Kakapåkaka kaka
En ny klassiker kan man kalla det. Jag tog två kakor och slog ihop till en. I botten är det mördeg och ovanpå en havrekaka. Det blev en av mina favoritkakor. Lätta att göra är de också. Recept Ugnstemperatur 175 Läs mer…
Nyheter och länkar - en bra startsida helt enkelt |Oculus lyx vitae
En ny klassiker kan man kalla det. Jag tog två kakor och slog ihop till en. I botten är det mördeg och ovanpå en havrekaka. Det blev en av mina favoritkakor. Lätta att göra är de också. Recept Ugnstemperatur 175 Läs mer…
If you’ve seen portraits painted by Pablo Picasso or Francis Bacon, you might not be surprised to hear that both men may have suffered from a disorder that affects how faces are perceived.
Prosopometamorphopsia (PMO) is a condition where faces appear distorted, and sometimes even demonic. In most cases, these distortions alter how images of faces look, as well as those seen in person. This makes it difficult for sufferers to assess the accuracy of illustrations depicting what they see because the illustration itself will appear distorted.
However, a case described in a recent study gave researchers new insight into PMO. Unlike most other cases, the 58-year-old man (referred to as VS) perceived images of faces without distortion. Unfortunately, when he saw people in person over the last 31 months, every face appeared stretched and “demonic” to him.
Not to be confused with prosopagnosia (poor face recognition but without visual distortions), PMO is thought to be extremely rare and people who have it perceive faces as drooping, stretched, out of position, or either smaller or larger than normal. These distortions might apply to the whole face, only one side, or even be restricted to particular features like the nose and mouth.
What causes prosopometamorphopsia?
In contrast with prosopagnosia, which can either be acquired (through injury, for example) or developmental (present from birth), PMO seems only to be the result of the former. A 2021 study by researchers in the Netherlands reviewed 81 cases of PMO. The causes included brain infarction (disrupted blood flow to part of the brain), haemorrhagic stroke (bleeding into the brain), surgery complications, head injury, and brain tumour. However, in 24% of cases, there appeared to be no structural abnormalities to the brain. Instead, PMO was associated with other diagnoses like epilepsy, migraine and schizophrenia.
Reassuringly, in the majority of cases, people with PMO appear to recover from their condition. This might be either a full or partial recovery, sometimes resulting from treatments that address the underlying cause (such as anti-epileptic drugs for epilepsy, or surgery to remove a brain tumour). However, some people seem to recover without any intervention. The time for recovery ranges from hours to years, but the typical recovery period is often days to weeks.
Is face recognition affected?
Despite the fact that people with PMO sometimes experience seeing profound facial distortions, their ability to recognise faces rarely seems to be affected. However, sufferers may simply be relying on other cues to help with recognition, like the person’s voice or clothes. For some people, distortions only appear after seconds or minutes of seeing someone’s face, allowing them time to identify the person first. Researchers have also tried to model how PMO-like distortions could affect face recognition. They found that the distance between the viewer and face played a significant role in how accurately faces were recognised by participants.
A recent study by researchers in New Hampshire, US, focused on the case of a man known as VS. He had a lesion in his hippocampus (a region of the brain mainly associated with memory) but no other medical issues of note.
Although VS saw people’s faces as stretched and with deep grooves (in his words, appearing “demonic”), facial images were unaffected for him. The researchers presented VS with in-person faces and the same faces on a computer screen. Next, the researchers used image-editing software to modify each photo so that it matched VS’s descriptions, listening to his real-time feedback.
Computer-generated images of the distortions of a male face (top) and female face (bottom), as perceived by the patient in the study.
A. Mello et al
It was the first time researchers could create photorealistic visualisations of these kinds of distortions, providing a depiction of how people with PMO can see those around them.
VS’s distortions also appeared to be affected by colour, so researchers investigated what happened when VS viewed faces through coloured plastic filters. They found that green filters decreased, and red filters intensified, the distortions compared with the no-filter baseline. These results showed that colour filters worn in glasses could reduce face distortions in PMO, and that colour might affect how we perceive face shape in general.
What can we learn?
As researchers continue to build on our knowledge of PMO, it is likely that more insights will be revealed about how the general population processes faces. Among the many questions yet to be answered, some involve how and where faces are represented in the human brain. We also still have a lot to learn about the specific nature of PMO’s distortions, what they can tell us, and why they seem to resolve themselves in some cases but not others. For now, PMO is both a fascinating and disturbing condition, and one that could potentially teach us a great deal about human face perception.
Given that PMO is so rare and we still have so much to learn about it, please consider getting in touch with me (the author of this article) if you think you may be suffering from it. Remember that those with PMO don’t really think that the world is distorted, and instead realise that their vision is different in some way. Läs mer…
The Dune films remind us of just how beautiful, mysterious, expansive and changeable sand dunes can be. For centuries these wonderful landforms have filled humans with awe – and in some cases fear and foreboding – because of the apparent remoteness and risks associated with the deserts they are synonymous with.
That’s what first attracted me to research deserts and dunes more than 40 years ago, and I have been investigating them ever since. Here are five things I have learned that may surprise you:
Not all dunes are made of sand
Ash, snow and even gypsum can all build dunes. Dunes develop when small particles are mobilised on bare dry surfaces by a moderate wind, accumulating where movement is slowed down by an obstacle or a surface undulation. Where the wind deposits the particles they can create a small mound against which other particles in turn accumulate, leading eventually to a dune.
“Sand” is not really a material – it is a size of particle, somewhere between 0.06mm and 2mm diameter. Dunes in deserts and at the coast are primarily formed of quartz and feldspar grains, the most common minerals on earth.
But in volcanic regions, such as the interior of Iceland, dunes can be formed of ash, while in the centre of Antarctica, the driest and windiest continental earth, dunes can form from ice crystals and snow. In New Mexico, US, the very soft and bright mineral gypsum forms dunes – appropriately the place is called White Sands.
The gypsum dunes of White Sands, New Mexico.
sunsinger / shutterstock
Dunes can record a history of climate changes
Sand dunes might seem soft and changeable, but below their active surface there often lies older sand that tells a story of long-term development.
Dune shape is affected by how changeable wind direction is through the year: some dunes, such as crescent-shaped barchan dunes, roll forward under fairly consistent winds, with the sand turning over on a regular basis. Others, such as linear and star dunes, develop where wind directions are more variable, piling sand up to thicknesses of tens and even hundreds of metres.
Star dunes, like these in Namibia, have three or more ‘arms’ as the wind comes from several directions.
Christophe André / flickr, CC BY-NC-SA
Using a technique called luminescence dating, we can measure how long dune sand has been hidden from sunlight, identifying periods when dunes even stopped forming and soils, now themselves buried under more sand, developed on dune surfaces under wetter climates.
In Arabia’s Rub’ al Khali desert, for example, giant linear sand dunes have formed in several dry periods during the past 130,000 years. The dunes may even be much older, as it hasn’t yet been possible to drill all the way through to the base and establish the whole accumulation history.
Only a fifth of deserts are covered by sand dunes
Only about a fifth of all desert areas have the right conditions to form dunes: a supply of fine loose sediment, enough wind energy and the absence of protective vegetation. Other common desert landscape features include mountains, rock slopes, gravel surfaces and dry lake beds.
Sand dunes can be enormous – the largest are as tall as skyscrapers.
imageBROKER.com
Yet we can go beyond today’s deserts and find evidence of more widespread dune landscapes, for example underneath the grass and woodlands of some of Africa‘s savanna regions such as the Kalahari and even under tropical rainforests in parts of South America. These dunes testify to different patterns of deserts and climate in the past.
Scotland’s ancient dunes changed history
In the 1780s, the Scottish geologist James Hutton realised that the well-bedded and distinctive red sandstones at Siccar Point on Scotland’s eastern coast were in fact the preserved remains of ancient desert sand dunes. At this location the Devonian old red sandstone, as it is now known, abruptly overlies fine grey mudstones.
Hutton realised that a considerable period of time – we now know it to be over 65 million years – must have elapsed between the grey rocks being laid down, smoothed flat by erosion, and the red sands being deposited on top.
Siccar Point’s red rocks were formed in a desert.
Mark Godden / shutterstock
His careful theorising established the foundations of modern geology and our understanding that the earth was much older than the history that had been calculated from biblical texts. Further developments in the 20th century enabled us to explain why rocks formed under desert conditions are found in the unlikely context of Scotland – we now know it’s due to movements of the earth’s crust, or plate tectonics.
Coastal dunes defend against storms
Sand dunes fringe large tracts of the world’s coastlines, built from wind-blown sand derived from the drying intertidal beach zone and trapped by onshore vegetation. While only 7% of the British coastline has dunes, 40% of Australia’s and 60% of Portugal’s are fronted by dunes.
These dunes play a vital role in protecting low-lying land from tidal surges and storms. Yet in some areas human recreation and sand extraction for building has degraded the dunes by damaging stabilising vegetation and creating blow-outs, with sea level rise adding a further risk. Läs mer…
Catastrophic collapses of major bridges are thankfully rare. Notable examples in the last couple of decades include the failure of the I35-W in Minneapolis in August 2007, and the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa 11 years later. When such events do occur, public attention is understandably focused on the nature of the collapse, which can extend over hundreds of metres in seconds, and its underlying causes.
Whether because of an extreme loading event or an accident, these supposedly rare events in the life of a bridge need to be assessed before they happen, and mitigation measures taken in accordance with the potential consequences. This type of analysis is known as a “risk-based consequence assessment”. The cost of taking additional measures in the near term can prevent major adverse consequences further down the road.
With many bridges being over 50 years old, we often hear that a bridge’s condition may have been compromised by deterioration and increased traffic loads – both in the size and frequency of vehicles. Also, older bridges were designed to standards that have been superseded by new knowledge and technology.
While these factors have helped convince some politicians to increase their infrastructure budgets, including through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal in the US, the tendency has been to focus on stronger, more resilient new structures and on higher maintenance for existing structures. Thus, it is easy for politicians to show the money spent has had a positive impact, because it results in an overall reduction in the number of structures classified as obsolete or deficient.
Given the enormous scale of the bridge maintenance problem – the American Road Transportation Builders Association has estimated that one in three US bridges needs repair – it makes sense to spread available funding widely. However, this approach can have serious shortcomings if it does not set clear priorities based on potential consequences from accidents and failures.
One of the two central pylons of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore was rammed by a 300m-long container ship at around 1.30am on March 24, leading to progressive collapse of the bridge’s entire truss within four seconds.
Although the 47-year-old bridge had been found to be in a “fair” condition during its most recent inspection in 2008, and was “fully up to code” according to Maryland’s governor after the collapse, experts agreed that a catastrophic collapse was to be expected given the magnitude of the ship’s impact. Construction workers were on the bridge at the time filling potholes, including the six people who died.
Direct and indirect consequences
Bridge collapses due to vessel collisions have happened before and unfortunately will happen again. In a similar incident in 1980, the Sunshine Skyway bridge in Tampa Bay, also a steel truss structure, was hit by a barge, resulting in 35 casualties due to the collapse of over 1,300ft of its span.
Around the world, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has reported 31 major bridge collapses due to vessel collisions between 1960 and 2002, resulting in 342 deaths.
The destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge has cut off one of three transport links across the Patapsco river in the busy Baltimore port area. Given its importance as a transport hub, this will have major economic implications that could have been anticipated.
More than 30,000 vehicles that were using the Key Bridge daily now have to seek alternative routes. Significantly, the other two local crossings are via tunnels, which imposes limits on the type of traffic that can cross the river, because the transporting of hazardous materials through tunnels is prohibited.
Shipping traffic into and out of the Baltimore port has been suspended until further notice. Removal of the debris will be a complex operation, and work to ensure all vessel types can navigate the river safely will take time.
Further restrictions will need to be in place when the new bridge is constructed.
There are already signs that supply chains around the world are being affected by the bridge collapse, especially in the car and light truck sector as well as in farm and construction machinery.
The port of Baltimore is one of the busiest shipping hubs in the US.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE
The economic consequences of this catastrophic event will be substantial at both city and state level, with potentially wider ripple effects. Early estimates on liability insurance payouts suggest the total cost may exceed US$1.5 billion (£1.2 billion).
Judging by what has happened after other bridge collapses, there could be negative impacts on jobs and the local economy: about 14,000 people work in the port itself, and another 140,000 are employed in related services.
Above all, six people lost their lives. But the human cost could have been much worse if the incident had taken place during rush hour. Had the impact occurred with a vessel carrying hazardous materials, the environmental costs could have been dramatic as well.
What could have been done?
Given what we know from previous incidents about the severity of ship-bridge collisions and major bridge collapses, decision-makers should have understood the critical importance of this bridge and the consequences of its destruction.
A number of mitigation options were available, including the installation of protection devices around the bridge supports (pylons) in the form of fenders or artificial islands, to deflect a ship or lessen the energy of a collision.
For bridges in general, there are measures that can help on the ship side too, such as requiring the use of tugboats or introducing stricter limits on speeds, depending on the type of cargo and vessel size. It is not clear, however, whether these would have made any difference in the case of the Baltimore bridge collapse.
Above all, by undertaking a risk-based consequence assessment every decade or so, authorities that are responsible for vital infrastructure can help visualise changing risks and prioritise their responses appropriately. In the case of river bridges, ever-increasing ship sizes, speedier turnaround times and higher cargo volumes have all increased the risks – and the costs of a catastrophic collision or collapse. Läs mer…
In mid-February, the leader of Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, summoned deputies “of all levels of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic”. The purpose of their meeting, he announced, would be to discuss “pressure from the Republic of Moldova that is violating the rights and worsening the socioeconomic situation of Transnistrians”.
The meeting was set for February 28, the day before Vladimir Putin’s “state of the union” address. This was taken by some – including the influential Washington-based thinktank the Institute for the Study of War – to signal an intention to announce that Transnistria would formally declare its intention to join Russia.
The Transnistrian congress met as planned. But its resolution, while full of praise about Transnistria and complaints about Moldova, fell well short of expectations. In the end, the assembled deputies merely appealed to Russia – as well as the Interparliamentary Assembly of States Parties of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the UN, the EU, the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the Red Cross – to protect Transnistria and prevent an escalation of tensions with Moldova.
Transnistria declared independence from the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic in 1990, as the dissolution of the Soviet Union was gathering pace. A brief violent conflict ended with a Russian-mediated ceasefire in 1992. This ceasefire mandated negotiations on the reintegration of Transnistria into Moldova, which included, among others, Russia and Ukraine. Efforts to agree on a deal proved futile over the following three decades and have completely stalled since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Thus, the Transnistrian region of Moldova has remained in a limbo state for more than 30 years now. Its separate identity is not even recognised by Russia and it remains formally part of Moldova.
This limbo state has contributed to fears – in Moldova and the west – that Russia has territorial ambitions in the region. These have worsened since the invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Talk of Kremlin-backed plots to destabilise the country is not uncommon.
In the event, the Russian president failed to mention Transnistria even once in his state of the union address the day after deputies had gathered in Transnistria. With the initial “excitement” of a potential crisis around Moldova gone, the predominant view among regional and international analysts was that this was a storm in a tea cup rather than a full-blown crisis.
This is also the view of Moldova’s foreign minister, Mihail Popșoi. In an interview with Politico at the beginning of March, a month after taking office, Popșoi said that “the probability that the Russians would be able to advance and reach our territory is much lower now than it was two years ago”.
Russian ambitions
But this is, at best, only half of the more complex geopolitical context in which Moldova finds itself. Wedged between Ukraine and Romania, a member of Nato, Moldova’s future prospects are heavily intertwined with the outcome of the war against Ukraine. At present there appears to be little chance of Russia expanding its land bridge to Crimea all along the Black Sea coast to the Ukrainian border with Moldova. But that’s not to say that the Kremlin has completely given up on this ambition.
Just days after the deputies’ meeting in Transnistria, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, complained about Moldovan violations of Transnistria’s rights. He alleged Moldovan discrimination against the Russian language as well as economic pressure on the Russian enclave. This eerily echoes Russian justifications for the invasion of Ukraine both in 2014 and 2022.
Transnistria is not the only card Russia is playing. Four days after Lavrov’s comments, Putin met the leader of the Gagauzian region in Moldova, Yevgenia Gutsul, at the so-called World Youth Festival, which was held near the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi at the beginning of March.
Map of Moldova showing the breakaway regions of Transnistria and Gaugazia.
Institute for the Study of War
Gutsul – and other powerful Russian allies including the fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, who was convicted of fraud in the “theft of the century” of US$1 billion (£792 million) from three Moldovan banks a decade ago – have been fomenting protests against the Moldovan government since September 2022. These protests reflect many ordinary Molovans’ existential fears over a cost-of-living crisis that has engulfed one of Europe’s poorest countries since the COVID pandemic and has worsened since the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Moldova’s European aspirations
At the same time, the Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, has proposed a referendum on joining the European Union. Sandu, who faces a reelection campaign later this year, hope that this will boost her popularity among Moldova’s generally – but not unequivocally – pro-European electorate.
Protests by opposition party Shor have stoked tensions in Moldova.
Viktor Mogyldja/Kommersant/Sipa USA
Wanting to capitalise on popular discontent with economic conditions in Moldova, Russia has been supporting Shor’s protests and linking the unrest to Sandu’s pro-European foreign policy. Relying on allies in both Gagauzia and Transnistria, Moscow’s aim is primarily the destabilisation of the country ahead of presidential elections at the end of 2024 and parliamentary elections in the spring of 2025.
In this context, even non-events such as the resolution passed by the Transnistrian deputies at the end of February are useful to Moscow. They increase uncertainty not only in Moldova but also among the country’s western allies. And this feeds into a broader narrative in which a status quo that has been stable for decades is suddenly questioned – with potentially unpredictable consequences.
There is no evidence that the Kremlin has any concrete plans, let alone any capabilities, for military action against Moldova. Nor does it need to, as long as it has local allies to do its bidding against the country’s president and her government. This does not give Moscow a lot of leverage in its war against Ukraine but it is helpful in the broader efforts to weaken support for, and from, the European Union.
The more Russia can peddle a narrative that connects European integration with economic decline and constraints on language and cultural rights, the more division it can sow – and not just in Moldova, but potentially also in other EU candidate countries from the western Balkans to the south Caucasus. Läs mer…
This Town, the new BBC drama from Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight, revisits the Midlands setting, also doubling as a somewhat backhanded tribute to the region and a paean to the two-tone music – an amalgam of ska, punk and reggae – that emerged from it.
The backdrop for Knight’s heroes is the aftershocks of 1970s industrial strife – chiefly Margaret Thatcher’s uncompromising response to the way de-industrialisation drove up unemployment and cut off economic possibilities for working-class young people.
Deprivation, combined with a burgeoning right-wing movement stoking racial tensions and police stop-and-search practices, exploded into violence as the Thatcher era gathered steam. The Troubles in Northern Ireland were also still raging, their effects felt via bombings in England.
Some of the more musically minded kicked against these divisions, channelling their frustration into the fusion of genres at the heart of this drama.
Billed as a “high-octane thriller and family saga of young people fighting to choose their own paths in life”, it opens with dramatic contrast as it means to go on – lines of poetry interrupted by a riot and an act of racist policy brutality.
Set mainly in Birmingham and Coventry, against the backdrop of 1981’s civil unrest, it uses the formation of a band as the hook for viewers and a potential escape mechanism for its young protagonists.
Family, music and violence
Levi Brown plays Dante, a sheltered aspiring poet whose encounters lead him to reconsider his words as lyrics, reorientating him towards music. At odds with his surroundings, he wanders the urban backdrop with his head in the clouds. (It’s implied Dante’s what would be called neurodivergent today, though the language of his peers is blunter albeit affectionate.)
His cousin Bardon (Ben Rose) tries to complete college, and avoid the gravitational pull of the IRA through his father’s connections. Dante’s brother Gregory (Jordan Bolger), meanwhile, begins the series serving in Belfast with the British Army. Dante and Gregory are black, Bardon is white, but the more notable divide is the sectarian one.
For all this, the “thriller” label is something of a misnomer. Knight’s pacing is unhurried, and the band Dante pulls together emerges only gradually as the events unfold. While the story takes place against a background of violence – from casual to chillingly planned – the fights and eruptions are punctuations offsetting a more gradual set of revelations.
These include the slow journey of the band – comprising Dante, Bardon and their friend Jeannie (Eve Austin) – from stumbling hopefuls to focused professionals. Rather than the ups and downs of a rollercoaster ride, there is a building sense of unstoppability as the characters seek their path. This means negotiating the menacing coolness of IRA operatives and a gloriously over-the-top, finger-chopping psychopath of a nightclub owner.
Dante’s band.
BBC
Meanwhile, family travails and a background of addiction also pervade the grey, drizzly environment – there are a lot of plot strands. It’s a fine balance between giving the personalities space to develop and tightening the screws, which Knight mostly manages without either excessive slowness or by overcomplicating things, aided by some engaging and nuanced central performances.
Lost in music
Ultimately though, much of what drives This Town forward, and holds it together, is the music. Intimidating special branch officers, gangsters and IRA bombers aside, it wears its social commentary on the upheavals of the early 1980s comparatively lightly, filtering it through the youngsters’ aspirations to transcend their surroundings via their music.
Knight’s drama is to a large extent about identity, especially self-identity. As Gregory warns Dante: “If you don’t get away, you just become what everybody already thinks you are.” There’s also a telling exchange when Dante wavers as he dons the sharp suit and pork pie hat that came to define the image of two-tone music: “It doesn’t look like me.” “But it is you Dante,” his father assures him. “This is who we are.”
The characters’ identities are framed by their music – from ska, through rock and ballads, to Irish rebel songs. Even though Irish DJ and composer Kormac’s brooding underscore contains elements of dub and 1980s two-tone, the overall soundscape is broader. This focuses on the earlier music of the 1960s and 1970s that culminated in two-tone acts like The Specials as Thatcher’s Britain felt the social strain of her economic reforms.
The two-tone ska movement swept the early 1980s, elevating bands like The Specials (whose lyrics to Ghost Town lends This Town its name).
Lenscap / Alamy
Acts like Bob Marley, The Gaylettes and Desmond Dekker carry the viewer through the narrative. They also speak to the characters’ inner lives. Alternating scenes featuring Dante and Brandon are bridged by the likes of The Maytals and UB40.
The non-diegetic soundtrack – the music outside the frame of the story, inaudible to those inside it – is rich in historical gems. This Town, though, also uses diegetic music, which is explicitly part of the action, to reveal its characters’ psyches, underscoring the themes of identity and escape, as well as the plot.
Central moments hinge on singing as a way to express the feelings of the emotionally blocked protagonists. There’s a showstopping rendition of Over the Rainbow, for example – Michelle Dockery is a trained singer, and it shows.
Elsewhere, there’s a vocal “duel” of sorts, where Brandon and his father sing across one another with Jimmy Cliff’s You Can Get It If You Really Want and Pete St John’s Irish folk balled The Fields of Athenry, emphasising the generational split. And all throughout, the departed matriarch – Dante, Bardon and Gregory’s grandmother – is felt and referenced via the birdsong with which she inspired them all as children.
The overall effect is one of deceptive simplicity. Neither quite a thriller nor a straightforward historical account of the emergence of two-tone, This Town echoes the ways in which music is forged by its social context, while shaping and defining the lives of the people who make it.
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On March 26, the container ship Dali in Baltimore’s industrial harbour struck an interstate highway bridge, causing it to catastrophically collapse. Eight highway maintenance workers were thought to be on the bridge at the time of collapse. Two were rescued, and two bodies were recovered. Four workers remain missing, and are now presumed dead.
The ship-bridge collision was a technological disaster, defined as an event caused by a malfunction of a technological structure or human error in controlling or handling the technology.
In this case, the root cause of the disaster involved the interaction of two types of transportation technologies: a moving container ship and a fixed bridge.
Read more:
Human-centred design can help reduce accidents like the recent Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crash
A history of bridge collapses
The disaster is not unprecedented — between 1960 to 2015 there have been 35 major bridge collapses due to collisions by ships or barges.
On Feb. 22, in Guangzhou, south China, a container ship rammed into a bridge pillar leading to the subsequent collapse of the Lixinsha Bridge, and killing five people.
A massive container ship crashed into the Lixinsha Bridge in southern China on Feb. 22, 2024.
(Lu Hanxin/Xinhua via AP)
The collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge serves as another stark reminder that despite our technological prowess, accidents involving transportation technology will continue to occur when we least expect them.
The immediate response
The immediate response started with a mayday call from the troubled ship causing police to take action to prevent more cars from going onto the bridge. U.S. Coast Guard watchstanders received a report at 1:27 a.m. of a container ship colliding with the bridge, and immediately deployed search and rescue boats to the shipping channel in Baltimore’s harbour.
The first 24 hours after the collapse focused on saving more lives, to no avail. People who survived the 56-metre fall from the bridge deck into the Patapsco River then faced water temperatures of nine degrees Celsius.
If not immediately rescued, chances of survival in cold river water become difficult due to cold shock and hypothermia setting in.
Tons of submerged bridge wreckage and tidal currents created perilous conditions for rescue operations. After an extensive search and rescue effort until sunset on March 26, the next-day emergency response activity transitioned to the grim task of recovery of the dead.
About eight hours after the collapse, the mayor of Baltimore declared a state of emergency. The governor then issued an executive order, declaring a state of emergency for Maryland.
The Port of Baltimore is one of the busiest harbours in the U.S.
(Shutterstock)
A state of emergency allows officials to temporarily use extraordinary powers. Suspension of laws and regulations, quick redirection of funds, rapid deployment of personnel and the facilitation of federal aid are all reasons why a state of emergency would be declared.
The collision caused all maritime traffic to be stopped — a significant impact on one of the busiest harbours in the United States as a port of entry for foreign goods. Most of the Port of Baltimore’s shipping terminals are located within the area blocked by bridge collapse debris.
In this case, the emergency declarations may allow governments to waive regulations around competitive bidding to speed the eventual bridge rebuilding project.
Pollution and debris clean-up
Immediately after the collision, response operations include preventing environmental contamination. As the distressed cargo ship was departing to the Port of Colombo, Sri Lanka, it had on board about 1.8 million gallons of fuel. Out of the thousands of containers being transported, 56 containers contained 764 tons of hazardous materials.
Removing the damaged steel latticework of the bridge’s trusses off the bow of the ship will be a challenging feat.
Debris now blocks navigation along the Fort McHenry Channel. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started underwater surveys to assess what needs to be done for debris removal.
U.S. White House press briefing after the Baltimore bridge collision.
The debris removal effort will be especially complex as sensitivity is required. In and around the same area where the federal debris removal assessment is taking place, rescue officials were searching for bodies — the search has been paused for safety reasons.
The Maryland State Police underwater recovery team has responsibilities involving the recovery of the bodies of the missing highway workers.
Unified command response
Unified command is an emergency management technique applied when there is more than one agency with incident jurisdiction.
The Fort McHenry navigation channel and the I-695 bridge itself fall under multiple local, state and federal jurisdictional responsibilities. On March 27, a unified command joint information centre was established to co-ordinate emergency responses.
Sadly, within the first 48 hours search and rescue transitioned to search and recovery. Operations will be moving in the direction of salvage and port recovery.
Going forward, the main priority is clearing the shipping channel to reopen the Port of Baltimore. True to form to the characteristics of a technological disaster, it will take a while to determine the scope of the impacts.
For the immediate future, timelines for when the Baltimore Harbour can return to normal will remain elusive. Läs mer…
Bassirou Diomaye Faye was elected as Senegal’s fifth president on 25 March 2024. Incumbent president Macky Sall and his candidate, former prime minister Amadou Ba, were both quick to congratulate the opposition candidate on his victory when the results came out.
This has been a major – and fast – turn of events for Faye (commonly called “Diomaye”), who was in prison just 10 days before the election. Faye was backed by the popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who was deprived of his electoral rights for five years due to a prior conviction. Sonko received a six-month suspended prison sentence for allegedly defaming tourism minister Mame Mbaye Niang.
Faye, who has never held elected office, was a little-known candidate who emerged from Sonko’s shadow.
Having researched young Senegalese politicians and Senegal’s contemporary political scene we wanted to provide some insights into who Faye is, and his unconventional rise to power.
A native of rural Senegal
Born on 25 March 1980 in Ndiaganiao, a rural area in west-central Senegal, Faye received his primary education in his village. He continued his middle and secondary education in Mbour, south-east of Dakar, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 2000. Faye pursued higher education at Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop University, and obtained a master’s degree in 2004.
Following this, he took competitive entrance exams for the police officers’ academy, the magistrates’ academy and the École Nationale d’Administration (the elite leadership training school). While he did not pass the exam for the police officers’ academy, he succeeded in the other two exams.
Admitted to the magistrates’ examination, he decided to withdraw, opting instead for the leadership training school. He specialised in taxation and went on to join the Direction Générale des Impôts et Domaines (tax and land administration) in 2007.
His career
When Faye joined the tax administration, he was an active member of the newly formed Syndicat autonome des agents des impôts et domaines (Autonomous Union of Tax and Domain Agents). This was led by its founder and secretary general, Ousmane Sonko (from April 2005 to June 2012). Faye was initially the head of claims and later became the secretary general after Sonko’s departure, although Sonko remained at his side as honorary secretary general for two years (2012-2016).
Drawing on their trade union experience, Faye, Sonko and other young civil servants went on to create the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef) party in 2014.
Faye successively held the positions of member of the steering committee, president of the Mouvement national des cadres patriotes et des diasporas (National Movement of Patriot Cadres and Diasporas) and secretary general, becoming the party’s second-in-command, from October 2022.
Ndingler’s rising star
While Faye is mostly known for being in Sonko’s shadow, he’s famous in his region for supporting a vulnerable community in a land dispute. This was between the Ndingler villagers (within the Ndiaganiao area from which Faye hails) and the Senegalese company Sedima, run by businessman and industrialist Babacar Ngom.
Faye had denounced land grabbing by Sedima, which occurred without any compensation for “peasant populations”.
The other side of the coin
The fame he gained from this widely publicised battle didn’t, however, secure him a victory in his stronghold during local elections in January 2022. He lost in Ndiaganiao to the regime’s candidate.
His political ambitions were further thwarted when his nomination to the national candidate list for the July 2022 parliamentary elections was invalidated due to issues with the candidate lists he belonged to.
These two successive setbacks seemed to seal his fate as an opponent of local and national stature.
Following the law suit brought against Sonko, Faye was imprisoned. He was accused of attacking the judiciary when he criticised the Dakar Court of Appeal’s decision to close Sonko’s case without giving him the chance to appeal.
Faye was also being vocal about a trial that would make Sonko ineligible for the 2024 presidential elections. On 14 April 2023, he was charged with “contempt of court, defamation and acts likely to compromise public peace”.
Political manoeuvring at play
The detention of Faye, the party’s secretary-general, and its president, Sonko, fuelled speculation that the government intended to remove the leadership of the Pastef party. Indeed, in July 2023, Senegal’s interior ministry dissolved Pastef.
However, unlike Sonko, Faye was not put on trial. This meant he could retain his civic rights. It was during his jail time that the Pastef party developed a plan to facilitate his participation in the upcoming presidential election.
Campaign images bearing the slogan “Diomaye moy Sonko” (“Diomaye is Sonko”) circulated on social media on Sunday, 19 November 2023, just ahead of the sponsorship period for the presidential election in Senegal.
Many were surprised when Sonko relinquished his position to support Faye. And several MPs – Guy Marius Sagna, Birame Souleye Diop, and Abass Fall – who were contenders in the presidential elections, withdrew their candidacies. This made Faye the sole candidate of the party.
Despite Pastef’s dissolution, they successfully initiated a popular sponsorship campaign for Faye.
The burning questions
Often described as altruistic, Faye revealed in his first press conference after his release from prison how he used his first scholarship from the leadership training school to provide clean water connections for his family and neighbours.
He vehemently opposes the use of strength by the powerful to oppress those who are, supposedly, weak.
The man, despite the tumultuous electoral context, received acclaim from voters, and he appeared quite timid on 25 March during his first presidential address.
It remains to be seen whether he can fill the presidential shoes. The coming weeks should enlighten us. Läs mer…
The Gambia’s ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) since 2015 is under threat. Proposed changes before parliament could permit medicalised female genital cutting and allow it for consenting adults.
This potential reversal has thrust the country into the global spotlight as the latest example of the backlash against gender equality.
The Gambia’s criminalisation of FGM was not the first in west Africa but it came as a surprise. The president at the time, Yahya Jammeh, declared the rampant cultural tradition a non-religious practice that caused harm. There was some dissent within the country but human rights groups welcomed the ban.
Jammeh, who was president from 1994 to 2016, also oversaw the passage of other progressive gender-related laws. The Domestic Violence Act 2013 provided a framework for combating domestic violence in all its forms (physical, sexual, emotional, economic) and protection in particular for women and children. The Sexual Offences Act 2013 expanded the definition of rape, broadened the circumstances in which individuals could be charged, and reduced the burden of proof in prosecutions.
Jammeh also outlawed child marriages in 2016. This was significant in country where one in five young people aged 15-19 (19%) are married.
In one of the world’s most aid-dependent countries, these reforms were all central to international donor interests. And they helped to improve the country’s democratic reputation. But at the same time, they made it easy for the autocratic leader to get away with other excesses. He also mobilised religion to manipulate beliefs and sentiments, particularly affecting girls and women. For example, Jammeh mandated that female government workers wear veils or headscarves when he declared his Muslim majority country an Islamic state in 2016.
President Adama Barrow, Jammeh’s successor, has emphasised religious tolerance and has refrained from employing religious symbolism. Unlike the state-sponsored homophobia under the Jammeh regime, Barrow has downplayed homosexuality as a “non-issue”.
I am a legal scholar and human rights practitioner with published research on female genital mutilation, gender equality and women’s rights and governance in The Gambia. It’s my view that Jammeh’s ostensible compliance with gender equality norms was selective and intended for the international gallery rather than a genuine commitment to women’s rights and democracy.
His tactical stance highlighted a broader trend. Autocratic African leaders often accommodate global gender norms to maintain domestic power dynamics. The result, for example, is increased women’s political participation through quotas along with a conservative approach to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
The Gambia experience also shows that western donors and multilateral institutions need to go beyond just pushing for reforms. Once they have got the reforms they advocated for, they should have a strategy for sustaining them. Forces that were opposed to the reform often regroup to campaign for its removal.
At its core, female genital mutilation constitutes a violation of the human rights of girls and women. These include the right to non-discrimination, to protection from physical and mental violence, and to health and life.
From a feminist perspective, the prevalence of FGM in numerous African nations revolves around upholding gender-specific norms and exerting control over women’s sexuality.
Female genital mutilation in The Gambia
Female genital cutting is a deeply ingrained practice. It is driven by cultural beliefs and often performed by traditional healers. According to the most recent national survey, a large majority of Gambian women aged 15-49 years (73%) have undergone female genital cutting. More alarming is an 8% increase in the prevalence of FGM among girls under the age of 14 – from 42.4% in 2010 to 50.6% in 2018.
Numerous health risks associated with all types of the practice have been documented by the World Health Organization and systematic reviews. These include severe pain, bleeding, infections and complications during childbirth and elevated rates of anxiety and other mental health disorders. This has led to calls for the practice to be banned in order to protect girls’ health and well-being.
The Gambia’s current struggle with the FGM ban reflects a complex interplay between cultural norms, religious beliefs, and the fight for gender equality. The potential repeal of the ban poses a threat to human rights of women and girls in The Gambia.
Reversal of hard-won gains
Though The Gambia is constitutionally secular, religion influences nearly every facet of society. Islamic fundamentalists in the country are known for attacks on religious minorities, including hate speech against the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and the Christian community.
The main fundamentalist religious actors draw inspiration from and still support the exiled former dictator Jammeh. They are at the forefront of the recent pushback against the anti-FGM law. They argue that the ban violates their religious and cultural freedoms as guaranteed in the 1997 constitution.
On 4 March 2024 a strong supporter of Jammeh proposed a private member’s bill in the National Assembly that seeks to overturn the ban.
The push to reassert traditional gender roles isn’t isolated to The Gambia. There is a global trend of rolling back progress on gender equality. This trend is characterised by attempts to limit women’s bodily choices, an increase in violence against them, as well as attacks on LGBTQI+ communities. It reflects a broader political climate of backlash against women’s rights and gender equality as a weapon in the reversal of democratic achievements.
Attempts have been seen to reverse legal protections against women and girls in Kenya. In Sudan, state-sanctioned violence and societal pressure is aimed at restricting women’s public participation. Similarly, Tanzania previously enacted a policy barring teenage mothers from attending public schools, though this policy has been reversed.
This global context highlights how anti-rights movements, undemocratic norms and gendered politics are working together to erode women’s rights and exacerbate inequalities. Läs mer…
South Africa’s economy has been hard hit by 15 years of loadshedding (rolling blackouts). The country’s coal-fired power plants have a maintenance backlog and frequently experience unexpected technical failures. On the other hand, South Africa has committed, under the Paris Agreement, to transition to low-carbon energy generation technologies by 2050. This puts South Africa at an energy crossroads where it needs well thought out policy development and implementation to make the transition possible.
South Africa’s reliance on coal-fired power to supply about 72% of its energy needs is catching up with it as coal plants fail. But switching to renewable energy technologies is not that simple. Renewable energy also has strengths and weaknesses. While wind and solar are environmentally friendlier, they cannot supply electricity consistently unless they have large-scale storage systems.
The new draft Integrated Resource Plan is the country’s national electricity plan. It sets out how electricity will be provided for South Africa between now and 2050. The government is currently considering public comments, which it needs to incorporate into the plan.
I am a senior lecturer at the African Energy Leadership Centre and a professionally registered scientist with over 18 years’ experience in researching how climate change, water and energy resources can be managed to achieve sustainable development in South Africa.
I believe that the country should select an energy mix of nuclear, gas, renewable and coal. Electricity should, however, be clean, affordable, and reliable. This suggests that the Integrated Resource Plan should provide a platform for South Africa to reduce its reliance on coal and diversify its sources.
In my view, the current draft plan is promising. However, considering the urgent need for reliable electricity, it has to ensure that the pace of rolling out the new energy mix is fast.
What does the draft Integrated Resource Plan say?
The draft Integrated Resource Plan contains two “horizons” or time frames. Horizon One says how the government will stabilise the power system between now and 2030. Horizon Two looks at what kind of energy South Africa will need beyond 2030.
Recently, I discussed what the draft plan says on the Energy Conversations Podcast, a regular discussion hosted by a private energy company, Bayakha, and the African Energy Leadership Centre at the Wits Business School in Johannesburg.
The state-owned electricity provider, Eskom, has been unable to meet the electricity demand through the current fleet of coal-fired power stations. In 2024, the shortfall is predicted to be over 2,001 megawatts every week, meaning that loadshedding is likely to take place throughout the year.
Horizon One in the plan wants to address the shortfall in electricity by delaying the shutdown of coal-fired power plants and improving them instead. However, these plants are ageing, missed out on midlife refurbishment, and are very costly to upgrade. These plants are also emitting more than they are legally allowed to under South Africa’s Minimum Emissions Standards.
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South Africa’s efforts to tackle its energy crisis lack urgency and coherence
Horizon Two looks at how South Africa’s electricity will be provided over the longer term, between 2030 and 2050. It aims to make sure that South Africa has an affordable, secure energy supply but also moves away from coal-fired power stations, which are responsible for large scale carbon emissions.
The plan proposes various pathways to introduce new energy generation. Gas, renewables and nuclear together with clean coal are mentioned along with a proposed coal fleet shutdown delay.
Environmentally friendly, affordable, reliable and inclusive electricity
There are high levels of inequality in South Africa. Electricity is not affordable to everyone. Although not specific on the numbers, Horizon Two of the Integrated Resource Plan acknowledges that massive investment will be required to transit to technologies such as clean coal and nuclear.
My view is that South Africa should embrace the costs associated with every new power generation project. But everyone involved must learn lessons from the R300 billion (US$15.8 billion) overspending on the new-build Medupi and Kusile power plants about how to constrain costs.
Abatement technologies should be used to reduce the amount of polluting emissions from coal power plants. The government will need to pay the bill to retrofit these plants with technologies to reduce emissions. However, the current plan does not provide for this.
For renewable energy, battery storage can be used to store what is generated. This is part of the Integrated Resource Plan, and government has released a request for bids to procure the battery storage via the Battery Energy Storage IPP Procurement Programme.
Read more:
South Africa’s new plan to end power cuts is seriously flawed. Here’s why
The national electricity plan also has to make sure that nobody is left behind in the drive towards low-carbon energy. Increases in electricity prices have been exorbitant recently – an 18.65% increase in April 2023 and a further 12.74% increase from April 2024. High priced electricity that is also unreliable has contributed to unemployment, lost wages and business collapse. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa must look into the pricing model again. Government should consider subsidising all socio-economic classes.
The transition to renewable energy must be inclusive. South Africa must look into manufacturing its own renewable energy components rather than importing them. Recently, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said thousands of jobs could be created if manufacturing plants for solar panels, battery energy storage systems and wind farms were set up across the country. The economy would be industrialised. Skills must be developed faster and the right enabling environment and policy position must be created for this to happen.
What comes next
South Africa is at a crossroads and needing to make big decisions to ensure that it conforms to the National Development Plan. The final Integrated Resource Plan should pursue all the existing technologies at a faster pace. Gas to power and nuclear energy must be included at all costs to reduce reliance on coal. This will require massive investment from both the government and private sector. This way, a steady flow of electricity will always be available. Läs mer…
The world of work is changing all the time. Technology is driving innovation and productivity, leading to the creation of new industries and employment opportunities. This means people need new skills to meet the demands of an ever-changing economy.
While universities can and do equip young people with important skills, tertiary education isn’t available to everyone. This is especially true in a country like South Africa, where about 43% of students in 2023 who qualified to pursue a bachelor’s qualification at university could not because of limited spaces.
Valuable knowledge and skills can also be acquired through non-formal and alternative pathways, however. We are education scholars who ran a pilot project using artistic media to teach important life skills to young adults (18–24 years old). Our project, Myturn, ran in South Africa’s Western Cape province over ten months in 2020. It used simple technology like smartphones and editing software to make short films.
Myturn benefited participants in several ways, as we’ve documented in a study. For instance, it honed their communication and teamwork skills. It bolstered their digital skills. It also allowed the students to connect with their communities. This connection, in turn, provided a platform for the communities to witness the participants’ willingness to learn and become change agents, while also allowing them to share their own stories and experiences.
The project showed how short films could be used to change the way people learn. This method meets many needs of young people by combining the learning of soft skills, computer literacy and artistic expression. It gets them ready for the problems of the future – not just ready for work, but also as socially involved people.
Five main benefits
Our research paper focused on the perceptions of nine (out of the initial group of 17) Myturn participants. All had completed secondary school. They were involved in various dance, drama, music and visual arts projects when recruited for Myturn and came from semi-rural communities in the Langeberg district of South Africa’s Western Cape province.
In 2020 they found themselves in a transitional phase between jobs, were preparing to enter the workforce for the first time, or were between school and tertiary education. They were also dealing with the effects of the pandemic, which began after we’d launched Myturn. This global crisis created difficulties but was also an opportunity for learning and adaptation.
During the project, participants learned the technology and skills needed to create and produce their own short films.
Our study identified five ways in which participants benefited from the project.
1. Improved emotional intelligence and soft skills:
Making short films helps build skills like leadership, teamwork and communication. It pushes young creators to figure out how to work together on complex tasks. This helps team members from different backgrounds understand and care about each other. People learn how to resolve disagreements, make their points clear, and inspire others to work towards a shared goal. These skills are necessary in any professional setting.
2. Improved digital skills and connectivity:
Participants learned how to use software programmes, handle digital content and interact with online groups. They were empowered to offer their skills globally and work remotely and flexibly.
3. Encouraged new ideas and creative ways to solve problems:
Making short films encourages people to try new things and to look at problems from different angles. This way of handling problems creatively makes one more flexible.
As a way to reach their artistic goals, participants learned to make changes and accept loss. This approach is in high demand across various sectors.
4. Supported personalised learning and finding out more about oneself:
Making a short film is a very personal process. It lets people explore themes that are important to them based on their own experiences, interests and goals. Personalising the way people learn reveals their skills, flaws and interests.
One participant, reflecting critically on her role as short film producer in the project, showcased her ownership of learning and the potential for transpersonal growth:
Being able to watch my video back before sending it made me realise how fast I speak and that (I) can come across as unclear, so I worked on speaking slower and I was satisfied with the final product.
Participants became more self-aware and confident. Young adults need help to figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives.
One told us:
When the opportunity came I told myself it’s time to stretch myself and explore my skills.
5. Made the community more involved and gave people more power:
Making short films is a way to hear opinions that aren’t always heard. A participant said she enjoyed the chance her short film presented “to be able to comment or talk about the issues that everybody is most likely aware of but refuses to publicly speak/comment on”.
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I introduced social entrepreneurship to my trainee teachers — why it’ll make them better at their jobs
Young film-makers can bring attention to problems that matter in their communities by sharing their stories. This can start a conversation and help bring people together. This involvement goes beyond the project. People can be inspired by hearing these stories, which can lead to a shared sense of power and a dedication to making things better.
What came next
In the time since the Myturn project, participants have flourished. One was selected for a six-month jewellery design research programme in Belgium. Three more have been accepted for tertiary education; others became involved in education as teaching assistants. One started a media house company with a colleague. Two participants created their own YouTube channels and another started making TikTok reels with her brother.
While the project itself couldn’t guarantee personal change within its informal setting, it did offer significant benefits for some participants: developing critical self-awareness, overcoming cultural and language barriers, and gaining a deeper understanding of themselves. This suggests that meaningful interactions, both in person and online, can equip young people with valuable skills. These skills, like critical thinking and empathy, will be crucial for navigating their future lives and careers. Läs mer…