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r0B0t: This smart pillow wirelessly streams music to help you sleep better  

ZEEQ, created by Moley Robotics, could be the answer to your sleeping problems. 

The smart pillow wirelessly streams music and gathers analytics through built-in sensors as you sleep.

The company hopes to distribute the pillow by 2017.  Read more...

More about Mashable Video, Standalone Featured, Apps, Music Streaming, and Sleep Products  
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King Henry's Mound  

Leigh Cousins RAW posted a photo:

Just about managed to catch this shot before the sun went down, and what a beautiful sunset it was! This is the west view from King Henry's Mound in Richmond Park.
I didn't expect there to be so much vegetation, in one way it blocks the view but another it adds to the atmosphere.

 
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Airbus A340-313, Cathay Pacific, B-HXF, London Heathrow, EGLL  

Airbus_A340 posted a photo:

After landing in London Heathrow on the A340 in B-HXF. We parked at a remote bay, which is rare due to being over 30 minutes early on arrival. A colourful sunset greets us as we disembark the aircraft. Bittersweet, as we will not see a 4-engine passenger service in London again. The A340 has served Cathay Pacific really well. It was a pioneer and a magnificent machine to fly, it will be the last ever of the 4-engine passenger service that Cathay Pacific ever flies. It will be missed when the fleet is phased out in the first half of 2017. Such is the reality of a business- looking to the future, the A350 is bigger, better, faster, more comfortable and more economical.

 
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Wetterhorn by Roland LCL  

Wetterhorn by Roland LCL

Roland LCL: Photos

 
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160804172359.htm  
Viewing video in slow motion makes action appear more intentional, new study finds  
Watching a video of a harmful or violent act being committed can provide useful evidence of the circumstances surrounding the action. But new research shows that watching that same video in slow motion can often cause viewers to see something that may not be there: intentionality.  
technology  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fgary-edmonds%2Fputting-food-waste-to-work_b_11358280.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Putting Food Waste To Work  
Food for the Hungry (FH) has been working for over 40 years in some of the world's harshest places, and we've seen a positive link between the responsible use and protection of the environment and the chances of a family breaking out of poverty. It's a simple truth: when we care for creation, we care for people.

One of the creative ways we've been working to use earth's resources to help solve hunger and poverty for families, capitalizes on something we all have far too much of -waste. We've developed a project called keyhole gardens which puts waste to work.

It's a common story around the world, a woman is widowed and left alone with children to feed. "It has been very difficult to face life without my husband," said Dona Rutilia, one of these widowed mothers, told our staff in Guatemala. With no knowledge of sustainable agriculture, she couldn't adequately feed her two young children.

FH taught her how to grow a keyhole garden, a small, elevated kitchen garden that looks like a keyhole. This small plot grows nutritious fruits and vegetables that help conquer malnutrition by supplementing a child's diet with needed nutrients. The gardens are close to home so that mothers don't have to spend a lot of time and energy, traveling far to tend the garden.

On a visit from our staff, Rutilia was eager to show off her success. "As you can see here," she pointed out, "I harvest food for our daily consumption so my children grow up healthy and nourished. I also sell some vegetables to pay for other expenses we have."

What makes this type of kitchen garden so special is that at its very center - in that keyhole -- is a composting pit where waste remains are collected, such as peelings from bananas, sweet potatoes, etc., and gray water (used water). This waste decomposes and directly supplies nutrients to the soil through perforated mesh, like chicken wire.

It's lo-tech genius. By self-fertilizing one's garden, families can feed themselves and earn extra income. Meanwhile, communities worldwide are preserving grassland, soil and water from contamination and overuse.

The community is at the center of all our work at Food for the Hungry. Local experts tell us the types and varieties of vegetables that grow well in the climate where the keyhole garden will be planted. When nutritious produce is introduced that grows well but is not well known, we also provide recipes, offer cooking classes and hold cooking competitions so mothers can share what they've learned. As a group they support each other, putting what they have learned into practice. And someday, their grandchildren benefit too. When children grow up eating nutritional foods, that are readily available, they are likely to pass on those eating habits for generations to come.

Food for the Hungry works in contexts where there are high rates of malnutrition that puts kids at risk. By putting waste to work, keyhole gardens become a means to reduce malnutrition in children under age five. This is mission work for the 21st century: ecological stewardship that creates lasting impact that lifts up families and entire communities. A little garden goes a long way.

How to get involved:
Download Food For the Hungry's conservation and hunger e-book.

Learn how to build your own keyhole garden
Donate to help families like Rutilia's plant keyhole gardens

-- 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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Conservation of Ancient Fishes: Reintroducing the Alligator Gar; and What About Those Carp?  

Posted by Dr. Solomon David, research associate at Shedd Aquarium.

Gars and bowfin have been around since the dinosaurs; in fact, they've outlasted them. More recently, however, a modern creature has threatened these ancient fishes: humans. Misunderstood and much-maligned, these fishes were targets of eradication efforts for more than a century (1). Now, perceptions of these toothy predators may be changing. Recent interest in these “living fossils” has led to new research and even reintroduction efforts to bring back a lost species (2,3). All species of gars and bowfin are important parts of native biodiversity and ecosystem function, but could they also impact invasive species?

Their appearance hasn't changed much since the Cretaceous period over 65 million years ago. Gars (family Lepisosteidae) look like alligators with fins instead of legs, characterized by elongated snouts filled with sharp teeth, armor-like rhomboid scales, and the ability to breathe air. Shorten the snout (keep the teeth), add more slime and a bow-shaped dorsal fin, and you've essentially got a bowfin (Amia calva). It's no wonder these fishes are often considered less desirable than more traditional sport fish such as bass, perch and walleye. Because of their menacing appearance, misconceptions about eating valuable sport fishes and perceived lack of value (often considered “trash fish”), humans have historically sought to remove gars and bowfin throughout much of their range (1). Sometimes removal  occurred indirectly by habitat modification and subsequent loss of spawning grounds (3). In fact, humans have been quite successful in some areas; the alligator gar, the largest species of the group (they can grow over 9 feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds), was driven to local extinction from the northern extent of its range in Illinois by the 1960s (3). When caught, other gars and bowfin are often simply cast aside on the riverbank. It was once illegal in several states to return gars to the water alive!

Fortunately, perceptions of these ancient fishes are slowly changing, as new research and renewed interest from anglers are garnering a more positive image of these misunderstood fishes. For example, gar fishing guides in Texas host anglers from all over the world for the opportunity to catch (and release) a 200-pound real-life river monster. Earlier this year, scientists discovered that the genetic make-up of spotted gars can help us better understand human development and disease (4,5). Further, in an effort to restore what was lost decades ago, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is reintroducing the alligator gar to several Illinois rivers to increase biodiversity and create a trophy sport fishery.

There are seven species of gars and one species of bowfin, all native to North America, ranging from southern Canada to Costa Rica. As apex predators, what do they eat? Considered opportunistic feeders, these fishes tend to consume whatever prey items are most abundant in the area, such as forage fish, sunfish, and crustaceans. Humans, however, are not part of their diets. In fact, there have been no verified cases of attack (not even the giant alligator gar), showing that these ancient fishes pose no threat to humans. As native top predators, the question has been raised, could gars and bowfin also have an impact on invasive species such as Asian carp? What does the science tell us?

Recentresearch from Western Illinois University (6) showed that in some cases, shortnose gars and other native predatory fishes do in fact select for Asian carp, as young carp were found in higher numbers in gar stomachs than other prey items. However, a newstudy (7) showed that predation by spotted gars and bowfin had no significant impact on common carp populations. Many scientists agree that alligator gars can and do consume Asian carp, but the extent to which carp comprise their diet and the impact on Asian carp populations are relatively understudied. So, gars and bowfin are eating carp, and it's great to see a native species preying on invasive species; other recent examples include smallmouth bass preying on round goby, and lake whitefish eating zebra mussels in the Great Lakes. But, could gar predation on Asian carp make a significant ecological impact? The numbers suggest no. When discussing Asian carp, IDNR fisheriesscientists speak in terms of tons of carp per river mile. Alternatively, even a successful reintroduction of alligator gars may be only one or two fish per river mile in several Illinois tributaries (note: alligator gars are not being stocked in the Great Lakes basin). Vastly different reproductive rates are also an issue. Asian carp mature around age 3 and reproduce in larger numbers than alligator gars, which don't mature until they're about 11 years old and may not spawn every year. There are simply too many carp and too few gars to expect a significant impact. Time, research, and the fishes will tell us how gars and other native species may impact this gargantuan threat.

Regardless of their impact on invasive species, gars and bowfin are valuable components of native biodiversity and play important roles in ecosystem function. As top predators, gars and bowfin can help prevent overpopulation of forage fishes (such as shad) and stunting in game fishes (like sunfish), therefore helping maintain ecosystem balance (1). They can also be indicators of ecosystem health. Great Lakes spotted gars prefer clear, highly-vegetated waters, which in turn are prime nursery areas for other game species such as bass and perch; finding the gar can indicate good habitat for other sport fishes. Alligator garsare also migratory fish, relying on river-floodplain connections for spawning; successful reproduction and recruitment can indicate quality habitat connectivity for other migratory species.

Shedd Aquarium's team of research scientists is actively involved in studying native and invasive species in the Great Lakes region, as well as rivers throughout the state of Illinois that are home to ancient fishes like gars and bowfin. In our Great Lakesmigratory fishes research, finding bowfin and gars was an example of successful wetland habitat restoration, indicating several fish species quickly take advantage of newly available habitat for spawning. As we continue our research efforts in the region, we seek to find ways to protect native species from disappearing from their natural range, to maintain balanced ecosystems, and ensure sustainable populations for future generations.  While we are not directly involved in the reintroduction of alligator gar, this work can benefit ecosystems and species we do spend so much time studying.

A close colleague of ours, Dr. Jeffrey Stein of the Illinois Natural History Survey's Sport Fish Ecology Lab, is leading an effort to better understand and conserve these ancient fishes. As a collaborator on the “Ancient Sport Fish Project,” we are gathering data on age, growth and other characteristics of gar and bowfin species throughout the state. The primary goal is to evaluate the status and trends of Illinois gar and bowfin populations and provide managers with objective data needed to develop strategies for a sustainable [ancient] sport fishery. Since 2015, in partnership with IDNR, the team has tagged thousands of gars and bowfin and will eventually include alligator gar in our research efforts. You can follow along with #AncientSportFish on Twitter for updates on the project!

For more information about the reintroduction of alligator gar, listen to this podcast from the IDNR or visit their website. You can also learn about Shedd Aquarium's research on native and invasive species on our website.

 

*Shedd Aquarium in partnership with University of Wisconsin-Madison and Green Bay, The Nature Conservancy

References:

1. Scarnecchia 1992. A Reappraisal of Gars and Bowfins in Fishery Management
2. Illinois Department of Natural Resources 2016. The Return of the Dinosaurs
3. Thomas & Hilsabeck 2011. Return of the Giants.
4. Braasch et al 2016. The spotted gar genome illuminates vertebrate evolution and facilitates human-teleost comparisons.
5. Parichy 2016. The gar is a fish… is a bird… is a mammal?
6. Anderson 2016. http://gradworks.umi.com/10/11/10117282.html
7. Van Middlesworth et al 2016. Food habits and relative abundances of native piscivores: implications for controlling common carp.

 
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You Could Roll on La  

You Could Roll on Land or the Seafloor in This Fanciful Concept Car | WIRED

 
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Too Bad You'll Never  

Too Bad You'll Never Drive Nissan's Razor-Like Electric Concept | WIRED

 
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160807084101.htm  
Insight into why the universe is dominated by matter and why we exist  
New findings reveal why the universe is dominated by matter and why we exist and how matter and antimatter are different.  
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/8-14-august-2016/1000000-va-shop-designed-friend-company/  
£1,000,000 V&A shop to be designed by Friend and Company  

Friend and Company has been appointed to redesign the Victoria and Albert Museum's main shop and introduce a “new approach to retail”.

The new £1,000,000 retail space will be “more dynamic and flexible” than its predecessor and will “function in close dialogue with the galleries, exhibitions and events surrounding it”, according to the museum.

It will fit in with the V&A's FuturePlan, a long-term development programme, which has seen large parts of the museum redeveloped.

The FuturePlan also dictates the need for a more holistic visitor experience that brings hospitality closer to the collections.

The retail space is found on the ground floor and runs from the front to the back of the museum, meaning that most visitors pass through it.

The V&A, which put out a tender in March, is paying Friend and Company £96,250 for the work. Friend and company beat five other consultancies to the contract.

Friend and Company was unable to comment at the time of publishing.

The post £1,000,000 V&A shop to be designed by Friend and Company appeared first on Design Week.

 
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/8-14-august-2016/forge-long-lasting-partnerships-clients/  
How to forge long lasting partnerships with your clients  

These days, design businesses should be partnering with rather than supplying to their clients. Why is this a good thing? What does a partnership look like and what are the risks? And what can you do to move deeper into partner territory?

Why partnerships work

As a partner your position is more secure because your relationships are deeper and stronger, assuming you also add value of course. You are part of the discussion that leads to the work as opposed to your client coming to you, telling you what to do and you then working in isolation. As partners, you will solve problems together, which expands the scope of possible solutions and builds a better understanding of the relationship for each of you. All things being equal, partnerships should yield better returns for both parties in the medium term.

What does a partnership look, feel and sound like?

When you're in a partnership your client's problems are your problems. Their challenges are your challenges. You jointly own the situation. And most importantly, your client feels this.

If your client lost you, they'd feel as if they were losing a valued member of their team. Your remit does not end when you deliver a piece of work. You are involved in the outcome and also the follow up.

You give up some control over the outcome but you remain fully involved in the work. You know when to step back. You will hear yourself saying: “What I'd recommend is this, but it's your final decision.”

You develop better empathy. You can understand and appreciate your client's position without agreeing with it. This means that you can disagree and stay working together.

You add value in the run up to the work and afterwards. You suggest what could happen outside the scope of the work. This needs to be treated as an investment on your part to start with. You could make it conditional on the size of the project and budget for it by attaching a percentage of the fee to partnership building.

What to watch out for

Something to guard against is focusing all of your efforts on one person within the client's business. Doing this, especially with someone at mid-level is a risk. Given the fast staff turnover in marketing departments, should they leave, the relationship and the partnership walks with them. Similarly, at the top level, bearing in mind today's preference for consensus management, it is advisable to think both across and down the organisation when building relationships.

Be prepared to work harder. A partnership is an investment. This will mean extra work and quite possibly extra unpaid work. The pay-off is extra paid work in the future and better pay for that work.

How to move into partner territory

So how do you go about shifting towards “partner” and away from “supplier”?

It makes sense to start with your current clients. They are your most established relationships and probably closest to the partner status that you're looking for. They are a good place to test some new ways of developing relationships.

I spoke with Charlee Sully, creative director of The Usual Studio who has employed a number of partnership building strategies in growing her design business.

Create conversations: set up a time to speak, away from a pitch or piece of work. This enables the scope of the conversation to be broad and wide ranging which can lead to new ideas being discovered. Sully's approach speaks to this way of working: “When I'm in the midst of discussions around a potential piece of work, I talk about other things, not the quote. I'm not ‘pushing' on this all the time are you going to do it, shall we sign it, etc although I know it's important. I take a softer approach.”

Get interested and fired up about your clients: Sully says: “I engage and become genuinely interested in my clients. I've had training in journalism so perhaps it's this background that means I love to ask questions. My conversations often end with my client saying things like: ‘I'm fizzing with ideas' and ‘I really enjoyed meeting you.' That's how I know I've started to build a good relationship.”

Get comfortable with a focus on relationship and not stuff. Sully says “I'm comfortable with meeting people, despite being an introvert. I'm very open and I don't mind speaking about mistakes. I speak to clients almost as if I know them already and this creates a warm and relaxed conversation. I listen and you'll find me making notes. It's important that they lead the conversation.”

Create a budget line for your partnership development: base this on a percentage of what your client spends with you. That's your investment in the future. You can then measure what that investment has yielded at year end in terms of growth of income.

So you're all set to shift your relationships into partnership territory. But just before you do, there's one final risk to watch out for. The risk associated with being too successful at it. Sully highlights this risk.

“Often my relationships reach a level where people are sharing information with me that they wouldn't share with other business owners. They treat me almost as a temporary business partner. This means I have to be mindful of the boundaries of my relationships and make sure that friendly does not become friends.”

You may consider this to be a ‘high class problem' to have but if you're coming upon this situation, Sully has written a piece that clarifies the territory which I would recommend reading.

John Scarrott works with design business leaders and their teams on their sales, presenting and networking skills. Follow him @JohnDScarrott or find him at johnscarrott.com

The post How to forge long lasting partnerships with your clients appeared first on Design Week.

 
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https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/08/lost-cities-1-babylon-iraq-war-history-mankind-greatest-heritage-site  
Lost cities #1: Babylon how war almost erased ‘mankind's greatest heritage site'  

In the first of a 10-part series, Justin Marozzi tells the story of this once-mighty city in Iraq a microcosm of human history. Besieged by wars and weather, ‘restored' by Saddam Hussein, what has become of mystical Babylon?

Of all the world's lost cities, none surely can compete for evocative splendour, age or mystery with Babylon. Here on the desert plains 60 miles south of Baghdad, where the sun turns horizons into flashing pools of mercury, is where so much of human history began.

Land of the Fertile Crescent, bounded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, this is successively the realm of Sumer and Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Mesopotamia and Iraq. Adam and Eve's Garden of Eden is said to have been nearby.

As to Etemenanki, the ziggurat of Babylon, of which Nabopolossar, king of Babylon, my father, my begetter, had fixed the foundation and had raised it 30 cubits but had not erected its top, I set my hand to build it. Great cedars which were on Mount Lebanon in its forest, with my clean hands, I cut down, and placed them for its roof.”

I laid their foundations of mortar and bricks and with shining blue glaze tiles with pictures of bulls and awful dragons I adorned the interior; mighty cedars to roof them over I caused to be stretched out, the wings of the gates of cedar wood coated with bronze, the lintels and the door knobs of brass I fastened into the openings of the gates; massive bulls of bronze and dreadful, awe-inspiring serpents I set up at their thresholds, the two gates I ornamented with great splendour to the amazement of all men. In order that the onslaught of battle might not draw nigh to Imgur-Bel, the wall of Babylon.”

A colony of pigeons landed among the high-walled ruins to rest in the sun and shit all over history

Related: Story of cities #3: the birth of Baghdad was a landmark for world civilisation

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Camilo Matiz, Miami Art Basel  
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When should driverless cars kill their own passengers?  

With both Google, Tesla and Uber trying to get driverless cars on the road, the streets of the near future will almost definitely be ruled by robots. However, there is a world of ethical questions to be explored before all vehicles on the road are allowed to be driverless. To get started answering them, MIT Media Lab recently developed the Moral Machine. The Machine is comprised of a series of ethical dilemmas, most of them making me feel uneasy when answering them. For example, what do you do when a driverless car without passengers either has to drive into a stoplight-flaunting dog or an abiding…

This story continues at The Next Web  
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Chicago Harbor Light  
Chicago Harbor Light on Lake Michigan (© Tim Klein/Gallery Stock) 2016-08-07 [www.bing.com/search]  
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Stress Literally Shrinks Your Brain (7 Ways To Reverse This Effect)  


We all know that living under stressful conditions has serious emotional, even physical, consequences. So why do we have so much trouble taking action to reduce our stress levels and improve our lives?

Researchers at Yale University finally have the answer. They found that stress reduces the volume of grey matter in the areas of the brain responsible for self-control.

So experiencing stress actually makes it more difficult to deal with future stress because it diminishes your ability to take control of the situation, manage your stress and keep things from getting out of control.

A vicious cycle if there ever was one.

But don't be disheartened. It's not impossible to reduce your stress levels; you just need to make managing stress a higher priority if you want to reverse this effect. The sooner you start managing your stress effectively, the easier it will be to keep unexpected stress from causing damage in the future.

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another." -William James

Luckily, the plasticity of the brain allows it to mold, change, and rebuild damaged areas as you practice new behaviors. So implementing healthy stress-relieving techniques can train your brain to handle stress more effectively and decrease the likelihood of ill effects from stress in the future.

Here are seven strategies to help you fix your brain and keep your stress under control:

1. Say No

Saying no is indeed a major challenge for many people. "No" is a powerful word that you should not be afraid to wield. When it's time to say no, avoid phrases such as "I don't think I can" or "I'm not certain." Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill them.

2. Disconnect

Technology enables constant communication and the expectation that you should be available 24/7. It is extremely difficult to enjoy a stress-free moment outside of work when an email that will change your train of thought and get you thinking (read: stressing) about work can drop onto your phone at any moment.

Taking regular time off the grid helps you to keep your stress under control and to live in the moment. When you make yourself available to your work 24/7, you expose yourself to a constant barrage of stressors. Forcing yourself offline and even--gulp!--turning off your phone gives your body and mind a break. Studies have shown that something as simple as a weekend e-mail break can lower stress levels.

If detaching yourself from work-related communication on weekday evenings is too big a challenge, then how about the weekend? Choose blocks of time where you will cut the cord and go offline. You'll be amazed by how refreshing these breaks are and how they reduce stress by putting a mental recharge into your weekly schedule.

If you are worried about the negative repercussions of taking this step, try first doing it at times you are unlikely to be contacted--maybe Sunday morning. As you grow more comfortable with this, and as your coworkers begin to accept the time you spend offline, gradually expand the amount of time you spend away from technology.

3. Neutralize Toxic People

Dealing with difficult people is frustrating, exhausting, and highly stressful for most. You can control your interactions with toxic people by keeping your feelings in check. When you need to confront a toxic person, approach the situation rationally. Identify your own emotions and don't allow anger or frustration to fuel the chaos. Also, consider the difficult person's standpoint and perspective so that you can find solutions and common ground. Even when things completely derail, you can take the toxic person with a grain of salt to avoid letting him or her bring you down.

4. Don't Hold Grudges

The negative emotions that come with holding onto a grudge are actually a stress response. Just thinking about the event sends your body into fight-or-flight mode, a survival mechanism that forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat. When the threat is imminent, this reaction is essential to your survival, but when the threat is ancient history, holding onto that stress wreaks havoc on your body and can have devastating health consequences over time. In fact, researchers at Emory University have shown that holding onto stress contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease. Holding onto a grudge means you're holding onto stress, and emotionally intelligent people know to avoid this at all costs. Letting go of a grudge not only makes you feel better now but can also improve your health.

5. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a simple, research-supported form of meditation that is an effective way to gain control of unruly thoughts and behaviors. People who practice mindfulness regularly are more focused, even when they are not meditating. It is an excellent technique to help reduce stress because it allows you to reduce the feeling of being out of control. Essentially, mindfulness helps you stop jumping from one thought to the next, which keeps you from ruminating on negative thoughts. Practicing mindfulness might even increase your score on an emotional intelligence test. Overall, it's a great way to make it through your busy day in a calm and productive manner.

6. Put Things In Perspective

Our worries often come from our own skewed perception of events. So before you spend too much time dwelling on what your boss said during the last staff meeting, take a minute to put the situation in perspective. If you aren't sure when you need to do this, try looking for clues that your anxiety may not be proportional to the stressor. If you are thinking in broad sweeping statements like "Everything is going wrong" or "Nothing will work out" then you need to reframe the situation. A great way to correct this unproductive thought pattern is to list the specific things that actually are going wrong or not working out. Most likely you will come up with just one or two things--not everything. The key to keeping your cool is to remember that your feelings are exaggerating the situation and the scope of the stressor is much more limited than it might appear.

7. Use Your Support System

It's tempting, yet entirely ineffective, to attempt tackling everything by yourself. To be calm and productive you need to recognize your weaknesses and ask for help when you need it. This means tapping into your support system when a situation is challenging enough for you to feel overwhelmed.

Everyone has someone at work and/or outside work who is on their team, rooting for them, and ready to help them get the best from a difficult situation. Identify these individuals in your life and make an effort to seek their insights and assistance when you need it. Something as simple as talking about your worries will provide an outlet for your anxiety and stress and supply you with a new perspective on the situation. Most of the time, other people can see a solution that you can't because they are not as emotionally invested in the situation. Asking for help will mitigate your anxiety and strengthen your relationships with those you rely upon.

Bringing It All Together

As simple as these strategies may seem, they are difficult to implement when your mind is clouded with stress. Force yourself to attempt them the next time your head is spinning, and you'll reap the benefits that come with disciplined stress management.

How do you manage stress? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

-- 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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http://www.designboom.com/art/peoples-architecture-office-pao-golden-bubbles-k11-hong-kong-08-08-2016/  
people's architecture office stretches golden bubbles through hong kong's K11 art mall  

the oversized inflatables span through the shopping center's light-filled atrium, weaving between multiple levels and escalators, and forming interactive pods on the ground level.

The post people's architecture office stretches golden bubbles through hong kong's K11 art mall appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/08/mark-wallinger-at-the-freud-museum-review  
Mark Wallinger at the Freud Museum review mirror mirror on the ceiling  

Freud Museum, London
The British artist transforms Sigmund Freud's study into a Dalí-inspired hall of mirrors for a meta-surrealist look at art, psychoanalysis and self-obsession

Related: Full Marks: Mark Wallinger's ID runs rampant in his new show

When Salvador Dalí visited Sigmund Freud in London in 1938, he showed the father of psychoanalysis his Metamorphosis of Narcissus. It is a painting about reflection. In the Greek myth of Narcissus, as told in Ovid's Latin poem the Metamorphoses, beautiful, young Narcissus falls in love with his own image, and simply can't stop gazing at his reflection in a pool of water. Dalí plays optical tricks to multiply the obsessive self-regard of Narcissus, as a head becomes an egg, becomes a stone, in a world of infinite reflection.

Continue reading...  
art  

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/08/mark-wallinger-at-the-freud-museum-review  
Mark Wallinger at the Freud Museum review mirror mirror on the ceiling  

Freud Museum, London
The British artist transforms Sigmund Freud's study into a Dalí-inspired hall of mirrors for a meta-surrealist look at art, psychoanalysis and self-obsession

Related: Full Marks: Mark Wallinger's ID runs rampant in his new show

When Salvador Dalí visited Sigmund Freud in London in 1938, he showed the father of psychoanalysis his Metamorphosis of Narcissus. It is a painting about reflection. In the Greek myth of Narcissus, as told in Ovid's Latin poem the Metamorphoses, beautiful, young Narcissus falls in love with his own image, and simply can't stop gazing at his reflection in a pool of water. Dalí plays optical tricks to multiply the obsessive self-regard of Narcissus, as a head becomes an egg, becomes a stone, in a world of infinite reflection.

Continue reading...  
art  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/eduardo-kobra-rio-olympics-world-largest-mural-street-art-08-08-2016/  
eduardo kobra paints 3,000 square meter mural for the rio olympics  

the massive artwork illustrates faces from five continents - a theme which responds to the olympic rings.

The post eduardo kobra paints 3,000 square meter mural for the rio olympics appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/reiner-maria-matysik-cloud-machine-phoenix-lake-germany-08-08-2016/  
reiner maria matysik uses cloud machine to transform phoenix lake water in germany  

the installation works by transforming water into steam which is then released back into the sky.

The post reiner maria matysik uses cloud machine to transform phoenix lake water in germany appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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http://heptagram.co/post/148614994762  
julienpomerleau: Kristian Touborg  

julienpomerleau:

Kristian Touborg

 
art  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/pokeid-pokemon-nike-nikeid-sneakers-tumblr-08-08-2016/  
tumblr users pair pokémon with custom NIKEiD kicks  

two designers have created dedicated tumblr and instagram pages that match sneakers to the likes of squirtle, snorlax, and shinx.

The post tumblr users pair pokémon with custom NIKEiD kicks appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
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http://heptagram.co/post/148610370574  
designbby: LUDOVIC BALLAND  

designbby:

LUDOVIC BALLAND

 
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/UxUKaTRarZs/antarctica-ice-cube-observatory-comes-up-zip-search-for-mystery-particle-that-would-solve-the-origin.html  
Antarctica Ice-Cube Observatory Comes Up "Zip" --Search for Mystery Particle That Would Solve the Origin of Dark Matter  
 
astronomy  

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In the Interstellar Danger Zone --"The Last Time Our Sun Was In This Exact Spot In Its 226-Million-Year Milky-Way Orbit, Dinosaurs Ruled Earth"  
 
astronomy  

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"The First Human on Earth to Live to Be 1,000 Years Old is Alive Today" (Weekend Feature)  
 
astronomy  

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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/354095589435812201/  
Deer fly (Chrysops s  

Deer fly (Chrysops sp.) collected in Thousand Islands National Park, Ontario, Canada, and photographed at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (sample ID: BIOUG19036-G06; specimen record: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=CNTIF2427-15; BIN: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:ACU8282)

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Finternational%2Fworld%2Fformer-islamic-state-fighters-open-up-to-german-investigators-a-1106314.html%23ref%3Drss&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
The Returnees: Former Islamic State Members Open Up to Investigators  
Investigators in Germany often know little about the crimes committed by German Islamists who have traveled to Syria. Three returnees have broken their silence -- providing a wealth of information and angering members of the radical scene.  
general  

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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/112027109460858022/  
A ground level view  
A ground level view at Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), showing the Apollo 14 (Spacecraft 110/Lunar Module 8/Saturn 509) space vehicle leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Image Credit: NASA  
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http://twitter.com/CecilLives/status/762699646997241857 
Lions may be uplisted to Appendix I under CITES, (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). South... https://t.co/1GbA0aDRN5 
https://t.co/1GbA0aDRN5 

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http://insider.si.edu/2016/08/crime-bite-dna-half-eaten-food-may-someday-send-crooks-jail/  
Crime bite: DNA on half-eaten food may someday send crooks to jail  

Bite marks on a homicide victim's skin is not an unusual discovery. Teeth marks from a criminal also may occasionally be found on food at the crime scene. Once a suspect is apprehended detectives may begin trying to match a mold of the suspect's teeth with impressions left on the victim's skin and on food. With luck, a good match might help prove a suspect's presence at the crime, but it's often a stretch.

“In bite-mark analysis impressions are not always unique enough for positive identification,” says Sara C. Zapico, research collaborator in the Anthropology Department of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. “Even with the recent use of computer matching, distortions of bite impressions left on skin or a food item often make a match impossible.”

During biting, however, something more than bite marks is left behind that also can link a suspect to a crime: saliva. Floating in saliva are skin cells from the cheek interior and white blood cells (leukocytes); each cell contains an individual's unique DNA.

During biting, saliva is usually deposited on an object or on a victim's skin by the teeth and lips. It usually occurs in enough quantity to allow its collection and DNA typing, Zapico says.

In a new study in the Archives of Oral Biology, Zapico and co-author Sofia T. Menéndez of the University of Oviedo in Spain, show that it is quite possible to recover and isolate DNA from saliva on bitten foods, even some 15 hours after the saliva has dried.

“Quantity and purity of the DNA often depends on the food type,” Zapico says. Few previous studies have shown great success in isolating human DNA from foods displaying bite marks.

In their study three volunteers bit samples of Manchego cheese, chocolate doughnuts and Fuji apples. To replicate crime scene conditions, the food was left untouched at room temperature for 15 to 16 hours before it was collected and frozen at -15 Celsius. Next the food was taken to a lab, thawed, and the area around the bite marks was wiped with a sterile cotton swab moistened with distilled water. A second dry swab was used to collect the moisture that remained from the first swab. The swabs were then sealed in sterile tubes.

Next Zapico and Menéndez isolated the DNA applying a silica-based procedure (a simple and straightforward technique, less laborious than the classical Phenol-Chloroform DNA extraction and avoids toxicity).  By conventional polymerase chain reaction, they specifically amplified two constant genes from the DNA, GAPDH and RPL22, commonly known as housekeeper genes, which are required to maintain basic cellular function. These genes are similar to those used to define an individual's unique nuclear DNA.

“The cheese and doughnut preserved the best quality of nuclear DNA, highest in cheese,” Zapico says. “The cheese was solid and firm and saliva stayed on its surface and because the doughnut was porous it absorbed the saliva. Ample saliva was collected from the apple but acidic compounds in its juice deteriorated the DNA while it was at room temperature. No quality DNA was amplified from the apple.”

The researchers also detected and amplified human mitochondrial DNA from all the food types, being the first research study to do so. While it's not as useful as nuclear DNA in identifying individuals, mitochondrial DNA can be valuable in establishing matrilineal kinships in forensic investigations, molecular anthropology, biographic ancestry and human genetics.

“One of the improvements in our paper was the amount of salivary DNA we recovered from our samples because we used two swabs, both wet and dry—the double-swab technique,” Zapico says.

Different factors affect the quantity and quality of saliva that might be collected at a crime scene, the researchers say. For example, a person's salivary stimulation prior to a bite, and the size of an individual's salivary glands. Time of day may also be a factor as some studies indicate saliva flow increases slowly in the morning, peaks in the afternoon and is lowest during sleep. In this test the volunteers bit the food in early morning.

According to Zapico and Menéndez, their new work is a clear demonstration that should the physical attributes of a bite mark at a crime scene warrant scrutiny, collecting and isolating salivary DNA from the bite may also be successful. Combined, these two forms of evidence increase the possibility correctly identifying a criminal.

Zapico is hopeful that soon the techniques used in this study might be accepted as evidence in an actual courtroom trial. “Now we need to validate what we have done with more work. Our next steps will be using more types of foods and exploring broader scenarios than those in this paper. We need to get moving on more studies,” she says.

 

The post Crime bite: DNA on half-eaten food may someday send crooks to jail appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

 
culture  

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http://borrachas.tumblr.com/post/148636309849  
Ever thought about posting a video on how you make some of these amazing gifs? What software do you use?  

Hey! Sorry it took so long to answer, you made me think… a lot :)

I've thought about doing something like that, i just dont feel like i've got enough to share atm. For the most part I use After Effects, but i want to mess around with 3D a bit.

 
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FDA's cognitive dissonance on smoking - The Hill (blog)  

The Hill (blog)

FDA's cognitive dissonance on smoking The Hill (blog) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently launched “This Free Life”—a first-of-its-kind anti-smoking campaign aimed directly at the LGBT community. The crusade reflects data showing that members of the LGBT community smoke at approximately twice ... and more »

 
cogdis  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdailyoverview.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F148645207374&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
I'm so excited to announce that copies of “Overview” will ship...  

I'm so excited to announce that copies of “Overview” will ship one month from today in the UK! While I can't wait for everyone to see the finished product, I am most excited to see how the new perspective offered by this work can change and challenge the way we think about our role on this planet.  Every copy sold in advance of the launch will be hugely impactful to bring this perspective to more people, not to mention the price on Amazon is more than 30% off at the moment! If you are able support our efforts, here is the link to pre-order:

www.dailyoverview.com/book

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fforest-trends%2Fwhat-happens-when-us-gove_b_11390532.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
What Happens When US Government Starts Keeping Track of its Own Greenhouse Gas Emissions?  
This story first appeared on Ecosystem Marketplace. Click here for the original.
By Kelli Barrett

Every federal agency of the US government must soon begin quantifying the impact of its activities - both direct and indirect - on the climate under new guidance that the administration of President Barack Obama finalized this week after six years of consultations.  That means agencies that build roads must account not only for the emissions generated during construction, but for the emissions generated by cars and trucks that use it later. At the same time, agencies that work in land use must account not only for emissions generated, but for emissions reduced or sequestered - by, say, planting trees.

The guidance had been widely anticipated and could bring much-needed transparency to federal impact on the land-use sector, which in the US has been a net carbon sink but faces an uncertain future, according to a recent report Building Carbon in America's Farms, Forests, and Grasslands: Foundations for a Policy Roadmap" by Ecosystem Marketplace's publisher Forest Trends. The guidance is not, however, expected to have an immediate impact on carbon markets, because federal agencies are not yet permitted to reduce their emissions through carbon offsets.

What is the Guidance?

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) formally released the guidance on August 2, calling it another big step in its climate change efforts. The CEQ published the final guidance in the Federal Resister on August 5.

"Information is the foundation of good management. The government should always be asking questions about the implications of carbon emissions and climate change," says Lynn Scarlett, the Global Managing Director of Public Policy at The Nature Conservancy.

This guidance works in coordination with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a law established in 1970 that requires federal departments assess the potential impacts their activities, such as constructing a highway or managing public forestland, may have on the environment. Many of these actions can produce substantial greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change. Or, alternatively, byproducts of a changing climate such as wildfires, rising seas and superstorms can affect federal initiatives. NEPA regulations often call for environmental review of projects and environmental impact statements for large projects that will have significant impact on nature.

With the new guidance, climate change will become part of NEPA's environmental review in a more profound way. Debbie Reed, the Executive Director of the Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases says this is a positive change. Prior to this guidance, she says there weren't any federal orders instructing agencies to account for their climate impacts that related to NEPA. The new guidance will not only direct all government agencies to consider climate change but quantify the impacts of their actions.

"Now federal agencies must fully and properly analyze the climate impacts of their proposed actions before deciding on how to proceed. They shouldn't approve mines that will destroy the climate, or bridges that will get washed away," Rhea Suh, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement.

Scarlett sees a big opportunity in the guidance's inclusion of bio-sequestration, the natural systems that store carbon. As the government is a major steward of land in the US, it has an opportunity to utilize the grasslands, forests and wetlands under its management to store carbon and build resiliency, she says. A NEPA review, for instance, that takes carbon storage into consideration might lead to developers relocating and redesigning a project in order to not disturb the carbon stocks.

"This guidance can affect the value of land that stores carbon," Scarlett explains.

Market Signals

A 2015 Executive Order instructing the government to reduce emissions throughout its departments and supply chain allows departments to purchase renewable energy certificates to offset their energy footprint. They're not, however, permitted to buy credits for carbon offsets.

Reed believes this rule is likely to change and points to the accounting systems outlined in the NEPA guidance combined with instructions to quantify greenhouse gas emissions as evidence.

"I think this new guidance is paving the way for federal agencies to be able to buy offsets as an opportunity to mitigate NEPA action," she says.

Sheldon Zakreski, the Director of Carbon Compliance at The Climate Trust, doesn't see the guidance as any kind of a huge game-changer for carbon markets. It's more of a positive signal. Zakreski is pleased that the guidance recommends agencies consider climate mitigation measures when assessing projects. The inclusion of sustainable land management practices, forests, agricultural soils and greenhouse gas capture as carbon sequestration measures is particularly noteworthy to The Climate Trust. It relates directly to The Trust's work designing and develops carbon offset projects in the forestry, biogas and grasslands spaces.

"We see this language as a positive signal toward forestry and agriculture offsets," he says.

Scarlett agrees saying there isn't a direct nexus between the guidance and market activity. That being said, the guidance's consideration of nature based solutions to sequester carbon hints that carbon projects may play a part down the road, she says.

It's also possible that the consideration of emissions could add another component to offset systems such as those compensating for biodiversity and wetland loss, Scarlett says. The carbon sequestration powers of habitat could factor in when offset developers are designating parcels to conserve.

Boosting Climate Comprehension

The guidance document recommends that agencies quantify a proposed project's direct and indirect emissions, which are the emissions that come as a direct result from the project and those the project spurs.

When government agencies aren't able to quantify climate impacts because of data constraints or the necessary tools aren't available, the Obama administration expects them to perform a qualitative assessment. And agencies are expected to determine the carbon sequestration capabilities of a project, when applicable.

This guidance provides federal agencies a common approach for assessing their proposed actions, while recognizing each agency's unique circumstances and authorities, the guidance reads.

Scarlett agrees adding that agencies have been striving to incorporate climate analysis on both the emissions and impact side but their efforts have been inconsistent and uncoordinated. She says the guidance strikes the right balance between delivering precision and certainty while still giving agencies the necessary wiggle room.

In a statement, the White House said the guidance will deliver a new level of detail and transparency, which will allow decision makers and the public to more fully understand the impacts of federal actions on the climate.

A better understanding, the administration says, will help all parties explore alternative methods that could help the US either adapt to climate change and build resiliency or mitigate global warming. It will also help implement proper mitigation measures that truly compensate for federal emission-producing endeavors.

Guiding Smart Climate Policy

"Climate change is the central environmental challenge of our time," Suh said in an earlier statement. "These guidelines can pave the way for smart policies that better protect our children, our health and our communities from dangerous carbon pollution and climate catastrophe."

The road to this guidance began in 2010. In that year, the Obama administration initiated efforts to modernize federal agency implementation of NEPA, involve the public and improve transparency and the efficiency of environmental reviews. These efforts resulted in draft guidance the same year and then again in 2014. A task force comprised of state, local and tribal leaders pushed for the finalization of the 2014 revised draft guidance to ensure that government projects keep emissions and climate in mind.

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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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fvoices.nationalgeographic.com%2F2016%2F08%2F08%2Fcamera-catalogue-help-cat-conservation-without-going-to-africa%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Camera CATalogue: Help Cat Conservation Without Going to Africa  

A new wildlife photo website that Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, launched recently is called Camera CATalogue.  “We've launched this with our partners at Zooniverse as a platform that houses tens of thousands of Panthera's camera trap photos and engages with citizen scientists and wildlife lovers around the world, asking that they help identify the big cats and other fascinating animals pictured in these photos,” says Ross Pitman, Leopard Monitoring Coordinator for Panthera. “The idea is that the more we know about the number of big cats and their prey populations, where they live and roam, and how our efforts are helping to protect them using these images, the better.”

Fancying myself as a bit of a wildlife spotter, especially in Africa, where I have visited more than three dozen sanctuaries, including the iconic Kruger, Okavango, Hwange, and Serengeti national parks, I tried out Camera CATalogue. It's quite addictive, and I had to tear myself away after identifying a hundred or more animals. It's also fascinating to “observe” what animals get up to when people are not around.

Ross Pitman was kind enough to answer a few questions about Camera CATalogue and how this kind of citizen science helps conservation, even if those of us who engage with it are on the other side of the world.

DB: How does this citizen science project help protect big cats? It's presumably not only about monitoring species and numbers of cats, but also prey base and threats (vehicles and people) in their range?

Camera CATalogue has two main objectives with regards to monitoring wild cats across vast landscapes using camera traps. First, it's a platform that provides people from around the world (even those that have never visited Africa) with the opportunity to engage with wildlife and actively contribute to wildlife conservation. Second, and by no means less important, Camera CATalogue allows Panthera's scientists to monitor larger areas than ever before, but without the time-consuming challenge of identifying every species within each camera trap photo. By engaging the wider community, Camera CATalogue helps us identify animals more accurately, simply because each image is viewed by so many people.

Since we're now able to camera-trap across far larger areas and still accurately process all the data, we're able to ask many more questions and provide many more answers relating to wildlife conservation. A suite of important questions center around indices of prey abundance and prey quality. Is there enough prey around to support carnivores in the area? And if not, what are the primary causes of prey decline? These prey-focused questions might generate more questions related to human pressure, perhaps from poachers or subsistence farmers. How are the animals in the area—both carnivores and herbivores—responding to human disturbance? Are animals actively avoiding densely populated areas, and what are the conservation implications for these animals or the financial repercussions (through ecotourism) for people? We can also go further and ask far broader questions about how wildlife use their habitat at a landscape scale and how they interact with each other. These questions have significant conservation implications and importance, and need answers soon if we're to curb the precipitous declines faced by many wild cats, and wildlife more generally.

Camera CATalogue provides a means of making research more efficient, and therefore, more effective. This ultimately allows scientists to focus on more pressing conservation concerns—with the added benefit of hopefully encouraging budding citizen scientists to pursue a career in wildlife conservation.

How many photos are in the database? How many cameras are used? How are they secured?

Camera CATalogue's database currently holds around 160,000 images. This first batch of images represents a tenth of the total images we need identified in the coming weeks and months. It's easy to see why we so desperately need the help of thousands of citizen scientists across the world! In addition, we are constantly expanding our research footprint across the world, and usually take on a few new surveillance sites every year.

In terms of cameras and their setup, we typically use 80 PantheraCams (a Panthera custom-made camera trap) set up in pairs across roads or animal paths in order to photograph both flanks of an animal as it walks past our PantheraCams. Some animals, like spotted cats, have unique coat patterns, and photographing both flanks enables us to identify each individual. We then use this information to run complex analyses to robustly determine their population densities across the survey area, which gives us the data so urgently needed to inform sound, science-based management and conservation decisions.

One major challenge with using camera traps to monitor wildlife is that our PantheraCams are often stolen, either by animals (like elephants!) or by people. To reduce theft, we secure the PantheraCams to trees or metal posts (hammered deep into the ground) using cable ties or bungee cord and connect the PantheraCams to steel cables that are linked to the tree or post. Although not 100% secure, we have noticed a reduction in theft—primarily from elephants who find it annoying to walk around with a PantheraCam that's still attached to a metal post.

How many photos remain to be sorted and identified?

Camera CATalogue was launched on August 4^th, 2016, and in the first 24 hours over 8,000 citizen scientists cumulatively identified 170,000 images! Each image is shown to 10 citizen scientists to ensure identification accuracy, which means this current database is approximately 10 percentcomplete.

What have you already learned from this project?

The biggest take-home message from the launch of Camera CATalogue was in realizing how much people enjoy identifying wildlife, and are willing to spend their own time to help our conservation efforts. It's a fantastic feeling to know we have the support and assistance of so many citizen scientists around the world.

What do you still hope to find out?

The biggest what-if would be to know if this initial interest in Camera CATalogue will be sustained. There is so much data to process that we could use this level of response to constantly assist our scientists. Our PantheraCams take such amazing photos though, so we're hopeful that citizen scientists will flock to Camera Catalogue for a long time to come.

Do you have any funny/unusual photos you can share?

One of the most amazing photographs taken by the PantheraCams shows a genet (a small mongoose/weasel-like mammal) on the back of a rhino. The genet proceeded to hitch a ride on the rhino for quite some time! It's these sorts of species interactions that make camera trapping such an amazing surveillance tool.

How can this citizen science project be used to educate people and help them become better stewards of the planet, even if they live half a world away from where these photos are made?

By allowing citizen scientists the opportunity to actively participate in wildlife research, Camera CATalogue will hopefully raise people's excitement about conserving these precious species and the habitats in which they live. Even for those that have previously visited these wild places, Camera CATalogue provides a way of re-experiencing the magic of viewing animals in the wild. This constant engagement with wildlife will help to engender a sense of ownership and compassion towards animals and ultimately generate a more conservation-aware community.

 
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Right-Wing Media Org Is Crowdfunding to Distort Obama's Record on Coal  
The right-wing Media Research Center is getting into the crowdfunding business, setting up a Kickstarter page to raise $15,000 for "completing the production and marketing" of a "short documentary" about "the devastating human toll of the EPA's war on coal," to be called "Collateral Damage." Here's the pitch:

Several months ago, MRCTV sent a camera crew to the southern counties of West Virginia to document the impact of the EPA regulations on the coal industry and the local communities that have historically relied on it for survival. What the team found was devastating.

The effect of shuttered coal mines and the loss of thousands of coal jobs has trickled down into nearly every facet of these communities, crippling local businesses, destroying the housing market and forcing desperate families from their homes. Thousands are without work, while still thousands more live under the constant threat of job loss and bankruptcy. Local charities struggle to meet the needs around them, only to be quickly overwhelmed. While the media are focusing on "climate change," hardworking Americans are left to wonder how they will keep the lights on in a house they're struggling to hold on to.

Through a compelling series of up-close footage and brutally honest interviews, "Collateral Damage" will expose in stark detail the real, human impact of President Obama's promised and delivered assault on the coal industry, and on the hardworking Americans and their families in Central Appalachia.

This is a true American story about real American people. And we need more Americans like you to help us get it out.

The solicitation doesn't explain why a wealthy organization like the MRC -- which raised more than $15 million in 2015 -- can't pony up a measly $15,000 to edit and promote footage they've already shot.

And it looks like this documentary will be on the dishonest side. In the trailer -- which frames President Obama and his EPA as the sole source of misery in coal-mining country -- there's a clip of Obama saying, "You know, the irony is that what's actually hurt coal is not any EPA rules." That clip is cut off abruptly.

Why? Because Obama's full statement under mines the entire premise of the MRC's film. Here's the full statement by Obama, with the tiny snippet the MRC used in bold:

You know, the irony is that what's actually hurt coal is not any EPA rules as much as it is any really cheap natural gas that has come from fracking, a new technology that we developed that allowed the United States to become the leading producer of natural gas in the world. And those gas-fired plants -- natural gas-fired plants are now so much more efficient that even if there were no rules whatsoever, coal would be replaced by natural gas in terms of generating electricity. Natural gas is a little cleaner than coal, and what we are saying in the same way that natural gas has replaced a lot coal-fired plants, well, let's see if we can get that same kind of progress on solar and wind and, you know, hydro and other clean energies that are sustainable over the long term.

And what we to then do is invest in those communities that used to have a lot of coal miners, which was a tough, dirty job. Let's retrain them so that they're the ones who are installing wind turbines. Let's retrain them so they are getting jobs in the solar industry. And that's the nature of American innovaton and American change. We used to have a lot of folks who worked on farms. Farms became really efficient here in the United States, and what we did then is said, let's set up public schools and let's set up community colleges and land-grant colleges and let's have them work in the factories. And then now we're having them work in the digital world.

And you know, we can't abandon those communities, and there's still some market for coal. And I'm still investing, by the way, in technologies that could potentially pull the carbon out of coal so that -- there's a lot of coal here in the United States as there is in China and India. If we could figure out a way to do that cleanly, that should be part of our smart energy mix. But we can't stand still. America never has, it never will.

So it's not the EPA who's the only villain here, or even the main one -- it's also fracking, something conservatives like the MRC have championed. And Obama has not maliciously abandoned coal miners -- he supports retraining them for new jobs. Somehow, we doubt that retraining will get mentioned in the MRC's film.

Also, apparently nobody has told the MRC that Obama is not running for re-election, so bashing him seems rather pointless.

It looks like the only "collateral damage" we'll actually be seeing from the MRC is to the truth.

-- 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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80 Years of Greenland's Vanishing Glaciers  
Re-creating photographs from the 1930s can help scientists understand Greenland's melting glaciers and predict how quickly climate change might make them disappear into the sea. This video was...

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com  
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Time for Plan B: Europe Must Not Be Blackmailed by Turkey  
After agreeing to help the European Union control the flow of migrants heading north, the Turkish government now feels empowered to use the deal as leverage. Europe must now find an alternative to its agreement with Ankara, lest it subject itself to blackmail.  
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r0B0t: This badass little girl's pink robot was the real winner of 'Robot Wars'  

LONDON — To win Robot Wars, you need to outlast the other robots in your heat, make it through to the final and then crush your opponent in a fierce one-on-one fight to the death.

But that's not the only way you can win.

On Sunday's episode, the pink blade-wielding robot Glitterbomb — which came complete with a feisty little girl called April — may not have won the battle, but it was definitely the people's champion.

Here's Team Glitterbomb.

And here's April, the official "boss" of the team.

"I chose the colour scheme and I also chose the design," said April in the pre-battle interview. "It's a pink robot that's all glittery with a belt around its waist, and the axe is really spiky so it can dig in robots." Read more...

More about Uk, Reaction, Twitter, Bbc, and Robot  
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Billion-tonne IceCube: Sterile neutrinos do not exist  

We're, um, Straight Outta 'fourth' 'trons... 'trinos... you know what we mean scientists

Scientists are almost certain that the sterile neutrino does not exist after failing to find any sign of the ghostly particle at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in the South Pole.…

 
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Can our Weary World Keep Feeding Us?  
For most of us in Europe, 8th August is just another summer's day. But it also marks a more chilling moment in our calendar: the day our world starts going into debt. By the 8th we will have used up the supply of natural resources that the Earth can regenerate within one year. For the remaining 40 percent of the year, we will add to the overdraft of nature's budget.

Called 'Earth Overshoot Day', it is a stark reminder that the planet we live on has natural limits within which we must live. And perhaps no other sector is feeling these boundaries more than the agriculture sector that feeds us. As the population surges and our diets become more resource-intensive (think meat, dairy, oils), agriculture is faced with the Herculean task of meeting an ever-increasing demand for food while helping to sustain our landscapes and the very biosphere of the Earth itself.

Today, agriculture is the world's single largest driver of global environmental change, much of it negative. So the basic challenge is this: can we produce even more food by intensifying our agricultural production, yet stay within the Earth's budget? Can agriculture become a key contributor to a global transition to a sustainable world? According to a recent paper published in scientific journal Ambio, the answer is yes, if we take better care not to cross the 'planetary boundaries' that affect our food system most directly. This is what we need to do.

We need to make our soils a carbon trap. We must transform agriculture from the world's single largest source of greenhouse gases into a major sink by adapting the way we farm so we capture carbon in the soil. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, about 90 percent of agriculture's technical potential to reduce the effects of climate change lies in this very method.

We have to grow more food on less land and reduce waste. We need more forest cover for our Earth system to function sustainably rather than less. To reverse the trend of deforestation, we have to drastically reduce the conversion of forests into agricultural land by making existing farmland more productive and reduce the estimated 30% of waste in the food supply chain. Part of the answer lies in increasing the uptake of crop and livestock varieties that have a high ratio of productivity to use of inputs.

We must get more crop per drop. Around 70% of global freshwater is used for agriculture. To get back on budget, we need to improve water productivity in agriculture by 50 percent by 2030 by using water more productively. This can be done through conservation agriculture and managing water at the watershed level. Such measures can also improve resilience to climate shocks.

We should protect our biodiversity. Agricultural expansion is undermining the Earth's biodiversity at an alarming rate. Healthy agriculture depends on this genetic diversity, so we must encourage farming systems that adopt an ecosystems approach, that reduce biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes and value the services that the natural environment provides, such as the flood regulating effect of wetlands.

We need to use fertilizer more efficiently and recover nutrients. We are extracting too much nitrogen from the atmosphere and we are running out of the phosphorus we need to fertilize our food crops. The excess runoff pollutes our river and groundwater systems. We have to rebalance the way we use fertilizer, without increasing overall use and encourage the recycling of nutrients from human, agricultural, livestock and solid waste.

We need to reduce the energy footprint of agriculture. Groundwater irrigation supports an increasingly large proportion of food production with implications for energy use and resource depletion. We have increasing opportunities to expand the use of solar power and more efficient irrigation and food processing practices and thereby reduce emissions.

To tackle these challenges, we need to enlist the help of the world's farmers. Over 2.5 billion smallholders provide up to 80 percent of the food in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. For them to produce more over the long term, and reduce their ecological footprint, they have to be encouraged to shift their main focus beyond productivity to sustainability. To do this we will have to invest heavily in research into the crops, diets and farming practices that are healthy both for people and the planet.

We already have ways to achieve some of this painlessly - the so-called 'win-win' solutions. For example, farmers practicing conservation agriculture in Brazil (which involves minimal soil disturbance to maintain moisture, nutrients and carbon content) lost 30 percent less of their maize crop than conventional farmers when drought hit. Encouraging a shift to less resource-intensive diets - lower in refined sugars and fats - will address the twin challenge of improving global health and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and resource footprints.


Farmer and his daughter from Gurinder Singh using a solar powered irrigation pump / Prashanth Vishwanathan (IWMI)

In India, solar powered irrigation pumps offer an attractive way to access more groundwater to produce more food. This has the advantage of reducing emissions whilst improving productivity. But there are huge concerns about the sustainability of already diminished groundwater resources. To solve this, the International Water Management Institute and partners are testing ways to incentivize farmers to put unused electricity back into the national grid. This represents a triple win for farmers, the environment and the government.

We cannot pretend this will be easy - staying within our natural resource budget will require difficult trade-offs. But it is in all of our interests, as food producers or consumers, to tread more lightly on our planet which is already buckling under the pressure of our demands. Earth Overshoot Day should serve as a wake up call. Collectively, we need to balance nature's books, and live within our planet's boundaries.

-- 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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More than 60 per cent of coral reef in Maldives hit by bleaching  
High sea temperatures have caused a mass bleaching of coral reefs in Maldives in the Indian Ocean, affecting 60 per of its reefs and more in places  
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r0B0t: On-demand drone insurance launches in the US  
Drone accidents can be even more expensive than the drones themselves. However, giving your robotic flyer full insurance coverage might be overkill when you may only fly in short bursts every now and then. What to do? Verifly has an unusual answer:...  
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r0B0t: Does the Red Flag Guy at the Trap-Shooting Competition Have the Best Olympics Job? - Slate Magazine (blog)  

Slate Magazine (blog)

Does the Red Flag Guy at the Trap-Shooting Competition Have the Best Olympics Job? Slate Magazine (blog) 1.5 out of 3 for enviability, because while he's cock of the walk today, at some point in the future the red flag guy will probably be replaced by a red flag robot. And 1 out of 1 in the category of “having a really good view.” 7.5 out of 10 for red ...

 
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Earth Overshoot Day Arrives Earlier Than Ever  

Earth Overshoot Day 2016: August 8

As of today, we humans have used as much from nature in 2016 as our planet can renew in a whole year. Nothing will seem to change for many of us between today and tomorrow, but collectively we are draining Earth's capacity to provide. Overshoot Day is a red light warning of trouble ahead — and it is flashing five days earlier than it did last year (Aug. 13); eleven days earlier than the year before (Aug.19).

Earth Overshoot Day is devised by Global Footprint Network, an international think tank that coordinates research, develops methodological standards and provides decision-makers with a menu of tools to help the human economy operate within Earth's ecological limits.

To determine the date of Earth Overshoot Day for each year, Global Footprint Network says on its website,  the think tank calculates the number of days of that year that Earth's biocapacity suffices to provide for humanity's Ecological Footprint. The remainder of the year corresponds to global overshoot.

Watch the video and study the graphics; think what we can do about this.

 

Related Post:

Earth's ‘Annual Physical' Lists Symptoms of a Hotter World (Aug. 2016) — A new State of the Climate report confirmed that 2015 surpassed 2014 as the warmest year since at least the mid-to-late 19th century, says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).  Read the statement, view the charts.

 
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The Positive Impact of Environmental "Gamification"  
Getting people excited about environmental issues can take a bit of strategy. Natural resource depletion, global warming, landfill waste and water contamination are topics that can be intimidating when presented to the average consumer, especially for the demographic we most hope to reach: young people and future stewards. With so much on the line for establishing sustainable infrastructures for future generations, it is important that we find ways to engage youth and make motivations for environmentalism positive and fun.

Making complex concepts like sustainability and the importance of circular waste solutions compelling to young consumers can be a real game: literally and figuratively. One of the most popular, and effective, methods for engaging consumers is gamification, the simple concept of taking elements of a game and applying them to other areas of activity, like learning about implementing green habits. "Gamifying" environmental action campaigns has proven to be a very successful way to get consumers excited about CSR and environmental issues - and we've been doing it for years at TerraCycle.

Using animation and a multiplayer format, our social networking game Trash Tycoon made a splash on Facebook in 2011, allowing players to earn points for collecting trash in a waste-filled town and recycling and upcycling the items. In real life, every TerraCycle program offers individuals, businesses and organizations the opportunity to earn TerraCycle points for the waste they collect and send in, which are redeemable for cash donations to the charity or nonprofit of their choice. The more you recycle, the more points you get, and through brand sponsored contests like the Sensible Portions® DIY Poster Contest back in May, people have the opportunity to win additional TerraCycle points for an even larger contribution.

Incentivizing recycling through a points system quantifies an individual's environmental efforts with hard numbers, recognition of effort, the thrill of competition, and the opportunity to do something big for their community. This element of gratification creates a rewards system that is sometimes missing from conventional messaging.

Big companies like PepsiCo are catching on to the effectiveness of gamification in reaching young people with an environmental platform. For years, PepsiCo's Recycle Rally has engaged K-12 students, teaching the importance of recycling by incentivizing schools to track their bottle and can recycling. With an online tracking system and regular competitions and challenges, the "game" keeps young people immersed in the program and, therefore, in recycling. Through gamification, PepsiCo has recycled over 59 million beverage cans and bottles and awarded over $1 million in prizes since 2010.

Science competitions are a form of gamification that incentivizes knowledge of environmental issues and the application of the tools available to solve them with resources that allow students to make a difference in the future. The Siemens Competition in Math, Science, & Technology presents an opportunity to students to conceive engineering or technical solutions for different problems affecting the world, including environmental problems; winners are awarded scholarship money for the college or university of their choice. Focusing specifically on current and future water challenges, the Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) is a science research project competition in which students aged 15-20 compete on the state and national level for $10,000 and an all-expenses paid trip to represent the U.S. on the international level.

A personal stake in the world's sustainability challenges is the bridge that needs to be built for children and young adults to cross into the future as environmental stewards. Not only does game-based engagement create that connection, it allows environmental concepts to be learned, developed and used; like riding a bike, they'll never forget. Gamification is proven to work, so why not play?

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Green and sweet: How plant sugars influence malaria transmission  
Female mosquitoes are well known blood-feeders, but they also consume sugar sources such as nectar, fruits and tree sap. A study suggests that the plant-based part of their diet affects malaria transmission by influencing the host-pathogen interaction between Anopheles mosquitoes and Plasmodium parasites.  
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Sunrise 8 Aug 2016  

Sculptor Lil posted a photo:

 
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Sentry Birds  

Sculptor Lil posted a photo:

 
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Paul Dirac Scientist of the Day Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, an...  

https://cosmolearning.org/images/feynman-with-paul-a-m-dirac-951/




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac#/media/File:Dirac%27s_commemorative_marker.jpg

Paul Dirac Scientist of the Day

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, an English mathematician and physicist, was born Aug. 8, 1902.

read more…

 
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California's First in the Nation Climate Plan  
Even though the Supreme Court has frozen implementation of EPA's Clean Power Plan Rule while it decides on its constitutionality, last week California announced its plan to meet EPA's carbon reduction requirements. California knows it needs to reduce carbon even if the rule is deemed illegal. The California Air Resources Board, the powerful government agency that regulates the state's air quality, will simply extend the state's cap and trade carbon reduction policy over the number of years needed to meet the federal requirements. According to a Climate Wire piece by Anne C. Mulkern on August 3rd:

California's landmark cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions and proposed amendments to extend that system will be used to comply with U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan, the state said yesterday...Under ARB's draft blueprint, power plants and other energy generating units (EGUs) that participate in cap and trade in addition to that state requirement would have a federally enforceable mandate to comply because of CPP. California under CPP must meet an emissions target of a 13.2 percent rate reduction from 2020's level by 2030. It looks likely to hit that number. The only state with an economywide carbon cap, California aims to cut its greenhouse gas pollution to 1990 levels by 2020. It's writing regulations to reach 40 percent below that by 2030.

This forward-looking approach makes sense because even if the court throws out the Clean Power Plan, the Supreme Court has already ruled that greenhouse gases are dangerous air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act. That means that if the current rule is overturned, a new rule will still need to be developed by the Environmental Protection Agency. This means that states, companies and individuals will still need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. I believe that states that get ahead of the game will have an easier time complying than those states that decide to stall.

The same can be said for institutions such as universities, hospitals, and corporations. My view is that they should follow California's lead and get ready for a more efficient and renewable resource based economy. This is a low risk, high-payoff strategy for saving money by lowering the long-term cost of energy. There are a number of technologies that must still be developed to complete this transition, but we have all the technology we need to get started. Modern appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners are far more energy efficient than older appliances. LED light bulbs are already here and provide great illumination at a very low cost. Rooftop solar is currently available for single-family homes, and companies are willing to pay the cost of capital in exchange for a percentage of energy bill reduction. Solar water heating is here for everyone who wants to install it. Insulated walls and windows have been around for a while. While all of these technologies cost capital, the costs of capital can all be paid off from savings in energy bills. So the obstacles to a more efficient energy system are largely institutional, ingrained habit and uncreative finance.

The bigger lifts will be lower priced and smaller solar cells and cheaper but more convenient battery technologies. Solar and wind are intermittent, and so storage is critical. The other technology needed for a renewable energy economy is distributed or decentralized generation of energy. This requires smart grids. One goal of smart grids is to enable users to both consume and generate electricity; a second goal is to use modern computer technology to increase energy use when there is excess capacity and reduce energy consumption when supplies are strained. Smart grids have begun in the form of microgrids: small scale, computer controlled energy systems that provide backup for grid failure, but generate energy for local consumers and the broader electrical grid. Microgrids are being designed throughout New York State and institutions such as New York University already operate one. The way we get to the smart grid is by developing hundreds of microgrids and then tying them together.

The original electrical grid was not some giant federal infrastructure project. It was built incrementally in response to market demand for energy. Almost from the very start electricity has been a regulated utility, since it made little sense to invest in redundant generation and distribution systems. But the natural monopoly in electricity required government oversight. Rural electrification required government intervention because there was an insufficient ratepayer base in the countryside to amortize the cost of capital to build an energy system. Without energy, rural areas would have been abandoned and American political and social values did not favor depopulating the countryside for the sake of energy.

In other words, we know how to build an energy system and those same lessons can be used to modernize the grid. What is missing is the political will to get moving. California Governor Jerry Brown has shown us over and over again that he leads a government that is willing to look beyond the current crisis and envision the future. California is not alone; many other states, including New York are setting ambitious carbon reduction goals, even if they are not explicitly designed to comply with EPA's clean power rules.

The picture is not all pretty. It's true that America is responding to cheap gas by once again buying SUVs. But at the same time more and more young people are moving back to cities and small towns and don't even own cars. They rent and share cars when they need them. The era of the auto as ego extension is showing its first cracks in half a century. Last week I spent hours driving a rental car through Los Angeles gridlock. If this is someone's idea of a good time I'd like to meet them. California does not plan to do without energy. Every part of the modern economy requires energy and California projects that their demand for energy will continue to grow. The question is where does the energy come from? The answer is no new centralized power plants, reduced use of nuclear power, increased use of renewables and increases in energy efficiency.

The goal of the energy transition is to create a renewable energy system that is as effective and reliable as the current fossil fuel-based system. Microgrids provide backup capacity and vastly increase the reliability of power systems for consumers. A second goal of the energy transition is to switch off of fossil fuels and rely on solar, wind and geothermal sources of energy. This transition will take decades and we will need to find some way to allow the fossil fuel industry to recover the capital they invested in fossil fuel extraction and distribution once those sources are no longer needed. One possible solution is to use investment in renewable energy to provide tax benefits when they retire fossil fuel infrastructure. We need to help energy companies find their way to renewables, and the best way is through their wallets.

In this summer of political weirdness it is fitting that the guy once called Governor Moonbeam, California's Jerry Brown, is showing us the way to overcome inertia and implement a sound energy future. California has long represented America's future. From the gridlocked freeways of Los Angeles, to the zero waste policy of San Francisco, all our contradictions and aspirations are on display and compete for our attention. California's population is now over 39 million people and it is home to over 12% of America's population. It is encouraging that they are moving aggressively to reduce greenhouse gases. It increases the probability that the rest of the country will eventually follow their lead.

-- 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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Meatless Monday: Olympic Cool  
Record summer heat temperatures around the globe. Factor in Olympic fever, and it seems like there's no way to cool down. But there is. Naturally. To beat the heat, Ayurvedic medicine, that ancient Indian body-balancing system, advocates eating foods that are alkaline. They reduce inflammation in the body and act as your personal air conditioning unit. So what foods are alkaline? Most fruits and vegetables. A bonus -- much summer produce can take the heat as it grows, yet cool you down as you eat it. You don't have to remember (or pronounce) ayurveda, or even alkaline, just think mild, sweet-tart and bitter.

Mild-- Enjoy summer produce mild in flavor but high in water content, like zucchini and summer squash and celery. Melons like watermelon, cantaloupe and their kin, the cucumber, are also alkaline. This led my husband to make a cucumber martini. Nice try, but an icy martini or a cold beer isn't cooling. Or alkaline. Like meat, dairy, coffee and processed white sugar and flour, alcohol is acidic and inflammatory. Keep the cucumber, lose the booze, and keep hydrated. Drink water -- lots.

Sweet and tart -- Summer fruit like grapes, with their sweet flesh and tart skins, and local goodies including mangoes, antioxidant-rich berries and all manner of citrus have that juicy, sweet-tart zing going. Lemons and limes have that acidic sizzle on the tongue, yet create a more alkaline balance in your body. Think of lemonade on a brutally hot day. Summer fruits are fun and refreshing to eat even as they cleanse and cool the body.

Bitter-- The astringency in bitter greens -- that puckery sensation in the mouth -- acts as a natural cooling agent. Brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower and greens including dandelion and collards are also natural detoxers, decluttering your liver, lightening you up and cooling you down. While there's still the southern propensity to cook collards with a hunk of pig and simmer them till they're gray, in honor of our Olympic hosts, enjoy collards the Brazilian way, shredded and tossed with lemon. Known as couve a miniera, it's served throughout Brazil, with a variation or two, but always simple and vibrant.

We've yet to find the food -- or drug -- that guarantees Olympic victory, but we can connect you to the produce that'll help you beat the heat. How cool is that?

Couve a Miniera

Natural coolants collards and lemons come together in this vibrant salad/accompaniment you'll find throughout Brazil. I have a real fondness for this dish which is as simple to make as it is dazzling to eat. While many Brazilian recipes call for giving the greens a quick saute, these are shredded, raw and "cooked" only with the the acid from the lemon juice. Enjoy as a salad, sprinkle some into a tofu scramble, pair with beans, whole grains or grilled vegetables or as a filling for tortillas.

2 bunches collards greens
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 juicy lemons)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Wash the collards well. Blot dry. Slice out the thick central stems and discard (or reserve them to make broth later). Stack the collard leaves and roll them up widthwise, forming a tight collard cigar. Using your sharpest knife, slice across as thinly as possible, forming skinny ribbons -- collard tinsel -- or to use the correct culinary term, chiffonade. Alternately, using the shredding disc, shred the collards in a food processor. You'll have about 4 cups of greens. Congratulations, you've just done the toughest bit of the recipe.

Scoop the collards into a large bowl. Add the minced garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Toss to combine. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Enjoy. Couve a miniera keeps tightly covered and refrigerated for a day or two.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

More at soulfulvegan.com.

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Colourful landscapes ❤️  

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London <3

 
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One of the top international initiative to combat #illegalwildlifetrade is Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). 
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Breaking The Line by Patrick Ems

Patrick Ems: Photos

 
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Detlef Knapp: Photos

 
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Tonight's offerings are late, mainly as I shot close to 100 here tonight.

Thanks for all the views, Please check out my other photos and albums.

 
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r0B0t: Outsourced to robots - Bangkok Post  

Bangkok Post

Outsourced to robots Bangkok Post "As our manufacturing processes and the products we produce become more technologically advanced, automation is playing an increasingly important role in our operations," a Foxconn spokesman told Asia Focus by email. The workers who stayed are those ...

 
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London - England

 
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Violence, vandals and vomit: London's naughtiest tech Tube stations revealed  

Here's what really goes down at Old Street after dark

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Should people over 40 work a three-day week?  
While some work is good for your brain, doing more than 60 hours a week into your 40s is worse than doing nothing, according to a recent survey

Working full-time after the age of 40 is not good for the brain. Doing more than three days a week once you reach this age can damage your ability to think. A paper from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research says that, while working up to 30 hours a week is good for the brains of the over-40s, do any more than that and it goes downhill. If you were to work 60 hours a week, your cognitive ability would be worse than that of someone who didn't work at all. Still, on the plus side, you would have more money than them.

The researchers used data from more than 3,000 men and 3,500 women who completed the national Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (Hilda) survey. The survey tested the ability to read words aloud, recite lists of numbers and match letters and numbers in a speed trial. Testing reading is a measure of the “knowing” part of ability, says lead author Prof Colin McKenzie, while the other two tests capture fluid intelligence the “thinking” part of ability that includes memory, abstract reasoning and executive reasoning.

Continue reading...  
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Filtered sunlight gives off a blue aura inside a fumarole -- an ice tube formed around a volcanic steam vent -- atop Mount Erebus in Antarctica, the Earth's southernmost active volcano. The National Science Foundation runs the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP). In addition to maintaining three U.S. research stations on the continent, USAP supports research projects in an array of scientific disciplines including, for example, aeronomy and astrophysics, biology and medicine, geology and geophysics, glaciology, and ocean and climate systems. Outreach such as the Antarctic Artists and Writers program and education programs are also supported. For more information about USAP, visit the program's website here.

Image credit: National Science Foundation U.S. Antarctic Program; photo by Aaron Spitzer, Raytheon Polar Services Company (1990)

 
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Study maps hidden water pollution in US coastal areas  

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Researchers have uncovered previously hidden sources of ocean pollution along more than 20 percent of America's coastlines. The study offers the first-ever map of underground drainage systems that connect fresh groundwater and seawater, and also pinpoints sites where drinking water is most vulnerable to saltwater intrusion now and in the future. While scientists have long known that fresh water and seawater mix unseen below ground, until now they hadn't been able to pinpoint exactly where it was happening, or how much, except in limited locations.

Image credit: Image courtesy of The Ohio State University

 
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We've Already Used Up Earth's Resources For 2016 -- And It's Only August  
We've failed again.
It's less than eight months into 2016 and the ominous day is already nearly upon us: Earth Overshoot Day, previously known as ...

Read more: Environment, Natural Resources, Ecological Debt Day, Earth Overshoot Day, Green News

 
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City of Blinding Lights  

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"Yeah, the city of blinding lights
The more you know, the less you feel
Some pray for what others steal
Blessing's not just for the ones who kneel, luckily"
-U2

Having to go through old photos... this one from February in NYC

 
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He's in Charge of More Than a Million Jobs. Can He Handle It?  
Suresh Prabhu built a good-guy reputation in a corrupt country. Here's how he oversees the eighth-largest employer on the planet.  
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Tech Companies Embrace Election Season  

More than ever before, U.S. elections are a business opportunity. Social media companies are capitalizing on attention spent on the candidates.

 
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How The VCR Began America's Love Of On-Demand Content  

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r0B0t: Xbox One S review a beautiful upgrade, but only for 4K fanatics - The Guardian  

Inquirer

Xbox One S review a beautiful upgrade, but only for 4K fanatics The Guardian Microsoft's first major upgrade to console offers a sleek new chassis and 4K Ultra HD features but do you need them? Xbox One S is 40% smaller than its predecessor and has a striking new 'robot white' colour scheme. Photograph: Microsoft. Keith Stuart. Just Cause 3 revisited: has performance got better or worse?Eurogamer.net Xbox One S 500GB & 1TB bundles coming to the UK in OctoberDevelop Best UK Xbox One deals: Grab an Xbox One S with this week's best dealsAlphr Inquirer -Business Wire (press release) -Polygon -Daily Star all 102 news articles »

 
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River Thames - Sunset  

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3 shot panorama looking upstream from Tower Bridge

 
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Looks like it belongs on corporate literature.

 
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Many Commonly Used Drugs Are Useless  
Some medications are life saving. I am so thankful for the trusty med that tames my atrial fibrillation.

Many meds are helpful -- demonstrating superiority to placebo in ways that are clearly clinically significant and life enhancing.

But many (perhaps most) drugs are probably no more than very expensive placebos. Patients get prescriptions from doctors when their symptoms are most severe and improve with time and positive expectation, not because the med is really effective.

Doctors and patients need independent, objective information on drug efficacy and risks.

The multibillion dollar pharma marketing machine can turn even the most useless and harmful drugs into financial blockbusters. Doctors and patients need independent, objective information on drug efficacy and risks.

This is the first of a series of blogs aimed at setting the record straight. Dick Bijl is President of the International Society Of Drug Bulletins (ISDB), a wonderful organization representing 53 national drug bulletins, each charged with presenting the best available data on the pluses and minuses of different medications. Drug bulletins are a source of truth to help patients and doctors see through the fudged misinformation generated by ubiquitous Pharma propaganda.

Dick writes: "Let's use the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) as a typical example of why and how medication use has become so excessive."

Elderly men often experience problems urinating -- weak or intermittent urinary stream, straining, hesitancy, terminal dribbling, incomplete emptying, urgency, frequency, incontinence, nocturia and/or post-micturition dribbling. These symptoms, so common in aging, provide a lucrative target market for pharma.

In the past, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) was regarded as the most important cause of urinary symptoms. Nowadays, evidence confirming a link between LUTS and prostatic enlargement is regarded as weak. This hasn't prevented approval of many drugs for the treatment of BPH by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The bar for approval is set very low. Drug companies have only to show that their medication has a statistically significant advantage when compared to placebo. The FDA and EMA don't require that the med achieve what is ever so much more important- clinically relevant improvement as evidenced by patients actually also feeling and doing better when taking the drug. Small statistical blips are all it takes to get a drug approved.

There is a huge difference between statistical significance and clinical relevance. For example, the International Prostatic Symptoms Score is often used to quantify the treatment effects of urinary drugs. The IPSS scale goes from 0-35 with higher scores indicating more severe symptoms. A difference of ≥3 points = some effect; ≥5 points = moderate effect; ≥8 pt. = clear effect). In practice, it turns out that patients can't detect improvements if they are less than three points.

The results of clinical trials have shown that most drugs used to treat BPH are statistically more efficacious than placebo, but have no real clinical relevance. Because their improvement was less than three points, patients will not detect any difference between these drugs and placebo.

The same lack of clinical relevance holds for drug combinations. A combination of an alpha blocker and a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor or an alpha blocker and an antimuscarinic drug often results in statistically significant decreases in symptoms compared to placebo or to the individual drugs given alone. But here also, the differences were of such small magnitude that patients will not detect them.

Only in a small minority of clinical trials was the decrease in symptom score more than 3 points.
The lack of efficacy of BPS meds supports a policy of watchful waiting instead of starting drug therapy. The natural course of LUTS is quite favorable and in the majority of patients the severity of the symptoms will not increase.

Most (or all) of the relief patients feel taking the med is probably due to natural improvement or placebo effect, not to the med itself -- but they don't know this and will often misattribute benefit to the drug.

And almost all the drug studies have been performed in secondary and tertiary care. The results of these studies can't simply be generalized to primary care because it is not plausible that these patients have the same characteristics and therefore the same prognosis.

It's not rational to prescribe drugs that do not improve functioning more than placebo. Use of medication for LUTS should be discouraged since it is no better than placebo, but adds the risk of side effects. Counseling and re-assurance should be considered first.

Informed patients will be much less willing to take a drug that carries the risk of side effects, while offering at best only a very slight improvement in symptoms.

Whenever it is decided to start drug therapy, the best choice are alpha blockers. Side effects should be taken into account: fatigue, decreased vision, severe postoperative ophthalmological side effects or complications, orthostatic hypotension leading to headache and dizziness.
5-alpha reductase inhibitors should not be regarded as an alternative because of their small efficacy and side effects like gynecomastia, erection and ejaculation disorders, decreased libido, impotence, and breast cancer.

The antimuscarinics do not have a positive balance of efficacy and they have anticholinergic side effects (e.g., dry mouth, abdominal pain and constipation). Phosphodiesterase inhibitors have been introduced in recent years but studied insufficiently in comparative studied to give them a place. Combination-therapy should not be given because it does not have an added value related to clinical relevance but does add side effects.

We conclude that the natural course of LUTS in men is generally favorable; the pathophysiology of LUTS is not clear; the relation between prostatic volume and urinary complaints is weak; the mechanisms of action of meds is uncertain; and positive effects are small in placebo-controlled studies.

Therefore, primarily counseling and non-drug treatment are indicated and drug-treatment should be discouraged. In case a drug is needed only an alpha blocker is indicated, but this often just a very expensive placebo-therapy."

Thanks Dick for this illuminating analysis. Before considering any med useful, we should subtract placebo effect from reported efficacy- and also consider the considerable risk of med side effects and Pharma's ridiculously high prices.

In a rational world, people would be taking many fewer drugs, for much clearer indications, with benefits always balanced by consideration of risks, and with prices reflecting real value.

Medication use is now much more governed by pharma's commercial interest than by what is best for the patient.

-- 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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r0B0t: Best Jobs at the Olympics: Guy with Red Flag at Trap-Shooting Competition  

Nominee: Bearded, seated, red-flag-holding man.

Where to find him: Women's trap shooting final.

Job requirements: Wave a red flag whenever a trap shooter fails to hit the clay target. Sit without fidgeting for long periods of time. Look good in a hat.

Why this might be the best job at the Olympics: You have a very important role. You are the official arbiter of success or failure in trap shooting. There would be no trap-shooting events without you, the guy with the red flag. When a shooter misses the clay target, it's up to you to raise your red flag in a confident yet nonjudgmental manner. Your flag may not be bright red, but it's red enough.

As the guy with the red flag, you will get a lot of screen time. Your friends and family will have ample opportunity to see you on NBC's online trap-shooting livestream. “Look,” they will exclaim, “there he is, my good friend and/or relative, the guy with the red flag who's indicating that the woman with the gun just missed!”

Unlike other Olympic functionaries, the red flag guy is occasionally allowed to show some flair. Here, for example, he gives a slight nod of his head as he lowers his red flag. That's so red flag guy.

If you are lucky enough to be the red flag guy, you get to sit very close to the action, in your own chair, and don't have to worry about whether or not the person sitting next to you smells bad, because there is no one sitting next to you. Look at you, red flag guy, sitting there in the back-right of this clip, your red flag between your legs. You are the boss of trap shooting, in your own chill way.

Also, you get to wear a hat.

Why this might not be the best job at the Olympics: The job is sort of a downer, given that red flag guy springs into action to call out an athlete's failures. It's also fairly repetitive—flag up, flag down; flag up, flag down. Also, you have a lot of responsibility. You can't ever lose focus, or get up to get a Coke, lest you fail to raise your red flag at the appropriate moment. You also have to remember to bring the red flag every morning, and it seems like it would be easy to leave it at home if you are in a rush.

How this could be a better job at the Olympics: The red flag guy should have two flags: the standard red flag to indicate a missed shot, and one that says “good job” that he can wave to indicate a hit. Also, instead of a folding chair, the red flag guy should sit in a recliner.

Verdict: I'll give the job of “red flag guy” 3 out of 3 points for exposure, because it's hard to be more visible than the red flag guy at a trap-shooting competition. 2 out of 3 for enjoyment, because every day is a good day when your job entails sitting in a chair, wearing a cool hat, and waving a colorful flag. 1.5 out of 3 for enviability, because while he's cock of the walk today, at some point in the future the red flag guy will probably be replaced by a red flag robot. And 1 out of 1 in the category of “having a really good view.” 7.5 out of 10 for red flag guy. This is currently the best job at the Olympics.

Read more of Slate's Olympics coverage.

 
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Gathering of Birds and Photographers  

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Semipalmated sandpipers

 
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A young doe in meadows as the sun rose through early morning mist.

 
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Florida Company Gets Approval to Put Robotic Lander on Moon  
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Kew Bridge sunset  

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Bankers  

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After work near the Shard, Southwark , London, UK

 
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Eiger by Roland LCL  

Eiger by Roland LCL

Roland LCL: Photos

 
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Evening Fog by Thomas Clausen  

Evening Fog by Thomas Clausen

Thomas Clausen: Photos

 
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Charlotta the swimmer by Jan Ljunggren  

Charlotta the swimmer by Jan Ljunggren

Faking a hero picture of senior swimmer in the sunset in the archipelago in sweden

Jan Ljunggren: Photos

 
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Scarlet Macaws  

littlestschnauzer posted a photo:

one of the pairs of Scarlet macaws that were brought into the hotel, the Occidental Grand Xcaret, every morning. They sat on these perches quite happily, they had some seed /food in the hollowed section of the perch on which they were sat, and at lunchtime they would go back in. Mexico, 2016.

 
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American Crocodile  

Nick Scobel posted a photo:

Crocodylus acutus

A hatchling explores a mangrove estuary on a remote key in south Florida.

 
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