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https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2016/jul/29/big-unknowns-is-our-universe-infinite-podcast  
Big unknowns: is our universe infinite? - podcast  

Does our universe go on forever? Or does it have boundaries? And what clues can science uncover? Join us for a journey into the unknown

In this first instalment of our Big Unknowns mini-series, Nicola Davis delves into the world of cosmology to tackle one of its biggest questions - is our universe infinite? With cosmologist and author Dr Christophe Galfard for a guide, we travel to the outermost boundaries of space and time in search of answers. Along the way, we'll discuss the concept of infinity with University of Cambridge mathematician Professor John Barrow. We also hear from UCL cosmologist Professor Hiranya Peiris, who uses satellite data to probe the “afterglow” of the Big Bang in the hope of revealing clues about the evolution and the nature of our universe.

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astronomy  

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https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2016/jul/29/nebulae-planets-and-the-auora-your-best-astronomy-photographs-of-the-year  
Nebulae, planets and the aurora: your best astronomy photographs of the year  

Our stargazing readers share their best photographs from the past year, from spectacular nebulae to close-ups of the moon

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astronomy  

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/29/garden-bridge-charity-fails-to-publish-five-month-account-figures  
Garden bridge charity delays publishing annual accounts for five months  

Trust says preparing 17 months of accounts is to match financial year but delay adds to critics' concerns over project's running costs and private donations

The charity behind London's proposed garden bridge has delayed publishing its full accounts for five months, adding to concerns that the financing of the project could be in trouble.

The Garden Bridge Trust, which aims to begin work later this year on the 367-metre tree and plant-filled structure across the Thames, said the delay in filing accounts to Companies House and the Charities Commission was simply an administrative matter.

Related: Why build the garden bridge when we could plant trees on Blackfriars?

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design  

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jul/29/john-partridge-obituary  
John Partridge obituary  
Architect combining flair with social purpose and sound building technique

Whether the job at hand was the rehousing of Londoners or the dining arrangements of Oxford fellows, the architect John Partridge, who has died aged 91, was a natural problem solver. To housing, colleges, courthouses and theatres alike he brought a combination of creative flair, social purpose and sound building technique qualities rarely seen together in contemporary architecture.

Among his most celebrated projects was the creation, with his partners, Bill Howell, John Killick and Stan Amis, of 2,000 homes for London County Council in tower blocks at Roehampton. In Oxford, the Hilda Besse building for St Antony's College, probably his finest built work, is an essay in how each part comes together to make an intricate yet ordered whole, while in his halls of residence for St Anne's College, strongly modelled facades refract the daylight entering the interiors and frame views out. He was always creative and conscientious.

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Architecture-inspired greeting cards  

Architecture-inspired greeting cards

 
design  

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http://wallpapermag.tumblr.com/post/148103732263  
‘I Promise to Love You' by Tracey Emin, New York  

‘I Promise to Love You' by Tracey Emin, New York

 
design  

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160728143247.htm  
No dream: Electric brain stimulation during sleep can boost memory  
For the first time, scientists report using transcranial alternating current stimulation, or tACS, to target a specific kind of brain activity during sleep and strengthen memory in healthy people.  
technology  

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http://www.notimpossiblenow.com/the-latest/pokemon-go  
Living in a Pokémon World The Future of Gaming  
By Shannon FlynnPokémon Go has officially become a worldwide phenomenon. Since the app launched on July 6, men, women, and children have been using their phones to search for Pokémon on streets, in parks, and at malls at all hours of the day and night. Each player hoping to “catch ‘em all” to ...

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/8bgPfbypCLM/  
Why Growth Will Fall  
Robert Gordon has written a magnificent book on the economic history of the United States over the last one and a half centuries. His study focuses on what he calls the “special century” from 1870 to 1970—in which living standards increased more rapidly than at any time before or after. The book is without peer in providing a statistical analysis of the uneven pace of growth and technological change, in describing the technologies that led to the remarkable progress during the special century, and in concluding with a provocative hypothesis that the future is unlikely to bring anything approaching the economic gains of the earlier period.  
culture  

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http://insider.si.edu/2016/07/first-hooded-crane-chick-hatches-smithsonian-conservation-biology-institute/  
First hooded crane hatches @ SCBI  

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) hatched its first hooded crane chick June 14. The chick was born as the result of artificial insemination. The chick is being raised by its parents and appears to be doing well. This is the first chick for Tempest (female) and Mr. Crane (male).

SCBI is now home to eight of the 26 birds in the Hooded Crane Species Survival Plan in North America. There are less than 8,000 hooded cranes in the wild and the species is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

SCBI has a successful crane breeding program. In addition to the birth of this hooded crane chick, 40 white-naped cranes have been born at SCBI. Twenty of those chicks were born as the result of artificial inseminations.

SCBI plays a leading role in the Smithsonian's global efforts to save wildlife species from extinction and train future generations of conservationists. SCBI spearheads research programs at its headquarters in Front Royal, Virginia, the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and at field research stations and training sites worldwide. SCBI scientists tackle some of today's most complex conservation challenges by applying and sharing what they learn about animal behavior and reproduction, ecology, genetics, migration and conservation sustainability.

The post First hooded crane hatches @ SCBI appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

 
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Sunrise on the Lake  

ertugrulderya posted a photo:

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fnathan-gardels%2Fweekend-roundup-128_b_11263404.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dscience%26ir%3DScience&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Weekend Roundup: This Election Is About Defining America  
Most presidential elections in America have been contests over different policy solutions and approaches but rooted in a commonly agreed reality. This time around, as the back-to-back Republican and Democratic conventions have demonstrated, the dispute is over what constitutes reality itself. More than anything else, this election is about defining what America is.

Nominating conclaves used to be mainly about gritty political tradeoffs among factions in order to reach consensus on a candidate. These conventions were Hollywood-style orchestrations, replete with celebrity testimonials and musical performances, aimed at convincing the larger public of which reality to believe. Donald Trump and company argue we should be afraid, very afraid, because de-nationalized cosmopolitan elites have lost the will to protect the safety and economic well-being of Americans in a dangerous and ruthlessly competitive world. Climate change, which they recklessly deny, doesn't make their list of concerns.

Hillary Clinton and company argue that President Obama has set America on the right course, disengaging from a war footing and celebrating diversity as the nation's greatest strength. For them, the real danger is not Trump's Mexicans or Muslims but intolerant and divisive nativism. And for the Democrats, in the end it is the chastised establishment insiders, not disenchanted outsiders, who are the most competent to implement incremental change that will reduce inequality and curb the inordinate influence of the one percent.

The contest over defining who we are seems to have come about for two reasons. First, the consciousness of most Americans now dwells in media silos that are echo chambers of their own worldview and not objective platforms that establish a common grasp of the facts. Second, America, like the rest of the world, is in the midst of a Great Transformation in which the established institutions that sustained stability and progress for decades are ill suited to face the social upheaval of rapid technological change and globalization that is creating new classes of winners and losers. Caught in the purgatory of no longer and not yet, a clear path to salvation eludes the unsettled body politic.

The left-populist filmmaker Michael Moore lays out several reasons he is convinced that Trump will win the presidency. As Moore sees it, the Republican candidate will triumph in the key economically depressed Midwestern states, an outcome he calls America's "Rust Belt Brexit." Further, white men full of resentment at being left behind in an ever more diverse society will vote in Trump's favor. Hillary is just too unpopular among the general public, says Moore, while the reluctant stance of disappointed Bernie Sanders supporters will translate into a weak showing for her at the polls. Lastly, Moore expects the mischievous "Jesse Ventura effect" of voters who want to upset the applecart "to make Mommy and Daddy mad."

An even more bizarre overlay in this year's election is the apparent strongman sympathies between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, compounded by the "high confidence" judgment of American intelligence that the Russian government hacked into the Democratic National Committee emails.

Writing from Moscow, Anastasya Manuilova says that while it is "not implausible to say that such government-backed hackers do exist" in Russia, most of her colleagues at the Kommersant newspaper found the allegations "too far-fetched" or lacking enough proof to make such an elaborate scheme believable.

Russian chess champion and thorn in Putin's side, Garry Kasparov, is not surprised by alleged Russian meddling in American politics on behalf of "the extraordinarily disruptive and unpredictable" Trump. "Putin wants to stoke chaos and discord in the West," he writes.

Writing from Armenia, Armine Sahakyan says she is "convinced that not just Putin but also every other dictator in the former Soviet Union would love a Trump presidency. That way the United States would stop harping on their corruption, human rights abuses and other shortcomings -- and let them kill and imprison political opponents and subjugate neighbors with impunity."

Continuing terrorist attacks in Europe, including the brutal throat slitting of an elderly Catholic priest in France by terrorists who claimed allegiance to the so-called Islamic State, are leading to a more urgent reverberation of the divisive American debate. Writing from Paris, Frederic Sicard argues against the state of emergency declared by President Francois Hollande. "Faced with barbarity, can't our democracies choose not to seek safety only by sacrificing the very foundations of our society of law and freedom?" he asks. "By muting our deepest aspirations, are we not playing into the hands of terrorism?"

Writing from Germany, Roland Tichy reflects on the recent string of terror acts in his country. "The stark political divisions on display in the U.S.," he says, "now appear in Germany as well. Germany is becoming more colorful, thus becoming more American: It is also growing more violent in its hostilities, more unforgiving. This divide will increase along the ethnic and social fault lines."

As a pervasive sense of insecurity spreads across Europe, it is also about to be hit with a new financial crisis over Italy's insolvent banks. Despite EU rules against bailouts, Steve Hanke argues that "an Italian state rescue" is the most sensible way to recapitalize the troubled banks. Europe's tough and powerful commissioner for competition, Margrethe Vestager, lays out why and how markets must work for citizens.

Wikileaks is not only roiling the U.S. election through the release of internal DNC emails. It also helped publicize the so-called "Erodgan emails" in the wake of the recent coup attempt in Turkey. Zeynep Tufekci slams Wikileaks and the hackers behind the data dump for irresponsibly publicizing documents that shed no light on the regime but which instead included the identities, addresses and contact details of women who belong to the ruling Justice and Development Party. "Their addresses are out there for every stalker, ex-partner, disapproving relative or random crazy to peruse as they wish," she writes. As a result of our post, the uploaded files to which Wikileaks linked have been removed.

James Dorsey scores the anti-Gulenist purge underway in Turkey as strengthening militants and jihadists in Pakistan as the Turkish government demands the closure of the "PakTurkey" schools run by Gulenists there that teach science and moderation instead of extremism. In an interview, sociologist Joshua Hendrik explains what we need to know about Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet ("service") organization over which he presides. WorldPost correspondent Sophia Jones reports from Istanbul on a major demonstration this week by opposition groups to show solidarity against the recent coup from across the political spectrum.

As the Olympics are about to get underway in Brazil, Yale's Joseph Lewnard contends that the fear of the Zika virus spreading as a result of large numbers of people gathering at the Games is highly exaggerated.

Criminologist John Carl takes a critical look at the prison system in America, which has the world's largest incarcerated population per capita, tracing its origins to the unforgiving Puritan culture from which it was born.

Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden examine China's growing military presence in Africa, ranging from greater engagement in United Nations peacekeeping missions to anti-piracy patrols to its nearly completed navy outpost in Djibouti.

This interactive world map reshapes countries and continents if we look at the factor of wealth instead of geography and population.

Our Singularity series this week looks at a new bio-robot shaped like a stingray and made of heart cells that can be controlled by light.

WHO WE ARE


EDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Co-Founder and Executive Advisor to the Berggruen Institute, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Executive Editor of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Suzanne Gaber is the Editorial Assistant of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is News Director at The Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost's news coverage. Charlotte Alfred and Nick Robins-Early are World Reporters. Rowaida Abdelaziz is World Social Media Editor.


CORRESPONDENTS: Sophia Jones in Istanbul.


EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media), Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Dileep Padgaonkar (Times of India) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun).


VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS: Dawn Nakagawa.


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khanna are Contributing Editors-At-Large.


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.


Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the "whole mind" way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine.


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.


From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt.

MISSION STATEMENT

The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets.

We not only deliver breaking news from the best sources with original reportage on the ground and user-generated content; we bring the best minds and most authoritative as well as fresh and new voices together to make sense of events from a global perspective looking around, not a national perspective looking out.

-- 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.

 
science  

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r0B0t: The Week in Culture, “Perfectly Reasonable Number of Harmonicas” Edition  

“I can't quite explain why I harbored high hopes for Bad Moms, a comedy about three stressed-out Chicago mothers on an empowerment bender,” Slate's film critic Dana Stevens writes of the movie from the creators of The Hangover, the one that could have portrayed motherhood in a post-Bridesmaids, postBroad City, completely 2016 kind of way. Unfortunately, “the dad minds behind Bad Moms don't seem to understand, or be terribly curious about, the minds of mothers,” Stevens concludes. Elissa Strauss, looking at what the movie gets right and wrong about motherhood today, had a more charitable take: “Seeing a group of funny moms have dude-comedy-style fun in a competition-free atmosphere is a much-needed corrective to the frazzled, uptight moms that we usually see onscreen.”

The gals of Bad Moms were hardly the only moms on our minds this week. In fact, right now moms are having a bit of a moment. (Mom-ment?) Decidedly not-bad mom Hillary Clinton became the first woman (and first mom) to clinch a major party's presidential nomination (but what will we call Bill?) at the Democratic National Convention, and Michelle Obama mothered a nation in her radical Democratic National Convention speech. Dads go hand-in-hand with moms, and this week we got to know vice presidential Democratic nominee Tim Kaine and quickly decided that he is a total dad, of the bad-joke-making, multiple-harmonica-carrying, balloon-kicking variety. Chelsea Clinton, she of underappreciated '90s style and still-unwritten public persona, spoke at the DNC too, shouting out A Wrinkle in Time and sending its sales soaring in the process. The only thing that would have made the week better is if Hillary had quoted more Hamilton lines in her speech.

What else is going on besides moms and politics? In these dog days of summer, there's a MadTV reboot out, and it's a far cry from the show's original incarnation. The Absolutely Fabulous movie pokes fun at, or maybe exposes the hypocrisy of, society. We're pondering how after the Looking movie/finale, HBO may no longer be the go-to place for LGBTQ stories. Bojack Horseman tackled abortion, the new Star Trek movie didn't tackle disability, Mr. Robot loves its Kubrick references, and Taye Diggs may be unfollowing you on Twitter right now.

A few more highs and lows from the week in culture:

• What to watch on Netflix this weekend before it expires
• A tribute to cartoonist Richard Thompson
• How to tell when Donald Trump is joking
• Jeffrey Toobin's new book on the story of Patty Hearst
• Pokémon or cholesterol medication?: a quiz
• A gossip expert weighs in on this summer's spate of Taylor Swift headlines
• A grand unified theory of disgusting office kitchens
• Sarah Silverman and the value of celebrities at political events
• The story of Crusader Rabbit, TV's first cartoon
• Talking to the 91-year-old woman who designed a female president shirt in 1995

 
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What's long, hard and full of seamen? The USS Harvey Milk  

Bonus story: The saga of the five-inch 'toothbrush' gun

It's been 37 years since The Village People's hit song In the Navy associated the armed service with an acceptance of homosexuality.…

 
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The Democrats' Message of Calm  

The Atlantic's Molly Ball explores Hillary Clinton's image of composure in the midst of a troubled country.

 
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Southwark Sunset  

the CAMera of ian CAMpbell; simple posted a photo:

Taken from Southwark Bridge, London, looking East

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fken-roseboro%2Fgmo-labeling-efforts-reve_b_11219534.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
GMO Labeling Efforts Reveal Best and Worst of Democracy  

Photo by Carolyn Boyce

State laws resulted from citizen action; national bill ignored citizens' wishes in favor of corporate interests

In 2014, Vermont passed the first legislation in the U.S. to require labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. A year earlier, Connecticut and Maine also passed GMO labeling bills though these were dependent on several other states passing similar laws.

Best of democracy: lawmakers respond to people
These three bills were textbook examples of democracy in action. The states' citizens lobbied their legislatures to introduce the bills, public hearings were held, experts spoke for and against the bills, and lawmakers debated the measures. The bills ultimately passed because the lawmakers recognized that the People wanted them approved.

Vermont's bill passed overwhelmingly in both the state's House of Representatives and Senate, and Governor Pete Shumlin signed the bill shortly thereafter.

This is how democracy is supposed to work, right? Citizens see an issue of concern that needs to be addressed, and they contact their elected representatives who respond by passing a law. This is what happened in Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine.

As Tara Cook-Littman, who spearheaded Connecticut's labeling initiative, said: "We proved in Connecticut that we do have power and can make democracy work."

Worst of democracy: lawmakers pander to corporations
Contrast those initiatives with U.S. federal government action on GMO labeling in the past year. Heavy lobbying by large food and agriculture corporations and groups such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association led the U.S. House of Representatives to introduce the Orwellian-named "Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act." The bill, dubbed the "DARK Act" (Deny Americans the Right to Know), aimed to stop Vermont and other state GMO labeling laws and establish a meaningless system of voluntary GMO labeling. The DARK Act passed the House but a similar bill failed to pass the U.S. Senate this past March mainly because the people told their senators to vote against it.

Following the Senate defeat, and with Vermont's GMO labeling law set to take effect on July 1, Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) drafted a compromise of the DARK Act, making GMO disclosure mandatory and not voluntary as in the House bill. But there was no requirement for an on-package statement as the Vermont law mandated.

Stabenow's compromise essentially snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for labeling supporters because many major food companies were already putting GMO labels on their products sold nationwide to comply with Vermont's law.

The Roberts-Stabenow bill has been described as a "non-labeling GMO labeling bill" since, among its many flaws, it allows food companies to continue their stonewalling of GMO information by putting QR codes on products that can only be read by smartphones. Imagine a busy mother at a supermarket with several children in tow pulling out her smartphone to read QR codes on 20 or 30 food products. Or imagine the many mothers that don't even have smartphones trying to get GMO information. According to marketing communications expert Peter Quinn, the use of QR codes has virtually been abandoned because they have proven to be so ineffective and a "technology wild goose chase."

"Needs of the people have been ignored"
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said: "The Stabenow-Roberts GMO bill is confusing, misleading and unenforceable. It does nothing to make sure consumers know what they're eating."
In contrast to Vermont's GMO labeling bill--the Roberts-Stabenow bill had no hearings, no public input, no committee debate, and was rushed to be introduced--and passed in both the Senate and House. Behind the push were Big Food and Ag and their millions of dollars in lobbying.

So while the GMO labeling efforts in Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine demonstrated the best of democracy--working for the people as America's founders intended--the Roberts-Stabenow bill showed us the worst of democracy--with its pandering to the narrow interests of big business at the expense of the wishes of the people. And the bill eviscerates the successful democratic efforts in those states.

As Sanders said: "The needs of people have been ignored in this bill."
Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) agreed, saying the bill was "not what's in the interests of the American consumer, but what a few special interests want."

With their support for this bad piece of legislation and continued obfuscation, Big Food and Ag have assured themselves more years of consumer distrust, targeting by advocacy groups, and possible PR disasters. A few food companies, such as Campbell's and Dannon, have decided that transparency is the best policy with GMO labeling, but for many others this may be a tough lesson to learn.

-- 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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Good News on #TigerDay: Tiger Population Rebounds in Parsa, Nepal  

The tiger population of Nepal's Parsa Wildlife Reserve has increased markedly, according to a camera trap study released on International Tiger Day (today) by Panthera and the the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

The Government of Nepal's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) collaborated to carry out the 2016 population survey in Parsa as part of their ongoing partnership to protect and monitor tigers throughout the lowlands of Nepal, Panthera and ZL said in a news statement.

Nepal's Director General of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Krishna Acharya said, “The tiger population in Parsa Wildlife Reserve has significantly increased since the last census. This is fantastic news for tigers and it demonstrates that Nepal's dedicated conservation efforts are delivering clear results. Nepal has committed to doubling its tiger population by 2022 and encouraging results like these show that we are on track to achieve that.”

Today, just 3,900 wild tigers remain in all of Asia, largely due to poaching for the illegal wildlife trade, the statement added. “Nepal is estimated to support 163-235 tigers, according to a 2013 population survey. The 2016 survey confirms that Parsa specifically has seen around a 45 percent annual increase in its tiger population.”

Beacon of Hope

Panthera Senior Tiger Program Director John Goodrich stated, “The impressive rise in Parsa's tiger numbers has been fuelled by the natural movement of animals from neighboring Chitwan as conditions in Parsa have improved over the past three years. This is a testament to how law enforcement and strong government leadership can change the game for tigers. At a time when poachers are waging an all-out war against wildlife, Nepal serves as a beacon of hope for the tiger.”

ZSL's Conservation Programmes Director Jonathan Baillie said, “Success for tiger conservation requires viable habitats, stringent protection, effective monitoring and community engagement and when those conditions are in place, tiger numbers will flourish as Parsa has demonstrated very clearly. Nepal's exemplary track record in conserving its iconic wildlife makes it a conservation leader in the South Asian region.”

Nepal's tremendous commitment to increasing coordinated law enforcement activities, harsh prosecution for poachers, and wildlife monitoring sets the nation apart from many other tiger range states, ZSL and Panthera continued in their statement. “Hundreds of dedicated personnel from the Nepal Army and DNPWC jointly patrol Parsa Wildlife Reserve and other protected areas, preventing poaching of Nepal's iconic wildlife, from the tiger to the greater one-horned rhinoceros. Yet there is still much work to be done.”

Parsa's tiger rebound can also be attributed to the empowerment of the country's National Park and Wildlife Reserve Wardens, who maintain the authority to arrest, convict and sentence poachers. the two wildlife conservation organizations said. “This model is in stark contrast to many tiger range states where poachers often escape with little to no jail time or fines, even after sentencing.”

“The success of these stringent anti-poaching efforts is especially evident in neighboring Chitwan National Park. Acting as a source population for Parsa, tigers from Chitwan have moved into the adjoining landscape, accelerating population recovery, and ultimately creating a larger more viable population that extends across both protected areas.

“Since 2014, Panthera and ZSL have collaborated in Parsa Wildlife Reserve to monitor tigers and their prey using camera traps, and provide training for effective law enforcement and use of SMART, a computer-based platform that improves the effectiveness of wildlife patrols.

“Parsa is also a trial site for innovative conservation technologies, which have been effectively deployed to provide valuable information to park managers. This includes ZSL's seismic and magnetic sensors and Panthera's PoacherCam a remote camera that distinguishes people from wildlife and can transmit images to law enforcement, to stop poaching before it happens.

“ZSL in partnership with DNPWC has also recently equipped and supported the deployment of a state of the art Rapid Response Patrol team in Parsa, which further strengthens the capacity of the park management to prevent tiger poaching before it takes place.

“Over the next few years Panthera and ZSL plan to expand their efforts to support the Government of Nepal in its tiger conservation initiatives across three other protected areas that are home to tigers in the lowlands of Nepal.”

Learn more about Panthera's Tigers Forever Program

Learn more about ZSL's conservation efforts in Asia

This post was compiled from materials sent by Panthera and ZSL.

 
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CITES Conference Will Test Commitment of Governments to Save Tigers, EIA Says  

The 17th Conference of the Parties to CITES in Johannesburg at the end of September is the perfect opportunity for China, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to announce real action to end demand for tiger parts and products, Debbie Banks, leader of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) Tiger Campaign, said in a statement released in observance of Global Tiger Day (#TigerDay).

“Acting in unison in 2007, we had a major win for tigers when governments agreed that tiger ‘farming' should be stopped. But instead of complying with that decision, the governments of China, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam have allowed tiger farming and trade to spiral out of control,” Banks said. “How real is their commitment to save tigers?”

In readiness for the CITES conference, and in observance of Global Tiger Day today, July 29, EIE released the video embedded on this page.  “It is fantastic to see organisations from across the world unite in this call to action to end tiger farming,” Banks said of a joint statement signed by 45 non-governmental organizations to end commercial breeding of the world's largest cat.

Read the joint statement

 

 
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Kristin M. Swenson, Ph.D.: A Patriotic Act Of Faith For Environmental Protection And Climate Justice  
George Jones is still serving his country. Navy vet (Korea) and lifetime resident of Virginia, Mr. Jones bused to Richmond to take his message of American responsibility to the governor. That message: no new pipelines, no more fracking, enough already with our dependence on fossil fuels.

Read more: Environment, Faith, Green Faith, Terry McAuliffe, Dominion Virginia Power, Pipelines, Fracking, Climate Change, Sea Level Rise, Coal, Coal Ash, Religion, Religion and Environmentalism, Climate Justice, Fossil Fuels, Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, Religion News

 
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Milk IN the teapot: Innovation or abomination?  

The readers must decide

El Reg towers was plunged into internal strife today, with the production desk struggling to keep the news production line humming as senior editors were forced to launch an investigation into the question that has split the editorial team down the middle: is it acceptable to add the milk to the tea pot?…

 
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Her...  

sergioereira posted a photo:

Sérgio Ereira, 2016
Primrose Hill - London - UK.

 
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Love  

sergioereira posted a photo:

Sérgio Ereira, 2016
Primrose Hill - London - UK.

 
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Focus  

sergioereira posted a photo:

Sérgio Ereira, 2016
Primrose Hill - London - UK.

 
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Sunset in London  

sergioereira posted a photo:

Sérgio Ereira, 2016
Primrose Hill - London - UK.

 
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Day and night  

sergioereira posted a photo:

Sérgio Ereira, 2016
Primrose Hill - London - UK.

 
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mari-ann curtis posted a photo:

Jeanne, last summer. ♥

 
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mari-ann curtis posted a photo:

Jeanne, last summer. ♥

 
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mari-ann curtis posted a photo:

Jeanne, last summer. ♥

 
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mari-ann curtis posted a photo:

Jeanne, last summer. ♥

 
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mari-ann curtis posted a photo:

Jeanne, last summer. ♥

 
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mari-ann curtis posted a photo:

Jeanne, last summer. ♥

 
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Ferrari 458 Speciale - London, England  

irobbyv posted a photo:

Check out my Instagram: irv.photography

 
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Waterfall fresh by Oleh Slobodeniuk  

Waterfall fresh by Oleh Slobodeniuk

Video from Norway roadtrip my website instagram facebook

Oleh Slobodeniuk: Photos

 
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Despite Uber's Rise, New Study Says Drunk Driving Remains Steady  

Ride-hailing companies like Uber have claimed that they've helped discourage drunk driving. Does the claim stand up? David Kirk, co-author of a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology, tells NPR's Kelly McEvers he's not so sure.

 
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What To Do When Treatment Doesn't Work  
At the very dawn of modern medicine, 2500 years ago, Hippocrates made its most important and robust finding: 1/3 of patients get better without treatment; 1/3 don't get better even with treatment; and only 1/3 actually benefit from treatment.

The ratios do vary depending on the type of disease, it's severity and chronicity, and the power and specificity of the available treatments. Whenever a disease is chronic and/or severe, spontaneous recovery is less likely, treatment will more likely be needed, and full response to treatment is less likely. But on average, Hippocrates' "rule of thirds" stands up remarkably well to systematic study and has been medical lore for hundreds of generations of doctors.

One of my early papers (written more than 35 years ago and titled, "No Treatment As A Prescription of Choice") reflected Hippocrates' caution that mindlessly piling on treatments often benefits little and instead can add a substantial burden of side effects to the patient's already heavy burden of illness. 

Unfortunately, Hippocratic humility has increasingly been replaced by the hubris of modern medicine. Many clinicians hold the unconscious and unwarranted assumption that there is a cure for every illness and recklessly add on new treatments whenever previous ones have failed.
Careless polypharmacy prevails throughout medicine and is particularly prevalent and dangerous in the elderly. Doctors rarely follow the Hippocratic dictum to "First do no harm."

Peter Tyrer is the former editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry and a leader in the development of the UK's NICE psychiatric treatment guidelines. He will describe his effort to restore Hippocratic humility and common sense to psychiatric practice.

Professor Tyrer writes: "We are prone to trumpet our advances in medicine and slow to acknowledge where we have made little progress.

Treatment of mental illness started from an almost non-existent base 200 years ago and perhaps it is not surprising that we still have so much left to learn.

If we take the whole range of mental illness, from common disorders such as anxiety and depression, to severe disorders such as schizophrenia, and the hinterland of other conditions such as personality disorder and intellectual disability, then approximately 50% of all patients with mental illness either have no satisfactory treatments available or often fail to respond to existing ones that may help others.

What do we normally do about this in psychiatry?  We use terms like treatment-resistance and treatment-refractory, but this is merely an admission of our failure to have a solution.
The problem is that, in our therapeutically enthusiastic age, we do not admit failure as readily as we should. We persist in treatment, usually by giving whatever has failed previously in more dosage or by adding new treatments that have little chance of success, but a high risk of side effects.

The sad conclusion, still denied by some, is that in the most severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and the autistic group of disorders, we have made no real advances in treatment efficacy for 50 years.

What I call "nidotherapy" is a way of adapting optimally to this impasse. The term is derived from 'nidus' (the Latin name for nest). The idea is to undertake a  collaborative and systematic manipulation of the person's environment to make for a better fit to minimize the negative impact of untreatable mental illness on both the individual and others.

Patients with persistent mental illness take to this intervention well and usually love the idea. When asked if they would rather than have more treatment or change aspects of their physical, social and personal environment, they almost always embrace the latter option with enthusiasm. 
As therapists we often fail to realize how important the environment is in both maintaining and reinforcing mental illness. When it is altered in mutual collaboration with a therapist, there are often dramatic changes. General social functioning and mental symptoms often improve, and treatments  that never worked before now seem to provide benefit. Clinical trials have also shown nidotherapy to be remarkably cost-effective.

Many environmental changes can be effected at low cost and may replace much more costly health interventions. 

So how is this treatment given, and can it be mastered easily? In brief, it can, but some people are natural nidotherapists and others, no matter how much training they receive, are hopeless. There are four components - person understanding, environmental analysis, preparation of the nidopathway (the plan for environmental change), and, finally, the monitoring and adjustment phase.

The first is often the most difficult. One of the essentials of nidotherapy is genuine collaboration ending with a joint plan that is supported equally by therapist and patient. This cannot be done without a really good understanding of the patient and their problems, achieved by exploring how they arose, getting a feel of personality features, probing hidden corners of difficulty often unexpressed, and allowing a free and open discussion of hopes, aims and goals.

Environmental analysis takes over at this point, and looks at all the factors in the physical, social and personal that may be preventing life satisfaction, and the changes that might be possible to change these for the better.

Once this has been done, the planned program for environmental change (the nidopathway) is prepared with an appropriate timetable. This has to be both realistic and feasible. Often the nidotherapist is needed to be an advocate at this point. Many people with persistent mental illness are not very good at putting their points of view forward, and because they are faced with a wall of opposition from professionals, often retreat into passive discontent. But their views about environmental change may well be right, and if they are supported in nidotherapy by appropriate advocacy the opposition can be overcome.

The final phase involves review and monitoring of the pathway. Often adjustments need to be made to the original plan, and sometimes it may be changed radically, but always the changes need to be owned by the patient.

It will not escape the reader that this whole process can be carried out by people themselves or by their friends and relatives. Some input from health professionals is needed for guidance, but not too much except in those with more severe mental disorders. So the option of widespread adoption of this treatment is possible, and this could include whole populations.
If you wish to know more about this exciting treatment please look at the website www.nidotherapy.com.  There is now greater interest in this development, and it is being thought of in dementia, added to the management of personality disorder, and also in autism and intellectual difficulty. It may sound corny to say that it offers hope to so many who feel in despair, but it does."

Thanks, Peter. Hippocrates also said: "It is more important to know the patient who has the disease than the disease the patient has." True even more today than when first proclaimed 2500 years ago. Knowing the patient means also knowing how he interacts with his family and within his social context.

Sad to say, common sense is too often one of the first casualties of medical training. The focus on learning the details of complex technical interventions distracts from responding to the obvious, understanding the personal, and finding simple practical solutions.

A patient's psychiatric symptoms often provoke vicious cycles reverberating in his relations with others- social rejection and symptom exacerbation interacting and amplifying one another. We can't always effect significant reduction of the patient's symptoms- but we usually can, by altering the environment, substitute virtuous for vicious cycles. Relationships are often much more flexible and amenable to change than are people.

Thanks again, Peter, for reminding us that giving up on curing the illness doesn't mean giving up on helping the patient.

Allen Frances is a professor emeritus at Duke University and was the chairman of the DSM-IV task force.

-- 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 Time to Save Tigers Is Today  
The Bronx Zoo's Tiger Mountain exhibit is a family favorite, with kids and adults alike flocking to see the magnificent big cats. Two Malayan tiger cubs were recently born and our colleagues here at the Zoo are committed to ensuring their healthy growth, but far too many of their cousins in the wild struggle to survive. A mere 4,000 tigers prowl a range that has collapsed by more than 90 percent in the past two centuries. As few as 250 Malayan tigers persist in their forested habitat of Southeast Asia.


Malayan tiger cub at the Bronx Zoo's Tiger Mountain. Photo: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS.


International Tiger Day provides an opportunity to draw attention to the endangered status of the world's largest cat and ensure that these incredible animals do not disappear. When the conservation community initiated this commemorative day in 2010, it hoped to cast a light on a species moving toward extinction at a frightening pace. A focus on protecting and expanding tiger populations has helped tigers to make modest gains but much more work needs to be done.

The biggest threat tigers face remains the oldest: people. Tigers are endangered by loss of habitat stemming from human expansion, the hunting of their prey species, and from poaching for pelts and body parts believed by some to have medicinal properties despite the lack of any scientific evidence. Every single organ of a tiger is being sold on the black market today, often at sky-high prices. Tiger skins are sold most often as a décor item to display wealth.

Climate change has also become a threat to tigers, with rising sea levels completely wiping out coastal forests in parts of Bangladesh. With the loss of habitat and prey, there are growing attacks on domestic livestock. All too frequently, such attacks are met with retaliatory tiger killings.

While humans carry much blame for the decline of tigers, it is not too late for us to play a larger role in bringing the species back from the brink.


WildSeve, a new mobile technology initiative developed with the help of WCS to address human-wildlife conflicts, has been implemented in 284 villages in India. Photo: Krithi Karanth/WCS.


Recently the WCS India program helped to launch a toll free service for local farmers to call to report an attack on livestock. Within minutes responders arrive to take down details of the incident and file for compensation for their losses. In just one year, the program has helped file claims in 148 cases of livestock predation by big cats and wild dogs.
.
Today, WCS invests in tiger research and conservation, conducting 75 percent of peer-reviewed published tiger research and managing conservation sites in 8 of the 11 remaining tiger range countries in Asia. To complement this on-the-ground work, we need to mobilize the public to ensure that U.S. conservation policy and funding can best protect these majestic cats.

First, Congress must direct ample funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Biodiversity program, the Global Environment Facility, and the combatting wildlife trafficking directive funded through the US State Department and USAID. All of those agencies support many conservation projects that benefit tigers and their habitat while reducing poaching.

The Multinational Species Conservation Funds Reauthorization Act of 2015 includes the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994, which supports on-the-ground tiger research and conservation. Congress should also pass the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act, which will strengthen U.S. laws to target wildlife traffickers and help wildlife rangers who protect tigers.


Two Amur (Siberian) tigers at the Bronx Zoo's Tiger Mountain. Roughly 450 Amur tigers survive in the wild today in the Russian Far East and Northeast China. Photo: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS.


Finally, Congress should reauthorize the Save Vanishing Species stamp, also known as the Tiger Stamp. Proceeds from the sale of this postage stamp go directly to conserve tigers and other endangered species through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These are easy but important steps that Congress could take that would have immediate impacts on tiger conservation efforts.

On International Tiger Day, let us refocus our attention and energy towards protecting this amazing species. While zoos play an important role educating millions of people about these majestic animals, in the end all of us need to get involved to make sure they do not disappear forever in the wild. Take today to remind your senators and representatives that the world cares for tigers, and that it is our duty to protect them. Today is the day to ensure tigers can thrive in the wild for generations to come.


Follow John Calvelli on Twitter at: @JohnCalvelli.

-- 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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A strange extinct animal made this giant stone corkscrew  
The bizarre fossil was discovered in Nebraska in the late 19th Century, and it would help reveal a lost chapter in evolutionary history.  
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New fossil evidence supports theory that first mass extinction engineered by early animals  
Newly discovered fossil evidence from Namibia strengthens the proposition that the world's first mass extinction was caused by 'ecosystem engineers' -- newly evolved biological organisms that altered the environment so radically it drove older species to extinction.  
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43 Years of Baking Pies  

Bessie White and her sister, Velma, founded the farmers' market in Cortez, Colorado, almost half a century ago. In this charming short documentary from the world-traveling web series The Perennial Plate, White shares her story—and also how to make delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie. “I helped all three of my grandkids go to college with this famers' market,” she says. “I didn't set out to be any different than anybody else.”

To learn more about this series, visit its Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages.

 
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Cognitive ability varies, but prejudice is universal  
A new study shows both high and low cognitive ability have distinct prejudices against particular groups.  
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The Fracking Industry Spends Big in Colorado  
Ever wonder what it's like to be a pawn in the oil and gas industry's political ambitions? This pencil, hired by oil and gas front group Protect Colorado, summed it up:

"It feels like shit to fucking wear this thing, but it's 25 bucks an hour."



 

And there are a lot of people taking the oil and gas industry's money in Colorado these days.

Anadarko Petroleum and a group of fracking companies, most from outside Colorado, have pumped well over $75 million into PR firms and front groups in the state since 2014. These millions are primarily aimed at preventing Coloradans from voting for two ballot measures that would regulate the oil and gas industry. $75 million is a serious amount of money, even in a state that, according the Brennan Center, has one of the highest levels of secret political spending in the nation.

The largest single recipient of the fracking industry's war chest is a PR firm called Pac/West Communications. Pac/West, known for creating independent sounding groups on behalf of large corporate clients, netted nearly $30 million from oil and gas companies in 2014 alone. In return for the fracking cash, Pac/West built perhaps the best funded and most formidable political advocacy operations in any state.

Strategy of Fracking Industry Revealed

Mark Truax, a vice president of Pac/West Communications, revealed the depth and breadth of the oil and gas industry's political strategy in a transcript released by Greenpeace and printed in full by the Boulder Weekly.

Mr. Truax's presentation outlines a sophisticated plan to counter the popular cry for fracking regulations with a gusher of oil cash.

Here are some of the strategies Mark Truax outlines:

• 
  
• 
  

  Take over city councils

  
  
• 
  

"We then also elected a pro city council, a pro-energy city council 7-6 on the conservative count, my count is like 9-4 in our favor for Denver City Council. To try and push something through there, which the opposition was trying to do, is now very difficult."

• 
  
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  Spend tens of millions of dollars to gather information on Colorado voters so it can manipulate election outcomes and keep setback and community rights initiatives off the ballot

  
  
• 
  

"We have scored 3.9 million Colorado voters in our databases, on their opinion of fracking. Everything we do then gets fed back in to this database. So that we can use it at a later time. We've knocked on 1.7 million doors, we've done 9 statewide surveys, we have done extensive phone research, and mail research, all of that information if I ever have contact it's fed back in to that file."

• 
  
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  The transcript, which can be found in full here, also details Pac/West's plans to change the constitution so citizens will no longer be able to put forward ballot measures in the future.

  
  
• 
  

To accomplish these political goals, Pac/West Communications, with funding from Anadarko Petroleum, created two tax exempt "charitable" groups, Protect Colorado and Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED).

It was Protect Colorado that hired the pencil. As the following video shows, these industry front groups are focused on scare tactics and spreading misinformation about fracking regulations, not "education," as front group spokesperson Karen Crummy often claims.



On July 28, the Denver Business Post reported that Protect Colorado has a budget of $25 million for its 2016 effort.

Industry Funded Harassment

The oil and gas strategy to control the ballot process in Colorado does not stop with the plan Truax outlined in his 2015 talk.

In recent weeks, Coloradans have experienced an truly unprecedented attempt to stop a ballot measure from coming to a vote at all. Unlike normal ballot campaigns, where voters must decide whether to support or oppose a measure on election day, in Colorado the fracking industry is trying to strip voters of the right to decide altogether. The effort is called "decline to sign," and the aim is to prevent regulations from appearing on the ballot, by preventing organizers from gathering enough preliminary signatures.

The effort includes more than just TV ads and pencils trying to scare people about regulations. The oil and gas industry has also unleashed an army of paid harassers, who have targeted volunteers trying to gather signatures for the ballot. As one signature gatherer describes, men surrounded an elderly signature gatherer and scared off people trying to sign their name.

The fight over fracking ballot measures in Colorado illustrates the lengths that corporations are willing to go to control politics. Will the fracking industry buy its preferred regulatory environment in Colorado? Will Coloradans be stripped of their right to vote on these ballot measures? While signatures for the ballot measure are due August 8, the questions about the role of fracking money in Colorado are likely to linger.

-- 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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Photos of the Week: 7/23-7/29 (35 photos)  

Sledding in Saudi Arabia, hyperrealist sculptures in Spain, a 12-meter-tall puppet in England, the Democratic National Convention, snowfall in South Africa, Pope Francis visits Auschwitz, Pokemon Go in Syria, and much more.

 
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libellule by Marta Bevacqua  

libellule by Marta Bevacqua

"Libellule" : photo based on my short film. Check it out on my (super new) Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/martabevacqua/libellule or on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MartaBevacquaPhotography/

Marta Bevacqua: Photos

 
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Sunset at World's End  

Sarah A Stewart posted a photo:

Watching the sun set over the World's End Estate, with the Battersea Bridge and Lots Road Power Station nearby.

 
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Albert Bridge at the Blue Hour  

Sarah A Stewart posted a photo:

Interesting light on Albert Bridge as the sun sets.

 
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Growing Green Must Go Green  
As the legalization of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes becomes more widespread, the budding industry has come under closer scrutiny. One of the more serious concerns to be raised is the possible environmental damage that could be caused by a mass increase in Cannabis production.

Marijuana cultivation has a host of environmental concerns such as land coverage, water consumption, power usage, as well as pesticides and fertilizer run-off. Escaped, "wild" Cannabisis not often considered as a potential problem since it is not exactly an invasive species, but it can compete with other plants and disrupt local ecosystems. These situations are quite serious in California, where important watersheds have been threatened by unsanctioned marijuana growing operations.

Resource consumption is by far the greatest environmental risk associated with large scale marijuana cultivation. In many areas where it is grown, Cannabis consumes far more water thanthe native vegetation. Indoor operations require enough light intensity to mimic the sun, which requires a large amount of electrical power, often resulting in additional environmental pollution.High intensity discharge (HID) light bulbs traditionally used for indoor growing also contain significant amounts of highly toxic mercury. If Cannabis production is to truly become a sustainable industry, strategies will need to be developed to at least make it eco-tolerable, if not eco-friendly.

Government officials and academic researchers alike have been examining the issue in hope of mitigating any environmental damage caused by the impending growth of the Cannabis industry. There appears to be a consensus that regulations will be a key part of the solution. An April 2016 review in the academic journal Environmental Research Letters concludes with the demand that marijuana agriculture be held to standards on par with those governing conventional cultivation activities. This sentiment is echoed from the field of law as well; a piece from the Arizona Law Review states that consistent policy enforcement is necessary to mitigate the environmental impact, as well as help set quality standards. Now they need to decide upon the best rules to enforce.

Environmentally friendly growers have been consistently testing and adopting measures to address energy consumption and similar issues for decades. One of the more successful changes has been in the adoption of LED grow lights for indoor cultivation. According to ledgrowlights.com, the technology used in high-quality LED grow lights has advanced to the point that they can actually grow plants as well or better than traditional HID bulbs (HPS, MH, CMH/LEC, etc.) at a fraction of the energy cost, and will last for considerably longer, without anyof the toxic mercury. Water consumption can ironically be reduced with a fine-tuned hydroponic setup, though there is obviously still a lot of water involved. Another approach to decreasing consumption rates is to more closely monitor usage levels so that waste can be minimized.

It remains to be seen if current environmentally-friendly strategies for reducing consumption will be effective when scaled to larger operations, and more research will certainly be needed to findsolutions for the exponential increase of marijuana production that will likely result from ongoing legalization efforts. Cannabis is primed to become a key crop in international markets, but there is little hope of it proving to be sustainable without significant adoption of eco-friendly cultivation methods.

-- 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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Florida investigation links four recent Zika cases to local mosquito-borne virus transmission  
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been informed by the State of Florida that Zika virus infections in four people were likely caused by bites of local Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The cases are likely the first known occurrence of local mosquito-borne Zika virus transmission in the continental United States. CDC is closely coordinating with Florida officials who are leading the ongoing investigations, and at the state's request, sent a CDC medical epidemiologist to provide additional assistance.  
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Judy Frankel: SMART ALEC Founder Refuses to Cease and Desist  
Matthew Charles Cardinale, activist, law student, and affordable housing advocate, refused to respond to ALEC's demand to cease using the name "SMART ...

Read more: SMART ALEC, Alec, Matthew Cardinale, Atlanta, New Orleans, Affordable Housing, Affordable Housing Impact Statements, American Legislative Exchange Council, Politicians, Represent.US, American-Anti-Corruption-Act, Portland, Community-Rights-Campaign, Community Rights, Paul Cienfuegos, Democracy Unlimited, Coos County, Right to Sustainable Energy Future, State Innovation Exchange, Smart-Aleck, Los Angeles, Albany, Pittsburgh, Climate Change, Climate Destabilization, Global Warming, Citizen Rights, State Policy, Policy, Environmental Policy, Environmental Rights, Environment, Environmental Justice, Aaca, Ahis, Politics News

 
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A Corpse Flower Blooms in the Bronx  
For the first time since 1939, the New York Botanical Garden has coaxed a corpse flower to open its massive bloom and flood the greenhouse with the stench of sewers and rotting meat.

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com  
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r0B0t: Exoskeleton 'Onesie' Gives Babies With Cerebral Palsy A Better Start In Life  

Babies who are at risk of developing cerebral palsy could be helped by a robotic “onesie”, designed by a team at the University of Oklahoma, US.

The motorised exoskeleton, which is attached to the baby via a harness and skateboard-type-crawler, helps young children develop motor and cognitive skills and promotes early movement.

With power steering, the Self-Initiated Prone Progression Crawler (SIPPC) device gives babies a push towards early walking and crawling on the level of their peers.

Not only that, but it allows doctors to monitor the child's movement and brain activity on a 3D scanner.

SEE ALSO

Adorable Moment Six-Year-Old Keeps Pace With Friend Who Has Cerebral Palsy So He's Not Last On Sports Day

Boy With Cerebral Palsy Disappointed David Cameron Didn't Personally Receive NHS Treatment Funding Plea

Toddler Dedicated To Guiding His Twin Sister With Cerebral Palsy Through Childhood

Cerebral palsy affects movement and muscle coordination and is diagnosed in every two children in 1000 born in the UK, according to Cerebral Palsy UK.

Therapy to reverse the effects of the disease must start as early as possible, but most children are not diagnosed until they are at least one-year-old. 

Trials are currently ongoing with 56 infants in America, and the scientists admit there is much more to be done before it is more widely available to patients. 

The new technology is enabling detection in babies as young as two months old, giving them the best start in life.

 
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r0B0t: 'Mr. Robot' review: A nice game of chess - The Workprint  

The Workprint

'Mr. Robot' review: A nice game of chess The Workprint This prompts Elliot to confess that he lost his job because he destroyed a bunch of secure servers in his company's server room — he just doesn't remember doing it…something about anger toward the people who couldn't go on their expensive vacations ... Mr. Robot: season 2 episode 4 review eps2.2_init1.asecThe Nerd Recites Mr. Robot: Init1 ReviewDen of Geek! Dreaming of a (Slightly) Darker Future on Mr. RobotFilm School Rejects (blog) Hidden Remote -whoismrrobot.com all 105 news articles »

 
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Fire Of London  

NoVice87 posted a photo:

The sun lighting up the clouds behind Canary Wharf from the Greenwich Peninsula.

 
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The Purple Tower  

Justin S Reid posted a photo:

A really nice day in London at the end; the purple of the Tower is the cherry on top! BEST in BLACK My Instagram profile for street, phonephotography My website giuseppetorre.co.uk via 500px ift.tt/1K6AkKa

 
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CF002198 by Michael Salisbury  

CF002198 by Michael Salisbury

Michael Salisbury: Photos

 
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Don't play by the book.... play by your heart!  

marco18678 posted a photo:

#urbex

For more info and stories behind my pictures follow me on facebook .... www.facebook.com/mbontenbal

 
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Photos of the Day: July 29, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
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Exoskeleton 'Onesie' Gives Babies With Cerebral Palsy A Better Start In Life  

Babies who are at risk of developing cerebral palsy could be helped by a robotic “onesie”, designed by a team at the University of Oklahoma, US.

The motorised exoskeleton, which is attached to the baby via a harness and skateboard-type-crawler, helps young children develop motor and cognitive skills and promotes early movement.

With power steering, the Self-Initiated Prone Progression Crawler (SIPPC) device gives babies a push towards early walking and crawling on the level of their peers.

Not only that, but it allows doctors to monitor the child's movement and brain activity on a 3D scanner.

SEE ALSO

Adorable Moment Six-Year-Old Keeps Pace With Friend Who Has Cerebral Palsy So He's Not Last On Sports Day

Boy With Cerebral Palsy Disappointed David Cameron Didn't Personally Receive NHS Treatment Funding Plea

Toddler Dedicated To Guiding His Twin Sister With Cerebral Palsy Through Childhood

Cerebral palsy affects movement and muscle coordination and is diagnosed in every two children in 1000 born in the UK, according to Cerebral Palsy UK.

Therapy to reverse the effects of the disease must start as early as possible, but most children are not diagnosed until they are at least one-year-old. 

Trials are currently ongoing with 56 infants in America, and the scientists admit there is much more to be done before it is more widely available to patients. 

The new technology is enabling detection in babies as young as two months old, giving them the best start in life.

 
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ALEC in Indianapolis: ExxonMobil and the #WebOfDenial  
This month, nineteen United States Senators called attention to the Web of Denial, a network of front groups that oppose any productive action to combat climate change. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) led the charge, building upon his weekly "Time To Wake Up" speech series on global warming, flagging the front groups that peddle climate doubt for their clients in the oil, gas and coal industries.

One of the top groups obstructing any form of progress is the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. ALEC convened its annual meeting in Indianapolis this week, where it hooks state politicians up with lobbyists from Koch Industries (and its many nonprofit tentacles), Peabody Energy, tobacco companies, pharmaceutical companies and other industries looking to put pro-business policies  in the hands of state politicians.

Conference Cash from ExxonMobil and the #WebOfDenial

The Center for Media and Democracy revealed that ExxonMobil is a top sponsor of the conference. Several front groups in the Web of Denial have joined ExxonMobil in sponsoring ALEC's 2016 annual meeting:

"Chair's Level" Sponsors:

The State Policy Network (SPN)

Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF)

"Director's Level" sponsors:

Americans for Prosperity (AFP)

Exhibitors:

The Charles Koch Institute

The Heritage Foundation

The Heartland Institute

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University (GMU)




All of these groups are members of the State Policy Network, the coordinating body for "Stink Tanks" that exist in all 50 states, largely following the strategies of national affiliates like the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity.

Each of the SPN groups present at ALEC's meeting this week have received support from the industrial billionaire Charles Koch, and his brother David Koch, who together own and run Koch Industries. Nonprofit foundations controlled by the Kochs have distributed $23,445,693 to ALEC and the six other groups listed above, from 1997-2014, according to IRS 990 data compiled by Greenpeace USA. Koch Industries lobbyist Mike Morgan is on ALEC's corporate board of directors. Koch Industries has given over $14 million to politicians, PACs and initiatives at the state level over the last 21 years, according disclosures compiled by FollowTheMoney.org.

Believe it or not, $23.4 million in traceable Koch money is chump change compared to grants from the double-headed "Dark Money ATM," DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. Since 2002, the DonorsTrust franchise dispersed $77,361,091 in anonymous funds to ALEC, AFP, Heritage, Heartland, Mercatus, SPN and TPPF. The Koch family is among the donors known to anonymize millions of dollars through DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund.

ExxonMobil gave these same seven organizations a total $3,696,700 since 1998. ExxonMobil lobbyist Cynthia Bergman White is on ALEC's corporate board of directors, as were other Exxon executives before her. Exxon has poured $71.6 million into state-level candidates and ballot initiatives over the last 27 years.

Peabody Energy's recent bankruptcy filings list several of these groups on the company's payroll: ALEC, AFP Oklahoma, SPN and TPPF. Peabody lobbyist Michael Blank is on ALEC's corporate board, as were other Peabody executives before him. Peabody pushed $1.1 million into state-level elections in the last 19 years, before it went bankrupt.

And finally, another front group with Peabody roots is among ALEC's 2016 annual meeting sponsors: the Energy Policy Network, formed by the late Kelly Mader. Mr. Mader was a lobbyist for Peabody Energy, and he served on ALEC's corporate board of directors for many years. Peabody continued to give money to Mr. Mader after he left the company. It is unclear if those funds were for the Energy Policy Network, and what will become of it after Mr. Mader's unexpected passing.

#ExxonKnew the Science on Climate Change. Then it Lied. Then ALEC Helped.

Exxon is being investigated by several state attorneys general for covering up its own internal research on climate change, and then financing groups to run public relation campaigns aimed at discrediting such science. By hiding their own accurate assessment of the science and instead promoting doubt, these state AGs are asking if Exxon has committed fraud against its shareholders, the U.S. government, and the public.


ALEC politicians are treated to industry-sponsored education seminars (ALEC charges extra for that), and closed-door policy meetings, where ALEC's model bills are discussed and finalized. Legislators have received their climate science "education" at ALEC meetings, not by climate scientists, but by front groups in the coal- and oil-funded Web of Denial.

The other primary service ALEC provides to sponsors is getting model bills into the hands of willing legislators.

Aliya Haq at the Natural Resources Defense Council has observed ALEC politicians following Peabody's lead in attacking a wide variety regulations designed to limit pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Citizens of Kansas, Ohio, and North Carolina watched as ALEC politicians lined up behind Koch Industries' attacks on state laws boosting clean energy development.

And numerous states were duped by ALEC legislators helping ExxonMobil hide the chemicals used in fracking from the public (which ALEC spun as a "disclosure" bill). Not at the table to discuss these cut-and-paste state policies: the American voter.

As I've pointed out to various lobbyists attending ALEC's meeting, even if a citizen finds out about ALEC, it doesn't mean they can afford ALEC's registration fees, travel expenses, and time off of work to attend. Easy for a paid lobbyists to say, when it's their job to attend such conferences.

@AndrewNehring a common delusion: lobbyist at @ALEC_States forgets that most people don't have 6-7 figure income. #alecexposed #alecindy

-- Connor Gibson (@ClimateConnor) July 27, 2016

Having activism reframed as lobbying (by lobbyists) is one form of pushback groups like Greenpeace USA are accustomed to. Another is attempts to re-define the First Amendment, something that every American holds dear as a fundamental right.



Just as the tobacco industry did during its last stand against prosecutors in the 1990s, Exxon and its many #WebOfDenial mouthpieces have asserted this is a violation of their first amendment rights, even though fraud isn't protected by the first amendment. Many of these people and groups were actually involved in defending the tobacco industry, before climate science denial became the latest trend in corporate deceit.

Yesterday, ALEC hosted a discussion on this revisionist approach to the First Amendment. The conversation appears to be intended to coordinate defensive strategies for companies like Exxon--subject to government investigations--and groups like ALEC--which has been the subject of repeated complaints to the IRS over improper use of its nonprofit tax-exempt status.

And yesterday's lunch, sponsored by Americans For Prosperity, featured Texas Gov Greg Abbott, who attended remotely via video. Governor Abbott, who himself sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency many times as Texas' former Attorney General, is part of a coalition of states working with fossil fuel companies--and their front groups like ALEC and AFP--to oppose the EPA's new regulations on climate pollution.



Crossposted from Greenpeace USA.

-- 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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Animal 'roles' could provide key to accurate forest restoration findings, says new study  
Replanting cleared forests can recover animal communities and important ecological processes relatively quickly, says a new study. But, warn the research team, the traditional way of evaluating such restoration projects, which includes the numbers of species and individuals in a habitat, is insufficient and may need to change.  
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AmirsCamera posted a photo:

London. June 2016.

Instagram: @amirscamera

 
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Today we're thrilled to do our first post from our Neighborhood...  

Today we're thrilled to do our first post from our Neighborhood Portrait series with DNAinfo Chicago! This Overview shows Maggie Daley Park in Chicago, Illinois, USA. To read the full story, click here:

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160728/downtown/check-out-maggie-daley-park-from-space?utm_source=DO&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=portrait

The park's Buckingham Fountain stands out in this Overview with its ornate design and serve as a gathering point for thousands of visitors at the Lollapalooza festival this weekend. We're excited to launch this series with DNAinfo, bringing together a collection of images celebrating the uniqueness and beauty of neighborhoods in New York and Chicago.

41°52′57″N 87°37′08″W

Source imagery: DigitalGlobe

 
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Platform No. 7-6 by Anuchit Sundarakiti  

Platform No. 7-6 by Anuchit Sundarakiti

Bangkok Railway Station stories 2016

Anuchit Sundarakiti: Photos

 
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004A0217.jpg by jingyou guo  

004A0217.jpg by jingyou guo

jingyou guo: Photos

 
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DEGR1834-2.jpg by Stefano Montigiani  

DEGR1834-2.jpg by Stefano Montigiani

Stefano Montigiani: Photos

 
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Ladybug by Luca Moriconi  

Ladybug by Luca Moriconi

Luca Moriconi: Photos

 
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International Tiger Day: 45 NGOs Call for End to Tiger Farming, Trade  
 
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International Tiger Day: Cause for Celebration or Alarm?  

By Gabriel Fava, Born Free Foundation

 
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AbstractRadio session - july 2016  

Tons of tremendous toe-tappers here, from smooth vocals to big summer tunes, including Liem's great reworking of a Sydney Youngblood classic, F. Rizardo's re-jig of Joyce Sims, DJ Dan and Purple Disco's cracking contributions, and then there's the filthy bass running through The Swiss' disco-drenched Elouisa…

Enjoy, and as ever, thanks for listening.

The Abrad team.

[any feedback, much appreciated]

select mixes by genre:

House

Deep

Funky

Tracklist

Start	Artist	Track Title	Label
000:00	jean claude gavri	nightfly	ebo
005:10	kaiserdisco	que ritmo	stylerockets
009:59	james winter	deeper love	city soul
014:06	winnie deep	new day	afrikamotion
018:27	life less ordinary	new day	club sweat
025:06	disclosure	holding on	caracal
029:32	todd terry	leaving me again	phoenix
033:45	alfred azzetto	funkasso	minimarket
037:02	djoon experience	baptise me	djoon
044:22	teddy douglas	check it out	nervous
047:51	liem	if only I could	white
053:21	the swiss	elouisa	kitsune
058:16	purple disco	love	defected
061:47	vhyce	hard to find	no brainer
067:46	dj dan	I got a man	instereo
071:09	noisy bears	u got my love	abcdeep
074:48	franky rizardo	come into my life	simma black
078:24	mr moon	freaky	mr moon
081:49	knee deep	all about love	kneedeep
090:38	siege	yeah	brobot
095:45	gabriel and castellon	harlem	inhouse
099:08	kenny summit	like a moth to the flame	guesthouse
103:27	sugarstarr	hey sunshine	enormous
109:00	claptone	ghost	exploited
114:21	damian lazarus	vermillion reprise	crosstown rebels

-- Total running time 119.54 --

 
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Emirates A380 Evening Departure.  

spencer.wilmot posted a photo:

Sunset over 27R.

 
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Red Burning Portal by Gunnar Heilmann  

Red Burning Portal by Gunnar Heilmann

I was with some friends in Belgrade .. on the way we found this Red Burning Portal in the mist of the Kosmaj Mountains .... its actually a monument to the partisan division from WWII see more of it on www.facebook.com/GunnarsPhotos http://www.gunnarheilmann.com/home/lightpainting/lightpainting/

Gunnar Heilmann: Photos

 
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Ferris wheel by Руслан Акаев  

Ferris wheel by Руслан Акаев

Руслан Акаев: Photos

 
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Peru's New President Gets Wealth of Environmental Tools  
This story has been adapted from Ecosystem Marketplace
By Kelli Barrett

When Peru's new president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, took office yesterday, he inherited a powerful set of tools that outgoing President Ollanta Humala approved for funneling money into conservation and sustainable agriculture. Nearly all were approved in the last two weeks of the month.

First, the Ministry of Environment released formal regulations for the country's groundbreaking Mecanismos de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos (MRSEs), or "Mechanisms of Compensation for Ecosystem Services" law, which legislators approved in 2014. The law created a legal framework for conservation activities that harness public and private capital, and the new regulations offer clear guidance on how to implement them. In a related move, the government approved its National Forestry and Climate Change Strategy and issued guidance on biodiversity offsets, primarily for Andean ecosystems.

More on the Forest Trends Blog

Ecosystem Marketplace publisher Forest Trends has been participating in the development of Peru's green infrastructure through a number of programs, including the Peru Ecosystem Services Project Incubator, a collaboration of Forest Trends with regional NGOs and the Peruvian Ministry of Environment. For an insider perspective on the new developments, check out the latest entry in the Forest Trends Blog.

The Ecosystem Services Regime

This new regulation highlights that Peru has been working on this issue of recognizing ecosystems services as an important tool for environmental management, social inclusion and wealth distribution, Gabriel Quijandria, Peru's Deputy Minister of Strategic Development of Natural Resources said in a statement.

The National Congress passed its MRSE law in 2014 after six years of negotiation. Essentially, the law provides the regulatory certainty MRSE project developers need to operate and create more projects, according to an earlier Ecosystem Marketplace article. According to Peru's Environment Ministry, environmental services under the MRSE umbrella include water regulation, biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, pollination and recreation among others.

The city of Lima made headlines last year when it began tapping its water fees to fund projects like the restoration of ancient, pre-Incan water management systems high in the Andes - a very visible manifestation of a nation-wide move to develop "green" (as opposed to gray) infrastructure that can better withstand the realities of climate change.

The True Value of an Ecosystem Services Law

Gena Gammie, Associate Director of the Forest Trends' Water Initiative, points out that Peru, like many Latin American countries, follows civil law, which requires more prescriptive statutes and ordinances than does the common law practiced in the United States, especially when it comes to the use of public funds.

If the terms of the projects aren't specifically allowed and promoted by the law, government officials run the risk of consequences for misuse of public funds, Gammie explains. The MRSE law and the new regulations eliminate many grey areas, creating more clarity for financial flows.

Connecting Conservation and Forests

Carbon sequestration is a common link between the MRSE regulation and the National Forestry and Climate Change Strategy. The MRSE law and regulation provide guidance and the overall structure regarding Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) projects. Meanwhile, the National Forestry and Climate Change Strategy functions as Peru's national REDD strategy. The two share a REDD component and influence one another, Gammie explains.

According to the Forest Trends blog post that summarizes the recent policymaking, the National Forestry and Climate Change Strategy represents an inclusive approach to land-use that brings together national and regional governments, indigenous groups and civil society to identify the major drivers of deforestation and then offer solutions.

Gustavo Suarez de Freitas, the Head of Peru's National Forest Conservation Program, agrees that this strategy can have a significant impact on curbing forest loss. He highlights the "production-protection" part, which aims to increase productivity on the landscape while maintaining and recognizing the benefits of conserved forests. "I am convinced that the production-protection will make the difference, and that with this as our foundation we will be able to begin to reverse deforestation in Peru," Suarez de Freitas told Forest Trends.

A Budding Biodiversity Offset Program

The newly released biodiversity offset guidance is separate from the MRSE regulation, though its impact will likely be large. Its focus is on protecting the biodiversity of Andean ecosystems where the biggest development projects are required to compensate for their adverse impacts on biodiversity, while offsetting remains voluntary for medium and small size development activities.

Protecting biodiversity in Peru is critical as the nation is one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth. And much of that is rare, endangered or both. Peru's Manu National Park is considered to be the richest biodiversity hotspot in the world.

However, as all of these policy announcements appear to have come in the nick of time, before a potential political wind-shift, Gammie says it will be interesting to see how the incoming government will move forward with them.

"Will the new administration implement these policies and continue to strengthen capacity around them or will they just let these go," she asks.

Be sure to follow us on the Bionic Planet podcast, which is available on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, and wherever you access your podcasts.

Kelli Barrett is a freelance writer and Editorial Assistant at Ecosystem Marketplace. She can be reached at kbarrett@ecosystemmarketplace.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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Islamic State's Child Soldiers: First Come the Sweets, Then the Beheadings  
The Islamic State is holding thousands of young boys captive in Syria and Iraq, where it is teaching them the Koran and how to become deadly child soldiers. By Katrin Kuntz  
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SPIEGEL Interview with Mathematician Ken Ono: 'You Will Never Succeed'  
Ken Ono is an award-winning mathematician who specializes in number theory. As a kid, his parents pushed him hard to be the best, and it almost drove him to ruin. He talked to SPIEGEL about young prodigies, suicide in Japanese culture and divine afflatus.  
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Chiswick sunset  

Edward Swift posted a photo:

The sun sets in Chiswick, London, United Kingdom

 
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As Clouds Head for the Poles, Time to Prepare for Food and Water Shocks  
Co-authored with Betsy Otto and Richard Waite

A changing climate means less rain and lower water supplies in regions where many people live and much of the planet's food is produced: the mid-latitudes of the Northern and Southern hemispheres, including the U.S. Southwest, southern Europe and parts of the Middle East, southern Africa, Australia and Chile. As WRI-Aqueduct's future scenarios for water supply show, diminished water supplies will be apparent in these areas by 2020 -- less than four years away -- and are expected to grow worse by 2030 and 2040.



Now a new study in the journal Nature provides some of the first evidence that this widely-predicted phenomenon -- the movement of clouds and rainfall from the mid-latitudes towards the North and South poles -- is already taking place. Just like the retreat of glaciers and polar sea ice, now clouds and rain are retreating poleward.

This will have huge implications for agricultural production, industrial and energy output, and municipal water provisioning. Many irrigated agricultural areas are already facing water stress. The climate-driven shift of clouds and rain -- known as Hadley Cell expansion -- will put those areas under even greater stress in the future. Rain-fed agriculture, which many poor people depend upon, will also suffer as a result of reduced rainfall in the mid-latitude regions.



A recent WRI study finds that sub-Saharan Africa will need to more than triple crop production by 2050 in order to feed its growing population. This hard-to-reach target will become more difficult in places like southern Africa and the western Sahel, where water supply is projected to fall.

In addition to worsening water stress and undermining food security, decreasing water supply in the world's mid-latitudes may also help destabilize nations in these regions, adding to pre-existing political tensions, and helping contribute to armed conflict and migration, as we have seen in places like Syria.

What can we do now to prepare for these future climate change threats? First, we need to better understand the nexus of water risk and food security. WRI-Aqueduct, with support from Danida (the Danish development aid agency) and the Skoll Global Threats Fund, is developing an online tool that will help policymakers identify global water risk and food security hot spots. The risks are not always obvious. A country can be relatively water-secure within its own borders, but still be highly dependent on food imports, some of which come from countries whose agricultural production systems face very high levels of water risk. In poor countries, price spikes can put food out of the reach of many citizens. The new WRI Aqueduct tool aims to shed light on these types of threats.

Vulnerable countries also need to take steps now to make their food production systems more productive and resilient in the face of climate change. By improving land and water management practices, for example, farmers in Africa have been able to restore soil fertility, capture rainfall before it runs off farm fields, and sustainably increase yields on their farms. A recent WRI study estimates that improving land and water management on just 25 percent of sub-Saharan Africa's 300 million hectares (more than 740 million acres) of prime cropland would result in an additional 22 million tons of food.

Tools and mechanisms can help vulnerable countries cope with drought and famine. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), for example, is a leading provider of early warning and analysis on food insecurity. Also important are insurance and subsidy systems that can help support farmers when crops fail.

The shifting of cloud and rainfall patterns around the globe are just one more visible sign of the effects of climate change. What we need to begin doing in response is to anticipate the location and magnitude of these effects, and build resilience into the lives and livelihoods of those who will be most vulnerable.

-- 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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Ocean-cleaning sea bins will gobble up plastic waste to recycle  
Bins designed to suck up debris floating on the sea are in the final stages of testing, shame they won't make it to Rio in time to clean up dirty waters at the Olympics  
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Why Hinkley Point is a nuclear folly of Titanic proportions  
The French firm EDF has approved plans for a massive nuclear reactor in the UK, but the UK government is hesitating. Let's hope it scuppers the project, says Michael Le Page  
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Electric Brain Stimulation During Sleep Could Actually Improve Your Memory  

Sleep is crucial for helping your brain to catalogue what you've learned that day. But for millions of people with neurological disorders, the processes required to consolidate information simply don't work properly.

Now, scientists have discovered an unusual method that could help improve the memories of people with conditions such as autism, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina used weak electric currents to target a specific area in the brains of sleeping volunteers. The non-invasive method strengthened memory in the participants, the study found.

Scientists have, for years, tried to understand how electrical brain activity generated during sleep affects memory. It has long been suspected that the so-called sleep spindles play a part.

“But we didn't know if sleep spindles enable or even cause memories to be stored and consolidated,” said senior author Flavio Frohlich.

“They could've been merely byproducts of other brain processes that enabled what we learn to be stored as a memory. But our study shows that, indeed, the spindles are crucial for the process of creating memories we need for every-day life. And we can target them to enhance memory.”

Frohlic's study represents the first time researchers have targeted sleep spindles without also increasing other natural electrical brain activity.

During the trial, 16 healthy male participants were tasked with performing two common memory exercises before they went to sleep.

The first involved associative word-pairing, while the second was a motor sequence tapping task. Half the group received a real transcranial alternating current stimulation (TACS), while the other half received a placebo.

The next morning, participants had to perform the same memory tests. There was no improvement in the word test scores of those who had received TACS, but there was a noted improvement when it came to performing the motor task.

“This demonstrated a direct causal link between the electric activity pattern of sleep spindles and the process of motor memory consolidation.” Frohlich said.

Caroline Lustenberger, PhD, first author and postdoctoral fellow in the Frohlich lab, said, “We're excited about this because we know sleep spindles, along with memory formation, are impaired in a number of disorders, such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's. We hope that targeting these sleep spindles could be a new type of treatment for memory impairment and cognitive deficits.”

The findings were published in the journal Current Biology. 

 
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John A.R. Newlands Scientist of the Day John A. R. Newlands,...  









https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Square#/media/File:JAR_Newlands_Plaque.JPG


http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/sceti/smith/zoom.cfm?PictureID=313&level=2

John A.R. Newlands Scientist of the Day

John A. R. Newlands, a British chemist, died July 29, 1898, at age 60.

read more…

 
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The old lady  

Justin S Reid posted a photo:

It was the nicest shot of a poor evening sunset wise. Always bring a lee filter with you. via 500px ift.tt/1QDRrBO

 
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Kaleidoscope of Colors over London  

Yannis_K posted a photo:

 
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http://twitter.com/LeedsMuseums/status/758989467487133697 
Today the @CITES treaty protects endangered wildlife and plant species from being traded 
http://ifttt.com/missing_link?1469792218 

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City Sunrise  

entoptika posted a photo:

#london #cityoflondon #londonskyline #londonarchitecture #thames #sunrise

 
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Cyberpunks might not be crooks but they're really very rude  

El Eg whoever they are really upset this one

FotW An innocuous El Reg story about Russian web miscreants provoked an entirely unexpected reaction when an offended cyberpunk took it upon himself to tell us how the headline hurt his feelings.…

 
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London Bridge Sunset  

Fun@365 posted a photo:

Loving the reflected colours on the windows

 
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Can Dogs Help Sniff Out Low Blood Sugar In Diabetes?  

Trained dogs are increasingly being used to help people with diabetes detect hypoglycemia. One study finds the dogs can indeed do that, but aren't as reliable as a continuous glucose monitor.

 
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Forests, species on 4 continents threatened by palm oil expansion  

Full Text:

As palm oil production expands from Southeast Asia into tropical regions of the Americas and Africa, vulnerable forests and species on four continents face increased risk of loss, a new study finds. The largest areas of vulnerable forest are in Africa and South America, where more than 30 percent of forests within land suitable for oil palm plantations remain unprotected, the study shows.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

 
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Walking stick with wings  

Full Text:

A Brigham Young University study found that some walking stick species like this foot-long Phasma gigas, native to Papua New Guinea, re-evolved wings after losing them 50 million years earlier. Walking sticks, a group of insects that mimic twigs to stay hidden from predators, are the only organism known to have re-evolved a complex trait.

Image credit: Insect Molecular Genomics Lab, Brigham Young University; photo by Allison Whiting/BYU

 
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r0B0t: Dreaming of a (Slightly) Darker Future on Mr. Robot - Film School Rejects (blog)  

Film School Rejects (blog)

Dreaming of a (Slightly) Darker Future on Mr. Robot Film School Rejects (blog) He's been court ordered to see a psychiatrist (Krista) for anger management. The final pieces click into place as Elliot pulls out their father's old Mr. Robot jacket and tells his sister about his plans to destroy Evil Corp. Elliot has become Mr ... Mr. Robot: Init1 ReviewDen of Geek! 'Mr. Robot' Season 2, Episode 4 Recap: Game of ChessHidden Remote all 90 news articles »

 
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He Wants to Inject Your Bloodstream With Healing Nanobots  
This Catalonian chemistry wiz is developing a jet-pack engine to deliver medicine inside our bodies.  
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The Eastern Gate  

ShutterJack posted a photo:

What I envision as the last view into the garden of Eden from the Eastern Gate as Adam and Eve walk out of paradise forever.

 
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Deep-sea ecosystems still under threat despite UN protection  
Some of the world's most hidden but precious places are still not being adequately protected from fishing trawlers, despite 10 years of UN resolutions to protect them  
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r0B0t: Mr. Robot: Init1 Review - Den of Geek!  

Den of Geek!

Mr. Robot: Init1 Review Den of Geek! They catch up on the usual Alderson topics: Darlene's panic attacks, Elliot's anger issues and eventually, their dead dad. Elliot opens his closet and shows Darlene that he still has the “Mr. Robot” jacket their father used to wear when he went to work ...

 
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r0B0t: 'Mr. Robot' Season 2, Episode 4 Recap: Game of Chess - Hidden Remote  

Hidden Remote

'Mr. Robot' Season 2, Episode 4 Recap: Game of Chess Hidden Remote Things are getting interesting as Elliot Alderson continues to wrestle with his Mr. Robot persona. It's gotten to a point where he takes up a game of chess on the suggestion of his new friend Ray. However Ray doesn't exactly know what's at stake for ... and more »

 
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The Wild Ones: The Release  
The Wild Ones is a documentary series following the intersecting lives of the men and horses at an Arizona prison.  
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Writing Data Onto Single Atoms, Scientists Store The Longest Text Yet  

With atomic memory technology, little patterns of atoms can be arranged to represent English characters, fitting the content of more than a billion books onto the surface of a stamp.

 
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Trump's Cyber Comments Rouse The Democrats  

As they bolster their case that Hillary Clinton is ready to be commander in chief, Democrats are seizing on Donald Trump's comments seemingly encouraging Russia to use cyber-espionage against Clinton.

 
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http://twitter.com/theLidoShuffle/status/758842812464934912 
PLEASE TAKE ACTION- The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is an agreement between... https://t.co/rdjEk3Bo1w 
https://t.co/rdjEk3Bo1w 

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Great Red Spot powers up the heat on Jupiter  
Jovian atmosphere above storm is hundreds of degrees hotter than elsewhere on the planet  
science  

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White-headed vulture  

Joshua Daskin posted a photo:

In Gorongosa NP

 
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Inbreeding has destroyed the English bulldog's genetic diversity  
Decades of extreme selection and inbreeding mean there is little genetic variation left to save the English bulldog from its many severe health problems  
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Frandombassist%2F28001544753%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
"I got blisters on my fingers!"  

Stephen R Boyle posted a photo:

Helter Skelter in Greenwich at sunset a few days ago

 
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