David Carr, the legendary Timesman who made this column a destination, told me back in 2012 that he kept a “helicopter on the roof” of The New York Times Building in case he needed to escape. After all, he had been taking shots at media moguls, including, occasionally, his own bosses. That helicopter, he said, was his Twitter account, and it gave him the power, if needed, to flee The Times and take his followers — more than 300,000 when he died in 2015.

Click here to see David Carr's Twitter account

Twitter has occupied an uncomfortable place between journalists and their bosses for more than a decade. It offers journalists both a newswire and a direct line back into the news cycle. But it has also set off a tug of war between the voice of the brand and of the individual.

Source : Leptidigital

More staid newsrooms, like The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, have to varying degrees barred journalists from breaking news and developing big voices on the service, while some newer and more ideological outlets, like Vox and The Intercept, encourage and benefit from their journalists’ social media presence. Caught in the uncomfortable middle are the defining American news brands — The Times, The Washington Post, CNN and NBC — where managers alternate between sending irritated emails and biting their tongues, and journalists marvel and complain at the question of who gets away with what on Twitter and who gets in trouble.

The Lofoten Islands are among the world’s most scenic and formidable destinations for winter surfing. Massive Arctic swells regularly hit the bay of Unstad, a tiny town with an outsize reputation. But surfing is not the archipelago’s only draw; adventurers also explore the hiking trails, fishing culture, and northern lights.

Click here to learn more about Lofoten Islands

All aboard

Enveloped by Arctic currents and narrow fjords, the Lofoten archipelago lures thrill seekers—including wintertime surfers. Riding the frigid waves here requires a dose of Norwegian indre kraft, or inner strength. In the past decade, technical advances in cold water attire have made it possible to spend much more time in normally numbing temperatures. “It’s just us, our surfboards, and the vastness of nature,” says German surfer Aline Bock. (This Norwegian concept of outdoor living could help us through the coronavirus winter.)

Source : Pinterest

Island life

After surfing, stand-up paddleboarding, or hiking, adventurers can break their icy isolation by warming up to the centuries-old fishing culture that defines the islands. Among the weathered red rorbu cabins, racks of cod dry in the wind, providing the main ingredient for the local fish stew. Daylight is fleeting above the Arctic Circle in winter, which gives ample opportunity to chase the green swirls of the northern lights, especially around the villages of Reine and Svolvær.

On February 9, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope spacecraft is expected to enter orbit around Mars after a six-month, 300-million-mile journey from Earth. It will mark the beginning of a historic month for the Red Planet, which will see three separate national missions enter orbit or touch down on the surface. Two of the countries behind these missions, the UAE and China, will be visiting Mars for the first time; they will become the fifth and sixth countries to pull off that feat, respectively. The third mission, launched by NASA, is expected to become the United States’ 15th mission to successfully orbit or land on Mars.

Click here to see how the NASA has planned Mars exploration

“There’s really no point in exploring outer space without adding to knowledge, and we’ve never run a science mission,” Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, the UAE minister of state for advanced sciences and science lead for the Emirates Mars Mission, said during a press conference last week. “It wasn’t an easy journey, but it was such an enjoyment to rethink how you develop a planetary exploration mission.”

Source : Arabian Business

The Hope spacecraft will be the first new orbiter around Mars since the European Space Agency’s ExoMars spacecraft arrived in 2016, but it won’t be the newcomer for long. China’s Tianwen-1 mission—which is a lander, rover, and orbiter rolled up into one—is expected to arrive less than a day later. China’s space agency has been quiet about its plans for visiting the Red Planet, but the craft is expected to attempt a landing shortly after it achieves orbit.