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Super blue moon on January 31 will mark last of trilogy

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Washington, Jan 19 (IANS) For those who missed the full moon treat on January 1, a rare celestial treat awaits you on January 31, marking the last in a trilogy of supermoons. The first happened on December 3, 2017, NASA said in a report.

A supermoon is a full moon at its closest point to the Earth on its orbit — known as perigee.

The January 31 full moon is special for three reasons: it’s the third in a series of “supermoons”, and about 14 per cent brighter than usual. It’s also the second full moon of the month, commonly known as a “blue moon”, which happens every two and a half years, on average.

The super blue moon will pass through earth’s shadow to give viewers in the right location a total lunar eclipse.

While the moon is in the earth’s shadow it will take on a reddish tint, known as a “blood moon”, Gordon Johnston, programme executive and lunar blogger at NASA Headquarters in Washington, NASA said in a statement.

It will feature a total lunar eclipse, with totality viewable from western North America across the Pacific to Eastern Asia.

For those living in North America, Alaska, or Hawaii, the eclipse will be visible before sunrise on January 31.

However, for those in the Middle East, Asia, eastern Russia, Australia and New Zealand, the “super blue blood moon” can be seen during moonrise in the morning on the 31st.

If you miss the January 31 lunar eclipse, you’ll have to wait almost another year for the next opportunity in North America. So, “set your alarm early and go out and take a look”, Johnston said.

“I have always been fascinated by the night sky. Most of what we can see without a telescope are points of light, but the moon is close enough that we can see it and the features on it, and notice what changes and what stays the same each night,” he stated.

December’s full moon, traditionally known as the “cold moon”, marked the first and only supermoon of 2017.

It appeared about seven per cent larger and 15 per cent brighter.

–IANS
rt/nks/rn

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Lockdowns in China Force Urban Communities to Defy Censorship and Vent Frustration Online

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Anyip Mobile Proxies

Shanghai’s rich middle class is leading a wave of online dissent over the strict and prolonged lockdowns imposed in various parts of the country. Chinese internet censorship is struggling as patience is wearing thin in many urban centers, coming up with creative forms of online protests.

Social Media Posts Revealing Lockdown Tension in Shanghai

Drawn-out lockdowns are nothing new in China as authorities insist with the nation’s zero-Covid policy since the start of the pandemic. Currently over This time around, however, metropolitan areas like Shanghai are increasingly difficult to keep quiet, given that its more than 25 million residents have seen weeks of total isolation along with food shortages and many other service interruptions.

Dozens of towns and reportedly over 300 million Chinese citizens have been affected by lockdowns of different severity. As expected, urban netizens have been most outspoken over their difficulties by finding creative ways to get around state censorship and bans placed on topics, news comments and spontaneous campaigns.

Shanghai residents have been using mobile proxies and hijacking seemingly unrelated hashtags to talk about healthcare issues, delivery failures and the overall severity of their situation. The “positive energy” that the Chinese government wants to transmit during the recent prolonged series of lockdowns does not come naturally to those counting food supplies and online censors are working hard to filter words, trending topics and undesired social media sharing.

WeChat groups and message threads are under constant monitoring. Posts questioning the zero-Covid approach have been quickly deleted, including by leading Chinese health experts like Dr. Zhong Nanshan. Video footage is soon censored and protests and investigations are quickly made to disappear.

Where this has not worked, officials have exposed banners with warnings and outright threats like “watch your own mouth or face punishment”, while drones have been patrolling the city skies. Yet, if anything, this has led to further tensions and unspoken confrontation with Shanghai’s educated and affluent middle class.

Creative Online Solutions Harnessing Civic Energy

Announcements by Chinese social media that they would be publishing the IP addresses of users who “spread rumors” have not helped either. Tech industry research has shown that much of Asia’s tech-savvy population has a habit of using mobile proxies and other privacy tools, quickly finding workarounds to browse the internet freely and talk to the world about the hottest topics.

The sheer volume of forbidden posts is already a challenge for the very censorship system, experts explain. Unable to track all trending hashtags, state workers overlook topics that speak about the US, Ukraine or other popular news. Linking human rights elsewhere to their situation, Chinese online dissidents establish their informal channels and “hijack” the conversation to share personal or publicly relevant information about the Covid suppression in their town.

Sarcastic and satirical posts still dominate. Others hope to evade the censors by replacing words from famous poems or the national anthem. One thing is certain – social media, when harnessed with the right creativity, has proven its ability to mount pressure on the government in even some of the most strictly controlled tech environments like China.

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