Livin’ The Dream
Space War Coming
War in space is becoming a real threat
Among the memorabilia in Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein’s office is a fragment of the Wright brothers’ first airplane. But the most intriguing items may be two small plastic satellites on sticks that can be maneuvered to simulate a dogfight in space.
Space is now a potential battle zone, Goldfein explains in an interview. The Air Force wants to ensure “space superiority,” which he says means “freedom from attack and freedom to maneuver.”
If you think cyberwar raises some tricky issues, get your mind around this next big threat worrying the Pentagon. Similar problems exist in both the cyber and space domains: U.S. commercial and military interests are interwoven but deeply suspicious of each other; the technologies are borderless but are being weaponized by hostile nation-states; and attacks on satellites and other systems may be invisible and difficult to attribute.
Today’s digital world hangs on the satellite networks that invisibly circle the globe. They’re the wiring system for many commercial and military operations down below, and they’re highly vulnerable to attack. Russia has jammed GPS reception in Ukraine; China has hacked U.S. weather satellites; North Korea has jammed signals over the demilitarized zone.
The cloud overhead is thickening: As of mid-2016, the Union of Concerned Scientists counted 1,419 satellites orbiting the globe, including 576 from the United States, 181 from China and 140 from Russia. More than half are in low Earth orbit; most of the rest are geostationary, about 22,000 miles from Earth. Roughly 350 satellites, or 25 percent of the total, are for military use. At least 12 nations now have space-launch capability.
Save The Banana!
Humans Made the Banana Perfect—But Soon, It’ll Be Gone
by Rob Dunn
GETTY IMAGES
ON A PLATE, a single banana seems whimsical—yellow and sweet, contained in its own easy-to-open peel. It is a charming breakfast luxury as silly as it is delicious and ever-present. Yet when you eat a banana the flavor on your tongue has complex roots, equal parts sweetness and tragedy.
In 1950, most bananas were exported from Central America. Guatemala in particular was a key piece of a vast empire of banana plantations run by the American-owned United Fruit Company. United Fruit Company paid Guatemala’s government modest sums in exchange for land. With the land, United Fruit planted bananas and then did as it pleased. It exercised absolute control not only over what workers did but also over how and where they lived. In addition, it controlled transportation, constructing, for example, the first railway in the country, one that was designed to be as useless as possible for the people of Guatemala and as useful as possible for transporting bananas. The company’s profits were immense. In 1950, its revenues were twice the gross domestic product of the entire country of Guatemala. Yet while the United Fruit Company invested greatly in its ability to move bananas, little was invested in understanding the biology of bananas themselves.
Crystallizing Time
The quest to crystallize time
Bizarre forms of matter called time crystals were supposed to be physically impossible. Now they’re not.
Nik Spencer/Nature
Christopher Monroe spends his life poking at atoms with light. He arranges them into rings and chains and then massages them with lasers to explore their properties and make basic quantum computers. Last year, he decided to try something seemingly impossible: to create a time crystal.
The name sounds like a prop from Doctor Who, but it has roots in actual physics. Time crystals are hypothetical structures that pulse without requiring any energy — like a ticking clock that never needs winding. The pattern repeats in time in much the same way that the atoms of a crystal repeat in space. The idea was so challenging that when Nobel prizewinning physicist Frank Wilczek proposed the provocative concept1 in 2012, other researchers quickly proved there was no way to create time crystals.
But there was a loophole — and researchers in a separate branch of physics found a way to exploit the gap. Monroe, a physicist at the University of Maryland in College Park, and his team used chains of atoms they had constructed for other purposes to make a version of a time crystal2 (see ‘How to create a time crystal’). “I would say it sort of fell in our laps,” says Monroe.
Capturer La Boeuf
MasterChef Junior
We’ll Have What She’s Having
Posted by Heather Atwood
Late last spring, Lila DeLuca, a braided 10-year-old Rockporter, quietly slipped off to Los Angeles. She reported to her elementary school that she would be accompanying her father, Scott, on an “indefinite business trip.”
This, of course, was cover for the strict code of silence the Fox Broadcasting Company imposes upon its MasterChef contestants — even the juniors.
In her 2016 audition video, DeLuca had proven to the MasterChef Junior talent team that she had the right stuff to be one of the 40 kids qualified to endure — with all due adorableness — celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s famously menacing temper and the lofty standards of his co-host Christina Tosi, the high priestess of pastry at New York’s Momofuku Milk Bar.
For the next six weeks, DeLuca would proceed to croûton, coulis, caramelize, and squeal for joy — like 10-year-olds do. While the show has concluding taping and the results are in, DeLuca is prohibited from sharing any of the juicy details. But she can say that, yes, there was school (as California laws require). And there were field trips, intended to keep young minds working in between the intensity of shooting, and, of course, there was the once-in-a-lifetime experience of being on the set of a nationally-televised, wildly-popular TV show.
Money Macks
Buy This Dude’s Book – “The Pilgrim’s Ladder”
Climber reveals survival tale after 2,000 ft. fall from mountain
By: Kelli Saam
Ryan Montoya, 23, of Paradise, is recovering in a Denver hospital. He went missing Sunday while climbing alone trying to summit Pyramid Peak, a 14,000 foot peak near Aspen, Colorado.
Montoya’s mother said he was about 40 feet from the summit when the ice he stepped on collapsed, sending him sliding down the mountain. She shared what he told her about how he survived.
Montoya slid an estimated 1,500-2,000 feet down East face of the mountain, later telling his mother he fell long enough “to do a lot of talking, thinking and yelling all the way down.”
His mother said two weeks ago he published a book available on Amazon. The book is called ‘The Pilgrim’s Ladder.’ It is about climbing, life, the search for beauty and truth, with some philosophical musings. Montoya is an avid climber and has traveled to the mountains of Nepal.
On facebook, his mother quipped “It would be nice if he sold enough copies for pay for a new climbing helmet!”
[ click to read full article at KRCR ]
[ click to purchase Ryan’s book at Amazon ]
Full D5 4412
See, honey, I told you orgasms are better for you than yoga.
Want a promotion? Have daily orgasms! Study reveals regular sex makes you more productive, better at your job, and more likely to move up the ladder
By MIA DE GRAAF
A study documented the mood of 159 married employees for two weeks. They found men and women were far more productive and engaged if they’d had sex the night before
You may think the key to a promotion is working late, schmoozing with the boss, or wearing the right thing.
But a new study suggests something more personal could be the secret.
According to new research, people who orgasm at least once a day are far more likely to enjoy their jobs, work hard, and move up the career ladder.
They also have a healthier work-life balance.
‘We make jokes about people having a “spring in their step,” but it turns out this is actually a real thing and we should pay attention to it,’ said Keith Leavitt, an associate professor at Oregon State University.
Life Keeps Getting Older
Oldest microfossils suggest life thrived on Earth about 4 billion years ago
Ancient microbes were spewed from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, study claims
BY MEGHAN ROSEN
SIGNS OF LIFE In rocks left over from ancient hydrothermal vents, these microscopic tubes of hematite, an ore of iron, may be remnants of early microbes. / M. DODD
Tiny, iron-rich fossils exhumed from the depths of an ancient ocean could reveal the cradle of life.
These micrometer-scale structures are probably remnants of microorganisms that once lived amidst ancient hydrothermal vents, researchers suggest March 1 in Nature.
“In a nutshell, what we’ve found are the oldest microfossils on Earth,” says study coauthor Matthew Dodd, a biogeochemist at University College London. The rocks that hold the fossils came from Quebec and date to somewhere between 4.28 billion and 3.77 billion years old — when Earth was still a baby. The next oldest microfossils reported are just under 3.5 billion years old, though their validity has been debated (SN: 2/8/14, p.16).
If Dodd’s structures truly are remnants of microbes, “it’s fantastic. I love it,” says astrobiologist Martin Van Kranendonk of the University of New South Wales in Sydney. But he’s not convinced. In fact, he says, “there’s just not definitive proof that any of the textures or the minerals or features they have is unique of life.”
Space Junk Threat
Earth’s Orbiting Junkyard Threatens the Space Economy
Rocket and satellite litter is endangering private space commerce. Enter the cosmic debris tracking industry.
by Justin Bachman
A depiction of orbital debris in low-earth orbit. NASA
You never see it in those lovely NASA pictures of Earth, but the space surrounding our pale blue dot is a cosmic junkyard. Debris abounds, moving at ludicrous speeds and presenting plenty of hassles for satellite operators who do business in orbit.
This pollution poses an existential risk for greater commercialization of space, from the grand ambitions of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Corp. and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin LLC to other players who see promising futures for an array of space activities, from tourism, to imaging, to pharmaceutical research.
In low-earth orbit, space debris travels at velocities approaching 5 miles per second—roughly 18,000 mph—which gives even the tiniest bits of junk enormous destructive energy. A 1-centimeter-wide aluminum sphere in low-earth orbit packs the kinetic equivalent of a safe moving at 60 mph. If it hits your satellite, well, that could ruin the whole day.
Aggregate too much debris in certain areas, and low-earth orbit becomes an increasingly difficult and far costlier environment for commercial companies. Today, satellite operators periodically maneuver their birds to avoid object strikes just as NASA must do with the International Space Station. The key, however, is knowing what’s headed your way.
50 Shades of Vanilla Shitstorm
21 EROTIC FILMS HOTTER THAN THE VANILLA SH*TSTORM THAT IS ‘50 SHADES DARKER’
Might wanna put the kids to bed before turning these films on
BY SHARI GAB
Occasionally, a movie comes along that takes all accepted facts about a given event, era, lifestyle or historical figure and throws them out the window. Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor comes to mind.
And now we’ve got 50 Shades Darker, and its laughable depictions of the wide and wonderful world of kink. Because nevermind that the entire film is based on narrative tropes from the 1950s, the storyline isn’t provocative in the least, and the multimillionaire protagonist drives an upper-middle class Audi R8 Spyder. We ain’t buying that, and neither would he.
What really irks is the flick’s problematic (and wildly innacurate) portrayal of BDSM, where emotional bargaining qualifies as consent and fetishism parallels not with pleasure, but pathology. And as if that wasn’t all enough to make one throw actual rotten tomatoes at the screen, the sex is really mundane. The second in a trilogy, it’s perhaps the only time you’ll hear me say “We really don’t need to go a third time.”
So save yourself from the damp washcloth that is 50 Shades and enjoy these 21 films that got BDSM right.
Look down, not up.
What is this 2.5mile long object moving under the Pacific Ocean?
A MASSIVE circular structure has been spotted slowly crawling across the Pacific sea floor 3000 feet below the surface.
By PAUL BALDWIN
The object, which observers say looks man-made rather than natural, is estimated to measure more than 2.5miles in diameter and is surrounded by what look like massive tank tracks.
Other observers suggest the tracks may be trenches or fortifications.
But the most baffling thing is the circular object which appears to have left a 41 mile track in its wake as it trundled across the floor of the North Pacific off the Californian coast .
The object was brought to the attention of alien investigators SecureTeam10
Tyler, who helps run the internet investigations site, said: “There are certain areas of the ocean that are obviously blurred out. But what better place would there be for another race or another group of beings to hide than in the deep of our own oceans?
“While we are up staring at the sky all day and worrying about what’s up there we have 90 per cent of our oceans unchartered.
Stray meteor nearly wipes out Dallas
Thunderous meteor rattles West Texas sky with sonic boom
by Liz Farmer
A booming meteor rocketed over Texas this weekend, rattling houses with a sonic boom, according to reports.
Authorities in West Texas and beyond received calls about possible explosions Sunday night.
It turned out to be a very bright meteor, according to the American Meteor Society.
About 40 people reported on the nonprofit group’s website that they’d seen the fiery meteor in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado about 9 p.m.
Deputy Fire Marshal Nathan Hines said he heard what sounded like thunder in Snyder, about 80 miles west of Abilene, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports.
“You could see a flash, like if an electrical transformer flashes at night, up to our northwest,” Hines said. “But it was cloudy here — kinda rainy — so we didn’t actually see any kind of fireball or anything.”
Why All Boys Wish They Were Rock Stars at Some Point
Musk To The Moon
SpaceX to Fly Passengers On Private Trip Around the Moon in 2018
By Calla Cofield
SpaceX will fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon in 2018, the company’s founder Elon Musk announced Monday (Feb. 27).
The private spaceflight company will use its Falcon Heavy rocket to send the two paying passengers into space aboard one of the company’s Dragon spacecraft. The two private citizens, who have not yet been named, approached SpaceX about taking a trip around the moon, and have “already paid a significant deposit” for the cost of the mission, according to a statement from the company. The names of the two individuals will be announced later, pending the result of initial health tests to ensure their fitness for the mission, the statement said. [SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Spacecraft in Pictures]
“Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration,” SpaceX representatives said in the statement.
The two passengers will be the only people on board what is expected to be about a weeklong trip around the moon, according to Musk, who spoke with reporters during a phone conference today.
AMERICAN GOTHIC to Japan
CBS Studios International Announces Licensing Agreement with WOWWOW in Japan
CBS Studios International announced today a multi-title content licensing agreement with Japan’s leading premium pay TV provider, WOWOW. The agreement includes the first-window broadcast rights to the highly anticipated new TWIN PEAKS; the #1 new U.S. drama BULL, starring Michael Weatherly; and the murder-mystery series AMERICAN GOTHIC.
BULL, TWIN PEAKS and AMERICAN GOTHIC will be shown on WOWOW’s Prime channel, joining other Showtime and CBS programming, including the critically-acclaimed THE AFFAIR, the event series ZOO and the modern-day SHERLOCK Holmes drama, ELEMENTARY.
“The series in this agreement represent the strength and variety of CBS and Showtime programming available to broadcasters around the world,” said Barry Chamberlain, President of Sales, CBS Studios International. “We are thrilled to have expanded our portfolio of programming with WOWOW, bringing more of our compelling and creative storytelling to audiences across Japan.”
AMERICAN GOTHIC centers on a prominent Boston family reeling in the wake of the chilling discovery that someone in their midst is linked to an infamous string of murders. As shocking secrets from the past and present are revealed, their mounting SUSPICION and paranoia that one of them is a killer threatens to tear THE FAMILY apart.
AMERICAN GOTHIC is executive produced by Corinne Brinkerhoff, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, James Frey and Todd Cohen, produced by CBS Television Studios and distributed internationally by CBS Studios International.
UFO Hunter Copiously Vomited Black Fluid Before Death
Police to quiz girlfriend over British UFO conspiracy theorist’s mystery death after he vomited two litres of black fluid
A science fiction writer will be quizzed by police on suspicion of killing a British conspiracy theorist who died suddenly on her sofa.
Max Spiers, 39, sought to expose government cover-ups and investigated UFO sightings — after, his mum says, he saw “the darker side” as a child.
The dad-of-two, from Canterbury, Kent, visited Poland to speak at a conference before he died at partner Monika Duval’s home 24 hours later in July 2016.
He vomited two litres of a black fluid before he died, his inquest heard in December.
Now prosecutors have opened an investigation into involuntary manslaughter and want to speak to his girlfriend, who was present at the time of Mr Spiers’s death.
Would have been spectacular…
These 10 Unrealized Artworks Would Have Been Spectacular
BY ABIGAIL CAIN
Image by James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Jeff Koons. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line.
Jeff Koons, Train
So far, all attempts to realize Koons’s 161-foot-tall sculpture have run out of steam. The American artist first proposed the work—a full-size replica of a 1940s locomotive, suspended nose-down from a crane while periodically spinning its wheels and belching smoke—to French billionaire art collector François Pinault in the early 2000s. But when Pinault’s plans for a museum on the Seine fell through in 2005, Koons’s idea was once again up for grabs. Both LACMA and Friends of the High Line expressed interest in the massive work; in fact, LACMA spent more than $2 million in feasibility studies, finally determining that Train “was safe, possible, and more complicated than anyone thought.” The High Line picked up the project in 2008 and again in 2012, only to see it derail both times. The likely culprit: an estimated cost of $25 million to $50 million.
Camille on Oscar
Camille Paglia on Oscar Glamour Then and Now: “Grandeur of Old Hollywood Is Gone” (Guest Column)
by Camille Paglia
Terry O’Neill/Getty Images; Peter Kramer/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
Faye Dunaway, shown after her Oscar win. (Inset: Paglia)
The social critic and author of the upcoming ‘Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism,’ writes that Elizabeth Taylor’s 1961 win was “a huge cultural watershed, a prefiguration of the coming sexual revolution,” which predated a new generation of “hip, smart and cynical” stars.
As a child, I had two pagan high holy days every year. The first was Halloween, where I advertised my transgender soul by masquerading as a matador, a Roman soldier, Napoleon or Hamlet. The second was Oscar night, when Hollywood put its dazzling glamour on heady display for the whole world.
As I was growing up in the drearily conformist 1950s and early ’60s, it was hard to find information about popular culture, which wasn’t taken seriously. Deep-think European art films were drawing tiny coteries of intellectuals to small, seedy theaters, but flamboyant mainstream Hollywood was still dismissed as crass, commercial trash.
Moby Yoga
Moby Has Just Released Four Hours Worth Of Free Music Designed For Yoga And Meditation
Moby (Richard Melville Hall), is an American DJ, singer, songwriter, musician, photographer and animal rights activist. He is well known for his electronic music, veganism, and support of animal rights.
Recently on his website he released a series of ambient recording designed to help people feel a great calmness. This is what he said on his website ;
Andy’s Death Re-visited
Andy Warhol’s Death: Not So Simple, After All
By BLAKE GOPNIK
Andy Warhol, in 1987. Credit: Associated Press
“Pop Icon Andy Warhol Dies After Routine Surgery” ran the headline in The Houston Chronicle. Time magazine questioned how “the country’s most famous pop artist dies in a prestigious big-city hospital after a rather routine gallbladder operation.”
A routine surgery: Some version of that story was repeated around the world in the days and decades after the death of the 58-year-old artist, the 30th anniversary of which is on Wednesday.
Dr. John Ryan, a medical historian and retired surgeon, has recast the story line. “This was major, major surgery — not routine — in a very sick person,” Dr. Ryan, emeritus chief of surgery at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, said in a recent phone interview.
RELATIONSHIP STATUS Gets Two More Seasons
Milo Ventimiglia’s ‘Relationship Status’ Gets Two More Seasons on Verizon’s Go90 (EXCLUSIVE)
COURTESY OF STYLEHAUL
“Relationship Status,” the millennial social-media drama starring and executive produced by Milo Ventimiglia, is returning for two more seasons on Verizon’s Go90 mobile video service.
The show was created by Céline Geiger (“Vampire Diaries,” “The Lying Game”). It’s executive produced by Ventimiglia — who currently stars in NBC’s primetime hit drama “This Is Us” — and Russ Cundiff of DiVide Pictures; James Frey and Todd Cohen of Full Fathom Five; and StyleHaul.
Go90 has picked up two 12-episode seasons of “Relationship Status,” which will feature a traditional film and TV talent alongside digital creators. Season 2 is slated to hit the free, ad-supported service in the fall of 2017; the producers expect to announce cast details soon. As with the first run of the show, the ensemble dramedy will weave through the complexities of relationships while exploring the intertwining lives and connections of dating in the digital age.
“We could not be happier to continue ‘Relationship Status’ into season two and three,” Ventimiglia said in a statement. “The landscape of online dating and social media is ever-changing and we are looking forward to bringing more compelling stories about love, life and loss to Go90.”
Noah California
from The San Francisco Chronicle
Is California overdue for biblical, catastrophic flooding? History says it could be
By Katie Dowd
Sacramento underwater due to floods in an 1862 rendering that ran in local papers.
Californians are always talking about the coming Big One, but what if the big one is a flood, not an earthquake?
With this recent cavalcade of rainstorms, there’s been renewed interest in a 2011 USGS study on the so-called “ARkStorm.” In it, the USGS lays out a case for a hypothetical “megastorm,” one that could cause up to $725 billion in damage and impact a quarter of California’s homes.
The ARkStorm would bring with it catastrophic rains, hurricane-force winds and hundreds of landslides. Central Valley flooding alone is projected to span 300 miles.
If that sounds far-fetched, there’s historic precedent: Geological evidence indicates that California endures massive flooding caused by atmospheric rivers every 100-200 years. And settlers who moved to California after the Gold Rush soon found what the native population had known for centuries: Northern California is prime flooding territory.
The most prominent example is the Great Flood of 1862, a natural disaster that still ranks as the largest flood in the history of the American West. Between Dec. 1861 and Jan. 1862, the West Coast received a near-constant deluge of rain. Sacramento received a stunning 23 inches in that period, turning the city into a watery ghost town.
“The people are leaving the city as rats would a sinking ship” the Red Bluff Independent wrote on Jan. 14.
Apocalypse at Oroville
Oroville Dam’s untested emergency spillway activated. Flows to continue ‘40 to 56 hours’
BY DALE KASLER
Water began pouring over the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam early Saturday for the first time in its 48-year history. State officials continued to say they don’t expect the situation to result in flooding in the town of Oroville or other communities downstream.
Unable to release enough water from the dam’s heavily damaged main spillway, officials with the California Department of Water Resources announced that water from the storm-swollen reservoir started flowing over the adjacent emergency spillway at around 8 a.m. Department spokesman Doug Carlson said water was pouring over the emergency structure in what initially was a steady, relatively gentle flow.
Little Shaq to SPROUT
Sprout Greenlights New Series ‘Remy And Boo’; Renews ‘Floogals’ & ‘Nina’s World’; Sets Development Slate
Sprout, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment’s 24-hour preschool network, is expanding its original programming slate with the greenlight of new series Remy and Boo created by Industrial Brothers’ Matt Fernandes and produced by Industrial Brothers and Boat Rocker Studios. The network also has given Season 2 renewals to its popular original series Floogals and Nina’s World and set several new projects in development, including an original series executive produced by Shaquille O’Neal.
Among the new projects on Sprout’s development slate are Little Shaq, executive produced by Shaquille O’Neal. Inspired by the former NBA superstar’s real life childhood, the series follows an outsized boy’s funny and often awkward adventures in his urban American neighborhood. From Universal Cable Productions, the series is also executive produced by Full Fathom Five’s James Frey and Todd Cohen.
They’re Beginning To Wander
Army drone missing from Arizona found in Colorado
A drone like the one that disappeared is seen in this image provided by the U.S. Army / U.S. ARMY/CBS DENVER
DENVER — An Army drone that disappeared on a training flight in southern Arizona has been found about 600 miles away in Colorado, and the military is trying to figure out how it got there.
Officials at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, say a hiker found the $1.5 million Shadow drone stuck in a tree in the mountains west of Denver Thursday. It was missing a wing.
Soldiers lost contact with the drone at Fort Huachuca nine days earlier. A search failed to find it, and the Army concluded it probably crashed and disintegrated in the area.
The Bombing Of The L.A. Times
Infernal Machines: The Bombing of the Los Angeles Times and L.A.’s First ‘Crime of the Century’
Bombed-out building of the Los Angeles Times at First Street and Broadway, 1910 | Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library
It never fails to astound me. The tales we remember collectively. And the stories we forget. I first learned of the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times on a walk around Hollywood Forever Cemetery. There, next to graves of the Otises and Chandlers, is a grand monument to “Our martyred men,” the 20 employees of the Los Angeles Times who had lost their lives in the early morning hours of Saturday, October 1, 1910. There is a list of the deceased, fourteen of whose remains are buried beneath the monument. They had been hard at work at the Times’ headquarters, often called “The Fortress,” on the northeast corner of First and Broadway, when a series of dry blasts starting at 1:07 a.m. shook downtown Los Angeles to its foundations.
When I was growing up my father ran a paper and a printing press. I spent many happy nighttime hours at the press — running in and out of the revolving doors of the dark room and climbing on the great rolls of newspaper. I can still remember the smell of the ink, the clanging rhythm of the insert machine, and the dark ink smudges on the pressmen’s shirts. There was a sense of camaraderie among the folks who worked at the paper — the odd hours, the stress of deadlines, and the constant noise. Perhaps these memories are why this story so resonates with me.
At the current home of The Los Angeles Times on Spring Street, faded and half empty, there are few references to the bombing. There is a brief blurb about it in a historical timeline exhibit in the lobby. There is the cornerstone laid in 1934 by Harry Chandler, which contains a copper box with a list of the dead and other mementos. The words “True Industrial Freedom” are etched into the building’s façade, a reference lost to most casual pedestrians.
Across the street is an empty lot where “The Fortress” and its immediate successor had once approximately stood. The day I visit, there is a faint smell of urine and trash, and the detritus of the city clogs the lot’s chain link fence. Weathered signs proclaim that the block will soon be a city park, and flowering bushes have already reclaimed much of the area. Stray sheets of newspapers blow through high, rustling weeds. The ruins of a later government building are visible, and a desk and chair sit on ghostly guard at the top of a set of stairs overgrown with weeds. Rumor has it that the future park’s retaining walls were made with the debris of “The Fortress,” but it is only a rumor. The truth is there’s nothing much left of the disaster that once gripped the nation and dramatically capped off decades of class warfare and labor struggle. There are just scattered pieces of remembrance, here and there.
2017 BS32
NOT SO FAR AWAY – Asteroid 2017 BS32 will zoom past Earth TONIGHT in fourth close shave of the year
Scientists spotted space rock from ‘potentially hazardous’ Aten asteroid group on Monday
BY MARGI MURPHY
PA.PRESS ASSOCIATION
SCIENTISTS have just spotted an asteroid which will brush past Earth this evening.
Asteroid 2017 BS32 will fly past at around 161,280 km from our planet, according to stargazers.
2017 BS32 is expected to hurtle past at around 8.30pm Thursday.
The space rock – estimated to be around 82ft in size – belongs to the Aten group of asteroids.
Several of the thousands of Atens have been classed as “potentially hazardous” because of their proximity to Earth.
It was only spotted on Monday by astronomers and is the fourth Near-Earth Asteroid to pass this year, according to eagle-eyed asteroid watchers.