Good Morning! 🌞 🍀

Happy St. Patrick’s day! 🍀

Today commemorates St. Patrick, who is considerate the patron saint of Ireland. The day marks the death of St. Patrick in the 5th century.

Sometimes people mistakenly claim St. Patrick was the first person to bring Christianity to Ireland. However, there were several others before him, with St. Palladius likely being the first. Though St. Patrick wasn’t the first, he undoubtedly had the most impact. Converting many chieftains, druids, and common folk alike.

p.s. Interestingly, there is some evidence that missionaries from Egypt came to Ireland very early on. Maybe even before St. Patrick. This theory is supported by multiple customs practiced in Ireland and the British Isles that were much more commonly practiced by Christians in places like Egypt.

Earth Science

First HD Moon Footage

In 1969, NASA broadcast the Apollo 11 moon landing with a simple TV camera. More than fifty years later, technology has rocketed forward, and on Sunday, March 2 Firefly Aerospace made history when its Blue Ghost lunar spacecraft touched down upright on the Moon—the first time a private company has achieved such a feat.

Standing six feet tall and spanning eleven feet wide, Blue Ghost is equipped with cameras on all sides. They captured every angle of the descent, and three days after touchdown, Firefly released high-definition footage of the landing site in Mare Crisium. Mission control precisely identified hazards and guided the craft to its target, prompting Firefly’s jubilant announcement: “We have Moon dust on our boots!”

The company’s first lunar mission, dubbed “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” launched on January 15 aboard a SpaceX rocket as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. After 45 days of solar-powered travel, Blue Ghost became the first commercial spacecraft to complete a fully successful lunar landing, carrying 10 scientific instruments including a deep-surface drill to measure temperature. It also delivered the first HD footage from the Moon—a milestone now shared worldwide by CBS News and Firefly.

Good News

Returning War Medals

A New Zealand military chaplain has reunited a fallen airman’s war medals with his family, decades after they went missing. Sergeant William O’Shea died in 1942 during an RAF bombing raid over Hamburg. Although his medals were originally given to his widow, Ann, they vanished in 1990—leaving the family without a key piece of their history.

Royal Australian Air Force Chaplain Hayden Lea spotted the medals at an auction, where he noticed that a missing Bomber Command clasp indicated O’Shea had died in action. Determined to restore them, Lea purchased the medals, replaced the worn ribbons, and successfully applied for the missing clasp. He then traced O’Shea’s grand-niece, Karen Curtis, who had previously tried in vain to have the medals reissued.

Curtis, still surprised by the discovery, said her family is only beginning to process the medals’ return. “He died in 1942, but he was my father’s uncle, and my father really looked up to him,” she shared. “Now I’m teaching my grandchildren about our family history.”

Technology

Deepfake Detector

A Chinese smartphone maker has announced the launch of deepfake detection software that uses AI to identify manipulated videos. By analyzing millions of pixels on a phone screen, the system pinpoints signs of tampering such as faceswaps, compositing errors, and unusual facial proportions.

Developed by HONOR, the tool—known as GUI (Graphic User Interface)—is incorporated into the new Magic Pro 7 smartphone. According to Reuters, the device will be showcased at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Within just six seconds, GUI produces a detection probability, highlighting AI-generated artifacts or inconsistencies in frame-by-frame footage.

In addition to deepfake detection, the Magic Pro 7 offers voice-command photo editing, letting users remove elements from images with simple spoken prompts. This combination of advanced AI features is intended to give users a more secure and user-friendly smartphone experience.

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Mind Stretchers

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Yesterday’s Mind Stretchers:

I go in hard, come out soft, and am never the same. What am I? — chewing gum!, Chris Hostetler got this correct first ☀️ 

The first to send us the correct answer for today’s mind stretcher for a shout-out with the answer tomorrow. Just send us the answer and your name to [email protected] or reply to the email.

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