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astronomy

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https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jul/10/bluedot-festival-frontier-jodrell-bank-jean-michel-jarre-brian-cox-underworld
Bluedot: exploring the festival frontier

This month, a new festival will boldly go beyond the same old weekend lineups with a boundary-breaking blend of science, music, technology and comedy

With the vast Lovell telescope as its backdrop, the first ever Bluedot festival will take place later this month, in and around the Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire. The three-day event will combine a weekend music festival with an interdisciplinary scientific symposium, scheduling big-name musicians alongside prominent scientists and technologists. Taking its name from the Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth made famous by Carl Sagan, Bluedot's unusual programme hopes to inspire the sense of curiosity and wonderment suggested by its surroundings. “Bluedot offers an experience unlike any other,” says festival director Ben Robinson, “with over 300 cutting-edge artists pushing the boundaries of live performance.”

The festival will be divided into several different areas, each one programmed according to different themes. The Nebula stage, “where new stars are born”, is the arena for up-and-coming musicians; the Roots stage, situated in nearby woodland, covers folky and acoustic acts; and the Lovell stage, directly behind the famous telescope, will host the headliners, all of whom have a certain scientific flavour. These include French electro-pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre, famed for his majestic, hi-tech concerts; the shape-shifting Canadian innovator Caribou; and the brainy, maths-flecked Manchester rockers Everything Everything.

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astronomy

1468205421000

design

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jul/10/south-kilburn-estate-brent-council-alison-brooks-architects
South Kilburn estate review homes that are streets ahead

Thanks to the enlightened thinking of Brent council and Alison Brooks Architects, a notorious London estate that featured in Zadie Smith's White Teeth is now the site of some of the best housing in the neighbourhood

Once upon a time, goes a well-worn story, cities were made of streets. People were happy. They loved their neighbours and looked out for each other. Kids played outside. You knew where you stood: a house looked like a house and a street looked like a street. You could put out flags and tea kettles for a royal jubilee. Then ideological modern architects, in league with control-freak local councils, ripped it all up. Streets were insanitary, they said. Their residents (they thought but didn't say) were too unruly. So they had to be corralled into soulless blocks, human battery farms, gulags, surrounded by open spaces that no one wanted or owned and so became colonised by gangs and drugs.

The story is oversimplified. You don't have to look far into the literature of the past to find that alienation, dystopia and misery could flourish in good old streets. There are several ways to create successful shared spaces courts and communal gardens, for example as well as streets. Not everyone wants a house and private garden. One of the strengths of Britain's big cities is the multiplicity of ways to live that they offer, including that reviled modernist housing, some of which turns out to have qualities of its own.

Brent council's Richard Barrett remembers both ‘camaraderie' and the fact that taxi drivers would refuse to go there

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design

1468205419000

design

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https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jul/09/suburbs-architecture-stagnation
With the Good Life over, how can suburbia regain its place in the sun?
It was where the interwar generation aspired to, but suburbs today are a tale of dying high streets and creeping poverty

“Try to own a suburban home,” said an advertisement by the British Freehold Land Company in the 1920s, “it will make you a better citizen and help your family. The suburbs have fresh air, sunlight, roomy houses, green lawns and social advantages.” It perfectly summarises the ideal behind suburbia, which is where most people in Britain live today.

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design

1468201687000

robots

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r0B0t: Killings and history challenge us to value all lives equally - Detroit Free Press

Merced Sun-Star

Killings and history challenge us to value all lives equally
Detroit Free Press
Micah Johnson, the killer, did not act with the weight of history, because there is none of mass police killings by angered African Americans. And even the extreme bigotry and hatred he allegedly ... The perpetrator in Dallas was killed, blown up by a ...
Merced reacts with sadness, anger, fear to violence in DallasMerced Sun-Star
Micah X Johnson, the Dallas police shooter, was taken out with a robot delivered bombBlasting News

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robots

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science

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2Fsections%2Fthetwo-way%2F2016%2F07%2F10%2F485469088%2Flong-buried-by-bad-reputation-philistines-get-new-life-with-archaeological-find%3Futm_medium%3DRSS%26utm_campaign%3Dresearchnews&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Long Buried By Bad Reputation, Philistines Get New Life With Archaeological Find

They're one of the Hebrew Bible's greatest villains, but not much is known about the ancient Philistines. An uncovered cemetery, which researchers say is the first of its kind, could change all that.

science

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robots

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r0B0t: Dallas Shooter Had Plans for Larger Attack, Says Police Chief

The sniper who killed five police officers in Dallas planned larger attacks, probably on law enforcement, the city's police chief said Sunday as he provided new details about how the suspect taunted authorities for two hours during negotiations. "We're convinced that this suspect had other plans and thought that what he was doing was righteous and believed that he was going to target law enforcement—make us pay for what he sees as law enforcement's efforts to punish people of color,” David Brown said in an interview with CNN's State of the Union.

The shooter, Micah Xavier Johnson, was “determined to hurt more officers” and bomb-making materials as well as a journal that were found in his home seem to suggest he had been practicing detonations. If he had been successfulit could have caused “devastating effects on our city,” he said.

The Army veteran who served in Afghanistan “obviously had some delusion,” Brown said, giving new details about how he scrawled the letters “RB” on a wall with his blood before he was killed with a robot bomb. Authorities are currently looking through Johnson's writings and possessions to try to figure out what those apparent initials mean. But at the very least it suggests that he was injured during the shootout with police.

Johnson specifically asked to speak with a black negotiator, but didn't seem to have any desire to actually end the standoff. "We had negotiated with him for about two hours, and he just basically lied to us—playing games, laughing at us, singing, asking how many [police officers] did he get and that he wanted to kill some more and that there were bombs there," Brown said.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said he fully supported the decision to kill Johnson with a robot-delivered bomb. "We talked to this man a long time, and he threatened to blow up our police officers, we went to his home we saw that there was bomb-making equipment later," Rawlings said on CBS' Face the Nation. "So it was very important that we realize that he may not be bluffing. So we ask him, 'Do you want to come out safely or do you want to stay there and we're going to take you down?' And he chose the latter."

robots

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images

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fjb_1984%2F28149888351%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Wharncliffe Viaduct Revisited

JB_1984 posted a photo:

A shot of the Wharncliffe Viaduct from Brent Meadow in Southall. It's almost a year since I was last here with my camera, despite it being only five minutes down the road from my house.

When I set out tonight, it looked like things were shaping up for a fantastic dusk shot at this location. This was as good as it got. A couple of minutes after I took this, a thick band of dark, grey cloud rolled in, leaving me facing a particularly gloomy scene. On a positive note, I didn't get caught out in the rain.

images

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robots

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r0B0t: Dallas is the latest battlefield in the United States - Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

Dallas is the latest battlefield in the United States
Deutsche Welle
Officers claim that, just before they killed the man with a bomb delivered by a robot, he had said his intent was to kill white people, though he had specifically targeted police with his fire. It was later reported that the shooting suspect was an ...
Killings and history challenge us to value all lives equallyDetroit Free Press

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robots

1468189620000

robots

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r0B0t: Merced reacts with sadness, anger, fear to violence in Dallas - Merced Sun-Star

Merced Sun-Star

Merced reacts with sadness, anger, fear to violence in Dallas
Merced Sun-Star
Authorities initially said there were three suspects in custody and a fourth killed by a robot-delivered bomb in a parking garage after a long standoff. However, on Friday afternoon, ... Back in Texas, Flowers worried for the future. “I'm just hoping ...
Micah X Johnson, the Dallas police shooter, was taken out with a robot delivered bombBlasting News

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