Polymetallic nodules, sand mafias and e-waste hazards

From the position of the archaeologist, technology is a neutral term. From flint hand axes to sickles, antler harpoons to fish traps, the earliest forms of technology leverage efficiency and capability at the interface between the human and the rest of the world. There is nothing unnatural about this - crows, otters, monkeys, even crocodiles make use of manipulated objects to exploit their dietary niche. Where there are concerns about how modern technology functions, they shouldn't be framed as a dichotomy between 'good' and 'bad', but rather at the specific problems created. Too often what counts for academia today will position any discussion of technology in a framework of 'neoliberalism' and 'systems thinking'. Some will talk of the Anthropocene, barely suppressing their glee at the control such definitions bring. What I want to do here is outline some concrete and non-systemic threats that specific technologies pose. It is my contention that only through approaching risks to the natural world in this way will we actually retain the ability to tackle them. Beyond the nebulous outlines of international agreements and porous commitments lies the bulwark of the nation state and its capacities, let us not be shy in demanding it makes use of them.

Mining the Sea-Floor: Polymetallic Nodules

The new Green Revolution and its consequences are rolling like a tidal wave across the world. One of its most insidious children is the 'net-zero' mining industry. To be absolutely clear, the new eco-friendly techno-complex of electric cars, wind and solar generated energy and the vast new infrastructure of batteries needed to support these relies precariously on this industry's ability to extract unprecedented amounts of raw minerals. According to the World Bank's 2020 report: Minerals for Climate Action, the increase in mineral production includes a staggering 488% increase in demand for lithium, 460% for cobalt, 231% for indium and a 189% increase for vanadium. The projections for the UK to meet its target for electric cars would require the world's current output of neodymium, almost twice the world's production of cobalt and three-quarters of the global lithium production. With two of the main countries for nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper being China and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the race has started to find alternatives mining venues. European nickel mines are one option, but by far the most enticing is the prospect of under sea mining.

Over the past few days mountain areas have experienced high snowfall totals and there's more on the way.

A winter storm with an atmospheric river that made its way over the Pacific brought multiple days of unexpected snowfall to some parts of Southern California.

Some areas have already received over 30 inches of snow and there is more coming in the forecast.

The snow came as the National Weather Service issued a rare blizzard warning for the San Bernardino mountains as well as the LA County and Ventura County mountains.

The number of people killed by the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria earlier this month has now passed 50,000, according to the latest figures from both countries.

In Turkey alone, 44,218 people died as a result of the earthquakes, the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said on Friday, while the latest announced death toll in Syria was 5,914.

The first earthquake on February 6 that hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria measured a magnitude of 7.7 and a second, a little later, measured 7.6. The region has been rocked by more than 9,000 aftershocks since, according to the AFAD.

Nearly 240,000 rescue workers, including volunteers, continue to work in the 11 quake-hit provinces in Turkey. Some of the areas affected by the quakes were initially difficult to access but recovery efforts continue and casualty numbers are rising as they progress.

There have been no reports of survivors being rescued in recent days.

Billionaire investor Thomas H. Lee, 78, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his swanky NYC office on Thursday morning, according to the New York Post.

"The family is extremely saddened by Tom's death. While the world knew him as one of the pioneers in the private equity business and a successful businessman, we knew him as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, sibling, friend and philanthropist who always put others' needs before his own," Lee family friend and spokesperson Michael Sitrick said in a statement.

"Our hearts are broken. We ask that our privacy be respected and that we be allowed to grieve."

Last summer, the plague chronicle got debunked by man-bun sporting "fact-finder" Pascal Siggelkow. This bizarre mediocrity for the clown car license-fee funded state media operation known as Tagesschau, and his latest foray into debunkery (knowledge of which I owe to Florian Warweg on Twitter) really sets a new bar for media ineptitude. As you read, remember that Tagesschau is not some stupid blog or a regional television show, but rather a leading German television news service produced by ARD with an associated print operation, which altogether reaches millions of Germans everyday.

Lately, Siggelkow directed both digits of his IQ to the problem of debunking Seymour Hersh's Nord Stream story. His objections are mostly the usual stuff that everyone is complaining about, but at some point his beleaguered brain stumbled across what he thought was new and heretofore undeboonked detail. Specifically, he found Hersh's report that divers would "plant shaped C4 charges" on the pipelines wildly improbable, because C4 charges do not generally come in the form of plants.

The powers-that-be failed spectacularly on two mission-critical fronts.
The Wisdom of Crowds, a hypothesis popularized by James Surowiecki in his 2005 book of the same title, is among the most fascinating discoveries about the collective human psychology. It's an antithesis to Charles Mackay's "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds." In a nutshell, Surowiecky suggests that under certain conditions, the crowds can converge on the truth about some matter or zero in on most effective solutions to a problem more accurately and more reliably than even the best qualified experts in that problem matter. I will skip the discussion of concrete cases of this mysterious phenomenon, but for all who are interested, I summarized two of Surowiecki's most fascinating examples in my book Mastering Uncertainty in Commodities Trading (free download at link, you'll find the relevant discussion on pages 58 and 59).

Social media are making us remarkably smart

But in order for the crowds to manifest such wisdom, a number of conditions must be satisfied: (1) the flow of information must be decentralized; (2) truthful information must be present within the information universe; (3) there has to be a wide diversity of participants in the discussion, and (4) the participants must not be dependent upon each other in making their judgments.

Modern social media may have created an environment where these conditions have satisfied in a robust way, which radically changed the way we respond to information as a collective. Until not so long ago, information flowed from centralized sources which filtered the information that reached the public. For as long as the society depended on the printed word, radio or TV for information, controlling the flow of information and shaping the narratives was relatively straightforward.

The latest Arctic front to blast Wyoming put to rest any thoughts of an early spring as multiple feet of snow fell in at least three counties and sub-zero temperatures broke at least one record in the state on Wednesday and Thursday morning.

Carbon County was the gold medal winner for snowfall on Wednesday as 48 inches of snow was recorded at Battle Lake while campgrounds along Jack Creek and Sugar Loaf each received 42 inches.

Locations in Yellowstone National Park and Teton and Lincoln counties all received snow in excess of two feet.

The most snow in Cheyenne was in the northern areas with only 5 inches, but a 129-year record was broken when the temperature hit 19 degrees below zero early Thursday. The old record was set in 1894 at minus 13.

The Russian leader did not mince his words as he outlined tensions with the West during a major address to parliament

Russia attempted to peacefully resolve the issues involving Ukraine after 2014, but Western leaders were secretly preparing a completely different scenario, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday during his address to the Federal Assembly, the country's main legislative body.

Speaking to both chambers of parliament as well as senior officials and public figures, the Russian leader touched on a variety of key topics during a speech lasting almost two hours.

From the military operation in Ukraine to economic and social issues, here is a recap of what the president said.

On February 16, President Joe Biden issued an executive order titled "Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government". The order is supposed to level the racial playing field by "addressing systemic racism in our Nation's policies and programs", but it does nothing of the kind. In truth, the order represents a massive and disturbing restructuring of the federal government in a way that fundamentally changes the manner in which the agencies operate. The new system will feature "equity" commissars who will have nothing to do with "systemic racism", but will be appointees designated to enforce the edicts of the state.

The senior agency official (in these agency equity teams) will then coordinate with the "Gender Policy Council" which is directly linked to the executive branch of government. In short, the administration is methodically building the basic scaffolding for a centrally-controlled police state masquerading as social justice operation. For all intents and purposes, the equity agenda is a cleverly-phrased moniker that conceals a plan to exert absolute control over the entire sprawling bureaucracy. Here is an excerpt from the White House print-out:

The southeast of Morocco has been experiencing an unprecedented snowstorm since this weekend that has left 24,000 families in need of assistance and 87 isolated villages in the region of Ouarzazate and Zagora, which the authorities hope to access by Monday after having already unblocked most of them.

The Mohamed V Foundation for Solidarity has in recent days provided humanitarian assistance (food and blankets) to 9,000 families affected by the storm in the region of Ouarzazate, where snowfall reached 2.2 metres, 10,000 families in Taroudant and 5,000 in Zagora.

"The authorities' interventions in this area are progressing at a good pace despite the bad weather conditions," Sanae Berdikh, the Foundation's communications director, told EFE on Monday. Berdikh explained that during the intervention of the Moroccan troops they managed to evacuate by helicopter on Sunday morning a woman about to give birth who was trapped in a village in the area where the road was cut off. Both are in good condition in the provincial hospital. "An airlift has been set up between the airports of Casablanca, Ouarzazate, Zagora and Agadir with 20 rotations this weekend to bring humanitarian aid teams to the people affected," she said.