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America’s Far-Right in Uniform – Common Dreams

Posted: April 6, 2021 at 8:57 pm

It was around noon and I was texting a friend about who-knows-what when I added, almost as an afterthought: "tho they seem to be invading the Capitol at the mo." I wasn't faintly as blas as that may sound on January 6th, especially when it became ever clearer who "they" were and what they were doing. Five people would die due to that assault on the Capitol building, including a police officer, and two more would commit suicide in the wake of the event. One hundred forty police would be wounded (lost eye, heart attack, cracked ribs, smashed spinal disks, concussions) and the collateral damage would be hard even to tote up.

I'm not particularly sentimental about anyone-can-grow-up-to-be-president and all thatin 2017, anyone didbut damn! This was democracy under actual, not rhetorical, attack.

As the list of people charged in connection with that insurrection rose, ways of analyzing their possible motivations grew ever more creative: at least nine of the rioters who broke into the Capitol had a history of violence against women; almost 60% had had money troubles; and above all, 50, or 14.5%, of the 356 people arrested at last count, had military connections, as did the woman killed by a policeman that day. (Veterans and active-duty personnel account for 7.5% of the U.S. population.) More than a fifth of the arrested veterans have been charged with "conspiracy."

The need to understand why an estimated 800 people ransacked the Capitol, attacked the police, and threatened elected representatives, journalists, and the basic functioning of American democracy is both practical and emotional. Thinking that we know what motivated the rioters makes their rebellion feel a little more manageable (at least to me) and might just help prevent something like it from happening again.

Given my backgroundI've been writing about soldiers and veterans for yearsmy management technique has been to look at the military links to that assault.

I'm hardly alone. In one of the few times other than Veterans Day in this century when American journalists seem to have remembered that our military was crucial to our national experience, a number of them began covering that link. A regularly updated NPR list shows that almost all of those with military affiliations in the Capitol that day were veterans. Several had previously been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan; one had worked on presidential helicopters and so (like another of the rioters) would have had a top-secret security clearance; one, who wasn't actually at the Capitol but whom the FBI is eyeing for conspiracy charges, was on the staff of former congressman Ron Paul; and one had even been in the Peace Corps. Nearly all of them were men and nearly all were white. Two were Citadel cadets, but only two were active-duty personnel. (One of those had, in the past, come to work at a Navy yard in New Jersey decked out in a Hitler mustache and hairdo and reportedly made anti-Semitic comments daily. He got admonished for the mustache; the comments continued.)

I admit that I was surprised by all this, although I probably shouldn't have been. After all, last year, even in the age of Trump, the FBI had opened 68 investigations into domestic extremism involving current or former members of the military.

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that many of those veterans were affiliated with the far-right Proud Boys or Oath Keepers and much has been made of why such groups would want to engage people with military experience who bring with them training, skills, possible access to weaponry, and the twisted credibility of government-issued hero status. Far less was said about why people in the military might be attracted to far-right groups.

The Link Between Extremist Culture and the Military

A week after the Capitol invasion, 14 Democratic senators wrote a letter calling on the Pentagon's Inspector General to investigate "white supremacy" and "extremism in the military." The next month, a House subcommittee held a hearing under the rubric "Alarming Incidents of White Supremacy in the MilitaryHow to Stop It?" Meanwhile, on February 5th, the first Black secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, directed commanding officers at all levels to conduct a one-day stand-down before April 1st to address extremism in the military and provide training in avoiding involvement with extremist groups. At the same time, the Pentagon admitted that it didn't have a handle on the scope of the problem or what to do about it.

The link between extremist culture and the military goes way back, as do efforts to track and deal with it. The names of the groups have changed over the yearsthey used to sound German, now they sound moralisticbut the problem hasn't. For instance, in 2009, Operation Vigilant Eagle, an FBI program focused on the recruitment of veterans by white supremacist groups, came to light, and that same year a Department of Homeland Security assessment warned that "right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans"returning, that is, from America's distant, never-ending wars. Conservative politicians, media personalities and veterans' groups found that DHS report insulting to veterans and got it withdrawn.

Keep in mind that active-duty service members are officially restricted in their political activities, so there were undoubtedly many still in uniform who didn't show up at the Capitol but would have liked to do so. And though the Proud Boys have focused their recruiting on the military and law enforcement, it's hardly necessary to join such loosely structured groups to support their ideology and aims. A 2019 Military Times survey, for example, found that 36% of military respondents had "witnessed examples of white supremacy and racist ideologies" in the ranks.

Military rules tend to delineate the rights soldiers don't have more than those they do, but Department of Defense Directive 1325.6 gives active-duty members the right to participate in political demonstrations as long as they are off base, out of uniform, within the United States, representing only themselves, and not slandering the president or high officials. However, activities like fundraising for, distributing the political material of, or wearing the totemic clothing of white supremist and other extremist groups could indeed get you kicked out of the military, as could certain kinds of social-media posts.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) has been pushing to track the social media activities of all enlistees and the Pentagon claims that it's looking for a "scalable way" to add that into background checks.

Members of the armed forces have a duty to report such behavior, though don't count on that, since it's probably seen as snitching. Commanders also have considerable leeway when it comes to how they might respond to the proscribed actions

It goes without saying, of course, that soldiers are not supposed to engage in any kind of violenceexcept the violence they're ordered to take part in as soldiers.

That's Not Okayish

America's military was designed to be politically neutral and has prided itself on being nondiscriminatory and merit-based, traits theoretically crucial to maintaining an all-volunteer force (though in racial terms over the years it's been anything but, at least when it came to the high command). All branches now purport to screen for supremacist, extremist, or criminal-gang involvement at the time of enlistment and military leaders, who probably don't want troublemakers in their commands, are reportedly taking pains to confirm that such extremists will not be tolerated.

Except when they are.

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The design of military justice makes it hard to track advocates of extremist violence, as there is no centralized record-keeping for such things and, often enough, such behavior is simply brushed aside.

In my own unscientific survey, I recently asked two active-duty soldiers and three Iraq War veterans if they had encountered right-wing extremism while in the service. Four initially said nothe fifth, a Black sailor, at one point had had a noose dangled in his facebut then began recounting tales of what was permitted or considered normal behavior: a U.S.-based paramedic talking about avoiding a Black neighborhood where he would encounter "animals"; a call from a friend and Stryker platoon leader in Germany who found arbeit macht frei, the slogan at the gates of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, carved into the interior of some of his unit's vehicles; a fellow recruit at basic training revealing a giant swastika on his back. He was soon sent packing, but had made it through the enlistment process where such things are supposed to be caught. (My source thought his quick dismissal came only because his training instructor was Black. He didn't consider such a response typical.)

Nobody I talked to was okay with any of this, but one active-duty soldier admitted, "When I was most brainwashed, I saw it as cathartic, being comfortable without having to worry about 'cancel culture.'"

Extremism in a World of Never-Ending War

Organizing within the military isn't easy. At least, it wasn't for antiwar activists during the Vietnam and Iraq War years (as I found out when researching my book, War Is Not a Game: The New Antiwar Soldiers and the Movement They Built). But maybe what's going on now among the soldiers of the far right isn't organizing as much as a signaling or sharing of interests and affinities, particularly on the Internet. Or maybe it's "self-radicalizing"reading extremist material, following the websites of supremacist groups, or connecting on social media; what, in other circumstances, we might call educating yourselfwhich breeds sympathy, if not membership.

As separate as the military may seem from civilian culture, it's anything but immune to the vicious discord which now plagues this country. But the military was fertile territory for right-wing sympathies long before Donald Trump became president or the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers came along. The turning of the post-Vietnam War military into an all-volunteer force only seems to have exacerbated such tendencies. As an Army captain emailed me, "The military recruits heavily from the same population that extremist organizations dosocially isolated, downwardly mobile, and economically vulnerable young men." Jonathan Hutto, a Black veteran who challenged the racism he encountered in the Navy, wrote that his shipmates didn't need to be "inculcated with Racist-Fascist Ideology" because they had arrived primed for it by their families and communities.

A former captain in the Marines told me that veterans often find themselves battling with the VA over benefits and services they thought they'd been promised when they went to war and that leaves them embittered against the government. Their difficulty in even talking honestly about their war experiences, not to speak of the PTSD they may be experiencing, often leaves them feeling out of sync with the countryand so they become ready recruits for extremist and white supremacist groups that offer them a sense of belonging.

Active-duty service members also often feel betrayed by recruitment promises which never pan out and multiple deployments in distant war zones which accomplish little or nothing at all. Speaking of that sense of resentment, Garett Reppenhagen, executive director of Veterans For Peace, says, "They just can't pinpoint where it comes from. The frustration is legitimate. It's just focused wrongly."

Kathleen Belew, a historian much cited in the wake of the January 6th insurrection, studied the appeal to veterans of white-power groups in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. In her book Bring the War Home, she explains how they came to see the state as the enemy and patriotism as something other than defending the nation. The parallels to today, while striking, lack one reality of this moment: unlike in the Vietnam era, America's wars in this century have simply never ended and so continue to produce alienated veterans.

It's striking, after all, that the veterans who joined the Capitol insurrection weren't exactly kids. In fact, only seven military-connected rioters arrested so far are 30 or younger.

Unlike with Vietnam (long as it was), when wars never end but continue, as if on a Mobius strip of belligerency and repetitious deployments, there is no aftermath, no recovery. People now old enough to enlist have never known a United States not at war. As a result, the pressures now at play and producing extremism in the military could be seen as related to what one veteran I interviewed termed a larger "cultural project" that, however unexamined, is aimed at creating an ever-more-militarized (which also means an ever-more-extreme) society.

Here, war is sold, not just as acceptable, but as necessary to maintain the vaunted American way of life. Meanwhile, its actualities are largely cloaked from scrutiny until they shimmer into a very pricey item loved by both parties. It's called the Pentagon budget.

An Increasingly Militarized Heritage

However many military-related figures broke into the Capitol on January 6th, what if the tendency toward violent extremism is more endemic to that military than we'd like to think? What if the very purpose of such a military creates the conditions for the racism and violence we're now seeing? What if far-right radicals aren't some enemy out there but a seamless outgrowth of the institution we think of as so categorically American? And if all that's so, what have we really been thanking service members for, so devotedly all these years?

A military is, of course, innately hierarchical, authoritarian, and adversarial, and war, by definition, is terror. Tenets inculcated from basic training onvenerating tradition, idealizing heroism, valuing action for action's sake, equating masculinity with militarism, and thinking of anyone who disagrees with you as potentially treasonousare eerily similar to the ideology of far-right groups. And don't forget this either: American wars of the past 70 years have functioned by reducing the enemy to gooks, sand n***s, and hajis (the last, a term of respect in Islam twisted into an epithet by American troops)in other words, using baked-in racism to dehumanize enemies and make it easier to hate and kill them.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm by no means saying that everyone in the U.S. military is racist or enamored of violence, or that they condone or support racist, violent ideologies. What's true, however, is that the military's actions are based on dividing the world into friends and foes: the first to be protected out of all proportion to the threat, the second to be humiliated and defeated out of all proportion to the needthough, in this century, ironically enough, the defeated have turned out to be us.

Such overkill in attitude and approach naturally bleeds into society as a whole (even when its members are paying remarkably little attention to the wars being fought in distant lands). Of his country's treatment of Palestinians, the Israeli novelist David Grossman wrote, "I could not understand how an entire nation like mine, an enlightened nation by all accounts, is able to train itself to live as a conqueror without making its own life wretched."

Only a small crew of people in the military actually join radical right-wing groups and there's little question that its leadership is concerned about those who do. But there is an inheritance of violence in our increasingly militarized land that ought to concern us all, too.

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America's Far-Right in Uniform - Common Dreams

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Paul Fanlund: Listen more than you talk, and other advice on racial justice – Madison.com

Posted: at 8:57 pm

Maybe part of it has to do with where we start. Whites drawn to Madison are often among the most highly educated attracted to our world-class university or the regions burgeoning technology sector.

Some people of color who come here dont start with the same privileges and thats also true for their children at school, but generalizations are perilous and theres much more to the achievement gap story than that. Well-educated people of color often report that their children dont get the same treatment at school here that white children do.

Many do, but not all Madisonians care much about delving deeper into racial justice.

I noticed after Black Lives Matter protests here last year an unrelenting buzz about the property damage on State Street and the suggestion that there were lawless hordes downtown. Madison police, criticized by some Black leaders as racially insensitive, are criticized by others as overly conciliatory.

Racial animus was stoked by Donald Trump, and some subset of Madison buys into that. They probably like the law-and-order message and would be less likely just as U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said he was to fear the predominately white crowd at the U.S. Capitol insurrection than Black Lives Matter activists. Yes, Madison is generally liberal, but I have been surprised at how prominent that vibe has been.

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Neuralink Co-Founder Says We Have the Tech to Build an Actual Jurassic Park – Futurism

Posted: at 8:48 pm

Max Hodak wants us to create brand-new, "super exotic" dinosaurs.Paging Jeff Goldblum

Max Hodak, the Neuralink cofounder who recently made headlines for suggesting a religion that incorporates drugs and that his companys brain-computer interface would revolutionize gaming, is back and now hes calling for someone to build a real-world Jurassic Park.

We could probably build Jurassic Park if we wanted to, Hodak tweeted on Saturday. Wouldnt be genetically authentic dinosaurs but [shrugging emoji]. Maybe 15 years of breeding + engineering to get super exotic novel species.

For the uninitiated, Jurassic Park and Jurassic World make up a five-movie franchise with a sixth in the works all based on Michael Crichtons hit novel about how bad of an idea it was to open a place like Jurassic Park. Leveraging recent advances in genetic research to create entirely new creatures is certainly an enticing idea, though theres a big difference between something potentially being feasible and actually being a good idea.

But its not all fun and gameswhen youre playing god and creating new dinosaurs. Hodak later added that de-extinction could be a valuable tool for increasing biodiversity, perhaps because we find ourselves in the midst of an era of mass extinction.

Biodiversity (antifragility) is definitely valuable; conservation is important and makes sense, Hodak tweeted minutes later. But why do we stop there? Why dont we more intentionally try to generate novel diversity?

For years, conservationists have expressed concerns over resurrecting extinct species a process called de-extinction in part because the ecosystems those species lived in, for one reason or another, moved on without them. To that end, resurrecting species and especially creating brand new forms of biodiversity would functionally be the same as introducing a new invasive species to an ecosystem no longer equipped to support it.

In other words, its a cool idea, but it runs the risk of being extremely counterproductive just like in the movies.

More on Max Hodak: Neuralink Co-Founder Has an Idea for a New Religion

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New Russian Weapon Is Designed to Unleash "Radioactive Tsunamis" – Futurism

Posted: at 8:48 pm

The Poseidon 2M39 torpedo would sneak along the ocean floor before detonating a nuke.Testing Grounds

Russia appears to have developed a nuclear weapon capable of sneaking along the bottom of the sea and detonating along the coastline to flood the area with what one official described as radioactive tsunamis.

The nuclear weapon, called the Poseidon 2M39 torpedo, has experts concerned, CNN reports, as the radioactive waves could potentially devastate coastal cities and render huge portions of land uninhabitable for long periods of time. Though the weapon was considered a technologically-improbable farce for years, recent Russian military tests and other activity in the Arctic now lends new credibility to the threat.

Christopher A Ford, a former assistant secretary of state for International Security and Non-Proliferation, told CNN last year that the horrifying weapon is designed to inundate U.S. coastal cities with radioactive tsunamis.

The Poseidon 2M39 was first announced in 2015, CNN reports, but was considered by experts outside of Russia to be a paper tiger weapon, or a scary-sounding-but-ineffectual piece of technology meant to add gravitas to treaty negotiations instead of actually being used.

But now it seems that Russia is moving forward with Poseidon tests as well as those for other high-tech weapons like hypersonic missiles and experts are taking notice.

It is absolutely a project that will be used to scare, as a negotiation card in the future, perhaps in arms control talks, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies international relations professor Katarzyna Zysk told CNN. But in order to do so, it has to be credible. This seems to be real.

A bomb that can trigger already-deadly tsunamis made of dangerously radioactive water in major cities is, objectively, terrifying. But military and sociopolitical implications aside, a Poseidon 2M39 strike would also cause severe environmental destruction that would last for decades.

We are ecologically worried. This is not only a theoretical thing: in fact, we have seen serious accidents in the last few years, Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensnes, head of Norwegian intelligence, told CNN. The potential of a nuclear contamination is absolutely there.

READ MORE: Satellite images show huge Russian military buildup in the Arctic [CNN]

More on nuclear weapons: Russia Says It Successfully Tested a Hypersonic Nuke

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New Russian Weapon Is Designed to Unleash "Radioactive Tsunamis" - Futurism

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Simulation Shows This Fusion Reactor Doing Something Amazing – Futurism

Posted: at 8:48 pm

Now scientists just need to make it a reality.Simulation Theory

A team of scientists may have cracked the code for self-sustaining nuclear fusion reactors that actually produce more electricity than they consume an amazing accomplishment, at least in theory.

In a series of simulations, the team from the Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and the private company General Atomics demonstrated how a tiny tokamak reactor could pave the way toward productive and sustainable fusion energy, according to Popular Mechanics. Now, of course, the trick is to actually build the thing.

A big, yet-unsolved challenge in the nuclear fusion field has been building a reactor stable and powerful enough to actually put out more energy than it takes in. The best in show right now, according to PopMech, is an experimental reactor that produces 67 percent as much electricity as it takes to power it up.

The new theoretical reactor is surprisingly compact: its just eight meters wide and highly compresses plasma to generate a net 200 megawatts of electricity, according to the research that the team published last month in the journal Nuclear Fusion. That would be enough electricity to power about 40,000 homes, give or take.

Unfortunately, a reactor like the one from the paper is probably still over a decade away from tangible reality, according to PopMech. Adding in the plasma pressurization that actually made it work well is even farther out.

But still, the simulations show that a plasma fusion reactor of this sort is theoretically possible and could work. That means that this paper could serve as roadmap toward a truly practical fusion reactor.

READ MORE: This Is the First Fusion Power Plant to Generate Net Electricity [Popular Mechanics]

More on nuclear fusion: MIT Researchers Say Their Fusion Reactor Is Very Likely to Work

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Pieces of Alien Planet Buried Inside Earth Are "Millions of Times Larger Than Mount Everest" – Futurism

Posted: at 8:48 pm

An ancient collision may have left giant chunks of another world buried beneath our feet.Left Behind

Roughly 4.5 billion years ago, an ancient protoplanet called Theia likely crashed into the Earth, sending shrapnel and debris into space and ultimately forming the Moon.

But the crash also likely left pieces of Theia buried beneath the Earth in the form of two incredibly huge blobs of rock and metal, according to research by Arizona State University scientists. Now, in anew interview with Insider, the lead scientist behind that research has clarified their utterly unfathomable scale.

Those ancient, buried fragments are millions of times larger than Mount Everest in terms of volume, Arizona State researcher Qian Yuan told the site.

The gargantuan masses are 621 miles tall and two to three times as wide, according to Yuans research, scheduled to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. And the rock isnt just sitting there scientists have previously been able to study the blobs after their contents oozed up and out of Samoan and Icelandic volcanoes, according to Insider.

Studying that lava, according to Insider, is part of what led scientists to believe that the blobs are drastically different from the surrounding mantle, lending evidence to the idea they came from somewhere other than Earth.

If these underground blobs really are pieces of Theia, it would mean that Earth had a shockingly violent past. But it would also help explain where the Moon came from.

A hit-and-run theory of the Earth-Theia collision, Yuan told Insider, would say that the two planets glanced off each other and the pieces they flung into space eventually formed the Moon. Scientists have previously suggested there are pieces of Theia under the lunar surface, but the Moons composition is highly similar to Earth. Given that and the incredible size of the blobs that got buried, it seems most of the ancient planets surviving remains got stuck here instead.

READ MORE: Earth contains buried chunks of an alien world that are millions of times larger than Mount Everest, research suggests [Insider]

More on Theia: There Appears to be a Huge Chunk of an Ancient Planet Buried Inside Earth

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Pieces of Alien Planet Buried Inside Earth Are "Millions of Times Larger Than Mount Everest" - Futurism

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Gene Therapy Injected Into Eyeball Restores Blind Patient’s Vision – Futurism

Posted: at 8:48 pm

Image by v2osk via Unsplash / Futurism

A blind patient regained their vision for over a year after getting a single injection of an experimental gene therapy directly into their eye.

The treatment uses RNA molecules that can infiltrate cells and reverse a specific mutation linked to Leber congenital amaurosis, an eye disease that causes blindness early in life, according to research published Thursday in the journal Nature Medicine. And interestingly, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers behind the treatment discovered its long-term effects largely by accident.

The mutation behind Leber congenital amaurosis prevents cells from producing the CEP290 protein, which is crucial for the eyes photoreceptor cells. The treatment sneaks RNA into those cells and triggers CEP290 production, essentially reversing the mutation for months at a time.

The researchers first tested out this gene therapy in 2019, according to a press release on the study, in an earlier experiment where patients were injected every three months. Those patients saw continual improvement in their eyesight because the RNA was repeatedly replenished. But one participant only got the initial injection and then backed out over concerns about potential side effects.

And what a lucky break that they did. The new study focuses on that patient alone and shows that the restored eyesight actually peaked two full months after the injection and lasted for over 15 months long-term trends that were masked by the other patients repeated treatments.

As the study authors explain in the press release, thats a great sign for this specific treatment and the field of RNA-based gene therapies at large. Longer-lasting benefits would not only potentially drive down the medical bills associated with repeated injections but give scientists working on other conditions a promising avenue to explore for their own gene therapies.

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Professor Says We Could Already Build a Floating Space Elevator – Futurism

Posted: at 8:48 pm

The concept of a space elevator, a consistently popular topic in works of science fiction, has been around since at least the late 19th century.

The basic idea is to allow us to reach space by using a cable thats tethered to the Earth on one end and to a counterweight, orbiting the Earth, on the other.

But rather than having one end cemented in the Earth, scientists are now arguing that a more recently developed iteration of the space elevator design could be built much sooner. The design involves having both ends of the tether float entirely in space, making transportation of payloads from one orbit to the other much easier.

And, as George Zhu, professor of mechanical engineering at York University, tells The Academic Times, the concept isnt nearly as far fetched as we might think.

Technical-wise, its kind of ready, Zhu told the outlet. It just has small engineering [adjustments], and theres no fundamental difficulty to do that.

In his paper, published in the journal Acta Astronautica last month, Zhu argues that a partial space elevator that sends payloads from a lower to a higher Earth orbit is already mechanically feasible today.

In short, the idea is to send payloads to the lower reaches of space via rockets, attach them to the lower end of the tether, and have them be zipped up to the further reaches of Earths orbit via the elevator.

Such an elevator could use two, instead of one, cable tethers to keep the elevator stable.

Thats mainly to stop the Earths rotational force, the Coriolis effect, moving the cable back and forth, a phenomenon referred to by Zhu as libration.

Our idea is, when we put two tethers together, one cargo will be moving up and the other cargo will be moving down, so the forces will cancel each other, Zhu told The Academic Times.

Since both ends are floating in space, according to Zhu, the tension within the tether is limited. Current material can support that tension.

As a result of the significant fuel savings involved in only sending a rocket to the lower reaches of space, todays rockets could send up to ten times more payload by weight into space, according to the researcher.

There are several downsides to the approach, however. Zhu did admit to The Academic Times that a kilometers-long tether would make it very difficult for existing objects in Earths orbit to avoid debris.

For instance, the International Space Station routinely has to fire its thrusters to avoid oncoming bits of space junk. If it were tied to an extremely long tether, as Zhang suggests, such maneuvers would be near impossible.

While such a space elevator doesnt quite solve the issue of having to spend massive amounts of fuel to get off the ground and escape the Earths powerful gravitational pull, it could still cut the required journey short significantly, saving plenty of fuel in the process an intriguing possibility.

READ MORE: Far from science fiction, space elevators may be nearing deployment [The Academic Times]

More on space elevators: These Researchers Want to Run a Cable From the Earth to the Moon

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Professor Says We Could Already Build a Floating Space Elevator - Futurism

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Dark Energy, Thought to Comprise Most of the Universe, Might Be Totally Fake – Futurism

Posted: at 8:48 pm

What if it's all just dark matter instead?Square One

Dark energy, the elusive energy that many physicists believe drives the continuous expansion of the universe, might not actually exist.

In conventional models of the universe, about 68 percent of the universe is made of dark energy, with most of the remainder being taken up by dark matter. But University of Copenhagen scientists suggest in new preprint research that theres no actual need for dark energy to exist theres a chance that its dark matter driving the universe apart instead. Its a bold claim that needs to thoroughly vetted before we assume its correct, but if it holds up it would dramatically rewrite what we thought we understood about the cosmos.

The scientists suggest that if dark matter had a few more properties like something resembling magnetism than existing models assume, it could accomplish everything thats currently attributed to dark energy.

If what we discovered is accurate, it would upend our belief that what we thought made up 70 percent of the universe does not actually exist, study coauthor Steen Harle Hansen said in a press release. We have removed dark energy from the equation and added in a few more properties for dark matter. This appears to have the same effect upon the universes expansion as dark energy.

Of course, any model that erases 68 percent of the universe with a Thanos-like snap deserves a hearty dose of skepticism. But Hansen also thinks dark energy, as a concept, is already pretty far out.

Honestly, our discovery may just be a coincidence, he said in the release. But if it isnt, it is truly incredible. It would change our understanding of the universes composition and why it is expanding. As far as our current knowledge, our ideas about dark matter with a type of magnetic force and the idea about dark energy are equally wild. Only more detailed observations will determine which of these models is the more realistic. So, it will be incredibly exciting to retest our result.

READ MORE: New study sews doubt about the composition of 70 percent of our universe [University of Copenhagen]

More on dark energy: Scientists Think Dark Energy Might Be Just an Illusion

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Dark Energy, Thought to Comprise Most of the Universe, Might Be Totally Fake - Futurism

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The futurist: Harshad Ajoomal – Times of India

Posted: at 8:48 pm

Harshad AjoomalA carved vegetable ivory (Tagua Nut) cocktail ring in 18-karat yellow gold set with diamonds, and briolettes of amethysts, spinel and pink tourmaline. By H. Ajoomal Fine JewelleryA pair of icy platinum earrings embellished with round and emerald-cut diamonds from the Modern Vintage line. By H. Ajoomal Fine JewelleryA snap-on black onyx bracelet decorated with yellow gold finials, diamonds, tanzanite and citrines. By H. Ajoomal Fine Jewellery

A broad bracelet patterned with white and grey mother-of-pearl sticks held in a circle with natural Italian corals framed in diamonds. By H. Ajoomal Fine Jewellery

Tell us about your family were they related to the world of jewellery?My paternal family had oil and cotton seed processing units and factories. So, I wasnt exposed to jewellery in that sense. But, yes, a few of my cousins and uncles got into the diamond and jewellery trade after immigrating from Pakistan during the partition in 1947. I started out by taking up a gemmology course one summer at the Gemmological Institute of India (GII) where my professor also happened to be my first cousin, Navin Jashnani.

I had never been exposed to gemstones and diamonds and it was an eye-opener for me. After I completed the course, Navin asked me if I would be interested to learn manufacturing and metalsmithing.

I was 19 years old, and after attending college in the morning, I had ample time on hand. So, I agreed. There were no institutes in those days that taught jewellery manufacturing, so Navin got me to apprentice with Shishir Nevatia, founder of Sunjewels. In the one year spent there, I learned the technical aspects of jewellery making on the bench.

Did your early experience in the industry make you realise that you had a designer hidden in you?After my apprenticeship at Sunjewels, I joined Navins Sama Jewellery, and started manufacturing and wholesaling jewellery. I always knew I had a creative side to me as I was attracted to art, sculpture and architecture from a young age. I travelled a lot as a child with my parents all over Europe and I remember my visits to museums those memories stayed with me forever.

It was only when I began working on jewellery and creating something that I realised my calling.

My education also came from travelling to international jewellery shows in Vicenza, Valencia, Hong Kong, and reading books on jewellery of different periods.

Jewellery making has been a creative outlet for me. I also enjoy manufacturing gemstones.

I am largely a self-trained designer, barring a couple of short courses that I took in Milan and Mumbai. I keep reading about architectural rendering, and I think thats helped me explain my ideas to my artisans. Its been almost 30 years and I have been enjoying the process and learning something new all the time.

A beaded multi-row necklace featuring tumbled peridot and tanzanite beads with side clasps in wood and brushed yellow and white gold set with diamonds. By H. Ajoomal Fine Jewellery

An 18-karat white gold cocktail ring inspired by the overflowing icing on a cake set with mint green tsavorites and Mandarin garnets. By H. Ajoomal Fine Jewellery

A pair of curvaceous white gold earrings set with round and baguette diamonds. By H. Ajoomal Fine Jewellery

White gold diamond ear pendants fashioned with fancy-cut diamonds. By H. Ajoomal Fine Jewellery

When did you start your own eponymous brand, and who was your target audience? After working for many years in the business-to-business trade where I headed the creative department in Sama Jewellery, and partnering with designers like Farah Khan for almost nine years, I decided out to venture on my own. In 2006, I started my eponymous brand H. Ajoomal to cater to a discerning consumer.

While at Sama, we tested our products with end consumers and realised that they were more discerning than jewellery retailers, who were reluctant to experiment. Thats when I felt I could cater to an audience who wanted something out of the ordinary without compromising on manufacturing and gem quality.

Your jewellery sits on the cusp of fine jewellery and high fashion. Tell us how you have managed to create a signature label such as this? How much influence does fashion have in conceiving the collections? Yes, our pieces are a mix of fine jewellery and high fashion. We also do prt and demi-fine jewellery. Fashion has definitely been one of the big influences other than architecture, sculpture, and pop art. Being a scuba diver, I also am inspired by underwater life.

One cannot follow fashion blindly, I feel one has to find ones own signature style; it is important to know if your client prefers high fashion or high street fashion; what type of jewellery will go with her attire, her lifestyle. Besides design, its important to build trust so that clients are sure about what they are buying from you.

I keep experimenting with new material, trying out new processes. I also do classic and bespoke jewellery, but employ new manufacturing techniques; and figure different ways of wearing those pieces.

The use of unusual gemstones is another aspect that distinguishes your brand from others. Do you have a gem-cutting lapidary as well? Yes, I love unusual gemstones and spend considerable time sourcing them. Of course, we use rubies, emeralds, tanzanite and more, but I also experiment with kunzites, morganite, Mandarin garnets, purple garnets, and spinels. I love opals from Ethiopia and Australia. I also use vegetable ivory, tagua, fossils, and meteorites. I found a supplier for meteorite and I intend using it in fine jewellery.

I dont have my own lapidary, but I work with a team of trained gem cutters worldwide who custom-cut gems for me.

I try as much as possible to find out about the sourcing of the gemstones that I use. Are they sustainable? Are they empowering those local communities? Is it imported and sourced from the right organizations? These aspects are important for me.

Tell us more about the latest lines that you have come up with. It has been a really unusual year for all of us. Travelling is restricted and people are opting to go for open spaces with a small group, who they feel safe to be with. Thats why we are concentrating on the demi-fine jewellery line, which is more fun and colourful, by using the Pantone yellows and greys or other unusual combinations. This line has been doing well for us this past year.

Some of our important pieces have been sold through auctions as well.

We are working currently with Mandarin garnets and spinels an atypical combination of orange and pink shades. Ive also been working a lot with peridot and rough material, and gems like jasper, which bear natural earthy patterns; and combinations of jasper with tanzanite or agate.

I have recently come back from the African Safari, and I visited Lewa in the North and was mesmerised by the spectacular landscape where I saw 20 different shades of grass! I am trying to work on a colour scheme similar to it with an earthier feel in my demi-fine line.

Another collection is being made with uncut diamonds, labradorites, tanzanites and rough emeralds.

We are working a collection in aluminium and plating of aluminium and titanium in combination with gold and gemstones. We are also coming up with our own black gold alloy, and working on various shades of gold, too.

Could you give us an indication about trend directions?I think the younger consumer will identify with pieces that have symbols or are more personalised.

In terms of diamond cuts, we will see more fancy shapes including trapezoids and triangles; and ovals and emerald-cuts, especially for engagement rings and wedding bands. Emerald cuts have been in fashion for a long time. But again, its the way we are setting them is more modern.

In the coloured gemstone segment, the definition of what is considered a gem is changing rapidly. One cannot define what is precious or semi-precious. Its up to the consumer to decide about the rarity of the material, its sourcing, the design, whether it is organic or not there is a thin line now dividing precious and semi-precious gemstones.

Its all about how a gemstone is used in a piece of jewellery that really makes it rare.

We will also see different ways of selling jewellery.

Even at auctions, which earlier sold only vintage pieces, we are finding young designers who are putting their fresh pieces under the hammer for an evolved clientele.

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