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Morphology suggests an endangered goby in southern California is a new species  
An endangered fish along the coast of California -- the tidewater goby -- may actually be two species rather than one, according a new study.  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F165123501%2Fpaddy-bw-by-maaike-schauer&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Paddy bw by Maaike Schauer  

Paddy bw by Maaike Schauer

www.schauerfotografie.com

Maaike Schauer: Photos

 
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Aerial view by Adrian Furner  

Aerial view by Adrian Furner

Date and hazelnutcake with a sugar glass shard from above

Adrian Furner: Photos

 
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咖啡杯 by 轩语  

咖啡杯 by 轩语

在家没事的时候，一直喜欢拍些有意思的照片，然后有了这张，我自己很喜欢

轩语: Photos

 
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Dunescape 0.3 by Shawn van Eeden  

Dunescape 0.3 by Shawn van Eeden

The amazing beauty of the oldest desert in the world. Namibia

Shawn van Eeden: Photos

 
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Journey by Sapna Reddy  

Journey by Sapna Reddy

In one of the hottest places on earth, hikers escape the heat by exploring the Mesquite Dunes of Death valley by moonlight.

Sapna Reddy: Photos

 
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Fly... by Pavel Krásenský  

Fly... by Pavel Krásenský

Pavel Krásenský: Photos

 
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Madeleine by Jack Høier  

Madeleine by Jack Høier

Model: Madeleine Kanyama

Jack Høier: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F164988259%2Foil-and-water-by-laurens-kaldeway&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Oil and Water by Laurens Kaldeway  

Oil and Water by Laurens Kaldeway

Laurens Kaldeway: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2016%2F07%2F27%2F487665628%2Fteam-of-researchers-dig-up-new-compound-in-an-unlikely-spot-our-noses%3Futm_medium%3DRSS%26utm_campaign%3Dresearchnews&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Team Of Researchers Dig Up New Compound In An Unlikely Spot: Our Noses  

Scientists in Germany have found a potentially powerful antibiotic that can kill dangerous bacteria. Maybe the most impressive thing about the new compound is where scientists found it: the human nose.

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Flinda-bergthold%2Fthe-limits-of-google-how_b_11200232.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dscience%26ir%3DScience&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
The Limits of Google: How Patients Can Find Out What Works In Medical Care  
When you feel sick, even before you go to the doctor, where do you look for information? Many go to Google or other search engines, but that information isn't always reliable. Besides, it is often downright scary. And how can anyone trust TV advertisements that promise fields of flowers and happiness to anyone who takes the medication, all while a dispassionate voice-over lists terrible side effects.

We are all supposed to be "engaged patients". We are supposed to research our symptoms and diagnoses. But "patient engagement" is one of the most overused and least understood terms in health care discussions today. Everyone talks about the need for it, but few know how to really use patient input. Some doctors welcome an informed patient; others not so much. Some organizations will put one patient on their board or advisory committee and consider patient engagement done.

As someone who has served as a consumer representative on boards that evaluate new treatments, I can tell you that patient engagement is critically important to assessing what really works in terms of treatment and care, and what research is needed to inform decision making.

Yet few opportunities for this exist.

In fact, special interests and those frightened of change, are challenging evidence-based efforts to evaluate health care system innovations and high-cost drug treatments. Instead of fighting these efforts, they should be demanding more of them and insist that patient voices are part of the discussion.

You may have heard that less than 20% of what physicians do has solid medical research to support it. That's kind of astounding when you think about it. Doctors do something because that's the way they were trained to do it, and until new information comes to light, they will continue to do it the same way. Take the treatment for ear infections in kids. Doctors prescribe or parents demand tubes, antibiotics, anything to stop the pain. But good research shows that too many antibiotics have negative outcomes. As a result, treatment for ear infections has changed appropriately over the past several years. Same for tonsillectomies, the third most frequent surgery for children.

Fortunately for patients, there are two places where their voices will be heard and where they can find good, evidence-based information. One is a non-governmental nonprofit program called PCORI (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute); the other is a nonprofit called ICER (Institute for Clinical and Economic Review). PCORI was funded in 2010 by the federal government as part of the Affordable Care Act (one of the many aspects of "Obamacare" most don't know about). The Institute's money comes from the government and fees assessed to private insurance and self-insured employer-based plans, but PCORI is completely independent and conducts its business in public. PCORI's mission is "to help people make informed healthcare decisions, and improve healthcare delivery and outcomes, by producing and promoting high-integrity, evidence-based information that comes from research guided by patients, caregivers, and the broader healthcare community." PCORI meetings are public and patients are heavily involved in deciding what research should be done and by whom. PCORI's research has included how to best manage side effects of cancer treatment, how to help people recover from strokes more rapidly, and how to pull specialists together to more effectively treat lung cancer. These research projects were all selected and guided by patient input.

Patient voices are also being sought in the evaluation of drugs for conditions like diabetes, multiple sclerosis, high cholesterol, or psoriasis. Many of these drugs are advertised constantly on TV with little helpful information for patients about which of the side effects is most prevalent or serious, how effective the drug is or how much it costs. ICER provides this information. Seventy percent of ICER's funding comes from nonprofit foundations (70%) with the remaining coming from life science companies and health insurance companies. ICER is "dedicated to improving patient care by providing independent, completely transparent evaluations of how new drugs compare to existing treatments". ICER differs from the FDA by looking at the cost of treatments as well as their effectiveness in two ways - in comparison to no treatment (as the FDA does) and in comparison to existing treatments (as the FDA does not do). This is helpful for patients making their decisions when their insurance does not cover the drug or when deductibles or coinsurance may be very high.

ICER works through three independent review bodies of practicing physicians, methodology experts and patient advocates that meet three times a year in New England, the Midwest and California to look at the evidence for the effectiveness of new treatments or drugs. I was a consumer member of the California panel, CTAF (California Technology Assessment Forum) for many years, so I know how challenging it is to integrate a non-clinical voice in the decision-making. The issues are complex and the information is often incomplete or highly technical. However, patients or consumers can bring a practical focus to the discussion, especially when we try to define terms such as "quality of life" or question the value of a drug that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and extends life by only a few weeks.

PCORI and ICER are great resources for patients and their providers. The reports they issue are more reliable than what any internet search can provide. ICER is the only independent national resource that offers credible information about the real elephant in the room--the cost of a new drug, particularly as it compares to existing drugs for the same condition. And ICER involves patients in making those determinations.

ICER's process first assesses how well a drug works, the side effects it produces, and how it compares to similar drugs and treatments. Only after this analysis does ICER look at cost. Will a medication reduce future costs by keeping you healthier? Does it offer benefits that no other medication on the market can? Or will it lead to escalating and unsustainable costs for you and for the entire health care system to the point where no one will be available to afford the innovative treatment? For example, ICER recently issued a report that concluded that Entresto™ does offer excellent long term value to treat patients with Congestive Heart Failure. Some payers were concerned that the drug was too expensive and so were hesitant to approve it. The ICER report found that its price, when normal discounts were factored in, represented a good value. This report increased the likelihood that patients who might benefit from the drug will have it covered by their insurance.

ICER calculates a fair benchmark price to the manufacturer, the payer, the patient and the overall health system, so that these decisions can be made collaboratively in full view of you, the patient. These decisions have always been made behind closed doors, so the fact that cost is being addressed and discussed openly provides patients with a significant advantage.

Still, when it comes to considering costs, some patient advocacy groups get nervous when the subject comes up. I would not be fair if I did not address some of the key questions many patient advocates worry about, perhaps the biggest one being "will the consideration of cost mean I lose access to a drug or treatment I need?"

1. Why should cost be considered if a drug can significantly improve my health? The most important question you should ask is whether or not a treatment or drug actually works for your individual condition. But the cost of that treatment is also important. You may have a very high deductible to pay, and if the treatment is of questionable effectiveness, that cost factor may be very important in your decision making process. Looked at more broadly, it would be irresponsible for a physician to recommend treatments without any assessment of value or the budget impact over the long-term. Is the cost so high that it will strain state health budgets, force cutbacks in other community services or generate unaffordable increases in insurance premiums?

1. How much influence do the drug manufacturers or insurance companies have over decisions made by PCORI and ICER? PCORI's Board of Directors is selected by the Comptroller General of the United States and is mandated to include at least three patient representatives, along with physicians, researchers, and insurance companies and other payers. ICER's Governance Board has fiduciary responsibility for the overall operations of ICER, and provides important strategic counsel to ICER's leadership team. The Governance Board represent a broad range of stakeholder perspectives, including patient and consumer groups, health plans, manufacturers, and other national leaders in health policy. In fact, two new members were recently elected to ICER's Governance Board - Ellen Andrews, PhD and Frances Visco, JD. Both have extensive experience in patient and consumer advocacy.

1. Don't insurance companies dominate these organizations? Actually, insurers are not in the majority of decision making of either organization. They are at the table because they have a huge stake in deciding what to pay for, since they must distribute resources fairly to all patients who are members. Researchers and medical personnel are much more heavily represented on these boards and panels, because the complexity of research design is something that even insurance companies don't always understand. And ICER seeks direct input from patients and clinicians on what they feel is important to their care, what outcomes they seek, and what evidence should be assessed. For example, multiple myeloma patient groups told ICER that it was very important to them to have options for oral medication given how often they have to go to clinics for IV administration.

1. If drug prices are questioned, will that stall innovation? Innovation is essential to improving patient health. We are fortunate to have a drug manufacturing industry that is producing a burgeoning pipeline of new promising drugs for a range of medical conditions. But many of these drugs are landing on the market with hefty price tags that are out of range for many people. There is no point to innovation if no one can afford the new drugs or benefits that they offer.

1. Why do we need a PCORI or ICER anyway? Most patients would not want to take a drug if they didn't know it worked, yet we do it all the time. The FDA assesses drugs for safety but does not compare one drug to another or look at the cost of a drug. We need organizations that are objective, not dominated by one type of stakeholder or another, and that operate in an open environment where patients can voice their preferences and ask questions.

Bottom line? An internet search can get you started when you need information. But as a patient, you need to know that there are places you can trust to give you the whole story. The more organizations like PCORI and ICER that we have, the faster we will get to a place in medicine that gives us information we can depend on.

-- 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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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/science/jupiter-great-red-spot.html?partner=rss&emc=rss  
Jupiter's Great Red Spot Is Also Very Hot  
Astronomers say the giant swirling storm on the solar system's largest planet is generating quite a bit of heat for its upper atmosphere.  
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Urgent Global Action Needed to Stop Extinction of Earth's Last Megafauna  

A swift and global conservation response is needed to prevent the world's gorillas, lions, tigers, rhinos, and other iconic terrestrial megafauna from being lost forever, an influential group of international scientists reported today in the journal BioScience.

Their analysis, entitled Saving the World's Terrestrial Megafauna, covers the precipitous loss of large mammal populations around the globe, from the poorly known, such as the scimitar-horned oryx, to more familiar species including tigers, lions, gorillas and rhinoceroses, Panthera, one of the organizations associated with the research, said in a news statement.

The report was written by 43 wildlife experts from six continents. [At least 16 of them are scientists who have previously received research grants from the National Geographic Society.]

Business as Usual = Massive Species Extinction

The report included a 13-point declaration calling for acknowledgement that a “business as usual” mentality will result in massive species extinction; while a global commitment to conservation with support for developing nations is a moral obligation.

“The more I look at the trends facing the world's largest terrestrial mammals, the more concerned I am we could lose these animals just as science is discovering how important they are to ecosystems and to the services they provide to people,” said William Ripple, lead author and distinguished professor of ecology in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. “It's time to really think about conserving them because declines in their numbers and habitats are happening quickly.”

“To underline how serious this is, the rapid loss of biodiversity and megafauna in particular is an issue that is right up there with, and perhaps even more pressing than, climate change,” said senior co-author and Panthera Lion Program Policy Initiative Coordinator Dr. Peter Lindsey.

“Human communities stand to lose key elements of their natural heritage if these large wildlife species are allowed to go extinct,” Lindsey continued. “The disappearance of such species could also significantly undermine the future potential for communities to benefit from eco-tourism operations. Urgent measures are needed to address poaching, and to allow for the co-existence of people and wildlife if megafauna is to persist in the long term.”

Action Needed on Two Fronts

The scientists call for action on two fronts, Panthera explained: conservation interventions expanded to scales that address animals' extensive habitat needs, and policy shifts and increased financial commitment to alter the ways in which people interact with wildlife.

“Among the most serious threats to endangered animals are the expansion of livestock and agricultural developments, illegal hunting, deforestation and human population growth. Large wildlife species are extremely vulnerable to these threats because of their need for extensive spaces to live and low population densities, particularly for carnivores.”

Panthera President and Chief Conservation Officer and co-author Dr. Luke Hunter, said: “Among the world's largest animals, apex predators like the tiger, lion and leopard are increasingly under assault. The protection of these big cats the great white sharks of our terrestrial Earth and other large mammals is paramount to the health and survival of thousands of animals and their ecosystems.

“Today, 59 percent of the world's largest carnivores and 60 percent of the world's largest herbivores are categorized as threatened with extinction on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. This situation is particularly dire in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, home to the greatest diversity of remaining large mammals.

“Yet the resources for effective implementation of conservation strategies are seldom available in regions with the greatest needs. The onus is on developed countries, which have long ago lost most of their large animals, to support conservation initiatives where the world's most celebrated wildlife still remain.”

 
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Spiky new ant species is named after Game of Thrones dragons  
Two newly named species of ant from New Guinea have big spines behind their necks that are full of muscle, which could help supporting their giant heads  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2099192-red-wolf-may-lose-endangered-status-because-its-just-a-hybrid%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Red wolf may lose endangered status because it's just a hybrid  
Not being a recognisable species could lose the red wolf its conservation status, despite being the only carrier of genes from extinct southern grey wolves  
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http://twitter.com/JackiesBuzz/status/758389973254942720 
.@FedEx continues to ship #shark fin & violate law @CITES INTL level & US Endangered Species Act #OCEANS https://t.co/MtFThSDm0Q 
https://t.co/MtFThSDm0Q 

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What Growing Up in Compton Teaches You  

Growing up in Compton, California, the comedian and actor Travon Free had a close look at institutionalized poverty and racism in the United States. "The land of the free and the American Dream [are] only for certain people,” he says in this interview, filmed at this year's Aspen Ideas Festival.

 
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Sunset over the rooftops of London.  

philverney posted a photo:

 
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Remembering the Korean War (41 photos)  

Sixty-three years ago today, on July 27, 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, ceasing hostilities between North Korean Communist forces, backed by China, and South Korean forces, backed by the United Nations. The war had raged across the Korean Peninsula for three years, leaving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead. The Armistice formed the famous Demilitarized Zone that still separates North Korea and South Korea, technically still at war with each other. On this anniversary of the armistice agreement, a look back at the people and places involved in the conflict sometimes called "the forgotten war.”

 
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'Nose-y' Bacteria Could Yield A New Way To Fight Infection  

The search for lifesaving antibiotics is on. Scientists have turned up one promising candidate in an unlikely place — the human nose.

 
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Police Use Fingertip Replicas To Unlock A Murder Victim's Phone  

Michigan State University engineers tried 3-D-printed fingertips and special conductive replicas of the victim's fingerprints to crack the biometric lock on his Samsung Galaxy phone.

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2F2016%2Fjul%2F27%2Fhuman-relationships-with-rocks-trees-and-other-sentient-beings&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Human relationships with rocks, trees and other sentient beings | Letter from Dr Penelope Dransart  

Paul Kingsnorth urges us to follow the poet Robinson Jeffers in “unhumanising” our views, to open our (human) minds “from ourselves” (The call of the wild, Review, 23 July). He presents an inspiring list of novels to help us to acknowledge the sentience of other beings. Many ethnographers also help us to gain precious insight into other ways of thinking. From the 1930s Alfred Irving Hallowell adopted the phrase “other-than-human persons” in his exploration of relationships between entities such as rocks and humans among the Northern Ojibwe (Canada) and how these sentient others reveal themselves to people. More recently, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro has been urging us to exchange perspectives not only with other human beings whose intellectual traditions differ from the “artifact[s] of western individualism” discussed by Kingsnorth but also with other sentient beings of the cosmos. In what he calls perspectival multinaturalism, Viveiros de Castro argues there is no one undifferentiated state of “nature” as western orthodoxy would have it. Eduardo Kohn's How Forests Think is an example of an ethnography that dissolves human and non-human categories. He set himself the task of understanding the existence of forests as an emergent process in which human and non-human beings engage in making and communicating signs to each other.
Dr Penelope Dransart
Reader in anthropology and archaeology, University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Continue reading...  
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This Cube Shape-Shifts When Squished  
Metamaterials don't react the way you would expect. Push down on this cube from the top and a face appears on the side. The secret? A carefully designed substructure. This video was reproduced...

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com  
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r0B0t: Technology Could Lead Humanity to the Promised Land - Or Back to a Desperate Period of Neo-serfdom  
If you happened to be on the streets of Pittsburgh on 19 May 2016, you may well have witnessed a black car that looked akin to that driven by superheroes, driving itself. If you are a taxi driver this will be a cause for concern. It was an Uber.

Taxi drivers and their families are not the only ones who should be concerned. Late last year in Baden-Württemberg, a Mercedes lorry was driving itself at 50 miles per hour, along a busy section of motorway. There are 600,000 HGV registered licensed drivers in the UK, 242,200 licensed taxi and private hire vehicles and around 1.8 million people in the expanded logistics workforce. Such ground breaking technologies are just the tip of the iceberg.

The World Economic Forum predicts more than seven million jobs in the world's largest economies will be threatened in the next few years by advances such as robotics and 3D printing.

In the 1970s and 80s, mainframe computers and robots had a huge impact. Since then our manufacturing workforce has fallen by 60 per cent. For those made redundant, this technology was a curse. For the wider economy, it was a blessing. Increased productivity has led to total manufacturing output today being 6 per cent higher over the same period.

Today automation and artificial intelligence are progressing at a speed, scale and force unlike anything we have experienced before. Sooner or later the challenge of human redundancy will have to be reckoned with.

Machines, like Google's DeepMind, are now capable of cognitive functions. Machine learning is likely to be the primary catalyst behind a surge of applications in automation and robotics and a nearly limitless number of specialised applications. When a robot can read a set of accounts, analyse a million emails or phone records, write annual reports, why employ a lawyer, researcher or accountant?

In contrast, the sharing economy may seem quaint by comparison but it is also another significant threat to jobs. Airbnb, for example, now dwarfs even the largest hotel chains but still has under a thousand employees compared with Hilton's 164,000.

Policy needs to meet this challenge head on. Not just the challenge of the loss of jobs but also the fact that the benefits from this tech-driven productivity surge keep accruing to an ever smaller group.

With its perennial trade and budget deficits the UK already has structural issues to contend with in addition to the technological challenge. Fortunately, it also has some big advantages. We have a great science base, a great technological base, a great creative base and a great entrepreneurial base. But just as businesses need to adapt, our government must too.

Firstly, as new jobs replace old jobs, we must equip people with the skills to adapt. Education should be collaborative, research-based, and self-directed; it should relate to real world challenges and have input from employers and trade bodies.

Secondly, entrepreneurialism must be culturally engrained across our whole society and not just at private schools. Unless we encourage more start-ups and new businesses able to work with new technologies, the UK will face certain comparative decline.

Thirdly, governments are going to need new tools, new laws and new ideas to adequately tax the owners of technology. It is not just, or sustainable, for corporate profits to have an ever increasing share of GDP whilst real wages flatline, despite huge gains in economic output. Without adequate tax on the owners of technology and proper investment in education and skills, we are heading back to the world of barons and serfs.

Fourthly, we should develop policies to encourage businesses to stay British. Despite our vibrant start up scene many of the UK's most exciting companies never make it to global status, often because they get acquired by US firms before they get there. British companies that receive state support should guarantee that their company headquarters will remain in the UK, they will pay corporate tax in the UK, their company founders will stay tax domiciled in the UK and their investors will pay tax on gains in the UK.

Finally, embarking on a new industrial policy without a full partnership with trade unions would be folly. For any renaissance in the British economy we are going to need healthy and vibrant trade unions, respected by business with a sense of shared mission, and partnership. To meet this challenge, unions must modernize. Workers today need strong, representative, forward-thinking, pragmatic, unions. Trade unions that see the dangers and opportunities of this digital revolution. In return government should roll back much of the egregious anti-union legislation that has accumulated over the past decades.

The technological changes that we are witnessing are potentially heading for a collision with society as we know it. Not preparing our country adequately will lead society to a very harsh destination.

But it doesn't have to be this way. Technology can lead humanity to the promised land. Less working hours, less disease, improved human efficiency, smarter learning and greater understanding and communication. But unmanaged it could also lead us back to a desperate period of neo-serfdom.

This blog is based on a chapter Simon Franks wrote for the book Changing Work: Progressive ideas for the modern world of work, published this week. Changing Work is the first publication from The Changing Work Centre, an initiative from the Fabian Society and Community which is chaired by Yvette Cooper MP  
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r0B0t: The GOP Has Turned Hillary Clinton Into a Cartoon, So That's How Stephen Colbert Interviewed Her  

In Bill Clinton's DNC speech Tuesday night, the former president talked about his wife Hillary, both as a person and as a public servant, challenging how that description squares away with the caricature that Republicans present her as: “The real one has done more change-making before she was 30 than most do in a lifetime in office. The other is a cartoon.”

The Late Show's Stephen Colbert took a rather literal interpretation of Bill's words, and the result was Cartoon Hillary Clinton, who made an appearance on the show shortly after the real Hillary achieved her historic nomination. The animated Hillary, with a strained grin, robotic mannerisms, and a desperate need to pander to the audience, embodies the qualities that haters see in her real-life counterpart.

Cartoon Hillary Clinton answered a few Republicans' questions and talked about her rival, Donald Trump (who Colbert also interviewed as a cartoon back in March). “That's what I love about America,” she said. “It's the only place where a Secretary of State, senator, and lifelong public servant can be put on equal footing with a screaming cantaloupe.”

 
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