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Bishop Kukah is a politician in cassock ' Mohammed Lawal, Buhari's political ally
Vision News, Politics October 18, 2020
Mallam Mohammed Lawal, President Muhammadu Buhari's political ally since 2003, has called on Bishop Matthew Kukah to dump pulpit and join politics to demonstrate good governance. Lawal was reacting to an interview, where the Catholic clergy, said 'Nigeria's unity is hopeless and under threat.'
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the two time board member of NNPC, said rotation of presidency by the ruling party, APC, still stands.
Are you not worried over the way Nigeria is going, with insecurity everywhere?
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Bishop Kukah is a politician in cassock – Mohammed Lawal, Buhari's political ally
17th October 20200SHARES
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I'm very much concerned, and at my age about 60, despite all we are passing through, I see a lot of hope for Nigeria and her people. Nigeria is a country with a lot of potential when compared to other countries not only in Africa, but the world over.
The problem we have in this country is that our elites and the people that have benefited a lot from this country from what our founding fathers did are determined to see that if they don't have it their way; if they don't take what they want the way they want it, the whole country can go to hell. However, if this category of people wake up today and talk in one direction, in one voice towards peace, harmony and development, you will see that the common folks will follow suit and continue to work in harmony and peace towards uniting the country and charting the way for development. But, our leaders are not helping matters. A typical example is what happened with the former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, an Oxford scholar brandishing falsehood that can set this country aflame. He started recanting when the DSS and the police apprehended and started interrogating him. The elites should know that if trouble starts in this country, they would be consumed before other people, and they would suffer most because they have the assets, they have their children trained in the best schools and they would want them to come back to take the best of offices and the best of opportunities. So, they should bury their hatchets and work in harmony for development.
The truth of the matter is that the political leadership in particular right from the president down to the governors and legislators both at the federal and state levels since this political dispensation, from my personal assessment starting with Obasanjo, who emerged the president after a long period of military administration, is below average. Look at what happened on our roads during Obasanjo's regime, when Tony Anenih was the Works minister; are we talking about what transpired in the power sector where $16 billion was spent and there is nothing on ground to show for it.
Coming to Yar'Adua, unfortunately he passed away. As a governor of Katsina State, he was focused, very disciplined. As a president, he rolled back many of the things that Obasanjo did that were unhealthy, unconstitutional. We noticed some semblance of seriousness, but he was cut short by death.
Coming to Jonathan, it was a low period of this country, looking at what happened with Dasuki, the then National Security Adviser; looking at the nonchalance of the presidency with the Boko Haram issues, and how it escalated to the point of the sect taking over two third of the local governments in Borno State. Look at the brigandage and the thievery in the oil and gas sector – the Dizeani, the Aluko, the Omokiri issues, etc. It was a terribly embarrassing situation for one of the seven crude oil producing nations lacking capacity to refine its products since during Obasanjo. Look at the hemorrhage activities in the repairing the refineries of this country, which escalated into the period of Jonathan. Look at the issue of militants in the Niger Delta and even across the country, there is banditry.
Coming to the present regime of Buhari, I'm getting tired of making reference to previous administrations, but the fact of the matter is that we met what we meet in terms of corruption, in terms of what Jonathan did, what Obasanjo did. We are all students of history, and we cannot say that we have to bury all that we saw and forget about it. We learn from the past; doctors even learn from the dead, and we have to learn from the living in order to make progress. So, when Buhari came, there was nothing, this country was squandered; it was a bazaar at the CBN, the security was at its lowest ebb and people are saying that it was Buhari who caused all the problems of banditry, Boko Haram. These things take time, they don' just happen in a day.
The brigandage, the wrath, is so much that if you put the whole resources of this country on security alone, it will not go anywhere because what is happening has been happening for a long time. Efforts were made, but the governments were not serious, look at what happened during the arms purchase saga. You gave $1 billion, not Naira to purchase arms, the money was stolen. Look at what was discovered from the security top guns – Bade in the Air Force, his colleagues in the military. These things will have consequences on what the inheritor will do to address the negative aspect of what they put the country into.
Buhari inherited a very difficult country. There was nothing in the treasury and during previous regimes, money was coming like the regime of Gen Gowon that we didn't know even what to do with the money, so we were on a spending spree with the money. When Buhari came, the single commodity that ensures the liquidity of this country foreign and domestic is crude oil. Previous regimes were selling crude more than $100 per barrel, but when Buhari came it went as low as $20. During this COVID-19, it is as if nobody wanted to touch our oil, our fleets loaded with oil are in the seas, and there are no buyers and yet we are managing to pay salaries and meeting other financial obligations that will keep the country afloat, and investing heavily on agriculture. We closed borders and opposition started shouting, and we have seen the impact of closing the border even though the price of food is high because we cannot produce enough, but the good thing about it is that the farmers are now benefitting because they are being encouraged to produce more because there is the demand. We have seen recently most of the products; rice, tomatoes ketchup, etc that we were importing from China and other Asian countries were adulterated with attendant health challenges on our people, and we have seen that eating locally produced food items is healthy, more beneficial to our people. Look at the education sector, the infrastructures at all levels, are rotten, that is also what we met on the ground.
Coming to the governors, they govern as if they don't have pity on their people they govern. You can count about two of these governors from each geo political zone that are truly putting honest efforts to see that their people are lifted from their present position of poverty.
When you come to legislators, you see a senator earning N30 million or close to that in a month; the House of Representatives members earning between N20 million and N25 million in a month in a country where the minimum salary is about N30,000 and some state governors are not paying it. Even these states that say they cannot pay the minimum wage, not that they don't have money to pay but, because the governors want to divert the money to unnecessary projects that have no bearing on the economic well being of the people and the state – building airport in a state like Zamfara, my state, when we have an airport in Sokoto, and airport in Kaduna. Between the state capital, Kaduna and Sokoto, it is about three to four hours, but still the governors will like to build airports in Zamfara, Kebbi, where no airline can afford to break even if they are to operate as it may be needed.
There are growing agitations for restructuring or breakup of this country. Before it was Biafra and now Oduduwa and more may still come. What do these suggest?
Even in the North here, don't think that the Northerners don't have their own opinion on what is happening in Nigeria. I still go back to the agitators, the people you see on the streets demonstrating and calling for restructuring or breakup of this country, there are some people playing the music behind, and these are the elites. They feel, as I said earlier, if they don't get what they want in terms of power or in terms of economic benefits, which they think is their right or their own share and it must be given to them . If not, the only way to get it is to carve their empire for themselves. But it is not so.
If it is something that is possible to be done immediately, the IPOB calling for restructuring or breakup, if power now goes to Igbo, they won't ask for restructuring or breakup of Nigeria because they know the president of Igbo extraction can only flourish to their own satisfaction when Nigeria is one. The Oduduwa guys say they want breakup, the truth of the matter is that they only understand that when they are in the saddle of power, especially, the presidency that they can drive Nigeria of their dream the way they think it should go. We hope that their ideas of governance, or the idea of how to govern Nigeria or how Nigeria should be is good and for the benefit of all, but I assure you and I can swear by anything you want me to, if the Yoruba that are calling for this agitation and breakup happen to be in the saddle of power in 2023, they will change the song to 'One Nigeria', and they will do it the way they think it will work. We hope they have the mindset and the capacity to unite this country, and also move the country on the path of progress and development as they are claiming to be the messiah of that and the person that will be in the saddle is somebody that has the capacity and the knowledge to lead.
The reason the drumbeat is upbeat now is because 2023 is coming, and it is all about the battle for power. I have said it before and I repeat it, Buhari is not a saint; he cannot claim to be saint, he has his own weakness, no human being is perfect. So, the question is you either cooperate or work together in order to lead this country out of the quagmire we are trying to box ourselves into.
The narratives coming from the mouths of the elites can lead this country to be boxed in a corner that we may find it very difficult to come out, and we are the people that will put ourselves into that position and when trouble will commence, only God knows what may come to save us from the situation. We are talking and behaving in a way that we are going to lead ourselves into a very difficult situation that we may find it extremely difficult to come out from. The solution is simple, if these elites, like I said earlier, can start talking positive and behaving positive by coming together and chart course and the ways, Nigerian masses are very easy going; we easily take our leaders in confidence and work with them, but when they start working and talking people into a situation that is unbearable, the consequences are very frightening. I'm worried and concerned. If the elites think they can continue blackmailing the country and intimidating and leading us to where it may be difficult for us to come out, they are also Nigerians; let's see how it goes.
In an interview we have, Bishop Matthew Kukah, described Nigeria's unity as hopeless and under threat. Do you share in his opinion?
Let me say with all modesty that it is Kukah that is hopeless. Nigeria's unity can be under threat and it is because of what they do, the elites, as I said. If he says the reverse and people like him say the reverse, it will not be like that and the unity will not be under threat as you are seeing now and as you are getting scared about this country. They caused all the problems.
Kukah has said it in other fora; he is a man of God. He is a politician in cassock. Let him derobe and come into the political arena. He is beginning to get political darts from people like us because we know that we are no longer allowing him to hide under the religious robes and throw jabs at politicians, to people who mean well for this country. If he has problem with anybody or it is a religious faith against another religious faith, they should sort it out in that domain.
I know politics is leadership, I know with our own set up, you cannot grab power without going into politics and it is power that changes all these things, so let him go into politics, get the power and do his own; let us see his own method, let us see his own input. But for him to stay behind religious pulpit and throw jabs at politicians and other political leadership can no longer be tolerated. We do not hate him but we are getting to a point where we are putting ourselves into a very difficult corner. We will regret the trouble that may come in the long run as a result of our attitudes, particularly the attitude of our elites.
Bishop Kukah also described Boko Haram as an enterprise because you can see money being pumped without much result. Do you agree with him on this?
I share his view on that. It is an enterprise that has been very lucrative, which started during his mentor, Obasanjo, who he identifies as his greatest political benefactor. He was the official chaplain of Obasanjo among the all unofficial chaplains. Even when Obasanjo wanted to do something about his marriage with his late wife (may her soul rest in peace), it was Kukah who officiated that. That Boko Haram security budget turned out to be an ATM for the security apparatus and most likely even the clergy, we don't know them. So, it started during that time. And we can see what happened during Jonathan. Kukah was closely associated with Jonathan also.
Well, even during Buhari some people are milking the security thing quite alright, but then there is a category of people probably enjoying the Boko Haram largesse as ATM. The other category of people are shouting and talking loud now. Truly, maybe the security agencies, the military are the ones enjoying. Maybe, Kukah and other categories are the ones pushed out of the largesse and they are shouting and talking. There may be others that are pushed outside and they are keeping quiet and are no longer enjoying the largesse.
So, I share his opinion. Let us be bold. Who are the people, it has started during his big political mentor, Obasanjo, and they enjoyed it, all of them.
Citizens accuse the president of being insensitive by increasing the pump price of petrol, what is your view on this?
If we are to be fair to each other; fair to the country and understand the economic situation globally and the country, we will know that there is no alternative to it. I agree that it is not the best time to do that. For long the president has tarried so much on that. I'm an advocate of that; for long, I have been advocating that. It makes economic sense; it calls for economic discipline within the government, public sector and private sector and the populace at large. Nobody has brought any alternative that is viable and feasible now.
The president said it that we were going to increase the price of fuel, which means great economic hardship. Honestly speaking, you know the figures that were bandied around as subsidy. If we want it to continue, depression will come within months. Depression is like the whole country going into a deep black hole. That would have been the case if we didn't remove the subsidy.
There is no alternative to what the president has done; the alternative is plunging the country into depression and deep hole. The consequences of that are grave as there will be no more salaries. If we can't pay salaries to workers, you can imagine the ripple effects, as there will be no markets, no school fees, and no more to even pay electricity bill and so there will be blackout. It will be very scary if salaries are not paid, the government doesn't have money to pay contractors, it cannot meet its obligations and even to conduct elections, and money will not be in circulation. Armed robbery and other violent crimes will increase because there is no money and they will start killing people they thought have money. There is no alternative, even though it is very painful. I'm not an economist, but a realist. The economists will show us better the picture of the consequences of leaving the subsidy; we can't afford it. People opposed to it if they take over the government by any means let them bring back the subsidy and see what will happen. It is not possible.
Politics of 2023 is taking the centre stage. Some argue that there should be rotation of the presidency; others say power stays where it is, while others say it is open. What is your view on this?
We pray and hope that we are alive and healthy to see 2023; some of us may participate in it, but these politicians are very clever and the polity is heating up. They know it very well that Nigeria must exist before you become the president. They will find a way to lead us into 2023 and they know they should be Nigerians before they can do what they wanted to do. For those looking for restructuring let them get the power first and work towards restructuring. For those looking for dissolution, can they do that without getting the power? Let them get the power and work for the dissolution they want. For those that are looking for unity, harmony and they put in place super structure that can ensure good governance that will see this country into what Malaysia is now from what it was; South Korea from where it was to what it is now; Singapore from what it was to what it is now, they will want a united country so that they can demonstrate their gifts and prove that they are the ones we are missing. Politicians are clever, don't mind them.
Everybody has his own peculiarity; the same with every country, every people. We have our own peculiarity and we know what suits us. Honestly speaking, what is in place is either rotation or merit. We are doing rotation in order to address some issues. Are we saying now that those issues are no longer relevant? No. So we continue with rotation. Have we reached the stage where those issues that made us agree to rotate are no more relevant and we discard it? My position is that we have not solved all the problems that made rotation to appear juicy and good. So, for the meantime, let us continue with it, but still, while we are rotating we should rotate with the best among us.
Credit: The Sun
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Plesiomorphy and symplesiomorphy
(Redirected from Plesiomorphic)
Figure 1: Phylogenies showing the terminology used to describe different patterns of ancestral and derived trait states.[1]
In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") is an ancestral character state. A symplesiomorphy ( from syn- "together")[2] is a plesiomorphy shared by two or more taxa (including taxa earlier in the clade). Pseudoplesiomorphy is any trait that cannot be identified as a plesiomorphy nor as an apomorphy.[3]
Alternative terms are plesiomorphic character and symplesiomorphic character respectively, or plesiomorphic trait and symplesiomorphic trait respectively.
The term symplesiomorphy was introduced in 1950 by German entomologist Willi Hennig.
ExamplesEdit
Figure 2: Imaginary cladogram.[4] The yellow mask is a plesiomorphy for each living masked species, because it is ancestral.[4] It is also a symplesiomorphy for them. But for the four living species as a whole, it is a apomorphy because it is not ancestral for all of them. The yellow tail is a plesiomorphy and symplesiomorphy for all living species.
An example is hair in primates: it is plesiomorphic (ancestral) and symplesiomorphic (ancestral and present in all primates).[5]
DiscussionEdit
Plesiomorphy and symplesiomorphy correspond to apomorphy and synapomorphy which are derived trait ("evolutionary novelty") and a shared derived trait.
All of these terms are by definition relative in that a trait can be a plesiomorphy in one context and an apomorphy in another (see example in Figure 2).
Apomorphic and synapomorphic characteristics convey much information about the evolutionary clades and can be used to define taxa. However, plesiomorphic and symplesiomorphic characteristics cannot. Species should not be grouped purely by morphologic or genetic similarity. Because a plesiomorphic character inherited from a common ancestor can appear anywhere in a phylogenetic tree, its presence does not reveal anything about the relationships within the tree.[6] Thus grouping species requires distinguishing ancestral from derived character states.[7]
An example to illustrate this is the breathing via gills in bony fish and cartilaginous fish. They share it because it was present in their common ancestor. But bony fish that breathe through their skin or lungs evolved into living vertebrates, and are more closely related to terrestrial vertebrates than to sharks and other cartilaginous fish.[8]
Another example is thermo-regulation in reptilia and birds. Reptilia are ectothermic (coldblooded) and birds are endothermic (warmblooded). This is plesiomorphic for birds and plesiomorphic for reptiles. Being coldblooded is symplesiomorphic for lizards, turtles and crocodiles, but they do not form a clade without birds, as crocodiles are more related to birds than to lizards and turtles.[9]
Synapomorphy
Apomorphy
Autapomorphy
^ Roderick D.M. Page; Edward C. Holmes (14 July 2009). Molecular Evolution: A Phylogenetic Approach. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-1336-9.
^ "Phylogenetic Systematics". Encyclopedia of Ecology and Environmental Management. John Wiley & Sons. 2009. p. 552. ISBN 978-1444313246.
^ Williams, David; Schmitt, Michael; Wheeler, Quentin (2016). The Future of Phylogenetic Systematics: The Legacy of Willi Hennig. Cambridge University Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-1107117648.
^ a b Freeman, Scott, 1955- (2015). Evolutionary analysis. Herron, Jon C., 1962- (5th ed.). Harlow. ISBN 9781292061276. OCLC 903941931. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "Plesiomorphy - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics". www.sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
^ Patterson, Colin (1982), "Morphological characters and homology", in Joysey, Kenneth A; Friday, A. E. (eds.), Problems in Phylogenetic Reconstruction, Systematics Association Special Volume 21, London: Academic Press, ISBN 0-12-391250-4 .
^ Futuyma, Douglas J. (1998), Evolutionary Biology (3rd ed.), Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates, Inc., p. 95, ISBN 0-87893-189-9
^ Cracraft, Joel; Donoghue, Michael J. (2004), Assembling the Tree of Life, USA: Oxford University Press, p. 367, ISBN 0-19-517234-5
^ Archibald, J. David (2014-08-19). Aristotle's ladder, Darwin's tree : the evolution of visual metaphors for biological order. New York. ISBN 9780231537667. OCLC 884645828.
This evolution-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plesiomorphy_and_symplesiomorphy&oldid=935724344"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
In araldica la conchiglia di Santiago (o, all'italiana, conchiglia di San Giacomo), dapprima simbolo specifico di avvenuto pellegrinaggio a Santiago di Compostela, è poi divenuta simbolo generico di pellegrinaggio, anche in Terra Santa o presso altri santuari.

La conchiglia è rappresentata sia concava, che mostra la parte interna, sia convessa, che mostra quindi la parte esterna.

Galleria d'immagini

Voci correlate
 Conchiglia (araldica)

Altri progetti

Figure araldiche
Cammino di Santiago di Compostela

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Last Saturday, I kicked off my annual book awards, The Brittany Awards, by listing some of my favorite New Adult/Adult books of the year. This week, I will be highlighting my five favorite young adult fantasy novels of the year as well as two honorable mentions.
I've been wanting to finish this series for a long time and I finally got around to it in 2018. I loved the first book in this series, but was disappointed by the second book. I heard terrible reviews for this book, so I went in expecting to be let down by this book too. However, I found myself really enjoying this book, at least during the first 3/4. At the end, this book did use one of my least favorite plot twists. That being said, I still had a fun time reading this book.
This book is more adventure than fantasy, but it does include some fantastical elements, so I will include it on this list. If you're expecting a gritty pirate story, then you will probably be disappointed by this book. If you want a fun books that just so happens to include pirates, you'll enjoy this more. For me, I thought this book was so enjoyable. I'm typically not of fan of books with overdramatic romances and pretty typical characters, but for some reason, I could stop turning the pages of this book. It was the perfect easy read and I look forward to picking up the second book.
I immediately put this book on my TBR after reading the very Six of Crows description. After actually reading this book, it's not really similar to that book, but I still absolutely loved it. I requested this book from my local library, read it in one sitting, and then quickly purchased a copy for my Kindle because I know I will be picking up the next book in this series. I loved the setting of this book and really enjoyed the two main characters. Are some elements typical YA fantasy? Absolutely. However, it also offers some unique elements that will keep your interest.
I've wanted to read The Ravens Boys for awhile because I heard it was good. However, I haven't been a fan of other books that I've read or tried to read by Maggie Stiefvater which made me hesitant to pick this one up. Out of all the books I've read or tried to read by this author, this is clearly the best of the bunch. The plot is tight, the characters are interesting, and the writing kept me reading until the book ended. That being said, there are aspects of this book that just aren't my cup of tea, such as the really dark magic which I've heard gets even darker, which is why I won't be picking up the next book in this series.
The Cruel Prince wasn't plot-wise the most original YA fantasy book that I've ever read. However, the writing was pretty solid and the political aspect of the story was interesting enough that I couldn't put this book down. I have the same feelings towards this book that I did War Cross by Marie Lu. Although the story itself wasn't the most original, the writing of this book really propelled it to one of my favorites during the year that I read it. This book definitely got my interest for more books in the series.
I only gave this book an average rating, but overall it was a really enjoyable read for me. This was one of my most anticipated books of the year. While I have some problems with the pacing, characterization, and some elements of this book, I loved reading about characters that I loved in the first three books of this series and I'm excited to see where this series goes in the future.
What are your favorite YA fantasy books that you read 2018?


Manufacturing companies accounted for 32,000, or slightly more than a quarter, of the new jobs in March, and service companies like restaurants, retailers, medical offices and small construction firms accounted for 86,000.
WHAT IT MEANS: Small businesses have stepped up their hiring along with larger companies this year as owners have become more optimistic about their business and the economy in general. Surveys in the past few months have shown owners are more confident and more are considering hiring. They've been taking on staffers although signs are pointing to slower economic growth in 2017; many economists are estimating that the economy grew at an annual rate of 1 percent during the first quarter, down from 2.1 percent in the final three months of 2016.
MORE DATA: The Labor Department releases its report on employment during March on Friday. The government doesn't break out employment by company size, but the numbers will be evidence of how the economy is doing and it can influence small business owners' optimism and hiring plans.


Utah Motorsports Campus hosted rounds sixteen and seventeen for the GT cars in early August. Teams competed on the fifteen-turn 3.048-mile 'Outer Course'.
Saturday's overall and GT class podium at the 2016 Grand Prix of UMC presented by Energy Solutions. To the left is the runner-up Adderly Fong from Bentley Team Absolute. And, on the right competing in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R is Patrick Long. In the center, victorious for the first time is Nissan driver Bryan Heitkotter. The trio repeated this performance in round seventeen.
Bryan Heitkotter, driving the No. 05 AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R GT3 scored his first Pirelli World Challenge GT win. In the weekend's first race Heitkotter qualified third but an incident between the front row starters – Alvaro Parente and Michael Cooper – allowed him to take first and lead all twenty-six laps. He repeated his performance on Sunday – leading flag to flag for his second victory.
The final round of the weekend and Bryan Heitkotter gets the jump on pole-sitter Michael Lewis to lead the field of twenty-two starters into corner one. The second row of Patrick Long in the Wright Motorsports Porsche and the Bentley of Adderly Fong would also displace Lewis. He would finish fourth – 4.250-seconds behind Heitkotter.
In the GTA category, Martin Fuentes driving the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 scored his ninth win of the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge season. On Sunday, Fuentes started eight positions behind class leader Frankie Montecalvo. Montecalvo jumped to an early lead but faded and was passed by Fuentes on lap-22. With his ninth victory of 2016, Fuentes established a new record for the most wins in a season.
During Saturday's race the Porsche GT Cup competitors line-up single file through 'The Attitudes'. Leading the group is eventual race winner Sloan Urry in a car prepared by TruSpeed Motorsports. Urry is followed by series points lead Alex Udell. Udell led laps twelve through eighteen and for the remaining eight circuits Urry was out front to score his fifth victory of the season.
Alec Udell qualified the GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on the class pole for round fifteen. After twenty-six laps of close racing with Sloan Urry he finished in the runner-up position. In Sunday's event, Udell started first again but this time, the challenge came from Mckay Snow. He passed Snow for the lead on lap-16 to notch up his tenth win of the season and increase his points lead over Urry.
2016 was the first appearance for Adderly Fong in the Pirelli World Challenge championship. Fong entered the series as an experienced driver with the 2013 Audi R8 LMS Cup title to his credit. Fong's best World Challenge finish to date had been a second at Road America in round thirteen. At the Utah Motorsports Campus event, he would match this result on Saturday and Sunday driving a Bentley Continental GT3.
Driving the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R prepared by Wright Motorsports was Michael Schein. Schein competed in the GTA class and started last in the category after it was decided to change a tire before Saturday's race. In round fourteen, he was able to pass Brent Holden in another Porsche and finish third. Capitalizing on Frankie Montecalvo issues in Sunday's event, Schein finished in the runner-up spot.
GT points leader Alvaro Parente championship hopes took a hit in round fifteen at Utah. Parente topped the charts in practice and qualifying driving the K-Pax McLaren 650S GT3. At the start of Saturday's race, he and Michael Cooper in a Cadillac made contact. The impact damaged Parente's suspension and he was forced to retire. As a result, he scored no points and started last in round sixteen. The best Parente could do on Sunday was eleventh and he lost the points lead.
Local resident and rookie Mckay Snow had 'a lot to live up to'. Snow's parents Martin and Melanie and his brother Madison have had a great deal of success racing sports cars. Mckay did not disappoint as he finished third in his first Pirelli World Challenge outing. In round sixteen on Sunday, the Porsche GT Cup driver led laps one through fifteen and eventually finished second to points leader Alec Udell.
Frankie Montecalvo looked set to dominate the GTA class at the Utah Motorsport Campus. Montecalvo's practice and qualifying times placed him among the more experienced professional GT drivers. In round sixteen, he started thirteenth overall and finished ninth to capture the class victory. Montecalvo dominated Sunday's race until slowed by an issue – he finished last in the GTA category and twentieth overall.
Patrick Long joined Wright Motorsports after round eight when EFFORT Racing decided to withdraw from the series. Starting with a new team early in the season did not appear to hinder Long's performance. In the weekend's first race, he started the No. 58 Porsche 911 GT3 R in fourth place and finished third. Long produced the same results in round seventeen but more important he took the GT points lead.
The GTA podium from the weekend's final event. In the center is the winner Martin Fuentes who captured his ninth victory of 2016. In doing so, Fuentes set a new record for the most wins in a season. To Fuentes right is Wright Motorsports driver Michael Schein and completing the podium is Brent Holden from GMG Racing.


text:
ROCK ART AND SOUND EFFECTS:
Black Salon, Grotte de Niaux, Ariege, France. From: Rault, p. 18.
One small but interesting subset in the study of rock art concerns the acoustics of rock art sites. According to some researchers it is possible to find interesting acoustics at many rock art sites. In locales where the rock art is on cliffs they believe that the form of the cliffs often provides for a stronger echo than other nearby sections of cliff. Measurements of the strength of echoes from various surfaces in painted European caves suggest that this can indeed be the case. In 2000 Lucy Rault wrote in Musical Instruments: Craftsmanship and Tradition from Prehistory to the Present, that "comparable investigations at Niaux have similarly demonstrated that in this cave places with particularly strong echoes also have images associated with them, some if these, significantly, mark places where sounds linger for several seconds. We can therefore conclude that the choice of locations for wall figures seems to have been made largely on the basis of their acoustical value. Sometimes whole walls remain empty where the corresponding space, however vast it may be, produces no echo. On the other hand, places favorable for echoes are marked and painted, even if their location made such decoration difficult to accomplish." (Rault 2000:22).
Bison, Grotte du Portel, Ariege,France. From: Rault, p.23.
Given the strong echoes and reverberation found in these sites in the painted caves of Europe, we have to ask ourselves what were they echoing? The most obvious guess would be the sound of the animal depicted on the wall. The call of this creature might be imitated by spiritual leaders or vocally talented members of the clan. Another possibility could be the eerie moaning sound of a bullroarer. Regarding this, John Pfeiffer wrote in 1982 (p. 180) that "oval bone and ivory objects with abstract designs carved on them and a hole at one end make a high whining hum when whirled from a string, suggesting that the sound of a bullroarer moved people in the upper Paleolithic as well as in modern times" (Pfeiffer's "high whining hum" would have come from a smaller bullroarer on a short string, a larger model on a longer string could give a much lower roaring sound). Especially in the case of a painted bison or other animal whose vocalizations are grunting, roaring, or rumbling sounds, hearing the sound of a bullroarer echoing and reverberating through the chamber would have been startling to say the least.
Halo Shelter, Val Verde County, TX., Photo: Peter Faris, 2004.
Another effect that can often be found in caves and rock shelters is the phenomenon of the whisper channel. When the walls are of the correct shape they will often pass the frequencies of a soft voice smoothly to the other end of the chamber in such a way that they are inaudible to people standing in between. I observed this effect in a rock shelter at Val Verde county in west Texas, where I could hear a soft conversation of people standing about 20 feet away at the other end of the shelter but individuals standing between us could not discern their comments.
A number of years ago, during a visit to the Grand Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon, in Canyonlands, Utah, one visitor had lugged a tape recorder and microphone all the way from the canyon rim to the panel and had set up his sound equipment while he walked back and forth along the rock art panels tapping the surface of the rock with a little hammer made of deer or elk antler. I thought at the time that this was a pretty silly practice, but I now see that it actually may have had some validity. Although I could not really see back then what the value would be in having that sort of information available, it is now obvious that it might add to the overall metadata of cultural knowledge of the people involved, and would allow evaluations based upon a broader knowledge of their cultural concerns, and this would benefit everyone interested in the prehistory of humanity.
Pfeiffer, John E.
1982, The Creative Exlosion: An Inquiry into the Origins of Art and Religion , Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.
Rault, Lucy
2000, Musical Instruments: Traditions and Craftsmanship from Prehistory to the Present , Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.
Posted by Peter Faris at 7:08 PM 2 comments:
Labels: Ariege, France, Halo Shelter, Niaux, Texas, Val Verde
A RESPONSE TO MY BOOK REVIEW OF GLORIA FARLEY'S BOOK, IN PLAIN SIGHT:
On December 19, 2009, I posted a critical review on this site of the book In Plain Sight: Old World Records in Ancient America , by Gloria Farley, 1994, ISAC Press, Columbus, Georgia. This had originally been written for the Pleistocene Coalition News (PCN), Volume 1, Issue 2, November-December 2009, (http://pleistocenecoalition.com/index.htm). I was asked to write the review by the editor of PCN in order to stimulate a discussion on the subject of Old World to New World diffusion in rock art. In other words were some or many of the inscriptions on our rocks created by members of expeditions from the Old World? Their most recent issue (Volume 2, Number 1) contains some responses to my review, one of which I present below:
OCEAN TRANSPORT GOING BACK FOR MILLENIA
By Virginia Steen-McIntyre
I recommended Gloria Farley's book In Plain Sight in Issue 1 of this Newsletter, along with the 2009 book World Trade and Biological Exchanges before 1492 (Sorenson and Johannessen) because they complement one another.
How can one find evidence of New World plants and parasites in Old World archaeological sites unless there had been some form of ocean transport going on for millennia? (Example: Tobacco leaves in the body cavity of Pharaoh Rameses II's mummy, as mentioned in the preface to Farley's book.)
Peter, you are not happy with the mishmash of scripts and languages that sometimes appear on the same rock face. I see a semiliterate, polyglot crew of homesick sailors and explorers leaving their marks on a sheltered rock face in an unknown, hostile land, especially prayers to their various deities for protection and safe trip home.
Yes Virginia, there really was pre-Columbian contact. There is considerable evidence of that, above and beyond L'anse aux Meadows. I have never discounted the idea of some pre-Columbian contact between the Old World and the New World. I also do not discount the evidence of transport of organisms between them. What I discount is that the crews of ships, exploratory or trading, reached southeastern Colorado and western Oklahoma to leave inscriptions carved into the rocks. To me this question between us comes down to one of belief. I just cannot believe in that scenario and apparently you do. I honor your belief and I thank you for your reasonable response to mine.
BOOK REVIEW - World Trade and Biological Exchanges Before 1492:
Sorenson, John L., and Carl L. Johannessen,
2009 World Trade and Biological Exchanges Before 1492 , iUniverse, Inc., New York
This very interesting book is essentially about evidence of pre-Columbian contact across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The authors find evidence in the distribution of flora and fauna found on opposite sides of the ocean. The assumption is that there had to have been a vector which caused this distribution because natural causes do not seem to be a totally satisfactory answer.
The obvious question right now would be what possible connection can that have with anything we are interested in on RockArtBlog? Well, in the study of rock art we still have to deal with the epigraphy question. Were some rock art symbols or inscriptions created by visitors from across the sea? Any information about trans-oceanic contact prehistorically potentially has bearing on this subject.
Temple sculpture holding an ear of maize, Somnathpur,
India, 11th - 13th cent., Fig. 1, p. 489,World Trade and
Biological Exchanges Before 1492. Photo: Carl L. Johannessen.
Co-author Carl Johannessen pointed out to this writer that in their book they have recorded "13 plants that came into the Americas and 84 plants left the Americas for the Asian and other tropical and subtropical zones in the Euro-African realm." If this is, in fact, correct that would represent thirteen opportunities for the external influences which are central to the epigrapher's theories to come into contact with native peoples of the Americas. Indeed a larger number than this 13 could be assumed because a number of the examples that went from the Americas to the Old World could have been taken back by parties that had originated in the Old World and were returning home after a voyage that had reached the Americas.
I do not question that there was pre-Columbian contact between the Old World and the New World. Since the 1960 discovery of L'Anse aux Meadows (dated to approximately 1000 AD) on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador we have had proof of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact by the Norse. There are rumors of Eskimos paddling their kayaks into the Thames River, stories of the large Chinese exploration fleets of the early 15th century, and the recent theories of Smithsonian archaeologist Dr. Dennis Stanford who postulates trans-Atlantic contact between the prehistoric Solutrean culture of Europe and the Clovis culture in North America.
What Sorenson and Johannessen have done is provide a large body of evidence of possible trans-oceanic contact based upon the evidence of flora and fauna found on both sides of oceans, and of diseases and parasites that are likewise found on both sides of oceans but which should not have been able to pass over the Bering land bridge because of the restrictions of the cold valve which assumes that a person weakened by disease would not have survived the trek across the arctic from Siberia through Alaska to carry that disease to the population of the Americas (and if they did not walk in through Beringia they must have sailed in across the Atlantic or Pacific ocean). Other evidence toward this conclusion is provided by the facts that some of these diseases do not occur in North America (considered unlikely if the disease had been carried across North America in either direction, and that many of the parasitic organisms require residence in warm, moist soil during a portion of their life cycle prior to transferring to a new host and these conditions were not available in Northern latitudes.
What is most admirable about this volume is that instead of citing a few facts and building them into a huge theoretical edifice, the authors have given us relatively few pages (90) of explanation and conclusions, and a huge amount of data. They have not allowed themselves to be sidetracked into speculating on the "who", they have restricted themselves to the what. They have provided 396 pages of Appendixes in which they cite thousands of sources. Perhaps the best illustration of this is their section (pages 361-78) on Zea mays – Indian corn. They include some fifty sources on facts and data pertaining to evidence on the question of pre-Columbian distribution of corn in the Old World. Instead of telling us what we should believe, they give us the data and trust us to decide for ourselves. Their very extensive bibliography fills 64 pages, and they have even included a 10 page Index of Authors, both of which will be invaluable to researchers. Their 16 illustrations show visual evidence of this distribution of flora and fauna including Figure 1 (above) showing an Indian sculpture from between the 11th and 13th centuries of an Apsara holding what can only be interpreted as an ear of corn (maize).
So what have I decided for myself? As I said above I did not deny the fact of pre-Columbian contact, I just discounted it. I assume that some pre-Columbian contact beyond L'anse aux Meadows took place between the old and new worlds. My doubt has centered more on questions of transfer of culture in amounts that could lead to large numbers of inscriptions in foreign languages on the rocks in the interior of North America.
After reading World Trade and Biological Exchanges Before 1492 no-one should be able to categorically deny the possibility of such pre-Columbian cross-ocean contact without disproving or explaining away literally thousands of pieces of data assembled by the authors, a daunting task indeed!
Labels: biological exchange, Carl L. Johannessen, epigraphy, John L. Sorenson, World Trade and Biological Exchange Before 1492
TURTLE ISLAND - AND TURTLES IN ROCK ART:
Paleontologist George R. Wieland and 11-foot-tall
Archelon ischyros, 1895, from South Dakota,
Peabody Museum of Nat. Hist.
In Native American mythology the world is known as Turtle Island. They see the world as existing on the back of a great turtle swimming in an endless ocean. This could seem to be quite a stretch of the imagination, where could the idea of such a gigantic turtle come from? One could well suppose that very large turtles such as snapping turtles could have influenced this belief. Another possibility however, is that it was suggested by a Native American finding the exposed fossils of one of the prehistoric giant turtles like the eleven foot skeleton illustrated. Once you have proof of a turtle of that scale, turtles of almost any size seem possible.
Turtle Island, Seri Indian, p.134, People
of the Desert, Time-Life, 1993.
This picture was painted by a Mexican Seri Indian portraying his homeland on the back of Turtle Island and illustrating the concept clearly.
Turtle petroglyph, Purgatoire Canyon, CO.
Photo: 1999, Peter Faris.
Legend Rock, WY.
The presence of turtle imagery in rock art is well documented with examples found all over North America. The examples I have included come from Legend Rock in northwestern Wyoming, and from the Purgatoire River canyon in southeast Colorado.
Fossilized mud cracks, Painted Canyon, TX.
Once while on a field trip in western Texas visiting rock art sites I came across a horizontal outcropping of stone which was patterned with fossilized mud cracks. At the time I immediately thought of the pattern of plates or scutes on a turtle's shell, and I realized that I was seeing the real surface of Turtle Island. Here in the eroded Texas landscape the earth had washed and/or blown away , down to the surface of the rocky shell of Turtle Island. No wonder the turtle became such a symbol of strength and endurance.
Labels: Legend Rock, Purgatoire, turtle, Turtle Island
THE PICKETWIRE OWL:
The petroglyph illustrated at the center of the picture is to be found in the Picketwire Canyon, the canyon of the Purgatoire River in southeastern Colorado near La Junta. It is appears to be an image of a decorated shield in what has been designated as the Rio Grande Style. I think of these decorated shield images as sort of a portrait of someone. Native American shield decoration was not like the heraldry displayed on medieval shields in Europe. A group of warriors who followed a military leader in medieval Europe might carry identical shields to show their allegiance and common identity. The imagery on a Native American shield tended to be unique to that individual and was likely to illustrate the vision in which he received his spiritual and military power. Given this, I think of a rock art image of an illustrated shield as a sort of portrait of the owner, a portrayal of an object that is unique to one individual. This portrayal would also be recognizable to other people who knew the owner, and would represent him as a form of portrait.
Purgatoire canyon, southeast Colorado.
Photo: Peter Faris.
Among Native American cultures the owl was a spiritually powerful being, and was often believed to have martial attributes. The owl was often believed to bring messages concerning enemy activities to someone with a sacred connection to them, someone who had perhaps received "owl power" during a vision quest. I feel safe then in assuming that the Picketwire Owl Shield represented a particular individual, someone whose vision had gifted him with military ability and spiritual power. I think of this individual as a warrior named Owl Shield.
It is also very interesting that above the owl shield petroglyph, another round image seems to contain a cruder imitation, or at least a variation of the image. Does this represent the same warrior, or someone else, perhaps Owl Shield Jr.? Finally, the Picketwire owl shield was adopted by the Colorado Rock Art Association about four years ago as its logo. This represents quite a legacy and memorial to our unknown warrior Owl Shield, and also his legacy to us.
Labels: Colorado, owl, Picketwire, Purgatoire, shield
A RESPONSE TO MY BOOK REVIEW OF GLORIA FARLEY'S BO...
BOOK REVIEW - World Trade and Biological Exchanges...


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text:
Technologies Series – Satellite Mega-Constellations
BY Preston Llewellyn, John Llewellyn
#satellite mega-constellations
( 16 mins)
Universal high speed internet access – or a sky full of debris
Soon, all our constellations could be LEO
What they are
Thousands of satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), able to provide high-speed internet and communication access around the world.
How they work
The technology has long been known; but in recent years the cost of constructing and deploying satellites has decreased,1 with particular advances in the deployment of small satellites.2 A key benefit of their small size is that it dramatically reduces the cost to launch them into orbit, particularly to LEO (<2,000km), which requires less energy to reach than does geosynchronous orbit (GEO) ~36,000km, historically used for GPS and communications satellites.3
This low orbit also reduces the latency (delay) in communication between a ground station and a satellite, compared with older satellites at higher orbits, proving superior even to fibre optic cable, particularly over long distances.4 LEO satellites, however, are not geo-stationary and orbit the Earth quickly (~90 minutes), which means that hundreds of satellites have to be deployed for a functional network.5 The antennas have to be 'smart' enough constantly to pick up new signals.
While large satellite constellations in LEO are not new,6 there has been a recent increase in the scale and number of proposed mega-constellations, with the current proposals set to vastly multiply the number of orbiting satellites.7 Whilst consumer broadband is frequently mentioned, the IoT,8 maritime and aviation industries,9 and mobile 5G10 providers will all be end users.
Many companies are developing mega-constellations, some more successfully than others, including: SpaceX,11 SES S.A,12 TeleSat,13 Amazon,14 OneWeb,15 Samsung,16 Boeing,17 LEOSat,18 and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.19
Implications and issues
Large numbers of satellites orbiting at very low altitudes present a number of issues, perhaps most importantly the possibility of dramatically increasing the amount of space debris, limiting future exploitation of space. Other issues include:
Closing the digital divide. Providing internet access to the ~3.6 billion people who currently lack it has the potential to promote global development,20 and the global economy.21
Science. Many observers worry about the impact that thousands of satellites will have on astronomy, complicating both visual and radio observation.22
Regulation. There are limited international legally-binding rules on how to deploy satellite mega-constellations.23 However, national bodies must grant approval if they are to provide a service to that country, e.g. The Federal Communications Commission in the US.
Investment in expanding or existing geosynchronous orbiting satellites has stalled.24
Maintenance. Due to higher atmospheric drag in LEO as opposed to GEO, satellites must continually be replaced, because they fall out of orbit every few years, which is expensive.25
Terminal costs. Phased-array antennae capable of tracking fast-moving LEO satellites are expensive and require further development.26
Space debris. There are many satellites orbiting Earth,27 in addition to a large amount of orbiting debris.28 There have already been crashes between satellites. Adding thousands more satellites raises the risk of a chain-reaction of collisions considerably.29 End-of-life management is vital to avoid this.30
Our skies will look very different in the next 10 years, as will our access to internet and communications. Satellite mega-constellations could represent an incredible gain for billions of people, provided risks to science and space traffic safety are carefully managed, and the market continues to develop.
1 A key difference between the large satellites which are sent into GEO and the small satellites being sent into LEO is the degree of standardisation, which enables manufacturers to bring in many aspects of mass production which have not previously been applied to satellites. See, Caleb, H., 2016, Modernizing Manufacturing: How to Build the Satellite of the Future. Via Satillite [online] Available at: <http://interactive.satellitetoday.com/via/april-2016/modernizing-manufacturing-how-to-build-the-satellite-of-the- future/> [Accessed 9 April 2020].
2 Cubesats are very small satellites (10cm3) pioneered for scientific and educational use, although they have found increasing use as very low data-rate communications for Internet of Things devices. SmallSats are slightly larger than that and provide increased functionality. See, Mabrouk, E., 2017. What are SmallSats and CubeSats? NASA [online] Available at: <https://www.nasa.gov/content/what-are-smallsats-and-cubesats> [Accessed 7 April 2020].
3 Geosynchronous orbit is approximately 36,000km above sea level. Here a satellite will follow the Earth's rotation, remaining above the same point on Earth as it rotates. Geostationary is slightly different and refers to those geosynchronous satellites at the equator. See, Howell, E., 2015. What Is a Geosynchronous Orbit? Space.com [online] Available at: <https://www.space.com/29222- geosynchronous-orbit.html> [Accessed 9 April 2020] and Riebeek, H., 2009. Catalog of Earth Satellite Orbits. NASA Earth Observatory [online] Available at: <https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/OrbitsCatalog> [Accessed 10 April 2020].
4 Latency refers to the time taken between transmitting and receiving a signal. Ensuring low latency is particularly important for certain industries, such as financial trading, where shaving milliseconds from a signal can be highly valuable. Comparisons between the latency in LEO, MEO, and GEO can be seen in the following, Telesat Canada, 2019. Telesat LEO Latency Comparison 9. Vimeo [online] Available at: <https://vimeo.com/316629703> [Accessed 9 April 2020] and Dev, R., 2012. LEO, MEO & GEO Satellite Systems : A Comparison. Durofy [online] Available at: <http://durofy.com/leo-meo-geo-satellite-systems> [Accessed 9 April 2020].
5 The required speed needed to maintain a stable orbit diminishes with distance. Satellites in geostationary orbit (~36,000km) travel at around 11,000kmph, those in low earth orbit must travel at 27,000kmph, completing an orbit of the Earth in 90-120 minutes. That means each individual satellite is only in direct contact with a ground transmitter for a brief period, and is why LEO projects involve so many satellites. Signals are handed from one satellite to another, via laser, and ground antennae must automatically switch between satellites.
6 From 1998 Iridium Communications launched 65 satellites into LEO (~780km) to serve satellite phones and communications. They subsequently went bankrupt due to a lack of consumer market. After being purchased for a fraction of their invested costs they began to make a profit and have recently finished an overhaul of their constellation. See, Lim, J., Klein, R., & Thatcher, J., 2005. Good Technology, Bad Management: A Case Study Of The Satellite Phone Industry. Journal of Information Technology Management [e-journal] Available at: <https://jitm.ubalt.edu/XVI-2/article5.pdf> [Accessed 7 April 2020].
7 For a broad discussion on the topic and relatively up to date numbers on companies' applications see, Wilson, R. S., et al., 2019. Space traffic management in the new space era. Journal for Space Safety Engineering [e-journal] Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsse.2019.05.007.
8 For more on the Internet of Things (IoT) see Cameron, J., Llewellyn, P., 2019. Internet of Things. Llewellyn Consulting; and for information specific to the IoT and LEO satellite constellations see the following report from IoTUK, 2017. Satellite Technologies For Iot Applications. IOTUK [online] Available at: https://iotuk.org.uk//wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Satellite-Applications.pdf [Accessed 2 May 2020].
9 For discussion of the impact of LEO constellations on aviation see, Lightstone, P., 2020. Launching global coverage, new aircraft connectivity options. Wings magazine [online] Available at: https://www.wingsmagazine.com/launching-global-coverage-new- aircraft-connectivity-options/> [Accessed 2 May 2020], and Aero Connectivity – Reimagined with Telesat LEO. Telesat [online] Available at <https://www.telesat.com/sites/default/files/leo/aero_connectivity_reimagined_with_telesat_leo.pdf> [Accessed 2 May 2020]. For information on the impact of LEO constellations on the maritime industry see Wyngrove, M., 2020. New satellites boost ship connectivity. Riviera Maritime Media [online] Available at: <https://www.rivieramm.com/news-content-hub/new- satellites-boost-ship-connectivity-58553> [Accessed 2 May 2020].
10 For discussion on the application of LEO constellations for 5G see, Soret, B., 2019. LEO Small-Satellite Constellations for 5G and Beyond-5G Communications. DeepAI. [online] Available at: <https://deepai.org/publication/leo-small-satellite-constellations-for- 5g-and-beyond-5g-communications> [Accessed 2 May 2020].
11 Starlink, both the most developed and the largest of the proposed mega-constellations is being deployed by SpaceX. It hopes to put 42,000 small satellites into LEO in three separate layers (~350km, ~550km& ~1,200km) and provide internet, phone and other communications access worldwide, each using a different part of the microwave spectrum. It currently has approval for 12,000 satellites and paperwork for another 30,000 filled with the International Telecommunication Union. A clunky but relatively clear outline of how this is proposed to work is in the following. Mosher, D., 2019. Elon Musk just revealed new details about Starlink, a plan to surround Earth with 12,000 high-speed internet satellites. Here's how it might work. Business Insider [online] Available at <https://www.businessinsider.de/international/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-how-it-works-2019-5/?r=US&IR=T> [Accessed 7 April 2020].
12 Although not an owner of a LEO constellation, Luxembourg-based SES S.A. is a long-time player in the satellite television industry, with two constellations; with 20 satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and 50 in GEO. With their purchase of One3B, (their 20 MEO satellites) they are aiming to provide mobile and internet access to a wider market. See, SES, 2002. Our Coverage. SES S.A. [online] Available at: <https://www.ses.com/our-coverage#/> [Accessed 9 April 2002] and Henry, C., 2020. SES mulls external investments for O3b, Networks business. SpaceNews [online] Available at: <https://spacenews.com/ses-mulls-external- investments-for-o3b-networks-business/> [Accessed 9 April 2020].
13 Telesat currently operate a fleet of 16 geostationary satellites which provide television broadcasting and communications services. They have applied for a constellation of 292 LEO satellites but have delayed selecting a manufacturer. See, Henry, C., 2018. Telesat says ideal LEO constellation is 292 satellites, but could be 512. SpaceNews [online] Available at: <https://spacenews.com/telesat-says-ideal-leo-constellation-is-292-satellites-but-could-be-512/> [Accessed 8 April 2020] and Caleb, H., 2019. Telesat LEO manufacturing decision bumped to 2020. SpaceNews [online] Available at <https://spacenews.com/telesat-leo-manufacturing-decision-bumped-to-2020/> [Accessed 8 April 2020].
14 Under the name of "Project Kuiper", Amazon is planning to launch 3,236 broadband satellites into three separate layers, 784 satellites at 367 miles, 1,296 satellites at 379 miles, and 1,156 satellites at 391 miles, although timelines have yet to be determined. See, Henry, C., 2019. Amazon lays out constellation service goals, deployment and deorbit plans to FCC , SpaceNews [online] Available at: <https://spacenews.com/amazon-lays-out-constellation-service-goals-deployment-and-deorbit-plans-to-fcc/> [Accessed 5 April 2020].
15 The UK-based OneWeb planned a constellation of around 650 satellites but the company filed for bankruptcy in March 2020. It still maintains the 74 already-launched satellites. See, Henry, C., 2020. OneWeb files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. SpaceNews [online] Available at: <https://spacenews.com/oneweb-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/> [Accessed 5 April 2020].
16 The president of Samsung Research America outlined a plan for a constellation of 4,600 LEO satellites in 2015. See, Gershgorn, D., 2015. Samsung Wants To Blanket The Earth In Satellite Internet Data for all. Popular Science [online] Available at: <https://www.popsci.com/samsung-wants-launch-thousands-satellites-bring-everyone-earth-internet/> [Accessed 7 April 2020].
17 Boeing applied to the US Federal Communications Commission to put ~3,000 satellites in a constellation in 2016, since then they have not moved forward but have invested in Australian start-up Myriota's 50 satellite constellation focused on Internet of Things services. See, Caleb, H., 2018. Boeing constellation stalled, SpaceX constellation progressing. SpaceNews [online] Available at <https://spacenews.com/boeing-constellation-stalled-spacex-constellation-progressing/> [Accessed 7 April 2020] and Etherington, D., 2020. Myriota raises $19.3 million to expand its IoT satellite constellation. TechCrunch [online] Available at: <https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/06/myriota-raises-19-3-million-to-expand-its-iot-satellite-constellation/> [Accessed 7 April 2020].
18 Softbank funded LEOsat had also planned to field around 300 LEO satellites but declared bankruptcy in late 2019. See, Henry, C., 2019. LeoSat, absent investors, shuts down. SpaceNews [online] Available at: <https://spacenews.com/leosat-absent-investors- shuts-down/> [Accessed 8 April 2020].
19 Announced in 2018 the "Hongwan" constellation will be comprised of 300 small satellites in LEO. The project is a collaboration between Thailand's Kasetsart University and the China Great Wall Industry Corp, a China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation subsidiary. Del Rosario, J., 2018. China's Leo Constellation Ambitions. Northern Sky Research [online] Available at: <https://www.nsr.com/chinas-leo-constellation-ambitions> [Accessed 7 April 2020].
20 The International Telecommunication Union (the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies) estimates that at the end of 2019 approximately 53.5% of the world population had access to the internet. See, Albertini, M., 2019. New ITU data reveal growing Internet uptake but a widening digital gender divide. International Telecommunication Union [online] Available at: <https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/2019-PR19.aspx> [Accessed 9 April 2020].
21 Estimates from investment banks suggest that the space economy as whole could reach $1–2.7 trillion. Although satellites comprise a majority of the current $350 billion space economy, many suggest that value will primarily derive from tourism and data applications. Internal documents from SpaceX show expectations of $36 billion in annual revenue from Starlink by 2025. See, Lluc Palerm, 2019. Will Leos Create A Trillion-Dollar Industry? Northern Sky Research [online] Available at: <https://www.nsr.com/will- leos-create-a-trillion-dollar-industry/> [Accessed 7 April 2020] and Foust, J., 2018. A trillion-dollar space industry will require new markets. SpaceNews [online] Available at: https://spacenews.com/a-trillion-dollar-space-industry-will-require-new-markets> [Accessed 7 April 2020]. Winkler, R., and Pasztor, A., 2017. Exclusive Peek at SpaceX Data Shows Loss in 2015, Heavy Expectations for Nascent Internet Service. Wall Street Journal [online] Available at: <https://www.wsj.com/articles/exclusive-peek-at-spacex- data-shows-loss-in-2015-heavy-expectations-for-nascent-internet-service-1484316455> [Accessed 7 April 2020].
22 So far, only SpaceX has announced that they will begin testing coatings which reduce reflectiveness (albedo) on their Starlink satellite constellations, but it remains to be seen if this will be enough, or if competitors will follow suit. For reports of scientists' concerns see, The International Astronomical Union, 2019. IAU Statement on Satellite Constellations, iau.org [online] Available at:
<https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann19035/> [Accessed 5 April] and Koller, J., Riesbeck, L., & Thompson, R., 2020. The Future Of The Night Sky: Light Pollution From Satellites. The Aerospace Cooperation , [online] Available at
<https://aerospace.org/paper/future-night-sky-light-pollution-satellites> [Accessed 5 April 2020]. Reporting on SpaceX's albedo reduction promise is in the following, Arevalo, E. 2020. Elon Musk says SpaceX Starlink satellites 'albedo will drop significantly on almost every successive launch'. Tesmanian [online] Available at: <https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/elon-musk- starlink-spacex> [Accessed 5 April 2020].
23 The International Telecommunications Union coordinates the allocation of frequencies for communications. The primary rule is that "systems will be required to deploy 10 per cent of their constellations within two years from the end of the current period for bringing into use, 50 per cent within five years, and complete the deployment within seven years." However, there is no agreement on design principles such as reflectiveness, which impact upon astronomical observation. See, International Telecommunications Union, 2019. ITU World Radiocommunication Conference adopts new regulatory procedures for non-geostationary satellites. ITU [online] Available at <https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/2019-PR23.aspx> [Accessed 9 April 2020]. For a call for greater regulation see, Rimmer, A., 2020. You can't take the sky from me. The Space Review [online] Available at: <https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3864/1> [Accessed 7 April 2020].
24 Expectation for large increases in satellite network capacity from emerging lower-altitude broadband constellations has caused market players to cancel some planned investments in new geosynchronous orbit broadband communications satellites. Recent theoretical models suggest that global internet coverage could be achieved with 4 satellites, albeit with higher latency than could be achieved with LEO constellations. See, Henry, C., 2018. LEO and MEO broadband constellations mega source of consternation. SpaceNews [online] Available at: <https://spacenews.com/divining-what-the-stars-hold-in-store-for-broadband- megaconstellations/> [Accessed 5 April 2020] and Del Rosario, J., 2017. Pricing The Satellite Markets. Northern Sky Research [online] Available at: <https://www.nsr.com/pricing-the-satellite-markets/> [Accessed 7 April 2020]. And for reports on GEO coverage see, Patel, N.V., 2020, Here's how just four satellites could provide worldwide internet. MIT Technology Review [online] Available at: <https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/01/16/130832/heres-how-just-four-satellites-could-provide-worldwide- internet/> [Accessed 10 April 2020].
25 Because the atmosphere closer to Earth is thicker, those satellites in LEO have to cope with more atmospheric drag than satellites in higher orbits. This requires intermittent adjustment of altitude and eventually replacement of the satellite. This becomes a constant when managing a network of thousands of satellites. See, Space Weather Prediction Center. 2012. Satellite Drag. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) [online] Available at: <https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/impacts/satellite-drag> [Accessed 20 April 2020].
26 A vital part in making LEO constellations a success is the affordability of user terminals, the receiver and antennas customers will use to connect to the constellation. In contrast to geostationary satellites that always appear to hover at the same point in the sky, LEO broadband constellations will require antennas capable of tracking multiple satellites as they orbit overhead. Such antennas exist. In use for more than a decade, phased-array antennas commonly have no moving parts, relying instead on electronically steered beams to communicate with satellites. The technology is proven, but the cost is sky high. Although if recent announcements from the founder of the now-defunct OneWeb, of a $15 phased array antenna are true then this would contribute to solving one of the most pressing problems facing these constellations, finding a market. See, Henry, C., 2019. Wyler claims breakthrough in low-cost antenna for OneWeb, other satellite systems. SpaceNews [online] Available at: <https://spacenews.com/wyler-claims-breakthrough-in-low-cost-antenna-for-oneweb-other-satellite-systems/> [Accessed 8 April 2020] and Henry, C., & Werner, D., 2018. Does the satellite industry have antenna deficit disorder? SpaceNews [online] Available at: <https://spacenews.com/does-the-satellite-industry-have-antenna-deficit-disorder/> [Accessed 8 April 2020].
27 As of December 2019, there were approximately 2,300 active satellites orbiting Earth and approximately 3,000 inactive satellites currently orbiting Earth. See, European Space Agency, 2020. Space debris by the numbers, European Space Agency [online] Available at: <https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbers> [ Accessed 5 April 2020].
28 Approximately half of the current space debris orbiting Earth originates from two recent events, a 2007 anti-satellite test by the Chinese government, and an accidental collision between a decommissioned Russian satellite colliding directly with a member of the US Iridium constellation in 2009. Improving awareness of this debris is vital to continued use of LEO and space in general. The
U.S. Air Force has developed a ground-based radar system known as the Space Fence which is capable of detecting very small objects of space debris and should enable better avoidance of accidents. The Space Fence came online in early 2020. See, Peterson, G., Sorge, M., and Ailor, W., 2018. Space Traffic Management In The Age Of New Space. The Aerospace Corporation [online] Available at: <https://aerospace.org/paper/space-traffic-management-age-new-space> [Accessed 5 April]. For reporting on the Space Fence see, Erwin, S., 2020. Space Fence surveillance radar site declared operational, Space News [online] Available at: <https://spacenews.com/space-fence-surveillance-radar-site-declared-operational/> [Accessed 5 April 2020].
29 Originally suggested in 1978, the Kessler Syndrome suggests that if space becomes too crowded then any collision will produce a self-amplifying chain-reaction of further collisions. This will continue until space is no longer usable for satellites, or many other functions. See, Kessler, D. J., and Cour‐Palais, B. G., 1978. Collision frequency of artificial satellites: The creation of a debris belt, Journal of Geophysical Research [e-journal] Available at: https://doi.org/10.1029/JA083iA06p02637. More current analysis can be found in the following, Metz, M., et al., 2016. Risk to space sustainability from large constellations of satellites. Acta Astronautica, [e-journal] Available at: https://doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2016.03.034.
30 Both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) funded studies have suggested that a 95-99% post-mission disposal is required to avoid a dangerous accumulation of space debris. See, Liou, J.-C., Matney, M. Vavrin, A., Manis, A., & Gates, D., 2018. NASA ODPO's Large Constellation Study. NASA [online] Available at: < https://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/quarterly- news/pdfs/odqnv22i3.pdf> [Accessed 9 April 2020] and Somma, G. L., Lewis, H.G.. & Colombo, C., 2018. Sensitivity analysis of launch activities in Low Earth Orbit. Acta Astronautica [e-journal] Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.05.043.
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( < 1 mins) Dear Colleague, The attached Key Developments contains our Chart of the Week and the key data and other information from this week that, in our judgement, bear most importantly on the core elements of our World View.
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