Inverse | Can 3D-Printed Fingers Help Police Solve A Murder? InformationWeek Michigan police are working with university researchers to re-create a dead man's fingers. The goal is to use the digits to unlock his smartphone and uncover information which may help catch his killer. Robotics Gone Wild: 8 Animal-Inspired Machines. Police seek to unlock murder victim's phone using 3D replica of fingertipsThe Guardian Cops Asked This 3-D Print Lab to Re-Create a Dead Guy's Fingers to Help Solve His MurderInc.com Police want to use 3D fingerprint replicas to access murder victim's iPhoneBGR Telegraph.co.uk -International Business Times UK -Daily Mail -The Mac Observer (blog) all 57 news articles » |
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For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. - Hebrews 4v15
Day-to-day interactions between humans and machines may well become commonplace in hospitals within a decade
Long waiting times, staff shortages, exorbitant agency fees, doctors' working hours: it's no secret that the NHS is facing a labour crisis. Post-Brexit it could very well get worse, with the NHS Confederation now warning of a reluctance by EU doctors and nurses to come and work in the UK.
Difficult times call for radical measures. So, with an estimated staff shortfall of 50,000 for the NHS in England, is it time to start thinking seriously about the mass adoption of robotics and other automated technologies in the health service?
Continue reading...Climate change and mass extinctions suggest that we have been telling the wrong stories. Writers need to reconnect with the natural world
We had climbed, slowly, to a high mountain ridge. We were two young Englishmen who were not supposed to be here journalism was forbidden and four local guides, members of the Lani tribe. Our guides were moving us around the highlands of West Papua, taking us to meet people who could tell us about their suffering at the hands of the occupying Indonesian army.
The mountain ridge was covered in deep, old rainforest, as was the rest of the area we had walked through. This forest, to the Lani, was home. In the forest they hunted, gathered food, built their homes, lived. It was not a recreation or a resource: there was nothing romantic about it, nothing to debate. It was just life.
The forests fall, the ice melts and the extinctions roll on; but we keep writing love letters to ourselves, oblivious
Once a warning to man that he must keep in harmony with the family of living creatures among which he was born … it is now a reminder that he has disregarded the warning, turned the house upside down by capricious experiments in science, philosophy and industry, and brought ruin upon himself and his family.
We must uncentre our minds from ourselves;
We must unhumanise our views a little, and become confident
Maybe it is impossible for any of us to 'unhumanise our views'. Maybe we can only ever speak to, and of, ourselves.
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A juvenile Green Woodpecker in short grass
The Verge | Why did SoftBank buy ARM? To prepare for our robot overlords, of course The Verge SoftBank has its own robot, Pepper, that will use AI to try and form an emotional attachment with its human owners. And both Apple and Google made AI a central theme in the launch of their latest mobile software, and ARM's chips will be used to power ... and more » |
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KQED | Finally! NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Will Look for Life on the Red Planet KQED NASA's next robot to crawl across the surface of Mars — the Mars 2020 rover — recently crossed a major milestone when it received approval to launch in the summer of 2020, for a February 2021 landing. Like its predecessor Curiosity, which is ... AI: NASA's Curiosity rover can now choose its own laser targets on MarsLos Angeles Times New software allows rover to pick which rocks it wants to targetPittsburgh Post-Gazette Soon, the Curiosity Rover will rule Mars with its automatic lasersThe Pasadena Star-News Daily Mail -TechCrunch -Fox News -PerfScience all 60 news articles » |
For only $269,000, you can buy a full-scale model of the Sputnik-1 satellite, made by the USSR to test the very first satellite humans launched into space. It's still operational, with live transmitters, 59 years later. On the catalog of the Bonhams auction house in midtown Manhattan, where the Space History Sale took place on Wednesday, the estimated price is $10,000 to $15,000. But in no time, the price is flying higher than Sputnik did.
“13. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19!” shouts auctioneer Tim McNab. He looks like the bouncer of a high-end nightclub in Miami Beach: suntanned, in a blue suit and sunglasses with orange-tinted lenses, even though we're in an underground room. “Still bidding. On the books!”
The matte-black circuit board that holds Tristan Perich's Noise Patterns has a few things in common with your average smartphone. It's small and sleek enough to fit into your pocket, and it comes with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack that gives you direct access to the music within. That's just about where the similarities end. It won't let you access Spotify or Apple Music's immense libraries, and it won't let you pull up YouTube videos. (You can forget about checking your email, too.) Noise Patterns contains six tracks, and you can't rewind, skip, or pause them. The music also has more in common with the noises your microwave makes than the songs you can hear on the radio.
Noise Patterns is Perich's latest experiment with 1-bit music,...
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Paula Kahumbu: The conviction and sentencing of Feisal Mohammed Ali sends a message to poachers and traffickers that the net is closing around them
Yesterday, a Mombasa law court sentenced Feisal Mohammed Ali to 20 years in jail after finding him guilty of ivory illegal possession of ivory worth 44 million shillings (US $440,000). The court also imposed a fine of 20 million shillings.
This landmark ruling by the Kenyan court is the end of a long story that began with the seizure of 2 tonnes of ivory at Fuji Motors car yard in Mombasa in June 2014.
The guilty verdict is a strong message to all networks of poaching gangs, ivory smugglers, financiers, middlemen and shippers that Kenya will not watch as its elephant population is decimated or its territory used as a conduit for traffickers.
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London Bridge Sunset reflection image on a passing EMU
Few people can demand what kind of electricity they get. But Microsoft and Facebook, which operate huge, power-hungry data centers, are trying to green up the electricity grid with their buying power.
A lot of computing pioneers were women. For decades, the number of women in computer science was growing. But in 1984, something changed.
After years of lagging behind other ethnic groups when it comes to accessing the Internet, the "digital divide" between Latinos and whites is now at its narrowest point since 2009.
The social media company's high-altitude, unmanned, solar-powered drone is designed to provide wireless Internet coverage to the ground below.
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The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea.
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ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as the Advisory Council -- as well as regular contributors -- to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail and Zheng Bijian.
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RT | Hold the phone: FCC pressures phone companies to end robocalls RT Few things are more irritating than receiving a call from an unknown number belonging to a robot telemarketer. But the FCC hopes to put an end to robocalls by pressuring CEOs of major communication companies to finally do something about it. On Friday ... US asks phone companies to provide 'robocall' blocking technologyDaily Mail Satellite sector mulls how to live with FCC's 5G decisionSpaceNews FCC To Phone Companies: Offer Free Robocall Blockers To CustomersThe Consumerist Rick Kupchella's BringMeTheNews -PR Web (press release) -TV Technology -On the Wire (blog) all 8 news articles » |
This article originally appeared in Vulture.
When Mr. Robot aired its season-one finale last September, USA Network execs were understandably happy about the show's solid ratings, amazing buzz, and clear brand-changing potential. The launch was nothing short of a triumph, particularly in an era when grabbing viewers' attention sometimes seems next to impossible. Until recently, USA might have been content to simply bask in that success for a few months, shifting its focus to other series until the time came to begin hyping last week's season-two premiere. But that's not how it works in the age of on-demand viewership: With audiences trained to consume shows however (and whenever) they want, networks are now promoting their biggest titles year-round, particularly when such series are in their infancy. Indeed, as soon as Robot season one ended, USA was already actively pushing audiences who'd heard the buzz about Robot to binge the show online, while figuring out ways to keep those already hooked thinking about the series up until its return. “You can never stop messaging your franchise,” says Alexandra Shapiro*, executive VP of marketing and digital for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Networks group. “The moment you stop is the moment the fans stop paying attention.”
Networks have different names for the new never-ending marketing. AMC talks about “Live plus 365,” playing off Nielsen's various ratings measurement windows; Shapiro and her USA colleagues call it “the always-on phenomenon.” Whatever the terminology, the consensus in the TV industry is, with apologies to David Mamet, that networks should Always Be Marketing. Rob Sharenow, general manager of Lifetime and A&E, says the evolution in how viewers watch TV is what has prompted this seismic shift in how networks manage their programming assets. “It used to be enough to just say, ‘Okay, Project Runway is coming back. Let's just throw some promos on leading up to the premiere,'” he explains. “Now, it's a more complicated, multilayered, ongoing game to keep your engagement, to keep people consuming it.” Or, as AMC/Sundance chief Charlie Collier puts it, “It's our job to keep shows alive all year long.”
The continuous loop of hype has been particularly aggressive with shows launched in 2015 and early 2016. TBS has kept the spotlight on its Rashida Jones slapstick comedy Angie Tribeca by shortening the window between seasons. Because the network had ordered a second season six months before the show's premiere, TBS was able to have season two on the air just a few months after the weekly run of season one ended. “The awareness of the show was so much higher because season one had just finished airing,” says TBS programming chief Brett Weitz. “We didn't have to work as hard. We didn't have to start from a walk—we were starting from a nice comfortable jog.”
Lifetime leaned into critical accolades as part of its intraseason promotion of UnREAL. Awards voters and even TV journalists were targeted, with the network sending the latter group a “binge-watch survival kit” featuring the full first season of the show on DVD and assorted munchies. While networks and studios have been wooing TV Academy members for years with For Your Consideration campaigns, including journalists and critics is less common. “We were conscious of smart influencers we knew who liked the show,” Sharenow says. “In season one, no one knew what it was. In season two, we already had a lot of critical accolades, and true fans of the show, in the communities we respect. So we went deep with influencers in all the marketing.” The show's Peabody win in April allowed Lifetime to once again cast the show as a major brand departure, just as the network was gearing up its campaign for Emmy nominations. While reviews and awards might not always result in big ratings gains, Sharenow believes they've become far more important in the VOD era. “The role critics and commentators play has been very elevated,” he says. “People want stuff curated, and they want their choices validated.” (Lifetime's year-round marketing of the show has also included the network's first-ever digital spinoff series, The Faith Diaries, which launched in April and featured a key character from season one.)
AMC didn't need to do anything special to get audiences to sample Fear the Walking Dead. The Walking Dead spinoff benefited from being associated with the biggest show on TV among viewers under 50. And yet, per Collier's “Live plus 365” effort, the network made sure to keep audiences engaged with the newbie zombies in between seasons. Once Fear wrapped its shortened six-episode freshman season, AMC had a digital offshoot called Flight 462 ready to go. The roughly 20-minute short was sliced into 16 installments, with a new one airing during commercial breaks of the original's sixth season. A character from 462 then made the transition to Fear when that series returned for season two. The network has also been a leader in using fan-centric platforms such as Comic-Con to help drive year-round interest in The Walking Dead and even Breaking Bad. And while viewers haven't always loved the idea of split seasons, AMC's early decision to serve up single Dead seasons in two distinct chunks was a savvy way of keeping audiences attached to the show for longer period of time (while also allowing late adopters to catch up between half-seasons).
In the case of Mr. Robot, USA made sure (as most networks do these days) to keep the show available on the network's video on demand platform, allowing cable subscribers who'd heard echoes of last summer's drumbeat of praise for the show to catch up. But then, at the start of 2016, it did something unusual: It put together a sort of director's cut of the show for VOD platforms in which episodes ran with unbleeped profanity and unedited adult content, as well as very limited commercials. “We re-pitched the entire season (to viewers) as an almost binge-like experience,” Shapiro says. USA stepped up its marketing of this sort of Robot 1.1, and VOD plays of the show “skyrocketed” in January, she says. Another bump came after the network's aggressive campaign for the Golden Globes paid off with two wins for the show. Shapiro and her team kept the momentum going in March by investing heavily in SXSW, where the show had premiered a year earlier. “We owned the skyline there,” she says, literally speaking: USA transported the show's Coney Island ferris wheel to Austin for the convention, sparking a sizable social-media response.
For executives such as Shapiro, the job of selling TV shows was “a lot easier five, ten years ago,” when marketing efforts were almost entirely focused on driving viewers to a limited linear run—i.e., the rollout of new episodes at a scheduled time each week. While making it clear there's still a “laser focus” on getting (and keeping) linear audiences, “that's no longer our only objective,” Shapiro explains. “We're in the franchise-building business. We're trying to build [series] that are able to have success over a long period of time.”
The move to maintain marketing momentum year-round is being driven mostly by necessity. Huge swaths of the audience are abandoning both live viewing and even DVRs in favor of on-demand platforms, pushing down Nielsen ratings—and thus ad revenue—for both cable and broadcast series. Ongoing marketing serves two purposes: It helps shore up linear ratings by making sure existing fans of a show remain engaged while at the same time allowing networks to woo new audiences more inclined to watch via on-demand platforms. Those digital viewers might not represent as much potential profit as those who still watch on TV, but they're growing in number. And while USA doesn't get paid more in the short-term if Robot gets a ton of streams on Amazon, the network stands to benefit over time as it negotiates future deals for streaming rights.
All of this is a shift from just a few years ago. Some industry insiders draw parallels to the feature film business, where movie studios market tentpole franchises—think Star Wars or any of the Marvel movies—as relentlessly as McDonald's pushes Big Macs. “Television networks … need to become more like studios, reducing their reliance on first-window revenues and reorganizing around longer monetization periods,” AMC/Sundance's Collier wrote earlier this year in an essay posted at Redef.com “This will likely make networks far more platform-agnostic over time and more focused on the duration and sustainability of intellectual property versus the immediate gratification of overnights (or even live+3 or live+7 ratings).”
We're already seeing networks adopt this philosophy of patience in other ways: AMC's Halt and Catch Fire and FX's The Americans are both examples of networks sticking by shows despite multiple seasons of meh ratings. And we're now seeing a similar dynamic play out with aforementioned newbies such as Mr. Robot, UnREAL, and Angie Tribeca. All three have experienced a bit of growth in their second seasons this summer, but nothing dramatic. Just a few years ago, there'd probably be palpable disappointment at USA, Lifetime, and TBS right now that months of aggressive marketing and, in the case of Robot and UnREAL, amazing critical response didn't immediately translate into big Nielsen gains. “You used to judge success of a show based on the first 15 minutes of a premiere,” Shapiro admits. But she insists that's no longer true. “Do we want to see growth in linear? Sure. But no one [platform] defines success.” Indeed, Shapiro notes that while Mr. Robot has never attracted more than a couple million viewers as measured by traditional ratings, internal USA Network research indicates a much broader audience has sampled the series. “To date, we've had over 30 million people and counting consume this franchise. That's a staggering number,” Shapiro says. “That's not a linear Nielsen number. That's a total audience number, when we look at all the legal places people see it. That number is how we keep ourselves motivated. We're in this for the long haul.”
See also: John Malkovich Made a Movie You Won't See, Unless You Live Until 2115 and Then Remember to Watch It
The paradoxical occurrence of heightened, lucid awareness and logical thought processes during a period of impaired cerebral perfusion raises particularly perplexing questions for our current understanding of consciousness and its relation to brain function. As prior researchers have concluded, a clear sensorium and complex perceptual processes during a period of apparent clinical death challenge the concept that consciousness is localized exclusively in the brain.
NDEs seem instead to provide direct evidence for a type of mental functioning that varies "inversely, rather than directly, with the observable activity of the nervous system." Such evidence, we believe, fundamentally conflicts with the conventional doctrine that brain processes produce consciousness, and supports the alternative view that brain activity normally serves as a kind of filter, which somehow constrains the material that emerges into waking consciousness.
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The use of solar energy is expanding worldwide but the efficiency of silicon solar cells has made very little progress in the last few decades. Could perovskite solar cell be the answer to high-efficiency solar power?
Reported timeline of solar cell energy conversion efficiencies since 1976 from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
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The new Baltimore Tower at Crossharbour. I don't think it is quite finished.
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Slate Magazine (blog) | The Emmys Have a Knack for Being Both Stodgy and Trailblazing at Once Slate Magazine (blog) Joining The Americans as a first time Best Drama contender is the incisive Mr. Robot, whose star Rami Malek adds some fizz to the Best Actor in a Drama category. ... I'm sure these groups have overlapping taste, but this dynamic would explain both the ... and more » |
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Balham, South London
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Shore bug (Saldula laticollis) collected in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, and photographed at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (sample ID: BIOUG06729-G11; specimen record: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=SSJAE1693-13; BIN: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:AAG8807)
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This is the only dragonfly on the USA Federally Endangered Species list. Once thought to be extinct, the Hine's Emerald was rediscovered at the Mink River Estuary, Wisconsin in 1987. Today, Door County, Wisconsin harbors the largest population of this dragonfly in the world. Now the Hine's Emerald is found in very small populations in only 3 other states, IL., MI., MO. It is unlawful to kill, harass, or possess specimens. The Mink River Estuary is a Great Lakes coastal wetland fed by ground and surface waters as well as by Lake Michigan. This estuary, where the waters of Mink River and Lake Michigan meet, is considered one of the few high quality, freshwater estuaries remaining in North America. The preserve protects almost the entire shoreline of Mink River and much of the river's surface watershed, helping safeguard water quality and wildlife habitat. The Hine's Emerald lives in calcareous (high in calcium carbonate) spring fed marshes and sedge meadows overlaying dolomite bedrock.
They spend up to five years as larvae, surviving in small wetland streams fed by groundwater. The adult will live only 3-5 weeks. The best month to see the Hine's Emerald is July and early August at the Ridges Sanctuary in Door County, WI. This is where I saw several. Seeing this dragonfly was the highlight of a 4500 mile road trip.
Somatochlora hineana
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Read more: Brexit, Environment, Environmental Policy, Environmental Law, European Union, European Economic Area, Politics News
Few nighttime sights offer more drama than the full Moon rising over the horizon. Now imagine that instead of the Moon, a gas giant planet spanning three times more sky loomed over the molten landscape of a lava world. This alien hell exists in the two-planet system that includes rocky Kepler-36b, discovered in 2012 that has a turbulent orbital relationship with its neighboring world, 36c. Every 97 days that planet, a “hot Neptune” gas giant comes perilously close to 36b, roughly five times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
"These two worlds are having close encounters," said Josh Carter, a Hubble Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).
Harvard-Smithsonian artist David Aguilar imagined the glorious spectacle shown above, with the purple gas giant "hot Neptune 36C looming some 2.5 times larger in the sky than our own moon. These picturesque planetary fly-bys that occur every 97 days on average that would trigger tremendous gravitational tides that would squeeze and stretch both planets, triggering even more volcanic activity on 36b, a planet already defined by its lava flows and 1300-degree Fahrenheit temperatures. (The image above shows what 36c might look like from 36b).
"They are the closest to each other of any planetary system we've found," added co-author Eric Agol of the University of Washington.
They spotted the planets in data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft, which can detect a planet when it passes in front of, and briefly reduces the light coming from, its parent star.
The newfound system contains two planets circling a subgiant star much like the Sun except several billion years older. The inner world, Kepler-36b, is a rocky planet 1.5 times the size of Earth and weighing 4.5 times as much. It orbits about every 14 days at an average distance of less than 11 million miles.
The outer world, Kepler-36c, is a gaseous planet 3.7 times the size of Earth and weighing 8 times as much. This "hot Neptune" orbits once each 16 days at a distance of 12 million miles.
The two planets experience a conjunction every 97 days on average. At that time, they are separated by less than 5 Earth-Moon distances. Since Kepler-36c is much larger than the Moon, it presents a spectacular view in its neighbor's sky. (Coincidentally, the smaller Kepler-36b would appear about the size of the Moon when viewed from Kepler-36c.) Such close approaches stir up tremendous gravitational tides that squeeze and stretch both planets.
Researchers are struggling to understand how these two very different worlds ended up in such close orbits. Within our solar system, rocky planets reside close to the Sun while the gas giants remain distant.
Although Kepler-36 is the first planetary system found to experience such close encounters, it undoubtedly won't be the last.
"We're wondering how many more like this are out there," said Agol.
"We found this one on a first quick look," added Carter. "We're now combing through the Kepler data to try to locate more."
This result was made possible with asteroseismology. Asteroseismology is the study of stars by observing their natural oscillations. Sunlike stars resonate like musical instruments, due to sound waves trapped in their interiors. And just like a musical instrument, the larger the star, the "deeper" are its resonances. This trapped sound makes the stars gently breathe in and out, or oscillate.
Co-author Bill Chaplin (University of Birmingham, UK) noted, "Kepler-36 shows beautiful oscillations. By measuring the oscillations we were able to measure the size, mass and age of the star to exquisite precision."
He added, "Without asteroseismology, it would not have been possible to place such tight constraints on the properties of the planets."
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The Daily Galaxy via CfA and University of Washington
When "Star Trek" was first broadcast in 1966, the largest telescopes on Earth could only see about halfway across the universe -- the rest was uncharted territory. But Hubble's powerful vision has carried us into the true "final frontier." Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, "Star Trek" has captured the public's imagination with the signature phrase, "To boldly go where no one has gone before." NASA's Hubble Space Telescope doesn't "boldly go" deep into space, but it is "boldly peering" deeper into the universe than ever before to explore the warping of space and time and uncover some of the farthest objects ever seen.
This is epitomized in the latest Hubble image released today in time for the new motion picture "Star Trek Beyond." The Hubble image unveils a very cluttered-looking universe filled with galaxies near and far. Some are distorted like a funhouse mirror through a warping-of-space phenomenon first predicted by Einstein a century ago.
In the center of the image is the immense galaxy cluster Abell S1063, located 4 billion light-years away, and surrounded by magnified images of galaxies much farther.
Thanks to Hubble's exquisite sharpness, the photo unveils the effect of space warping due to gravity. The huge mass of the cluster distorts and magnifies the light from galaxies that lie far behind it due to an effect called gravitational lensing. This phenomenon allows Hubble to see galaxies that would otherwise be too small and faint to observe. This "warp field" makes it possible to get a peek at the very first generation of galaxies. Already, an infant galaxy has been found in the field, as it looked 1 billion years after the big bang.
This frontier image provides a sneak peak of the early universe, and gives us a taste of what the James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of seeing in greater detail when it launches in 2018.
The cluster contains approximately 100 million-million solar masses, and contains 51 confirmed galaxies and perhaps over 400 more.
The Frontier Fields program is an ambitious three-year effort, begun in 2013, that teams Hubble with NASA's other Great Observatories -- the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory -- to probe the early universe by studying large galaxy clusters. Identifying the magnified images of background galaxies within these clusters will help astronomers to improve their models of the distribution of both ordinary and dark matter in the galaxy cluster. This is key to understanding the mysterious nature of dark matter that comprises most of the mass of the universe.
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The island of Tongatapu and the nearby smaller islands all part of the Kingdom of Tonga archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean are pictured in this Sentinel-2A image from 23 May.
Tonga's population is spread across 36 of Tonga's 169 islands, but about 70% live on this main island. The capital, Nukuʻalofa, sits on the island's north coast and along the Fanga'uta Lagoon. The lagoon's mangroves provide an important breeding ground for fish and birds.
Built on limestone, the island has fertile soil of volcanic ash from neighbouring volcanoes, and we can see how agricultural structures cover most of the island. Crops include root crops such as sweet potato and cassava, as well as coconuts, bananas and coffee beans.
North of the island we can see many coral reefs. Although not part of its original mission objectives, scientists are experimenting with Sentinel-2 to monitor corals and detect coral bleaching a consequence of higher water temperatures.
Bleaching happens when algae living in the corals' tissues, which capture the Sun's energy and are essential to coral survival, are expelled owing to the higher temperature.
The whitening coral may die, with subsequent effects on the reef ecosystem, and thus fisheries, regional tourism and coastal protection.
The recent El Niño weather phenomenon has caused increased bleaching across the world's corals, and scientists are finding Sentinel-2's coverage helpful in monitoring this at reef-wide scales.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA
Design Week: Why did you start the Local Heroes initiative?
Stacey Hunter: To present a snapshot of Scottish design that wouldn't look “Scottish”. I live and work in Edinburgh and so I see the sort of products that are marketed to tourists on a daily basis. Yet I'm surrounded by designers working on the most amazing projects they trade, collaborate and work internationally. So why can't we see it? I wanted to produce an ambitious project that showed Scottish design through the lens I looked through. It was also important to show Scottish designers that they are noticed and appreciated and that's where the name Local Heroes came from.
DW: What does the exhibition include and what are you hoping to achieve?
SH: The Local Heroes pop-up exhibition and shop features nine commissions from product, fashion, graphic and textile design. The project's designers were asked to “reimagine the souvenir” and produce a unique travel-themed design object.
All the designers have businesses based in Scotland. We want to identify and celebrate excellence in Scottish design, demonstrate how design thinking is at the heart of successful products, develop opportunities for diverse audiences to engage with, and enjoy design.
We have an elegant umbrella titled Rain Dance by Karen Mabon, who says: “I wanted to create a piece that was a little tongue-in-cheek nod to Scotland's famously changeable weather and something that would be really eye-catching among all the colour and drama of the Edinburgh Festival.”
The entire collection celebrates Scotland's contemporary designers who embrace colour, pattern and innovative techniques and materials, and will be available to buy throughout August.
DW: Why did you choose the airport as your canvas for design?
SH: I've always loved airports. Growing up my dad worked as an aeronautical engineer and I actually think that's when I began thinking like a designer looking at all of the pieces of a plane, the rivets, the turbine engines and seeing how it fitted together seamlessly.
I was introduced to the chief executive officer of Edinburgh Airport by Faith Liddell, the former director of Festivals Edinburgh. We talked about how bringing a design show to the airport in front of this enormous cultural audience which comes annually for festivals 1.2 million predicted would be a fantastic thing to do. Luckily, the Edinburgh Airport team agreed we will be the first thing many visitors see when they arrive in Scotland, and for the others, a fond farewell. In that way the airport is an absolutely perfect canvas for a design exhibition and pop-up shop.
DW: Who are some of the commissioned designers, and why did you choose them?
SH: They all live and work in Scotland, and have really interesting and impressive projects and clients in the UK and internationally. I'm just fascinated by how you would never see their work when walking down Edinburgh's strip the Royal Mile! I'm sure that this exhibition will have real impact and present people with an image of Scotland that's fresh, playful and exciting.
Karen Mabon sells scarves to Liberty of London; Tom Pigeon, who has produced an exclusive neckpiece which uses a playful combination of textures, materials and shapes, is based in a rural and quite remote studio in Fife and his work is stocked in the Tate Modern and Barbican Centre as well as in LA, Denmark, and Athens. Laura Spring prints her own fabrics and has everything made within a 20-mile radius of her studio, yet collaborates with some of Glasgow's well-known artists and bands such as Ciara Phillips and Belle & Sebastian.
Orkney based designer Hilary Grant's piece Archipelago is a lambswool travel blanket inspired by rhythm, mirroring and the knitting traditions of Scotland and its neighbouring Nordic countries. Design group Instrmnt has created the Instrmnt 01-D, a watch that comes unassembled with tools provided for customers to build their own accessory. In collaboration with Gabriella Marcella, Instrmnt has produced a limited edition risograph printed pack.
DW: What stereotypes about Scottish design are you hoping to dispell, and how would you like to see Scottish design perceived?
SH: I'm dual nationality (Scottish / Canadian) so maybe I pick up on it more but stereotypes which I feel are hemmed in are that Scottish design is always about heritage and tradition, and that its personality is romantic. The design community I'm part of isn't like that, it's part of a global discussion about design. It's diverse, modern, and polished. There is no doubt among creatives that the Scottish referendum had an effect it brought about a confidence, boldness and ambition I haven't seen before in my lifetime.
DW: What inspired you to start this project?
SH: This project was inspired by the important role design exhibitions have played in the past, in particular those which commission new work, like Scotland Can Make It! which took place during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. It demonstrated two very important things: that designers want projects that trust them to create and that there is an enormous public appetite for engaging with design in a cultural context as well as as a consumer.
When Scotland's Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design was announced I immediately saw the potential for Scotland to put designers on an international stage, presenting and promoting Scottish products and industries to the public, with a focus on high quality design.
I teamed up with Edinburgh Airport; Janine Matheson and Gillian Easson (directors of Creative Edinburgh and Creative Dundee respectively). We are also funded by EventScotland, which runs Creative Scotland. It's been an amazing insight for me to work with a project team that's bridging commercial and creative waters. We've developed a cross-sector partnership with expertise in design, culture, cities, creativity, enterprise, entrepreneurship, and travel and tourism.
DW: Why was it important that you access a global audience?
SH: Scotland is a small country and in some ways we are a bit isolated being at the edge of Europe. It's important to take every opportunity we have as designers to communicate what we are all about. I think people will be surprised when they see the show and the commissions. It's outstanding design from Scotland not “Scottish-looking design”. I am proud of the way that we have worked together to present Scottish design talent to the world.
DW: How can UK design work from outside of London be given more of a global presence?
SH: It begins with policy. Sadly there aren't any regarding design in Scotland that has to change, and it has to be led by the design community for it to be effective. The Office for the Design Economy in Glasgow is a grassroots campaign for a design policy for Scotland that I urge our colleagues in the rest of the UK to have a look at. You can see it here.
I also firmly believe that regions should put resources into projects like Local Heroes that match up designers with the marketplace in a meaningful way. If there was a Local Heroes shop in every airport in the UK, that would be a good start.
DW: Have you got any future plans for other similar initiatives?
SH: Local Heroes is a pilot project but I hope that when it completes its run at the end of August there will be the opportunity to reflect and begin dreaming about the next stage. Design is arguably one of the most accessible expressions of 21st century creativity and I hope that we can ultimately increase appreciation for design wherever we go. Now that we have created an easy to transport exhibition structure we'd like to take Local Heroes on tour.
The post Scottish design is “fresh, playful and exciting” in this new exhibition appeared first on Design Week.
Witness the sensual wonders of the middle ages in Cambridge while the Baltic explores playground utopianism. All that and more in your weekly art dispatch
Alice Neel
Touching, intimate portraits of Americans by this powerful modern realist promise to be a highlight of this year's Edinburgh art festival.
• Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, 29 Julyto 8 October.
Witness the sensual wonders of the middle ages in Cambridge while the Baltic explores playground utopianism. All that and more in your weekly art dispatch
Alice Neel
Touching, intimate portraits of Americans by this powerful modern realist promise to be a highlight of this year's Edinburgh art festival.
• Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, 29 Julyto 8 October.
in the british town, the artist has installed a generative and interactive virtual-reality installation that creates a immersive atmosphere of color and shapes.
The post miguel chevalier unravels interactive, kaleidoscopic carpet in milton keynes appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
the mechanical motions of the machinery create hypnotic textures and patterns that are pleasant and therapeutic to see.
The post benedict redgrove documents the hypnotic manufacturing process of tennis balls appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
Astronauts have their work cut out unloading essentials 400km above the Earth
The astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are having a busy time unpacking supplies. This week, two uncrewed cargo ships arrived just two days apart from one another.
First to make the journey was the Russian Progress MS-03 module, which blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakstan, at 3:41am (local time) on 17 July. It followed a two-day rendezvous trajectory and docked using an automatic radar system on 19 July, while the ISS flew more than 400km above Chile.
Related: More than cargo riding on SpaceX launch
Continue reading...Hotel Monverde, Lixa, Portugal
When you have nurtured a design consultancy, it can be difficult to let go. Planning your succession can take several years, says Adam Fennelow, services director at the Design Business Association (DBA). “The DBA recommends people have a road map to exit the business,” he says. But what route should you take? Founders can be succeeded in a variety of ways. Here's a run-down of your options.
This involves making your employees stakeholders in the company. A business owner can hand their consultancy over to their employees in three ways: by making them individual shareholders, holding shares collectively for them through a trust, or a combination of both.
Paul Priestman, co-founder at PriestmanGoode, opted for a trust when he turned his consultancy into an employee-owned business this year. “Establishing a share trust felt like a fairer option for all employees”, says Priestman. “Only people who have the money can buy individual shares then it becomes a race to power. With a trust, the shares are distributed equally if the employees decide to sell the company. They can also collectively decide how to spend profit, rather than it going to the founding directors.”
The process took six years. “I began by taking designers, who were five years ahead of me, out for lunch to understand the process of restructuring,” he explains. When it started transitioning, PriestmanGoode began “empowering” its employees by creating new internal departments that were in charge of hiring their own staff, choosing their own software and equipment, and representing the company at events.
According to the Employee Ownership Association, the employee-owned business model can improve the company's recruitment potential because of its employee benefits. “In attracting talent, being employee-owned is a really big draw,” says Priestman. “There's a good feeling about the set-up, and it prevents hostile takeovers.”
Priestman went to specialists for advice during the process, such as creative industries' management consultant Clear Partnership and commercial law firm Fieldfisher. He recommends consultancy founders do their research, learn about the finances of their business and be prepared to delegate. “Talk to the Employee Ownership Association, and people who have done it. Be willing to let go and give your designers responsibility don't let your ego interfere.”
This involves selling the consultancy to select managers within the business, who have been trained through the ranks to eventually take over. The managers can pay the business owners out through different ways, such as an agreed mortgage or a bank loan.
Product design consultancy Kinneir Duffort took on a management buyout structure in 2002. Starting in 1997, the process took the consultancy's founders Ross Kinneir and Francis Dufort five years, and aimed to “grow a team-based entity, rather than a founders' company”, says design director Craig Wightman.
The consultancy has continued to involve more key members of its senior team in the management of the business, says Wightman. “Design consultancies are people businesses. To help the business develop and thrive, it's important to provide opportunities for people in the team to do so too, and to feel like their efforts and ideas can directly influence its direction.” Being an independent company encourages an “open, collaborative and team-focused” ethos, he adds, which would be more difficult to achieve if Kinneir Dufort was part of a network.
To complete a management buyout, Wightman says your business needs to be in good shape. “You need to have a clear vision, a strong and capable management team, a healthy business position and the drive and ambition to grow,” he explains. Wightman also suggests speaking with professionals, such as lawyers and finance advisors. “Designers may be experts at running a design business but the world of corporate transactions is not something we do very often, if at all,” he says. “You need to get good advice.”
This involves selling your consultancy to an umbrella company such as WPP or Publicis and becoming part of a group.
Coley Porter Bell was bought out by WPP in 1991, later becoming part of a sub-group called Ogilvy & Mather Group UK. Coley Porter Bell saw joining WPP as an opportunity to gain new skills through cross-disciplinary working and to find new talent, says Vicky Bullen, the consultancy's chief executive officer. The consultancy has been able to collaborate on a more diverse range of projects with other teams, says Bullen, as “clients' requests for integrated teams have grown”. Recently, all Ogilvy & Mather Group UK companies were brought together under one roof, which has also encouraged this, she says.
Other advantages include a bigger contacts list and therefore more referrals to clients for projects, career progression through training, and more stability, explains Bullen. “We have amazing training and development opportunities through both WPP and Ogilvy, and when you have the support of a group behind you, you don't suffer from the same cash flow problems as an independent. Plus, we have just gained a fantastic new home with amazing facilities such as recording suites and in-house digital studios.”
But in order to make the most of being part of a network, you need to get to know people, she says, and be prepared to work across a large team. “Just because you are part of a big group, it doesn't mean people will reach out to you,” Bullen explains. “Make sure you network, and go out of your way to help people across the company then they will help you too. Also, be prepared to compromise when you're part of a cross-disciplinary team, you can't always lead.”
Consultancies can also be bought by another design business. Equator acquired 999 Design in February this year, which founding director Richard Bissland says was a move to combine skill sets with another studio. “999 had been run by the same team for 34 years and it was time to look to the future,” says Bissland. “Equator needed specialist branding skills, and we needed a more sophisticated approach to digital bolting them together made sense.” The transitional process is still underway, with the two consultancies having already started collaborating on projects, but yet to move into the same office location in Glasgow. A big part of the process was reassuring employees and getting them on board with the advantages of collaboration, says Bissland.
Although the acquisition is still in process, Bissland believes the positives will outweigh the hassle of restructuring. “Sorting out space for various teams to operate in and pushing desks around might be a pain, but the pros will far outweigh the cons,” he says. “Having strength in digital and branding, merging client lists and having a more rounded offering are the key advantages.” Bissland advises that you pick a business you know you will gel with. “Make sure the partner or parent consultancy is a good fit for your culture and that you know and like the people you will be working with the chemistry is important,” he says.
Closing down does not have to be a result of financial difficulties if you co-own a consultancy and decide it is time to go your separate ways and move into different projects, shutting up shop could be an option, says Adam Fennelow at the DBA.
Brand consultancy FiveFootSix closed down last year for this reason, saying it was “time for a change in direction”. “This was a conscious decision with money still available in the business, which the partners were able to share between them,” says Fennelow.
Company founders Algy Batten and Mark McConnachie say the decision allowed them to “end things on a high” and “turn [their] attention to new challenges ahead.”
Jonathan Sands, chairman at Elmwood, led a management buyout of the consultancy 27 years ago. He hopes to keep the consultancy independent and pass responsibility to others in the management team, to “retain the culture of the business” and “provide a good future” for employees. Sarah Turner, managing director at Carter Wong, says the consultancy also hopes to stay independent to “keep creativity at its core”. “The freedom of being an independent agency is something we value highly,” she says.
The decision to restructure is a big one. Selling to a network might provide stability and opportunity to work with people of other disciplines, but lacks the autonomy an independent or employee-owned practice can bring. Ultimately, you need to work out what is most important for your own business.
1. Plan early
A successful exit can take years. The earlier you start thinking about what you want to achieve long-term, the easier and more successful it will be.
2. Consider what is important to you
A clean break, money, security for your staff, staying involved at some level, creating a legacy all are relevant issues to influence your decisions.
3. Take advice
Good advisors cost money, but are worth it. A financial advisor needs to be more of a coach than an accountant.
4. Have a plan
Make sure your plan has milestones that can be assessed and amended if necessary. Are you on track? Have you recruited the right team to move the business on? Have you developed your ability to measure business metrics?
5. Your sums need to add up
Your finances must be in order. Not just in a profit and loss sense you need to illustrate costs per head, profitability by client, new business projections etc. This is essential to minimise perceived risk for those taking over.
The post How to make sure your business survives without you appeared first on Design Week.
DN&CO has designed the brand identity for White City Place, the new creative business district in west London which was formerly the site of BBC Media Village.
The branding for the new business hub, which is being developed by Stanhope and will include restaurants, gardens, homes, retail and office space, centres on the concept of “Networked for Creative Thought”.
“The brief was all about placemaking,” says creative director at DN&CO, Patrick Eley, “creating a distinct place that helps creative businesses flourish, and ultimately a brand that is associated with creativity and innovation instead of office space.”
The visual identity includes a clean, bright colour scheme based on a prism of refracted light, which plays on the name of the White City area.
“The brand aims to explore collaboration and what happens when people and companies mix,” says Eley.
“White light passing through a prism is refracted and creates the colour spectrum, giving us all colours as a palette to work with. By blending those colours we can emphasise the mix of people and ideas.”
The visual identity also incorporates a grid-like shape that emphasises the area's role as a hub for transport, social activity and creativity, with the series of overlapping squares giving the impression of movement, according to Eley.
“We wanted the identity to be dynamic and active to set the visual tone for a creative place where nothing stands still, everyone bounces off each other,” he says.
“Taking two squares and overlapping them gives you three, and then we played with movement and multiplicity of those patterns.”
DN&CO was commissioned to work on the project in June 2015, and will oversee the rollout of the brand across digital, print, social and signage in the coming months.
White City Place is part of an ongoing £8 billion, 15-year regeneration of the wider White City area.
The post DN&CO creates place branding for White City Place appeared first on Design Week.
Witness the sensual wonders of the middle ages in Cambridge while the Baltic explores playground utopianism. All that and more in your weekly art dispatch
Alice Neel
Touching, intimate portraits of Americans by this powerful modern realist promise to be a highlight of this year's Edinburgh art festival.
• Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, 29 Julyto 8 October.
Kieran Williams Photography posted a photo:
fiddleoak posted a photo:
this picture sort of goes with the last two, but this one is by far my favorite of the bunch. not sure if this is my favorite picture I have ever taken, but it certainly is my favorite I have taken for a long time.
instagram//blog//facebook
After years of lagging behind other ethnic groups when it comes to accessing the Internet, the "digital divide" between Latinos and whites is now at its narrowest point since 2009.
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Justin Bieber and Diplo would like to splash back into your hearts with their latest collaboration, a pledge of eternal devotion titled "Cold Water."
The Major Lazer track was co-written with Ed Sheeran and Benny Blaco. "Cold Water" also features vocals from Danish singer MØ, who said in a statement that when Major Lazer approached her with the song, she "would jump into a volcano to be a part of that record."
Bieber also seems pretty pumped about the song.
Soon we might be sharing our sidewalks with these self-driving delivery robots, zipping around the streets to bring us takeout and packages.
Ahti Heinla, chief executive of Starship Technologies, takes us for a test delivery to a Silicon Valley resident in the video above. We see how the robot detects and navigates obstacles as it rolls on down the street.
The robot achieves 90 percent autonomy — only occasionally calling for help when it encounters something confusing. Not a bad shout.