alt-right figure who organized a separate, competing rally at the same time, ridiculed Posobiec's event and called it "pathetic".[37] In November 2017, Posobiec encouraged his Twitter followers to target a woman at her workplace after she came forward with allegations that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore had attempted to have sex with her when she was 14 years old.[38][citation needed] In Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district special election in March 2018, Posobiec supported Democrat Conor Lamb over Republican Rick Saccone. Posobiec described Lamb as a "Pro-Trump Dem veteran".[39]

Posobiec's social media and political activities are linked to white supremacist movements. He has published multiple posts containing the white supremacist code "1488", or the Fourteen Words, and supports the use of the slogan.[16][17][40][41] The 88 stands for HH, or Heil Hitler.[42][43] In October 2016, Posobiec posted a tweet that included triple parentheses, an antisemitic symbol.[15] In response to a 2017 Anti-Defamation League report on the alt-right, which included Posobiec, he tweeted a selfie of his visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial in Poland: "The @ADL_National would be wise to remember what happened the last time people made lists of undesirables".[40]

In August 2017, following the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to violent clashes between white nationalists and anti-protesters, Posobiec said that the rally had become "massive propaganda" for the left and that the mainstream media was "fanning the flames of this violence." He said that Trump should have disavowed Black Lives Matter. Posobiec later tweeted that he had consistently disavowed white nationalism and violence.[29] He also tweeted that he was "done with trolling" and that it was "time to do the right thing." Posobiec has frequently tweeted about the white supremacist white genocide conspiracy theory.[14][44]

In June 2020, in Washington, D.C.'s Lincoln Park, Posobiec was shoved and chased for several minutes by a dozen protesters at the Emancipation Memorial. The protesters called Posobiec, who was filming speakers, a Nazi and forced him from the park. Police arrived in a van and, after trying to quell the fracas, helped Posobiec into the van before driving away. Posobiec tweeted later that he was "totally fine" but "filing an assault report with DC police".[45][46]

On June 9, 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center listed Posobiec as an extremist, citing his links to hate groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, as well as his links to white nationalists, neo-Nazis, anti-government extremists, and the Polish far-right.[2][47]

Between September 2016 and March 2017, Posobiec described himself as having previously worked for CBS News in his Twitter profile. CBS News told the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2020 that he had never worked for them.[41]

Between early April and May 2017, Posobiec was employed by Rebel News, a far-right[55] Canada-based website, as its Washington bureau chief,[26] and was granted press access to the White House in April 2017. According to Philadelphia magazine, Posobiec "seem[ed] to have been charged in the press briefing room with haranguing legitimate journalists and running out the clock on press conferences with inane softball questions and Dear Leader obsequiousness" during his short time in the White House press pool.[56]

In May 2017, Posobiec hired neo-Nazi brothers Jeffrey and Edward Clark to help create a documentary about the murder of Seth Rich for Rebel News. Jeffrey Clark was arrested by the FBI on gun charges after saying that the Jewish victims of the October 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting "deserved exactly what happened to them and so much worse".[57] Posobiec later said that he had never heard of Jeffrey Clark and had never made a documentary about Seth Rich, even though HuffPost published photographs of Posobiec and the Clarks working together.[58][59] He left Rebel News after allegedly plagiarizing a video script from white supremacist Jason Kessler.[60][61]

From 2018 to 2021, One America News Network (OANN), a far-right cable news television channel, employed Posobiec as a political correspondent and on-air presenter.[20] In September 2018, he presented the pro-Hitler online poster known as Microchip on the network without indicating that person's affiliations, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC said the two men had worked together in spreading disinformation for several years, including the false claims propagated in Pizzagate.[62]

Posobiec left OANN in May 2021 to begin hosting a show for the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, and to join Human Events as a senior editor.[20]

Posobiec has promoted many falsehoods,[32] leading to Philadelphia calling him the "King of Fake News" in 2017.[22] He was one of the most prominent promoters on social media of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely claimed that high-ranking officials were involved in a child-sex ring centered at a Washington, D.C. pizzeria.[22][18] He live-streamed an investigation of the pizzeria and was asked to leave after attempting to broadcast a child's birthday party being held in a back room.[63] Posobiec later said he had always thought the Pizzagate theory was "stupid" and had filmed his visit to debunk it.[22]

Posobiec attempted to discredit anti-Trump protesters in November 2016 by planting a sign at a protest reading "Rape Melania".[64][65][66] Posobiec denied his involvement to BuzzFeed News, but the same phone number was used in his contact with the website and the text messages he reportedly sent.[67] He said he had been questioned about it by the Secret Service.[22] Posobiec organized the DeploraBall, an event held on January 19, 2017, to celebrate Trump's inauguration.[68]

In December 2016, Posobiec claimed without evidence that Disney had re-written scenes in the Star Wars movie Rogue One to add "Anti Trump scenes calling him a racist", and called for a boycott of the Star Wars franchise. Disney denied the allegations.[69]

Posobiec falsely said that former FBI director James Comey, at a United States Senate hearing on May 17, 2017, "said under oath that Trump did not ask him to halt any investigation". The claim was later repeated by conservative personalities and media outlets, including Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the InfoWars website.[31] Posobiec promoted the discredited conspiracy theory that Seth Rich had leaked e-mails from the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks.[26] Posobiec promoted a hoax that CNN had published and then deleted an article defending Bill Maher's use of a racial slur.[70]

In June 2017, shortly after Republican congressman Steve Scalise was shot and injured during a baseball practice, along with four others, Posobiec tweeted that it was a terrorist attack and blamed comments from liberal anti-Trump individuals. Later, he falsely tweeted that former United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch had called for "blood in the streets" the previous March[71] and that Bernie Sanders had ordered his followers to "take down" Trump.[72]

In December 2017, Posobiec, along with Cernovich, The Gateway Pundit, and InfoWars, promoted a false theory that a passenger train derailment near Dupont, Washington, was linked to the Antifa anti-fascism movement.[73]

In October 2019, after Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a White House national security official and decorated Iraq war veteran, testified in Congress about President Trump requesting that the Ukrainian President investigate his political rival Joe Biden, Posobiec falsely claimed that Vindman had been advising the Ukrainian government on ways to prevent Trump from implementing his foreign policy goals.[74]

In June 2020, during the protests against racism and police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Posobiec falsely claimed that there were pipe bombs planted at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and that "federal assets [were] in pursuit". There were no pipe bombs nor was there any evidence that any "federal assets" investigated. The claim was, however picked up by The Gateway Pundit and retweeted by over 29,000 users on Twitter.[75]

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Posobiec promoted the Ukraine bioweapons conspiracy theory and downplayed the Bucha massacre.[2]

From 2012 to 2016, Posobiec ran a blog and podcast about Game of Thrones called AngryGoTFan.[21] Posobiec married in November 2017; he told BuzzFeed News that he met his wife in 2015.[76]

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QUIET – Wikipedia

Posted: at 10:04 pm

This article is about the astronomy experiment. For other uses, see Quiet.

QUIET was an astronomy experiment to study the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation.[1] QUIET stands for Q/U Imaging ExperimenT. The Q/U in the name refers to the ability of the telescope to measure the Q and U Stokes parameters simultaneously. QUIET was located at an elevation of 5,080 metres (16,700 feet) at Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Chilean Andes.[2] It began observing in late 2008 and finished observing in December 2010.[3]

QUIET iwas the result of an international collaboration that had its origins in the CAPMAP, Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) and QUaD collaborations. The collaboration consisted of 7 groups in the United States (the California Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Miami, Princeton University and Stanford University), 4 groups in Europe (the University of Manchester, the Max-Planck-Institut fr Radioastronomie Bonn, the University of Oslo and the University of Oxford) and one group in Japan (KEK; the first time a Japan group has been involved in CMB studies). Other members of the collaboration are from the University of California, Berkeley, the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.[1]

QUIET had arrays of detectors at two frequencies: 43GHz (Q band) and 95GHz (W band). It used four telescopes, three of which were purpose-built 2m ones with the other being the 7m Crawford Hill telescope used for CAPMAP. As a result, it will have angular resolutions between a few arcminutes and several degrees. The detectors are mass-produced coherent correlation polarimeters.[1][4]

The instrument was constructed in three phases. The first phase consisted of a 7-element 95GHz array to demonstrate the technology. The second phase aims to mount a 91-element 95GHz array (with 18GHz bandwidth) and a 19-element 43GHz array (with 8GHz bandwidth) on 1.4m cassegrain telescopes, mounted on what is currently the CBI platform. It is expected that these will start observing in 2008. The third phase aims to construct four further arrays by around 2010. Two of these will be at 43GHz, with 91 elements each, and the other two will be at 95GHz, with 397 elements each. These will then be mounted on three 2m dishes on the CBI platform and the 7m telescope.[5][6]

The instrument is located at a height of 5,080m at Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Chilean Andes. The site is owned by the Chilean government, and is leased to the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. The site was selected due to the altitude, current infrastructure and accessibility, as well as the low humidity of the site, which reduces the contamination of the detected signals by the atmosphere.[2]

QUIET measured the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). This polarization is commonly split into two components: E-modes, which represent the gradient component, and B-modes, which give the curl component. It is thought that B-modes are formed both from primordial fluctuations due to cosmic inflation, and from gravitational lensing of the CMB. As of 2008, only E-modes have been detected. QUIET aims to detect and characterize the B-modes polarization for the first time, and to provide more accurate measurements of the E-mode polarization.[4]

B-modes are thought to be much fainter than E-modes, as they are formed by higher order effects. The ratio of the E-mode to B-mode polarization is currently unknown, and the minimum detectable value of this can be used as a measure of the sensitivity of a CMB instrument. For QUIET this value is r=0.009, which corresponds to the energy scale of cosmic inflation being around 10 16 {displaystyle 10^{16}} GeV.[4]

QUIET's measurements of the CMB's power spectrum were designed to be between the multipoles of about 40 and 2,500, and will be made in a section of the sky known to have low foreground contamination.[4]

The first season reported on power spectra from over 10000 hours of observation at 43GHz in the multipole range = 25475.[7] The E-mode result was consistent with the standard cosmological model. A B-mode spectrum was not detected. The second season paper included 95GHz data.[8] Power spectra from = 25 to 975 were used to constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio.

As of March 2011, the QUIET team described the status

Observations were made from October 2008 through May 2009 using a 19-element 40GHz instrument coupled to a 1.4 meter telescope located at the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in Chile. Observations with a 91-element 90GHz instrument on the same telescope finished in December 2010. The QUIET instrument has been dismantled from the old CBI mount.

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Shintaro Abe – Wikipedia

Posted: at 10:04 pm

Japanese politician (19241991)

Shintaro Abe

Abe in 1956

Shintaro Abe ( , Abe Shintar, April 29, 1924 May 15, 1991)[1] was a Japanese politician from Yamaguchi Prefecture. He was a leading member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He served as foreign minister from 1982 to 1986.[2] He was the father of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe was born on April 29, 1924, in Tokyo, the eldest son of politician and member of Parliament Kan Abe. He was raised in his father's home prefecture of Yamaguchi from soon after his birth. His mother was an army general's daughter.[3]

Abe married Yoko Kishi[ja], daughter of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, in 1951.[2] His second son, Shinzo Abe, served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2020.[4] His third son, Nobuo Kishi, was adopted by his brother-in-law shortly after birth, won a House of Representatives seat in 2012 and was appointed Minister of Defense in 2020.

After graduating from high school in 1944 during World War II, Abe entered a naval aviation school and volunteered to become a kamikaze pilot. The war ended before he could undergo the required training.[5] In 1949 he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, Shintaro Abe began his career as a political reporter for Mainichi Shimbun.[6] He became a politician in 1957, when he started working as a legislative aide of his father in-law, the then-prime minister Nobusuke Kishi.[6] He won his father's seat in the House of Representatives in 1958.[3]

He led a major LDP faction, the conservative Seiwa Seisaku Kenkykai, whose reins he took from former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda in July 1986, and held a variety of ministerial and party posts, the former of which included Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and Minister of International Trade and Industry.[3] Abe was named as Minister of International Trade and Industry in the cabinet of the then prime minister Zenk Suzuki on November 30, 1981.[7] During this period, he was seen as a young leader groomed for the future prime ministry.[7] In November 1982, he was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of the then-prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, replacing Yoshio Sakurauchi. His term lasted until 1986.[2]

Abe was a top contender to succeed Nakasone as prime minister in 1987, until he stepped aside for Noboru Takeshita, head of a powerful rival faction. Then, he was given the post of secretary general of the party in 1987.[2] In 1988, his chances of becoming prime minister some time in the near future were again thwarted when his name became associated with the Recruit-Cosmos insider-trading stock scandal, which brought down Takeshita and forced Abe to resign as the party's secretary general in December 1988.[2]

Shintaro Abe was hospitalized in January 1991.[3] He died at Tokyo's Juntendo University Hospital on May 15, 1991, aged 67, the same age as the death of his son Shinzo Abe. The cause of death was not officially announced, although various reports point to cancer, liver failure, or heart failure.[8][6][9]

From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

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Early Life on Mars May’ve Wiped Out Early Life on Mars, a New Study …

Posted: at 10:01 pm

Life might have wiped itself out on early Mars. That's not as absurd as it sounds; that's sort of what happened on Earth.

But life on Earth evolved and persisted, while on Mars, it didn't.

Evidence shows Mars was once warm and wet and had an atmosphere. In the ancient Noachian Period, between 3.7 billion and 4.1 billion years ago, Mars also had surface water. If this is correct, Mars may have been habitable (though that doesn't necessarily mean it was inhabited.)

A new study shows that early Mars may have been hospitable to a type of organism that thrives in extreme environments here on Earth. Methanogens live in places like hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, where they convert chemical energy from their environment and release methane as a waste product. The study shows that methanogens may have thrived underground on Mars.

The study is "Early Mars habitability and global cooling by H2-based methanogens." It's published in Nature Astronomy, and the senior authors are Regis Ferrire and Boris Sauterey. Ferrire is a professor in the University of Arizona Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Sauterey is a former postdoctoral fellow in Ferrire's group who is now at the Sorbonne.

"Our study shows that underground, early Mars would very likely have been habitable to methanogenic microbes," Ferrire said in a press release. However, the authors are clear that they're not saying that life definitely existed on the planet.

The paper says that the microbes would've thrived in the porous, briny rock that sheltered them from UV radiation and cosmic rays. The underground environment would've also provided a diffuse atmosphere and a moderated temperature that allowed methanogens to persist.

The researchers focused on hydrogenotrophic methanogens, which take in H2 and CO2 and produce methane as waste. This type of methanogenesis was one of the earliest metabolisms to evolve on Earth. However, its "viability on early Mars has never been quantitatively evaluated," the paper says.

Until now.

There's a critical difference between ancient Mars and Earth regarding this research. On Earth, most hydrogen is tied up in water molecules, and very little is on its own. But on Mars, it was abundant in the planet's atmosphere.

That hydrogen could've been the energy supply early methanogens needed to thrive. That same hydrogen would've helped trap heat in Mars' atmosphere, keeping the planet habitable.

"We think Mars may have been a little cooler than Earth at the time, but not nearly as cold as it is now, with average temperatures hovering most likely above the freezing point of water," Ferrire said.

"While current Mars has been described as an ice cube covered in dust, we imagine early Mars as a rocky planet with a porous crust, soaked in liquid water that likely formed lakes and rivers, perhaps even seas or oceans."

On Earth, water is either salt water or fresh water. But on Mars, that distinction may not have been necessary. Instead, all of the water was briny, according to spectroscopic measurements of Martian surface rocks.

The research team used models of Mars' climate, crust, and atmosphere to evaluate methanogens on ancient Mars. They also used a model of an ecological community of Earthlike microbes that metabolize hydrogen and carbon.

By working with these ecosystem models, the researchers were able to predict whether methanogen populations were able to survive. But they went further; they were able to predict what effect these populations had on their environment.

"Once we had produced our model, we put it to work in the Martian crust figuratively speaking," said the paper's first author, Boris Sauterey.

"This allowed us to evaluate how plausible a Martian underground biosphere would be. And if such a biosphere existed, how it would have modified the chemistry of the Martian crust, and how these processes in the crust would have affected the chemical composition of the atmosphere."

"Our goal was to make a model of the Martian crust with its mix of rock and salty water, let gases from the atmosphere diffuse into the ground, and see whether methanogens could live with that," said Ferrire. "And the answer is, generally speaking, yes, these microbes could have made a living in the planet's crust."

The question became, how deep would you have to go to find it? It's a question of balance, according to the researchers.

While the atmosphere held abundant hydrogen and carbon the organisms could've used for energy, Mars' surface was still cold. Not frozen like it is today, but much colder than modern Earth.

The microorganisms would've benefited from the warmer temperatures underground, but the deeper you go, the less hydrogen and carbon are available.

"The problem is that even on early Mars, it was still very cold on the surface, so microbes would have had to go deeper into the crust to find habitable temperatures," Sauterey said.

"The question is how deep does the biology need to go to find the right compromise between temperature and availability of molecules from the atmosphere they needed to grow? We found that the microbial communities in our models would have been happiest in the upper few hundreds of meters."

They would've remained nestled in the upper crust for a long time. But as the microbe communities persisted, taking in hydrogen and carbon and releasing methane, they would've changed the environment.

The team modeled all of the above and below-ground processes and how they would've influenced each other. They predicted the resulting climatic feedback and how it changed Mars' atmosphere.

The team says that over time, the methanogens would've initiated a global climatic cooling as they changed the atmosphere's chemical makeup. The briny water in the crust would've frozen to greater and greater depths as the planet cooled.

That cooling would've eventually made Mars' surface uninhabitable. As the planet cooled, the organisms would've been driven further underground, away from the cold.

But the porosity in the regolith would've become plugged by ice, blocking the atmosphere from reaching those depths, and starving the methanogens of energy.

"According to our results, Mars' atmosphere would have been completely changed by biological activity very rapidly, within a few tens or hundreds of thousands of years," Sauterey said. "By removing hydrogen from the atmosphere, microbes would have dramatically cooled down the planet's climate."

The result? Extinction.

"The problem these microbes would have then faced is that Mars' atmosphere basically disappeared, completely thinned, so their energy source would have vanished, and they would have had to find an alternate source of energy," Sauterey said.

"In addition, the temperature would have dropped significantly, and they would have had to go much deeper into the crust. For the moment, it is very difficult to say how long Mars would have remained habitable."

The researchers also identified places on the Martian surface where future missions have the best chances of finding evidence of the planet's ancient life.

"Near-surface populations would have been the most productive ones, therefore maximizing the likelihood of biomarkers preserved in detectable quantities," the authors write in their paper. "The first few meters of the Martian crust are also the most easily accessible to exploration given the technology currently embarked on Martian rovers."

According to the researchers, Hellas Planitia is the best place to look for evidence of this early underground life because it remained ice-free. Unfortunately, that region is home to powerful dust storms and unsuitable for rover exploration. According to the authors, if human explorers ever visit Mars, then Hellas Planitia is an ideal exploration site.

Life on ancient Mars is no longer a revolutionary idea and hasn't been one for a long time. So the more interesting part of this research might be how early life changed its environment. That happened on Earth and led to the development of more complex life after the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE.)

Early Earth was inhabited by simple lifeforms, too. But Earth was different; organisms evolved a new pathway to harness energy. There was no oxygen in Earth's early atmosphere, and Earth's first inhabitants thrived in its absence. Then along came cyanobacteria, which use photosynthesis for energy and produce oxygen as a by-product.

Cyanobacteria liked oxygen, and Earth's first tenants didn't. The cyanobacteria grew in mats that created a region of oxygenated water around themselves in which they thrived.

Eventually, cyanobacteria oxygenated the oceans and atmosphere until Earth became toxic to other life. Methanogens and Earth's other early life can't handle oxygen.

Scientists don't quite call the death of all those primitive organisms an extinction, but the word comes close. Some ancient microbes or their descendants survive on modern-day Earth, driven into oxygen-poor environments.

But that was Earth. On Mars, there was no evolutionary leap into photosynthesis or something else that led to a new way to acquire energy. Eventually, Mars cooled and froze and lost its atmosphere. Is Mars dead now?

It's possible that Martian life found refuge in isolated locations in the planet's crust.

A 2021 study used modeling to show that there might be a source of hydrogen in Mars' crust, one that replenishes itself. The study showed that radioactive elements in the crust could break apart water molecules by radiolysis, making hydrogen available to methanogens. Radiolysisysis has allowed isolated communities of bacteria in water-filled cracks and pores in Earth's crust to persist for millions, possibly even billions of years.

And the Deep Carbon Observatory found that life buried in Earth's crust contains up to 400 times the carbon mass of all humans. The DCO also found that the deep subsurface biosphere is almost twice the volume of the world's oceans.

Could there still be life in Mars' crust, feeding on hydrogen created by radiolysis? There are puzzling detections of methane in the atmosphere that are still unexplained.

Many scientists think that the subsurface of Mars is the most likely place in the Solar System to harbor life, besides Earth, of course. (Sorry, Europa.) Maybe it does, and maybe we'll find it one day.

This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.

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NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity reaches intriguing salty site after …

Posted: at 10:01 pm

After a treacherous journey, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has reached an area that is thought to have formed billions of years ago when the Red Planet's water disappeared.

This region of Mount Sharp, the Curiosity rover's Martian stomping ground, is rich in salty minerals that scientists think were left behind when streams and ponds dried up. As such, this region could hold tantalizing clues about how the Martian climate changed from being similar to Earth's to the frozen, barren desert that Curiosity explores today.

The salty minerals that enrich this area of Mount Sharp were first spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter years before Curiosity touched down on the Martian surface in 2012.

Related: Curiosity rover: 15 awe-inspiring photos of Mars (gallery)

When Curiosity finally got a close-up look at the terrain of Mount Sharp, the rover discovered a diverse array of rock types and signs of past water, including popcorn-textured nodules and salty minerals such as magnesium sulfate, calcium sulfate (including gypsum) and sodium chloride, which makes up ordinary table salt.

After accounting for stresses on the rotary drill at the end of the rover's 7-foot (2 meters) arm that's used to pulverize rock samples for analysis, the Curiosity team selected a rock nicknamed "Canaima" for the drilling and collection of the mission's 36th drill sample.

"As we do before every drill, we brushed away the dust and then poked the top surface of Canaima with the drill," Kathya Zamora-Garcia, Curiosity's project manager, said in a statement. "The lack of scratch marks or indentations was an indication that it may prove difficult to drill."

The team then stopped to see whether that posed a danger to Curiosity's arm. With a new drilling algorithm created to minimize the use of percussion, which is a hammering motion used by drills to penetrate hard surfaces, they decided to proceed, and no percussion was needed, Zamora-Garcia explained.

The team will now analyze pieces of the sample collected from Canaima using Curiosity's Chemical and Mineralogy instrument and Sample Analysis at Mars instrument.

To reach the sulfate-rich region, the Curiosity rover spent August journeying through a narrow, sand-lined stretch called Paraitepuy Pass. It took over a month for Curiosity to safely navigate this treacherous terrain, which snakes between high hills. Although Paraitepuy Pass is mostly free of sharp rocks that could damage the rover's wheels, sand can be just as hazardous for Curiosity; if its wheels lose traction, the rover could get stuck.

The rover's drivers also had another challenge to consider: The Martian sky was blocked by the hills around it, meaning Curiosity had to be carefully positioned so that its antennas pointed toward Earth and could remain in contact with Mars orbiters.

As the team carefully navigated this path, they were rewarded with some stunning images from Curiosity's Mastcam, particularly a panorama of the region captured on Aug. 14.

"We would get new images every morning and just be in awe," Curiosity's science operations coordinator, Elena Amador-French, who manages collaboration between the science and engineering teams, said in the statement. "The sand ridges were gorgeous. You see perfect little rover tracks on them. And the cliffs were beautiful we got really close to the walls."

Despite clearing Paraitepuy Pass, Curiosity has a tough road ahead. This salty region comes with its own challenges in particular, the rover's operating team will have to account for the rocky terrain that makes it harder to place all six of Curiosity's wheels on stable ground.

If Curiosity isn't stable, operators won't risk unfolding its drill-holding arm in case it clashes with jagged rocks.

"The more and more interesting the science results get, the more obstacles Mars seems to throw at us," Amador-French said.

Curiosity will continue to explore this area, proving that after 10 years on Mars, the rover still has a lot of ground to cover.

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