When I think about the essays I have due this week, being launched into the atmosphere to burn up sounds kinda fun.

Happening in the World: The Astroscale company based in Tokyo will be running a space debris removal demonstration to show how it would be possible to use machinery to send floating debris out of orbit and into the atmosphere to burn up. The current capabilities of the machines have a precision to capture and launch objects 10cm or larger, but there are still a vast amount of smaller objects closer to 1cm for which they will need to find a solution (BBC).

Happening in the US: The US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan this Sunday to discuss the end of the war. The current date troops are planned to be removed is May 1, but Biden warns of possible ramifications from the Taliban if a conclusive agreement is not reached first. Around 2,500 troops remain in the country (BBC).

Happening in NYC: Guidelines for COVID-19 are greatly shifting starting today, Monday March 22. Indoor fitness classes can resume with a 33% capacity, the higher restrictions in place against high COVID-19 rates are being lifted from those “yellow zones”, and in public spaces outdoors there can be 200 people at a gathering, and 100 indoors. More changes are coming at the start of April (Gothamist).

Happening in our Community: The Center on Japanese Economy and Business will be holding the event “Marking the 10th Anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake” tomorrow, Tuesday March 23. Among the speakers are Masao Uchibori, the Governor of Fukushima Prefecture. To register, click here.

Film of the Week: [REC] (dir. by Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza)

spacey wacey via Bwog Archives