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Trump Tweets: A History Of Gaffes From Wife Comparisons To The 6-Point Star  

Trump's "sheriff star" tweet marks another unforced error for the campaign, in what's become an almost constant stream of gaffes and blunders.

 
technology  

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http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/05/484263172/what-comes-next-for-nasa-after-juno-not-much?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology  
What Comes Next For NASA After Juno? Not Much  

Enjoy Juno's trip to Jupiter — after that we'll see a little gap in planetary science missions from the U.S. That's because a NASA budget crunch several years ago left fewer missions in the pipeline.

 
technology  

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http://www.npr.org/2016/07/05/484756633/brexit-could-threaten-england-s-tech-status?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology  
Brexit Could Threaten England's Global Technology Status  

London-based tech companies face the uncertainty of the upcoming exit from the European Union. Many worry about less investment and less access to the talent they need to grow. Some may just leave.

 
technology  

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http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/07/05/483110284/lock-screen-at-these-music-shows-phones-go-in-a-pouch-and-dont-come-out?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology  
Lock Screen: At These Music Shows, Phones Go In A Pouch And Don't Come Out  

The Lumineers are among many artists frustrated by people on their mobile devices during performances. Their singer explains why they're asking fans to lock up their phones with a new technology.

 
technology  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2F2016%2Fjul%2F06%2Fthreatened-species-face-extinction-owing-to-god-clause-scientists-say&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Threatened species face extinction owing to ‘God clause', scientists say  

Western Australia's government is seeking the power to approve activities that could ‘take or disturb' an endangered species

Western Australia's government could have the power to approve activities that could make a threatened species extinct, under biodiversity laws now before state parliament.

The provision has been dubbed “the God clause” by scientists and conservationists, who say giving the environment minister discretion to effectively authorise the extinction of a species contradicts the very purpose of biodiversity legislation.

Related: Numbats given reprieve as WA council scraps plans for rubbish dump

Related: Global biodiversity targets won't be met by 2020, scientists say

Continue reading...  
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National Gallery  

Dan O-Holland posted a photo:

London National Gallery

 
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Climate Change This Week: Fossil Fuels Are Costing the US & World, Raising Royalties, and More!  
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.




Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this cool leafy gecko from Madagascar, is another reason to conserve carbon-storing forests. Credit Piotr Naskrecki

Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon




Gems of the Forest in Madagascar, such as this comet moth and panther chameleon, are increasingly disappearing as the forests disappear.

OO Madagascar, Africa: Turning Forest Into Charcoal - the island, an incredible global hotspot of biodiversity - think chameleons and lemurs just for starters - has already lost most of its forests, and many endemic species are endangered.

But burgeoning poor populations are increasingly cutting down the remains for cooking charcoal, there and elsewhere in Africa.

Are there any solar billionaires out there willing to make a difference, and save those forests?





A Brilliant Piece of Amazon Biodiversity - the Spangled Cotinga and many more wildlife suffer when the forest is degraded. Source mostbeautifullworld.blogspot.com

OO Brazil: Forest Degradation Can Be As Bad For Biodiversity As Deforestation - we are failing to address some of the most dire impacts of human activities on forests and biodiversity, researchers are warning.


When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.

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FOSSIL FUELS ARE COSTING THE US, WORLD




A Costly Business - fossil fuel industries are costing world economies due to their enormous unpaid social costs. Credit Joshua Doubek via Wikimedia Commons

OO Fossil Fuel Companies: Climate Costs Outweigh Their Profits - Takeaways:

• unpaid cost of carbon pollution = a subsidy to polluting businesses;
• 
  
• IMF says: total global subsidies to energy (mostly fossil fuels) =5.2 trillion/year
• 
  
• top 20 fossil fuel companies create more social costs than after-tax profits *

Thus, if fossil fuel companies had to pay the costs of their pollution, they would not be profitable. Social costs include economic, environmental and health damages.

*says a new Cambridge University analysis of the years 2008-2012





Where Your Dirty Air Comes From - mostly from the burning of fossil fuels. Source IEA

OO Air Pollution Seen Costing Trillions To Save Millions of Lives Yearly - and the fossil fuel industries are not paying for it; the world needs to invest trillions in cleaner energy and emissions controls, says a new International Energy Agency (IEA) report.


OO Air Pollution To Kill Millions More Without Change Of Energy Policy says the IEA:

• premature deaths from air pollution will continue to rise to 2040
• 
  
• yearly, air pollution causes about 6.5 million deaths globally;
• 
  
• it is the world's fourth-largest threat to human health;
• 
  
• particulate pollutants are mostly from unregulated, inefficient energy production and use.

The Children Are Listening

Fossil Fuels Harm Kids in 2 Ways via toxic air pollution and the harmful effects of climate change, warns a leading US health scientist.

OO Fossil Fuels' Two-Way Assault On Children's Health Must Stop says a leading health scientist in a commentary from the US National Institute of Health.




Children Are Losing against climate change.

OO The Case For A Child-Centered Energy And Climate Policy - Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels would achieve highly significant health and economic benefits for children worldwide.

To do less than we can to protect them from preventable harm is nothing short of neglect.

OO Climate Change Is Bad For Your Kidneys - Thousands of people working in the heat have been succumbing to a deadly kidney disease due to dehydration, and as the planet warms, the problem is likely to spread.


OO Extreme Oil Prices May Be Costly To The Climate especially when cheap oil encourages people to guzzle more gasoline in less fuel-efficient vehicles.


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GOOD IDEAS




Time to Make Coal Pay Source Motherboard.vice.com

OO White House: Raising Coal Royalties A Boon For Taxpayers,
And For The Climate - Public lands coal leases and royalties are undervalued, costing taxpayers money, and encourages higher emissions, a new report argues.





OO Walmart's Food Labels Can Help America's $29 Billion Food Waste Problem - it will now require its suppliers to use a new date label designed to ease safety worries and prevent food from being tossed away too early.


OO Elon Musk Wants To Build A Clean-Energy Juggernaut,
Merging Tesla And Solarcity hoping to create a single "end-to-end" clean energy company that would handle everything from solar power to batteries to electric cars.


OO 10% of China's Wind Resources
Could Fuel 25% of Its Electricity by 2030 significantly boosting the global transition to renewable energy, says a new MIT study.


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HOT NEWS



@@ Preparing for Heat Deaths in Pakistan:
Digging Graves for the Living


OO Without Emissions Cuts, Summer Heat Will Get Even Deadlier - By 2060, large swaths of the planet could be hit by unprecedented summer heat waves that would exceed all historical records, says a new study by scientists at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research.


OO 3000+ Heat Deaths Yearly Predicted As New York City Heats Up, scientists say in a new study, succumbing to heat exhaustion, dehydration and respiratory conditions as the number of extreme hot days triples by 2080.





OO As Planet Warms,
Climate Change Will Accelerate - as further warming further sensitizes climate, based on the paleoclimatic record, indicates new research.

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SPEAKING OUT




Heck No, We Won't Go as protestors blocked an oil train in Vancouver, WA recently. Credit Alex Milan Tracy

OO Protesters Arrested For Blocking Railroad In Call For Oil-By-Rail






Will We Act In Time To Prevent Total Devastation? Coral reefs worldwide are dying from warming waters, pollution, and human destruction.

OO Scientists Call On Australia Govt to Act
To Save Coral Reefs - in a letter, signed on behalf of 2,000 international coral reef researchers, to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, urging his government to prioritise its Great Barrier Reef.


OO Economists Say Turkey's Coal Surge An 'Historic Error - and will be an expensive mistake for the country -- and the climate.



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CLIMATE CHANGE HARMING FOOD SUPPLIES




Climate Change Is Outrunning Maize Varieties - and it's not clear that new varieties will catch up. Source lensng.com

OO New Crop Varieties 'Can't Keep Up With Global Warming' - Crop yields could fall within a decade without action to speed up the introduction of new varieties, thanks to climate change, says a new study.


Related Headline:

OO Three Ways To Boost Crop Resilience To Climate Change - are offered by Prof Andy Challinor author of the above new study:

• speed up sharing of genes in agro-institutions worldwide to speed hybrid development;
• 
  
• develop new hybrids in greenhouses at 0.5C higher than it is today;
• 
  
• dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions.

What is NOT discussed: there are physiological limits to temperature adaptation in all plants, and those limits are being approached for some cereal crops in the African Sahel.


OO Current Warming Will Reduce Yields Unless
Maize Breeding And Seed Systems Adapt Immediately - Climate projections can help provide target temperatures for breeding new crop varieties, although adaptation as well as mitigation will be needed to reduce some of the ill-effects.







New Dietary Guidelines could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, and could lessen country's problems with obesity and diabetes.

OO China's Plan To Cut Meat Consumption By 50 %
Cheered By Climate Campaigners





OO Even As US Grain Growers Drain Aquifers,
They Rage Against Cutting Meat Consumption - a Bayer Corporation crop unit apologized to their farmer clients after they twittered on how a vegetarian diet could halve people's dietary carbon footprint.

Feed farmers for livestock were outraged that the corporation would promote an idea that would cut into their profits.

Do these farmers realize their livelihoods are doomed - and much of our agriculture - once they drain the aquifers for their short term profits? Apparently not.


Related Headline:

OO Why This Company Just Deleted A Tweet About Meat Eating And The Environment


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*

GOOD CLEAN NEWS




Brown to Green: fossil fuels to clean energy is the future.

OO The World Is Nearing Peak Fossil Fuels
(Especially The Developed World) - and not because of decreasing supplies, says a new Bloomberg analysis. Takeaways:

• Fossil fuels will peak by 2025 as clean energy becomes cheaper;
• 
  
• Solar will be the least expensive form of electricity by 2030;
• 
  
• by 2040, zero-emission forms of power will represent 60% of the global mix.

For our children's sake, let's hope this happens faster.





Michael Bloomberg Blooms Again as co-chairman of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.

OO Cities Forge World's Largest Alliance To Curb Climate Change - Takeaways:

• named the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy;
• 
  
• represents 7100+ cities in 119 countries on 6 contients, and
• 
  
• 8 % of the world's population.

• Earth's cities consume 70% of the world's energy,
• 
  
• and produce 75 % of our climate-changing emissions.

Time to roll up your sleeves, mayors....


OO EU Smashes 2020 Emissions Target Six Years Early




OO 72% of Corporations Are Actively Procuring Clean Energy - and are far more interested in buying their own renewables than they were even one year ago.


OO Solar Could Meet 13% Of Global Power Demand By 2030 say analysts at the International Renewable Energy Agency. Falling costs are driving investments around the world, with declines of up to 59% possible for solar PV in the next ten years.


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*

NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS




Algae Turn Snow Pink - hence the term watermelon. The normally green critters live in snow, but when exposed to lots of sun, produce a natural "sunscreen" that turns them red, and tints snow pink. Credits L-R: Stephanie Lutz, Liane Benning, GFZ

OO Watermelon Snow: Not Edible But It Can Speed Climate Change - snow algae tints melting snow pink worldwide.

Researchers recently found that in the Arctic it can darken the snow enough to allow up to 13 % more light to be absorbed as heat, thereby speeding the melting of glaciers and ice cover, and further warming the world.

This "bio albedo effect" should be included in models of climate change, note researchers.


*
*

BURNING UP




Cooling A Hot Fire At Night - as a daytime heat wave thwarted efforts in southern California recently.

OO Raging Wildfires In The Southwest Stretch Resources Efforts to fight wildfires in five states were complicated by a relentless heat wave and bone-dry conditions, forcing much of the toughest work to be done at night.


OO Forest Fires Can Heat Up The Whole Planet Fires so intense that they consume millions of acres of trees and scorch the soil on the forest floor have become extreme disruptors.

They are remaking the boreal forest, damaging its role as one of the world's great protectors against global warming.


CLIMATE LEADERSHIP




OO Democratic National Committee Platform
Calls For Investigating Fossil Fuel Companies for misleading the public on climate change.





OO California: Oakland Proposes Ban On Coal Handling -- potentially derailing Utah's port investment. A city-sponsored report predicts coal shipments and handling would degrade local air quality and undermine public health.


OO California's Last Nuclear Plant To Close Amid Longstanding Earthquake Concerns - it supplies 9% of the state's power, which will be replaced with clean energy options.


Related Headline:

OO California: Utility to Replace Last Nuclear Plant With 100% Carbon-Free Resources - First-of-a-kind deal will use solar, wind, storage, demand response and efficiency to replace the reactor by 2025.






Germany Just Got A Little More Beautiful - with its agreement to ban fracking. Neuschwanstein Castle. Source www.worldfortravel.com

OO Germany Agrees To Ban Fracking after years of dispute, but the law does not outlaw conventional drilling for oil and gas.


OO China Decarbonizes For Greener Growth - and doing so fast; building a clean, low carbon energy system is a priority for the upcoming five years.


OO Norway: Oslo Votes To Slash Emissions 95% By 2030 - to be accomplished, in part by the phase-out of car traffic in the city centre, prioritizing pedestrian, bicycle and public transport instead.


*
*

CLUELESS LEADERSHIP




Credit Michael Lukovich

OO GOP Is Trying To Stop The Pentagon's Climate Plan - The Defense Department, long in the vanguard in dealing with climate change, may see its latest plan defunded.


OO Wyoming: US Federal Court Kills Fracking Rule concluding that the Bureau of Land Management has no authority over fracking.


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*

ELECTION YEAR:




If You Don't Vote For Climate Action, You Can Forget The Rest - in a climate-changing world of famine, drought, rising seas, giant storms and heat waves, there will be no security in jobs, health, wealth, or national safety. There will be chaos ensuing from increasing crises and disasters. Vote.

OO Global Warming Policies We Set Today Will Determine The Next 10,000 Years - of global warming, a new study shows -- and whether our civilization survives or not: history shows that harmful climate change has destroyed civilizations before.

This time, it could be worldwide. Let's keep "The Hunger Games" in the realm of fiction.

*
*

SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS




OO Fading US Fishermen:
Historic Industry Faces A Warming World after weathering overfishing, pollution, foreign competition and government regulation, America's fishing fleet faces a challenge it can't outrun: Climate change.

The US had 120,000 fishing vessels in 1996; today? 75,000, notes Daily Climate editor Doug Fischer.


OO Unable To Endure Rising Seas, Alaskan Villages Stuck In Limbo Villages cannot get government support to relocate in the face of climate-induced threats, but they are no longer receiving funds to repair their crumbling infrastructure.


OO West Virginia: Extreme Flooding Kills At Least 26 in the deadliest US flash flooding since 2010.





Dusting It Up may mean something different if climate change increases the frequency of droughts in Oregon. Source oregonskiguides.com

OO Oregon: How Drought Harms The Outdoor Recreation Industry - Takeaways:

• the industry supplies 100,000+ jobs and almost1 Billion in yearly revenues;
• 
  
• most outdoor recreation requires water/snow;
• 
  
• 2015 drought harmed all sectors:

1. Low snowpack limited skiing and other snow activities;
   
2. Low water levels limited boating, fishing, rafting and kayaking.
   
3. Dryness upped fire risk, restricting accesses to parks.

Although a warmer summer boosted tourism a little, future droughts are likely to significantly harm the outdoor industry.





OO Climate Change Could Be Even Worse On Boston
Than Previously Expected -and far more calamitous than previous studies have suggested, a new report commissioned by the city says.





Coming to a Shore Near You - shark attacks are up as warmer waters send more of them patrolling further north than ever before. Source news.nationalgeographic.com

OO How Climate Change Is Fueling A Rise In Shark Attacks The increase in shark attacks - 59 last year, up from 31 in 2011 - is connected to climate change, experts say.

Warmer weather means more people swim, while warmer waters means sharks expanding their range. Both add up to more shark attacks.


*
*

FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE



@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels - and distributing the revenues back to all of us.

The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. What's not to like? Check it out!

*
*

CALIFORNIA DRYIN'



California Spring Snowpack (average) in 2010, left; record low in 2015, right. Credit NASA

OO Snowpack Unlikely To Recover From Drought Until 2019 -
And Even Then It's Not Likely* - A new study supports state hydrologists, who have been saying for months that itt will take several years to recover from the four-year water shortage.

*The study does not take into account climate change or the rising heat of global warming, however, decreasing the likelihood of the drought ending by 2019.





OO 'Catastrophic' California Wildfires Could Erupt
In 'Unprecedented' 66 Million Dead Trees - as drought, hot temperatures, and beetle infestations have created a gigantic cache of dead trees in southern CA, a tinder box just waiting to be ignited, US officials say.


*
*

FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES




No Fish Here - another pipeline spill in Venture sent crude oil down to the ocean. Source www.greenpeace.org

OO California: Up To 210,000 Gallons Of Oil Spilled From Pipeline into the ocean near the Southern California coast recently.

OO Fracking : 'It just ruined everything -- the whole life.' Feeling abandoned by state regulators, hundreds of rural Pennsylvanians endure contaminated well water, chemical coated lawns, and more - all of which they blame on fracking.





No Fish Here, Either - Amazonian villagers examine the oil slick fouling waters near their village. Source news.mongabay.com

OO Amazon Oil Spill Puts Peruvian Communities At Risk and has raised fears of yet more pollution of the water and fish on which indigenous villages and riverside communities depend.


*
*



If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.




@@ How Parents Can Help Prevent Teen Pregnancy

Teen childbearing cost US taxpayers $9+ Billion in 2010
And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:
publicize where women can access affordable contraception.



They can go here to find locations:




And there are many more actions you can do, right here.

*
*
*

SOLAR KEEPS RISING




OO Solar Power To Grow Sixfold By 2030 As It Becomes Cheapest Resource with the cost of production falls below competing natural gas and coal-fired plants, says the International Renewable Energy Agency.


OO Cooperative Utilities Win Fight for More Local Renewables

OO PACE Is Growing Fast And Solar Loans Are Replacing Leases - property assessed clean energy (PACE) allows homeowners to acquire clean energy installations and energy efficiency upgrades upfront with no cash down, and pay off the loan on their property taxes over a few decades.





View of a Future Solar Road - letting the sun power road rest stops. Courtesy of Solar Roadways

OO Solar Road Gets Test Run as the Missouri Department of Transportation allows installation of a stretch of solar road that could generate enough energy to power a rest stop.


OO Solar Panel Recycling Will Be a $15 Billion Business in 30 Years





Source www.wmh.com.au

OO SunPower Holds World Record for Most Efficient Rooftop Solar Panel, Again -
an impressive NREL-validated 24.1 percent world record.


OO India Gets Serious About Microgrids as it pursues a solar power future.





Check it out here, right now!

*
*
*

WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS




Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Jul 5, 2016

How unusual has the weather been? No one event is "caused" by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.

Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues and so does the drought in California.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures - not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.

*
*
*



There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I've compiled, "Climate Change News Resources," at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.

To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!

Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by these wild flowers I photographed one spring. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Juno Is In Orbit Around Jupiter  
It was exciting to be at JPL for the time of orbital insertion (Jupiter Orbital Insertion = JOI) on the evening of July 4, Pacific Daylight Time. There was a festive air even with the guards at the gate as I drove in. I was with the press people in an auditorium and adjacent spaces; the science teams were in a different auditorium.

Our auditorium boasted of a 1/5-scale model of Juno, next to a full-size model of Voyager.



(One of the 134 photos carried on Voyager's golden record is by me, so I paid special attention to the little exhibit on that golden record.) Also by the entrance was a team from Oculus Rift showing a 3-min Virtual Reality (VR) animation of Jupiter (the planet, not the god) and Juno (the spacecraft, not the goddess). With the headset on, I could look behind me to see a huge Jupiter as we passed from pole to pole, and in front of me I could see the spacecraft, eventually seeing through the protective titanium vault to see the individual experiments' electronics.

It has been decades since a spinning spacecraft went to Jupiter, with Pioneers 10 and 11. [I described all these missions in edition after edition of my Astronomy 101 textbook, then Contemporary Astronomy and now The Cosmos]. Decades ago, I described the three-axis stabilization of Voyagers 1 and 2, which enabled them to take better pictures than the crude ones reconstructed from the spinning Pioneers in 1973 and 1974. It remains to be seen how good the images will be from Junocam, which is not one of the science instruments and as I recall was a late addition as people realized that the public would not react well to a camera-less spacecraft. The main observations Juno is to make are of the magnetic field and radiation, hoping to find out more about Jupiter's interior (such as whether it has a dense core, solid or not, perhaps 10 or 20 times Earth's mass), and how and where in the interior the magnetic field is formed.

The NASA TV interviews were very well done, with engineers describing various stages. Though we were at JPL, I note that JPL people must be disappointed that they weren't selected to build the spacecraft, which was made by Lockheed Martin in Boulder, Colorado, with a Principal Investigator from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), which also ran last year's New Horizons mission that flew by Pluto (and just this week its continuation to an asteroid was approved by NASA). Juno is part of a relatively low-cost series of spacecraft from NASA (though a billion dollars isn't cheap), not one of the flagship missions like Galileo (to Jupiter) or Cassini (to Saturn) was.

Because the spacecraft was built on the cheap, it didn't have an articulated antenna or instrument section, so the whole spacecraft had to be turned in the proper direction for the main engine to fire, so that Juno could be slowed enough to enter its desired, polar orbit. That also meant that neither high-gain nor medium-gain antenna were pointing at Earth, and only a low-gain non-directional antenna was available to send out signals that we could receive. At Earth, therefore, JPL (through NASA's Deep Space Network's telescopes in Goldstone, California, and in Canberra, Australia) received only "tones," with limited amount of information other than saying "such and such a step has been performed.

At 8:18, such a tone was received to say that main-engine burn had started and at the proper interval, at 8:54 or so, the burn had finished, so Juno should be in its desired polar orbit. (Had the burn ended up to halfway early, it still would have been in Jupiter orbit, though not the most desirable one.) The spacecraft had been spun up from 2 rpm to 5 rpm to provide extra stabilization, and then had to be spun back down and the solar panels reoriented toward the Sun (the spacecraft had been on battery power for the burn).

The passage through Jupiter's radiation field and magnetic field had been thought to be so hazardous that the scientific instruments had all been turned off. They won't be turned on for a couple of days, and then Juno will be far from Jupiter in its very-elongated 53-day elliptical orbit. So we don't even know that the instruments are working, though the electronics were all in a 400-pound titanium box to protect them. The next time Juno comes close to Jupiter will be August 27, so that is when we will get the first desired set of instruments. Someone told me that we would have to wait until then for Junocam pictures, too. (So far, we know that it worked on approach, with a nice set of the Galilean moons orbiting--moons independently discovered by Simon Marius, who wrote down his discovery 1 day after Galileo in January 1610, though Marius may have actually seen the moons first: months earlier. Al Van Helden, an early-telescope scholar now in Utrecht, and I are giving a paper about that at the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Pasadena in October, after a set of historical papers I arranged on the history of the New Horizons and other attempted Pluto missions and the discovery and following of Pluto's atmosphere from occultation studies.)

In sum, it was exciting to be at JPL last night, though I am a bit disappointed today that we don't yet have scientific data and may not until the end of August. But I, and the world, can wait!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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r0B0t: How to Run Hills Without Crushing Your Confidence  

Few things can ruin a good run like turning a corner and facing a towering hill. You were making good time! You were flying along and everything felt great and the robot lady on your running app was whispering excellent numbers into your ear. Now that all comes to an end. You must trudge.

Hills are as much a mental challenge as a physical one. If you fear hills, it's hard to get better at running them. Maybe you can't turn off gravity, but you can change the way you think.

Remember That Everybody Is Slow On Hills

This is an especially important point in races, and anytime you're running with other people. No matter how much you slow down, remember that everyone else is slowing down too. Even the people that have their heads high and look like they're breathing easy. Those people know how to run hills (and soon you will, too) but gravity applies to them just as it does to you. They are fighting to chug up the hill. They are much slower, now, than they were on the flat a few minutes ago. That's normal.

So don't be discouraged that you, too, slow down when you hit a hill. Just like the speedsters are faster than you on the flat, some people will be faster than you on a hill. When people start passing you, you can't wish yourself stronger. All you can do is use the strength that you have today, however much or how little that might be.

Keep Your Rhythm

We've explained hill running techniques before, but one part is crucial: you can't let yourself work harder on the hill than on flat ground. Does that sound impossible? Remember, you're slower on the hills. You know this, so you're allowing yourself to go slow. Even embarassingly slow. (But now that you understand this, you won't be embarrassed.) You must go so slow that the hill no longer feels difficult.

http://vitals.lifehacker.com/how-to-run-hil...

The easiest way to do this is to listen to the rhythm of your footsteps. When the road starts to slope upwards, keep that rhythm the same, but make your strides smaller. It may feel like you're only moving by an inch with each step. That's okay. You're still moving.

It only takes about ten seconds to gauge whether your steps are small enough. If you're out of breath, try again: step even smaller. You need to find the place where you're not working any harder than you would be on flat ground.

What if you're stepping so small that it would be faster to just walk? There are two answers to this. If you're in a race, do whatever is faster for the same effort. On very steep hills, that might be walking. But if you're on a training run where pace isn't super important, practice running even if you're slow. That will build the right muscles so someday soon you will be able to run faster.

If you end up walking because you started up the hill too fast, that's okay. Walking does not mean giving up. Keep up the same effort level as when you were jogging on the flat. Stay strong. Keep climbing.

Don't Look Up

Now that you're locked in to the perfect pace, do not look up. Hold your head high, because that's good running form, but don't pay attention to the top of the hill. There are two reasons for this.

First, the top of the hill is an illusion. If you pick a spot that looks like the top, and decide your effort will be over when you reach that spot, you'll find when you arrive that you are not at the top after all.

Second, this isn't a sprint with a finish line. You chose a pace that feels easy, so you shouldn't be longing for the stretch to end. I once tried to explain this to my son in terms of the fable about the tortoise and the hare. You don't want to sprint like the hare, because you'll get tired, I said. But before I could blurt out some advice about going “slow,” he explained it better than I could. “OK, not rabbit fast,” he said. “I'll go turtle fast.”

You can go turtle fast forever. It doesn't matter how far away the top of the hill is. It could be ten paces, it could be ten miles. You're going, and that's all that counts. Don't look up.

Pretend That Hills Are Your Superpower

When you tell yourself that you're good at hills, it becomes true. Skeptical? Go out and run a small hill this week. Use these techniques and try to make your climb feel easy and great. Now, stick that happy easy hill run into your mental highlight reel. The next time you hit a monster hill, smile. You know hills. You're good at hills. You've got this.

http://vitals.lifehacker.com/make-a-mental-...

Even with that minimal preparation, you have a real advantage over the hill-phobes: confidence. They fear the hill and stop, walk, feel defeated, feel that they failed. You hit the same hill and slow down, but you are in your element. You are not afraid to keep moving. You respect the hill, but you conquer it.

Illustration by Angelica Alzona.

 
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Trapped  
How much suffering can you stand to watch?

The raccoon is trapped in a shallow creek, her paw ensnared by the hidden steel jaws on the ground below the water. She gasps for air and tries to survive, even as the trapper slams her face with his wooden pole... and then slams again. She gasps for air as he uses that pole to force her head beneath the surface, seconds ticking away... but death does not come. She gasps for air as the trapper steps on her awkwardly, searching for the right angle to keep her submerged. With inexplicable resilience, she battles death. You can see it in her eyes: unfathomable fear and utter helplessness.

The coyote is innocently walking through a field, as he may have done hundreds of times before. He is bewildered by the searing pain on his paw. He can't move. Minute after minute, he struggles, mud starting to encase his precious fur as he falls on his side. You can see that he is starting to lose his breath. You can see that he is starting to lose his will. The trapper approaches. A swift kick in the coyote's side. Why? You can see it in his eyes: unfathomable fear and utter helplessness.

How much suffering can you stand to watch... and do nothing?

The trapping industry is barbaric and archaic, fundamentally unchanged for centuries. Steel-jaw leghold traps set out for unsuspecting furbearers on both public and private lands. Jaws slamming shut to cause agony to the trappers' prey. Conibear traps baited to attract their victims and crush their backs, stomachs, or necks. The fur industry causes shameful and unnecessary suffering to feed a business that should finally die.

And, while Born Free USA has worked for years to stop cruel trapping in the National Wildlife Refuge System, we now applaud Congressional representatives Alma Adams (D-NC) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) for introducing the Public Safety and Wildlife Protection Act (H.R. 5560), which would ban the import, export, and interstate transport of Conibear and steel-jaw leghold traps (including all modifications: padded, toothed, enclosed foothold, "dog-proof" foothold, etc.). It would also ban the purchase or acquisition of any leghold or Conibear trap that was transported illegally.

Nearly 90% of American trappers use these devices that cause such distress, misery, suffering, and death. These traps are indiscriminate, so, despite being set for a beaver or a coyote, other animals--including people's companion animals--could be caught instead.

People can be harmed, as well. One of the inspirations behind Congresswoman Adams' support for H.R. 5560 was the story of a 12-year-old boy who got his arm caught in a Conibear trap in Whitsett, North Carolina (just outside of her district). The boy suffered tissue damage and had a very bad, very long day in the emergency room, as six doctors tried to figure out how to release his arm from the trap.

Upon introduction of the bill, Congresswoman Adams stated, "The preservation of human life and wildlife is a priority that lawmakers must take seriously. We can no longer afford to disregard the ill-effects that animal cruelty has on our ecosystem and on us, as well. Steel-jaw leghold and Conibear traps are body-gripping tools that are inhumane and archaic. They also pose unnecessary risks to humans, especially young children."

In the U.S., more than four million animals are trapped every year for their fur. Shockingly, the trapping industry is growing: increasing by 20% over the past decade. It's not an important source of household income, though. It's "sport"; it's a hobby or recreation. It's also shockingly pathetic, arrogant, and barbaric. I think that warrants repeating... Trapping is shockingly pathetic, arrogant, and barbaric.

The time has come to rid the U.S. of the trapping industry. No one needs fur except the wolves, coyotes, beavers, foxes, mink, raccoons, and other animals who live in wild areas.

Today, I'm asking you to support legislation aimed at banning or restricting this industry. Don't buy real fur, and consider boycotting stores that sell it. Better yet; shop at stores that are officially fur free.

How much suffering can you help end?

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Adam

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Tyson's Pollution Pathways: from Factory Farms to Fouled Waters  


With the passing of July 4th, summer is officially in high gear in America. Perhaps more than any other time of year, this is when we enjoy clean water -- swimming at the beach, fishing in a creek, kayaking down a river, or sailing on a lake or bay.

Unfortunately, corporate agribusiness is imposing a heavy - and growing - toll on America's waterways. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, agriculture is the probable cause of polluting more than 145,000 miles of rivers and streams, along with over 1 million acres of lakes, bays, and more.

Last year, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico was the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined--the largest since 2002. And now, agribusiness is even threatening our drinking water - with incidents from Toledo to Des Moines, from Wisconsin to Washington State.

How did we get to the point where companies selling us food are polluting our water?

The answer lies in the industrialization and concentration of their agribusiness operations. Factory farms produce huge volumes of manure with no place to put it. That manure is frequently over-applied to cropland, where it all too often flows into nearby rivers and streams. Moreover, pollution also runs off of vast acres of commodity crops (often grown to feed the millions of animals on factory farms). And finally, the huge slaughterhouses and other facilities to process meat and grain dump pollutants directly into our rivers and streams.

To better hold agribusiness accountable, we need to start tracking the pollution threats created by individual companies.

For example, Tyson Foods, Inc. is one of the world's largest producers of meat and poultry. Based in Springdale, Arkansas, the company has long been a dominant player in the region's high concentration of chicken production. It has additional operations in the Midwest and the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Environment America Research & Policy Center recently took a look at how Tyson's water pollution footprint stacks up against four other major agribusiness companies: Smithfield, Cargill, JBS, and Perdue. We published the results in our new report, "Corporate Agribusiness and the Fouling of America's Waterways."



Using data available from EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we documented the manure load and direct dumping of toxic pollutants by each of these corporations. For both measurements, Tyson came out on top of the polluter pile - with more than 55 million tons of manure in its supply chain, and its facilities responsible for dumping 104 million pounds of toxic pollutants into waterways over a five-year period.

To put this second figure in perspective: Tyson's toxic discharges for these years were 2nd by volume, as compared to all other industries. That is, Tyson not only dumped more toxic pollution into waters than Smithfield or Perdue; Tyson dumped a greater volume of pollution into our waters than Exxon, DuPont, or Koch Industries.

Moreover, the vast majority of toxic pollutants Tyson poured from its processing plants were nitrates. Nitrates not only contribute to the dead zones plaguing our waterways but also threaten the safety of our drinking water, as they can cause "blue baby syndrome" and have recently been linked to certain types of cancer.

Tyson's pollution has had particularly severe impacts on the waters of northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. When chicken manure contaminated two sources of drinking water for Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tyson and other poultry processors agreed to pay the city $7.5 million. And when the Illinois River and several tributaries became so polluted with pathogens from animal waste that they were no longer safe for swimming, the Oklahoma attorney general sued Tyson and several other chicken processors to clean it up.

Since then, Tyson has been charged with numerous violations and pollution incidents. In 2015, for example, Tyson settled a case in Missouri for releases into a municipal sewage system that ultimately resulted in killing at least 100,000 fish in Clear Creek.

Will Tyson begin to curb its massive water pollution footprint?

So far, the signs are not encouraging. While the company's environment webpage highlights efforts to address water consumption, it has no reference to water pollution. Moreover, Tyson's own 2015 sustainability report shows that the company exceeded water pollution limits on hundreds of occasions in recent years. Finally, in the past two years, Tyson has twice rejected shareholder resolutions calling on the company to reduce its water pollution.



Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. We know how to grow food without polluting our water.

Take second-generation Missouri farmer, Terry Spence. Terry raises his cattle on rotational pasture to nurture the soil and keep manure from flowing into nearby streams.

"As a farmer it is my duty to preserve our land and water resources for future generations," he said during a recent call with reporters. "And it's high time these companies look beyond their profit margins and do the same."

We couldn't agree more. It's time to protect our rivers and streams - and our drinking water - from the pollution of agribusiness giants like Tyson.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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The cruelty of cloning endangered animals | Letters  

Harvesting the eggs, sperm and tissue of endangered animals for future cloning is a good plot for a horror film, but not reality (Report, 5 July). We need to spend time and resources on saving existing animals whose natural habitats are fast disappearing, rather than trying to resurrect them. Cloning animals after they've vanished from nature is fraught with problems, such as severe birth defects, premature degenerative diseases and poor immunity. If wild animals were cloned, they would likely end up in zoos, denied the opportunity to do almost anything natural and enjoyable, just like the polar bears, elephants and other animals currently kept captive. It is inarguably urgent to save threatened species' habitats, but inflicting pain and torture is not the answer. If Dolly has taught us one thing, it's that cloning animals belongs only in sci-fi stories.
Jennifer White
London

• Join the debate email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Continue reading...  
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Sunset over London  

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Matrix'-Style Skill Transfer Is Possible With Electrical Brain Stimulation  
This article was originally posted on Inverse.



By Yasmin Tayag

What if becoming a pilot was as simple as putting on a cap?

That's the question posed at the beginning of a video from HRL Laboratories, a company attempting to develop Matrix-style brain uploading using electrical brain stimulation techniques.

In their latest study, researchers successfully used a technique called transcranial direct current stimulation, or TDCS, to "transfer" brain activity from expert pilots to beginners. If their results, published in the latest issue of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, are any indication, it looks like we're all on the way to becoming like Neo, expressing surprise that we know the proverbial "kung fu."

Imagine brain activity as a skull-shaped map of electrical currents: People who are better at certain tasks -- say, landing a virtual plane -- are going to have very different natural patterns of electrical activity than the rest of us when it comes to actually applying those skills. It's a good thing, then, that we've figured out other ways to run electricity through our brains.



Using customized skullcaps, fitted with electrodes, the researchers zapped the brains of novice pilots with the brain patterns of six flight experts, hoping they could improve their performance during flight simulation training.

In particular, the researchers focused on stimulating the brains' right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is known to be linked to working memory.

They found that novices who received four consecutive days of brain-zapping showed a 33 percent increase in skill consistency during flight simulations compared to those who got fake brain stimulation, suggesting that TDCS really did improve learning.

Picking up a new skill, like landing a plane, takes both time spent actively practicing and "offline" days spent consolidating those experiences. While the researchers aren't changing up the learning process altogether -- the novice pilots still had to go through training -- they suggest that TDCS can cut down on the time it takes to complete the learning process.

The field is still in its infancy -- it's still largely the domain of DIY brain zappers -- but the researchers are hoping that their research could someday help people with traumatic brain injuries re-learn essential skills.

At this rate, it won't be long until we all know kung fu.




MORE FROM INVERSE:

• No, Netflix Doesn't Make You Hate Commercials More
• 
  
• How the Internet's Favorite Cloud Works
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• China Has Built the World's Largest Alien-Hunting Telescope
• 
  
• The Future of Social VR Could Open the Headset's Isolated World
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• 10 of Elon Musk's Craziest Quotes From 2016

Photos via https://www.facebook.com/TheMatrixMovie/

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Juno Enters Jupiter's Orbit, Capping 5-Year Voyage  
A signal from the spacecraft Monday night confirmed that it arrived at the planet, on a mission NASA hopes will yield clues to the origins of our solar system.  
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What to Expect When NASA's Spacecraft Juno Gets to Jupiter  
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A Space Pioneer, 79, Is Ready to Track Juno for NASA  
Susan G. Finley, whose career with NASA spans more than five decades, will monitor signals from the explorer Juno on the Fourth of July, when it is expected to reach Jupiter.  
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NASA Announces Extension of 9 Spacecraft Missions  
As the spacecraft Juno approaches Jupiter, NASA has decided to extend the lives of several older explorers, including one orbiting Ceres, the dwarf planet.  
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a case with a gramophone by Anka Zhuravleva  

a case with a gramophone by Anka Zhuravleva

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Wish you were here by Yuichi Sahacha  

Wish you were here by Yuichi Sahacha

Lavender field with a girl in Valensole, Provence,France.

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Coffee wins!

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1887 by Gabriele Vinci

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Infinite Horizon by George Christakis

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Osaka City by Vic Tsui  

Osaka City by Vic Tsui

Osaka City

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I Think We're Haunted by Michelle Magnoli  

I Think We're Haunted by Michelle Magnoli

Self-portrait. Living in a toxic enviornment is getting to me. My only hope is that it will make me a better artist.

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r0B0t: Washington University to train locusts to 'sniff out explosives' - Daily Mail  

Daily Mail

Washington University to train locusts to 'sniff out explosives' Daily Mail A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis hopes to breed 'cyberinsects' tuned to smell out explosives. Wing tattoos will allow researchers to steer the insects remotely. HOW IT WILL WORK. Researchers hope to develop and demonstrate a ... Cyborg locusts being developed to sniff out explosivesITV News Scientist Wants to Engineer Locusts Into Remote-Controlled Bomb DetectorsGizmodo Why is the Navy paying to engineer hordes of tattooed robot locusts?TrustedReviews BBC News -The Stack -Telegraph.co.uk -Engadget all 12 news articles »

 
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r0B0t: Amazon moves one step closer toward army of warehouse robots - The Guardian  

The Guardian

Amazon moves one step closer toward army of warehouse robots The Guardian Kiva robots transport goods at an Amazon Fulfillment Center, ahead of the Christmas rush, in Tracy, California in 2014. Photograph: Noah Berger/Reuters. Sam Thielman in New York. @samthielman. Tuesday 5 July 2016 15.15 EDT Last modified on Tuesday ... Amazon robot competition won by shelf stacking AI that could one day be used in warehousesThe Independent Team Delft Wins Amazon Picking ChallengeIEEE Spectrum Amazon robots close to replacing the rest of warehouse workersExtremeTech The Verge -BBC News -Engadget -Tech News Today all 23 news articles »

 
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Stonewall National Monument - Celebrating Love Over Hate  


On Monday, my teenage daughter and I attended a powerful dedication of our nation's newest addition to the National Park System, the Stonewall National Monument. President Obama designated this new national monument to celebrate and remind all of us of the great courage and commitment of gay right activists almost 50 years ago.

During the 1960's, the Stonewall Inn bar in lower Manhattan was one of the few places in our nation where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people could safely convene, dance and recapture the humanity that was too often denied them in the rest of their lives. A police raid of the bar in 1969 elevated Stonewall as a national icon and spurred the gay rights movement across America and other parts of the world. The Stonewall monument designation on Monday also marks the one year anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. Today, the LGBTQ movement is seen as a powerful civil rights effort, creating equality and dignity for all.

Yet as we celebrated this newest national monument, many of the speakers also reminded us that we must remain vigilant in stopping hate crimes. The horrible mass shooting in the LGBTQ Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where 49 people were killed is a poignant reminder that such hatred towards LGBTQ people remains very real and deadly.

For me, this act of hatred and violence made me recall the horrific murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. My wife and I lived in Laramie, Wyoming in the 1990's. The brutal beating by two men, who then left Matthew to die tied to a fencepost, was a hate crime that shattered our sense of Laramie as a small, safe town. It was an eye-opening glimpse into the cruelty faced by those targeted for their sexualized identity.

Eleven years after Matthew Shepard's murder, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard Act that extended hate crime protections to LGBTQ people. Also, less than one year after Matthew's murder, my daughter was born. Today, 17 years later, being at the Stonewall designation instilled in her an affirmation of her value and place in our country and as a member of the LGBTQ rights movement.

The Stonewall National Monument will always remind us that our nation's history is complex and vivid. Adding the important history of Stonewall Inn to our National Park System validates our parks as places for and about all Americans. They are places where we come together to celebrate life, heal our wounds, and remember those that put it all on the line to protect our democracy.

Join me in thanking President Obama for yet another gift to America!

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The snow leopard -- world's most mysterious big cat -- may be more common than thought  
The snow leopard has long been one of the least studied and therefore poorly understood of the large cats. No longer.  
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Eye of the beetle: How the Emerald Ash Borer sees may be key to stopping it  
This iridescent jewel beetle, responsible for the death of more than 50 million ash trees in the United States, has blazed an absolute path of destruction west since its discovery in Michigan in 2002. Recently the pest has been detected in Colorado, and just this spring it was confirmed in Nebraska and Texas. Researchers have been doing more than just watching the migration patterns -- they've been studying the creature in hopes of helping to slow it.  
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What Senate Backers Aren't Saying About the GMO "Compromise" Bill  
Last week, Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced what they bill as a "compromise" deal that would label GMO foods across the nation. But the advocacy groups that have fought so long and hard for clear GMO labeling aren't cheering: They know the bill is a gift to the agribusiness and biotech industries--not a compromise. That's why consumer advocates have dubbed the bill the Denying Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act.

Here's what the backers of the bill don't want their constituents to know about the DARK Act:

The Bill Is Not a National Labeling Solution.

The backers of the Senate bill are portraying this as a big victory for those of us who don't live in Vermont, which passed a GMO labeling law that goes into effect today. (The Senate committee's Twitter feed even posted a map showing that their bill would spread Vermont-style labeling across all 50 states.) But this is a misleading claim.

The Vermont law is about clear, on-package labeling, but that's not what the Senate is proposing. This bill is not about expanding GMO labeling; it's about preventing states like Vermont from taking action. As the bill states, it would "immediately prohibit states or other entities from mandating labels of food or seed that is genetically engineered."

The fact is, clear GMO labels are already appearing in stores nationwide, thanks to the Vermont law, because it's much easier for a company to provide GMO labels on all of its products than just the ones going to Vermont. Companies that have publicly agreed to comply with the Vermont law include Mars, General Mills, Kellogg's, ConAgra, and Campbell Soup. GMO labels can already be found on packages of Snickers, M&Ms, Lay's Potato Chips, Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos and Smartfood Popcorn, among others. But this bill would put an end to that.

Furthermore, New York, Massachusetts and other states have ongoing efforts to label GMOs at the state level--efforts that the DARK Act would effectively shut down. Indeed, that is its true purpose.

The Bill Does Not Clearly Label GMOs.

Advocates of GMO labeling have pushed for clear, on-package language, just like what's required under the Vermont law. But the Senate bill would allow manufacturers to post "call for more information" phone numbers or even smart phone "QR codes" if they so desire--meaning that if you have a phone with the right app installed, a steady hand and a solid data connection you'll be able to access a website that will tell you what's in the food you're buying.

That's not a label--that's a hassle.

The Bill Has No Penalties for Violators.

In announcing the bill, Sen. Stabenow said: "For the first time ever, consumers will have a national, mandatory label for food products that contain genetically modified ingredients." But there is no mandatory recall authority if a company does not comply with the suggested QR code or 800 number options (or any of the other vague and meager aspects of the bill.) Nor are there any penalties or fines associated with non-compliance. How can labels be mandatory if there are not even the most modest attempts to require enforcement?

The Bill Does Not Cover All Genetically Engineered Food Ingredients.

A bill that claims to be a "mandatory system of disclosure for food that contains GMO ingredients" must require labels that mention GMOs, right? Not necessarily. As McClatchy reported, "food manufacturers would have wide discretion under the new law to comply, and the now-familiar terms 'GMO,' 'genetically modified' or 'biotechnology' aren't guaranteed to appear."

Furthermore, the definition of "genetically engineered" could mean that some of the most pervasive GMO crops might not require a label. That's why Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin said the bill "would potentially allow products with a significant portion of GMO ingredients to skate by without being subject to labeling requirements." The bill would not even apply to many forms of genetically engineered food--only foods produced with traditional forms of genetic engineering. This leaves out emerging techniques like gene editing.

The Bill Benefits Corporations, Not Consumers

The industry has been chomping at the bit to repeal Vermont's law. This bill does that. The industry has long said GMO labels should be voluntary, meaning companies get to decide how much information consumers get. That's precisely what this bill does--puts all the power in the hands of food companies, while ensuring that consumers are left wondering what is in their food. This bill is no compromise--it's a gift to agribusiness and biotechnology companies that have fought popular, state-based labeling initiatives for the past five years.

Americans should know this--even if Senate backers of the bill refuse to say it.

This piece originally appeared at TheHill.com's Congress Blog.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Learning about the hummingbirds and the bees in floral diversity  
The floral diversity and repeated shifts in pollination have inspired a series of scientists to study adaptive evolution in the genus. But until now many of the species relationships have been unresolved and hampered by the very thing that makes studying the genus so appealing. The rapid speciation and evolutionary radiation that makes studying adaptation in these groups so interesting have also meant the species relationships have been difficult to resolve -- until now.  
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Don't Fight Meatless Mondays, Fight The Pro-Animal Protein PR Machine  
Meat. In America, the suggestion that our health and the Earth's might benefit from our eating less of it is almost as hot-button a topic as religion or politics.

But I'm not here to pry the hamburgers out of anyone's cold, dead hands. I just want to clear up some misconceptions about the Meatless Monday program caused recently by Iowa Senator Joni Ernst. She was so concerned by even the suggestion that the U.S. military consider adopting this long-established program promoting going vegetarian once a week that she has introduced legislation to prevent it.

"Our men and women in uniform should have the option to consume the protein they need, including meat, on a daily basis," she said in an emailed statement to Time.

I'm not a soldier, nutritionist, or a vegetarian, so I turned to the experts in my contacts list to help me explain all the many problems with that sentence.

Myth #1: Running a Meatless Monday program means there is no animal protein to be found anywhere on the menu that day.

Wrong! We hear this one frequently on the couple dozen college campuses where we participate in Meatless Mondays. While the goal of the program is a simple one, to get people to "once a week, cut the meat," as they put it, no one is being forced to do so. There is still meat to be found on the menu that day. There are just a lot more vegetarian and vegan dishes focused on plant-based proteins than usual -- from the many global cuisines that don't fetishize meat and cheese the way Americans do --  in order to tempt carnivores to try something new. The official Meatless Monday program's how-to kit for food service actually says "Meatless Monday is a campaign about adding options, not taking them away. ...[B]usinesses that offer choices to their customers tend to have greater success."

So, to be clear, even if the U.S. armed forces were to adopt Meatless Mondays, soldiers could still have the option to consume whatever form of protein they chose.

Myth #2: Soldiers (and athletes) need protein more than the rest of us.

Nope, but this one's a little more complicated, so I asked Terri Brownlee, our director of nutrition and wellness, to explain it. (She has all those expert acronyms like MPH, RD, and LDN after her name.) Protein is just one of the macronutrients (including fats and carbohydrates) that all animals need for their bodies to function properly. "How much protein you need is calculated based on body size, with the standard recommendation 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram daily or 8 grams of protein for every 20 pounds of body weight," she said. In case you're as metric-math challenged as I am, that means 2.8 ounces for the average 195-pound man and 2.3 ounces for the average 166-pound woman. Men tend to need more than women only because men tend to be bigger than women. "Protein needs are based on lean body weight vs. actual," she adds, explaining that although a larger muscular person needs more protein than will a smaller muscular person, "a larger person with more body fat does not need more protein than a smaller muscular person, generally speaking."

You don't need animal protein to bulk up: just look at the gorilla, hippo, rhino, and elephant -- all herbivores!

So yes, soldiers and athletes may need more protein than us couch potatoes. I said "may." A  2014 report from a national-security group found that obesity among active duty personnel rose 61 percent between 2002 and 2011.

As I've already mentioned, choosing not to eat meat one day a week is not the same as giving up animal products entirely. However, there are plenty of elite athletes who are vegetarian or vegan, including these 14 huge, vegan, and "probably immortal" bodybuilders. You don't need animal protein to bulk up: just look at the gorilla, hippo, rhino, and elephant -- all herbivores!

Myth #3: Protein from animals is different and somehow better than protein from plants.

It is different, based on the amino acid makeup, but it isn't necessarily better, Terri explained to me. Animal sources of protein are more easily broken down by the human body and deliver all the amino acids we need in one food, while plant-based protein sources, such as vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds, all lack one or more essential amino acids. But you can get all the ones you need just by eating a mixture of plants, which don't have the other health baggage meat carries (harmful fats, processed meats' link to carcinogens, often high sodium content, etc.) and do offer important things like fiber to aid digestion, carbohydrates for energy, and vitamins and other nutrients.

Myth #4: Americans need to worry about getting enough protein daily.

Pretty much everyone -- outside the meat industry and politicians from the big meat-producing states -- agrees that this is the one aspect of the American diet we don't have to worry about. The average American eats around 130 pounds of meat and poultry annually, according to the Wall Street Journal's analysis of USDA data, or 5.9 ounces daily.

That number doesn't count seafood, and it doesn't count protein from plants. Thanks to the Paleo diet and other low-carb crazes, we're eating more meat as well as high-protein plant sources like  nuts and seeds like quinoa than ever before. Remember the 2.8- and 2.3-ounce recommended daily allowances for our average man and woman above? That's a portion size smaller than a bar of soap. Chances are good you're getting triple or quadruple the amount of protein you "need" from multiple sources without even trying.

Myth #5: Big Meat is just looking out for our best interests and good health.

So we're back to the point I made at the beginning. Why do Americans love their meat so much?

Partly it's our history as a country. Meat has always been plentiful here. Colonial America was teeming with wild game and fish. Domestic animals thrived and fattened. Historians have noted that for centuries, even the poor in the United States could afford meat or fish for every meal.

We've come to believe that we have a right to cheap meat, even though there are many hidden costs -- both environmental and to public health -- not reflected in the price-per-pound sticker. "Most people like eating meat -- it's what desperately poor people most want when they first get some money -- and lots of people want to believe that what they eat is entirely a matter of personal choice," says New York University nutrition expert Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and many other books, when asked why Americans are so attached to our bacon and hamburgers. "But the fight about Meatless Monday is much more about meat industry fears of loss of market share."

The meat lobby is one of the most powerful in America. For years, as Marion, Michael Pollan,  and many others have chronicled, it has fought to prevent the US Dietary Guidelines from specifically telling people to eat less meat. Yet consumption is finally slowing.

Iowa, the state that Senator Ernst represents, is No.1 in pork production as well as in growing corn and soy for animal feed. Banning Meatless Mondays under the pretense of protecting our soldiers is just the latest salvo in a losing war.

So don't believe all the hype. No one is going to take your hamburger away. But choosing to forgo meat one day (or more) a week would be a good thing for all of us to do.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Dan Chu: Stonewall National Monument - Celebrating Love Over Hate  
On Monday, my teenage daughter and I attended a powerful dedication of our nation's newest addition to the National Park System, the Stonewall Nationa...

Read more: Environment, National Monuments, Sierra Club, Public Lands, Stonewall, Green News

 
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If Aliens Ever Attack Earth, We Need to Protect the Moon or Die Trying  
This article was originally posted on Inverse.



By Neel V. Patel

In the world of science fiction, when aliens attack the Earth, they often go after another rocky sphere. That would be the moon, our planet's only natural satellite. Although there are exactly zero humans currently residing on the moon, zero pieces of essential equipment or instruments (although let's be real, those lunar go-karts are pretty dope) situated on its surface or its orbit, and no concrete sense of whether it possesses any valuable resources, the moon is essential to our species' survival on this planet. If hostile aliens were to blow it to bits or cause some serious damage to it, human would be in serious trouble -- even if we managed to successfully repel an extraterrestrial threat.

The moon has played a key role in shaping the way natural processes of Earth, and it continues to do so today. The moon is thought to have been formed just a mere 30 million years after the Earth (which itself is 4.53 billion years old). Since then, the moon's single greatest (and most obvious) effect on the Earth has been the mediation of the ebb and flow of tides on the planet's bodies of water.

Scientist believe that in the infancy of this relationship, the moon's distance from Earth was half of what it is today -- and this resulted in much more extreme tides. These tides drove heat from the equator to the poles, leading to ice ages. These glacial shifts spurred more rapid migratory patterns in various species, resulting in a more diverse array of life around the globe. In fact, because of how important water is to molecular processes in primitive life and organic materials, tide shifts may have acted as a kind of natural way for those chemical reactions to get rid of or acquire water in the formation of basic structures like nucleic acids. In other words, tides may have jumpstarted or encouraged the evolution of life on Earth.


Because it's gone forever.

Okay, that's a pretty cool history lesson, but what about today? What exactly would be the biggest impact on our lives today if the moon disappeared or had a chunk ripped out from itself?"

"We'd lose the normal rhythm of tides," says Noah Petro, a research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center who works with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. He tells Inverse we'd probably lose the large tides we're used to on a day-to-day basis, and instead experience "smaller tides, caused by the Earth's rotation with the sun."

The most noticeable effect this would have is that we'd see oceans around the world level off, to a certain extent. While initially that might save coastal communities from having to deal with potential floods during high-tide, it would also mean they would lose the benefits of low tide. That would wreak havoc on clams, which would have a cascading effect on underwater ecosystems as well as the beachside food shacks worldwide.

Furthermore, the moon plays a significant role in distorting water around the equator. Without a natural satellite, that water would probably redistribute itself around the poles. This might seem like a good thing for coastal cities by the ocean that are constantly threatened by rising floods. But this is awful for bodies of water inland that are fed by oceans. We might see estuaries -- responsible for desalinating water naturally -- dry up or become significantly reduced. Rivers and lakes further inland would also shrink by quite a bit.

Unless we manage to make artificial desalination technology viable, we'd see the whole world inundated by water shortages -- and that's already a problem much of the world is currently contending with.

Petro also cites two other significant effects the moon's vanishing act would have on Earth. "The moon stabilizes Earth's orbit," he says, "so we'd see changes to the climate we're currently used to." He points to Mars as an indicator of what we might see. Mars doesn't have large moons like Earth's to affect its axial tilt as much, so the red planet is stuck with very long ice ages.

On Earth, there would be a significant amount of long winters, and "a general cooling off," of the world at first, he says, perhaps followed by a warming. We'd see "wild extremes" that are more drawn out and last much longer than the planet has previously exhibited. Petro emphasizes that these climatic effects would certainly not be felt immediately -- they would occur on a scale of 1,000 to 10,000 years. But there is one other effect that humans would have to find solutions to very quickly if the moon were blown up or hit with some sort of explosive force: debris.

A lot of material, he says, would be expelled into Earth's orbit, and some of it might even push through the atmosphere and strike the surface. If that debris were big enough, we'd basically deal with a catastrophic scenario of falling moon rocks that not even Brian May would be able to fix.

Let's also not forget the fact that orbital debris is also an increasing threat to the world's satellite currently zipping around the globe. Some of those instruments are extremely important to communications systems used by governments and militaries. If aliens fired a bunch of missiles at the moon, we can basically kiss those satellites goodbye. Hopefully we have a few landlines still lying around as a backup.

"Fortunately, we don't expect the destruction of the moon to happen," Petro added, laughing.

MORE FROM INVERSE:

• When Alien Invasions Are Actually a Good Thing
• 
  
• How to Stop Worrying and Love Bad 'Star Trek' Movies
• 
  
• The Sex Robots Controversy, Explained
• 
  
• A Single-Language Facebook Is Coming Soon
• 
  
• Why Jon Snow Should Never Be King on 'Game of Thrones'

Photos via YouTube

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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More Scenes from Ramadan 2016 (38 photos)  

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan is a time of reflection and prayer. Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sex during the daylight hours in order to focus on spirituality, good deeds, and charity. When the sun sets, communities come together for Iftar, the breaking of the fast. Now that the month has come to a close, Eid al-Fitr, or the festival of the breaking of the fast, begins. We looked at Ramadan earlier this month, but there were just so many more great photographs, we're doing it again.

 
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Afterglow  

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Sunset over Tottenham

 
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TAKE ME BACK AGAIN  

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Celebrating Juno's Arrival at Jupiter  
The Juno team celebrates after receiving confirmation from the spacecraft that it had successfully completed the engine burn and entered orbit of Jupiter, Monday, July 4, 2016 in mission control of the Space Flight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Juno mission launched August 5, 2011 and will orbit the planet for 20 months.  
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_DSF4123.jpg  

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Oyster mouth Castle  

por agustin ruiz posted a photo:

Oystermouthcastle, castle / swansea / wales / united kingdom
The early castle[edit]
The first castle was founded by William de Londres of Ogmore Castle soon after 1106 following the capture of Gower by the Normans. In 1116 the Welsh of Deheubarth retook the Gower Peninsula and forced William to flee his castle which was put to the torch. The castle was rebuilt soon afterwards, but was probably destroyed again in 1137 when Gower was once more retaken by the princes of Deheubarth. The Londres or London family finally died out in 1215 when Gower was again taken by the Welsh under the leadership of Llywelyn the Great. In 1220 the Welsh were expelled from the peninsula and the government of Henry III of England returned the barony of Gower to John de Braose who rebuilt both Swansea Castle and Oystermouth.

 
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ISIS: The Cornered Beast  
Claiming more than three hundred lives, most of them Muslim, the attacks by ISIS in Turkey, Bangladesh, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia have created pandemonium. Since the early months of this year, ISIS has suffered a series of defeats. But the real lesson is that it will take much more than military victories to defeat ISIS.  
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The day I danced my Brexit woes away with a Brazilian | Jonathan Jones  

The Horniman's Festival of Brasil is a cocktail of culture, costumes and chaos and carnival spirit is just what we need this British so-called summertime

How could I stop thinking about Britain's misery? There I was, in a sunny south London park on a Sunday afternoon, dully reading political news on my phone, when I was persuaded to put on a cow mask and skirt and join in a carnival. Crisis? What crisis? It was time to parade and dance.

Led by a mirror-shaded policeman riding a hobbyhorse and seduced by trumpeters and drummers, a crowd of dazed Brits embraced a Brazilian festive fever. We became a small part of Rio de Janeiro. As the carnival director told us, the point was not to show off our costumes but to go wild and enjoy ourselves without inhibitions, by dancing to that infectious beat, throwing ourselves to the ground, forming human tunnels. And doing a hokey cokey in which everyone near me shouted “In”'. (Turns out, you can't escape the aftermath of the EU referendum.)

Related: Wild walks, slides and crazy golf: art shows to throw yourself into

Continue reading...  
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https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2016/jul/05/jukebox-jewkbox-jewish-popular-music-in-pictures  
'Part biblical, part polyester': Jewish pop  in pictures  

From superstar cantors to Streisand and CBGB's roster of rebels, Jews have played an influential part in the rise of popular music. The new exhibition Jukebox, Jewkbox! charts the highs of Yiddish theatre, punk politics and Israeli folk

• Jukebox, Jewkbox! A Century on Shellac and Vinyl is at the Jewish Museum, London, 14 July-16 October

Continue reading...  
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/4-10-july-2016/coke-zero-rebrands-coca-cola-zero-sugar/  
Coke Zero rebrands as Coca Cola Zero Sugar with message of moderation  

Coca Cola Zero Sugar has been re-launched in the UK, backed by a £10 million ad campaign, a new name and new design.

Formerly Coke Zero, the renamed drink fits in with other products in the Coke family as part of it's “one brand” strategy, as we found out from vice president of global design at Coca-Cola James Somerville in April. You can read the full story here.

The new Coca Cola Zero Sugar design, which features a red disk was unveiled in April but only rolls out to the UK market now. It carries the strapline “Taste's more like Coke, looks more like Coke”.

The new campaign and the positioning are part of Coca Cola's drive to encourage consumers to cut down the amount of sugar they consume.

Coke Zero's last overhaul was in 2014, which was designed by Bulletproof and positioned around a “Just add Zero” campaign.

The post Coke Zero rebrands as Coca Cola Zero Sugar with message of moderation appeared first on Design Week.

 
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How to rebrand a charity and do it well  

It's been a tough year for charities. According to a report by the Charity Commission, their reputation has collapsed. We're uncomfortable with their aggressive fundraising, we distrust how they spend our money and we have doubts about the difference they make to the causes we support.

Design can't change the way charities behave. But the connections they make with us are what creates trust, so their need to communicate well is greater now than ever.

What's with all the fake kid's drawings?

It's been decades since charities first latched onto the importance of identity so why does the sector still look like a design scrapyard? Why is it awash with clichés and me-too design? What's with all the corny people icons, fake kid's drawings, and vacuous, clipart-like symbols? Why are so many charity identities mind-numbingly ordinary if not downright garbage?

A shortage of half-sensible budgets is one reason. But there's more to it than that. Charities do themselves all sorts of disfavours. They like jumping on bandwagons. They're inclined to imitate rather than embrace ideas that are individual to them. And they want to be loved by everyone, which can make impossible demands on their communications.

Trustees that know nothing about communications

What's more, charities can be exasperating to deal with because of their governance and the “democratic” way they're managed. Trustees usually have the final say on a new identity, but they generally know little or nothing about communications so their opinions can be irritatingly subjective.

So here's how to survive in the curious world of charity identity and how to go about conjuring up work that invites people in and makes them want to know more.

Stop peddling snake oil

You know who you are. You use words like differentiation, touchpoints, behaviours and learnings. Time and again, gibberish is passed off as “brand insight” and the upshot is work that's not what it's cracked up to be. Quit trying to bamboozle people and do your job properly. If you expect charities to behave with honesty, integrity and straightforwardness, you should too.

Listen

Listening is the most important thing designers do. Everyone's got stories to tell so listen to trustees, listen to management, listen to staff and listen to volunteers. You only learn things when you listen.

Have an opinion

In the creativity game, you're not a player unless you've got an opinion. Be single-minded. Don't waste time trying to please everyone. Be crystal-clear about what you need to do and get on with it. One bloody good idea is all it takes.

Trust your intuition

Charities are increasingly risk-averse. Consultation and research are used to lessen the risk of failure rather than boost the chance of success. Design should be about the sheer joy and excitement of doing things that haven't been done before. So if you want your work to be truly unforgettable, you've got to be daring and you've got to trust your intuition it's always right.

Don't take no for an answer

Intelligent, idiosyncratic identities can be hard to sell because they drag people into their discomfort zone. Charities are inclined to resist ideas that rock the boat, so design that's never going to get noticed usually wins the day. Don't let it happen. Gutsy, ballsy, feisty ideas are what charities really need and it's up to you to make sure that's what they get.

Idiosyncratic + ruthless = unforgettable

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is my formula for an unforgettable identity. It has to be idiosyncratic; that's to say, everything an organisation says and does and the way it looks should be so individual and characteristically ‘them' that they just couldn't be mistaken for any other. It's those idiosyncrasies that need to be uncovered, given form and voice, and ruthlessly protected.

John Spencer is the founder and creative director of Offthetopofmyhead

The post How to rebrand a charity and do it well appeared first on Design Week.

 
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Dyson “brings engineering to life” with new London store  

Technology brand Dyson will open its first ever permanent London store this week, which will allow people to try out products first-hand and learn about the science behind them.

The Dyson Demo is based on Oxford Street, and showcases the company's portfolio of products including its regular, cordless and autonomous vacuum cleaners, purifier fans, LED lighting and the recently launched Supersonic hairdryer.

Dyson Demo has been designed by Dyson in partnership with WilkinsonEyre, the architectural practice which also recreated the brand's headquarters and factory in Malmesbury, Wiltshire in a £250 million project in 2014.

The space is spread over two floors the ground floor features white plinths presenting the portfolio of products, including the Dyson Pure Cool Link purifier fan, the Dyson 360 Eye robot (robot vacuum cleaner), Supersonic hairdryer, and the Cu-Beam lighting range.

The walls are also adorned with copies of the V8 cord-free vacuum, alongside pots containing different types of dust, food and debris. Visitors are then invited to test the vacuum cleaner on four different floor surfaces, with the dirt of their choice.

A glass staircase designed by WilkinsonEyre leads to the first floor, which includes hair salon stations where visitors can have their hair styled with the Supersonic hairdryer. The area also includes moving, mechanical installations which demonstrate the product testing phase of the hairdryer on real samples of human hair.

Dyson “experts”, who work alongside engineers at the headquarters in Malmesbury, will also be stationed around the store at all times for visitors to speak to about the science behind the products.

Tom Mogridge, a Dyson senior design engineer, says that these “experts” “understand how the engineers think” and have “good insight into the company's products”. “It's really exciting that a product that I've worked on is able to be demonstrated for visitors in store,” he says.

The space also includes digital screens used across walls, which show the products in action.

There are no tills, but visitors are able to buy products in-store once they have spoken to somebody and tested out a product.

Jake Dyson, research, design and development director, and the son of company founder James Dyson, says: “The Dyson Demo encourages people to be hands-on. It's all about showing the inner workings of products it's really important to demonstrate them first hand so people understand the engineering behind them.”

Max Conze, chief executive officer at Dyson, adds that the space will help to educate visitors about the “fundamentally different ways” that Dyson technology works, and will “bring engineering to life”.

The space will also be used for engineering workshops for school children during holidays, hosted by the James Dyson Foundation.

The Dyson Demo concept was originally created in Paris, France in 1999, also designed by WilkinsonEyre. A space was created in Tokyo, Japan last year, and in Jakarta, Indonesia earlier this year. Dyson hopes to roll out more Demo retail spaces worldwide, including in the U.S.

The interactive learning environment concept is similar to that of Apple, which opened a San Francisco learning space earlier this year. The first similar conceptual Apple store was opened in 2001.

The Dyson Demo London retail space is based at 447 Oxford Street, London and opens 6 July.

The post Dyson “brings engineering to life” with new London store appeared first on Design Week.

 
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/4-10-july-2016/doppler-labs-set-launch-earphones-can-customise-sound-around/  
Doppler Labs set to launch earphones that can control background noise  

Doppler Labs has designed a set of sound-customising earphones, which can be used for everything from dealing with an open office to amplifying hearing.

The product includes two wireless bluetooth earbuds and a connected mobile app that use Doppler Labs' sound-morphing technology.

A limited release of 10,000 of its first generation Hear Active Listening earphones were distributed in January to people including early backers and professional musicians.

Tested out at festivals like Coachella

They had several features, including real-world volume control, EQ and sound effects.

The earphones were tried out at events such as LA music festival, Coachella, where users were able to customise their festival experience by altering sound settings such as the bass level.

While Hear Active Listening received positive feedback when it came to music functionality, the tech company's focus for the second generation Here One earphones was more on everyday use.

Adaptive filtering and layered listening

Features include highly targeted adaptive filtering, meaning that the wearer will be able to block out or turn down sounds such as sirens or crying babies, as well as layered listening that blends the sound coming from the headphones with the outside world.

This means that in the future you could be watching a baseball game in person while having commentary layered over the top.

Here One goes on sale to the public in November, and will cost $299 (£228).

The post Doppler Labs set to launch earphones that can control background noise appeared first on Design Week.

 
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http://thenextweb.com/dd/2016/07/05/android-encryption-problem-qualcomm/  
Android's latest encryption problem may make you want a new phone  

Android has a problem. New research shows that the mobile operating system's encryption can be bypassed using a fairly straightforward brute force method. The hack Brute force is actually pretty simple; heck, you may have even done it yourself and not known about it. All it really means is that you try repeatedly to enter the correct password (you know, like when you forget a password to an online account and just keep trying). Though Android uses a strong 2048-bit RSA key in addition to your password, devices using a Qualcomm processor (read: most modern Android devices) are at risk.…

This story continues at The Next Web  
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http://thenextweb.com/la/2016/07/05/tech-latin-america-june-2016/  
Tech in Latin America: Uber beta-tests its helicopter service  

June was a fairly busy month for Latin American tech scene, with perhaps fewer acquisitions than in other months but a fairly number of funding rounds, and mixed messages on how Brazil's current situation will affect the sector. Here's the news you don't want to miss: Big players Google inaugurated its São Paulo Campus, its sixth location following London, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Madrid and Warsaw, and its first one in Latin America. Its opening had been delayed earlier this year due to unspecified setbacks. As its other global counterparts, it will serve as a co-working space, meeting location and event venue.…

This story continues at The Next Web  
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http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/07/05/microsoft-xbox-wheelchairs/  
Microsoft's adding a wheelchair option for Xbox avatars, which is awesome  

In an upcoming update for Xbox, Microsoft is adding wheelchairs as a new accessory option for gamer avatars. Mike Ybarra, Partner Director of Program Management, Xbox and Windows Platform at Microsoft, tweeted a sneak preview of the avatars earlier today with options available on both female and male characters. @XboxP3 @goldennike11 @SeamusBlackley Sneak peek… ? pic.twitter.com/szoTUGR6ef — ♏️ike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) July 5, 2016 It's a move that echoed the sentiments from Lego, which added a wheelchair figurine to its lineup earlier this year. Parents of disabled children and disabled gamers themselves have long petitioned for better representation in toys, so it's…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/offers/2016/07/05/browse-privately-securely-hidemyass-vpn-now-55-off/  
Browse privately and securely with HideMyAss! VPN (now 55% off)  

In today's world, data breaches are becoming a common occurrence. There are countless ways our privacy can get violated, whether it's government agencies tracking our every click, or ad networks bombarding us with remarketing ads. As a result, public Wi-Fi has become a playground for digital criminals. So has your supposedly private Wi-Fi, come to think of it. (Is anything sacred anymore?) Luckily, HideMyAss! VPN exists to effectively mask your online activity. A two-year subscription to this premium service is now $69.99, or a whopping 55% off from TNW Deals. This premium VPN service works by routing your browsing traffic…

This story continues at The Next Web  
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http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/07/05/achievement-unlocked-nasas-juno-spaceship-now-jupiters-orbit/  
Achievement unlocked: NASA's Juno spaceship is now in Jupiter's orbit  

Nearly five years after it was first launched in August 2011, NASA's Juno spaceship has finally entered Jupiter's orbit. At 11:53PM ET/8:53PM PT, the space agency received confirmation that the spacecraft had turned on its main engine, which burned for 35 minutes to slow down and allow Juno to be drawn in by Jupiter's gravitational pull. Engine burn complete and orbit obtained. I'm ready to unlock all your secrets, #Jupiter. Deal with it. — NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) July 5, 2016 It's a monumental achievement for NASA: the feat saw Juno cover 445 million miles in space to get closer to Jupiter than…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/europeanspaceagency/28029987371/  
Slovenia signs Association Agreement  

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

Slovenian Minister of Economic Development and Technology, Zdravko Počivalšek (left), and ESA Director General Johann-Dietrich Woerner, with the Association Agreement for Slovenia at the official signing ceremony at ESA Headquarters in Paris, on 5 July 2016.

Read more:
Slovenia signs Association Agreement

Credit: ESA

 
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/T8UBeO9kDMg/view-nasa-tvs-play-by-play-july-4th-coverage-of-juno-spacecrafts-arrival-at-jupiter-new-answers-to-o.html  
VIEW: NASA TV's PLAY-by-PLAY JULY 4TH COVERAGE of Juno Spacecraft's Arrival at Jupiter --"New Answers to Ongoing Mysteries"  
 
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/tYZtkcn7k9w/mystery-of-the-great-attractor-unknown-force-pulling-milky-way-towards-it-with-the-force-of-a-millio.html  
Mystery of The Great Attractor --"Unknown Force Pulling Our Milky Way Galaxy Towards It With the Force of a Million Billion Suns" (Today's Most Popular)  
 
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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/112027109460588722/  
Work on NASA's InSig  
Work on NASA's InSight Lander Starts New Phase Technicians in a Lockheed Martin clean room near Denver prepare NASA's InSight Mars lander for propulsion proof and leak testing.  
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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/354095589435260190/  
Syrphid fly (Parasyr  

Syrphid fly (Parasyrphus nigritarsis) collected in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, and photographed at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (sample ID: BIOUG07948-D02; specimen record: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=SSJAE1806-13; BIN: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:AAL3230)

 
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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/112027109460588705/  
Ready for lift off.  
Ready for lift off. 9/2/15  
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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/281543706138527/  
Lifeguard station at  
Lifeguard station at Lummus Park in South Beach, Miami, Florida (© Image: Travelpix Ltd/Getty Images; Video/Sound: Shutterstock/Getty; Music: “Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa) 2016-07-04 [www.bing.com/search]  
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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/281543706138528/  
Exterior of the Musé  
Exterior of the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, France (© Trevor Hunt/Getty Images) 2016-07-05 [www.bing.com/search]  
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https://medium.com/kickstarter/eat-your-heart-out-how-automne-zingg-turned-heartache-into-a-series-of-deliciously-funny-drawings-161773583b3e?source=rss----b48742a6a63d---4  
Eat Your Heart Out: How Automne Zingg Turned Heartache Into a Series of Deliciously Funny Drawings  
 
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http://journal.benbashford.com/post/146943974848  
We asked Don what he feels about the way people are using terms...  

We asked Don what he feels about the way people are using terms like “UX” and “user experience” these days.

 
technology  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2096187-deep-sea-alliance-set-to-probe-earths-final-frontier%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Deep-sea alliance set to probe Earth's final frontier  
A new international effort to survey the depths of the ocean will kick off with submersible dives in Bermuda this month  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPhysicsWorld%2F%7E3%2FsNyA5Ogd1I4%2Fnasas-juno-craft-arrives-at-jupiter&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
NASA's Juno craft arrives at Jupiter  
$1.1bn mission will study the origin and inner structure of the largest planet in our solar system  
science  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPhysicsWorld%2F%7E3%2FtddxkVjn05c%2Fcomputational-and-experimental-studies-of-microtubules-and-microtubule-based-motor-proteins&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Computational and Experimental Studies of Microtubules and Microtubule based Motor Proteins  
Conference: 14 Dec 2016, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Organized by Prof. Ambarish Kunwar.  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seattletimes.com%2Fnation-world%2Fphotos-of-the-day-july-5-2016%2F%3Futm_source%3DRSS%26utm_medium%3DReferral%26utm_campaign%3DRSS_photos-of-the-day&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Photos of the Day: July 5, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F161710787%2Fgoosenecks-by-matt-lief-anderson&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Goosenecks by Matt Lief Anderson  

Goosenecks by Matt Lief Anderson

One of the best places in America to camp. You can set your tent up right on the lip of the canyon.

Matt Lief Anderson: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fmarco18678%2F27827469100%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Ruined fairytale  

marco18678 posted a photo:

 
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/jul/05/steve-bells-if-chilco-the-hott-questions-sith-lord-tony-blair  
Steve Bell's If ... Chilco the Hott questions Sith Lord Tony Blair  
Continue reading...  
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/jul/04/steve-bell-on-nigel-farages-resignation-cartoon  
Steve Bell on Nigel Farage's resignation cartoon  
Continue reading...  
culture  

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/J7BqdweMsiM/  
The Heroic Art of Agnes Martin  
Martin was interested not in discord but in harmony. While Jackson Pollock said he was nature, Martin strove to represent how nature made her feel or should make us feel—humble, free. Nature was to her what it was to Ralph Waldo Emerson's “transparent eye” in his transcendentalist masterpiece, “Nature” (1836)—a space unrivaled in its ability to inspire and transform.  
culture  

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/jul/04/steve-bells-if-chilcot-the-hott-comes-for-sith-lord-tony-blair  
Steve Bell's If ... Chilcot the Hott comes for Sith Lord Tony Blair  
Continue reading...  
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/kzHOcxKgTrY/  
Photographing the Psyche  
During photography's early days in the mid-nineteenth century, the photographic portrait was expected to convey neutrality. But Marcel Sternberger, the leading portrait photographer of his generation, who photographed some of the most celebrated icons of the 1930s to 1950s, used psychological techniques to create a photograph representative of his subject's inner state. Though Sternberger has since faded into obscurity, many of his portraits have not.  
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https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/03/notes-on-blindness-john-hull-review-mark-kermode  
Notes on Blindness review seeing the light despite the darkness  
The fear of losing one's sight is perfectly captured in an inspiring docudrama about author and academic John Hull

Cinema's paradoxical fascination with sightlessness has spawned movies as diverse as Terence Young's 1967 thriller Wait Until Dark, Takeshi Kitano's 2003 martial-arts actioner Zatôichi and Eskil Vogt's prurient 2014 psychodrama Blind. Yet few films have portrayed the absence of vision with any degree of insight. Honourable exceptions include British film-maker Gary Tarn's 2005 documentary Black Sun, an electrifying, expressionist portrait of painter and photographer Hugues de Montalembert, who found new ways of seeing after being blinded by a violent attack in 1978.

The film highlights the growing tactility of Hull's world, closing in on the sources of sound

Related: John Hull obituary

Continue reading...  
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/7XvqJFX_CIg/  
Police Injustice: How the Court Fails  
Though it has just concluded a term in which its rulings have advanced the cause of justice, the Supreme Court continues to approach criminal justice cases without confronting the reality of race-based policing, as in the decision issued in the second-to-last week of the term, Utah v. Strife. As a result, the rules it promulgates too often exacerbate rather than curtail discriminatory law enforcement.  
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160705092238.htm  
Let there be light: Super bright galaxies of the early Universe  
Astronomers have shed further light on the evolution of the early Universe with the discovery of a "team" of super bright galaxies.  
astronomy  

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160705092009.htm  
Making astrophysical simulations more accurate  
New research may result in better simulations of large astrophysical events such as supernova explosions. This work also raises hopes of finding out more about how atomic nuclei behave in neutron stars.  
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http://wallpapermag.tumblr.com/post/146945623438  
Katharina Grosse creates a seafront installation at NY's Fort...  

Katharina Grosse creates a seafront installation at NY's Fort Tilden

 
design  

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https://dribbble.com/shots/2818547-Untime-Logo-Animation-gif  
Untime - Logo Animation [gif]  

Hey guys!

We've made rebranding couple weeks ago and currently we're working on other assets of our identity.
Here is our new animated logo and I'm really excited to share it with you.

You can find some design processes here: https://www.behance.net/gallery/38748657/Untime-Rebranding

 
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310  

310

 
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/CvjTo7040T0/  
Money: The Brave New Uncertainty of Mervyn King  
In The End of Alchemy, the former governor of the Bank of England takes a brave position that should produce a lot of soul-searching among both economists and policy officials.  
culture  

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/jun/30/steve-bell-on-the-conservative-leadership-campaign-cartoon  
Steve Bell on the Conservative leadership campaign cartoon  
Continue reading...  
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/wlKyD-pR_1M/  
The Mind: Less Puzzling in Chinese?  
Are people who think in Indo-European languages better off because their languages lead them to a clear conceptualization of an important puzzle? Or are thinkers in Chinese better off because their language gets them through life equally well without the puzzle?  
culture  

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/jun/30/steve-bells-if-obi-jez-corbyn-is-invited-to-fall-on-his-lightsaber  
Steve Bell's If ... Obi-Jez Corbyn invited to fall on his lightsaber  
Continue reading...  
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/jun/29/steve-bell-cameron-corbyn-pmqs-cartoon  
Steve Bell on Cameron and Corbyn's exchange in PMQs cartoon  
Continue reading...  
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/He7LQNSYnp4/  
Living Dangerously with Donizetti  
While Beverly Sills claimed that Roberto Devereux “was both the greatest artistic challenge and the finest achievement of my career,” she also acknowledged that it shortened her career by at least four years—a price that she was happy to pay.  
culture  

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/goLwfbFcewE/  
Weiner!  
Anthony Weiner is a secret everyman. He was seen as a hero, then a fallen hero, then a hero for redeeming himself by acknowledging his weakness and getting back into the ring. He captured the political imagination of New Yorkers with this narrative. But nobody likes a fool, least of all New Yorkers, and Anthony Weiner made a fool of himself.  
culture  

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/Og9nqf3-7HI/  
A Hater for All Seasons  
Trump's use of objective correlatives lets him avoid expressing hate openly except for about things everyone is opposed to—and allows him to adjust the meaning of his hate depending on his current poll numbers. He does not hate blacks, he just questions those who hide their origins. He isn't against all Muslims, just those from the “terror countries.” He does not oppose all women, just pigs (who likes pigs?); or all Mexicans, just rapists (who defends rapists?).  
culture  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedaily.com%2Freleases%2F2016%2F07%2F160705120145.htm&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Mammals diversified only after dinosaur extinction left space  
Humans' early mammal relatives likely diversified 66 million years ago, after the extinction of dinosaurs opened up space for animals such as big cats, horses, elephants and eventually apes to evolve.  
gaia  

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Warming pulses in ancient climate record link volcanoes, asteroid impact and dinosaur-killing mass extinction  
A new reconstruction of Antarctic ocean temperatures around the time the dinosaurs disappeared 66 million years ago supports the idea that one of the planet's biggest mass extinctions was due to the combined effects of volcanic eruptions and an asteroid impact.  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedaily.com%2Freleases%2F2016%2F07%2F160705111913.htm&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Evolutionary split up without geographic barriers  
Evolutionary biologists have completed the most extensive study of sympatric speciation so far. They used around 20,000 characteristics of 450 fish to document the parallel evolution of cichlid fish in two crater lakes, Apoyo and Xiloá, in Nicaragua.  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2096178-zambia-to-push-ahead-with-controversial-plan-to-cull-2000-hippos%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Zambia to push ahead with controversial plan to cull 2000 hippos  
Plan to kill 2000 hippos over five years may be going ahead after all, despite its suspension in June and objections by animal welfare groups  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Feric-holt-gimenez%2F2016-world-food-prize-mor_b_10777302.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
2016 World Food Prize: More Genewashing?  
Yet again, the World Food Prize has lent its global pulpit to the biotech brigade.

On Tuesday, June 28, Drs. Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga, Jan Low, and Howarth Bouis were crowned the 2016 World Food Prize Laureates during a ceremony at the U.S. State Department. Titled "Biofortification Pioneers", their combined efforts have been heralded as potentially impacting over 10 million rural poor across Africa, Asia and Latin America through biofortification, the process of scientifically breeding vitamins and nutrients into staple crops.

The significance of two African World Food Prize Laureates cannot be understated. They are, as the website states, "working on solutions to tackle malnutrition in Africa, for Africa".

But financial sponsors of the technology have largely come from outside of Africa -- the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the United States Department of Agriculture, the United Kingdom Department of International Development, the International Fertilizer Group and large agribusiness corporations such as Syngenta, DuPont and Monsanto, to name but a few.

The integrity of the 2016 scientist-laureates is beyond question. And biofortification seems laudable. Who can argue with the moral imperative of addressing "hidden hunger" in the world food system?

Lots of people, it turns out. Why? Because cramming more nutrients into food crops doesn't address the causes of nutrient deficiencies, nor why some populations, like the peasant farmers who grow these food crops, are nutrient deficient in the first place.

The biofortification project is stuck in a bigger web of money, power and politics.

When hidden hunger is reduced to a problem of micronutrient deficiencies, addressing hunger serves a political and economic function: First, it gives power and profit to whomever provides the micronutrients. Second, it masks the ways the global food system has destroyed traditional sources of nutrients and impoverished people's diets. The exclusive focus on the 'baffling scarcity' of nutrients enables food industries and biotechnology corporations to sell more products. It also allows governments to depoliticize the causes of world hunger and nutrient deficiency by recasting it as a technical problem to be solved by technical solutions rather structural measures like land reform, market reforms or living wages.

The biofortification project is just one chapter in a much broader history of the corporate colonization of both agriculture and diets. If "Biofortification Pioneers" can solve world hunger, as the World Food Prize would have us believe, hunger is simply about getting the science right. This suggests that hunger is caused by no one and nothing -- but that science can solve it. If solving hunger is simply a matter of getting the science right, governments can squelch political dissent and corporations can continue dispossessing farmers of land, water and genetic resources. If ending hunger is about better science, it's not about the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer. If hunger is about science, it's not about the destruction of rural communities or the exploitation and marginalization of peasants, underserved communities and people of color. But hunger is about those things -- and more.

People are hungry because they cannot afford to buy food, not because science hasn't figured out what to feed them. This is a political, not a technical problem.

The World Food Prize can celebrate corporate science if they want. In the mean time, we'll keep working on hunger -- and the political transformations needed to end it.

With Ahna Kruzic and Eva Perroni

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Unraveling the genes for sexual traits in stag beetles  
Scientists have built a gene expression database of a stag beetle and identified genes important for sex determination and differentiation.  
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To these flies, cicada sounds are like love songs  
A fly known as Emblemasoma erro uses sound, not smell, to locate its cicada hosts. And it's not just gravid females that are lured by the cicadas' songs -- males are also attracted to the sound, possibly in order to hook up with females.  
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Day-biting invasive mosquito species spreading its range in Austria  
Until a few years ago the Asian bush mosquito, Aedes japonicus, was not yet present in Europe. Now it is spreading its range in several European countries, including Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Ae. japonicus no longer is an exotic guest it is here to stay.  
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ExxonMobil May Have Friends In High Places, But Fraud Is Not Constitutionally Protected  

House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith is harassing state attorneys general investigating ExxonMobil for misleading investors about climate risks.

When a handful of attorneys general launched investigations of ExxonMobil for climate fraud, I wonder if they had any idea that they would be attacked for attempting to stifle the company's right of free speech.

After all, if ExxonMobil publicly downplayed warnings by its own scientists about the threat posed by burning fossil fuels in its communications with investors and the general public, it very well may have committed fraud, which is not protected by the First Amendment.

Legal experts have cited the case against the tobacco industry as an apt analogy. For years, tobacco companies emphasized uncertainty about their products' risks to stave off government regulations. ExxonMobil essentially has been doing the same thing.

Regardless, attorneys general from 13 states and more than a dozen members of the House Science Committee have entered the fray on ExxonMobil's behalf, all making the same indefensible First Amendment argument. And -- surprise, surprise -- most of them are climate science deniers who get significant campaign funding from fossil fuel companies and electric utilities.

'AGs United for Dirty Power' Strikes Back

In late March, 17 attorneys general announced the formation of the AGs United for Clean Power coalition to defend the new federal rule curbing power plant carbon emissions and investigate energy companies for fraud. So far, coalition attorneys general from California, Massachusetts, New York and the Virgin Islands have opened investigations of ExxonMobil, and more are likely in the offing.

In response, Attorneys General Luther Strange of Alabama and Ken Paxton of Texas filed an intervention plea in May in a Texas district court on behalf of ExxonMobil to quash one of the investigations. They then followed up with a June 15 letter to AGs United for Clean Power cosigned by 11 other state prosecutors calling for an end to the ExxonMobil probes. The group -- essentially "AGs United for Dirty Power" -- maintained "[u]sing law enforcement authority to resolve a public policy debate undermines the trust invested in our offices and threatens free speech."

Just whose interests are Strange et al. representing?

Strange has been Alabama's attorney general since 2010. In 2014, his reelection campaign contributors included the American Coal Association, American Gas Association and Koch Industries, but his biggest energy industry supporter was Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation's largest electric utilities. Three Southern coal-fired power plants are the biggest carbon emitters in the country.

Paxton, meanwhile, received more money from the oil and gas industry than any other sector when he first ran for attorney general in 2014. His benefactors included Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Koch Industries, Marathon Oil and Phillips 66. ExxonMobil sat out Paxton's 2014 campaign, but the company contributed to his campaigns when he served in the Texas statehouse.

Eight other attorneys general who signed the Strange-Paxton letter also enjoy fossil fuel industry support. Jeff Landry of Louisiana and Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma pulled in the most contributions. Landry's 2015 campaign was funded by more than 40 oil and gas companies, including Halliburton, Hilcorp Energy, Koch Industries and Phillips 66. Pruitt's 2014 campaign, meanwhile, was backed by American Electric Power, Arch Coal, Chesapeake Energy, Devon Energy, Koch Industries, Marathon Petroleum and ... ExxonMobil.

Not surprising, AGs United for Dirty Power prosecutors are not only going to bat for ExxonMobil, they are running interference for the coal industry, too. Eleven of the 13 attorneys general on the letter, including Strange, Paxton, Landry and Pruitt, are among the more than two dozen AGs who have sued the Environmental Protection Agency to block the Clean Power Plan, the new federal power plant carbon emissions rule.

ExxonMobil-Funded Reps Defend ExxonMobil

House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith also leapt to the defense of the oil giant. In mid-May, Smith and 12 other committee members sent letters to the AGs United for Clean Power coalition and eight foundations and nonprofit groups, including 350.org, Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists, demanding they turn over all documents and communications related to their efforts to hold ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies accountable for climate science deceptions. Echoing the Strange-Paxton argument, their letters charged that the attorneys general and the nonprofits are trying to "silence speech."

Twelve of the 13 signatories -- including Smith -- received campaign contributions from ExxonMobil since the 2010 election cycle, and 10 of them got donations from Koch Industries.

The 17 AGs United for Clean Power members and other recipients of Smith et al.'s request refused to comply. In separate letters, they explained that the aim of the ExxonMobil investigations is to determine whether the company provided investors and the public with accurate information and reminded Smith and his colleagues that the First Amendment does not protect fraud. They maintained that Congress has no jurisdiction over state law enforcement activities and therefore has no right to demand documents and communications. Finally, they pointed out that -- ironically enough -- the committee's request threatens the nonprofit advocacy groups' First Amendment rights of free speech and association.

Indeed, the allegation that the attorneys general investigating ExxonMobil and the nonprofit organizations that have provided them information are somehow infringing on the company's free speech rights is absurd. No corporation has a First Amendment right to deliberately misinform about the harm associated with its product, and attorneys general have every right to investigate whether a company's actions amount to fraud. Likewise, attorneys general have the right to consult with experts either publicly or confidentially in the course of their investigations. Moreover, the nonprofits singled out by Smith et al. have the right and responsibility to provide information to state prosecutors when they have reason to suspect corporate wrongdoing.

How did Smith react to this resounding rejection? On June 17, he and 16 other House Science Committee members sent a second round of letters to AGs United for Clean Power, the foundations and the nonprofit groups, again asking for documents related to the investigations. And again the recipients said no.

What's next? Will Strange and Paxton intervene in court again to try to stop another ExxonMobil investigation? Will Smith, who has a history of harassing federal climate scientists with subpoenas, resort to that tactic to force compliance with his request? Just how far will fossil fuel industry-funded elected officials go to protect one of the biggest carbon polluters in the world?

Elliott Negin is a senior writer at the Union of Concerned Scientists. All federal campaign contribution data came from the Center for Responsive Politics. All state campaign contribution data came from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Mary Anne Hitt: Europe's Dark Cloud and Its Silver Lining  
As a mom, an activist, and a part of the fight against dangerous, destructive coal projects here in the U.S., I know just how deadly coal pollution is...

Read more: Energy, Environment, Coal, Sierra Club, International Energy Policy, Europe, Green News

 
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Aaron Niederhelman: Regenerative Resources: OneHealth Of Future Food  
I believe that collectively it's the opportunities in the free-market to deal with concerns of climate, water and biodiversity in a most pragmatic way to drive change.

Read more: Environment, Sustainable Food, Water, Green News

 
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Mary Ellen Hannibal: Stand By Me  
Maybe it's because the word refers to the ultimate oblivion, or maybe it's because most of us think of polar bears stranded on melting icebergs when we hear about "extinction," but many of us assume the curtailing of life forever is a remote phenomenon.

Read more: Albatross, Holy Moli, P-22, Mountain Lions, When Mountain Lions Are Neighbors, Hob Osterlund, Beth Pratt-Bergstrom, Beaver, Ringtail, Bear, Endangered Species, Extinction, Loss, E.O. Wilson, Beverly Hills, Paul Ehrlich, Green News

 
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Turtle herpes outbreak hints at Great Barrier Reef contamination  
Tumours linked to herpesvirus are increasingly affecting some populations of turtles in Australia and Florida and pollution may be the cause  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2F2016%2Fjul%2F05%2Fdolly-the-sheep-creator-calls-for-biobank-to-save-endangered-animals&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Dolly the Sheep creator calls for biobank to save endangered animals  

Sir Ian Wilmut said building an ‘ark' that preserves material from at-risk species could save them from extinction

A modern-day “ark” that holds tissues from endangered animals should be built as an insurance policy to save species from extinction, Sir Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the Sheep, has said.

A biobank that preserves sperm, eggs and other material from at-risk animals would ensure that scientists had the biological tissues at hand to resurrect extinct creatures once the means to do so exists, the Edinburgh researcher said.

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Caribbean island's last two rare frogs are reunited  

Male and female mountain chicken frogs that were sole survivors of deadly disease are hoped to begin breeding on Montserrat for the first time since 2009

The last two remaining wild mountain chicken frogs living on Montserrat have been reunited, and are hoped to begin breeding on the Caribbean island for the first time since 2009.

Last month, a project took the last female and relocated her into the territory of the remaining male as part of a 20-year recovery plan for the species, one of the world's largest and rarest frogs that exists on just two Caribbean islands, Montserrat and Dominica.

Related: Montserrat's last two mountain chicken frogs to be reunited to save species

Related: Montserrat: Rare mountain chicken frogs airlifted from path of deadly fungus

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"Independence Day": Core Values  
They're baaaaack. Just when you thought humanity's future was already dimmed with tough problems like climate change, terrorism and reality TV, bad guys from a distant planet show up to ruin everyone's whole summer. It's "Independence Day: Resurgence."

What's the deal? It seems that the invading aliens, with their ugly praying mantis heads and restless flagella for swatting flies, are here for... our planet's core. That's right: They've come to pump out the Earth.

Two decades ago these same aggressive aliens swooped down on our planet like space-faring locusts, to stripmine our resources and obliterate life. Not the gentlest of agendas for sure. One of the truly memorable lines in the original "Independence Day" was uttered when the U.S. president, clearly discomfited by the havoc and destruction, asked these unattractive creatures "What do you want us to do?" The answer was both candid and concise: "Die."

Bummer. But twenty years later, getting rid of us is not what drove them to drive here. They want Earth's core as an energy source for their spacecraft.

Now that's an interesting idea that might qualify as the mother of all fracking schemes. But what in Earth's core could interest these interstellar insectoids anyway? Is there some terrific source of energy hunkered down in our planet's hot-and-heavy center?

Well, since the 1930s we've known that there are actually two cores down there, imaginatively known as the inner and the outer. Both are mostly metal -- iron and nickel. Thanks to the pressure of all that's above it, the inner core is a solid sphere about 1500 miles in diameter. It's a hot, supersized cannonball that would be difficult to pump out, for sure. Imagine trying to get the pit out of an avocado with a hypodermic needle.

The outer core, a gooey layer roughly 1,400 miles thick that surrounds the inner core, is liquid and less dense. Not liquid like water of course, but more akin to the hot magma that oozes out of volcanoes. It's this layer -- one presumes -- that is the target of the aliens' unauthorized drilling project.

But how do you power your interstellar spacecraft with molten metal? Iron, it turns out, is the most stable of the elements -- you can't fission it or fuse it. But of course there is all that heat energy, given that the outer core is a scalding 7,000 F or more. You can compute just how much heat energy we're talking about using nothing more than freshman physics, and it works out to 800 thousand joules per pound.

Admittedly, that's not a number you'll be bandying about at the water cooler, but I urge you to compare it to the energy per pound of regular-test gasoline, which is 22 million joules.

In other words, this is more than a misguided alien attempt to purloin low-test fuel from Earth: they're going for no-test.

Clearly, this doesn't make too much sense. (Which could be said of the aliens' military technologies, too. But there's no time for that now.)

Then again, let's be fair: There aren't many movie-goers who expect "Independence Day" to be an extra credit exercise in STEM education. And frankly, leaving aside all the funky science, the cosmic-scale visual imagery of this sci-fi potboiler is worth the admission. For fans of the original film, there's the pleasure of seeing the always-compelling Brent Spiner topped by his now-trademark Leonardo da Vinci hairdo. And everyone can enjoy the offhand personality of Jeff Goldblum who, I note, is still able to amble double-jointed into any scene.

Undoubtedly you'll sleep better at night knowing that Earth's core -- while handy for keeping our planet's magnetic field going -- is unlikely bait for mucus-riddled visitors from afar. Just keep them away from your local service station.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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How to Turn Anxiety Into Excitement  

Trying to calm down during a bout of anxiety is likely futile. Instead, try saying: “I am excited.” Because anxiety and excitement are both arousal emotions and have similar symptoms, it's easier to get from one to the other than to completely shift gears into calmness. In this short video, staff writer Olga Khazan explores this theory with Alison Wood Brooks, a professor at Harvard Business School who has researched this phenomenon, and tests it out for herself at karaoke.

 
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The Russia Paradox: How To Deal with an Aggressive, Yet Weak Power  
Ahead of this week's NATO summit in Warsaw, what is the best way to proceed with Russia? Which aims should the West and the Kremlin be pursuing? And what can be done to end the current crisis? One thing is clear: We need strategic patience.  
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After five years of travel to Jupiter, NASA's Juno spacecraft...  

After five years of travel to Jupiter, NASA's Juno spacecraft entered into the massive planet's orbit late last night. For a sense of scale, the Great Red Spot you can see here at bottom left is far larger than all of planet Earth! Jupiter was most likely the first planet formed after our sun and the technology aboard Juno could lead us to have a better understanding of the origins of our solar system. This Overview was created from a composite of imagery fro the Hubble Telescope that shows the entire surface of the planet at once. /// The focus of Daily Overview is usually on Earth, but this exciting event inspired us to look outwards for a moment, rather than back at ourselves. Beyond changing the way we see our planet, we believe an inquisitive gaze into the greater universe that surrounds us can do wonders for our yearning to explore and to help us find the perspective that we need. /// Image courtesy of @NASA

 
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PBS Kinda Sorta Faked Its July 4 Fireworks Show  
After being called out for editing its live broadcast of the fireworks in Washington, DC, to show fireworks bursting in clear air — on a night in which the weather was dominated by fog, low clouds and misting rain — PBS called it "the patriotic thing to do."  
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Kai Surf by Blaine Connolly  

Kai Surf by Blaine Connolly

Blaine Connolly: Photos

 
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r0B0t: Bringing home a robot baby  
Roboticist Angelica Lim programmes robots to be more human - what happened when she brought one home?  
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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jul/03/essex-cork-house-redshanks-stilts-marcus-taylor-lisa-shell  
Redshank beach house review in deepest Essex, cork tiles are back  

This bijou coastal retreat on stilts owes a debt to wartime sea forts

Dotted about the coastal waters of Britain, in the approaches to major ports, are some of the most astounding and least visited works of 20th-century architecture. These are the Maunsell sea forts, platforms for anti-aircraft guns built in the second world war, posses of four-legged pods that stand in the sea like HG Wells aliens gone for a paddle. They have been influential, especially on the 1960s visionaries Archigram, who in turn inspired the hi-tech architecture of Richard Rogers and others.

The sea forts lie behind Archigram's most potent single idea, for “Walking Cities”, which fantasised about buildings wandering the Earth. Which never happened, but now another Maunsell-flavoured future has arrived, if rather small, in the form of a seaside retreat on stilts for an artist couple, designed by the architect Lisa Shell. One aspect undreamt by futurists of the past is that an artefact of the 21st century should come covered (as it is) in such a venerable material as cork.

The cork permits the fantasy that, if the floods got really bad, the building could float away

It is an arresting fusion of nature and technology, of shelter and exposure

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/01/the-soup-kitchen-putting-londons-air-quality-on-the-menu  
The soup kitchen putting London's air quality on the menu  

Free colour-coded menu is changed daily according to air pollution levels at pop-up scheme that aims to raise awareness of problem

“I see the air is good today,” says the security guard, as he sips his cup of bright green pea soup. “I can tell by the flavour.”

Staff and visitors here at the central London headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) have been treated to daily free soup from the Pea Soup House, a pop-up installation in the lobby that serves colour-coded soup which matches the government's Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI).

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jun/28/stavros-niarchos-foundation-cultural-centre-renzo-piano-athens  
Empty gesture? Renzo Piano's €600m cultural Acropolis for austerity Athens  

It was launched to great fanfare. But now the 20-hectare temple to culture stands vacant, its shelves built for 2 million books empty, its gates locked. Can this wildly ambitious civic gesture succeed?

A wafer-thin canopy floats at the top of a hill in Athens, hovering like a sheet of paper caught in the coastal breeze. Held in place by a gossamer grid of columns and wires, and crowned with a central mast, the structure has more in common with the world of sails and rigging in the nearby harbour than the weighty domain of buildings on land a feeling that might be explained by the preoccupation of its designer, Renzo Piano.

“What I really do in life is sailing,” says the 78-year-old Genoese architect, standing on the roof of his latest €600m cultural complex, which combines a new national library and opera house in one gargantuan artificial hillside, topped with the thinnest concrete roof the world has ever seen. “The ingredients are the same in architecture: light and air and breeze.”

Making a good building is an important civic gesture. It makes you believe in a better world

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Science and Sustainability Management: Twenty Years of Columbia's Earth Institute  
This fall, Columbia University's Earth Institute will mark its 20th anniversary. I have been reflecting on what we have accomplished in both research and education over these past twenty years. There were two central ideas that animated the creation of this university-wide institute. The first was to promote basic understanding of earth system science, and the second was to apply that knowledge to decisions made by governments and businesses around the world. To build the institute, we began the process of creating a community of environmental scientists, social scientists, lawyers, policy and management analysts, health experts, and engineers who came to know each other and together engage in scholarship. What we have twenty years later is a uniquely interdisciplinary institute and a world leader in the basic and applied knowledge required to achieve sustainability.

The Earth Institute seeks to match the complexity of the challenges of global sustainability with a holistic approach that transcends particular academic disciplines and the traditional intellectual boundaries of schools and departments. We now offer a model for the collaboration of faculty and researchers that is unique in its reach and effectiveness--not only within our university, but also globally. We have a long history of research focused on understanding the planet; at our core is the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which has been seeking fundamental knowledge about the natural world since 1949. Lamont is the scientific heart of the Earth Institute. Another key aspect of our work is our willingness to engage directly with stakeholders in practical efforts to improve environmental quality by introducing new approaches to addressing real-world problems. We evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies and try to learn from our successes and failures.

We also created a number of education programs that require students to learn environmental science and social science along with applied policy and management analysis: the Master of Public Administration (MPA) in Environmental Science and Policy, the undergraduate major in Sustainable Development, the Master of Science in Sustainability Management, the Master of Arts in Climate and Society, the MPA in Development Practice, and the PhD in Sustainable Development. Another new science-based master's degree is now under development by research faculty at our Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which will apply cutting-edge environmental science, observation, and analytic methods to the real-world sustainability challenges faced by government and industry.

Each of these educational programs requires master's students, undergraduates, and doctoral students to learn about the physical dimensions of sustainability. The curriculum of these programs recognizes the need for corporate and government decision makers to know enough science to manage the work of scientists. In a world that is constantly increasing its organizational and technological complexity, we need managers who understand both management and science. This requires education programs that emphasize the complex and systemic nature of sustainability issues and focus on the practical skills necessary to deal with such issues.

CEOs are expected to understand complex business models, finance, performance measures and supply chains, but now also need to learn more about the science and technology the modern global economy depends on. They also need to learn how to gauge the impact of their operations on the ecosphere and the risks posed by ecological disruption on their organizations. Our education programs are an effort to address the needs of the growing renewable resource-based economy and the important role of today's professionals in engaging, managing, and regulating sustainability practices.

This same theme of increased complexity also drives our interdisciplinary research agenda. We produce the science that's necessary to understand how the planet works and how human beings are affecting natural systems. From my perspective, this basic science must form the foundation for the actions that we take to safeguard the planet and to sustain our economy. The Earth Institute's research ranges from the basic science of paleoclimatology, in order to understand the long history of climate change, to hands-on work with local governments to help them improve their daily water supply. We develop earth system models and vulnerability assessments to help adapt to the climate change now underway, as well as forecasting tools that help us develop methods to mitigate climate change. Our research involves an ocean-going vessel that collects data on the ocean and the earth beneath it. We use big data analytics, social impact assessments, economic models, legal evaluations, and mobile applications. We measure arctic ice sheets, conduct fieldwork in rainforests, and strap air monitors on the backpacks of urban high school students. We study earthquake hazards in Bangladesh, melting ecosystems in the Antarctic Peninsula, conservation in Myanmar, forests in Puerto Rico, and sewage in the Hudson River.

But while environmental research is important, so too is the communication of what we learn. When I was in graduate school, the environmental disaster at Love Canal was underway and I observed New York State's health and environmental officials struggle to communicate toxicity data to the residents of Love Canal. When I went to EPA, I was charged with developing a program to manage citizen-government interaction at Superfund's toxic waste sites. We conducted dozens of case studies around the country, and everywhere we looked we observed miscommunication. The political, economic, scientific and emotional dimensions of toxic waste cleanup made reasoned conversation impossible. It was as if stakeholders spoke different languages and required a translator. Misunderstanding and conflict was rampant. As good bureaucrats, we created a new position to help bridge the gap between scientists and non-scientists: the Community Relations Coordinator. Their job was similar to that of a social worker, but instead of navigating the social service system to help people in need, Superfund Community Relations Coordinators would explain environmental science to non-scientists. They would also explain community concerns and values to scientific experts. This need to understand and communicate the basic science of environmental issues was important in the 1980s and is even more important today.

Many of the people leading our corporations and our governments do not have much background in science and technology. Economists, policy scholars, and lawyers who do not understand ecology or environmental science conduct much of the research on environmental policy issues. On the other side of the divide, while environmental science research often has profound implications for public policy or corporate management our scientists struggle to bring that information to bear on decision-making.

You can see that misunderstanding is a two-way street. Scientists are not experts at communicating with decision makers and decision makers are rarely scientific experts. Many scientists do not have a deep understanding of politics, economics, finance or management. Some scientists' lack of sophistication and understanding of how the world is governed has contributed to the denial of climate science by decision makers. When climate scientists present their information and projections on global warming, they often present it along with proposed solutions that are politically or economically infeasible. Before approaching decision makers with scientific results, we need to involve economists, political scientists, lawyers and management experts to develop realistic solutions.

The idea of the Earth Institute was to conduct research that integrates science, policy, and management, and to train students to understand enough science to communicate with scientists and manage their work more effectively. In twenty years we have had many successes and many failures in attempting to work across fields and integrate our efforts. We have also been joined by scores of similar schools and institutes around America and the world. We still have a long way to go, and this task seems more important to me than ever.

It is more important because there are several billion people who want to live like we do in the United States, but do not. Their demands create political pressure for rapid economic development. The World Wide Web has guaranteed that even the poorest people on the planet see the wealth of the developed world. And they want it; if not for them, for their children. So the pressure on the planet's finite resources and on the earth's ecosystems, climate, and water will only increase over the next several decades. To manage the increasing level of economic output without destroying the planet will require a sophisticated understanding of the planet's ecological and environmental dynamics. More importantly, it will also require that this knowledge influence and constrain management decision-making. The Earth Institute's central mission is to work with colleagues around the world to research and develop this base of knowledge. Related to that central mission is our goal of educating students to apply that knowledge in practical, day-to-day decision making.

As exciting as all of this is, our goal is to ensure that the type of questions we ask, the data we collect, the models we build, and the analyses we produce become routine parts of public, NGO, and corporate decision making all over the world. The less novel we become, the more successful we will be. My hope is that business schools, law schools, and public policy schools all over the world start adding science to their curricula. Our goal is for the sustainability offices in many organizations to be integrated into the regular functions of CEOs and COOs. In the 1990s many companies had "international desks" to help navigate the emerging global economy; by 2010 those offices were largely gone. Today, every desk is an international desk. In the next generation I believe that sustainability will become as routine as "international" is today. Managers will need science literacy along with knowledge of global finance, and all competent managers will be sustainability managers.

The key is not to focus on science, technology, engineering, and math in a vacuum. These fields must be connected to creative arts, communication, law, management, and policy analysis. The Earth Institute is trying to make those connections. It's not easy to do, but I believe we are succeeding, and if we are to make the transition to a renewable resource-based economy, we need to develop decision processes and social systems that are rooted in scientific reality.

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Jupiter has new visitor _ a solar-powered spacecraft  
 
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Finding Daft Punk The evolution of electronica  
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Jupiter has new visitor _ a solar-powered spacecraft  
 
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Grade-school students teach a robot to help themselves learn geometry  

Full Text:

Computer technology has become integral to the learning process. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, at the end of the last decade, some 97 percent of U.S. teachers had one or more computers located in the classroom every day, and the ratio of students to computers in the classroom every day was a little over 5 to 1. With the advent of tablet and hand-held computing devices, this ratio is fast approaching 1 to 1. Up until very recently, mainstream educational software for computing devices in the classroom has been designed based upon a style of interaction utilizing the traditional WIMP (window, icon, menu, pointing device) paradigm. Student engagement is then an isolated one-on-one experience, individual student to individual machine. To better engage students with their environment through educational technologies, researchers have begun exploring a variety of solutions that provide more embodied and tangible interactions -- ranging from collaborative activities surrounding an interactive tabletop to interactive robots that teach language learning.

Image credit: Pete Zrioka, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Arizona State University

 
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Plankton  

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A microscopic image of plankton. Plankton (singular plankter) are a diverse group of organisms that live in the water column of large bodies of water and can't swim against a current. They provide a crucial source of food to many large aquatic organisms, such as fish and whales. These organisms include drifting or floating bacteria, archaea, algae, protozoa and animals that inhabit, for example, the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. Essentially, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than any phylogenetic or taxonomic classification. Though many planktonic species are microscopic in size, plankton include organisms covering a wide range of sizes, including large organisms such as jellyfish.

Image credit: NSF Collection

 
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Un nuovo giorno è arrivato / A new day has come (Primrose Hill, London, United Kingdom)  

AndreaPucci posted a photo:

Regno Unito, Londra, Primrose Hill, Inverno 2016

Primrose Hill è una collina di 78,1 metri situata sul lato nord di Regent Park a Londra. Anche il quartiere circostante ha lo stesso nome. Il vertice collina ha una delle migliori viste di Londra. E' una delle zone residenziali più esclusive e costose a Londra e molte celebrità hanno la loro residenza qua vicino. Primrose Hill è stata soggetto diispirazione per film, tv e musica. Gli Oasis hanno scattato qui la foto in bianco e nero per la copertina del singolo "Wonderwall" quella dove una ragazza viene mostrata attraverso una cornice.

Primrose Hill is a hill of 78.1 metres located on the northern side of Regent's Park in London, and also the name given to the surrounding district. The hill summit has one of the best views of London. As one of the most exclusive and expensive residential areas in London and it's home to many celebs. Primrose Hill has been immortalized in movies, tv and music. Oasis took the black and white photo for the cover of the single “Wonderwall” here where a girl is shown through a frame.

 
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How Blockchain Helps Brooklyn Dwellers Use Neighbors' Solar Energy  

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Spacecraft Juno Slows Down for its First Orbit of Jupiter  
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r0B0t: There's a Clear Difference Between Robot-Generated and Human-Generated Art  

Accomplishments in artificial intelligence often suffer from the problem of moving goalposts: As soon as a machine or algorithm can accomplish something that has traditionally been the province of humans, we generally dismiss it. To replicate something with a machine is to show that it has always been mechanical, we just had the wrong machines. One aspect of human behavior that has reliably eluded mechanical reproduction is the creation of art. In the wonderful Spike Jonze movie Her, we are presented with a future in which A.I. is so advanced that it can produce an operating system that its hero falls in love with, but even that level of technological achievement is not enough to mechanize his job as a writer of romantic correspondence. Or as summarized more or less by many a person: “Sure, a computer can win at Go. But it could never write a poem or compose music that would make you weep!”

Well, we have some potentially disturbing news for those of you hanging your hats on those kinds of declarations. Google recently announced that their Magenta project, which makes use of new hot advances in machine learning called “deep neural nets,” has created a 90-second melody based on the input of four notes. (No word on whether it has made anyone cry, though.) A small competition we ran several weeks ago at Dartmouth College, the Turing Tests in Creative Arts, shows just how close we are to making robots who can make art. Our goal was to challenge the A.I.interested world to come up with software that could create either sonnets, short stories, or dance music that would be indistinguishable to a human audience from the same kinds of artistic output generated by humans. While we didn't get many submissions, those that did come in were very thoughtful, especially in the case of sonnets and dance music.

The dance music portion compared algorithmic DJ-ing to human DJ-ing. The human DJs were hidden from sight as students listened and danced. After each set, the dancers were asked to guess human or machine; two entries were statistically indistinguishable from the human DJs. This is interesting but perhaps not surprising. All of us, especially those who are college-age, have been listening (perhaps primarily) to computationally inflected and composed music for a long time. This artistic form is one that has already blended into computer-based production; our perception of the nature, and production, and attribution of art and culture evolves with acculturation.

In the case of the literary challenges, a panel of judges each reviewed a collection of sonnets or short stories and were asked to pick out those that were generated by a machine. While there were no winners for sonnets or stories (i.e., the judges were able to distinguish the machine-generated sonnets), in the case of the former, the programs were so smart and sophisticated that we couldn't help but wonder if in a future running of the competition we would have a winner.

The sheer number of sonnets an A.I. bot can generate is astounding (countably infinite if you want to get technical!). The winning entry, from a team at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute was fantastic, and the runner-up from University of California at Berkeley also produced interesting work.

Here is an example of what Berkeley's generator came up with:

Kindred pens my path lies where a flock of
feast in natures mysteries an adept
you are my songs my soft skies shine above
love after my restless eyes I have kept.

A sacrament soft hands that arch embowed
stealing from nature her calm thoughts which throng
their little loves the birds know when that cloud
anticipation is the throat of song.

I love you for in his glorious rise
on desert hills at eve are musical
the ancients knew a way to paradise
pulses of the mystic tale no fable.

With sudden fear when immortality
might be like joy the petty billows try.

And another (for more, see here):

Of reckless ones haggard and spent withdraws
like clouds that gather and look another
know that neer again the fierce tigers jaws
the universe which was either neither.

Bed the peasant throws him down with fetters
who could have guessed thine immortality
not alone that thou no form of natures
you for love hath stained if to have served by.

Random from the orient view unveils
I would I bind thee by its hostile threat
I sit beneath thy looks resigned that smiles
and many maiden gardens yet unset.

This shade of crimson hue rushed on the thin
alpine flood above the dune stood the grin.

So what if an art-producing machine could pass as human? Or more accurately, so what if the output of a program, created by humans, could produce art that an average person would accept as human-generated? This more detailed description is important, for cast in that manner, it reveals the artistic output for what it is—not the thoughtless and mechanistic production of an emotionless entity, but rather a natural next step in the already-rich collaboration between machine and human when it comes to producing art.

Yes, that's right: Machines and humans have been working together to make art for some time. The presence of machine has already been particularly influential in the realm of literary products. When the technology of writing came to be (requiring the invention or discovery of mark-making tools and surfaces to record and store meaningful signs), new possibilities in narrative form arose—narratives where perhaps memorization need not influence the product. Movable type and the printing press was another great influence, then the typewriter, democratizing forces in the creation of literature, bringing new voices and forms to the written medium. Most recently, consider the effects of word processing or “authoring” software on literary production. Who among us doesn't feel compelled to change things so that we will satisfy Microsoft Word and produce a document clean of its automatically determined infelicitous word choices! Don't kid yourself, for many of the documents we turn out are already collaborations with machines and, arguably, always have been.

Of course, some literary products lend themselves more readily to machine collaboration than others. Short narratives about the outcome of a baseball game can be readily created from a reasonably detailed box score. The same is true of certain financial reports. These kinds of products are in essence formulaic, but the same is true of some forms of poetry like the sonnet. A Shakespearean sonnet is basically a high-level algorithm: three four-line stanzas in iambic pentameter, each with rhyme scheme ABAB, ending with a rhyming couplet. It's just that for centuries, humans have been the ones executing the pattern. Now, with a good deal of thought and some creative applications of natural language processing principles, a smart team of information scientists can engage a machine as a collaborator.  Part of the winning entry sifts through opening words as well as a database of near-rhymes, the latter a tacit acknowledgment that a signature of the human implementation is the ability to not always follow the rules. It's cleverer than the Microsoft Word Assistant, but is hardly a solitary poetry-creating automation. The human might not be in the loop after the input is given, but the human is surely deeply represented in the design. And that is why it is successful.

So what still remains for machines to conquer? One of the judges remarked that the sonnets he picked out as machine-made didn't seem to be about anything—even if the words all went together well and there were coherent phrases or even fully formed lines around a given subject. In short, what was lacking was a narrative. Narrative is difficult to articulate in an algorithm (but we'll continue to aim for it in next year's competition). In fact, as the essence of storytelling, it is arguably one of the most human of activities. Thus, while these experiments surely celebrate successes in the context of human creativity on the computer, in their failings, they ultimately may help us recognize and celebrate what it means to be human.

This article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

 
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r0B0t: The Rosetta orbiter's days are officially numbered  

Mark your calendars and stock up on tissues: On Sept. 30, the European Space Agency's Rosetta orbiter will crash into a cometary cemetery. After two years circling Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and doing some great science, the spacecraft will be no more. Rosetta is perhaps most famous for being the mothership of Philae, a robot that made history as […]  
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