Leonard Peltier is a Native American political prisoner who was convicted for the deaths of two FBI agents in 1975. He was denied a fair trial by the FBI’s withholding of evidence, coercion of witnesses, and manipulation of ballistics.www.freeleonard.org › case
[Source: en.wikipedia.org] By Jeremy Kuzmarov On July 2, Leonard Peltier (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe), a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970s, was denied parole by the U.S. Parole Commission, ensuring that he will most likely die in federal prison.
Suffering from serious health issues as he nears 80, Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences for killing FBI agents, Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in June 1975.
Imprisoned for nearly 50 years, Peltier has maintained his innocence and there are grounds to believe him.[1]
The federal government, for example, withheld a ballistics report at Peltier’s trial indicating the fatal bullets did not come from his weapon, according to court documents Peltier filed on appeal.
One prosecution witness, Michael Anderson, testified during cross-examination that he was threatened by an FBI agent, and said that he agreed to testify in exchange for criminal charges against him in another case being dropped.
Another witness, Myrtle Poor Bear, said that she had been coerced into signing a false affidavit implicating Peltier and that her life had been threatened. “They had the law in their hands, and could do anything,” she said of the FBI.
AIM and Pine Ridge
A member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians from North Dakota, Peltier had been a leader of AIM, which staged an occupation of the Pine Ridge Reservation in the early 1970s in an effort to reclaim land that had been taken during the 19th century Indian Wars.
Pine Ridge was strategically located at the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, where the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry regiment killed about 300 Lakota Sioux civilians in revenge for the killing of General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Netanyahu received a warm welcome with standing ovations as he entered the congress chamber. Despite some Democrats expressing intentions to boycott the speech due to Israel’s actions in Gaza, and protests occurring outside the Capitol from both American activists and Israeli democracy supporters.
Earlier this month, the Lancet published an article estimating that the total number of Palestinian civilian deaths caused directly and indirectly by Israeli attacks since October 2023 could be nearly five times higher than the official death toll, and could reach “up to 186 000 or even more.”
Aproximadamente el 10% de la población de la Franja de Gaza ha sido asesinada, herida o desaparecida debido al genocidio sionista desde hace 293 días.
Alrededor de 50.000 palestinos han sido asesinados, 17.200 fueron niños, y más de 100.000 personas han resultado heridos, el 75%… pic.twitter.com/ojQTbUEMbW
It noted that “this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.”
According to the piece, the latest available count of Palestinians killed – 37,396 – is far too low, based on the fact that it is still unknown how many more lie under the rubble, how many are missing but not accounted for among the dead, and how many will perish due to starvation, dehydration, or diseases.
“Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases,” it noted.
However, even this Lancet estimate of nearly 200,000 dead might be only half the actual number of Palestinians killed, according to some counts.
[Source: en.wikipedia.org] By Jeremy Kuzmarov On July 2, Leonard Peltier (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe), a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970s, was denied parole by the U.S. Parole Commission, ensuring that he will most likely die in federal prison. Suffering from serious health issues as he nears 80, Peltier is serving two […]
Palestinians wounded by Israeli attacks are brought to Nasser Hospital for medical treatment in Khan Younis, Gaza on July 22, 2024 | Photo: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images “Every day that we continue supplying weapons and munitions to Israel is another day that women are shredded by our bombs and children are murdered with our […]
Male Chicks – A ‘Waste’ By Product Of The Egg Industry to the tune of 65,000 lives EVERY DAY. 26 July 2024 GAIA Male chicks who cannot lay eggs are considered a waste product of the egg industry, condemned to a cruel death as soon as they hatch. In Belgium alone, 65,000 chicks are killed […]
Earth’s magnetosphere is the region defined by our planet’s magnetic field. Image Credit: NASA
Planetary Habitability Depends on its distance from its Star’s Magnetic Field
The extrasolar planet census recently passed a major milestone, with 5500 confirmed candidates in 4,243 solar systems. With so many exoplanets available for study, astronomers have learned a great deal about the types of planets that exist in our galaxy and have been rethinking several preconceived notions.
These include the notion of “habitability” and whether Earth is the standard by which this should be measured – i.e., could there be “super habitable” exoplanets out there? – and the very concept of the circumsolar habitable zone (CHZ).
In a recent study, a team from Rice University extended the definition of a CHZ Habitable Zone of a planet to include its star’s magnetic field.
Traditionally, astronomers have defined habitable zones based on the type of star and the orbital distance where a planet would be warm enough to maintain liquid water on its surface. But in recent years, other factors have been considered, including the presence of planetary magnetic fields and whether they get enough ultraviolet light.
In a recent study, a team from Rice University extended the definition of a CHZ to include a star’s magnetic field.
Their findings could have devastating implications in the search for life on other planets (aka. astrobiology).
Artist’s impression of exoplanets orbiting different types of stars. Credit: NASA/W. Stenzel
On Earth, the presence of an intrinsic magnetic field has been vital to the emergence and evolution of life as we know it. Without it, our atmosphere would have been stripped away long ago by energetic particles emanating from the Sun – which was the case with Mars. In addition to Earth’s atmosphere, our planet’s magnetic field ensures that a limited amount of solar radiation and cosmic rays reach the surface.
For this reason, astrobiologists consider a planetary magnetic field essential for determining whether or not an exoplanet is habitable.
An illustration shows the atmosphere of a planet being blown away by its star, destroying the conditions needed for life. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI))
Another factor is how the strength of a planet’s magnetic field and its interaction with its parent star’s magnetic field affect habitability.
Not only does an exoplanet require a strong field to shield it against stellar activity (solar flares, etc.), but it must also orbit far enough to avoid a direct magnetic connection with its star.
The magnetic field of a planet must be strong enough to shield it from the bombardment of charged particles coming from its star, yes, but it must also be far enough away from this stellar magnetic field to avoid direct contact and prevent a powerful event called “magnetic reconnection” from occurring.
The magnetic interactions between planets and their parent stars are known as “space weather.” For their study, the team examined 1,546 exoplanets to determine if they orbited inside or outside their host star’s Alfvén radius – the distance where stellar wind decouples from the star.
This consisted of characterizing the stars’ activity known using their Rossby number (Ro) – the ratio between a star’s rotational period to their convective turnover time.
Planets orbiting within this radius would directly interact magnetically with the star’s corona, leading to significant atmospheric stripping, ruling them out as viable candidates for habitability. This phenomenon has been observed with TRAPPIST-1 and its system of seven exoplanets.
After examining all the exoplanets in their study, they found that only two planets met all the conditions for potential habitability.
*Note that the 1546 planets in the study could only be chosen because their rotation details (Convective Turnover Time) are known – not due to their distance from Earth- So suitable planets for life may still be found comparatively nearby. There are an estimated 100 billion planets in the Milky Way Galaxy.
However many exoplanets more easily found are with red dwarf stars, which could mean that they must be close to their stars to be warm enough for life, but therefore likely inside the atmosphere stripping Alfvén radius?. * ..(Blogger)
These only 2 definitely suitable planets were K2-3 d and Kepler-186 f, two Earth-sized exoplanets 144 and 579 light-years from Earth (respectively).
At 13km/s, it would take about 12 million years to get to Kepler-186 f .
K2-3 d is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits an M-type star. Its mass is 2.2 Earths, it takes 44.6 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.2014 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2015.
Illustration of Kepler-186f, a possible Earth-like exoplanet that could be a host to life. Credit: NASA Ames, SETI Institute, JPL-Caltech, T. Pyle
Kepler-186f is inside the CHZ habitable Zone and outside its star’s Alfvén radius thus avoiding atmosphere stripping.
It is believed to be slightly larger than Earth and to have a similar composition to it. It is not known whether the planet has an atmosphere, but if it does, its position in its star system’s habitable zone means that it could potentially have oxygen and liquid water and thus be able to support life .
Both planets orbit within their stars’ CHZ, and lie outside their Alfvén radius, and have strong enough magnetic fields to protect them from stellar activity.
“While these conditions are necessary for a planet to host life, they do not guarantee it,” said Atkinson. “Our work highlights the importance of considering a wide range of factors when searching for habitable planets.”
These findings highlight the need for continuous observation when studying exoplanet systems and considering what factors have led to the emergence of life here on Earth. They are also indicative of current efforts among astronomers and astrobiologists to refine the definition of “Habitable Zone” and create a more nuanced understanding. In so doing, this research could help refine the search for extraterrestrial life by allowing scientists to further constrain where they should be looking.
By Gaby Hinsliff We are no closer to understanding why some men hate women so viciously – but we can transform how misogyny is policed Natalie Fleet was only 15 when she got pregnant by an older man. At the time, she says she didn’t really know how to describe what was happening; didn’t see […]
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