23 Jun 2024

Skywatch: Long days, long moon shadows, and a promising comet?

by | posted in: Society | 0

I hope you’re enjoying the first official weekend of summer 2024.

This past Thursday evening, on summer solstice day, the sun reached its most northern position in our celestial dome in its very slow annual eastward migration among the stars. With the sun so far north in the sky now, it’s taking the longest, highest arc across our sky, providing us with the maximum amount of daylight, well over 15 hours. The sun has achieved a midday altitude of over 68 degrees above the southern horizon. Because of that, you’ll cast your shortest midday shadow of the year. The bad news I hate to share with you is that from now until the winter solstice in late December, daylight hours gradually decline…. Boo hiss!

Unfortunately for us diehard, determined stargazers, the longest days of the year translate to the shortest nights, making it really tough. It’s a late-night affair compounded with extended evening and morning twilights in our northern latitude. So summer stargazing requires an afternoon nap, at least for old star-geezers like me. This first week of summer is challenging because we have a full moon whitewashing the summer sky. It’s an official full moon this weekend, and it’ll stay nearly full into the first part of the coming week.

Many of us diehards keep telescopes in the barn during full moons. Don’t get me wrong. This time of year, the full moon rising in the southeastern sky is a thing to behold. One of my greatest pleasures during full summer moons is getting a campfire in my backyard and watching the moon climb above the horizon. I love to look for the face of the man on the moon, although my favorite is the poodle on the moon on the upper right half of the rising moon. Once you’ve spotted the lunar pooch, you’ll never forget it!

The poodle on the moon (Mike Lynch)

Full moons don’t rise very high in the sky this time of year. They take the same low arc across the southern sky as the sun does as winter begins. This makes sense because the sun and any full moon are on opposite sides of the sky. Around the summer solstice, the maximum height of the full moon in the midnight hour is the lowest of the year. Around here, it’s less than 30 degrees above the southern horizon. That makes your shadow from the midnight light of the full moon the longest of the year.

Switching gears, there’s a chance we could see a bright comet this October, but first, if you allow me, I need to get something off my chest. Over the years, and especially lately with the explosion of media sources and social media, I’ve seen so many examples of overhyped and exaggerated stargazing and astronomy news in my travels, some so bad I would go as far as calling it a hoax. A few weeks ago I even saw an article about how you could see a planet parade, including the planet Krypton. Another example would be exaggerating the “brilliance” of minor meteor showers. Folks see these stories and get all excited, bring the kids out in the middle of the night, and see absolutely nothing. This hurts the credibility of science and the hobby of stargazing.

There are also way overblown predictions of comets that “could be brighter than the brightest stars” and turn out to be nothing or near nothing! That’s why I want to be so careful telling you about Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in South Africa last year. Comets are basically globs of ice embedded with dust and rock. They fly in from the cold outer edges of the solar system toward the inner planets along highly elongated orbits. As they get closer and closer to the sun, they at least partially melt, producing a tail of gas and another one made up of mostly dust and pebbles.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (Mike Lynch)

Right now, Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS is just about 180 million miles from Earth. It’s crossing the orbit of Venus and heading toward the sun’s direction at over 2,200 mph. There’s no way you can see unless you have a really powerful telescope. Earlier this month I took a picture of it with astrophotography gear.

It’ll pass within 37 million miles of the sun in late September when the melting really gets going. From there, it’ll head back out toward the outer solar system, passing within 44 million miles of Earth on Oct. 12. That’s when it could be easily seen in the early evening sky with the naked eye, but that’s very far from guaranteed. Early forecasts from respected astronomers indicate it could be a really nice show (fingers crossed)…. Or it could be a dud. Stay tuned!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

Outdoors |

Skywatch: Happy summer solstice

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Skywatch: Summer is coming — it’s in the stars

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Skywatch: Late night with the stars in June

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Skywatch: Little crown of night sky may pop a new star this summer

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Skywatch: Arcturus is the great star of summer and on the rise … for now

23 Jun 2024

Commentary: As AI is embraced, what happens to the artists whose work was stolen to build it?

by | posted in: News | 0

Amid the hype surrounding Apple’s new deal with OpenAI, one issue has been largely papered over: The AI company’s foundational models are, and have always been, built atop the theft of creative professionals’ work.

The arrangement with Apple isn’t the only news from OpenAI. Among recent updates and controversies including high-level defections, last month the company quietly announced Media Manager, scheduled for release in 2025.

A tool purportedly designed to allow creators and content owners to control how their work is used, Media Manager is really a shameless attempt to evade responsibility for the theft of artists’ intellectual property that OpenAI is already profiting from.

OpenAI says this tool would allow creators to identify their work and choose whether to exclude it from AI training processes. But this does nothing to address the fact that the company built its foundational models using authors’ and other creators’ works without consent, compensation or control over how OpenAI users will be able to imitate the artists’ styles to create new works.

As it’s described, Media Manager puts the burden on creators to protect their work and fails to address the company’s past legal and ethical transgressions. This overture is like having your valuables stolen from your home and then hearing the thief say, “Don’t worry, I’ll give you a chance to opt out of future burglaries … next year.”

Writers, artists, journalists and other creative workers have consistently asked that OpenAI and other generative AI companies obtain creators’ consent before using their work to train artificial intelligence products, and that the organizations refrain from using works without express permission.

Last July, more than 16,000 authors signed a letter to leading AI companies demanding that the businesses obtain permission and pay for works they use to train their AI. Yet OpenAI continues to trample on artists’ rights and rebuff their appeals, as we saw recently when it launched a ChatGPT audio assistant with a voice similar to Scarlett Johansson’s despite the actor’s clear and repeated refusals.

Although Johansson won her battle — OpenAI “paused” the offending voice from its offerings after the actor threatened legal action — the best chance for the wider community of artists is to band together. AI companies’ cavalier attitude toward creators’ rights and consent extends to people at all levels of fame.

Last year the Authors Guild, along with 17 other plaintiffs, sued OpenAI and Microsoft, demanding that authors receive what they are due. That suit is ongoing and other creative professionals and copyright owners have also taken legal action. Among these are a class action filed by visual artists against Stability AI, Runway AI, Midjourney and Deviant Art, a lawsuit by music publishers against Anthropic for infringement of song lyrics, and suits in the U.S. and U.K. brought by Getty Images against Stability AI for copyright infringement of photographs.

AI companies often argue that it would be impossible for them to license all the content that they need and that doing so would bring progress to a grinding halt. This is simply untrue.

OpenAI has signed a succession of licensing agreements with publishers large and small. While the exact terms of these agreements are rarely released to the public, the compensation estimates pale in comparison with the vast outlays for computing power and energy that the company readily spends. Payments to authors would have minimal effects on AI companies’ war chests, but receiving royalties for AI training use would be a meaningful new revenue stream for a profession that’s already suffering.

Authors’ earnings have been in precipitous decline for more than a decade. In 2022, the median annual writing-related income for full-time writers was just over $20,000, down nearly 50% from 2009. And the data for 2023 look even more dire.

AI-generated books, sometimes listed as written by real authors without the writer’s permission, flood Amazon, where anyone searching might buy them instead of the creative work the human author spent months or years writing.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is valued at $80 billion, Anthropic at $18.4 billion and French AI startup Mistral at $6.2 billion. These companies claim they need our work to succeed but can’t afford to pay for it. Any human author can tell you that this narrative has blatant inconsistencies.

We cannot trust tech companies that swear their innovations are so important that they do not need to pay for one of the main ingredients — other people’s creative works. The “better future” we are being sold by OpenAI and others is, in fact, a dystopia. It’s time for creative professionals to stand together, demand what we are owed and determine our own futures.

Mary Rasenberger is the CEO of the Authors Guild. She wrote this column for the Los Angeles Times.

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Nolan Finley: Treat all gun violators the same as Hunter Biden

23 Jun 2024

Literary picks for week of June 23: Native American words and music are on display this week

by | posted in: All news | 0

Native American words and music are on display this week, with two programs presented by Indigenous Nations Poets (IN-NA-PO) in partnership with Minnesota Humanities Center, as well as the launch of Minnesotan Teresa Peterson’s book “Perennial Ceremony,” and a program on writing about climate change.

Wednesday, June 26, 5:30 p.m., Minnesota Humanities Center, 987 E. Ivy Ave., St. Paul:

“An Evening of Haiku and Anishinaabe Song” with Kimberly Blaeser, Gordon Henry Jr. and Gerald Vizenor sharing haiku, Anishinaabe dream songs and music as well as conversing with one another and the audience on their work and inspirations. Blaeser is a former Wisconsin poet laureate and founding director of Indigenous Nations Poets, author of six poetry collections. An Anishinaabe activist and environmentalist, she is an enrolled member of White Earth Nation. She is a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and MFA faculty member for Institute of American Indian Arts. Gordon Henry is an Anishinaabe poet and novelist, and an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation of Minnesota. A past professor in the English department at Michigan State University, he also served for many years as senior editor of the American Indian Studies series at Michigan State University Press. Vizenor is professor emeritus of American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. A citizen of the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, he has published more than 40 books including novels, literary and cultural studies, and poetry and is one of this country’s leading Native scholars and writers. This program includes a complimentary community meal preceding the program. Free, registration required at mnhum.org.

(IN-NA-PO is a national Indigenous poetry community committed to mentoring emerging writers, nurturing the growth of Indigenous poetic practices, and raising the visibility of all Native writers. It recognizes the role of poetry in sustaining tribal sovereignty and Native languages.)

Friday, June 28, 5:30 p.m., Minnesota Humanities Center:

Gwen Westerman (Courtesy of Melanie Zacek)

Nations Poets reading with this year’s IN-NA-PO fellows sharing some of their original work. Hosts will be former Wisconsin poet laureate Kimberly Blaeser, Minneapolis poet laureate Heid Erdrich and Minnesota poet laureate Gwen Nell Westerman. A community meal included. Free, reservations required. Go to mnhum.org.

Wednesday, June 26, 7 p.m., Birchbark Books event space, 1629 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis:

Teresa Peterson celebrates publication of her book “Perennial Ceremony” in conversation with Diane Wilson, hosted by Birchbark Books. In this collection of prose, poetry and recipes from University of Minnesota Press, Peterson shares how she found refuge from the struggle to reconcile her Christianity and Dakota spirituality, discovering solace and ceremony in community with the Earth by observing and embracing the cycles of her garden. In this seasonal cycle, we learn how the garden becomes a healing balm, reclaiming and honoring our relationship with Mother Earth. Peterson is Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and citizen of the Upper Sioux Community. Free.

Tuesday, June 25, 5 p.m., Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls.:

Diane Wilson (Courtesy photo)

Milkweed Editions reading series presents “Beyond Guilt: Writers Reflect on Climate Change,” hosted by Diane Wilson, author of “The Seed Keeper,” She is executive director of Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, a Mdewakanton descendant enrolled on the Rosebud reservation. She will be joined by Erin Sharkey and Halee Kirkwood. Sharkey is a writer, arts and abolition cultural worker, and film producer who was awarded the Black Seed Fellowship from Black Visions and the Headwaters Foundation. Kirkwood is a member of Indigenous Nations Poets and direct descendant of Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. Free.

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Literary calendar for week of June 23

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Literary calendar for week of June 16

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23 Jun 2024

Letters: Gov. Walz’s response to the Feeding Our Future scandal? Feeble

by | posted in: All news | 0

The governor’s feeble response

Gov. Walz’s feeble response to revelations of the state’s egregiously flawed oversight of the Feeding Our Future program was extremely disappointing.

Addressing the scathing criticism by the Legislative Auditor of his administration’s “actions and inactions” contributing to the massive $250 million fraud, the governor accepted responsibility but then shifted the blame to COVID and other features.

His declaration that “We can always do better” sounds more like a political campaign slogan than any real contrition or resolve to impose discipline or other corrective action to sanction the responsible parties, besides himself, and prevent any semblance of recurrence.

Marshall H. Tanick, Minneapolis

‘His mission for Jayson’

Sainted: Mary Divine for interviewing us and featuring our story in Sunday’s Pioneer Press (“His mission for Jayson,” June 16). This was such a good and needed experience for us. Mary brought a lot out of us that we haven’t really shared in the past.

We believe that through her article, many parents and grandparents will talk to our youth. We feel that the parents are scared of this epidemic and honestly, to some degree, they should be. We just want them to get past the “it couldn’t happen to us” for whatever reason they come up with. If they can get past that, they will at least keep a watchful eye on their loved ones.

We think Mary’s article will have all who read it thinking twice. The Pioneer Press has done a great thing in publishing it. Thank you, Mary, for bringing back the hidden memories, good and bad for us. We needed that. Also, you are true professional and a kind-hearted person. We are sure that Jayson thanks you as well.

Jay and Vickie Pernu, Lake Elmo

Why is it so difficult to get the Twins back on TV?

My mother is 97 years old, and has been a devoted Twins fan for many years. She lives in a senior living community now where streaming services are not available, and her one enjoyment was watching the Twins on TV. She wouldn’t miss a game.

Now that the games are not available any longer, it has left a huge void in her life. I wonder how many other seniors are missing the games, just like her. This is a special group of people in our community who have stood behind the team for years and are now being let down because of bickering over money.

Why is it so difficult to figure out how to get baseball back on TV for these special fans? My mother is waiting. Don’t continue to let her and all the rest of us down.