An Amazon Ring video reveals that the company built a bespoke portal for law enforcement officers who want access to the enormous volume of residential surveillance footage generated by customers’ cameras.
Illustration: Erik Blad for The Intercept
(via THE DECAMERON PROJECT Audiobook Excerpt)
You already know the deal. It’s our semi-annual Transparency Report!
Like last year, our Transparency Report comes in two parts. Part one discloses all of those sweet, sweet deets surrounding copyright and trademark takedowns from July through December 2018. It’s called Tumblr’s Copyright and Trademark Transparency Report, because we value transparency in our document titles, too.
When you’re ready for part two, mosey on over to Oath’s combined Transparency Report, which covers government requests for user data and for content removal received by all of Oath’s brands, including Yahoo, AOL, and—hello—Tumblr.
Tumblr is committed to transparency, expression, and our community and we are always looking for ways to enhance the information we share with our users and the public. Have you heard of the Santa Clara Principles? They’re a set of principles developed by a group of organizations, advocates, and academics who are working to advance the discussion on transparency in the area of content moderation. We support the spirit and goals of the Santa Clara Principles as a critical contribution to the discussion of how platforms can ensure that user rights are respected and valued. We look forward to continuing to engage with diverse communities and experts on these issues.
If you want, feel free to check out our Transparency Reports from previous years.
(via WINNING THE GREEN NEW DEAL Audiobook Excerpt)
1199-314
Popcorn truck 1941, NARA ID 283764.
Happy #National POPCORN Day!
NY Giant Harry Carson showers President Reagan in popcorn 2/13/1987, NARA ID 75855283
President Obama @ Oregon State v. GWU hoops, 11/28/2009, NARA ID 176553126.
Label for Cracker Jacks, 1/14/18, NARA ID 20737628.
"Real Food Value" pamphlet 1918. NARA ID 20737627. Description: Rueckheim Bros & Eckstein published this pamphlet which described the nutritional value of Cracker Jack and its benefits for food conservation.
Bullfight popcorn label 1901, NARA ID 44270997.
Product label/poem for Beech-Nut popcorn bars 1920. NARA ID 79443346.
On this day 50 years ago, human beings embarked on a journey to set foot on another world for the very first time.
At 9:32 a.m. EDT, millions watched as Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins lifted off from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, flying high on the most powerful rocket ever built: the mighty Saturn V.
As we prepare to return humans to the lunar surface with our Artemis program, we’re planning to make history again with a similarly unprecedented rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS will be our first exploration-class vehicle since the Saturn V took American astronauts to the Moon a decade ago. With its superior lift capability, the SLS will expand our reach into the solar system, allowing astronauts aboard our Orion spacecraft to explore multiple, deep-space destinations including near-Earth asteroids, the Moon and ultimately Mars.
So, how does the Saturn V measure up half a century later? Let’s take a look.
Every human who has ever stepped foot on the Moon made it there on a Saturn V rocket. The Saturn rockets were the driving force behind our Apollo program that was designed to land humans on the Moon and return them safely back to Earth.
Developed at our Marshall Space Flight Center in the 1960s, the Saturn V rocket (V for the Roman numeral “5”) launched for the first time uncrewed during the Apollo 4 mission on November 9, 1967. One year later, it lifted off for its first crewed mission during Apollo 8. On this mission, astronauts orbited the Moon but did not land. Then, on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission was the first Saturn V flight to land astronauts on the Moon. In total, this powerful rocket completed 13 successful missions, landing humans on the lunar surface six times before lifting off for the last time in 1973.
Just as the Saturn V was the rocket of the Apollo generation, the Space Launch System will be the driving force behind a new era of spaceflight: the Artemis generation.
During our Artemis missions, SLS will take humanity farther than ever before. It is the vehicle that will return our astronauts to the Moon by 2024, transporting the first woman and the next man to a destination never before explored – the lunar South Pole. Over time, the rocket will evolve into increasingly more powerful configurations to provide the foundation for human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit to deep space destinations, including Mars.
SLS will take flight for the first time during Artemis 1 where it will travel 280,000 miles from Earth – farther into deep space than any spacecraft built for humans has ever ventured.
The Saturn V was big.
In fact, the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center is one of the largest buildings in the world by volume and was built specifically for assembling the massive rocket. At a height of 363 feet, the Saturn V rocket was about the size of a 36-story building and 60 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty!
Measured at just 41 feet shy of the Saturn V, the initial SLS rocket will stand at a height of 322 feet. Because this rocket will evolve into heavier lift capacities to facilitate crew and cargo missions beyond Earth’s orbit, its size will evolve as well. When the SLS reaches its maximum lift capability, it will stand at a height of 384 feet, making it the tallest rocket in the world.
For the 1960s, the Saturn V rocket was a beast – to say the least.
Fully fueled for liftoff, the Saturn V weighed 6.2 million pounds and generated 7.6 million pounds of thrust at launch. That is more power than 85 Hoover Dams! This thrust came from five F-1 engines that made up the rocket’s first stage. With this lift capability, the Saturn V had the ability to send 130 tons (about 10 school buses) into low-Earth orbit and about 50 tons (about 4 school buses) to the Moon.
Photo of SLS rocket booster test
Unlike the Saturn V, our SLS rocket will evolve over time into increasingly more powerful versions of itself to accommodate missions to the Moon and then beyond to Mars.
The first SLS vehicle, called Block 1, will weigh 5.75 million pounds and produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust at time of launch. That’s 15 percent more than the Saturn V produced during liftoff! It will also send more than 26 tons beyond the Moon. Powered by a pair of five-segment boosters and four RS-25 engines, the rocket will reach the period of greatest atmospheric force within 90 seconds!
Following Block 1, the SLS will evolve five more times to reach its final stage, Block 2 Cargo. At this stage, the rocket will provide 11.9 million pounds of thrust and will be the workhorse vehicle for sending cargo to the Moon, Mars and other deep space destinations. SLS Block 2 will be designed to lift more than 45 tons to deep space. With its unprecedented power and capabilities, SLS is the only rocket that can send our Orion spacecraft, astronauts and large cargo to the Moon on a single mission.
The Saturn V was designed as a multi-stage system rocket, with three core stages. When one system ran out of fuel, it separated from the spacecraft and the next stage took over. The first stage, which was the most powerful, lifted the rocket off of Earth’s surface to an altitude of 68 kilometers (42 miles). This took only 2 minutes and 47 seconds! The first stage separated, allowing the second stage to fire and carry the rest of the stack almost into orbit. The third stage placed the Apollo spacecraft and service module into Earth orbit and pushed it toward the Moon. After the first two stages separated, they fell into the ocean for recovery. The third stage either stayed in space or crashed into the Moon.
Much like the Saturn V, our Space Launch System is also a multi-stage rocket. Its three stages (the solid rocket boosters, core stage and upper stage) will each take turns thrusting the spacecraft on its trajectory and separating after each individual stage has exhausted its fuel. In later, more powerful versions of the SLS, the third stage will carry both the Orion crew module and a deep space habitat module.
Just as the Saturn V and Apollo era signified a new age of exploration and technological advancements, the Space Launch System and Artemis missions will bring the United States into a new age of space travel and scientific discovery.
Join us in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and hear about our future plans to go forward to the Moon and on to Mars by tuning in to a special two-hour live NASA Television broadcast at 1 p.m. ET on Friday, July 19. Watch the program at www.nasa.gov/live.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
Lake Street Dive has announced a new batch of North American spring and summer tour dates. Following its previously announced shows in upstate New York in May, the band will head to Toronto on June 1 and continue through the US East and Midwest, making stops in Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, and more, including a return to NYC's Radio City Music Hall. Lake Street Dive has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to supporting the Climate Justice Alliance and their work uniting frontline communities and organizations into a formidable force in the climate movement. Details/tickets here.
Today is National Penguin Day!
Series: Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files, 1982 - 2007
Record Group 330: Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1921 - 2008
Image description: Several people in cold-weather gear look at a solitary penguin, who is holding one wing up, seemingly pointing at another person walking by. In the background are what look like fuel tanks.
Image description: Same photo, but this one is zoomed in to just show the penguin pointing at the person walking by.
Looking Back at Eclipse 2017 via NASA https://ift.tt/2OS62AA