1468001340000

astronomy

%feed
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/KPvvpCEj8ek/mysterious-anomaly-in-cassini-saturn-mission-orbit-caused-by-planet-9-gravitation.html
Mysterious Anomaly in NASA's Cassini Saturn-Mission Orbit --"Caused By Planet 9 Gravitation?"

Several recent news stories have reported that a mysterious anomaly in Cassini's orbit could potentially be explained by the gravitational tug of a massive new planet in our solar system, lurking far beyond the orbit of Neptune.

"An undiscovered planet outside the orbit of Neptune, 10 times the mass of Earth, would affect the orbit of Saturn, not Cassini," said William Folkner, a planetary scientist at JPL. Folkner develops planetary orbit information used for NASA's high-precision spacecraft navigation. "This could produce a signature in the measurements of Cassini while in orbit about Saturn if the planet was close enough to the sun. But we do not see any unexplained signature above the level of the measurement noise in Cassini data taken from 2004 to 2016."

While the proposed planet's existence may eventually be confirmed by other means, mission navigators have observed no unexplained deviations in the spacecraft's orbit since its arrival there in 2004, according to mission managers and orbit determination experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"Although we'd love it if Cassini could help detect a new planet in the solar system, we do not see any perturbations in our orbit that we cannot explain with our current models," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL.

Scientists have been looking for Planet X for 100 years. The possibility that it's real got a big boost recently when researchers from Caltech inferred its existence based on orbital anomalies seen in objects in the Kuiper Belt, a disc-shaped region of comets and other larger bodies beyond Neptune. In January of 2016, Caltech researchers announced that they found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the su

The researchers, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, discovered the planet's existence through mathematical modeling and computer simulations but have not yet observed the object directly.

Brown notes that the putative ninth planet—at 5,000 times the mass of Pluto—is sufficiently large that there should be no debate about whether it is a true planet. Unlike the class of smaller objects now known as dwarf planets, Planet Nine gravitationally dominates its neighborhood of the solar system. In fact, it dominates a region larger than any of the other known planets—a fact that Brown says makes it "the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system."

"Although we were initially quite skeptical that this planet could exist, as we continued to investigate its orbit and what it would mean for the outer solar system, we become increasingly convinced that it is out there," says Batygin, an assistant professor of planetary science. "For the first time in over 150 years, there is solid evidence that the solar system's planetary census is incomplete."

A recent paper predicts that, if data tracking Cassini's position were available out to the year 2020, they might be used to reveal a "most probable" location for the new planet in its long orbit around the sun. However, Cassini's mission is planned to end in late 2017, when the spacecraft -- too low on fuel to continue on a longer mission -- will plunge into Saturn's atmosphere.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

The Daily Galaxy via http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and Caltech

Close Up View of Saturn's Strange Moon Hyperion

Young Solar System Observed Around a Nearby Star

Unexplained Red Arcs Observed on Saturn's Moon Tethys

astronomy

1468001338000

astronomy

%feed
http://www.flickr.com/photos/europeanspaceagency/28090785201/
Moving heart of the Crab Nebula

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the moving heart of the Crab Nebula.

While many other images of the famous Crab Nebula have focused on the filaments in the outer part of the nebula, this image shows the very heart of the Crab Nebula including the central neutron star — it is the rightmost of the two bright stars near the centre of this image.

The rapid motion of the material nearest to the central star is revealed by the subtle rainbow of colours in this time-lapse image, the rainbow effect being due to the movement of material over the time between one image and another.

Read more here.

Credit: ESA/NASA

astronomy

1468001336000

astronomy

%feed
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jul/07/juno-mission-settles-jupiter-orbit-spacewatch
Juno mission settles into Jupiter orbit

Marathon journey across solar system concludes with 35-minute rocket burn

Nasa's Juno mission is spending its first week in orbit around Jupiter. This giant planet is more than 11 times the diameter of Earth.

Having travelled for more than 1.7bn miles through the solar system, Juno was captured by Jupiter's gravity at 03:18 GMT on 5 July after an engine burn that lasted 35 minutes.

Continue reading...
astronomy

1468001334000

astronomy

%feed
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eospso/28122628836/
AWMA (ACE) 2016

NASA's Science Program Support Office posted a photo:

Air and Waste Management Association Annual Conference and Exhibition
New Orleans, LA
June 20 - 23, 2016

astronomy

1468001333000

astronomy

%feed
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jul/07/planet-with-three-suns-spotted-by-astronomers
Planet with three suns spotted by astronomers

Giant gas ball four times the mass of Jupiter is in a three-star system. It swings around one, but sees sunrises and sunsets from all three. Take that Tatooine

A gaseous planet with three suns and a mass four times that of Jupiter has been spotted by astronomers.

Located 320 light years away in the constellation of Centaurus the planet, known as HD 131399Ab, goes one better than Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine in the film Star Wars, which famously boasted two sunrises.

Continue reading...
astronomy

1468001093000

gifs

%feed
http://borrachas.tumblr.com/post/147054807594
314

314

gifs

1468001091000

technology

%feed
http://journal.benbashford.com/post/147096155638
"We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to..."
“We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was…other options would have exposed our officers to great danger,”

- Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown

technology

1468001045000

robots

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fredirect.viglink.com%2F%3Fu%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.theguardian.com%252Flifeandstyle%252F2016%252Fjul%252F08%252Fhow-to-relate-to-robots%26key%3Dddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
r0B0t: Why you should be nice to your robots | Oliver Burkeman

Oliver Burkeman says it's hard to bark orders at a machine without feeling like the kind of obnoxious person who barks orders at waiters

I became highly confused the first time I used the Amazon Echo, a voice-activated “smart home assistant” that sits in the corner and responds to the name Alexa as in “Alexa, play some music!” or “Alexa, how many ounces in a kilogram?” Partly, this was because the only person I know who owns an Echo is herself called Alexa, and she was home at the time. But that aside, it's hard to bark orders at a machine without feeling like the kind of obnoxious person who barks orders at waiters. That is, unless you start young. “We love our Amazon Echo… but I fear it's also turning our daughter into a raging asshole,” the Silicon Valley investor Hunter Walk fretted recently. Alexa doesn't need you to say please or thank you; indeed, she responds better to brusque commands. “Cognitively, I'm not sure a kid gets why you can boss Alexa around, but not a person,” Walk wrote. How's a four-year-old supposed to learn that other household members aren't simply there to do her bidding, when one (electronic) household member was designed to do exactly that?

Such worries will grow more urgent as we interact with more convincingly humanesque devices. As the tech writer John Markoff puts it: “What does it do to the human if we have a class of slaves which are not human, but that we treat as human?” Most of us would agree with Immanuel Kant that it's unethical to treat others as mere means to our own ends, instead of ends in themselves. That's why slavery damages the slaveholder as well as the slave: to use a person as if they were an object erodes your own humanity. Yet Alexa (like Google Home, and Siri, and the rest) trains us to think of her as both human yet solely there to serve. Might we start thinking of real humans that way more frequently, too?

Continue reading...
robots

1468001044000

robots

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fredirect.viglink.com%2F%3Fu%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.theguardian.com%252Fus-news%252F2016%252Fjul%252F08%252Fdallas-police-shooting-gunman-kill-white-officers%26key%3Dddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
r0B0t: Dallas shooting suspect stated he wanted to 'kill white officers'

Shooter, who was killed with bomb on robot device during standoff, was reportedly upset over recent killings of black men by law enforcement

The gunman who opened fire on police in Dallas said he wanted to kill white police officers and expressed anger at a recent spate of shootings by police before he was killed, it was revealed on Friday.

Continue reading...
robots

1468000890000

culture

%feed
http://insider.si.edu/2016/07/castle-corbel-chisled-basque-country-stone-carver-bernat-vidal/
Castle corbel chisled by Basque Country stone carver Bernat Vidal

Master stone carver Bernat Vidal chisels a piece of Seneca sandstone during the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. Vidal is making a rough replica of a corbel from the Smithsonian Castle. (Photo by Michelle Z. Donahue)

Peering closely at the surface of the ruddy red Maryland sandstone block, Bernat Vidal sets a chisel resolutely against the stone and confidently taps it with a wood-handled mallet. With every strike, puffs of dust wisp upward, and tiny sharp chips fly off in all directions.

Vidal, unflinching, etches the beginnings of an incised line into a semi-circle that he has already coaxed out of the squared-off stone. With the easy reflex of 30 years' practice, he flicks away larger shards to reveal the beginnings of an ornate corbel to crown a stone column.

The column in question is on the west face of the Smithsonian's iconic red sandstone Castle, and the sculptor bending to the task traveled from the Basque Country, located in northern Spain and southern France, to share his craft with the public at the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The unique Seneca Creek sandstone block from a nearby quarry is very similar to the buttery sandstone Vidal chisels in his studio outside Bilbao, on Spain's northern coastline.

Master stone carver Bernat Vidal displays a photograph of a corbel from the Smithsonian Castle that he is using to create a replica from a piece of Seneca sandstone. Vidal was working on the National Mall as part of the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. His corbel will eventually go on display in the Castle's Schermer Hall. (Photo by Michelle Z. Donahue)

“We gave Mr. Vidal a couple of pieces of Seneca sandstone from our attic stock and a photograph of one of the Castle's decorative corbels,” says Paul Westerberg, registrar for the Castle Collection. “He's going to leave it unfinished and rough for us in order to show his tool marks in the stone.”

Vidal's unfinished block will eventually go on display in the Castle's Schermer Hall next to an 1846 Castle model by architect James Renwick “as a representative sample of how these carvings are made,” Westerberg adds. “People normally only see the finished product. It's rare to see something in the process of its creation. We were very happy a master stone carver was working on the Mall.”

Though once renowned in the Middle Ages for their skill, today, only a handful of traditional Basque stone workers continue the craft. Originally a painter and ceramics artist, Vidal came to the tradition almost on a whim, but became so smitten that he began to teach to the younger generation at a stone carvers' college in Bilbao 20 years ago.

One of the ornate Seneca sandstone corbels that decorate the Smithsonian Castle.

Among his works: a 1.5-ton coat of arms, carved from a 6-ton block, mounted on the City Hall of Guernica, an important symbol of Basque autonomy before and after it was bombed during World War 2; and the Puerta del Mar in the Dominican Republic, commissioned in 1992 for the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas.

Vidal laments the economic realities that make even highly regarded traditional craft a lackluster prospect for Basque youth, though he hopes that his efforts in educating others and demonstrating the craft may yet bring renewed interest to the trade.

Insider writer Michelle Donahue spoke to Vidal during a lull at the Festival, and he shared some of his thoughts on the history and future of Basque traditional stone carving.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the importance of what you do as a reflection of the Basque culture as a whole?

Vidal: Basque carvers were very important during the Crown of Castile [the consolidation of Spanish kingdoms in the 13th century]. These were carvers whose works were very much sought after, but then this art was all forgotten because all of this work was being done outside of Basque country. So, the Basque people as well as the rest of Spain have lost the tradition. For me to discover this art form was very beautiful.

Q: Was the purpose of traditional Basque stone carving originally for house building, fortress building, or some other reason?

Vidal: Historically, it was for house building and making artistic works. It was even further divided than that, with specialists in different forms. Nowadays, 80 percent is for custom work at houses, family crests, or the name of the house in stone with different designs, because in Spain traditional homes have names.

A selection of the work of master stone carver Bernat Vidal, from the Basque Country in northern Spain and southern France. Vidal is in Washington, D.C. as a participant in the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Michelle Z. Donahue)

Q: How did you come to be a stone carver? Was this a family tradition?

Vidal: In the village where I lived, there was strong stone influence—not in carving, but in quarrying. Then I had the opportunity to take a carving class and I loved it, the complexity of the rock. It was something that filled me.

Q: Was it easy for you to master?

Vidal: It wasn't too easy, but it wasn't too difficult, either. When you are absolutely dedicated to something, you slowly begin to master it.
Has your work attracted the interest of young people who want to learn from you?
Approximately 20 years ago, I was a professor at the stone carvers college in Bilbao. But now with the economic crisis in Spain, few are interested. It's a tough and dirty job, and people nowadays prefer to be in front of a computer.

Q:What do you hope people here learn from your work?

Vidal: By virtue of seeing it here, people can value the effort that is required to do this kind of work, and that there are very few people who actually do this. Truthfully, I've been surprised—people have been very interested in all of the aspects of my work, with a desire to learn [about] my craft.

Q: How do you find the experience of carving the Castle stone compared to the others you've worked with?

Vidal: It's intriguing. Where I'm from in Navarre there is also a different kind of red stone that looks exactly the same. But upon a closer look there are differences—that one has larger grains and it's more abrasive, whereas this one is much finer and is very malleable, but breaks very easily.

Q: How long will it take you to complete this piece?

Vidal: It's difficult to say. It's a very detail-oriented job. I'd calculate that if I was back in my shop, I'd say about a week.

Q: Will you take it back and finish it or will you stay here until it's completed?

Vidal: I can always send it back because it would be great to show all of the phases of the work, so others can see what is necessary to prepare a stone for carving. But the Basques also like this type of stonework, so they might want to keep it! [laughs]

The post Castle corbel chisled by Basque Country stone carver Bernat Vidal appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

culture

1468000888000

culture

%feed
http://insider.si.edu/2016/07/monitoring-seafood-catch-data/
Monitoring seafood catch data

Knowing what we take from our oceans matters. Smithsonian scientists are developing tools to better understand and protect our oceans. One project they are working on is a mobile app that collects catch data from remote fishing communities. Find out more at ourfish.org

The post Monitoring seafood catch data appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

culture

1468000885000

culture

%feed
http://movieposteroftheday.tumblr.com/post/147053662257
US one sheet for ON MY WAY TO THE CRUSADES, I MET A GIRL...

US one sheet for ON MY WAY TO THE CRUSADES, I MET A GIRL WHO… aka THE CHASTITY BELT (Pasquale Festa Campanile, Italy, 1969)

Designer: uncredited

Poster source: Heritage Auctions

culture

1468000317000

astronomy

%feed
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160707131810.htm
Beating heart of the Crab Nebula
Peering deep into the core of the Crab Nebula, this close-up image reveals the beating heart of one of the most historic and intensively studied remnants of a supernova, an exploding star.
astronomy

1467997668000

gaia

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Falice-cunningham%2Fremembering-the-seeds-of-_b_10742950.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Remembering The Seeds Of Freedom
In America's early days, the nation's founders required a potent symbol to communicate the concept of freedom. In colonial Boston, the symbol that became synonymous with freedom was an elm tree.

The Liberty Tree, as it came to be known, was a gathering place for advocates for freedom. Though eventually cut down by opponents, its symbolic resonance only grew, gracing flags and pins, with elms being planted throughout the new nation.

This week following Independence Day, and throughout this summer, I hope that we can all remember the Liberty Tree and why it was such a powerful symbol. And, why the growth that it promises may continue to resonate as we undertake a new struggle for freedom.

The struggle we now face is no less a campaign for self-determination than the American Revolution. Much like the Revolution, what is at stake is personal freedom and the ability to choose your own destiny.

It is a struggle over the freedom to choose what you can grow and eat; each of us is involved, whether we know it or not. The right to choose seems basic. Indeed, you may assume that farmers have the ability to save and exchange seed that they are growing our food with, but you would be wrong.

Seeds are a gift of nature, the result of centuries of labor by farmers worldwide who have conserved heirloom seeds and thousands of natural varieties. But over the past few decades, legislation restricting access to seeds helped diminish small farmers' holdings and have established industrial agriculture as globally dominant.

Under certain laws, seed varieties must undergo complicated tests and registration procedures. Costly and lengthy processes, these favor companies with deep pockets that produce seeds -- many of them genetically modified -- dependent upon chemicals for their cultivation.

The putative goal of these laws is to protect food security. The ironic result is that our food security -- both in the U.S. and globally -- is threatened due to a lack of agro-biodiversity. As we face the uncertainty of climate change, we need more, rather than less, types of seed capable of flourishing under conditions such as drought, insects or flood.

With a handful of global seed companies monopolizing the market, we have handed our freedoms over to corporate boards. Right now, according to the ETC Group, six multinationals control 75% of all private-sector plant breeding research, 60% of the commercial seed market and 76% of global agrochemical sales.

New laws which make it illegal for farmers to save and exchange seed are a further threat. Ethically and ecologically unjustified, seed patents grant exclusive rights for inventions; but, seed is not an invention. Further, genetically engineered seeds contaminate our farms, removing the option for GMO-free food.

That's untenable. It's time for a declaration of independence that recognizes that seed is the source of life and seed freedom is the birthright of every farmer and food producer. Seed Freedom -- an initiative created by activist, author and scientist Dr. Vandana Shiva -- has done just that: created the Declaration on Seed Freedom. It's very much needed right now.

We the people should also secure the right of farmers to save, exchange, evolve, breed and sell seed. This guarantees the right of all people to food freedom, the right to know what we are putting in our bodies and the right to exercise self-determination every time we step into a market. As growers and eaters, remember that our choices -- our demand to eat and grow foods that are the products of natural and organic agriculture -- provide moral and monetary support for this struggle.

As we think back on the birth of our independence, it's clear why the patriots chose a tree as the symbol of liberty and why we can use this symbol today. The most basic of liberties is the right to choose and that right has deep roots in our democracy. Farmers and gardeners are right now struggling to regain that right. This movement is growing, sending roots deeper and shoots upward, but it isn't over. We need all of you who care to help fight for this most basic of freedoms -- the freedom of choice.

-- 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.

gaia

1467997667000

gaia

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdotearth.blogs.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F07%2F08%2Ftime-out-america%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Time Out, America
Can American communities repair the broken interface between citizens and keepers of the peace?
gaia

1467997665000

gaia

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fsteve-zwick%2Fwar-peace-and-climate-how_b_10885768.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
War, Peace, and Climate: How Carbon Trading Can Help Avert Resource Wars
This story first appeared on Ecosystem Marketplace.

Liberian environmentalist Silas Siakor knows all too well what can happen to a fragile nation when a dictator hijacks its commodity sector, as warlord Charles Taylor did in the 1990s - first by using slave labor and "blood diamonds" to finance a devastating civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, and then by spreading that war to Guinea and commandeering the presidency of Liberia itself.

Siakor helped expose Taylor's use of "conflict timber" to finance those bloody wars, and he helped make sure farmers, conservationists, and commercial enterprises all had a role in restructuring the forest sector once the sanctions were removed - a process that Art Blundell, who chaired the UN Panel of Experts on Liberia, credits with keeping the country's current peace alive.

He cautions, however, that Liberia's peace is the exception that proves the rule.

Art Blundell

"The UN Environment Programme says that natural resources are a factor in about 40% of conflicts since the end of the Cold War, and they are often a driver," Blundell said at last month's Oslo REDD Exchange in Norway, where he presented findings from recent analysis conducted on behalf of Ecosystem Marketplace publisher Forest Trends. "But if you look at peace agreements, only about 15% of them mention natural resources, let alone call for reforms of governance in a way that will minimize the role of resources in causing future conflict."

The result, he said in a recent episode of the Bionic Planet podcast, is tragic: "More than half of peace agreements fail within five years, often because belligerents get money from the exploitation of natural resources, like logging, that they can use to fuel the resumption of civil war."

Liberia has so far avoided slipping back into that cycle, in part because it tore up corrupt concessions and started with a clean slate on forest governance. That peace, however, has a downside of its own: without civil war, the forests are now safe for illegal logging - which is often carried out not by ruthless logging companies, but by desperate farmers looking to feed their families.

As the government steps in to save forests, it risks pitting conservationists against small farmers - something Siakor says has already happened.

"The government has tried to impose [conservation] projects on the people - in protected areas - but people have resisted, and they're very active in this resistance," he said at the Oslo REDD Exchange. "The government had to roll back [its conservation efforts] and grant the community the right to manage that particular forest."

This story has been adapted from the Bionic Planet episode "Climate, Conflict, and Commodities: The Calculus of Peace on a Changing Planet", which is available on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, and elsewhere.

Siakor sees a more workable solution in President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's efforts to tap carbon finance through the United Nations REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of forests, plus other land uses) initiative, which aims to slow deforestation by funding sustainable agriculture initiatives so that farmers aren't forced to chop trees - a process that aligns the interests of small farmers with those of the forest and also promotes the kind of governance associated with lasting peace.

"2016-07-08-1467988656-8014017-Silas.JPG"

Silas Siakor

Such initiatives have proven successful in several Latin American and African countries, and forest-carbon projects are currently being used to conserve forested areas larger than the entire Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the most recent State of Forest Carbon Finance report. Both Siakor and Blundell say that REDD+ can support the peace process in war-torn areas, but only if its implemented in ways that recognize the challenges particular to war-torn regions.

"REDD programs working in the countries have to remember that people have been traumatized," said Blundell, adding that traumatized people are slow to develop trust. "You have to understand the history of the conflict, the legacy of that conflict in the present, and your interaction with it."

Understanding REDD+

For a deeper understanding of REDD+ and forest carbon, check out:
REDD Dawn: The Birth Of Forest Carbon
How Markets And Mother Earth Each Found A Home In The Paris Climate Accord

Liberia, Colombia, Myanmar: States of Readiness

Liberia began overhauling its forest governance more than a decade ago - when REDD+ was still in its infancy - but Colombia and Myanmar are now struggling to implement peace agreements. Colombia's peace agreement explicitly builds on resource reform, says the country's Vice Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Pablo Viera Samper, while Myanmar's peace agreement gives short shrift to resource management, says Saw Frankie Abreu, the director of Myanmar's Tenasserim River and Indigenous People's Network (TRIP NET). Both men see a potential for REDD+ in supporting resource management.

"When you're designing a REDD programme, the main objective is not [to get] money for planting trees," said Samper, who said that, from his perspective, the role of REDD+ is to "transform those drivers that are resulting in deforestation into more sustainable activities that will lead to a reduction of the conflict - social, environmental - and generate opportunity's, generate jobs, and generate income for the population."

REDD+ and Peacebuilding: Untapped Potential

Blundell's analysis shows that more than half of the countries developing REDD+ initiatives have experienced organized armed conflict since 2008, when the UN first started considering REDD finance.

"2016-07-08-1467988731-1783695-Samper.JPG"

Pablo Viera Samper

"The governance reform that's required for peace building is very much what is also required by REDD Readiness," he said in Oslo, referring to the process of getting a country's ducks in a row. To be "REDD Ready," countries must not only be able to demonstrate that the government can accurately monitor its forests, but also to show that their forest people and small farmers are engaged in the governing process.

"REDD+ offers a plausible alternative to sectors that have contributed to conflict, such as industrial forestry and plantation agriculture, and governance reform associated with REDD readiness can contribute to 'environmental peacebuilding'," his analysis states. "But to be effective, REDD+ must address challenges unique to countries attempting to recover from conflict."

Key Challenge: Spoilers

Blundell said that "spoilers" present a common challenge in war-torn areas.

"These are people who did well through war...and they can take advantage of grievance to go back to war to protect their own self-interest: their power and money streams," he said.

Siakor agreed, and said that Liberia's reforms were designed to make sure no vested interests are in a position to disrupt forest governance.

"We are building on the good elements of reform that have been initiated, bearing in mind the possibility that some of the spoilers could take advantage of it's not designed very well," said Siakur. "The logging companies come at the very top, wanting business-as-usual."

Ironically, Blundell says, Liberia's forest reforms are not enshrined in the peace agreement itself, but instead emerged from the agricultural and environmental communities, with support from the World Bank and some outside governments.

The Siren Song of Industrial Forestry

REDD+ proponents also face a perception problem: namely, that money flows quickly and abundantly from massive soy and palm plantations, but trickles only slowly from REDD+.

Saw Frankie Abreu

Blundell says both perceptions are wrong, and Samper adds that even when money does flow to illegal or industrial activities, it rarely makes its way to the laborers on the ground.

"If...the actual miners or the people who are growing the coca leaves (for cocaine production) were receiving the economic benefits from their products, then it would be very difficult [to win support for REDD+ or sustainable agriculture], but the reality is that the [laborers] make very little money," he said. "The reality is that they are under a situation where they are, a lot of times, forced to do this work; and the reality is that, when you talk to them, they all say that, given an opportunity, they would move away from those activities."

REDD+ funding tends to flow more effectively to farmers, and it also flows earlier than it did in the past, when payments for performance only followed after years of validation and verification. Today, payments tend to come intermittently over the course of a project, and more money should flow as companies implement the Paris Agreement.

"Right now, the question that people ask is, 'Where will the money come from to pay for the carbon? Are you relying on the market? Will there be sufficient money?'" he says, adding that mining companies have given more than $80 million towards local communities in the last few years.

This is the first of a two-part series. Click here or check back next week for Part Two.

-- 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.

gaia

1467997663000

gaia

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2096513-perfect-storm-hits-taiwan-as-china-sees-worst-floods-in-20-years%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Perfect storm hits Taiwan as China sees worst floods in 20 years
Super-typhoon Nepartak has hit Taiwan's east coast hard. It is expected to make landfall in China which is struggling with its worst floods since 1998
gaia

1467997601000

science

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgo.theregister.com%2Ffeed%2Fwww.theregister.co.uk%2F2016%2F07%2F08%2Frolls_royce_autonomous_cargo_ships%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Rolls-Royce reckons robot cargo ships are the future of the seas

A million pirates yelled 'splice the mainbrace, me hearty!'

Comment Rolls-Royce and the Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) believe the future of cargo transportation is autonomous and they have published an 88 page white paper (PDF) to prove it.…

science

1467997599000

science

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgo.theregister.com%2Ffeed%2Fwww.theregister.co.uk%2F2016%2F07%2F08%2Fnew_astronauts_flying_to_iss_to_conduct%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
New ISS crew will spend their time bombarding computers with radiation

And seeing what happens to your bones in zero-G

Three new astronauts currently rocketing up to space in the Soyuz spacecraft will be conducting new experiments, including sequencing DNA and blasting computers with radiation.…

science

1467995956000

general

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fvideo%2Findex%2F489455%2Fthe-art-and-business-of-creating-life-like-baby-dolls%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeed&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
The Art and Business of Creating Life-Like Baby Dolls

Jean Campbell is dedicated to her craft—building “reborn” dolls that bear a shocking resemblance to real-life babies. In this short documentary, Reborning, Campbell explains the meticulous process of creating these dolls, and her motivations behind doing so. She says goal for the finished product is to have a doll that is indistinguishable from the real thing: "You want it to be so real-looking that heads turn and say, 'Oh what a beautiful baby, can I hold it?'"

The film is produced, directed, and edited by Yael Bridge and Helen Hood Scheer, who also served as cinematographer. Bridge is currently working on the feature-length documentary Saving Capitalism, and Scheer is an Assistant Professor at California State University Long Beach in the Department of Film and Electronic Arts.

general

1467995837000

images

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seattletimes.com%2Fnation-world%2Fphotos-of-the-day-july-8-2016%2F%3Futm_source%3DRSS%26utm_medium%3DReferral%26utm_campaign%3DRSS_photos-of-the-day&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Photos of the Day: July 8, 2016

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.
images

1467995835000

images

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Ftheatlantic%2Finfocus%2F%7E3%2Fx34hn_I2wuY%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Photos of the Week 7/2-7/8 (35 photos)

Tears for Alton Sterling, haute-couture fashion, a swollen river in China, a rocket to the International Space Station, gorgeous goldfish, Eid al-Fitr in a 14th century mosque, lightning strikes the Las Vegas strip, and much more.

Tawandra Carr cries while people gather outside the Triple S convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed outside the store, where he was selling CDs, by Baton Rouge police. (Gerald Herbert / AP)

images

1467990419000

robots

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fredirect.viglink.com%2F%3Fu%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fnews.google.com%252Fnews%252Furl%253Fsa%253Dt%2526fd%253DR%2526ct2%253Duk%2526usg%253DAFQjCNH-5ehvDT3zJHw-5cWFXf3oCBpKmg%2526clid%253Dc3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331%2526cid%253D52779151885415%2526ei%253D8JN_V-iwHMrPzAaMt4f4Aw%2526url%253Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.theinquirer.net%252Finquirer%252Fnews%252F2464262%252Fai-system-sifts-through-drinker-feedback-to-make-tastier-beer%26key%3Dddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
r0B0t: AI system sifts through drinker feedback to make tastier beer - Inquirer

Inquirer

AI system sifts through drinker feedback to make tastier beer
Inquirer
ROBOT-MADE BEER is now a thing thanks to the IntelligentX Brewing Company, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to fine-tune beer to the taste buds of piss heads connoisseurs. The brewer joined forces with machine learning company Intelligent Layer ...
This beer has been brewed with an AIAlphr
Your next bottle of beer could well be brewed by an artificial intelligenceT3
Beer brewed with the help of AI? Yup, that's now a thingWired.co.uk
CNET -Science World Report -Forbes -Engadget
all 11 news articles »

robots

1467984081000

science

%feed
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Flindahall.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F147091632365&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Ferdinand von Zeppelin Scientist of the Day Count Ferdinand...

http://welweb.org/ThenandNow/images/Graf-Zeppelin.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1972-099-15,_Ferdinand_Graf_Zeppelin_am_Schreibtisch.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_von_Zeppelin#/media/File:First_Zeppelin_ascent.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin#/media/File:Graf_Zeppelin_stamp_65c_1930_issue.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Los_Angeles_(ZR-3)#/media/File:ZR3_USS_Los_Angeles_an_Kriegsschiff.jpg

Ferdinand von Zeppelin Scientist of the Day

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a German aeronautical inventor, was born July 8, 1838.