The question of who owns specific parts of the Moon if they’re commercially valuable has never been raised. Soon it might be. CC-licensed photo by marcus agrippa on Flickr.
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A selection of 9 links for you. Use them wisely. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. Observations and links welcome.
Automakers are sharing consumers’ driving behavior with insurance companies • The New York Times
Kashmir Hill:
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In recent years, insurance companies have offered incentives to people who install dongles in their cars or download smartphone apps that monitor their driving, including how much they drive, how fast they take corners, how hard they hit the brakes and whether they speed. But “drivers are historically reluctant to participate in these programs,” as Ford Motor put it in a patent application that describes what is happening instead: Car companies are collecting information directly from internet-connected vehicles for use by the insurance industry.
Sometimes this is happening with a driver’s awareness and consent. Car companies have established relationships with insurance companies, so that if drivers want to sign up for what’s called usage-based insurance — where rates are set based on monitoring of their driving habits — it’s easy to collect that data wirelessly from their cars.
But in other instances, something much sneakier has happened. Modern cars are internet-enabled, allowing access to services like navigation, roadside assistance and car apps that drivers can connect to their vehicles to locate them or unlock them remotely. In recent years, automakers, including G.M., Honda, Kia and Hyundai, have started offering optional features in their connected-car apps that rate people’s driving. Some drivers may not realize that, if they turn on these features, the car companies then give information about how they drive to data brokers like LexisNexis.
Automakers and data brokers that have partnered to collect detailed driving data from millions of Americans say they have drivers’ permission to do so. But the existence of these partnerships is nearly invisible to drivers, whose consent is obtained in fine print and murky privacy policies that few read.
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America’s nonexistent privacy laws are being quietly exploited by data brokers in every possible avenue? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. And of course all those details are used by the insurance companies to push premiums up.
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Why Americans suddenly stopped hanging out • The Atlantic
Derek Thompson:
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In the 1990s, the sociologist Robert Putnam recognized that America’s social metabolism was slowing down. In the book Bowling Alone, he gathered reams of statistical evidence to prove that America’s penchant for starting and joining associations appeared to be in free fall. Book clubs and bowling leagues were going bust.
If Putnam felt the first raindrops of an antisocial revolution in America, the downpour is fully here, and we’re all getting washed away in the flood. From 2003 to 2022, American men reduced their average hours of face-to-face socializing by about 30%. For unmarried Americans, the decline was even bigger—more than 35%. For teenagers, it was more than 45%. Boys and girls ages 15 to 19 reduced their weekly social hangouts by more than three hours a week. In short, there is no statistical record of any other period in US history when people have spent more time on their own.
And so what? one might reasonably ask. Aloneness is not loneliness. Not only that, one might point out, the texture of aloneness has changed. Solitude is less solitary than ever. With all the calling, texting, emailing, work chatting, DMing, and posting, we are producing unprecedented terabytes of interpersonal communication. If Americans were happy—about themselves, about their friends, about their country—then whining about parties of one would feel silly.
But for Americans in the 2020s, solitude, anxiety, and dissatisfaction seem to be rising in lockstep. Surveys show that Americans, and especially young Americans, have never been more anxious about their own lives or more depressed about the future of the country. Teenage depression and hopelessness are setting new annual records every year. The share of young people who say they have a close friend has plummeted. Americans have been so depressed about the state of the nation for so many consecutive years that by 2023, NBC pollsters said, “We have never before seen this level of sustained pessimism in the 30-year-plus history of the poll.”
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Lots of strange data, including the stuff about pets (Americans spend more time with them on average than humans. Then again, pets don’t argue or want to change the channel.)
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Who owns the Moon? The race for lunar real estate is an impending ethical nightmare • Inverse
Kiona Smith:
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Along with private missions like the recent Intuitive Machines’ lander IM-1, several countries’ space agencies all have their eyes on the same real estate around the Moon’s south pole, where water ice may lie waiting in permanently shadowed craters. Until recently, debates about what should and shouldn’t happen on the Moon have been abstract. Only one country’s space agency had ever sent humans to the Moon, and they didn’t stay long. That’s on the brink of changing. The next decade may see the once-pristine lunar landscape dotted with bases and riddled with mines, all jostling for space (and bandwidth) with telescopes and other scientific exploration. But is the lunar environment worth preserving, for science or in its own right, and who gets to decide?
A recent (failed) mission to land cremated human remains on the Moon raised a high-profile example of the kind of ethical issues space ethicists say we should be considering. Astrobotic’s Peregrine One lander was scheduled to deliver the cremated remains of Gene Roddenberry and several members of the original Star Trek cast, and others to the Moon.
The Navajo Nation formally protested the mission’s launch; in Navajo beliefs, the Moon is a sacred object, and placing human remains there would be a desecration. In the end, a fuel leak forced the mission to return to Earth, where it ended in a fiery plunge into the upper atmosphere, but it drew attention to a larger debate about who gets to decide — for everyone — how we as a species relate to the Moon now.
“Every culture on Earth has conceptions about the Moon,” Santa Clara University space ethicist Brian Green tells Inverse. “There are lots of groups on Earth who have thoughts on how the Moon should be treated. This is why we need to have a larger conversation.”
Part of the unfolding discussion centers on what, if anything, we should try to protect on the Moon. Several groups here on Earth, such as For All Moonkind, have spent years arguing that the first crewed lunar landing sites are an important part of human history and should be preserved, but at the moment there’s no law or treaty preventing someone from erasing the rover tracks or astronauts’ footprints.
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It’s very expensive to go to the Moon, so any valuable resources such as water will be even more valued. So this is likely to be ugly and solved through force majeure.
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Colorado ranchers sentenced after tampering with rain gauges to increase crop subsidies • CBS Colorado
Logan Smith:
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Two southeastern Colorado ranch owners were recently sentenced to pay $6.6m to resolve federal charges that they damaged or altered rain gauges in an effort to get paid for worsening drought conditions.
By preventing the rain gauges from accurately measuring precipitation, the men aimed to increase the amount of money they could receive from the federal government, according to court documents.
Patrick Esch, 72, and Ed Dean Jagers, 62, both of Springfield, received short prison sentences – Esch two months and Jagers six. They also were ordered to pay a combined $3.1m in restitution – the estimated amount of fraudulently inflated funds they received from the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. As well, they agreed to pay a combined $3.5m to settle the allegations.
The cases against Esch and Jager included civil allegations and criminal charges accusing the men of making false statements and defrauding the federal government, in addition to the physical tampering of the rain gauges.
“Hardworking farmers and ranchers depend on USDA crop insurance programs, and we will not allow these programs to be abused,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Cole Finegan stated in a press release. “This case also shows the full measure of justice that can be achieved when our office uses both civil and criminal tools to protect vital government programs.”
…The group allegedly damaged rain gauges located in Springfield, Ordway, La Junta, Walsh, and Ellicott, Colorado, and others in Syracuse, Coolidge, and Elkhart, Kansas. Wires were cut, funnels to rain collectors were filled with silicone, holes drilled or punched in collectors, parts of collectors were disassembled, and objects such as cake pans or pie tins were placed over the gauges during rainstorms. The incidents occurred between July 2016 and June 2017.
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As the saying goes – once you start to make the measurement of something that can be manipulated important, it ceases to be a useful measurement.
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Kate Middleton’s photo editing controversy is an omen of what’s to come • TechCrunch
Amanda Silberling:
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It’s not clear what tools the princess used to edit the photo — a tool like Facetune might be able to remove blemishes or toggle the brightness of the photo, but it won’t create a phantom sleeve beneath Charlotte’s elbow. Some retouching tools, like Photoshop’s content-aware fill or a clone brush, might use elements of the photo to create something that wasn’t originally there. But those aren’t the kinds of photo editing tools that people use when they’re trying to make themselves look Instagram-ready — it’s what you use when you’re trying to edit out a random guy in the background of your beach photo.
Even British celebrities like Piers Morgan have weighed in, raising the question of why the Royal Family won’t quash the conspiracy theories by just releasing the unedited photo.
As AI-powered image generation becomes mainstream, we’re losing our grip on reality. In a time when any image can be fake, how can we know what’s actually real? There are some tell-tale signs, like if someone has an abnormal number of fingers, or if someone is wearing an earring on one ear but not the other (though that could also be a style choice — you know it when you see it). But as AI gets better and more widespread, these methods of detection aren’t as reliable. A recent study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate revealed that deepfake images about elections have been rising by 130% per month on average on X (Twitter). Though speculation about a missing princess isn’t going to sway an election, this incident shows that people are finding it more and more challenging to distinguish between fact and fiction.
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But.. the photo is fiction, in a sense. We don’t know what it was like before the edits. (Not very much different, I’m sure: Kate and the three children. But perhaps not all laughing with eyes open at exactly the same time.) I’m sure Morgan knows there isn’t just one photo, but multiple: he knows what a contact sheet is.
People love a mystery, in truth. Especially when those who know the answer to the mystery won’t talk. (Kate editing the pictures? Yeah, suuuuure.)
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Analysis: UK emissions in 2023 fell to lowest level since 1879 • Carbon Brief
Carbon Brief Staff:
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The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by 5.7% in 2023 to their lowest level since 1879, according to new Carbon Brief analysis.
The last time UK emissions were this low, Queen Victoria was on the throne, Benjamin Disraeli was prime minister, Mosley Street in Newcastle became the first road in the world with electric lighting and 59 people died in the Tay Bridge disaster in Dundee.
Carbon Brief’s analysis, based on preliminary government energy data, shows emissions fell to just 383m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2023. This is the first time they have dropped below 400MtCO2e since Victorian times.
Other key findings from the analysis include:
• The UK’s emissions are now 53% below 1990 levels, while GDP has grown by 82%
• The drop in emissions in 2023 was largely due to an 11% fall in gas demand. This was due to higher electricity imports after the French nuclear fleet recovered, above-average temperatures and weak underlying demand driven by high prices
• Gas demand would have fallen even faster, but for a 15% fall in UK nuclear output
• Coal use fell by 23% in 2023 to its lowest level since the 1730s, as all but one of the UK’s remaining coal-fired power stations closed down
• Transport was the single-largest sector in terms of emissions, followed by buildings industry, agriculture and electricity generation. The electricity sector likely dropped below agriculture for the first time.While the 23MtCO2e reduction in 2023 was faster than the 14MtCO2e per year average needed to reach net-zero by 2050, it was mostly unrelated to deliberate climate action. The UK will need to address emissions from buildings, transport, industry and agriculture to reach its 2050 target.
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So we need more nuclear power stations, and higher gas prices? Not sure the latter would be desirable on a societal basis, even if it gets us nearer net zero.
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$500K sand dune designed to protect coastal homes washes away in just three days • Daily Beast
Dan Ladden-Hall:
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In a drastic attempt to protect their beachfront homes, residents in Salisbury, Massachusetts, invested $500,000 in a sand dune to defend against encroaching tides. After being completed last week, the barrier made from 14,000 tons of sand lasted just 72 hours before it was completely washed away, according to WCVB.
“We got hit with three storms—two in January, one now—at the highest astronomical tides possible,” Rick Rigoli, who oversaw the dune project, told the station. Ron Guilmette, whose tennis court was destroyed in previous storms along the beach, added that he now doesn’t know how much his property is worth or if he will stay in the area. He calls the situation on Salisbury Beach “catastrophic.” “I don’t know what the solution is,” Guilmette said. Beachfront homes in the area started being damaged by strong winds and high tides after a winter storm in December 2022 removed previous protective dunes, according to WBTS-CD.
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As so often when the US is hit by climate change, this feels like a sowing/reaping thing.
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Deadspin sold by G/O Media, editorial staff to be laid off • Axios
Sara Fischer:
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G/O Media, formerly Gizmodo Media Group, has sold sports blogging site Deadspin to European firm Lineup Publishing, a new digital media rollup company, CEO Jim Spanfeller announced in a note to staff Monday.
The firm, which was acquired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners in 2019, has been slowly offloading sites as pressure mounts from investors to make a return on its investment.
In the memo, Spanfeller said none of Deadspin’s existing staff will move over with the site as part of the deal and the new owners will “instead build a new team more in line with their editorial vision for the brand.”
Impacted staffers were notified Monday that they were being let go from G/O Media, marking the third round of cuts at the firm in less than a year.
Spanfeller said Lineup Publishing approached him about the sale and that the company was not “actively shopping Deadspin.”
“The rationale behind the decision to sell included a variety of important factors that include the buyer’s editorial plans for the brand, tough competition in the sports journalism sector, and a valuation that reflected a sizable premium from our original purchase price for the site,” Spanfeller wrote in the memo.
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In the aforementioned memo, Spanfeller refers to the site on first mention as “Deadpin”, which maybe is a bit on the nose. Apparently the staff were given 30 minutes’ notice before they were locked out of their company laptops. What nobody’s saying: how many staff that actually is.
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Who sends traffic on the web and how much? New research from Datos & SparkToro • SparkToro
Rand Fishkin:
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Close to twi-thirds (63.41%) of all US web traffic referrals from the top 170 sites initiated on Google.com. The second-largest individual, traffic-referring domain is technically YouTube.com, but whereas Google.com hosts Google Docs, Gmail, Google Meet, and others, Microsoft splits these among a wide range of domains in the top 100 (Bing.com, Office.com, Live.com, Office365.com, Sharepoint.com, MicrosoftOnline.com, and Microsoft.com).
And for the curious, the 170th largest traffic-referrer (Pinimg.com) sent 0.003197%, suggesting that even if the next thousand sites (#171-1,171) all sent similar amounts of traffic to the web, their combined referral traffic is smaller than Facebook or YouTube.
I reasoned it was only fair to group these and compare apples to apples. Taken together, these Microsoft-owned sites are responsible for a combined 7.21% of referrals.
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It’s an absorbing read with lots of slicing and dicing, but the message that comes through overall: when it comes to traffic on the web, the only one that really matters is Google.
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| • Why do social networks drive us a little mad? • Why does angry content seem to dominate what we see? • How much of a role do algorithms play in affecting what we see and do online? • What can we do about it? • Did Facebook have any inkling of what was coming in Myanmar in 2016? Read Social Warming, my latest book, and find answers – and more. |
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