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Power ships extend the electricity grid at sea, buttheir geopolitical ramifications reach even furtherIn addressing urgent electricity demands, many countries are looking towards quick power generation systems. One emergent system is power ships: floating power plants that anchor at a harbour, plug into a national grid and generate electricity with heavy fueloil or natural gas. The Turkish companyKaradeniz Holding has become anincreasingly popular producer of power ships in the past decade. Known to its manyclients as Karpowership, this 15yearold familyowned business builds ships on spec at various shipyards in Istanbul and leases them to places with highenergy demands. Presenting their initiative as a broad and cordial campaign to bring quick and cheap electric power to those in need, Karpowership has labelled itsproject the power of friendship.After signing a powerpurchase agreement with the Electricity Company ofGhana, the Turkish company sent its Ayegl Sultan barge to the Ghanaian cityof Tema in 2015. Tema was famously masterplanned in the 1960s as an urban backdrop to the emerging port by the Greek architect and urban planner Constantinos Doxiadis, who is known for designing cities such as Baghdad, Riyadh and Islamabad. Ivisited for the first time in 2016, donning ahelmet and a high visibility safety vest with the company logo. From the ship, all the crew saw was the heavy industrial area that stretched beyond the fishing harbour: aset of refineries, aluminium smelters and power plants.At shipyards in Istanbuls Tuzla neighbourhood, theTurkish company Karadeniz Holding alsoknown as Karpowership is converting disused bulkers into power ships (lead image). A full power plant is installed on board so that the vessel can bemoored anywhere and plugged into the local electricity grid. Giant generators have been fitted inside the Fatmagul Sultan (above), moored off the shore of the Lebanese town of Zouk MosbehCredit:Izzet Noyan Yilmaz / Alamy (lead image); NABIL MOUNZER / EPAEFE / Shutterstock (above)The morning after my visit, the intense heat, loud reverberating noise and endless vibrations that characterised the ships hold lingered with me. The crew members had suggested that it had taken them no time toadapt to the sensory environment of the floating power plant, given that many of them had backgrounds as ship engineers. While Karpowership works on specific aspects of power generation, such as ensuring fuel quality, with Ghanaian mechanics and chemists who had no background in shipping, most of the crew about 120 of the 180 people on the ship consisted of engineers and technicians from Turkey. With scrubber towers on the top, workers in the middle, and engines atthe bottom level, the barge constituted anenclosed world for power production, attached to the Ghanaian grid with transmission cables stretching over theharbour. At the time, Ghanas entire electricity production was about 2,500 megawatts and Ayegl Sultan produced nearly 10 per cent of this supply. Today, Ayegl Sultan is one of dozens of floating power plants operating worldwide.Karadeniz Holding has been building andleasing floating power plants to variouscountries, including Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan and Indonesia, since 2009, after aseries of global crises including the GulfWar in 1991, the invasion of Iraq in2003 and the Great Recession in 2008 facilitated the emergence of this energy infrastructure. At shipyards in Istanbuls Tuzla neighbourhood, the company retrofits old ships, mainly bulk carriers sitting idleafter the Great Recession, to serve asplatforms for power generation.As temporary power structures, power ships have constituted technologies of deferralTheir first floating power plant, Doan Bey, arrived at Umm Qasr Port in Basra inMay 2010 and began producing 126 megawatts of electricity for the Iraqi grid. In 2010, Umm Qasr was not just Iraqs onlydeepwater port and its one maritime connection to the Arabian Gulf but also, asthe former site of Camp Bucca (the largest US military detention facility in occupied Iraq until its closure in January 2011), theplanned location for Basra Logistics City. As floating power plants, electricity production facilities had becomeappendages that could expedite theconstruction of USsponsored logistics cities, such as the one proposed in Basra.Before the 1990s, Iraq had a robust electricity grid, with a transmission capacity of 9,295 megawatts, as it had invested some of its oil revenues into constructing durable infrastructure networks. However, the effects of US aerial bombings on Iraqs electricity infrastructure in 1991 had been so devastating for the Iraqi population that the Gulf War became a notable example, even among representatives of the US military, against the aerial bombardment ofcritical national infrastructure. In August 2010, Rauf Bey, a second floating power plant with a 179megawatt generation capacity arrived in Basra, offering electricity to about one million people in and around the AlZubair district and bridging shortages. In this context, the floating power plants upheld a mission to remodernise the country; they stayed inIraq for five years, departing in 2015 astheIslamic State (ISIS) claimed politicalcontrol.Yet from Karpowerships perspective, Ayegl Sultans presence in Ghanas Tema fishing harbour in December 2015 marks a turning point in the companys growth and development, signalling their entry into the energyhungry African market. Ayegl Sultans arrival in Ghana also corresponds to a specific moment in Turkeys opening toAfrica, as AKP (the Justice and Development Party, founded by Recep Tayyip Erdoan and in power since 2002) government representatives shifted strategy from opening to partnership, or almdan ortakla. The Turkish government has continuously expanded its presence in Africa since 2002, now counting embassies and consulates in 44 countries on the continent, but foreign investment in Africa has been accelerating since 2015. Asitsaccession to the European Union hasstalled, Turkey has been diversifying awayfrom the Arab world and attempting toinfluence Africas sizeable Muslim population. In his address at the Dakar International Conference Centre in March 2018, Erdoan emphasised: Depleting Africas resources and adopting a modern colonial system is not our style.At the top level of these floating power plants, scrubber towers filter out sulphur from waste gases, which are exhausted through a series of slender chimneysCredit:NABIL MOUNZER / EPAEFE / ShutterstockThe antiwestern propaganda of President Erdoan has found supporters in Africa. Inaddressing African audiences, Erdoan resorts to invoking Turkeys Ottoman roots, telling his listeners that the Ottomans never colonised Africa or enslaved its peoples, criticising the development strategies implemented across the continent by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and theWorld Bank, and seeking to offer an alternative to EuroAmerican networks. Indoing so, he is practising what historian Aye avdar has labelled imperialism byantiimperialists. Turkish investment inGhanas energy sector followed closely behind the arrival of services provided by Turkish Airlines, which has direct flights and cargo services from Istanbul to more than 50 cities across the African continent.The arrival of Karpowerships ship in Tema also coincided with dumsor, the namegivento Ghanas extensive electricity crisisbetween 2012 and 2015, which means offand on in Twi. Dumsor impacted all areas of life in Ghana. Newspapers reported onthe buzzing sound of generators that nowcharacterise Accras central neighbourhoods, a stopgap measure thatwas affordable to only a select few. According to the Ghana Employers Association, about 13,000 people lost their jobs. Businesses collapsed. The uncertainty surrounding power availability also deterred foreign investors. Power outages resulted in limited access to essential services such as healthcare, education and communication. Sparking political unrest and demonstrations against the incumbent National Democratic Congress government, the electricity crisis earned Ghanas thenpresident John Mahama the nickname Mr Dumsor. Publicised widely in major media outlets worldwide, the crisis jeopardised Ghanas newfound position as alowermiddleincome country. In response, Ghanaian decisionmakers saw a further expansion and diversification of the countrys energy portfolio as a potential solution to the crisis. The Electricity Company of Ghana, the sole electricity distributor servicing the south of the country, signed 43 power purchase agreements withdifferent vendors, thelargest of those being Karpowership.Some of the Ayegl Sultan crew members who had previously worked inIraq had been eager to leave wartorn Basra, where they had minimal independence and mobility due to mounting security concerns, and looked forward to living in Tema instead. The move also precipitated the Turkish companys expansion into Zambia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Gambia, among other countries. In South Africa, Karpowerships project encountered concerns and criticism, mainly due to the high costs associated with the proposed 20year contracts. Critics also pointed to the lack of transparency in the tendering process and underlined how, given its financial footprint, working with Karpowership for 20 years would defer thearrival of renewable energy power stations into the country. Such criticism hashad little impact on the companys projects worldwide. Most recently, newsagencies have announced that Karpowership will provide electricity toSyria, contributing tothe countrys postconflict reconstruction efforts.Electricity is transmitted to the local grid via cables. AboardKarpowerships AyeglSultan, the crew has views over the fishing harbour of Tema and the industrial area that stretches to the horizon the rational urban plan designed by ConstantinosDoxiadis cannot be seen from thisdistanceCredit:Gke GnelKarpowership representatives present their ships as provisional systems whose eventual demise will spawn postfossilfuel modernisation. The formal qualities of the floating power plants serve as evidence ofsuch a possibility: since their only connection to the land is through transmission cables, power ships seem aless permanent infrastructure than landbased plants, as they can leave at any time, especially if and when their presence in lessee countries no longer makes financial or political sense. However, as the South African critics underlined, contracts often lead to relationships prioritising longer terms of attachment to national grids. Electricity producers have been financially and politically invested in prolonging such provisional periods as far into the future aspossible, absorbing the lessee countrys resources and delaying the arrival of an agebeyond their obsolescence. In this sense, temporary power structures have constituted technologies of deferral.It is helpful to remember that such distributed infrastructures have emerged worldwide because of deregulation and privatisation, increasing infrastructural demand, and the many disruptions causedby wars and related emergencies. Extensions to power grids are the deliberate product of various layers ofimperial power and careful planning amongmultiple international partners. Asinfrastructural spaces, they constitute pillars of what Keller Easterling labels extrastatecraft, pursuing government interests by relying on entities beyond thestate. Despite offering temporary relief,such extensions do not facilitate theproduction of selfsustaining infrastructures; instead, they deepen andextend geopolitical hierarchies anddependencies globally.2025-02-27Kristina RapackiShare AR February 2025ExtensionsBuy Now

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The "planet parade" an hour after sunset on Feb. 27, 2025. Uranus and Neptune are not visible to the ... [+] naked eye.StellariumIf you havent heard, all the planets are in the sky at the same time. The incorrect phrase planetary alignment is being used across the media, with plenty of terrible advice about where to go to see all seven other planets. Misconceptions are spreading almost as fast as the excitement for what is a really simple, beautiful event.It's enough to make a stargazer like me wince because what should be an opportunity to enjoy the night sky is leaving people disappointed after being misinformed by media that appears not to do the most basic research.Here are three myths about the rare appearance of the planets in the night sky and how to set your expectations to get the most out of this rare opportunity.Myth 1: There Is A Planetary AlignmentOne of the most common misconceptions is that all seven planets Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Neptune, Mercury, and Saturn are perfectly lined up in space in a planetary alignment.If the planets were perfectly aligned, they would all be in a straight line before us. Cue the artistic depictions of the planets forming a neat, evenly spaced row as if beads on an invisible cosmic string. Think about what it would look like from Earth inner planets Venus and Mercury would appear on one side of the sky, and the rest would appear on the other in one great big point of light. That is not happening!What is occurring is a planet parade, in which the planets are spread out, not randomly across the night sky, but along the ecliptic, as they always are. The ecliptic is the plane of the solar system. Picture the solar system like a perfectly cooked fried egg, with the yolk as the sun. All the planets, including Earth, orbit in a circle in the egg white.Since the solar system's plane is flat, the ecliptic is the same as the sun's path through our daytime sky. Planets never appear randomly across the sky but always somewhere on the ecliptic.All that's happening right now is that all the planets are visible from the night side of Earth, though, in reality, only for a short time after sunset since that's the only time you'll ever see Venus and Mercury (because they happen to be on the same side of the solar system as Earth).So what should you expect? The planets will stretch across the sky in a broad arc rather than forming a precise, straight row. There is no "planetary alignment" just look at a live view of the solar system today for proof.Myth 2: You Need to Escape Light Pollution to See the PlanetsAvoiding city lights is crucial when it comes to deep-sky objects like galaxies and nebulae. But planets? They shine brightly enough to punch through even moderate light pollution. Venus, Jupiter, and Mars, in particular, are some of the brightest objects in the night sky, while Saturn and Mercury are also relatively easy to see (although both are very close to the horizon right now).So, you dont need to travel to a remote mountaintop or national park to enjoy the planetary display your backyard or a nearby park will do just fine. An open-wide view is way more important than a dark sky. With the tricky targets in the west, a west-facing beach is a good idea. However, if you want to see some bright planets stretching across the evening sky, you do not need to venture far from home.Myth 3: You Can See All Seven Planets With the Naked EyeWhile its tempting to claim that all seven planets are visible at once, in practice, youll likely only see three Venus, Jupiter and Mars with the naked eye. Venus is shining brightly in the west, while Jupiter and Mars are high above.Mercury and Saturn sit very low on the horizon and, while technically visible, will likely be lost in the haze and twilight glow before long.As for Neptune and Uranus, these distant ice giants are in the night sky the former near Venus and the latter close to Jupiter but they're too faint for the naked eye. Both require a telescope and, honestly, don't look much at all, even with a lot of magnification.How To Really Get The Best Views of The Planet ParadeHere are my tips to get the best from the planetary parade before its gone and you've only got a week or so before Venus, the undoubted "star" of the show, drops into the sun's glare.Get your timing right: be outside in twilight before Venus dips below the horizon.Look westward: Venus is the easiest to find, shining brilliantly in the west after sunset. Mercury and Saturn will be underneath it, close to where the sun recently set, but they will be tricky to spot (because they're both very dim and may be blocked by trees or buildings).Look up for Mars and Jupiter: High in the sky, these planets are unmistakable. Jupiter is a bright white beacon, while Mars has a distinctive reddish hue. They're among the very brightest winter stars, above the constellation Orion, in Taurus and Gemini, respectively.Set expectations: While not every planet will be easily visible, the chance to see multiple worlds likely three in one sitting is a relatively rare and rewarding experience.So head outside just after dark, be patient, and enjoy the view of the planets, our close neighbors, in front of the stars behind them, which are many light-years distant.Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

AI seeing wide use in the automotive industrygettyWhen you think of AI in the automotive industry, self-driving cars might be the first thing that comes to mine. However, AI is taking much more of a front seat in changing the automotive industry as a whole, driving innovations in vehicle safety, manufacturing, and customer experience.Autonomous & AI-Enhanced VehiclesThe headline-grabbing news in the automotive industry focuses on self-driving, autonomous vehicles. The growing strength and capability of AI paired with increasingly sophisticated sensors and cameras are enabling rapid progress in fully autonomous, self-driving vehicles. These AI-driven systems use sensors, cameras, and machine learning algorithms to power self-driving cars, aiming to enhance safety and reduce human error on the road. While so-called level 5 fully autonomous vehicles are still outside the grasp of the average automobile buyer, increasingly firms such as Waymo are proving real-world viability of autonomous vehicles, even if they still have a human in the loop.While we're not there yet with widespread, fully autonomous self-driving vehicles, AI is adding more smarts to todays human-driven vehicles. AI is increasingly powering Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) features such as lane departure warnings, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, and parking assistance. These systems use AI to analyze data from cameras, radar, and sensors to assist drivers in making safer decisions, avoiding accidents, and even parking better.The in-vehicle experience has also gotten a boost from AI. AI is being used to personalize the in-vehicle experience by adjusting settings like seat position, climate control, and infotainment preferences based on the drivers habits and preferences. AI-powered voice assistants allow drivers to interact with their vehicles using their voice and natural language commands, eliminating distracted driving, enhancing convenience and comfort.Enhancing Automotive Manufacturing with AIAutomotive manufacturing has many complex processes with many interconnected parts that impact the overall cost and speed of developing and delivering vehicles to market. AI is helping improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the automotive market. Vehicle manufacturers are using AI to accelerate the vehicle design engineering process, leveraging generative AI to generate iterations on design ideas and help create innovative and efficient designs.AI systems are also being used to simulate and optimize vehicle aerodynamics. These systems can use data and inputs from a variety of sensors to help predict vehicle behavior and structural integrity, leading to lighter, stronger, and more fuel efficient vehicles.AI is also helping in the manufacturing process itself, especially with quality control. AI systems, especially utilizing computer vision are helping automate quality control, improving assembly line efficiency, and reducing defects. AI-driven robots and vision systems inspect parts, detect defects, and ensure consistent quality during production.Robots have long been used in vehicle manufacturing, with industrial robots performing many of the tasks that required human labor in the past, from welding to component assembly to painting. AI systems are helping to make even these earlier-generation robots more smart by making increasing use of collaborative robots (cobots) that have sensors and cameras, and can respond to changes in the environment to handle more adaptability.You may have heard in the news not too long ago that a chip shortage had a major impact in the automotive industry because there's a lot of chips used in todays modern automobile: from dashboard navigation, safety, and security systems, to engine and climate control and entertainment systems. As supply chains are very tight in the automotive industry, shortages of chips stopped automotive manufacturing for a long time. Available inventory went way down, delivery times went way up, and in many ways the industry is still suffering some of the effects of that.AI is helping to optimize the supply chain to ensure the availability of critical parts at the right time while minimizing unnecessary inventory and handling product quality issues. AI is helping by predicting demand, optimizing inventory, and managing logistics. AI-driven tools analyze market trends, production schedules, and supplier performance to improve the efficiency of the supply chain, reduce costs, and prevent delays.AI Improves Automotive Customer ServiceWhen a car breaks down, no one is happy, except the vehicle repair shop. Fortunately AI is coming to help improve the process of getting vehicles serviced and repaired. As in many industries, AI is particularly good at predictive maintenance, using sensor and vehicle diagnostic data to predict when vehicle components are likely to fail. This allows for maintenance to happen before that breakdown occurs. It also helps to optimize the supply chain for parts that might need replacement before those parts become unavailable.As in all industries, automotive manufacturers and dealers are making use of AI-powered chatbots and natural language interaction systems to improve customer support. Customers can interact with smart chatbots to ask questions about vehicle purchases, schedule service appointments, or help with vehicle usage and troubleshooting. These AI systems provide instant support, improve customer satisfaction, enable iterative question and answers to help with problem resolution, and reduce the workload on human support teams.So while autonomous vehicles get the top news for AI in the automotive industry, theres much more widespread use of AI that impacts the automotive industry as a whole.

What just happened? Meta has admitted that an "error" caused Instagram users to see a slew of violent and pornographic content on their personal Reels page. The company has apologized for the mistake, which resulted in video clips filled with everything from school shootings and murders to rape being shown. Meta has apologized for the error and says it has now fixed the problem, though it never went into specifics. This issue caused "some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended. We apologize for the mistake," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement shared with CNBC.According to Reddit users who saw some of the Reels, they included street fights, school shootings, murder, and gory accidents. An X user captured how virtually every Reel in their feed came with a Sensitive Content warning. It's noted that some of the videos had attracted millions of views.Another Redditor says they were exposed to graphic violence, aggression, and unsettling content. Reports state that the Reels also included stabbings, beheadings, castration, full-frontal nudity, uncensored porn, and sexual assault.What's even more concerning is that some users tried to remove the extreme clips by going to their preferences and enabling Sensitive Content Control before resetting the suggested content. But the videos started appearing again after a few swipes. Even selecting the 'Not Interested' button on the clips didn't prevent more similar videos from being shown. // Related StoriesLike other social media sites, Instagram shows content to users based on what they've previously viewed or interacted with, but it seems these clips were shown to random people who never showed an interest in similar Reels.It appears that a large number of the Reels shouldn't have been on Instagram in the first place as they violate Meta's policies. The company says it will remove the most graphic content that is uploaded, as well as real photographs and videos of nudity and sexual activity. Also prohibited are videos "depicting dismemberment, visible innards or charred bodies," as well as content that contains "sadistic remarks towards imagery depicting the suffering of humans and animals."Meta does allow certain graphic content that helps users to condemn and raise awareness of human rights abuses, armed conflicts, or acts of terrorism, though they come with warning labels.In a move seemingly designed to win favor with President Trump, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in January that Meta was reducing the amount of censorship across its platforms, in addition to removing third-party fact checkers and recommending more political content.Filters that used to scan for all policy violations now focus on illegal and high-severity violations such as terrorism, child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud, and scams. The company relies on users to report lower-priority violations before it takes any action.

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