Six Secrets is now The Brief: Spy agencies brief people in power. We brief you. Each week weâll bring you one story that matters, plus a few that donât!
Your Brief for June 21, 2024: Summer solstice at Stonehenge, a black hole awakens, Ernest Shackleton's missing ship and more!
News
UMG Announces AI Partnership
AI voice clone performances of famous artists have gone viral in the last year sparking controversy in the music industry around artists' digital and virtual rights. This week Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a groundbreaking partnership with AI music tech startup SoundLabs, founded by Grammy-nominated composer BT. In the coming months, UMGâs roster of artists will receive access to a Soundlabs feature called MicDrop. The software enables artists to create and control AI voice models using data they provide; offering voice cloning, voice-to-instrument functions, and language transposition!
UMG, with other industry players, recently published guidelines for the ethical use of AI in the industry, titled, Principles for Music Creation With AI, in a move to define and direct implementation. Not only are living artists using AI tools but questions also arise around bringing back the likenesses of artists who have long passed. Would you listen to a song generated from the data of a deceased musician?
Culture
Summer Solstice At Stonehenge
Are you familiar with the magic of Stonehenge?
Today marks the summer solstice of the Northern Hemisphere as the North pole of Earth reaches its maximum tilt towards the sun bringing the longest period of daylight in the year. The solstice also marks the return of an age-old celebration to the grounds of Stonehenge, a prehistoric megalithic structure, located in the English countryside!
Every year on the morning of the summer solstice thousands of people flock to the ancient site to experience the magical age-old celebration and witness the famous sunrise that is believed to have been celebrated at Stonehenge for thousands of years. Beloved by pagans and tourists alike, all sorts of life walked the fields of the monument this morning: from druids and hippies to artists and local families!
Stonehenge consists of rounded mounds of earth and giant vertical stones, known as sarsen stones, which are believed to have been constructed in several phases from around 3100 BC to 1600 BC. Though several theories exist it remains a mystery who built it and why. The iconic larger stone circle, located at the center of Stonehenge, is believed to have been erected in the late Neolithic period about 2500 BC. The entire monument was built to align with the sun during solstices and today on the summer solstice, the sun rises behind the Heel Stone in the northeast, and its first rays illuminate the center of Stonehenge. On the winter solstice, the sun sets to the southwest of the stone circle.
True Spies
Project Scorpius
When by-the-book rookie Pamela Robinson is partnered with maverick undercover cop Kevin Barnum, neither is sure of the other. But as the duo work a hair-raising undercover operation against a Hells Angels drug network, they find they have more in common than a love of justice.
Strap in for Project Scorpius, a Canadian undercover operation across the province of Ontario that got closer to the Hells Angels than almost any other! The story begins in Canada in the late 1990s; The Hells Angels have been at war with rival biker gangs for several years. Scores have been murdered on both sides, as well as some civilians, as the Angels look to monopolize the drug trade based out of Montreal.
For the Canadian police, infiltrating the Angels proved nearly impossible. The fully-fledged, or patched, gang members were far removed from street level; using intermediaries to channel merchandise to local dealers. So how do you infiltrate a street gang dealing in narcotics? By sending in undercover officers, officers like Kevin and PamelaâŚ
Join Pamela Robinson and Kevin Barnum in this weekâs podcast selection âProject Scorpiusâ as they share their thrilling adventures as âhusband and wifeâ drug dealers. A 101 guide to the danger that comes with life undercover!
Have you seen the microscopic landscapes hidden within our eyes?
Armenian photographer Suren Manvelyan showcases the hidden beauty of the human iris through macro photography in his work Your Beautiful Eyes. His high-resolution images transform these mesmerizing orbs into scenes reminiscent of a Star Wars set! Manvelyanâs photographs capture the intricate details and vast differences in our eyes, revealing the colorful otherworldly landscapes hidden within. Every iris is unique much like our fingerprints, but they appear far more magical upon magnification. Not only are no two individuals' irises the same, but our own two eyes are different from each other as well. Did you know the color of an iris is determined by the amount and type of melanin present? View the photographs here and see how each irises unique muscle and fiber patterns create distinctive and stunning geographies!
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Spy Objects
PM's Despatch Box
What official secrets hide inside a battered red leather box?
This faded red leatherbound wooden case, featuring a fancy brass handle, would once have belonged to a British Prime Minister and is known as a despatch box. Turn it on its side and etched in gold it reads 'First Lord Of The Treasury', the real title of a British PM. Those words share the purpose of this mysterious item, its contents for the PMâs eyes only.
Adorned with a large lock, the despatch box was designed to keep out prying eyes; once likely to contain items of great sensitivity and intelligenceâŚdocuments of utmost importance and secrecy. The tradition of such boxes can be traced to the second part of the 16th century and the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, though the box pictured above belongs to a different chapter of British history for it features Queen Victoria's royal cipher on its red leather!
Its contents were not merely passive, for the fates of armies and nations would have been decided by the documents within! During its service, this case would not only have overflowed with despatches on the domestic situation but also with intelligence from further afield. In the Victorian era, Britain tried to glean all it could from the political atmosphere in the neighboring continent of Europe.
Join popular historian Dan Snow in this Spy Objects podcast episode to peer inside this mysterious case and speculate on the world-changing intelligence it once contained.
What happens when a black hole kicks into gear 300 million light-years away?
Researchers believe they have witnessed an unprecedented cosmic event as galaxy SDSS1335+0728, one monitored for some time, began devouring vast amounts of material and creating an extraordinary light show in late 2019. Dr. Paula SĂĄnchez-SĂĄez, a staff astronomer at the European Southern Observatory in Germany and lead author of the study, remarked, âItâs the first time weâve seen this in real-time.â To understand the event, researchers used data from multiple space and ground-based observatories to monitor the emitted light. The findings, released this week, concluded that the cosmic event was likely the result of the awakening of a black hole at the core of the galaxy!
The team found that the galaxy had doubled in brightness in mid-infrared wavelengths, was four times brighter in the ultraviolet, and at least ten times brighter in X-rays! According to researchers the most likely explanation for this occurrence is the formation of an âactive galactic nucleusâ where the black hole starts consuming material. Yikes! This process emits a broad spectrum of light as surrounding gas heats up and glows while dust particles absorb and re-radiate wavelengths.
Other galaxies have been observed brightening during âtidal disruption eventsâ, where a star is torn apart after wandering too close to a black hole. These events typically brighten a galaxy for a few hundred days and thus have largely been ruled out as the cause for the event in SDSS1335+0728, which glows brighter today than it did when the black hole woke in 2019! While the findings are exciting, SĂĄnchez-SĂĄez noted: âWith the data we have, itâs impossible to disentangle which of these scenarios is real,â and âWe need to keep monitoring the source.â
History
Ernest Shackleton's Missing Ship
What secrets lay hidden aboard a long-lost vessel?
In a thrilling discovery that has captured the imagination of historians and explorers alike, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society announced that Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's final ship, the Quest, has supposedly been found intact off Labrador's south coast in Canada. Shackleton was famous for leading Antarctic explorations in the 20th century. The schooner-type sailing vessel, lost for over 60 years, lies 390 meters underwater and is less than half a kilometer from its reported sinking location in 1962!
Expedition leader John Geiger stated: "This is a very important vessel. Historically it was the final expedition ship of Sir Ernest Shackleton,". The ship served not only as a polar exploration vessel but also as a minesweeper in WWII and met its dramatic end after striking ice. The location of the Quest was found using advanced sonar technology operated by Marine Institute staff, taking the international team 17 hours to pinpoint. The Questâs rediscovery marks a milestone in maritime archaeology while commemorating the 150th anniversary of Shackleton's birth. What will they find aboard?
Technology
Jumping Higher Than Big Ben
How high can a robot jump?
Engineers at The University of Manchester have designed a robot capable of jumping over 120 meters into the air, outpacing any previous design! Using advanced mathematics, computer simulations, and laboratory experiments the researchers have crafted a robot with optimal size, shape, and component arrangement to jump to new heights! The previous record was a 33-meter jump, but this new bot shatters that, reaching over 120 meters on Earth and 200 meters on the moon.
Published in the journal Mechanism and Machine Theory, this innovation could transform planetary exploration, disaster rescue, and surveillance in hazardous areas. Dr. John Lo, a Research Associate in Space Robotics, notes, âJumping is an effective way to navigate uneven terrains or obstacles, from caves and forests to planetary surfaces.â The Manchester team tackled inefficiencies in traditional jumping robots, ensuring full use of stored spring energy and eliminating unwanted side motions. Compact designs for space missions are in development!
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