Hisa-nori has added a photo to the pool:

PENTAX KP.
Mangrove Pneumatophores on the Tidal Flats of Ishigaki Island.

In the late 70s and early 80s, photographer Charles H. Traub roamed the streets of Chicago, New York, and Europe to take photos of people during the lunch hour.

Colorful and direct, animated and intimate, the portraits are shot close to the subjects, composed seemingly off-the-cuff, focusing on just their heads and shoulders. Each subject reveals something of himself or herself to the camera: the woman who takes the opportunity to pose in dignified profile or the one who purses her lips in an exaggerated pout, even the somewhat less-fortunate subjects caught adjusting their glasses or blinking.

Tags: Charles H. Traub · photography

Jesse R., die vastzit voor de moord op zijn eigen moeder in Hellevoetsluis, heeft onverwacht zijn familie toegesproken in de rechtszaal: “Het spijt me heel erg. Mijn leven staat alleen nog in het teken om zoiets te voorkomen in de toekomst.”

Goed is dat mensen ook beter over orgaandonatie na lijken te denken dan voorheen. In twee brieven die bij iedereen op de mat vielen, wees de overheid er nadrukkelijk op: maak een keuze.

Donald Trump roept: locatie, locatie, locatie. Maar ook size does matter, vermoeden veel Trump-watchers. De size op de wereldkaart.

Max Verstappen has singled out the start of the 2018 season as his most difficult campaign so far in Formula 1, though the Dutchman conceded that he is also grateful to have learned from the mistakes he made in the past.

James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:

Webb took a high resolution look at a supermassive black hole, the one at the center of the Circinus Galaxy, changing the way scientists think about how black holes interact with the matter around them.

While black holes are themselves invisible, they can actually be a source of bright light if matter like gas and dust gets a bit too close. A donut-shaped ring can form around the black hole, called a torus. Matter from the torus’ inner walls can form a thinner (accretion) disk that spirals inward to the black hole itself, similar to a whirlpool of water swirling around a drain. Through friction, the matter in this disk gets really hot and bright. Some black holes also launch jets of matter into space, which is what happens when some of this matter falling toward the black hole gets sped up to nearly the speed of light and thrown off it. The resulting brightness (combined with starlight from Circinus) can make it hard to resolve details through the glare. The torus causes different problems because it is dense and obscures visible light, so it is a challenge to see through.

The combination of Webb seeing infrared light (which pierces through dust and gas) and being extra powerful is giving scientists data they were missing. Before Webb, models made by scientists using existing data of Circinus, suggested that most of the brightness of a black hole is due to those powerful jets. Webb reverses that thinking though, showing that 87% of the infrared light from hot dust in Circinus comes from the areas closest to the black hole, while less than 1% come from the outflowing jets.

This, of course, is only one black hole amongst billions in the universe, so understanding black holes as a, well, whole, is not quite so simple. However, astronomers now have a tested technique for better investigating other black holes.

Read more: go.nasa.gov/3NaFazp

This image: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope image shows a full view of the Circinus galaxy, a nearby spiral galaxy about 13 million light-years away. The inset highlights a Webb close-up of the galaxy’s core, where infrared observations pierce through dust to reveal hot material feeding its central supermassive black hole. Webb’s image, made using the Aperture Masking Interferometer (AMI) tool on its NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) instrument, isolates hot dust in the immediate surroundings of the supermassive black hole, revealing that most of the infrared emission comes from a compact, dusty structure feeding the black hole rather than from outflowing material. In the Webb image, the inner face of the torus glows in infrared light, while the darker areas represent where the outer ring is blocking light.

Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez (University of South Carolina), Deepashri Thatte (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Acknowledgment: NSF's NOIRLab, CTIO

The European Union published guidance on December 30 that reclassified nuclear weapons as acceptable investments under its sustainable finance framework, completing a policy change approved in November that narrowed the definition of banned armaments from "controversial" to "prohibited."

The shift addresses earlier vagueness that the Commission said hindered efforts to raise $932 billion in defense investments over four years. Under the revised rules, only four weapon categories remain expressly outlawed by a majority of EU states: personnel mines, cluster munitions, and biological and chemical weapons. Nuclear weapons manufacturers avoided exclusion because only Austria, Ireland and Malta signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, though all EU members support non-proliferation under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The updated guidance also permits ESG labeling for companies handling depleted uranium for anti-tank ammunition and white phosphorus, which is toxic but not classified as a chemical weapon. European ESG funds currently hold minimal defense stocks, according to Jefferies data. The Commission's notice now makes these investments eligible for funds operating under Article 8 and Article 9 sustainable investment mandates.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Minister Van Weel van Asiel en Migratie heeft als onderdeel van het Asiel- en Migratiepact afspraken gemaakt met Griekenland en de bestaande migratiesamenwerking versterkt. Door deze afspraken hoeft Nederland straks financieel minder bij te dragen aan het onderdeel van het Asiel- en Migratiepact dat moet zorgen voor een betere verdeling van de druk op de instroom in EU-lidstaten. Ook hebben beiden landen afspraken gemaakt om ervoor te zorgen dat Nederland straks weer asielzoekers kan terugsturen naar Griekenland.

AMSTERDAM (ANP) - Op de Dam in Amsterdam hebben een kleine tweehonderd mensen zich verzameld voor een solidariteitsmars voor Iraniërs onder de naam 'United voor freedom'. De betogers, Joden en Iraniërs, willen zich solidair tonen met het Iraanse volk en zich uitspreken tegen het islamitische regime. Vanaf de Dam lopen ze rond 17.00 uur naar het Amerikaanse consulaat op het Museumplein.

"Een mars voor mensenrechten, waardigheid en vrijheid - voor Iran, Israël en voor een wereld vrij van onderdrukking", is te lezen in een aankondiging van de mars. Deelnemers was vooraf gevraagd Israëlische vlaggen mee te nemen. Iraniërs en Israëliërs demonstreren soms samen omdat ze een gemeenschappelijke vijand zien in het Iraanse regime.

In Iran zijn massale demonstraties gaande tegen het streng-islamitische regime en de verslechterde economische omstandigheden. Tegen die protesten wordt met geweld opgetreden, waarbij tot nu toe naar schatting meer dan 2500 doden zijn gevallen.