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Paris Agreement Very Likely to Enter into Force this Year  

In order for the Paris Agreement to "Enter into Force" and become international law 55 countries that account for 55 percent of the world's emissions will need to ratify the agreement through their domestic processes. Recent developments in Brazil and Ukraine highlight that both countries are on the cusp of formally joining this year. It is now looking very likely that the Paris Agreement will reach the entry-into-force threshold this year based upon publicly announced intentions from countries.

Earlier this week, Brazil's House of Representatives unanimously approved a legislative decree to ratify the Paris Agreement. The bill now moves to the Senate. Brazilian observers are confident that the Senate will pass a similar bill, possibly in the coming days or weeks. It would then be sent to Acting President Temer for his approval in order to make it domestic law. Each of these steps is very likely to happen this year. Brazil accounts for 2.5 percent of emissions towards the threshold.

The Ukraine government moved even closer to formally joining the Paris Agreement as its Parliament voted to ratify the agreement. The Ukrainian Government will now need to take the final step and formally notify the U.N. that they have ratified the agreement. Ukraine accounts for one percent of emissions towards the threshold.

Eighteen countries have formally notified the U.N. of their ratification and 29 (including Brazil and Ukraine) have already announced their intent to join this year. The emissions from these 47 countries account for 54.08 percent of the world's emissions. With India, who signaled with President Obama their intent to join this year and have started their domestic process, we would be at over 58 percent of emissions. With Japan, who hasn't said anything publicly but could easily do it this year, we would be at about 62 percent of emissions (see figure and table). And reaching the 55 country threshold should be easily within reach as a number of small emitting countries are likely to join but haven't yet said anything publicly.

It now looks very likely that the Paris Agreement will enter-into-force this year. This continues the huge momentum for stronger climate action that has occurred since the agreement was finalized and signifies that countries are formally committed to delivering stronger climate action in the years to come.

---

NRDC has been tracking the countries that have publicly announced that they will ratify the Paris Agreement this year. The table below is based upon those public announcements. Other countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, have sent some public signals that they will ratify this year but since these aren't formal announcements we haven't included them at this stage.

-- 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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Genetic roots of insect's waterproof coating could lead to innovative pest control  
Scientists may have discovered a new and effective way to control insect pests that are a threat to agriculture and humans. Researchers have identified a gene in vinegar flies responsible for the insect's waterproof coating, which provides them protection from microbes and environmental stress. They nicknamed the gene spidey.  
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Soot may have killed off the dinosaurs and ammonites  
A new hypothesis on the extinction of dinosaurs and ammonites at the end of the Cretaceous Period has been proposed by a research team.  
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'Anatomy of a Smear' or 'How the Right Wing Denial Machine Distorts The Climate Change Discourse'  
Several weeks ago, on June 17, I provided testimony about the threat of human-caused climate change to the Democratic Party Platform drafting committee in Phoenix Arizona. Fittingly, my testimony was just one day before record heat struck Phoenix.

At the beginning of my testimony, I made the point, using slightly lofty language appropriate for the occasion, that the impacts of climate change are now so profound that we no longer need sophisticated signal-detection machinery to see them:

I am a climate scientist, and have spent much of my career with my head buried in climate model output and observational climate data, trying to tease out the signal of human-caused climate change.

What is disconcerting to me and so many of my colleagues is that these tools that we've spent years developing increasingly are unnecessary because we can see the impacts of climate change playing out in real time on our television screens in the 24 hour news cycle.

Regardless of how you measure the impacts of climate change -- whether it be food, water, health, national security, our economy -- climate change is already taking a great toll. And we see that tool in the damage done by more extreme floods, like the floods we've seen over the past year in Texas and in South Carolina. We see it in the devastating combination of sea level rise and more destructive hurricanes which has led to calamities like "Superstorm" Sandy and what is now the perennial flooding of Miami beach. We see it in the unprecedented drought, like that which continues to afflict California, a doubling in the area of wildfire, fire burning in the western U.S., and indeed, in the record heat we may see this weekend in phoenix.

The signal of climate change is no longer subtle. It is obvious.

My point--that we don't need sophisticated techniques to identify the human fingerprint present in e.g. the doubling of extreme heat or the tripling (in fact) of western wildfire that we have seen in the U.S. in recent decades, ought to be clear to any honest observer.

It would be absurd to conclude that I was arguing that climate models and climate data are no longer necessary in climate science, especially given that they continue to form the bread and butter of my own scientific research (I've published over a dozen scientific articles using climate models and climate data during the past year alone).

So you can imagine my shock--yes, shock--that climate change deniers and conservative media outlets that serve as mouthpieces for them, would seek to convince their readers of just that.

It is an instructive ontological exercise to follow this particular affair--from its inception through the latest developments, sort of like observing a deviant version of the game "telephone" (or "Chinese whispers" for British readers) wherein the participants are actually trying to distort the message as it is passed along from one person to the next.

It all started on Monday June 27th with Steven J. Milloy and his outlandishly untruthful claim "Michael Mann says there is no need for statistics."

Milloy, who actually calls himself the "junk man" with no apparent sense of irony, is a denier-for-hire who happily takes money from tobacco interests, chemical interests, and of course fossil fuel interests to do their dirty work, attacking seemingly any scientist whose findings threaten their financial bottom line.

Milloy frequently publishes columns in the notorious Washington Times. Which brings us to the next stage of the affair...

Later that same day, the Washington Times--a paper founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, ran a piece by one Valerie Richardson entitled "Michael Mann, scientist: Data 'increasingly unnecessary' because 'we can see climate change'".

Somehow 'tools' have become 'data'. It almost seems like they're going out of their way to misrepresent my statements, doesn't it?

Almost as if to demonstrate that they too have absolutely no sense of irony, the Washington Times referred to me in the piece as a "Leading climate doomsayer" (the Unification Church, you see, is often considered a doomsday cult). The Washington Times also happens to be closely tied to ALEC--a Koch Brothers-funded organization that promotes climate change denialism and subverts efforts to incentivize renewable energy.

Next up at bat, Tucker Carlson's The Daily Caller, which later that day pushed the egregiously false headline "Famed Climate Scientist Claims Data Now 'Unnecessary' To Measure Global Warming".

Understand that we have now gone all the way from what I actually said (that climate change impacts have become so profound now that we often don't need fancy techniques to see them) to something so patently absurd I couldn't possibly have said it (that we don't need data to measure global warming).

The Daily Caller, incidentally, is so fully immersed in Koch cash that is is listed as a "partner organization" of the Charles Koch Institute.

Witness now, after a two week hiatus, the hand-off from the Koch Brothers to the Scaife Foundations, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, to be specific, which was founded by the now-deceased Richard Mellon Scaife. On July 13, the Tribune-Review perpetuated the smear with a climate change-denying editorial containing the farcical howler "[Mann] says facts no longer are necessary to substantiate the climate change story line." Just when you thought the distortion couldn't get more egregious...

One day later, on July 14, the execrable Tribune op-ed was republished on the right wing website GOPUSA, a website connected to--you guessed it--Richard Mellon Scaife (though a bit of detective work is required to connect the dots).

Oil baron Richard Mellon Scaife and his empire were behind what Hillary Clinton famously referred to as the "vast right-wing conspiracy" to take down her husband, President Bill Clinton (for the record, she was correct).

Certainly, you're thinking, it must be a coincidence that nearly every player in this latest episode seems to be tied in some way to either the Koch Brothers or Scaife Foundations.

Or maybe not so much...

Richard Mellon Scaife and the Scaife Family Foundations are, along with the Koch Brothers, the greatest private funders of climate change denialism, having stepped up their funding in recent years as fossil fuel corporations like ExxonMobil have come under increased scrutiny for their funding of climate change denial.

As I discuss in my book The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars about the attacks against me by climate change deniers looking to discredit the iconic "Hockey Stick" graph my co-authors and I published in the late 1990s (p. 64):

Wealthy privately held corporations and foundations with close interests in, or ties to, the fossil fuel industry, such as Koch Industries and the Scaife Foundations, have become increasingly active funders of the climate change denial campaign in recent years. Unlike publicly traded companies such as ExxonMobil, these private outfits can hide their finances from public view, and they remain largely invulnerable to outside pressure. In recent years, as ExxonMobil has been pressured by politicians on both sides of the aisle to withdraw from funding the climate change denial movement, Koch and Scaife have stepped up, contributing millions of dollars to the effort.

Koch funding played a major role in the faux scandal known as 'climategate' which involved the misrepresentation of scientists based on out-of-context quotes (sound familiar?) taken from emails of theirs that had been stolen off a university computer server in the UK (p. 220):

One report showed that twenty or so organizations funded at least in part by Koch Industries had "repeatedly rebroadcast, referenced and appeared as media spokespeople" in stories about climategate.

Meanwhile, the Scaifes funded many of the personal attacks intended to discredit me and the "Hockey Stick" (p. 228):

In mid-January 2010, a group known as the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), which receives funding from the Scaife Foundations, led a campaign to have my NSF grants revoked. The perverse premise was that I was somehow pocketing millions of dollars of "Obama" stimulus money simply because I was a coinvestigator on several recently funded NSF grants. These absurd distortions were--no surprise--promoted by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and others of similar persuasion.

and (p. 229):

Two Scaife-funded groups.. the Southeastern Legal Foundation and the Landmark Legal Foundation, had swung into action. The latter had already sued the University of Massachusetts and University of Arizona to obtain copies of my personal e-mails with my two hockey stick coauthors, while in May 2010 the former demanded extensive information from the NSF regarding grants that had been made to me as well as to several of my colleagues at Penn State, the University of Chicago, the University of Washington, the University of Arizona, and Columbia University.

It began to strike me as curious that so many of the demands that I be investigated could be traced back to organizations with ties to the Scaife Foundations. The Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania organization that is the recipient of considerable Scaife largess, for example, had been pressuring Penn State University to fi e me since climategate broke in late November 2009. It managed to get the sympathetic Republican chair of the Pennsylvania state senate education committee to threaten to hold Penn State's funding hostage until "appropriate action is taken by the university against associate [sic] professor Michael Mann." Indeed, it was the Commonwealth Foundation attacks that essentially forced Penn State to launch its initial inquiry into the various allegations against me in December 2009 (similar inquiries and investigations of CRU scientists were initiated in the United Kingdom). The Commonwealth Foundation kept the pressure on for months through a barrage of press conferences and press releases attacking me personally and criticizing Penn State for its supposed "whitewash" treatment of any number of supposed offenses. It also ran daily attack ads against me in our university newspaper The Collegian for an entire week in January and helped organize a protest rally against me on campus. It is likely that these attacks forced Penn State's hand yet again, leading it, following the completion of the initial inquiry in February 2010, to move to a formal investigation, despite having found no evidence of misconduct in the initial inquiry phase.

As we head into the 2016 presidential election, this is a reminder that polluting interest are mobilized, and in addition. They don't have the facts on their side, so they resort to distorting what scientists say (often based on a single word in a scientific paper) in the hope that their followers will believe their twisted version of reality.

Vote climate.


__________

Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University and author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars and the recently updated and expanded Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change. His latest book The Madhouse Effect, with Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles, is due out in early September.

-- 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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First evidence that GM mosquitoes reduce disease  
A trial in Brazil suggests that the approach not only reduces the number of mosquitoes, it also reduces the number of people who get dengue  
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Edward Flattau: West Virginia's Choice  
In this month marked by political conventions, West Virginia has one of its own. Unfortunately, relatively little attention will be paid to the Mounta...

Read more: West Virginia, Environmentalism, Environment, Bernie Sanders, Politics News

 
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Morning Breakthrough  

Climate_Stillz posted a photo:

 
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The events that occurred in the beautiful city of Nice, France...  

The events that occurred in the beautiful city of Nice, France yesterday have become all too regular on our planet. For today's post I'd like to share the words of a friend that I came across this morning: “Each morning I brace myself before I turn my phone on. I find that I need to ready myself before the news alerts start peppering my phone with the tragedies we've inflicted on each other and the world in the past eight hours /// I know many of you are also coping with this daily. I know many of you are consciously choosing to remain loving and courageous in the face of these horrors. It's not easy. I know because I feel the emotional weight of it too. /// Thank you for charging on and doing the best you can every day while carrying your grieving and embattled hearts. It takes something not to give up and not to shut down. Please know that you are not alone in this. We will figure this out. I believe in us.” /// May everyone have a safe and happy weekend, wherever you are in the world. /// Words by @ialhusseini, source imagery from @digitalglobe (at Nice, France)

 
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Here's What We Know About The Suspect In The Attack On Nice  
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was identified by French officials as the truck driver who plowed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing at least 84 people.  
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Covent Garden  

Kieran Williams Photography posted a photo:

 
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Photos of the Day: July 15, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
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Photos of the Week 7/9 - 7/15 (35 photos)  

Black Lives Matter in Baton Rouge, a dog surfs in Croatia, a hot air balloon glides over Australia, Serena Williams triumphs, a deadly truck attack in Nice, a new view of Jupiter, and much more.

 
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London  

JasonthePhotog posted a photo:

 
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John Fowler - Scientist of the DaySir John Fowler, an English...  

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http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw42078/

John Fowler - Scientist of the Day

Sir John Fowler, an English civil engineer, was born July 15, 1817.

read more…

 
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Trump Foreign Policy Advisor: 'Americans Are Fed Up With the Bullshit'  
In an interview with SPIEGEL, Donald Trump advisor Mike Flynn explains why the presumptive Republican Party presidential candidate admires authoritarian leaders and considers the US foreign policy of recent years to be a disaster.  
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A New Beginning: Theresa May's Opportunity to Reinvent Britain  
Britain's new prime minister, Theresa May, faces a difficult task. She must reconcile the country and improve the lives of those who feel left behind.  
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Diesel Emissions: EU Commission Has Known for Years about Manipluation  
The European Commission insists that it knew nothing about diesel emissions manipulations perpetrated by Volkswagen and other automobile manufacturers. Documents obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE show otherwise.  
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London  

JasonthePhotog posted a photo:

 
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Mount rinjani, Indonesia from the summit at 3729m by chris570  

Mount rinjani, Indonesia from the summit at 3729m by chris570

chris570: Photos

 
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Morning Sunshine by Martin Podt  

Morning Sunshine by Martin Podt

Morning Sunshine, the Netherlands. Facebook | Instagram | Fine Art America

Martin Podt: Photos

 
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Snow by Nikolay Tikhomirov  

Snow by Nikolay Tikhomirov

https://www.instagram.com/artinsideyou/

Nikolay Tikhomirov: Photos

 
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Road Trip - after the rain by Thomas Vanoost  

Road Trip - after the rain by Thomas Vanoost

Multiple exposure from a window above the highway, just after the rain.

Thomas Vanoost: Photos

 
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"Stilwerk" Düsseldorf by Herbert A. Franke  

"Stilwerk" Düsseldorf by Herbert A. Franke

Stilwerk, that is a large shopping mall in the downtown from Dusseldorf

Herbert A. Franke: Photos

 
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The Soul's Descent by Hugo Só  

The Soul's Descent by Hugo Só

Roma, Italy -- www.hugosophotography.com https://www.facebook.com/Hugo.So.Photography

Hugo Só: Photos

 
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quinomosles by Roman Gutikov  

quinomosles by Roman Gutikov

inspired by beauty. Educate photography, processing, retouch. vkontakte | flickr | facebook | instagram

Roman Gutikov: Photos

 
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Morning Calo by Donlope 01  

Morning Calo by Donlope 01

Donlope 01: Photos

 
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anguria dietetica.. by Antonio Iacobelli  

anguria dietetica.. by Antonio Iacobelli

Ho infilato come una collana, i semi in un filo rosso.. ;-)

Antonio Iacobelli: Photos

 
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Is China's Tiangong-1 Space Station Spiraling out of Control? --Reports Fear It Will "Rain Molten Metal"  
 
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Sundarbans web  

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

The Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over the very eastern part of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, in this natural-colour image.

A region comprising southern Bangladesh and a small part of the Indian state of west Bengal, the whole area of the Sundarbans incorporates some 10 000 sq km, consisting of mangrove and swamp forests.

The region of the Sundarbans appears in dark shades of green in this image, while the adjacent areas in brighter colours are densely populated and dominated by agriculture.

Sundarbans is the world's largest single chunk of tidal halophytic mangrove forest. Generally, fresh water is required for plants, but these mangrove forests can also thrive in saline water.

This area lies on the Bay of Bengal, the world's largest bay. A number of large rivers including the Ganges, its tributaries and various other rivers, all flow into its waters, forming the GangesBrahmaputra Delta.

The erosional forces of the sea and wind along the coast continuously mould the landscape, together with the huge amounts of silt and other sediments, deposited in the countless estuaries, visible in the water. Distinct throughout the image, the network of these estuaries, tidal rivers and creeks, criss-crossed by numerous channels, enclose flat, densely forested, marshy islands and agricultural plots.

Most of the delta is composed of alluvial soils made up of fine sediment that settles to the bottom as river currents slow in the estuary. The soil has large amounts of minerals and nutrients, ideal for agriculture.

These fertile floodplains host jute, tea and rice the major crops grown in the Ganges Delta, visible as brighter patches on the land areas in the right part of the image. Fishing is also an important activity, and a major source of food for many of the inhabitants of the various towns, which we can see along the brighter areas.

The Sundarbans National Park, established in 1984 and a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a core region within the Bengal Tiger Reserve. The almost extinct Bengal tiger is the national animal of Bangladesh and is considered the second largest tiger in the world.

This image also featured on the Earth from Space video programme was captured by Sentinel-2A on 18 March 2016.

Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA

 
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Making Waves in the Sky off of Africa  

NASA Goddard Photo and Video posted a photo:

On June 26, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image of cloud gravity waves off the coast of Angola and Namibia.

“I [regularly] look at this area on Worldview because you quite often have these gravity waves,” said Bastiaan Van Diedenhoven, a researcher for Columbia University and NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies interested in cloud formations. “On this day, there was so much going on—so many different waves from different directions—that they really started interfering.” A distinctive criss-cross pattern formed in unbroken stretches hundreds of kilometers long.

Similar to a boat's wake, which forms as the water is pushed upward by the boat and pulled downward again by gravity, these clouds are formed by the rise and fall of colliding air columns.

Off of west Africa, dry air coming off the Namib desert—after being cooled by the night—moves out under the balmy, moist air over the ocean and bumps it upwards. As the humid air rises to a higher altitude, the moisture condenses into droplets, forming clouds. Gravity rolls these newly formed clouds into a wave-like shape. When moist air goes up, it cools, and then gravity pushes it down again. As it plummets toward the earth, the moist air is pushed up again by the dry air. Repeated again and again, this process creates gravity waves. Clouds occur at the upward wave motions, while they evaporate at the downward motions.

Such waves will often propagate in the morning and early afternoon, said Van Diedenhoven. During the course of the day, the clouds move out to sea and stretch out, as the dry air flowing off the land pushes the moist ocean air westward.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE).

via @NASAEarth go.nasa.gov/29Btxcy

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA's mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA's accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency's mission.

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Thanks for viewing :-)

 
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The Camel Whisperer of California  
They're misunderstood beasts, if you ask Gil Riegler. Camels offer milk, beauty and, for Riegler, a life mission.  
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Grand Cayman Wildlife #3 Grand Cayman Blue Iguana  

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next stop! St Pauls  

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FlickrFriday theme: #Sunset

 
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Zika Epidemic May Have Peaked But Will Threaten U.S. For Years  

Scientists have evidence that the epidemic in Latin America may have started to subside. But the U.S. isn't out of the woods yet.

 
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NSA Boss Says U.S. Cyber Troops Are Nearly Ready  

The Cyber Mission Force is the largest single unit dedicated to operating in computer networks, both for defense and offense. It will reach "initial operating capability" by the end of September.

 
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In Wake Of Shootings, Facebook Struggles To Define Hate Speech  

After last week's police shootings, Facebook received a flood of complaints, with users calling out posts as hate speech. According to Facebook insiders, the company was not prepared.

 
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How A 'Nightmare' Law Could Make Sharing Passwords Illegal  

A recent federal court ruling has advocates, researchers and the dissenting judge worried that sharing passwords, even in seemingly innocuous circumstances, could be considered unlawful.

 
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The Code Switch Podcast, Episode 9: Black And Blue  

Black police officers live on both sides of the debate over race and policing. In this week's episode, they weigh in on the limits of force diversity in bridging gaps between black people and cops.

 
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Social Media Abuse Of Nursing Home Residents Often Goes Unchecked  

Iowa health officials recently discovered it wasn't against state law for a nursing home worker to share a photo on Snapchat of a resident covered in feces. They are trying to change that.

 
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Public Figures Struggle With Social Media Boundaries After Dallas Shooting  

Politicians, police officers, and media personalities have all gotten blow-back for inflammatory social media posts about the shooting of officers in Dallas.

 
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r0B0t: Researchers create skeleton robot with human-like muscles  
If robots that mimic animal or human behavior are your nightmare fuel, turn away now. Researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology went one step further with a skeleton robot, giving it human-like muscles to help with movement. The microfilament...  
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r0B0t: Kim Kardashian says Taylor Swift loves 'playing the victim' with Kanye West  
More about Kardashians, Rapper, Pop Star, Kanye West, and Taylor Swift  
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r0B0t: Mr Robot's revolutionary tips for Jeremy Corbyn | Lucy Mangan  
A skinny, unsmiling man determined to try and save the world could Labour learn from the hit US TV series?

If you really want to know where we are as a world, rather than a tiny and bamboozled nation, turn away from the news and towards Mr Robot, the award-winning US drama that has just entered its second season. It follows the adventures of Elliot Alderson, an emotionally troubled young computer security engineer turned vigilante hacker. He is recruited by the eponymous character, the leader of a New York-based anarchist group, to destroy the largest conglomerate in the world.

Related: Mr Robot's season two is proof the show refuses to play by the rules of TV

Continue reading...  
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Sintra by Jolien Roos  

Sintra by Jolien Roos

Seconds before we couldn't see a thing, seconds later the sky was clear.... Such a magical moment. www.jolienroos.be

Jolien Roos: Photos

 
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The Radical Rap Of Los Angeles  
From LA to the Bay, from NWA to the Coup, California has produced a few generations of radicalized rappers. YG and Schoolboy Q are the latest.  
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Don't Jump View Hello World Fine Art Photography Architecture Sunset Londonview Night Lights Cityscapes Long Exposure United Kingdom LONDON❤ London Tower Bridge Dusk Night Dusk In The City Nightphotography Night Photography Touristythings Tourist A  

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THE ENERGY GANGS OF NEW YORK  
It's not surprising that Governor Andrew Cuomo's "50 by 30" goal - 50 percent of New York's power will come from renewable sources by 2030 - has caused a stir among the energy cognoscenti that is now beginning to seep into the mainstream media. Keeping lights on, factories humming, and people entertained - a.k.a. electric power -- is a huge business in New York and the Governor's ambitious climate-saving program will move profits around from the old to new energy businesses.

Hence it's not surprising that the Governor's energy czar, Richard Kauffman, has had a pointed exchange with New York's electric market operator (the New York ISO, or NYISO) about the cost of New York's Energiewende (the energy transformation, a word coined by the equally ambitious Germany). On Tuesday, the ISO warned in a letter to the New York regulators (the Public Service Commission) that it had "concerns over how the Commission is developing and planning to implement the CES to achieve the 50% by 30 objectives." Specifically, the NYISO estimated that the goal could require nearly 1,000 miles of new bulk power transmission. The next day, Politico reported that "in a sharply worded rebuttal, Richard L. Kauffman, who chairs the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, called the NYISO filing 'misleading, incomplete and grossly inaccurate,' saying that technology and 'simply smarter markets and operations allow the system to easily accommodate renewable resources.'"

This is an understandable exchange. NYISO is doing its job by raising questions, and Kauffman is doing his by challenging the NYISO to think outside the box (while keeping the lights on). For those of us deep in the belly of the electric whale, 50 by 30 is an exciting and challenging opportunity. We love to paraphrase John F. Kennedy's statement about going to the moon: "we do it not because it's easy; we do it because it's hard." On the inside, many of us deeply believe that Kaufmann is right: that the advances of power technology (on both the demand and the supply side) are so remarkable - especially the development of microgrids - that 50 by 30 can be achieved without compromising reliability and without raising the overall cost of electricity.

During this process, however, we do need NYISO and the electric utilities to continue to serve as the platform on which all this innovation happens. New York's regulatory apparatus - called REV for Reforming the Energy Vision -- is being reshaped to allow this to happen. From the inside, we see three essential activities that New York has to enable simultaneously to implement the Vision. First, the rules of the game have to be amended to enable distributed energy (including efficiency and demand management) to thrive. Second, the grid does need to be strategically expanded to bring bulk clean energy from the places it exists (upstate, neighboring states and provinces, western New York, and offshore) to where it's consumed (most of it naturally is consumed downstate). Third, and seldom discussed, the grid needs to be better optimized with modern technology and better software.

If electricity were only lightly regulated, this would happen naturally. But it remains heavily regulated and one of the heaviest hands on it is that of the New York ISO. It's the gatekeeper of what is allowed to be installed into the grid. If it is too heavy-handed, there will be a rebellion from the cleantech innovators, who in the long run command the political power in a progressive state like New York. If NYISO is too permissive, the lights will go out more often than society can tolerate. It's a tough assignment. NYISOs natural propensity is probably to be too conservative. Kauffman's letter is a shot across the bow to nudge it to be more accommodating.

Governor Cuomo's 50 by 30 is a worthy goal for a state like New York. He was indeed channeling his inner JFK when he first proposed it. The NYISO and the rest of New York's powerful old power elite need to come onboard. While 50% of the power in 2030 will come from renewables, they should remember the other 50% will still come from a leaner and more efficient fossil fuel industry.

-- 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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Will The Next Natural Disaster Doom The Nation's Energy Grid?  
California is facing a power calamity. Not only does the state have the most expensive energy in the continental U.S., but also the least reliable. It's leading the nation with more than 470 power outages this year alone, and is expected to enact 14 planned blackout days throughout the summer as a response to power sourcing issues.


Power lines at dusk.

Natural disasters are, and will be, the main undoing of California's power structure. Climate change is already impacting the grid, due to significant shifts in temperature and weather patterns. Because of the ongoing drought, hydro dams (a primary energy source in the state) are only producing 20% of their normal capacity. Extreme heat led the California ISO to post a Flex Alert on the first day of summer, setting the stage for the beginning of rolling blackouts. Wildfires, a yearly and growing grievance in the arid Southern California climate, can impact the grid in a variety of ways; flames damage transmission poles and smoke and particulate matter can ionize the air, leading electricity away from transmission lines and forcing a shutdown of the system.

However, the elephant in the room is not the drought, or rising temperatures, or even wildfires. It is what Kathryn Schulz referred to in The New Yorker as "The Really Big One": An earthquake of epic proportions that is likely to hit the West Coast any day.

While all natural disasters can lead to blackouts and power complications, earthquakes make an exceptional impact. In a 2011 article in IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, Hugh Rudnick points out that countries such as China, Japan and the U.S. have all suffered from serious energy infrastructure damage during earthquake aftermath, leading to extended economic ramifications.

A high magnitude earthquake could destroy California's entire energy system. "The whole western side of (San Francisco) is built on sand," Cal Broomhead, the energy and climate program manager for SF Environment told the website GreenBiz. "If we have a massive earthquake, the gas infrastructure will be shot, and we could face an extended power outage."

Historically, the country relied on diesel and gas generators and large-scale gas turbines for emergency power. Beginning in World War II, naval ships had diesel engines in case one of the main boilers malfunctioned. It wasn't until the 1990s that utilities began exploring flywheel energy storage and deep cycle batteries for emergency power generation.

Yet diesel and gas are both still largely relied upon to provide backup power. Not only are these generators wieldy and loud, but they are also environmentally damaging and require investment in finite resources. By having generation rely on a continuous supply of gas, these systems are not fully independent and can be unworkable in emergency situations. Additionally, they are expensive to keep on hand. Fuel-powered generators require valuable space, and they need to be cycled often to ensure the fuel is fresh and usable.


San Francisco earthquake, 1909.

Although this paints a grim picture of energy inertia, a silver lining exists. As mentioned, batteries and energy storage are becoming increasingly attractive options. Right now, most deep cycled batteries are made of lead-acid, the cheapest material on the market, which is heavier, and lower in power capacity and lifespan than other batteries such as lithium-ion. Lithium-ion is not only superior to lead-acid in performance, but is rapidly dropping in price. These batteries are quickly becoming the main choice for energy storage innovation on both a large and small scale, making them likely to price out lead-acid in the next few years. An influx of second-life lithium ion batteries, which were once in cars and other high-energy positions but still have power capacity for other uses, are a cheap and valuable power source. In addition, flow batteries, made of vanadium and zinc, and sodium-ion options are undergoing testing with large-scale commercial potential.

This research is not solely geared towards one state. Overall, the U.S. energy infrastructure received a D+ from the American Society of Civil Engineers during its most recent assessment, and utilities across the nation are investigating energy technology. However, California is pioneering emergency power preparedness. In 2013, the CPUC passed a mandate requiring the three largest state utilities to add 1.3 gigawatts of energy storage by 2020. That same year, California lead the country (tied with Texas) in smart grid success, receiving 83 out of 100 points awarded by the GridWise Alliance and Smart Grid Policy Center.

Locally, cities are also exploring resilient backup systems, with San Francisco being one of the most prominent examples. In 2015, the Solar Market Pathways Program gave the city funding to integrate renewables and storage into its emergency response plan. Additionally, local government is working with PG&E to develop a series of microgrids -- energy systems that can operate both independently and in tandem with the larger power grid. The city is also urging private developers to build affordable homes that are more resilient to natural disasters.

According to Rudnick, this cooperative strategy is integral to the success of worst-case scenario preparations. "Resilience not only depends on equipment, building codes and technology, but more so on the organization and standardized emergency preparedness of well-structured electric companies," he explains.

Previously an Associate Editor for HuffPost Green, Jessica now works for FreeWire Technologies, a mobile energy storage company based in the Bay Area.

-- 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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Electric Cars Are More And More At Home In California  


My Sacramento office overlooks a parking lot that recently resurfaced its top level. In addition to new pavement, the proprietors also installed several charging stations for electric vehicles. The owners of that garage are not alone.

Car charging stations are popping up all over California. Drive Solar--a joint venture with the charging station locator app company PlugShare and the solar panel installation company Sungevity--allows individuals to install charging stations in their home at the same time they install solar panels, making both options much cheaper. Virtually every major tourist attraction and event venue, from Disneyland to Levi Stadium, has charging stations for electric vehicles.

And that is exactly what I intended when I introduced AB 631 in 2012, during my last year in the Assembly.

That bill, which was signed into law by Governor Brown, exempted electric charging stations for cars from getting approval by the Public Utilities Commission if the station was only to be used for charging cars.

The Public Utilities Commission is an outgrowth of the old Railroad Commission, which was established during the Progressive Era, to ensure that Californians of that era were getting fair market rates for transporting themselves and the fruits of their labors to market. In the ensuing years, the PUC has grown to regulate virtually all of the utilities in California.

That's an important role, and it requires the PUC to be vigilant and thorough in approving the construction of, say, a new natural gas-fired power plant, or the pipelines that are used to move natural gas from storage to the power plant. But that same level of exhaustiveness makes it difficult to get smaller projects, like a car charging station, approved.

By taking the PUC out of the process, we helped remove one of the major roadblocks to keeping consumers from moving towards electric cars: the "range anxiety" they feel when they worry their car won't be able to make it to their destination on a full charge.

That is a very real concern in a state where commuters can sometimes travel as much as 50 or 100 miles to work every day. More charging stations means greater range for electric car owners, and every single charger doubles as a billboard for electric cars themselves.

In a typical month, anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 electric cars are sold in the United States, and up to half of that total are purchased right here in California. Almost 185,000 electric cars cruise our roads and highways every day. Now, that's not because of one piece of legislation--it's part of a broader cultural trend towards sustainability.

But those trends are strengthened by legislation, like our efforts to pass AB 631 in 2012, or the efforts of Assemblymember David Chiu, to pass AB 1236 last year. That bill, which was also signed into law by Governor Brown, mandates that cities and counties develop an expedited permit process for electric car charging stations within their borders.

The lack of charging stations was one of the major roadblocks to consumers really embracing electric vehicles. We removed that roadblock, and that helped the market shift gears in fundamental ways.

As recently as a decade ago, consumers only had their choice one or two truly electric (and very expensive) models on the market. But today's consumers have their choice of electric vehicle: stylish sports cars, outdoor friendly utility vehicles for family adventures, and sophisticated sedans for commuters.

And once Assemblymember Chiu's legislation is fully implemented, even more communities will be electric car-friendly.

This September, when we commemorate national Drive Electric Week (9/10-9/18), we will have a lot more to celebrate. California's electric car market is expanding faster than you can say "zero emmissions vehicle," and the ongoing efforts in the legislature to expand public transit and encourage renewable energy shows why the world is looking to us for leadership.

Given California's history as a national trendsetter for new technologies, it's a safe bet that the whole country will be going from 0 to 60 on electric vehicles a lot sooner than anyone expects.

-- 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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Green Chemistry Is The Path To Chemical Safety  
Co-authored by Glynis Lough

On June 22nd, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act was signed into law, bringing the first legislative reform to chemical management regulation in 40 years! From car seats to zippers, nearly every product in and out of the home has the potential to change because of this bill - meaning your favorite toy or cooking pan could be reformulated because chemicals toxic to human health are used in the production.  And the bill also includes special protections for women's and children's health. Sound great?  Sort of.  The reality of the bill is that it's a mixed bag - only twenty chemicals of the thousands and thousands that are actually used in consumer goods are required to be tested per year, and there's a 64,000 backlog - but with increased authority, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can prevent new problems from entering the market.

That means that real effort is needed to make this bill more than just public relations. To be sure, there are some good things in this bill, such as setting new safety standards for chemicals with ties to cancer, mental health, and infertility and allowing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to obtain more information about a chemical before approving its use. We need more action to pollute less.

What this really means is that we need to find other ways to protect people and the environment from the chemicals that we routinely use, like dry cleaning solvents, and this is exactly what green chemistry aims to do. One important way to do this is to promote green chemistry. This is a movement to create products that reduce pollution without sacrificing function. While a nod to green chemistry is hidden at the bottom of this bill (about a Sustainable Chemistry Initiative), in reality, it does not do enough to either raise consciousness or change practice.  This rule does present opportunities to really benefit from better integration of a discipline called green chemistry, and we must do more to capitalize on this.

But if education, industry, AND government simultaneously work to integrate green chemistry into our daily lives, then change is possible. 

If we practice green chemistry, our daily lives will change and make our kids and the world safer.  Food packaging will necessarily change because instead of Styrofoam, which isn't biodegradable but does release cancerous by-products when burned, we can use mushroom-based packaging that's non-toxic and compostable! From how we use transportation (ethanol) to the shoes we wear (thanks, Nike!) green chemistry is already touching our lives. It's time for consumers and the federal government alike to highlight green chemistry! Here are the two key reasons why we should focus more on green chemistry.

First off, green chemistry makes and saves money.

Green chemistry industry is expected to grow from $2.8 billion in 2011 to $98.5 billion by 2020 while saving industry $65.5 billion according to one often-cited study. 

Businesses care...

Because businesses tend to emphasize forward-looking, streamlined processes, businesses already implement green chemistry into the production of many of their goods, and even more could be on the way with greater pressure from consumers. Individual businesses and coalitions like the American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute and the industrial sectors drawn into it (e.g. pharmaceuticals and chemical manufacturers) have begun to respond to their main driver, consumer pressure, and are becoming more competitive by incorporating green chemistry - their gains in productivity are likely to offset any potential costs of reducing their environmental impact. 

To fully incorporate the benefits of green chemistry throughout society, what should we change? 

Industry is already poised to go big time into green chemistry. That innovation and the effects of green chemistry will be magnified across society if we are better educated about it, and if all sectors - industry, consumer and government - are better connected. 

Education - The next generation of consumers should pressure even more

Because green chemistry principles are just now emerging as part of chemistry education in the United States, students, who are the next generation of practitioners and consumers, do not understand the scientific and economic relevance of green chemistry to their lives. We need to leverage increased awareness and funding concurrently because this will lead to more and better sustainable products and processes and funding opportunities.

Better-equipped citizens make informed decisions about green and sustainable technologies, products, and industries that affect their lives, and this Act begins that process. Integrating green chemistry into school curricula will connect chemistry curriculum to students' everyday lives allowing benefits of real world contexts to motivate learning about chemistry. For example, leveraging the popularity of environmental sustainability among youth is a great way to connect chemistry concepts with issues we are passionate about.  Imagine encouraging students to use chemistry to develop alternative cosmetics or toys that are more sustainable? 

In green chemistry, innovation and education can happen concurrently. Society does not have time to wait for innovation before educating the next generation. Using real world issues as a starting point to introduce science concepts contextualizes environmental and sustainability issues, improves decision-making, and helps to create a scientifically literate citizenry. This approach will also improve consumers' understanding of the products they buy, which has the potential to create a positive feedback where educated consumers demand more sustainable products and processes and where scientists are literate in green chemistry and can employ its principles broadly.

Connect Industry, Government, and the Public 

While the EPA has supported many important projects, green chemistry is multi-disciplinary and can support cross-agency efforts from the EPA to the Department of Energy to the US Department of Agriculture. A new model for interagency coordination - modeled after the Sustainable Chemistry Initiative suggested at the very bottom of this Act - would coordinate green chemistry research, development, technology transfer, education, and training across federal agencies and in support of larger US national efforts. This kind of mega effort supported by a green chemistry curriculum can make our use of chemicals more sustainable.   

While the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act is a good step forward, let's make sure that our government doesn't forget about the Sustainable Chemistry Initiative tucked away at the very bottom of the bill.  The more green chemistry is used and understood, the closer we get to fulfilling our legislators' promise to make the chemicals in our lives safer.  A coordinated and integrated effort across education, industry, and government can make this Act a truly effective reality.

-- 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 Real Differences Between Animals And Humans  

Image Credit: Huffington Post Images

While humans evolved to have the largest brain-to-body-size ratio, supposedly making us one of the smartest animals on Earth, we also evolved to be the most destructive.

In 1950 there were 2.5 billion people on Earth, and we created 1.5 million tons of plastic per year. Now there are 7.4 billion people on Earth - a five-fold increase; yet, we create over 300 million tons of plastic each year, a 200-fold difference.

Not only that, but, since 1950, we have also over-fished nearly every inch of our oceans.

So, what does this have to do with the difference between animals and ourselves?

The major difference is that (**most**) animals consume or eat for survival, they kill only what they need to live. That might mean a pod of Orcas kills one seal, or a pride of lions kills one Impala.

Humans, on the other hand, kill indiscriminately.

When we fish in our oceans, we don't just get the one species we are looking for. We trawl the bottom of the ocean killing everything in our path, corals or bottom-dwelling creatures, and irresponsibly catch and kill multiple unintended species of fish, invertebrates, sea mammals such as dolphins, porpoises, or whales, and sometimes, even seabirds.

Our search for oil damages marine habitats, food chains, health, and also may damage the sensitive hearing of marine animals, making it difficult for them to find food, or communicate, and may even cause mass strandings or death from starvation as animals become confused, overwhelmed, or disoriented from the cacophony.

Meanwhile on land, we are destructive in a myriad of other ways: We clear-cut forests, build cities, disrupt waterway, infiltrate and destroy habitats, and indiscriminately kill, again.

Hundreds of thousands of elephants, rhinoceros, tigers, and other endangered species are killed every year for their "medicinal" "purposes, or to demonstrate wealth; and, many of these animals are on the brink of extinction, and may become extinct within the next decade.

The true wealth on our planet is the animals. Their lives. It is what they give to the planet and to each other as part of an intricate web, they have figured out already. They've been here a lot longer than we have.

They know how to live in harmony, and take only what they need.

They know the importance of returning to the land what they take, reaping what they sow, and do not kill without reason.

We may have the largest brains, but I argue that we are not the smartest.

If we would just start paying attention, we would learn so much from our fellow animals about conservation, relationship building, giving back to the earth, and perhaps most importantly contributing to the web in which we are also a part of.

They were here long before we were, yet, we are killing them, and altering the planet faster than they can adapt.

By 2050 it is estimated that more than half of all species on the planet will be extinct, by our hands.

By 2050, It is expected that there will be more plastic in the ocean and fish.

These to me are scary statistics. It is time to stem the wave of destruction, and instead to be leaders and advocates for conservation.

Here's how:

1. If you eat seafood, look only for sustainable sources, that our line-caught, meaning they use traditional, discriminate fishing methods.

2. Write your congressmen and senators.

3. Educate others by Sharing this blog and others like it.

4. Eliminate or significantly reduce your intake of animal products - treat them as a condiment, not a main. For more specific meal suggestions and recipes, please refer to my previous post: "Why Plants are This Summer's "Coolest" Diet."

5. Read and review your food labels, because, it is possible that there are ingredients in them that are unsustainable (such as coconut or palm kernel oil - which destroy several habitats) and or possibly shark fin or cartilage.

6. Give up your fish oil in lieu of plant sources of omega-3 black, such as flax, walnut, and algal sources.

7. Encourage your local coffee shop to invest in eco-lids and cups that are compostable.

8. Reduce your food waste, buy only what you need, cook it, and eat it or store it in a way that it won't go bad. Food storage tips.


To contact Dana: recipe.for.survival@gmail.com
Twitter: recipe4survival
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RecipeForSurvival/
blog: recipeforsurvival.wordpress.com

-- 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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Putting Your Self(ie) And Animals At Risk  
What's a picture really worth? What's the price for a moment of wonder, excitement, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be just... that... close to a wild animal?

I have written these words before about the concept of having an exotic animal as a pet--a chimpanzee, a macaque, a tiger, or any number of others. I understand it. I understand the profound and emotional yearning to be close to a wild animal. To touch a wild animal. To embrace the companionship of a wild animal. It's got to be magical and exciting.

It's also dangerous, inhumane, and stupid. These are wild animals, meant to be in the wild. They bite and scratch. They experience fear and suffering in the unnatural life we force them to endure. They escape and become invasive species, or they escape and cause harm. They are confiscated and become the burden of the local humane society or wildlife sanctuary.

Wildlife belongs in the wild.

Now, the "selfie" or the photo-op: the moment to take a picture with a wild animal. I have seen it myself in Cancun, Mexico, where hopeless tourists take pictures with helpless animals. For one dollar, you can cuddle an old, chained chimpanzee. I cross my fingers, hold my breath, and close my eyes to a squint. Please don't let this be the moment the chimpanzee has had enough and rips the flesh from that young lady's body.

I have seen it in Thailand, where people sit bottle-feeding a tiger for the chance to get a photograph together. It's dangerous for a tiger cub that young to be that close to people (risk of disease is high). It's also part of a brutal breeding industry that mass-produces tigers. The young ones forcibly pose for pictures; the older ones languish behind bars; and many of them likely end up slaughtered or sold for body parts to China.

But, this "selfie" phenomenon is beyond crazy. It's a perverse abuse of our newfound technology that makes us yearn to document every moment.

Take a picture of a wild animal in the wild, behaving naturally. Yes, absolutely. Do not manipulate wild animals, touch wild animals, or remove wild animals from their natural habitats for the sake of a Facebook update.

The internet is full of them. Argentinian beachgoers pulled a young dolphin from the water and passed her around for pictures until she tragically died. People in Lake Tahoe creep perilously close to wild black bears to capture just the right picture, putting themselves at risk of attack. Hikers in Yellowstone National Park have been attacked by bison and other wild animals while attempting to photograph them. A tourist in Macedonia pulled a swan from the water for a picture together, harming the bird. A shark was pulled from the water in the Dominican Republic for photos--and the shark died. Even the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a warning about taking selfies with seal pups because of the risk to the animals.

I wonder if the destructive and highly dangerous trend of selfies with wild animals stems from a societal view of animals as objects rather than as individuals. Perpetuated by zoo exhibits that place animals in a fishbowl, circus acts forcing highly unnatural behaviors, and media that treat animals as stylish accessories, the exploitation of animals has become normalized and encouraged. We see animals up close. For some, human nature dictates wanting to be even closer.

Wild animals are not novelties, are not safe for human interaction, do not exist to entertain us, and belong in the wild. Period.

While many people have an affinity for wild animals, not all of them are able to moderate their desire to be close to them. Meanwhile, modern society dramatically desensitizes people to the animals' very wildness. The desire to be close to animals, the opportunities to do so, and the misguided, trusting belief that it must be safe... Taken together, they result in people taking massive, dangerous risks for a mere photo opportunity.

A picture is worth a thousand words? Fine. Just don't let those words include "cruelty," "injury," "stress," "suffering," or "death." Take a selfie... with your dog or cat.

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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Newborn ducklings can acquire notions of 'same' and 'different'  
Scientists have shown that newly hatched ducklings can readily acquire the concepts of 'same' and 'different' -- an ability previously known only in highly intelligent animals such as apes, crows and parrots.  
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Biodiversity is below safe levels across more than half of world's land study  

Habitat destruction has reduced the variety of plants and animals to the point that ecological systems could become unable to function properly, with risks for agriculture and human health, say scientists

The variety of animals and plants has fallen to dangerous levels across more than half of the world's landmass due to humanity destroying habitats to use as farmland, scientists have estimated.

The unchecked loss of biodiversity is akin to playing ecological roulette and will set back efforts to bring people out of poverty in the long term, they warned.

Continue reading...  
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Biodiversity falls below ‘safe levels' globally  
Levels of global biodiversity loss may negatively impact on ecosystem function and the sustainability of human societies.  
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Saving the ozone layer is warming the planet but it can be fixed  
We saved the ozone layer, but in doing so unleashed more global warming with the 1987 agreement to replace CFCs with HFCs. Now, we're set to fix the problem  
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Tess Carter: Green Chemistry Is The Path To Chemical Safety  
While the EPA has supported many important projects, green chemistry is multi-disciplinary and can support cross-agency efforts from the EPA to the Department of Energy to the US Department of Agriculture.

Read more: Education, Environment, Science, Green Chemistry, Science Policy, STEM Education, Science News

 
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What Should I Do With My Life? A Scientist's Perspective  
You were born. You grew up, learned how to survive in a complicated and altogether bewildering world, learned a few things in school, maybe some more in college. And one day you face the challenge of your existence:

What should I do with my life?

First, let me assure you: you should be asking this question. Anybody who has ever achieved anything has asked themselves that exact question. (This last statement, by the way, is not supported by any data that I know, but it could be basically true anyway).

Before I will tell you what to do with your life (even though I don't know you), let me first tell you about your purpose.

You have no purpose.

OK, I should have defined "your purpose" more accurately. If we understand "your purpose" as your role in a grand design of things, you should know that there is no grand design of things. (For this there is data, but this is not the blog post to get into this issue. Just trust me here: "No Grand Design".)

Consider the purpose of a blade of grass. You've seen one of those. What do you think the purpose of the blade of grass is? Granted, it can't think like you and I can, but it is alive, and you share about a quarter of your genes with grass. Is its purpose to be eaten by a cow? To be shortened by a lawnmower? To give a nice green feel to the front lawn (in a cooperative quest together with its closely related brethren?)




You do of course realize that this thinking is absurd. The blade of grass just "is". It grew from other blades of grass, just like you grew from your parents. You had no choice in the matter, nor did your parents know what they were producing (beyond the obvious: "one human child"). Speaking from the vantage points of molecules, you're the result of some other molecules.

But compared to the blade of grass, there is something special about you. You can learn. (You can move also, something that the blade of grass will eternally be jealous about). When you learn, you take past experience into account to change how you will do things next time around. You can learn about the world in which you happen to be placed, and you are even free to ponder whether there could be other such worlds beyond the one you currently inhabit, populated with other beings that ask themselves what to do with their life.




This ability you have, to understand your place, your position if you will, within the entire grandiose universe, is something grandiose in itself. You can actually think about what it means to be alive, unlike the blade of grass, which just is. (And still has so many of your genes). Only you can actually ask yourself the question "What should I do with my life?"

We already established that you have no purpose. What you should do with your life is to give yourself a purpose. You see, as you are freed from some sort of grander design, it turns out that what you become is entirely up to you. You are the one who gets to choose your purpose. And when you begin to think about what purpose to give to yourself, look no further than your own dreams.

Dreams are curious things: we control them and don't control them at the same time. There is something in them decidedly from us, and sometimes stuff that isn't exactly how we thought we were. But we all dream, whether at night or during the day. But in our dreams, we often are what we long to be. This is the key:

Your purpose is to be what you long to be.

It's really quite simple. Granted, some people long to be King or Queen, when in fact they are not anywhere near the line of succession of any Royal Family. This is not the longing I am talking about. "I long to be rich", I often hear. Big deal, who doesn't. I'm talking about the longing that is based on something you experienced, something you learned, something inside of you that made you think: "This is what I want to do all the time". When you identify this, you know what to do with your life: to become the person who does precisely that. Imagine your best self, the one that has achieved all their dreams, and strive to be that person. That is the purpose of your life, in fact anybody's life.

"How do I do that?" is the next obvious question, and this one does not have a simple answer. Generally speaking, your life's path is determined (to a large extent) by many small decisions that you make, and perhaps a few big ones. If you don't pay attention, others may make those decisions for you.

Don't let them. This is your life, not theirs. They had their chance. This one is yours.

It is often the myriad of small decisions that nudge you closer to where you want to be, and those are the decisions that can be corrected if you realize that you are not moving where you want to go. Major decisions (getting married, accepting a job overseas, etc.) are more difficult to correct should you realize that they are not helping you reach your goals, but almost all decisions can ultimately be corrected. The trick in making more correct decisions than incorrect ones (because let's face it, that is the best one can hope to achieve) is to keep in mind the person and the life that you dream to attain. If this is the life that you want, then you must do what is necessary to get there, sparing no effort, fearing no obstacle.

Tell yourself: "So you want it. Are you prepared to work to get it?" Nothing is for free, at least not the things that are worthwhile. To achieve what is worth your while requires work. But work is easy if you really want the rewards. Find what you cannot live without. Find what is your passion. Working towards that will not even feel like work.

What if you have no passion? Then you have not lived enough, or experienced enough. One way to remedy that is to read about the passions of other great people. Not because you should be just like them, but because they might inspire you. Read about adventurers, scientists, leaders, artists. Read about their struggles, their passions, and their failures, and you will find your own. But by all means, read. Let me, for the sake of emphasis, repeat that. Read as much as you can.

There is a reason our civilization has started an exponential boom after we figured out the printed word. Inspiration is passed on from one person to another. If one dream can infect thousands of others, an exponential amplification is inevitable.

If you are asking "What should I do with my life?, you have already taken the first step to do something with your life. Take the next step. Find out about your passions by studying other people's passions. There is no doubt in my mind that you will come across a singular experience, written down by someone who used to be just like you, that makes you realize: "This is what I want. This is how I want to spend the rest of my life."

You see, you have only one life, and you're pretty lucky to have gotten one anyway. Use it wisely, because there are no do-overs. According to my view of the universe, when you're done you're done. So make it a life you (and your offspring) can be proud of. Strive to live the life that you were meant to live if there indeed had been a "Grand Design". I think you've got it now: you are the "Grand Designer".

-- 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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Green Chemistry Is The Path To Chemical Safety  
Co-authored by Glynis Lough

On June 22nd, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act was signed into law, bringing the first legislative reform to chemical management regulation in 40 years! From car seats to zippers, nearly every product in and out of the home has the potential to change because of this bill - meaning your favorite toy or cooking pan could be reformulated because chemicals toxic to human health are used in the production.  And the bill also includes special protections for women's and children's health. Sound great?  Sort of.  The reality of the bill is that it's a mixed bag - only twenty chemicals of the thousands and thousands that are actually used in consumer goods are required to be tested per year, and there's a 64,000 backlog - but with increased authority, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can prevent new problems from entering the market.

That means that real effort is needed to make this bill more than just public relations. To be sure, there are some good things in this bill, such as setting new safety standards for chemicals with ties to cancer, mental health, and infertility and allowing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to obtain more information about a chemical before approving its use. We need more action to pollute less.

What this really means is that we need to find other ways to protect people and the environment from the chemicals that we routinely use, like dry cleaning solvents, and this is exactly what green chemistry aims to do. One important way to do this is to promote green chemistry. This is a movement to create products that reduce pollution without sacrificing function. While a nod to green chemistry is hidden at the bottom of this bill (about a Sustainable Chemistry Initiative), in reality, it does not do enough to either raise consciousness or change practice.  This rule does present opportunities to really benefit from better integration of a discipline called green chemistry, and we must do more to capitalize on this.

But if education, industry, AND government simultaneously work to integrate green chemistry into our daily lives, then change is possible. 

If we practice green chemistry, our daily lives will change and make our kids and the world safer.  Food packaging will necessarily change because instead of Styrofoam, which isn't biodegradable but does release cancerous by-products when burned, we can use mushroom-based packaging that's non-toxic and compostable! From how we use transportation (ethanol) to the shoes we wear (thanks, Nike!) green chemistry is already touching our lives. It's time for consumers and the federal government alike to highlight green chemistry! Here are the two key reasons why we should focus more on green chemistry.

First off, green chemistry makes and saves money.

Green chemistry industry is expected to grow from $2.8 billion in 2011 to $98.5 billion by 2020 while saving industry $65.5 billion according to one often-cited study. 

Businesses care...

Because businesses tend to emphasize forward-looking, streamlined processes, businesses already implement green chemistry into the production of many of their goods, and even more could be on the way with greater pressure from consumers. Individual businesses and coalitions like the American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute and the industrial sectors drawn into it (e.g. pharmaceuticals and chemical manufacturers) have begun to respond to their main driver, consumer pressure, and are becoming more competitive by incorporating green chemistry - their gains in productivity are likely to offset any potential costs of reducing their environmental impact. 

To fully incorporate the benefits of green chemistry throughout society, what should we change? 

Industry is already poised to go big time into green chemistry. That innovation and the effects of green chemistry will be magnified across society if we are better educated about it, and if all sectors - industry, consumer and government - are better connected. 

Education - The next generation of consumers should pressure even more

Because green chemistry principles are just now emerging as part of chemistry education in the United States, students, who are the next generation of practitioners and consumers, do not understand the scientific and economic relevance of green chemistry to their lives. We need to leverage increased awareness and funding concurrently because this will lead to more and better sustainable products and processes and funding opportunities.

Better-equipped citizens make informed decisions about green and sustainable technologies, products, and industries that affect their lives, and this Act begins that process. Integrating green chemistry into school curricula will connect chemistry curriculum to students' everyday lives allowing benefits of real world contexts to motivate learning about chemistry. For example, leveraging the popularity of environmental sustainability among youth is a great way to connect chemistry concepts with issues we are passionate about.  Imagine encouraging students to use chemistry to develop alternative cosmetics or toys that are more sustainable? 

In green chemistry, innovation and education can happen concurrently. Society does not have time to wait for innovation before educating the next generation. Using real world issues as a starting point to introduce science concepts contextualizes environmental and sustainability issues, improves decision-making, and helps to create a scientifically literate citizenry. This approach will also improve consumers' understanding of the products they buy, which has the potential to create a positive feedback where educated consumers demand more sustainable products and processes and where scientists are literate in green chemistry and can employ its principles broadly.

Connect Industry, Government, and the Public 

While the EPA has supported many important projects, green chemistry is multi-disciplinary and can support cross-agency efforts from the EPA to the Department of Energy to the US Department of Agriculture. A new model for interagency coordination - modeled after the Sustainable Chemistry Initiative suggested at the very bottom of this Act - would coordinate green chemistry research, development, technology transfer, education, and training across federal agencies and in support of larger US national efforts. This kind of mega effort supported by a green chemistry curriculum can make our use of chemicals more sustainable.   

While the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act is a good step forward, let's make sure that our government doesn't forget about the Sustainable Chemistry Initiative tucked away at the very bottom of the bill.  The more green chemistry is used and understood, the closer we get to fulfilling our legislators' promise to make the chemicals in our lives safer.  A coordinated and integrated effort across education, industry, and government can make this Act a truly effective reality.

-- 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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Blue is the colour of the universe's first supernovae  
Research could help detect most distant and oldest supernovae in the universe  
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Aging and Alone in Manhattan's Chinatown  

It's difficult to be a senior citizen with limited resources in New York City. Mantai Chow's short documentary, The Forgotten Ones, profiles elderly people who've lived in the city for decades, but who are struggling as they grow older alone. Abandoned by many, they cling to one another.

 
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Photos of the Day: July 14, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
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Ghost by Warren Keelan  

Ghost by Warren Keelan

It's been a while but it's nice to be behind the lens making pictures again. I still can't drive (broken leg) so I've been desperately catching cabs to different coastal locations just to be able to point my lens at the sea. During my downtime I've gone through a roller coaster of thoughts and emotions and needed to create something new as a form of therapy for my head. I've had some dark moments during this period but I'm stoked to be able to channel some of these thoughts and feelings into ocean abstracts. This is a new piece from a series of moving seascapes I'm calling Haunted Water.

Warren Keelan: Photos

 
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Point of View by Riccardo Lancia  

Point of View by Riccardo Lancia

Elisa Zanotto https://www.facebook.com/RiccardoLanciaPhoto/

Riccardo Lancia: Photos

 
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Colorful Heirloom tomatoes in rustic wooden tray over dark background by Anna Ivanova  

Colorful Heirloom tomatoes in rustic wooden tray over dark background by Anna Ivanova

Colorful Heirloom tomatoes in rustic wooden tray over dark wooden background, top view, horizontal composition

Anna Ivanova: Photos

 
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Red carpet by Luca Migliore  

Red carpet by Luca Migliore

My website: www.lucamigliore.com My facebook page: www.facebook.com/marion.photoirrealism

Luca Migliore: Photos

 
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Some animals should not be caught. by This Cool Dad  

Some animals should not be caught. by This Cool Dad

This Cool Dad: Photos

 
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The Brahma by Tirta Winata  

The Brahma by Tirta Winata

Tirta Winata: Photos

 
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Sehzade Mosque Şehzade Camii by Abo-Nasser Alzahrani  

Sehzade Mosque Şehzade Camii by Abo-Nasser Alzahrani

The Şehzade Mosque (Turkish: 'Şehzade Camii') is a 16th-century Ottoman imperial mosque located in the district of Fatih, on the third hill of Istanbul, Turkey. It was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent as a memorial to his son Şehzade Mehmed who died in 1543. It is sometimes referred to as the "Prince's Mosque" in English.[1] In a June 2016 attack, the windows of the mosque were shattered

Abo-Nasser Alzahrani: Photos

 
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r0B0t: Emmy Nominations 2016: Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston Lead British Stars At TV Awards  

Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba and Tom Hiddleston are all vying for the same top prize at this year's Emmy Awards, following a strong British showing in today's nominations.

All three will be up for Best Leading Actor in a Limited Series at the ceremony in September, for ‘Sherlock', ‘Luther' and ‘The Night Manager' respectively.

FULL LIST OF NOMINATIONS BELOW

Other British nominees include ‘Downton Abbey', with its final series given a nod in the category of Outstanding Drama Series, and for Writing and Directing. 

‘The Night Manager' also gets a nod in the Outstanding Limited Series category, with Tom's co-star Hugh Laurie also in the running for Supporting Actor. 

‘Luther' and ‘Sherlock' will be competing for honours in the Limited Series category. 

‘Game of Thrones' once again takes the lead in these nominations, garnering 23 in total for its sixth series - close behind is the ham-tastic ‘The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story' - a Limited Series that also scooped nominations for cast members Cuba Gooding Jr, Sarah Paulson, David Schwimmer, Courtney B Vance, Sterling K Brown AND, last but not least, John Travolta.

Channel 4 comedy ‘Catastrophe' gets a nod in the Writing category, actor Kit Harrington will be a popular nominee for the role of Jon Snow in ‘Game of Thrones', vying with his own co-star Peter Dinklage, while Maisie Williams also gets a nod. 

FULL LIST OF NOMINATIONS BELOW 

The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on 18 September.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA
The Americans
Better Call Saul
Downton Abbey
Game Of Thrones
Homeland
House Of Cards
Mr. Robot
LEAD ACTOR, DRAMA
Kyle Chandler, Bloodlines
Rami Malek, Mr Robot
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Matthew Rhys, The Americans
Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan
Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA
Claire Danes, Homeland
Viola Davis, How To Get Away With Murder
Taraji P Henson, Empire
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black
Keri Russell, The Americans,
Robin Wright, House of Cards
SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA
Jonathan Banks, Better Call Saul
Ben Mendelsohn, Bloodline
Peter Dinklage, Game Of Thrones
Kit Harrington, Game Of Thrones
Michael Kelly, House Of Cards
Jon Voight, Ray Donovan
SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Lena Headey, Game of Thrones
Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones
Maisie Williams, Game of Thrones
Maura Tierney, The Affair
GUEST ACTOR, DRAMA
Max von Sydow, Game of Thrones
Michael J. Fox, The Good Wife
Reg e. Cathey, House Of Cards
Mahershala Ali, House Of Cards
Hank Azaria, Ray Donovan
GUEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Margo Martindale, The Americans
Carrie Preston, The Good Wife
Laurie Metcalf, Horace And Pete
Ellyn Burstyn, House of Cards
Molly Parker, House Of Cards
Allison Janney, Masters Of Sex
WRITING, DRAMA
The Americans
Downton Abbey
Game Of Thrones
The Good Wife
Mr. Robot
UnReal
DIRECTING, DRAMA
Downton Abbey
Game Of Thrones
Homeland
The Knick
Ray Donovan
OUTSTANDING COMEDY
Blackish
Master Of None
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmitt
Veep
LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY
Anthony Anderson, black-ish
Aziz Ansari, Masters of None
Will Forte, The Last Man on Earth
William H Macy, Shameless
Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley
Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent
LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY
Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Laurie Metcalfe, Getting On
Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish
Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer
Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie
SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY
Louie Anderson, Baskets
Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Keegan-Michael Key
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Tony Hale, Veep
SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY
Niecy Nash, Getting On
Kate McKinnon, SNL
Gaby Hoffmann, Transparent
Allison Janney, Mom
Judith Light, Transparent
Anna Chlumsky, Veep
GUEST ACTOR, COMEDY
Bob Newhart, The Big Bang Theory
Tracy Morgan, SNL
Larry David, SNL
Badley Whitford, Transparent
Martin Mull, Veep
Peter MacNichol, Veep
GUEST ACTRESS, COMEDY
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
Melissa McCarthy, Saturday Night Live
Amy Schumer, Saturday Night Live
Christine Baranski, The Big Bang Theory
Laurie Metcalf, The Big Bang Theory
Melora Hardin, Transparent
WRITING, COMEDY
Catastrophe
Master Of None
Silicon Valley
Veep
DIRECTOR, COMEDY
Master Of None
Silicon Valley
Transparent
Veep
OUTSTANDING MOVIE OR SPECIAL
A Very Murray Christmas
All the Way
Confirmation
Luther
Sherlock: The Abominable Bride
OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES
American Crime
Fargo
The Night Manager
The People v. OJ Simpson
Roots
LEAD ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL
Kristen Dunst, Fargo
Felicity Huffman, American Crime
Audra McDonald, Billie Holiday: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill
Sarah Paulson, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
Lili Taylor, American Crime
Kerry Washington, Confirmation
LEAD ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL
Bryan Cranston, All The Way
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock: The Abominable Bride
Ibris Elba, Luther
Cuba Gooding Jr, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
Tom Hiddleston, The Night Manager
Courtney B. Vance, The People V OJ Simpson
SUPPORTING ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL
Jesse Plemmons, Fargo
Bokeem Woodbine, Fargo
Hugh Laurie, The Night Manager
Sterling K. Brown, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
David Schwimmer, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
John Travolta, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
SUPPORTING ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL
Niecy Nash, Getting On
Allison Janney, Mom
Kate McKinnon, SNL
Judith Light, Transparent
Gabby Hoffmann, Transparent
Anna Chlumsky, Veep
WRITING, LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL
Fargo
The Night Manager
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
DIRECTING, LIMITED SERIES, MOVIE OR SPECIAL
All The Way
Fargo
The Night Manager
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
OUTSTANDING VARIETY SKETCH SERIES
Documentary Now!
Drunk History
Inside Amy Schumer
Key & Peele
Portlandia
SNL
OUTSTANDING VARIETY TALK SERIES
Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
The Late Late Show with James Corden
Real Time With Bill Maher
The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon
WRITING, VARIETY SERIES
Full Frontal With Samantha Bee
Inside Amy Schumer
Key & Peele
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
Portlandia
SNL
DIRECTING, VARIETY SERIES
Inside Amy Schumer
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
The Late Late Show With James Corden
SNL
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
REALITY COMPETITION
The Amazing Race
American Ninja Warrior
Dancing With the Stars
Project Runway
Top Chef
The Voice

 

 
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r0B0t: I have also been corresponding with what I think is a robot at Hotmail.  
The Emails of Natalie Portman and Jonathan Safran Foer by Jonathan Safran Foer [The New York Times] For over a decade, the Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman and the author Jonathan Safran Foer have amassed countless email exchanges about family, creativity and angry koalas — until earlier this year, when their epistolary archive mysteriously disappeared. On the eve of her ambitious directorial debut, the old friends start anew, reconnecting online to reflect on how the times have changed, and how they have changed over time. 
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r0B0t: 2016 Emmy nominations: Full list  
More about Television and Entertainment  
robots  

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r0B0t: 'Overwatch' hero spotlight: How to suck less with Bastion  
More about Esports, Entertainment, Gaming, Blizzard Entertainment, and Overwatch  
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r0B0t: Mr Robot's Rami Malek: 'The world is in chaos – and all we do is hyperconsume'  

The star of the most prescient show on TV has killed capitalism, torched the web and sparked a haircut trend

“I went to the barber's yesterday and the barber burst out laughing,” says Rami Malek. “She said, ‘Sorry for laughing it's just that everybody comes in asking for your haircut. And now you're here yourself.'”

Malek shouldn't sound so shocked. Since Mr Robot burst on to our screens last summer, the hacktivist thriller has been one of TV's most talked about shows and given us a new trim for our time. It's already won a Golden Globe and is tipped to dominate the Emmys, with Malek among the favourites to land best actor.

Continue reading...  
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r0B0t: ICYMI: Better walking bot and an anti-aging breakthrough  
Today on In Case You Missed It: Georgia Tech overhauled its DURUS robot to walk with a human-like gait that makes it the most efficient bipedal robot. Scientists at the EPFL did some solid research into the pomegranate fruit that shows it can cou...  
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r0B0t: Hacking Mr. Robot  

Slate and Future Tense are discussing Mr. Robot and the technological world it portrays throughout the show's second season. You can follow this conversation on Future Tense, and Slate Plus members can also listen to Hacking Mr. Robot, a members-only podcast series featuring Lily Hay Newman and Fred Kaplan.

Mr. Robot, which returns Wednesday night for a second season on the USA Network, is a remarkable TV show: funny, edgy, suspenseful, subversive, and a piercing probe of the modern social fabric. In short, it's about a world controlled by computers and the hackers—especially our anti-hero and narrator, a lonely hacker named Elliot Alderson (brilliantly played by Rami Malek), who finds himself the kingpin of a secret society of hackers—plotting to bring down that world, the mainsprings of which only they understand.

At Season 1's fade-out, the hackers, who call themselves Fsociety, launch their massive cyberattack on E Corp., the evil megabank that seems to run the global economy (more on this later), wiping out all its data, erasing the debt of hundreds of millions of people, and thus fomenting revolution.

As the new season opens, the world is in chaos. In one scene, E Corp.'s general counsel walks into her smart home and, suddenly, all the Internet of Things runs amuck: the shower turns scalding hot, the stereo turns blaring loud, lights flash off and on, the burglar alarm's pass code doesn't work. Fsociety has hacked into her home's main computer, and she doesn't know what to do. “It's all inside the walls!” she screams into the phone, when a tech-support staffer advises her to check the wiring. That's the way her smart home was packaged.

What a metaphor for modern life—and only a slight extension of its reality. Nearly all the pieces of our critical infrastructure—banking, transportation, energy, waterworks, government, the military, and of course information technology—are wired into computer networks. With the Internet of Things, so, increasingly, are our appliances and cars. If these systems break down, whether due to a technical flaw or a hacker's keystrokes, most of us don't—and won't—know what to do. In a DARPA-financed experiment last year, a pair of computer specialists, one of whom used to work at the National Security Agency and is now the security chief of Uber's driverless-car program, hacked into a Jeep Cherokee and commandeered its steering wheel, accelerator, brakes, GPS receiver, windshield wipers—everything.

In other words, there's more than a patina of authenticity to Mr. Robot.

Most shows that deal with technology lose their footing when they try to go deep or get detailed. The viewers who know the field roll their eyes in derision; those who don't still sense that something's off. The creators of Mr. Robot—showrunner Sam Esmail and his crew of consultants—get these things, small and large, right. When the characters type commands and codes on their laptops, what we see on their monitors is the real deal: no post-production green-screen gibberish here. In the early part of Season 1, before Elliot joins (or realizes that his schizoid self is leading) the revolution, he hacks his few friends, his boss, and his shrink, as well as a few miscreants (a child pornographer, a drug dealer, and his shrink's philandering boyfriend) whom he blackmails or turns in to the authorities. The techniques he uses to crack their passwords or otherwise gain access to their files are real, time-tested tools. It's so easy for Elliot (and for the many hackers in real life) and so shocking to his victims when they realize how wide-open they've left themselves.

These scenes capture a new power equation in the internet era—the control, by those who have mastered the technology, over the rest of us who blithely plaster everything about ourselves online. In one scene, Elliot phones one of his prey, pretending to be a bank officer (he's already found out where the target banks), and asks, as part of a “security review,” for his address, favorite sports team, and pet's name. From that information, Elliot pieces together the guy's password.

It's often as simple as that. When I was researching my book, Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, Matt Devost, president and CEO of the cybersecurity firm FusionX, told me about his days running the “red team” in war games that tested the vulnerability of NATO communications systems. In one game, Devost was having a hard time cracking the commanding general's password. So he looked up his biographical sketch on a military website, tried out some of the personal details it cited, and finally hit gold by combining “Rutgers,” where the general's son was attending college, with a two-digit number, which a commercially available random-numbers generator guessed in less than a second.

But what about the show's larger premise: Could a skilled hacker penetrate a megacorporation's computer network; erase all its data; and, as a result, topple the capitalist system—or at least wipe out the debt of the masses? This is where the show goes too far and, in another sense, not far enough.

The irony is that, of all the critical sectors of the American economy, banking and finance are doing pretty well when it comes to cybersecurity. Their entire business, after all, relies on taking your money and earning your trust. They also have a lot of money, which allows them to hire the best engineers to secure their networks. Hackers try to get in all the time, but they rarely succeed, and when they do, they're detected and ejected fairly quickly, and the hole is patched not long after. A major attack, of the sort portrayed in Mr. Robot, is plausible, but its results might not be enduring. (Even if the bank's cybersecurity team couldn't repair the damage, the Department of Homeland Security could send the NSA an official request for technical assistance. And I'm pretty sure that, whatever a backroom of anarchic hackers could do, the elite hackers of the NSA's Tailored Access Operations office could trace and reverse.)

One other feature of the American economy: compared with other industrialized nations, it's decentralized. The cyber-shutdown of a very large bank would send devastating shockwaves across the entire financial system (think Lehman Brothers in 2008), but it wouldn't mean the shutdown of all banks or all bank transactions. Even if hackers jammed or erased Bank of America's data (and its backup files), they wouldn't have touched the data at J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, or the others. The liberation of every indebted citizen isn't so plausible.

Finally, if there really was a firm as monolithic as E Corp., and if hackers really did freeze its data, the chaos would be a lot wilder. We do catch a glimpse of the disorder in one scene, where a woman, after waiting three days for an appointment, tells a banker that she's paid off her mortgage and presents the papers to prove it; but the banker can't get into the computer and doesn't trust the paperwork because, so she says, a lot of counterfeit documents are out there. But in other scenes, we see normal street traffic, open bodegas, routine commerce—when I suspect that, in fact, there'd be rioting everywhere.

Maybe the larger breakdown will erupt in future episodes.

But the basic syllogism of contemporary life, Mr. Robot gets precisely right: Almost everything is hooked up to the internet; almost everything on the internet can be hacked and thus manipulated or destroyed; therefore, almost everything can be hacked and manipulated or destroyed. Should this dynamic take off, should the potential threats that we read about erupt into actual attacks and breakdowns, then up will be down, down up, and the line between madness and order—the line that Elliot walks more and more precariously as the show progresses—could blur into a haze of indistinction.

 
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r0B0t: The Angle: Small Donations Edition  

Which aspect of the Bernie Sanders campaign will make a lasting mark on the political landscape? Jamelle Bouie points to Sanders' record of garnering very small donations. “There's a strong chance that the Sanders fundraising apparatus—which surpasses Obama's in its scope and ability to rapidly raise huge sums—will end up as the senator's chief contribution to progressive politics,” Bouie writes.

Meanwhile, Eli Clifton and Joshua Holland argue that the Sanders campaign's approach to spending all his small-donor money was disappointingly conventional and probably didn't help its chances. “A great deal of that money bought a blast of commercials preceding caucuses and primaries across the country,” Clifton and Holland write, “one effect of which was to enrich a small group of Democratic consultants whose compensation is tied to media spending.”

The second season of the beloved Mr. Robot is here, and Willa Paskin wonders how long the “aesthetically polished and intellectually incensed” show can continue to critique capitalism. “[Showrunner Sam] Esmail, having created a cult TV show, is expressing some skepticism about television, a medium that, for much of its life, existed to sell audiences soap,” Paskin observes. “Mr. Robot is like an iPhone with an ‘I hate Apple' ring-tone: both are beautifully designed, powerful products that are superficially conflicted about being beautifully designed, powerful products.”

Our features editor Jessica Winter has published a novel about a toxic workplace that is explicitly NOT Slate.com. She talks with L.V. Anderson about what it's like to be stuck with a bad manager, why poisonous office jobs are so successful at getting under our skin, and why all-female workplaces can go so terribly wrong.

The top four male golfers in the world rankings have decided not to go to the Olympics. Fine, Josh Levin writes. But they should stop hiding behind a supposed fear of Zika infection. “While plenty of athletes have raised concerns about Zika,” Levin writes, “male golfers have led the way in using it as an excuse to take the week off.”

For fun: Samuel L. Jackson narrates a 7-minute beginner's guide to the world of Game of Thrones.

Some spoilers, but it's very worth it,

Rebecca

 
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r0B0t: Dyson's new robot vacuum comes to America  

The 360 Eye robot vacuum is finally crossing the pond.

 
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r0B0t: In Season 2, Mr. Robot Has Become a Critique of Itself  

Mr. Robot, the aesthetically polished and intellectually incensed USA series about mentally disturbed hacker Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), arrived last year as if out of nowhere—nowhere being an acceptable synonym for the USA Network, which before Mr. Robot was home to a number of indistinguishable and effective escapist procedurals. Created by Sam Esmail, Mr. Robot had style to spare, a logo befitting an '80s arena rock band (a compliment!), intimate and eerie narration, and a riveting performance from Malek, who makes silence and motionlessness—two of Elliot's preferred states—scream with jittery unease. And it had ideas in its head. Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, Anonymous, and the great recession, Elliot led a hacker collective called F-Society, out to erase the world's debt and take down Evil Corp, a powerful and nefarious multinational. Netflix and HBO aside, the predominant business model for television is taking cash from corporations to air their advertisements, yet Elliot excoriated McDonald's, Coke, and consumerism on the medium that sells all three.

With its anti-capitalist talking points, antisocial hero, and world-on-the-brink atmosphere, Mr. Robot felt bracing and bold. But its stylishness and its ideological unrest were soldered to a more standard-issue plot machine. For all its originality, Mr. Robot at first harnessed the appeal of the procedural, allowing us to get to know Elliot as he hacked his way into intimacy with strangers, while getting a complex, technologically precise, season-long storyline off the ground, one that ultimately harnessed the punch of the twist. In the season's climax, Mr. Robot (Christian Slater), the man who brought Elliot into F-Society, was revealed to be a figment of Elliot's own imagination. Among Elliot's many psychological ailments was apparently dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder).

The two-hour Season 2 premiere, airing Wednesday night, is as stylish and well-performed as any episode in Season 1, but it is also confusing, burdened by the series' dense backstory and intricate, time-skipping structure. The new season will surely rev up: Malek's performance remains excellent, there's a devotion to verisimilitude that includes casting someone to play Janet Yellin, and an act of violence that demonstrates the series can still tap into the dystopic, widening-gyre vibe of the present moment at will. But the premiere is a time waster, diligently checking in on the series' supporting players while Elliot tries to stay on the sidelines. Some weeks after the events of the Season 1 finale, Elliot is hewing to a strict routine and avoiding all computers, hoping to keep Mr. Robot from taking over his mind again, with no help at all from Mr. Robot, who is a very loud manifestation of mental illness. Mr. Robot spends the premiere berating and attacking Elliot, trying to rouse him into taking part in the revolution he began. It's strident and tedious. We know Mr. Robot will get his way. There's a show to make.

In the first season, Elliot was consumed by the idea that everyone around him was a sheep, awash in false choices, unknowingly vulnerable, so much less free than they imagined themselves to be. But at the start of Season 2, Elliot is trying to domesticate himself. He eats and sleeps and watches basketball, all in locations with so little detail, color, and advertising they could be from a dream or the USSR. Elliot also keeps making snide comments about television. He insults NCIS (which airs in reruns on USA). The guy he eats his meal with humorously riffs on the nihilistic meaning of Seinfeld. In another storyline, a dopey character can't stop watching Vanderpump Rules. Esmail, having created a cult TV show, is expressing some skepticism about television, a medium that, for much of its life, existed to sell audiences soap. Mr. Robot is like an iPhone with an “I hate Apple” ring tone: Both are beautifully designed, powerful products that are superficially conflicted about being beautifully designed, powerful products. For all that Mr. Robot invites us to think about global financial issues, the unchecked power of technology, and imminent societal collapse, it also demonstrates just how efficiently capitalism co-opts all critiques: It can even turn a criminal hacktivist into the poster boy for a cable network.

 
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r0B0t: Robots Could Hack Turing Test by Keeping Silent  
While it's not news that the Turing test has flaws, the new study highlights just how limited the test is for answering deeper questions about artificial intelligence, study co-author says

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com 
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r0B0t: Why NASA's new photos of the moon look super fake (even though they're not)  
Every once in awhile, as a person who writes about space, I encounter folks who don't believe in it. Or don't believe we've ever been there, anyway. Or that our robots have been there. Or that the Earth is round (but that's a whole other thing.) But while tweets about how "astronauts" on the "International" […]  
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'Green News Report' - July 14, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...





IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Porn is dirty, but coal is clean, says the Republican Party platform; Senate Democrats call out the 'web' of professional climate deniers; June 2016 was the hottest on record for the U.S.; PLUS: Another fracking explosion, this time in New Mexico... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Republicans just escalated the war over ExxonMobil and climate change; Once-respected science group has one more chance to reject Exxon Mobil funding; Transportation Dept. proposes new oil train rules; Puget Sound to close another coal plant; State's Delta smelt plan calls for more water flowing to sea; Fake bio-diesel factory made millions; Loneliest natural gas terminal bucks pipeline trend; Number of Americans "alarmed" by climate change rises in latest poll... PLUS: Clean energy investment in 2016 undershoots last year's record... and much, MUCH more! ...

'Green News Report' is heard on many fine radio stations around the country. For additional info on stories we covered today, plus today's 'Green News Extra', please click right here to listen!

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Fossil Fuel Divestiture Campaign Focuses On Big Pensions  
The fossil fuel divestiture campaign GoFossilFree equates the end of oil, gas and coal to the great moral crusades of our time -- Apartheid and tobacco -- while hoping to reduce demand for fossil fuel stocks and thereby threaten their stock prices.





It's a tall order. As long as GoFossilFree was focused on divesting university endowments, the campaign was a gnat on the haunch of the elephant. After all, why should an industry worth $5 trillion be afraid of endowments worth $467 billion, whose investments in oil and gas are probably 10%, or $50 billion, at best? Chump change to this industry's behemoths.



But more recently, the FossilFree campaign began targeting pensions as well, and that's a problem. Consider the numbers: as of 2013, US pension assets totaled $21 trillion. Using that same 10%, you're talking $2.1 trillion in fossil fuel stocks. That's a number big enough to scare even Big Oil.



The first real threat came in 2015 from California's state pensions. In April of that year, the California legislature voted to divest its coal stocks from the pensions' $657 billion investment fund. A scary precedent and one that got Big Oil's attention.



Evidence of Big Oil's alarm is clear on the anti-divestment site divestmentfacts.com. Funded by the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), the site used to publish letters from University Presidents justifying their decisions not to divest and a few reports on how much individual college endowments would lose through divestment.



In June, the DivestmentFacts site underwent a radical change. Focused now on pension funds, the site promotes the idea that under divestment, pension funds will lose $7 billion over twenty years. Three studies from three separate universities support the claim.



A closer look at the study authors reveals how much more the IPAA is investing to stop pensions from divesting. The lead study is authored by none other than the notorious economist and lawyer Daniel Fischel, the short-lived dean of Chicago Law School who resigned over a sex scandal and one-time expert witness in criminal trials of Mike Milken and Charles Keating as well as officers of Enron and Philip Morris. Fischel is Chairman and President of Compass Lexecon, one of the largest consultancies that specialize in what Charles Ferguson described in the Huffington Post as "The sale of academic 'expertise' for the purpose of influencing government policy, the courts, and public opinion... now a multi-billion dollar business." The other two studies are by academics who are also Senior Consultants at, yes, Compass Lexecon. That's some pricey research.



Shortly after releasing the three studies, the IPAA published a survey of pensioners conducted by FTI Consulting, which owns -- wait for it -- Compass Lexecon. FTI's report warns, "Even the largest college endowment funds in existence today hold only a fraction of the assets managed by public pension funds," then goes on to present "statistics" that prove pensioners don't want divestment. A spokesman from the American Petroleum Institute (API) draws on heart strings when he concludes, "Millions of retirees and pension holders depend on income from oil and natural gas investments to live."



Both oil lobbying organizations, API and IPAA, are funded mostly by the fossil fuel majors, with the bulk coming from Shell, BP and Chevron, companies that have the most to lose from divestiture. And they're right to spend whatever they have to, because the truth is, the smart money in pensions should flee oil and gas for economic reasons. Looking ahead, HSBC Global Research found that global carbon regulations could result in fossil fuel companies losing 40-­60% of their value, which will translate into reductions in share price. Similar warnings have come from CitiBank, Standard and Poor's, and the Bank of England.



Big Oil is right to be afraid. Pension fund divestment has moved to Europe. Just two weeks ago, the EU issued a directive that, on ratification, will require all pensions to "consider climate and risks related to...'stranded assets,'", referring to oil and gas reserves that may never be used. EU pensions total £3.2 trillion, $4.4 trillion at today's depressed exchange rates.

Spending on anti-divestment is just a finger in the dike. Big oil and gas will lose to carbon-free energy. Will they follow buggy-manufacturers who never embraced the automobile and were pushed out of business? Or will they imitate American carmakers that entered the electric car market? Perhaps divestment will exact the same financial pressure on oil and gas that forced dramatic innovation in the American auto industry.

Keep your fingers crossed.


Photo courtesy of Friends of the Earth Scotland via Flickr CC.

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Remembering a ‘Keystone' Ecologist, Robert Paine  
A biologist who turned sustained tide pool studies into an enduring ecological concept is remembered.  
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The Climate Post: Study Quantifies Climate-Change-Related Deaths  
A study in Environmental Research Letters suggests a fifth of premature deaths during a 2003 heatwave in Europe are linked to human-caused climate change.

"We are now able to put a number on the deaths caused by climate change in a heat wave," said lead author Daniel Mitchell of the University of Oxford. "This has never been done before. Previous studies have attributed changes in heat waves to climate change, or related increased heat stress to human deaths, but none have combined the two."

The study's U.S. and U.K researchers calculated that, during a Europe-wide heat wave in summer 2003, 506 of 735 deaths in Paris and 64 of 315 deaths in London were due to a heat wave worsened by anthropogenic climate change. They reached that conclusion after putting the results of several thousand runs of two climate model simulations of the 2003 heat wave into a health impact assessment of death rates.

By comparing two scenarios--one reflecting the climate of 2003 without human influences and one reflecting all known climatic forces contributing to the 2003 heat wave--the researchers determined how climate change had affected that summer's temperatures.

The study, reports Carbon Brief, analyzes a direct impact measure--mortality--rather than an indirect one--temperature. It links mortalities to climate and introduces another level of uncertainty, especially when long and reliable health datasets are not available for use in analyses.

Nevertheless, reports ClimateWire, the study demonstrates that losses can be directly linked to climate change and thus its framework can be used to assign costs of "loss and damage" and to improve planning and adaptation (subscription).

"It is often difficult to understand the implications of a planet that is one degree warmer than preindustrial levels in the global average, but we are now at the stage where we can identify the cost to our health of man-made global warming," Mitchell said. "This research reveals that in two cities alone hundreds of deaths can be attributed to much higher temperatures resulting from human-induced climate change."

Last week at a meeting held by the French government to study Paris Agreement-related actions to reduce health risks linked to climate change, the World Health Organization said that change is likely to kill 250,000 additional people each year by 2030--primarily through malaria, diarrhea, heat stress, and malnutrition. Children, women, older people, and the poor will be most affected.

Climate Change and Cloud Cover

A new study in the journal Nature suggests there's evidence of climate change in satellite cloud records. By comparing satellite data from 1983 to 2009 to climate models, the authors found that the clouds forming most often are not low-lying reflective ones that cool the planet. Instead, cloud patterns were in line with what scientists would expect to see in climate models--an increase in greenhouse gases associated with human activity over the study period.

"Cloud changes most consistently predicted by global climate models are currently occurring in nature," the authors write. "As cloud tops rise, their greenhouse effect becomes stronger."

Clouds have both an Earth-cooling effect by reflecting solar radiation back to space and an Earth-warming effect by restricting the planet's thermal infrared radiation.

"Even if there is no change in the overall coverage of clouds on the earth, clouds closer to the pole reflect less solar radiation because there is less solar radiation coming in closer to the pole," said lead author Joel Norris of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

In Science magazine, Norris noted one caveat: during the study period, two major volcanic eruptions cooled and then warmed the climate, producing cloud patterns similar to those produced by greenhouse gas-related warming.

Draft Proposes Extension of California Cap-and-Trade Program

The California Air Resources Board released a draft plan to extend the state's cap-and-trade program beyond 2020, when it is set to expire. The program--one of the first economy-wide programs put in place--aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by creating a fixed number of permits, called allowances, to emit a single ton; compliance entities and other market participants can buy and sell allowances, thereby enabling the market to determine the lowest-cost compliance path.

The draft plan calls to extend the program another decade and to reach emissions levels 40 percent below 1990 levels. It would include preliminary caps through 2050 "to signal the long-term trajectory of the program to inform investment decisions."

No board vote is scheduled on the proposal until March 2017. A state appeals court is considering a challenge from the California Chamber of Commerce, which contends that the pollution-credit program is an illegal tax, not a fee.

The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

-- 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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Butterflies' diet impacts evolution of traits  
A new study finds that access to some nutrients may be a star player in shaping traits related to fitness such as fecundity and eye size over the long term. Given drastic increases in the availability of many nutrients due to the widespread use of fertilizers and road salts, the finding has important implications for agriculture and ecology.  
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Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: 'Green News Report' - July 14, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Porn is dirty, but coal is clean, says the Republican Party platform; Sen...

Read more: Carbon Tax, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Fracking, Global Warming, Global Warming Deniers, Green News, Green News Report, Renewable Energy, Video, Republicans, Republican Party, Republican Convention, Clean Coal, Carbon Capture and Storage, Pornography, Exxon Mobil, Al Franken, Senate, Desmogblog, Extreme Weather, Noaa, Canada, Fort Mcmurray, Wildfires, Natural Disasters, New Mexico, Public Lands, Propaganda, Green News

 
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Early Bedtime For Preschoolers Might Help Reduce Obesity Risk Later  

Little kids who hit the sack early may be less likely to get overtired and fussy in a way that messes with their sleep cycle, researchers say.

 
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Computers vs Ebola: Scientists use big data to predict future disease hotspots  

And it all boils down to seeing what bats are up to

A team of scientists have developed a model that can predict the likelihood of bat species carrying Ebola and other filoviruses using a machine learning algorithm.…

 
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An Open Letter From Technology Sector Leaders On Donald Trump's Candidacy For President  

We are inventors, entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, researchers, and business leaders working in the technology sector. We are proud that American innovation is the envy of the world, a source of widely-shared prosperity, and a hallmark of our global leadership.

We believe in an inclusive country that fosters opportunity, creativity and a level playing field. Donald Trump does not. He campaigns on anger, bigotry, fear of new ideas and new people, and a fundamental belief that America is weak and in decline.  We have listened to Donald Trump over the past year and we have concluded: Trump would be a disaster for innovation.  His vision stands against the open exchange of ideas, free movement of people, and productive engagement with the outside world that is critical to our economy—and that provide the foundation for innovation and growth.

Let's start with the human talent that drives innovation forward.  We believe that America's diversity is our strength.  Great ideas come from all parts of society, and we should champion that broad-based creative potential.  We also believe that progressive immigration policies help us attract and retain some of the brightest minds on earth—scientists, entrepreneurs, and creators.  In fact, 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children.  Donald Trump, meanwhile, traffics in ethnic and racial stereotypes, repeatedly insults women, and is openly hostile to immigration.  He has promised a wall, mass deportations, and profiling.

We also believe in the free and open exchange of ideas, including over the Internet, as a seed from which innovation springs. Donald Trump proposes “shutting down” parts of the Internet as a security strategy ― demonstrating both poor judgment and ignorance about how technology works. His penchant to censor extends to revoking press credentials and threatening to punish media platforms that criticize him.

Finally, we believe that government plays an important role in the technology economy by investing in infrastructure, education and scientific research.  Donald Trump articulates few policies beyond erratic and contradictory pronouncements. His reckless disregard for our legal and political institutions threatens to upend what attracts companies to start and scale in America. He risks distorting markets, reducing exports, and slowing job creation.

We stand against Donald Trump's divisive candidacy and want a candidate who embraces the ideals that built America's technology industry: freedom of expression, openness to newcomers, equality of opportunity, public investments in research and infrastructure, and respect for the rule of law. We embrace an optimistic vision for a more inclusive country, where American innovation continues to fuel opportunity, prosperity and leadership.

 

*DISCLAIMER:  The individuals listed below have endorsed in their personal capacity and this does not reflect the endorsement of any organization, corporation or entity to which they are affiliated. Titles and affiliations of each individual are provided for identification purposes only.

Marvin Ammori, General Counsel, Hyperloop One
Adrian Aoun, Founder/CEO, Forward
Greg Badros, Founder, Prepared Mind Innovations; Former Engineering VP, Facebook
Clayton Banks, Co-Founder, Silicon Harlem
Phin Barnes, Partner, First Round Capital
Niti Bashambu, Chief Analytics Officer, IAC Applications
John Battelle, Founder/CEO, NewCo, Inc.
Ayah Bdeir, Founder/CEO, Little Bits
Piraye Beim, Founder/CEO, Celmatix
Marc Bodnick, Co-Founder, Elevation Partners
John Borthwick, Founder/CEO, Betaworks
Matt Brezina, Co-Founder, Sincerely and Xobni
Stacy Brown-Philpot, CEO, TaskRabbit
Brad Burnham, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures
Stewart Butterfield, Co-Founder/CEO, Slack
Troy Carter, Founder/CEO, Atom Factory
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Founder/CEO, Joyus
Vint Cerf, Internet Pioneer
Amy Chang, Founder/CEO, Accompany
Aneesh Chopra, President, NavHealth; Former US CTO
Patrick Chung, General Partner, Xfund
Tod Cohen, General Counsel, StubHub
Stephen DeBerry, Founder/Managing Partner, Bronze Investments
Peter Diamandis, Entrepreneur; Author, Abundance and BOLD
Barry Diller, Chairman, Expedia and IAC
Esther Dyson, Executive Founder, Way to Wellville; Investor
Amy Errett, Founder/CEO, Madison Reed
Caterina Fake, Founder/CEO, Findery; Co-Founder, Flickr
Christopher Farmer, Founder/CEO, SignalFire
Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group; Co-Founder, Techstars
Josh Felser, Co-Founder, Freestyle Capital & ClimateX
Hajj Flemings, Founder/CEO, Brand Camp University
Natalie Foster, Co-Founder, Peers
David Grain, Founder/Managing Partner, Grain Management, LLC
Brad Hargreaves, Founder/CEO, Common
Donna Harris, Co-Founder/Co-CEO, 1776
Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder/CEO, Meetup
David Hornik, General Partner, August Capital
Terry Howerton, CEO, TechNexus
Reed Hundt, Former Chair, FCC
Minnie Ingersoll, COO, Shift Technologies
Sami Inkinen, Founder/CEO, Virta Health; Co-Founder, Trulia
Craig Isakow, Head of Revenue, Shift Technologies
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., President and Founder, Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Irwin Jacobs, Founding Chairman/CEO Emeritus, Qualcomm Inc
Paul Jacobs, Executive Chairman, Qualcomm Inc
Leila Janah, Founder/CEO, Sama & Laxmi
Sujay Jaswa, Former CFO, Dropbox; Founder, Witt Capital Partners
Mark Josephson, CEO, Bitly
Sep Kamvar, Professor, MIT
David Karp, Founder/CEO, Tumblr
Jed Katz, Managing Director, Javelin Venture Partners
Kim Keenan, President/CEO, Multicultural Media, Telecom & Internet Council
Ben Keighran, Entrepreneur; Former Design Lead, Apple
William Kennard, Former Chair, FCC
Vinod Khosla, Founder, Khosla Ventures; Co-Founder, SUN Microsystems
Ron Klain, Executive Vice President, Revolution LLC
Walter Kortschak, Former Managing Partner and Senior Advisor, Summit Partners
Jared Kopf, Founder AdRoll, HomeRun, Worldly
Joseph Kopser, Co-Founder, Ridescout
Karen Kornbluh, Former US Ambassador, OECD
Othman Laraki, Co-Founder/President, Color Genomics
Miles Lasater, Serial Entrepreneur
Jeff Lawson, CEO, Twilio
Aileen Lee, Founder/Managing Partner, Cowboy Ventures
Bobby Lent, Managing Partner, Hillsven Capital
Aaron Levie, Co-Founder/CEO, Box
John Lilly, Partner, Greylock Partners
Bruce Lincoln, Co-Founder, Silicon Harlem
Ruth Livier, President, Livier Productions, Inc.
Mark Lloyd, Professor of Communication, University of Southern California - Annenberg School
Luther Lowe, VP of Public Policy, Yelp
Nancy Lublin, Founder/CEO, Crisis Text Line
Kanyi Maqubela, Partner, Collaborative Fund
Jonathan Matus, Founder/CEO, Zendrive
Josh McFarland, Vice President of Product, Twitter
Andrew McLaughlin, Head of New Business, Medium; Venture Partner, betaworks
Shishir Mehrotra, Entrepreneur & former VP of Product & Engineering, YouTube
Apoorva Mehta, Founder/CEO, Instacart
Doug Merritt, CEO, Splunk
Dinesh Moorjani, Founder/CEO, Hatch Labs; Co-Founder, Tinder
Brit Morin, Founder/CEO, Brit + Co
Dave Morin, Entrepreneur; Partner, Slow Ventures
Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder, Asana; Co-Founder, Facebook
Amanda Moskowitz, Founder/CEO, Stacklist
Alex Nogales, President/CEO, National Hispanic Media Coalition
Alexis Ohanian, Co-Founder, Reddit
Mike Olson, Founder/Chairman/CSO, Cloudera
Pierre Omidyar, Founder, eBay
Felix W. Ortiz III, Founder/Chairman/CEO, Viridis; Board Member of The NYC Technology Development Corporation
Jen Pahlka, Founder/Executive Director, Code for America
Barney Pell, Founder Powerset, MoonExpress, Locomobi; Founding Trustee, Singularity University
Mark Pincus, Executive Chairman and Founder, Zynga
Shervin Pishevar, Co-Founder/Managing Director, Sherpa Capital and Co-Founder/Executive Chairman of Hyperloop One
Brandon Pollack, Director of Global Affairs, 1776
Amy Rao, Founder/CEO, Integrated Archive Systems, Inc.
Eric Ries, Entrepreneur & Author, The Lean Startup
Justin Rosenstein, Co-Founder, Asana
Alec Ross, Author, The Industries of the Future
Javier Saade, Venture Capitalist; Former Associate Administrator, SBA
Chris Sacca, Founder/Chairman, Lowercase Capital
Dave Samuel, Co-Founder, Freestyle Capital
Julie Samuels, Executive Director, Tech:NYC
Reshma Saujani, Founder, Girls Who Code
Chris Schroeder, Venture Investor; Author, Startup Rising
Jake Schwartz, Co-Founder/CEO, General Assembly
Robert Scoble, Entrepreneur in Residence and Futurist, Upload VR
Kim Malone Scott, CEO, Candor, Inc; Former Director, Google
Tina Sharkey, Partner, Sherpa Foundry & Sherpa Capital
Clara Shih, Co-Founder/CEO, Hearsay Social
Shivani Siroya, Founder/CEO, InVenture
Steve Smith, Executive Director, Public Policy Institute, Government Relations & Telecommunications Project, Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Jonathan Spalter, Chair, Mobile Future
DeShuna Spencer, CEO, kweliTV
Katie Stanton, CMO, Color Genomics; Former VP of Global Media, Twitter
Jenny Stefanotti, Co-Founder, OneProject; Board of Directors, Ushahidi
Debby Sterling, Founder/CEO, Goldiblox
Seth Sternberg, Co-Founder/CEO, Honor
Margaret Stewart, Vice President of Product Design, Facebook
Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp
Michael Stoppelman, SVP, Engineering, Yelp
Baratunde Thurston, Former supervising producer, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah; Co-Founder, Cultivated Wit
Stephanie Tilenius, Founder/CEO, Vida Health; Board of Directors, Seagate Technology
Richard D. Titus, Entrepreneur; SVP, Samsung
Anne Toth, VP of Policy & Compliance, Slack
Bill Trenchard, Partner, First Round Capital
April Underwood, VP of Product, Slack
Max Ventilla, Founder/CEO, AltSchool
Tabreez Verjee, Co-Founder/Partner Uprising; Board Director Kiva.org
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
Hunter Walk, Partner, Homebrew VC; Former Director of Product Management, Google
Tristan Walker, Founder/CEO, Walker & Company Brands, Inc.; Founder/Chairman, Code 2040
Ari Wallach, CEO, Synthesis Corp.
Padmasree Warrior, CEO, NextEV USA; Former CTSO, Cisco
Laura Weidman Powers, Co-Founder/CEO, Code2040
Kevin Weil, Head of Product, Instagram
Phil Weiser, Hatfield Professor of Law, University of Colorado and Executive Director of the Silicon Flatirons Center
Daniel J. Weitzner, Principal Research Scientist, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Emily White, Entrepreneur; Former COO, Snapchat
Ev Williams, Founder/CEO, Medium; Co-Founder Twitter, Blogger
Monique Woodward, Venture Partner, 500 Startups
Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder, Apple
Tim Wu, Professor of Law, Columbia University
Andrew Yang, Founder/CEO, Venture for America
Arielle Zuckerberg, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

-- 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 magic of the music seems to light the way!  

marco18678 posted a photo:

 
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Covent Garden Arch  

Kieran Williams Photography posted a photo:

 
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Go with the flow by Ciro Galluccio  

Go with the flow by Ciro Galluccio

Portrait of my amazing friend and singer CRLN in Rome. This picture wants to describe her singing career made of steps to climb, to reach her goals. Follow me on: Instagram Flickr

Ciro Galluccio: Photos

 
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Western Cuba and Gulf of Batabanó  
Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams of NASA captured photographs of western Cuba and the Gulf of Batabanó as the International Space Station flew overhead. Williams shared this composite image on social media, writing, "Wow! Look at how the navy blue contrasts with the aqua, Gulf of Batabano Cuba."  
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Astronomers Discover New Likely Dwarf Planet, the Latest of Many  
The object was seen in the Kuiper belt, a ring of icy debris beyond Neptune. Dozens of similar bodies may also meet the definition of a dwarf planet.  
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Juno Sends First Image Back While Orbiting Jupiter  
NASA released the first photograph taken from its space probe since its camera was turned back on after it locked into orbit on July 4.  
astronomy  

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Looking Up at New Work Platforms in the Vehicle Assembly Building  
In this view looking up from the floor of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, four levels of new work platforms are now installed on the north and south sides of High Bay 3. The G-level work platforms are the fourth of 10 levels that will surround and provide access to the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.  
astronomy