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On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of $\sim$1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg$^2$ at a luminosity distance of $40^{+8}_{-8}$ Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Msun. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at $\sim$40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over $\sim$10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient's position $\sim$9 and $\sim$16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. (Abridged) The astrophysical journal / 2 848(2), L12 (2017). doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9 Published by IOP Publ., London

The global financial crisis has ushered in a major housing crisis in many European countries: severe shortage of affordable housing, high rates of housing deprivation, over-indebted homeowners, massive evictions and increase in homelessness are the symptoms of the re- emergence of the “housing question” (Engels 1872). To a large extent, the current housing crisis reveals the failure of past policies, which saw the solution to affordable housing in privatization of housing, securitization of mortgages and “financial inclusion” of poorer people via the relaxation of borrowing standards, and subsidization of “subprime” lending. Despite a major failure of past housing policies, policy makers however have rarely radically questioned these policies and have not come up with sustainable alternatives. Even in cases where governments do experiment with new policies, these experiments typically do not address the disturbing phenomena of the housing question. This paper seeks to shed light on why it is that despite a massive housing crisis we do not see more sustained efforts at tackling it. To this aim, the paper probes into the ideas that have informed housing policies over the last decades.

OA platinum, Projektname: NoVaMigra - Norms and Values in the European Migration and Refugee Crisis