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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160811142634.htm  
Much ado about nothing: Astronomers use empty space to study the universe  
An international team of astronomers reports that they were able to achieve four times better precision in measurements of how the universe's visible matter is clustered together by studying the empty spaces in between.  
astronomy  

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160811142637.htm  
Hubble uncovers a galaxy pair coming in from the wilderness  
Two tiny dwarf galaxies have been observed that have wandered from a vast cosmic wilderness into a nearby 'big city' packed with galaxies. After being quiescent for billions of years, they are ready to party by starting a firestorm of star birth.  
astronomy  

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US re-release poster for BOILING POINT (Takeshi Kitano, Japan,...  

US re-release poster for BOILING POINT (Takeshi Kitano, Japan, 1990)

Artist: Ben Marra [see also]

Poster source: IndieWire

 
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http://insider.si.edu/2016/08/20000-lb-sculpture-newest-addition-smithsonians-hirshhorn-plaza/  
Crushed car on Hirshhorn Plaza  

Visitorsand driverson the National Mall have been surprised recently to encounter the Hirshhorn's jaw-dropping (rock-dropping) newest acquisition, a 1992 Dodge Spirit crushed under the weight of a 9-ton volcanic boulder with googly eyes. Installed Saturday, Aug. 6 in front of the museum's main entrance on Independence Avenue, the sculpture is titled “Still Life with Spirit and Xitle” and features a car being crushed by a volcanic boulder with a comical smiley face painted on it. This slapstick disaster scene is one of the most well-known works of art by artist Jimmie Durham, a sculptor who is known for his sense of humor and irreverence.

Due to its weight, museum staff used massive cranes, geo-location tools and precise engineering to carefully install the car first, and then the boulder.

Xitle (shy-tuhl) means, “spirit,” which is the name of both the Dodge model of the car and the volcano from which the rock was quarried. Deceptively simple, “Still Life with Spirit and Xitle” is intended to capture the clash between industrial and ancient spirits. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Mexican volcano Xitle, or “spirit,” erupted and destroyed the ancient city of Cuicuilo. To create the seemingly impulsive sculpture, Durham quarried a 9-ton boulder of red basalt from the archaeological site and used a crane to drop it onto the roof of a 1992 Chrysler Spirit. As a finishing touch, he graffitied the stone with a smug, cartoon-like face. Despite its comedy, the work carries a complex gravity, capturing the moment at which the spirits of ancient and modern collide. It will be on view through Summer 2017.

The post Crushed car on Hirshhorn Plaza appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

 
culture  

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U.S.S. Enterprise studio model conservation  

This is a short film showing the process of the detail paint work on the conservation of the original U.S.S. Enterprise studio model. The detail paint work was done between the 11 and 23 of April 2016, at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. (From William George on Vimeo).

The post U.S.S. Enterprise studio model conservation appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

 
culture  

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http://insider.si.edu/2016/08/extinct-wild-antelope-return-grasslands-chad/  
Extinct-in-the-Wild Antelope Return to the Grasslands of Chad  

Thirty years after the scimitar-horned oyrx were driven to extinction, the desert antelope will return to the last-known place it existed: Chad's Sahelian grasslands. The reintroduction—the culmination of decades of work—is being led by the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD), the government of Chad and their implementing partner, the Sahara Conservation Fund. The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) and Zoological Society of London are leading post-release satelite-tracking efforts that will result in the collection of one of the most comprehensive datasets for any wildlife species returned to its native habitat.

“This is an epic homecoming for this majestic species and a significant step forward for wildlife conservation,” said Steve Monfort, the John and Adrienne Mars director of SCBI. “Every conservationist aspires to ensure that wildlife thrive in their natural environment. This project was designed to ultimately give scimitar-horned oryx that chance, while also helping restore this grasslands ecosystem and to inspire and inform similar reintroduction efforts for other species.”

In July, SCBI postdoc Jared Stabach traveled to Chad where he helped fit 21 of 23 scimitar-horned oryx with GPS collars (two individuals were too young for collars but will return to the wild with the herd). Twice a day, Stabach and team will receive the position of every animal collared. Based on these coordinates, field staff will monitor the population. Overall the data will tell scientists where the oryx go seasonally, how far they travel, whether they stay together or disperse into different social groups, and even if a poacher has taken an animal.

“This dataset is gold to any conservation researcher,” Stabach said. “We know so little about this species in the wild and the data we're collecting will tell us where these animals are—and what's going on with them—in near real-time over a number of years. We're essentially opening up a window that will help us understand how and why individuals move across the landscape and allow us to monitor each individual in a way that was never before possible.”

The GPS collars are programmed to turn on and off at specific times, enabling scientists to monitor animal movements and compare them with landmarks in the environment—from shade trees to water sources to specific kinds of vegetation they like to eat. The collars also report the temperature and the animal's activity. An accelerometer in the collar can pinpoint an animal's movement in three directions; as an animal moves its head left to right or up and down, the accelerometer captures this information. SCBI scientists will use this data to assess behaviors, including the amount of time an animal spends eating or avoiding predators. The collars are equipped with a drop-off mechanism that allows scientists to remove the collars without recapturing the animal. This also ensures the animal will not wear the collar for its entire life span.

The project aims to build a self-sustaining population by releasing 500 wild oryx over the next five years. The released animals come from EAD's “world herd” of oryx, including animals raised in human care from the United States, Europe and United Arab Emirates. A few of the females set for release may also be pregnant, Stabach said.

“If a few calves are born soon after the release, they may imprint on the release site and return periodically,” Stabach said, adding that the team on the ground will provide water at the site during especially dry periods, which may also help to imprint the herd to the location. “It would be a momentous occasion—the first oryx born on native soil in decades.”

Climate change and human encroachment are among the primary threats to the antelope, which were also hunted to extinction and killed during times of civil unrest in Chad and neighboring regions. They were once widely distributed across the Sahel, from Senegal to Sudan. By releasing the oryx into their native habitat during the rainy season when better resources are available, giving them time to acclimate to the new climate in a large fenced area and hiring rangers to patrol the reserve—project partners are hopeful the animals will now have a better chance at survival.

The post Extinct-in-the-Wild Antelope Return to the Grasslands of Chad appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

 
culture  

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juxtaposed  

Rebecca Ang posted a photo:

London, UK
July 2016

This image shows both historical and modern architecture in London. In the foreground you see part of the Tower of London and Traitor's Gate. In the background you see The Gherkin and The Sky Garden.

Copyright Rebecca Ang 2016. All Rights Reserved.
Do not copy, reproduce, download or use in any way without permission.

 
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http://mashable.com/2016/08/08/dead-worm-tesco-cucumber-funeral  
Awesome!  

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A Stop-Motion History of the Word 'Tomato'  

Tomatoes were discovered by conquistadors in Aztec lands and, once brought back to Europe, referred to as an "apple of gold." This clever stop-motion animation by Caitlin Craggs explores the etymology of the tomato—it's part of a larger series of films that will touch on the origins of ubiquitous foods. Craggs is a student of experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts; more of her work and projects can be found on her website.

 
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London sunset  

Justin S Reid posted a photo:

via 500px ift.tt/1Wt9CRh

 
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How A Single-Celled Organism Almost Destroyed All Life On Earth  
Cyanobacteria, a very simple organism, caused the first mass extinct ion in Earth's history. It was an accident.  
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Thomas Bewick Scientist of the Day Thomas Bewick, an English...  

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Thomas Bewick Scientist of the Day

Thomas Bewick, an English artist, naturalist, and print maker, was born Aug. 12, 1753.

read more…

 
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SETI Institute: Turn down the radio. Better! Let's have another look for those aliens  

QTH? Lower-frequency 'scope seeks ET

The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence Institute is launching a pilot experiment that will hunt for signs of alien civilisation using the Murchison Widefield Array, a low frequency radio telescope.…

 
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He's Brilliant, She's Lovely: Teaching Computers To Be Less Sexist  

Algorithms teach computers how to process language. But because they draw on human writing, they have some biases. Researchers are trying to weed out those problematic associations.

 
science  

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9cc8176f03e6a7857cbd2bce799b5802  

gevorgyanzara posted a photo:

England, London, Westminster, London Eye and Big Ben at dusk

 
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London Sunset  

cat_collector posted a photo:

 
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Red Panda  

Mathias Appel posted a photo:

Munching on some bamboo.

 
gaia  

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Surveys of corn, soybean fields reveal implications for pollinator conservation  
What kind of insect pollinators are commonly found in corn and soybean fields? The answer to that question can be found in a new article, say researchers who used modified pan traps to compare the insect communities found in the two crops.  
gaia  

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Plant response to carbon dioxide emissions depends on their neighbors  
Plants may have a hard time adapting to climate change if they move to new regions to keep up with changing habitats, according to new research.  
gaia  

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Morphological analysis of a light-controlling organ suggests two new deep-sea fish species  
Two new species can be added to the bioluminescent deep-sea fish family Opisthoproctidae, or 'barreleyes' -- named for the fishes' tubular eyes -- according to a new study.  
gaia  

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Sunrise 12 Aug 2016  

Sculptor Lil posted a photo:

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2016%2Faug%2F12%2Fivory-trade-elephants-future-forest-poachers&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
The ivory trade isn't just a disaster for elephants. It threatens our future too | Ian Redmond  
Elephants prop up the forest and savannah ecosystems we need to store carbon. To stabilise the climate, we must stop their slaughter by ivory poachers

Today is World Elephant Day, when people with a passion for pachyderms come together to celebrate the wonder of elephants and raise funds to protect them. It seems paradoxical that the largest land animal, which has come to symbolise strength and sagacity, should be so vulnerable but across Africa and Asia numbers are dwindling as human activities and expanding agriculture squeeze elephants into smaller and smaller patches of fragmented habitat.

Related: African elephants 'killed faster than they are being born'

Related: Britain is hastening the extinction of the African elephant | Jonathan Baillie

Continue reading...  
gaia  

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The curious case of a wearables cynic and his enduring fat bastardry  

Let's get physical, physical

Something for the Weekend, Sir? I owe everything to a quick one off the wrist.…

 
general  

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http://twitter.com/megzhulme/status/764036500883251200 
In 1989, CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) issued an international ban on the... https://t.co/OJ41IQhLxZ 
https://t.co/OJ41IQhLxZ 

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Street Action - London South Bank  

Yannis_K posted a photo:

All rights reserved ©

 
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One Chef In The Kitchen  

Kieran Williams Photography posted a photo:

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F167368541%2Fthis-light-of-mine-by-delton-barrett&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
This light of Mine by Delton Barrett  

This light of Mine by Delton Barrett

Everyone is not gonna' like everything you create but it's not your passion to create what others will like, is it? Be you. Follow me up on my Instagram and Facebook Page.

Delton Barrett: Photos

 
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Ten trillionths of your suntan comes from intergalactic photons  

But fear not our galaxy has in-built SPF protection

Astronomers led by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia have calculated that ten trillionths of your suntan comes from beyond our local galaxy.…

 
science  

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Slowly pulling proteins apart reveals unexpected path to stability  

Full Text:

To get a detailed look at how different proteins are folded, researchers freeze them in a crystalline structure and bombard them with extremely short bursts of x-rays. By recording how the x-rays bounce off the samples, scientists can reconstruct the different shapes—or conformations—that a protein can take. They then use a variety of techniques to determine how the proteins fold themselves into their final structures. But there are limits to these techniques that have caused most studies to focus on smaller, simpler proteins. The average protein found within a human cell, however, is neither small nor simple. Most are more like an economy-sized box of Christmas lights that have haven't been opened in a decade. In a new study, researchers at Duke University have taken a different approach to studying the conformations of one of these larger proteins. By slowly pulling apart a protein called Protein S, they discovered a previously unknown stable conformation made possible by a little help from its best friend. The results show that biochemists need to start rethinking some of their assumptions.

Image credit: Duke University

 
science  

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Killer whales in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica  

Full Text:

Killer whales in McMurdo Sound near the McMurdo Station, the National Science Foundation's (NSF) main logistics and research hub on Antarctica. NSF 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: Jeanne Cato, National Science Foundation

 
science  

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Juno shoots 'Marble Movie' of Jupiter  

Blinded observers granted gift.

NASA has gifted blinded space fanciers another glimpse of Jupiter through its Juno cameras.…

 
science  

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Elephants on the path to extinction - the facts  

The world's population of elephants is nearing a critical point. Karl Mathiesen explains why there has never been a more dangerous time to be an elephant

The largest of all land beasts, elephants are thundering, trumpeting six-tonne monuments to the wonder of evolution. From the tip of that distinctive trunk with its 100,000 dextrous muscles; to their outsize ears that flap the heat away; to the complex matriarchal societies and the mourning of their dead; to the points of their ivory tusks, designed to defend, but ultimately the cause of their ruin.

Continue reading...  
gaia  

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X-ray pulsars plot the way for deep-space GPS  
New method could be autonomous, increasing the capabilities of future interstellar missions  
science  

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Rickshaw Confessions — From a Driver in Mumbai  
"My only complaint is that during the night shift, sometimes you get people who are very drunk, and I don't like that."  
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A Famous Fortuneteller Reveals His Secrets  
This feng shui master predicted Osama bin Laden's death, Ebola's spread and the 2014 World Cup winner.  
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The Race To Save A Dying Language  
I n 2013, at a conference on endangered languages, a retired teacher named Linda Lambrecht announced the extraordinary discovery of a previously unknown language.  
gaia  

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Climate Change This Week: The Melting Third Pole, Politics' Climate Clash, And More!  
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.




Saving BUB, beautiful unique biodiversity, like this painted bunting that lives in southern US woods, is another reason to conserve carbon storing forests. Credit B. Hoag

Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon

OO Zombie Forest Carbon Emissions Haunt The Planet-Deforestation has several long-lasting effects on climate and biodiversity. Decomposing trees release a huge volume of lagging CO2, killing species and hobbling efforts to fight global warming, shows a new study.

Takeaways:

• Deforestation starts off long term climate-changing emissions
• 
  
• Extinguishes species in the short and long term
• 
  
• Replaces the habitat with a warmer, drier, degraded one.

• An acre of forest is lost every second.
• 
  
• Half the world's forests are already gone.

With the continuing loss of natural carbon storage systems, "We're losing the ability to really solve the climate crisis," said Jeff Horowitz, the founder of the nonprofit Avoided Deforestation Partners.


When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.

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VISUALIZE GLOBAL WARMING...




These videographics show how our fossil fuel burning is leading to an 'out of control' climate via (left to right) using up our carbon budget, increasing levels of CO2, and increasing surface temperature. That last one shows how heating has accelerated especially in the last decade.

OO Perfect Illustrations Of How The Climate Is Spiraling 'Out Of Control'


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GOOD IDEAS




Credit Randy Scott Slavin

How Much More Space Is There For US?

OO Clean Energy Won't Save Us - Only A New Economic System Can - time to pour our creative energies into imagining a new global economy. Infinite growth is a dangerous illusion.

Daily Climate Editor Pete Myers notes: The "energy density of renewables is insufficient to substitute for current uses of fossil fuels. We can live on 100% renewables, but society will be on a different operating system."




An eco village in Amsterdam. Source EFFEKT at ReGen

OO How Eco-Friendly Communes Could Change The Future Of Housing - An increasing number of US landowners want to build commune-style villages that are completely self-sufficient and have a low carbon footprint.





OO Engineers Work To Cut Costs And Emissions In Geothermal Power where the US leads the world with 3+ gigawatts. Takeaways:

• There is far more US geothermal potential;
• 
  
• The US Department of Energy is spending11+ Million
• 
  
• On projects to improve geothermal prospecting
• 
  
• And develop underground carbon storage.

OO US Company Launches a Corporate Clean Energy Research Network - Schneider Electric created the online network to help other businesses accelerate the adoption of renewables in the U.S. and abroad.

The New Energy Opportunities (NEO) Network helps corporate end users, solution providers, banks, law firms and others get the resources they need to accelerate renewable energy investments.



Drinking Water Is Endless - If You Desalinate ItThe Sorek desalinization plant in Israel. Courtesy of IDE Technologies

OO Israel Ups Its Water Efficiency driven by dry necessity. Researchers at the Zuckerberg Institute:

• have pioneered new techniques in drip irrigation, water treatment and desalination.
• 
  
• have developed resilient well systems;
• 
  
• and biological digesters than can halve the water usage of most homes.

While the Middle East is drying up, "The only country that isn't suffering acute water stress is Israel" says an institute researcher.


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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS




Credit Vadim Ghirda at AP

OO Climate Change Increases The Risk Of War, Scientists Prove The heatwaves, droughts and other natural disasters expected to increase because of global warming are helping to push countries into armed conflict, particularly those already split along ethnic lines.

A statistical analysis of conflict outbreaks and climate calamities between 1980-2010 showed that
nearly 25% of conflicts in ethnically divided countries coincided with "climatic calamities."






OO The Flood Next Time: Warming Raises The Risk Of Disaster


OO Rising Seas Threaten To Swamp U.S. Military Bases By 2050 along the East and Gulf Coast.


OO Baltimore, MD: Heavy Rains Cause Flash Flooding,
Stranding Drivers And Knocking Out Power To Thousands




Coming To Puerto Rico, and the rest of the US? Climate change has enabled zika carrying mosquitoes to spread.

OO Puerto Rico: Zika Could Affect 10,000 Pregnancies By Year's End says the US Center for Disease Control, putting hundreds of babies at risk of catastrophic birth defects.


OO Los Angeles, CA: Wildfire Chases 20,000 People From Homes Nearby as it continued to rage through nearby drought-parched canyons and foothills.





Justice Is Calling

OO World's Largest Carbon Producers Face Landmark Human Rights Case - the world's largest oil, coal, cement and mining companies have been given 45 days to respond to a complaint that their greenhouse gas emissions have violated the human rights of millions of people living in the Philippines.


OO India: 1+ Million People Hit As Floods Worsen In Assam Tea Region submerging hundreds of villages, and inundating large swathes of farmland and damaged roads, bridges and telecommunications services recently.


*
*

A SWEET SPOT IN CREATING SUSTAINABLE POPULATIONS




Triple Win: Using Profits to Provide Needed US Family Planning - Medicines360.org is key to creating a sustainable US population and bright futures for women - AND saving taxpayers many billions yearly in community costs by preventing unintended pregnancies. Source medicines360.org

*
*

CLIMATE CHANGE COSTS




Wikimedia Commons

OO Southern Africa: Herdsmen To Central Bankers Count Drought Cost
For Years To Come as drought wiped out livestock, pushed up food prices and caused power shortages and protests.


OO France To Support Grain Farmers After Crops Hit By Torrential Rains and lack of sunshine in late spring.


*
*

FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE



@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels - and distributing the revenues back to all of us.

The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. What's not to like? Check it out!

*
*

NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS




Changing Seas Are Changing Fish like this Ocellated Wrasse. Credit Natascia Tamburello, University of Palermo

OO Climate Pollution Can Change Fish Mating Behaviors - exacerbating stresses on entire ocean ecosystems, already stressed by overfishing, warming, acidifying waters and plastic and oil pollution.






Source www.roverpass.com

OO Lake Tahoe, CA, Is Warming At Alarming Rate,
Reflecting Rapid Sierra Climate Change and is showing some severe impacts from the changing climate.


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*

MELTDOWN




Climate Change in Action - runoff from a melting Tibetan glacier. Credit Wayne McAllister

OO Melting Tibetan Ice Sheet Threatens 1+ Billion People in Asia - Takeaways:

• the largest ice sheet outside the North and South Poles;
• 
  
• aka the Third Pole, it is the source of Asia's 10 largest rivers, and their fertile deltas.
• 
  
• It is also a major engine of global weather.

• Those rivers and deltas support 1+billion people in
• 
  
• China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

Measuring the Melt Chinese scientists have bee monitoring the area for several years. Credit Wayne McAllister

• The Third Pole has heated 1.5 C (3 F) in 50 years;
• 
  
• 500 glaciers have disappeared and the largest are melting rapidly,
• 
  
• Far faster than expected.

Watering Desert Oases Tibetan glaciers are also supplying water to 56 million people along part of the historic silk road in China. Credit Wayne McAllister

• Initially, the melt will provide more water, but
• 
  
• Over the next 30 years it will decrease,
• 
  
• Drastically affecting agriculture in Asia,
• 
  
• And affecting weather globally.

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*

FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES




Got Enough Pipelines Yet? This is a 2012 US pipeline map. Source US Dept of Transportation

OO Pipeline Expansion Threatens US Climate Goals,
Study Says - pumping natural gas from the Appalachian fracking hub to consumers throughout the eastern U.S., commits the country to high carbon emissions.


OO Texas: Big Coal's Tax Dodge Puts Schools, Hospitals In Dire Straits


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*

SPEAKING OUT




Following the Coal Pollution Sierra Club kayakers have been protesting it for years. Source www.commercialappeal.com

OO Environmentalists Blast TVA Plan To Leave Coal Ash At Power Plants


OO Environmentalists Target Another TransCanada Proposed Pipeline that could send hundreds of supertankers laden with crude oil down the Atlantic coast to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.





Keeping It Beautiful A Colorado-based nonprofit, the Conservation Lands Foundation, has helped the Bureau of Land Management, the nation's largest landlord, conserve and maintain its holdings.

OO Western Nonprofit Is Changing The Face Of BLM - The 18 member staff of the Conservation Lands Foundation has:

• helped push President Obamas to create 4 million, mostly BLM acres of National Monuments;
• 
  
• created several "friends" groups to help BLM conserve its lands;

• helped market BLM's National Conservation Lands
• 
  
• help distract BLM from acceding to commercial exploitation of its resources
• 
  
• helped up donations to the BLM
• 
  

Not bad, guys - what a model for other nonprofits!




Bob Inglis Source www.pri.org

OO Ex Republican Congressman: His Party's
Denial of Climate Science
is 'Courting Disaster' With Voters says Bob Inglis of South Carolina. The position is "out of step with where the science is and where the smart money is [which] is already moving to act on climate."


*
*

GOOD CLEAN NEWS




OO European Offshore Wind Investment Hits €14 Billion In 2016


OO Rockefeller Fund Divests From Fossil Fuels,
Now Invests In Renewables - providing $10 million to Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd. to expand renewable energy in Africa.. The investment will help finance as much as $1.9 billion for green energy in Africa.


OO Chicago, IL: RedWave Energy Raises $5.5 Million to Turn Heat Into Electricity




OO Molten Storage and Thermophotovoltaics Offer New Solar Power Pathway - by capturing heat from thermal solar plants and storing it in liquid metal, for ultimate conversion to electricity. The estimated costs would be a magnitude lower than turbine conversion systems, suggests a new study.


*
*

CLIMATE LEADERSHIP




OO GOP And Democratic Platforms Highlight Stark Differences On Energy And Climate - Takeaways:

• Republicans embrace fossil fuels,
• 
  
• Democrats push for climate action.
• 
  
• Legislators tend to hew to party platforms.

A Stark, Clear Difference in the two major candidates: one will act on climate change, the other's policies will contribute to it.

Related Headlines:

OO Climate Change Divide Bursts To Forefront In Presidential Campaign - Hillary Clinton highlights her plans to combat global warming. Donald J. Trump dismisses the science as a hoax.


OO Clean Energy Groups See Opportunities In Clinton's Jobs Plan




OO EPA Finding Clears Way For Limit On Aircraft Climate Changing Emissions


*
*

ELECTION YEAR:




If You Don't Vote For Climate Action, You Can Forget The Rest - in a climate-changing world of famine, drought, rising seas, giant storms and heat waves, there will be no security in jobs, health, wealth, or national safety. There will be chaos ensuing from increasing crises and disasters. Vote.

OO Global Warming Policies We Set Today Will Determine The Next 10,000 Years - of global warming, a new study shows -- and whether our civilization survives or not: history shows that harmful climate change has destroyed civilizations before.

This time, it could be worldwide. Let's keep "The Hunger Games" in the realm of fiction.

*
*



If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.




@@ The Cost of Unintended Pregnancy: Too Young

Teen childbearing cost US taxpayers $9+ Billion in 2010
And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:
publicize where women can access affordable contraception.



They can go here to find locations:




And there are many more actions you can do, right here.

*
*
*

SOLAR KEEPS FLYING




Spanish Eagle Patrol Salutes Solar Plane Source Solar Impulse


OO Sun-Powered Airplane Completes Historic Trip Around the World using only solar power. Although mechanical setbacks meant the entire trip spanned over a year:

• The plane flew 23 days in 17 stages nearly 27,000 miles;
• 
  
• Solar powered by day, it glided by night.

"I'm sure that within 10 years we'll see electric airplanes transporting 50 passengers on short to medium haul flights," said co-pilot Bertrand Piccard.





OO Minnesota: 'Value of Solar' Gains Another Foothold

"Value of Solar" approach (VOS) includes external factors like:

• Avoided transmission investments,
• 
  
• Positive health and environmental impacts of clean energy
• 
  
• Helping the grid on sunny days when extra power is often needed.

The state is the first to adopt a VOS approach for determining how much community solar customers will be paid for the power their projects produce.




Check it out here, right now!

*
*
*


WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS




Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Aug 11, 2016

How unusual has the weather been? No one event is "caused" by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.

Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: despite cool surface temperatures, the drought continues in California.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures - not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.

*
*
*



There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I've compiled, "Climate Change News Resources," at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.

To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!

Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this wild flower I photographed one spring. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.

-- 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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Mary Ellen Harte: Climate Change This Week: The Melting Third Pole, Politics' Climate Clash, And More!  
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.




Saving BUB, beautiful unique biodiversity, like this painted bunting that lives i...

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Part One: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Writing the Black Panther Comics  

Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses his experience writing the Black Panther comics with fans. Watch parts two and three.

 
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Part Two: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Writing the Black Panther Comics  

Ta-Nehisi Coates met with fans at Phantom Comics in D.C.'s Dupont Circle to discuss his experience writing the Black Panther comics. You can watch parts one and three.

 
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Part Three: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Writing the Black Panther Comics  

Ta-Nehisi Coates sits down with Black Panther comics fans at D.C.'s Phantom Comics to answer questions about his experience writing Marvel's revamped series. You can watch parts one and two.

 
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Sundown over the Serpentine  

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HC9Q2947-1H  

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3944 London Skyline  

andy linden posted a photo:

 
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Brixton 9/8/16  

Nick-Weedon posted a photo:

 
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http://twitter.com/NoAnimalPoachin/status/763846062561898496 
@NoAnimalPoachin .... in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to sell ivory. 
http://ifttt.com/missing_link?1470951504 

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London - a river perspective  

Flamenco Sun posted a photo:

 
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London - a river perspective  

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My very old photo from London, where I used to live.?  

ela.barnes posted a photo:

 
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Beyond The Bad Press: Rio de Janeiro's Urban Forests  
Over the next few weeks, the first Olympic Games ever to be hosted in South America will be taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the lead up to the global event, Rio has been getting extensive media attention, most of it not being the best of publicity. Inadequate and incomplete infrastructure, corruption, and the Zika virus are just some of the issues that have been getting the spotlight. Rio's environmental debacles have also been getting a lot of global attention: a contaminated bay and beaches where athletes from around the world are coming to compete in is particularly worrying. The city lacks a basic sewage system and the Bay of Guanabara was supposed to be cleaned up before the start of the games (but never was). Yet despite all the negative media and attitudes, Rio's Olympic Opening Ceremony provided a peak into one of the many reasons the Cidade Maravilhosa (or Marvelous City) gets its name and an impressive environmental trait that not many other cities can claim: Rio de Janeiro has the world's largest urban forest.

In what was another first for the Olympic Games, the Opening Ceremony highlighted the host country's rich cultural and environmental diversity. It made an extraordinary statement as it brought climate change and human's responsibility to the forefront of the audience's attention, as well as the role forests and trees play in combating a warmer world. The ceremony even went even further by giving each country participating in the games a seed of a different native tree species that would then be planted in Rio's Athlete's Park (totaling 207 different species of trees).

When forests are mentioned along with "Brazil," the Amazon rainforest is usually the first thing to come to mind. Yet the country is actually home to various unique forests and ecosystems that create Brazil's ecological makeup. The Mata Atlântica is a forest that runs along Brazil's coast and that, although smaller in size, "harbors a range of biological diversity similar to that of the Amazon." Rio de Janeiro's urban forest and national park (Parque Nacional da Tijuca) makes up 3,953 hectares or 39 square kilometers (15 square miles) of the Mata Atlântica.

Why the big deal about urban forests? Forests are vital players in the ecosystem and have an important role in providing us with essential natural resources and services. Besides removing CO2 from the air and providing oxygen, regulating soil erosion and runoff, acting as a filter for clean water, and promoting biodiversity in landscapes that are often lacking flora and fauna, urban forests also improve the quality of life of citizens and provides them with nature and wilderness to enjoy. Living along side forests encourages the idea of humans being a part of nature and brings tourism (in 2014, the Parque Nacional de Tijuca saw over 3 million visitors, as it also contains the famous Cristo Redentor or Christ the Redeemer statue as well as popular hikes to Pedra Bonita and Pedra da Gávea). The park is also home to 67 threatened plant species (and protects 11 species that aren't found in any other protected area) and 226 species of birds and 63 species of mammals: all this located right in the metropolitan's borders.

Some may criticize the Opening Ceremony's eco-theme and environmentally conscious framing as a way to hide the city's various environmental issues such as lack of sewage system or the country's deforestation patterns. And while these are major issues Brazil needs to address, Rio's environmental status should not be completely undermined. The city was innovative in using this year's Olympic games opening ceremony as a way to provide an important and powerful message to the millions of people that watched. It signals to us that times are changing and it also shows Brazil's potential to be an environmental leader. In a time when the Cidade Maravilhosa has gotten some negative media attention, particularly in regard to its environmental record, let's take a look at the thousands of acres of forest that can be found in the city, and laud the impressive and historic effort to bring climate change's urgency to the attention of people around the world.

In light of the Olympic Games in Rio, watch out next week for the second piece of the "Beyond the Bad Press: Rio de Janeiro's Urban Forests" series by The Sustainability Co-Op.

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

 
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The 11th Hour: A Titanic Effect On The Climate Conversation  
(Cross-posted at Citizens Climate Lobby)

Studies show that the voting public grasps a problem really only when politicians and the media talk about it repeatedly and with urgency. Climate scientists say that the window of opportunity is closing, and the important decisions to avoid dangerous [global] warming must be made in the next four to eight years.

Desi Doyen of the nationally syndicated Green News Report, August 2, 2016

Politicians may not be discussing climate change with the necessary urgency, and mainstream media entities have yet to "wake up and smell the carbon" (to quote environmental journalist Betsy Rosenberg), but as Desi Doyen suggests, powerful voices can indeed direct public attention to the issue of climate protection--and a new study reaffirms this reality.

As the Washington Post's Chris Mooney reports:

Earlier this year, a team of researchers documented that when Charlie Sheen told the world that he had HIV, media attention to the virus -- which had been in long decline -- spiked massively. And now, many of the same researchers are back with another demonstration. They find that when Leonardo DiCaprio used his Oscar speech earlier this year to exhort action on climate change, tweets and Google searches about the topic were enormous and, at least in the case of tweets, appear to have set a new record based on analyses between 2011 and the present.

"A single speech, at a very opportunistic time, at the Oscar ceremony, resulted in the largest increase in public engagement with climate change ever," says John Ayers of San Diego State University, who completed the work with colleagues from the University of California San Diego, the Santa Fe Institute, and other institutions. Their study was just published in the open access journal PLOS One....



The authors add that when DiCaprio spoke, the total number of Tweets that contained the phrases "climate change" or "global warming" "were at the highest recorded value in our database with more than 250,000 tweets on that day." And then there were the Google searches. These, too, spiked, so much so that it represented the "third-highest point ever recorded for climate change or global warming on Google trends."

Shortly after DiCaprio's Oscar win, Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian
chronicled DiCaprio's two decades of dedication to action on climate. DiCaprio has worked with nationally-syndicated radio host Thom Hartmann on a
series of compelling short films about the need to combat carbon pollution, as well as a longer documentary on our planetary peril that was recently
acquired for distribution by National Geographic Channel (which will also broadcast the follow-up to the acclaimed 2014 series Years of Living Dangerously beginning October 30).

As was the case with the original series, Years of Living Dangerously 2 will focus on those pushing for effective solutions to the problem of carbon pollution--including the Citizens Climate Lobby members who attended this past June's international conference and lobby day in Washington, D.C. (actor Bradley Whitford was the special correspondent for the CCL-related segment). YOLD 2 and the as-yet-untitled DiCaprio documentary will continue to raise needed awareness about the consequences of carbon. Hopefully, the success of both productions will encourage cable and network television decision-makers to dramatically expand climate-focused content on our channels (after all, the Summer Olympics
only come once every four years). If DiCaprio and other concerned celebrities can induce the mainstream media to give climate change the lead-story coverage it deserves, it will mark the inception of dramatic progress in the fight for a stable future.

-- 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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Beyond The Bad Press: Rio de Janeiro's Urban Forests  
Over the next few weeks, the first Olympic Games ever to be hosted in South America will be taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the lead up to the global event, Rio has been getting extensive media attention, most of it not being the best of publicity. Inadequate and incomplete infrastructure, corruption, and the Zika virus are just some of the issues that have been getting the spotlight. Rio's environmental debacles have also been getting a lot of global attention: a contaminated bay and beaches where athletes from around the world are coming to compete in is particularly worrying. The city lacks a basic sewage system and the Bay of Guanabara was supposed to be cleaned up before the start of the games (but never was). Yet despite all the negative media and attitudes, Rio's Olympic Opening Ceremony provided a peek into one of the many reasons the Cidade Maravilhosa (or Marvelous City) gets its name and an impressive environmental trait that not many other cities can claim: Rio de Janeiro has the world's largest urban forest.

In what was another first for the Olympic Games, the Opening Ceremony highlighted the host country's rich cultural and environmental diversity. It made an extraordinary statement as it brought climate change and human's responsibility to the forefront of the audience's attention, as well as the role forests and trees play in combating a warmer world. The ceremony even went even further by giving each country participating in the games a seed of a different native tree species that would then be planted in Rio's Athlete's Park (totaling 207 different species of trees).

When forests are mentioned along with "Brazil," the Amazon rainforest is usually the first thing to come to mind. Yet the country is actually home to various unique forests and ecosystems that create Brazil's ecological makeup. The Mata Atlântica is a forest that runs along Brazil's coast and that, although smaller in size, "harbors a range of biological diversity similar to that of the Amazon." Rio de Janeiro's urban forest and national park (Parque Nacional da Tijuca) makes up 3,953 hectares or 39 square kilometers (15 square miles) of the Mata Atlântica.

Why the big deal about urban forests? Forests are vital players in the ecosystem and have an important role in providing us with essential natural resources and services. Besides removing CO2 from the air and providing oxygen, regulating soil erosion and runoff, acting as a filter for clean water, and promoting biodiversity in landscapes that are often lacking flora and fauna, urban forests also improve the quality of life of citizens and provides them with nature and wilderness to enjoy. Living alongside forests encourages the idea of humans being a part of nature and brings tourism (in 2014, the Parque Nacional de Tijuca saw over 3 million visitors, as it also contains the famous Cristo Redentor or Christ the Redeemer statue as well as popular hikes to Pedra Bonita and Pedra da Gávea). The park is also home to 67 threatened plant species (and protects 11 species that aren't found in any other protected area) and 226 species of birds and 63 species of mammals: all this located right in the metropolitan's borders.

Some may criticize the Opening Ceremony's eco-theme and environmentally conscious framing as a way to hide the city's various environmental issues such as lack of sewage system or the country's deforestation patterns. And while these are major issues Brazil needs to address, Rio's environmental status should not be completely undermined. The city was innovative in using this year's Olympic games opening ceremony as a way to provide an important and powerful message to the millions of people that watched. It signals to us that times are changing and it also shows Brazil's potential to be an environmental leader. In a time when the Cidade Maravilhosa has gotten some negative media attention, particularly in regard to its environmental record, let's take a look at the thousands of acres of forest that can be found in the city, and laud the impressive and historic effort to bring climate change's urgency to the attention of people around the world.

In light of the Olympic Games in Rio, watch out next week for the second piece of the "Beyond the Bad Press: Rio de Janeiro's Urban Forests" series by The Sustainability Co-Op.

-- 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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Cherry or rhubarb? Orangutan mixes tasty cocktails in its mind  
A pleasure-seeking ape can predict the taste of cocktails it has never tried before, which was thought to be something only humans can do  
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Historically robust natural ecosystems could collapse due to climate change, human activity  
Global change will strike the oldest and most complex ecosystems of the world hardest, regardless of their past stability, warn experts in a new report.  
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The Freedom To Fail: Simulations And The Future Of Our Species  
"Plans are useless. Planning is everything." - Dwight David Eisenhower

If all goes as planned, in 18 days the hatch will open and our one-year mission to simulated space will end. Thanks in part to this mission, if all goes as planned, a generation from now we'll be waist-deep in our first attempt to land humans on Mars. Between now and then, plans will accumulate: a plan for building a launch vehicle; a plan for getting our stuff there (hopefully, most of it in advance); a plan for how to select and train and feed and water a crew of four or more for three years. Sometimes, twenty years feels like enough time to make all this happen. Then, I remember how long it took to plan, design, build, test, launch, and land the Mars Curiosity Rover: ~2004-2012. When a robot's one-way trip was eight years in the making, twenty years to get people safely to Mars and back suddenly seems like a mighty tall order.

Fortunately, we've already started. Our mission is proof of that.



To be fair, it took ~8 years to build not 1 but 2.5 Curiosity Rovers: the one that went to Mars, the one that lived in the test bed on Earth, and the one that existed in pieces in a software and hardware testing lab. Credit: By NASA via Wikimedia Commons.


Simulations like ours are a critical part of any serious endeavor. The reason is simple: humans need to practice in order to get things right. Whatever we attempt - be it a geometry problem, a round-house kick, or an asteroid rendezvous - the odds of our success are inextricably linked to how many times we've tried that particular maneuver before. Entropy will always introduce unforeseen twists and turns. The more times we've simulated the scenario, the less likely we are to fall flat when our standing plans fail.




Sgt. Brian Matthews, scout sniper and Marine Corps Martial Arts Program instructor trainer, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, demonstrates a MCMAP technique as part of the martial arts demonstration during Marine Day in Times Square. Credit: Sgt. Jimmy D. Shea, MarineCorps NewYork via Wikimedia Commons (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0).

Case in point: we planned July's water supply down to within a centimeter of our tank's low-water mark. Based on the last ten months of data, our chief engineer was able to make a call that accurate. His projections were dead-on. Nonetheless, our refill plan failed. When the appointed time came, no water 'bot arrived.

This was due to a mechanical failure on their end. On our end, there is an emergency water tank for just such scenarios. However, it hadn't been touched in years. Like a stubborn Schrodinger's box, the quality of the water in our tank was totally unknown, even after we opened it. Also unknown: when we would get more water delivered.

Fortunately, though our initial plan failed, we've been practicing water extraction and water restriction for nearly the entire mission. A a result, we had the power to SCIENCE our way out of disaster by distilling the emergency water: by boiling it and channeling the evaporated contents into a container. Within hours of us realizing that we weren't going to get our scheduled water delivery, we had just such a system set up and running .



Thanks to water restriction days, which were an invention of this crew, we knew how much water we needed to produce to survive and by what margin. Experience also told us how much power we could spare to run the electric heaters that were boiling the water one pot at a time into steam that collected onto plastic sheeting, which then ran down until it gathered underneath the weight of a metal spoon and dripped into the bottom of the black storage bin in which the entire contraption was contained.

In this way, clean water collected slowly and steadily. Every so often, one of us would come along with a baster, suck the distilled water out of the bottom of the bins and add more water to the pots. This evaporation system produced liters of purified water: enough to keep us going, at least for a while.



This crew dealt with that level of potential disaster without so much as breaking a sweat. We didn't even have to change the rhythm of our day much to do it. I'm not sure how a crew who had only been up here for only a month, or four, would have handled it, which brings us to a question we are asked fairly frequently: What would happen in a real emergency?

Let's say that we hadn't been up here for very long, or that the crew was inexperienced with water reclamation; let say there wasn't enough plastic sheeting to make such a system work, or there weren't enough clamps to hold the sheeting in place (we would default to duct tape, but let's just assume for now that we're running low on that, too). What would have been our fate?

In a real emergency, there are people on this land mass who could make their way up the mountain with bottled water. On Mars, not so much. Going forward, to be sure that crews can handle it both physically and psychologically, we should probably simulate water shortages, as well as food shortages, power shortages, and all the depravation-situations with which the six of us are now intimately familiar.



It goes without saying: for most of us, becoming an expert in water purification was never the plan - nor was mastering composting toilet maintainence, repairing hiking boots with duct tape, or any of several dozen things we've taught ourselves over these last 11.5 months. The wonderful thing about our experiment is that we have the opportunity to learn and the freedom to fail - even, one could argue, the imperative. Now is the time to test out these scenarios; to try our hands at pushing limits and pulling ourselves back from the brink. Sometimes, we won't quite make it, and that's ok. We won't fall too hard or fall too far - for now.

Our relative successes and failures from the last 348 days - at growing radishes, conserving water and power, staying in shape, and getting along with each other - will become part of data that goes into planning the first human missions to Mars. Owing to successes and failures from this and other simulations, humankind will master the art and science of planning long-duration space missions. It's the only way we can acquire this skill in advance. In a generation or more, whether the actual plan succeeds as intended (they rarely do), mastery of interplanetary mission planning will sooner or later see us safely through to the next world. Of that much, at least, I am certain.

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Reinventing The Drake Equation  

"Exo-orbit" Image Copyright 2016 by Marc Dantonio

The Drake Equation is a thought problem created in 1961 by Astronomer Frank Drake that contained a number of factors that taken together could produce a number meant to indicate how many intelligent and detectable civilizations may exist in the Milky Way galaxy which is our home in the Universe.


The classical equation looks like this where all the factors are multiplied together:

N = R x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x L


The factors break down as:
N = number of alien civilizations in the Milky Way


R = number of stars in our galaxy
fp = Fraction of stars with planets
ne = number of planets that where life as we know it can exist
fl = % of those planets where life arises
fi = % of those planets (fl) where intelligence develops
fc = % of those societies that develop electromagnetic science
fL = % of societies that emit electromagnetically into space for a long time

The Drake equation actually required guesses for many important factors. It also provided the means to quantify with a value the number of potential civilizations that emitted some form of intelligent signals that could be picked up by our current technology at the time. Drake had formulated this equation prior to any Exoplanet research and finds but as it turns out, those finds change everything...

As you can imagine and for those familiar with the equation, we dont have actual data for MOST of the Classical Drake equation factors, but they are guesses, based on human trends, human technology leaps, and so on. So with only one known life-bearing planet at the time, ours, the calculation of the ultimate value for the Drake Equation was always a conservative guess based on comparison to the progress of human civilization and the technologic precipices we faced. Naturally we dont yet know of any advanced civilization. We are all we know. We represent a single data point and only one such point is not sufficient to create a trend or an understanding.

With the most recent additions to the Exoplanet list however we at least have a way to make more educated guesses for some of the Drake factors using statistical sampling of known data. We still dont have the proof of extraterrestrial intelligent life yet but some of the Drake factors can be addressed with more accuracy. In our current Exoplanet count we puts the total number of Exoplanets somewhat north of 3300. This is very exciting. Originally the planet hunting results were more limited, providing us with the ability to find only the biggest Jupiter sized planets. But as techniques were honed to a finer art, we started to find smaller more Earth sized planets.

In the Exoplanet catalog of known planets a fair number of our confirmed planets are known as "Super-Earths". The term is the nomenclature applied to any planet that is under 10 Earth masses. Super-Earth implies Earth -like I know but the term doesnt distinguish between planets that are habitable or not. It just says that if its between 1 and 10 times Earth's mass, its a Super-Earth. Such a planet could be a massive paradise, a seething maelstrom of gases, or an airless rock.

The ability to find such planets however represents a significant improvement in planet detection capability. Currently it is theorized in some circles that as many as 10% of the stars in our galaxy may have suitable habitable zone planets, which is a number between 10 billion and 40 billion. There are more conservative estimates as well but these numbers are also in mainstream thought.

A number of factors in the equation have requirements not readily apparent. The planet must be in that habitable zone around its star. If you read my Huffington Post blog article on Habitable Zones you know that this zone is that not too hot not to cold region around any star where a planet could support liquid water and could manage to hold onto an atmosphere. In addition to the habitable zone requirement, a stable star is also a requirement. Such a restriction removes a number of hotter more energetic stars from our hunting list because the radiation and strong stellar winds emanating from those particular stars would likely have blown the atmospheres off the planets or irradiated their surfaces to sterility.

(You can read about this in Understanding Exoplanets : The Habitable Zone at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-dantonio/ )

Returning to the Drake Equation, we have to consider that when Frank Drake wrote up the thought problem that eventually became the Drake Equation, he did this THIRTY FOUR YEARS before Exoplanet searches started producing some candidates and confirmed results... We had no confirmed Exoplanets up until that point. Drake had to formulate the equation without a single planet other than the Earth as a starting point.

So as more data was obtained, analyzed and as more planets were added to the list, it became more obvious that the Classical Drake Equation no longer worked as the complexity of each term increased, Thus, the Drake Equation was reworked by a number of organizations and dozens of new papers were written addressing the new data and how it bodes for life in the Universe.

These days the Drake Equation two particular versions of the re-imagined Drake equation take front and center and produce different results between them. Both I am happy to say are more optimistic. One version linked below appears in Astrobiology magazine, and discusses the Drake equation from two separate trains of thought: The Classical Drake equation and the Statistical Drake equation. The Statistical version is a much more complex equation that takes into account various new potential paths that an alien civilization can traverse on its way to being a star faring society.

The second version, a similarly credible version postulated by an MIT professor changes some of the original parameters in the equation to better suit the known data. For instance, that version directly considers the stability of the star system, a key factor when trying to find long term suitability for life like us.

Looking at the Drake Equation with these new eyes and most especially with new data suggests a very DIFFERENT outlook than Frank Drake had postulated. New data brings us new outlooks and the new Drake equations showcase the new data and how it works for us to better understand the Universe.

One thing that the articles linked below dont directly address other than in passing is the capability of a civilization to utilize advanced propulsion such as the Alcubierre Drive which is a 'warp' drive of sorts. The reason is one of focus. The new formulations to the Drake equation care only about whether a civilization can be detected. It doesn't address interstellar travel. It is enough that they are detectable and that is what the equation is meant to help puzzle out.

Claudio Maccone who worked on one version of the Drake equation calls it more of a Statistical Drake Equation. That equation considers a statistical variation in the factors because of the many variables involved. Without considering any statistical variation the new formulation gives us 4590 potential advanced civilizations in the galaxy.

Considering the variations that MUST exist, formulating an answer to the statistical version of the Drake Equation indicates there are potentially between 0 and more than 15000 advanced societies in our galaxy alone.

In Addition, Sara Seager at MIT utilized the current finds in Exoplanet research and a new approach that doesn't make the Drake equation obsolete but creates another "new edition" that helps us predict the probability of detecting another civilization.

Her equation looks slightly different:

N = Ns x Fq x Fhz x Fo x Fl x Fs

Where the overall Number N is the number of planets that have a detectable atmospheric content that contains compounds known to support life. That number depends on these factors:
Ns: The number of stars in the sample that were used
Fq: The number of quiet stars
Fhz: The number of planets in the Habitable Zones around their stars
Fo: The number of actual observable systems we can see
Fl: The fraction of those many planets where life has arisen
Fs: The fraction of planets with detectable spectral signatures

Her calculations of a sample of 30,000 stars gives N=2. This means that in her sample of 30,000 stars there are potentially 2 star systems that are predicted to show detectable, active life on a habitable zone planet. 2 civilizations seems a bit pessimistic at first glance but that number conceals a vast probability when you consider all of the stars in the galaxy and extrapolate. Why?

Because our galaxy alone has between 100 and 400 BILLION stars. So on the low end of the estimate of only 100 billion stars her analysis predicts just over 6.5 million possible civilizations and at the higher end estimate of 400 billion stars in the galaxy, 26 million possible systems with intelligence are predicted.

What does this all mean? It means, significantly, that science is on the side of those who suspect that there is other reasonably intelligent life in the Universe. Whether it is space faring or not is beyond the scope of the equation as is a prediction of such a civilization's technological level. In my book "The Populated Universe" I discuss the many places we see the fundamental building blocks of life in the Universe.

The Universe makes these necessary items naturally without our help and we are here because of this process. So my supposition is that Life is the RULE not the exception. It is a big step to commit to that line of thinking because that position still depends on an expectation of scientific discovery that has yet to be made. But I am comfortable looking up on a starry night and mulling over the possibilities!

I hope you enjoyed this foray into the Drake equation and the children it has generated!

The links to articles that discuss the new Drake Equations are below

Claudio Maccone's research: http://www.astrobio.net/news-exclusive/at-last-how-many-alien-civilizations-are-there/

Sara Seager's research: http://io9.gizmodo.com/what-a-brand-new-equation-reveals-about-our-odds-of-fin-531575395

"TripleStarHabitat" Image Copyright 2016 by Marc Dantonio

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Robot-Like Machines Helped People With Spinal Injuries Regain Function  

Eight people with serious spinal injuries who practiced hours of interaction with wearable machines for months regained lost feeling and some ability to move.

 
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Social Security Data Errors Can Turn People Into The Living Dead  

The government keeps track of who is alive and who is dead. But there can be errors. And when you're mistakenly ruled dead, it can be remarkably tough to convince people you're still among the living.

 
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Cyberattack Halts Australia's First Online Census  

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says no data was stolen. Users faced error messages after the system was overpowered by what the government said was multiple denial-of-service attacks.

 
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endangered species. climate change. CITES CoP17... Josh Fox's documentary- Letting go of the World and love all... https://t.co/awutY4YJoR 
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London at Sunset  

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London at Sunset  

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London: Canary Wharf  

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Ban Oil Trains For Good  
Just a little over two months ago, a disastrous oil train derailment occurred in Mosier, Oregon, spilling 47,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil from North Dakota. The fallout from that accident has seen the entire region debating whether transporting this hazardous crude oil by rail through local communities and along our nation's rivers is worth the risk. It's time for the debate to close, and for all sides to realize the hard truth: oil trains like the one that derailed in Mosier pose an immediate threat to communities around the country, and it is time we demand immediate action.


Oil train derailment in Mosier, Oregon in June 2016. Photo credit: Columbia Riverkeeper


Waterkeeper Alliance's report, Deadly Crossing: Neglected Bridges & Exploding Oil Trains, written in partnership with STAND and Hudson Riverkeeper, showed that many of the bridges these oil trains pass over show signs of neglect and disrepair. The report also highlighted that the public cannot access any meaningful information regarding the safety of rail bridges in their community. In response to these concerns, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) now has a way for local officials to request public bridge inspections. This is a small victory, but the threat of these oil trains still lingers in communities across the country, and the only true solution is to ban these trains altogether.

No community wants a potentially lethal oil train speeding past their schools, behind their homes, or near their precious water sources. We need to stand together to demand a complete ban on oil trains. Please join this petition to call on the Department of Transportation to recognize that oil trains are inherently unsafe for our communities and waterways, and to use all available authority to stop oil train traffic throughout the country.

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'Green News Report' - August 11, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...





IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Donald Trump's 'new' energy plan, same as the old plan; Hillary Clinton calls for helping coal country transition to new industries; Out-of-work coal miners now working to clean up abandoned coal mines; Industrial chemicals found in drinking water of 6 million Americans; PLUS: Federal court ruling sets major precedent for climate change accountability... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

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Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): California utility guilty of obstructing investigators; Seeking water wars accord, Deal quietly meets with Alabama governor; Seas aren't just rising. They're speeding up; A surge in avocado consumption is driving Mexican deforestation; China's $15 Billion Energy Ambitions Crushed Within Two Weeks; The waters of this huge African lake aren't mixing -- and the consequences could be devastating... PLUS: Fish-farm escapees are weakening Norwegian wild salmon genetics... and much, MUCH more! ...

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

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Aphrodisiac virus makes plants super-attractive to bumblebees  
The benefits of a viral infection for tomato plants may outweigh the costs infected plants attract more pollinators and therefore produce more seeds  
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World's oldest vertebrate is a shark that lives for 500 years  
Deep-sea-living Greenland sharks can live for hundreds of years, longer than any other vertebrate, and females don't reach breeding age until they are 150  
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Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: 'Green News Report' - August 11, 2016  
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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Donald Trump's 'new' energy plan, same as the old plan; Hillary Clinton c...

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Pokémon GO... And Get Injured?  
From the beaches of Santa Monica to the streets of Manhattan, there is one constant -- masses of people losing themselves in the virtual splendor of Pokémon Go. After its launch on July 6th, the location-based augmented reality game became the top grossing app in the United States within a mere 13 hours, leading to Nintendo's 5-day, $9 billion skyrocket in market value. But per the age-old adage, what goes up, must come down -- and in the case of Pokémon, more literally than figuratively.

Within 10 days of Pokémon's release, two men crossed a fenced area in their desperate search of pocket monsters, and fell off a cliff near San Diego, sustaining injuries, the extent of which are unclear. Another gamer reportedly slipped and fell down a ditch, fracturing their pinky toe in the process. And while some may see such incidents as isolated, if we delve a bit deeper into the cause, it becomes painstakingly clear that such injuries are but likely portents to the future.

People have been gaming on their mobile phones ever since 1994 when the Hagenuk MT-2000 came equipped with the popular tile-matching puzzle game, Tetris. But video games require a simple linear interaction between a human and their gaming console. Tetris, for instance, requires mental focus and acuity, as well as quick dexterous responses in order to determine and swiftly place puzzle pieces into their optimal positions. It is thus considered advantageous to allocate attentional resources entirely to the game (i.e. focus on winning). Augmented reality games, on the other hand, require the human to interact with a game, which has elements of the real-world environment that they are simultaneously navigating. Accordingly, augmented reality effectively requires allocation of resources to both the game and the real world (i.e. focus on winning and negotiating the real world).



While allocating attention towards a game may increase your chances at winning in Pokémon, you may end up losing at the game of life. And the reason is clearer than a summer's day -- people aren't very good at dual-tasking (i.e. concurrently performing two tasks). Imagine sitting at a restaurant deep in conversation. The bill comes so you pull out your credit card and hand it to the server. A few minutes later, the server returns and because the restaurant is about to close, you feel obliged to quickly sign the check. Still immersed in conversation, you look at the bill and try to determine the appropriate tip amount. Typically, a math whiz, you now find yourself struggling at calculating the 15-20 percent tip. And though you fashion yourself a good listener, you have the slightest clue of what your beautiful date was saying for the last 30 seconds.

Let's say we up the stakes. Rather than dual-tasking while sitting down having a leisurely conversation, you are now walking down the street texting a friend. It should come as no surprise that performing the secondary task of texting negatively affects the way you walk. Indeed, recent research has shown that people are less likely to walk in a straight path when using their cellphone. A series of studies conducted with a few colleagues of mine further shows that manipulating a mobile device results in slower walking speeds and reduced time spent looking at obstacles in the real-world. Such degraded walking likely explains the 10-fold increase in emergency room visits among distracted pedestrians between 2006 and 2014. It sure would feel a whole lot better to just fudge a date -- regardless of how cute they may be.

Scientific research overwhelmingly supports the notion that performing a secondary action negatively impacts our performance. Even when executing simplistic texting tasks, use of a mobile phone is associated with a limited ability to avoid obstacles and an increased potential for sustaining a slip, trip, or fall. So what do you think will happen when running through Times Square trying to catch those illusive Pokémon?

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The Climate Post: Volcanic Eruption Affects Sea Level Rise  
A new study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that the evidence to pinpoint expected acceleration of sea-level rise due to climate change was hiding behind the effects of a 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. This eruption sent tens of millions of tons of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere and may have masked the effects of industrial pollution on global sea levels during the two decades since.

"What we've shown is that sea level acceleration is real, and it continues to be going on, it's ongoing, and we understand why you don't see it in the short satellite record," said John Fasullo, who conducted the research along with scientists from the University of Colorado in Boulder and Old Dominion University. The data from satellite observations that scientists have used to track sea-level rise began in 1993, two years after the eruption, which temporarily cooled the planet. These data indicated that the rate of sea-level rise was holding fairly steady at about 3 millimeters per year.

"When we used climate model runs designed to remove the effect of the Pinatubo eruption, we saw the rate of sea level rise accelerating in our simulations," Fasullo said. "Now that the impacts of Pinatubo have faded, this acceleration should become evident in the satellite measurements in the coming decade, barring another major volcanic eruption."

Climate Change Extending Mosquito Season, Raising Zika Risk

A portion of last week's opening Olympic ceremonies in Rio de Janeiro focused squarely on climate change. A video offered a glimpse of climate change effects and an accompanying graphic showing the incursion of sea-level rise on cities around the world if the average global temperature were to increase 3-4 degrees. Fitting perhaps, suggested The Washington Post, given warming could help accelerate outbreaks of mosquito-borne illnesses such as Zika, which has spread from Brazil to Florida, leading to serious birth defects.

Although data confirming a formal link between climate change and the rise and spread of the virus are lacking, Climate Central reports that the initial Brazilian outbreak of Zika was "aided by a drought driven by El Niño, and by higher temperatures caused by longer-term weather cycles and by rising levels of greenhouse gas pollution." Climate Central's own research recently showed that in three quarters of major U.S. cities warming temperatures have lengthened the mosquito season--the number of days hot and humid enough for mosquitoes to be biting. According to that research, the ten cities with the biggest increase in the length of the mosquito season over the last 30 years were Baltimore, Maryland; Durham, North Carolina; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina; Portland, Maine; St. Louis, Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Worcester, Massachusetts; and Albany, New York.

For Rio, Zika is not the only health risk potentially increased by longer, rainy summers.

Ratifying the Paris Agreement

In Paris last year, more than 190 countries pledged to hold the global average temperature increase to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit that increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But keeping within that 1.5 degree Celsius target, The Guardian reports, will be extremely difficult.

An analysis by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Marshall Islands--the third country to ratify the Paris Agreement--suggests that the agreement is nearing a critical threshold of pledges and is likely to enter into force this year or in early 2017. The agreement takes effect 30 days after at least 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions ratify it. The Marshall Islands analysis indicates 58 countries together representing nearly 54 percent of global emissions have either ratified or pledged to work toward ratification of the Paris Agreement by the end of the year.

So far, 22 nations accounting for 1.08 percent of emissions have formally ratified the deal, according to the United Nations.

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

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

 
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Tim Profeta: The Climate Post: Volcanic Eruption Affects Sea Level Rise  
A new study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that the evidence to pinpoint expected acceleration of sea-level rise due to climate change w...

Read more: Olympics, Climate Change, Environment, Energy, United Nations, Paris Agreement, Zika, Green News

 
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Photos of the Day: Aug. 11, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
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Acosia Red Elk by Christian Heeb  

Acosia Red Elk by Christian Heeb

Native woman Acosia M. Red Elk in historic buckskin dress on top of Paulina Peak, Central Oregon, USA www.heebphoto.com www.ccophoto.com

Christian Heeb: Photos

 
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Stag's Golden Sunrise  

alex saberi posted a photo:

 
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Colors and Shapes of Montreal Metro by TD Tan  

Colors and Shapes of Montreal Metro by TD Tan

Discovering Montreal Metro

TD Tan: Photos

 
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Rio 2016: Photos From Days 4 through 6 (40 photos)  

Hundreds of photographers have gathered in Rio to follow the action in the Olympic arenas, swimming pools, racetracks, and more. Over the next two weeks I'll be featuring some amazing images from recent Olympic events. Today's entry encompasses cycling, archery, volleyball, weightlifting, diving, sailing, judo, a passing capybara, and much more.

 
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Dried Fish by Okan YILMAZ  

Dried Fish by Okan YILMAZ

Copyright by Okan YILMAZ

Okan YILMAZ: Photos

 
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Seven Ways Climate Change Affects Our Health  
Climate change is making heat waves stronger and more frequent, air pollution worse, and allowing vector-borne diseases to expand their range. It's also compromising our drinking water, causing more extreme weather events, and impacting our mental health. And the costs will be great: just this June, the World Health Organization estimated that in the twenty years after 2030, climate change will cause "approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress."

1. Heatwaves

Thanks to climate change, we're already seeing stronger, longer, and more frequent heatwaves. People -- particularly the very young and very old -- don't cope well with in these conditions. In 2003, some 70,000 people died in the European heat wave, and last summer more than 2,000 perished in India and southwest Asia. But the problems from heat aren't just happening on the other side of the globe. Here in the U.S., people who spend a lot of time outdoors -- farm workers, construction crews, even athletes -- are feeling the effects of warmer days. The Texas Rangers want to build a new billion-dollar stadium with a retractable roof, an expensive feature that owner Ray Davis called "a must to counter the scorching heat in the summer." But most people don't have the resources to spend to adapt to new conditions like that, and so instead will just suffer in the heat.

2. Air Pollution

Air pollution, whether it's the heavy smog that shrouds Los Angeles or the fine dust that burns our lungs in China, isn't causing climate change. But climate change is making air pollution worse! And the stakes are high: air pollution already causes an estimated 7 million premature deaths across the globe each year. Air pollution is made up a variety of things, including ground-level ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide, and when we breathe those in, we get sick. As the planet grows warmer due to climate change, the reactions that form ground-level ozone -- one of the most dangerous things for us to inhale -- happen faster. And climate change also affects our weather patterns. As the earth grows warmer, we're seeing more high-pressure systems. And a high-pressure system stuck over an area can trap local pollution and particulate matter, preventing it from being blown away, and so the area's residents will keep breathing it in.

3. Vector-Borne Diseases

What do zika, chikungunya, dengue, and malaria have in common? They're all vector-borne diseases spread by mosquitos. And insect ranges are often determined by climate. So if climate is changing, that means the geographic extent of many of these diseases will, too. In some cases, a disease could move into a new region where it's never been seen before, like we're seeing in Canada with Lyme disease, a devastating condition that used to be so unusual north of the border, it wasn't even on Health Canada's list of treatable diseases. In other instances, as it gets warmer a disease could move out of its current region -- like our research has shown is likely to be the case for dengue in Texas in the summer. And in yet other cases, a disease could re-emerge in a place where it was eradicated a century ago -- like malaria in Chicago.

4. Water-Borne Diseases

Climate change is also leading to more deaths from diarrhea, which is already the second leading cause of death for kids under five around the world. How is that, you may wonder? Well, a warmer atmosphere speeds up the hydrological cycle, leading to more periods of extreme precipitation. Heavier rainfall often means higher risk of flooding. And flooding -- particularly in nations where drinking water is at risk of being contaminated with garbage, animal manure, and even human waste -- can be deadly. "Runoff from more frequent and intense extreme precipitation events will increasingly compromise sources of drinking water through increased introduction of pathogens and prevalence of toxic algal blooms. As a result, the risk of human exposure to agents of water-related illness will increase," says the 2016 Climate and Health Assessment.

5. Extreme Weather Hazards

Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, heavy downpours, and flooding, all of which can affect our health and well-being, and we're seeing more of them as the climate changes. These events can harm or even kill us; they can prevent us from getting the medical care we need, turning a trivial concern into a life-threatening illness; and they can sweep away cars, homes, businesses, and harvests. "Earth has always experienced epic storms, debilitating drought, and biblical floods. But lately it seems the treadmill of disruptive weather has been set to fast-forward," writes Paul Douglas, a professional meteorologist and -- like me -- someone whose faith motivates his concern on this issue. Let's zero in one just one type of extreme event: a hurricane. There are all sorts of risks that crop up in the aftermath of a hurricane. If your power goes out and you have to run a generator in your house, you run the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning if you don't set the generator up correctly. Or let's say it's flooding and your car gets swept away and you run the risk of drowning. Thanks to climate change, we're seeing more hurricanes and so are more exposed to these risks.

6. Our Mental Health

Climate change, and the increasing risk of weather extremes that accompanies it, has a direct impact on our mental well-being. "Many people exposed to climate related or weather-related disasters experience stress and serious mental health consequences ... [including] post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and general anxiety," says the 2016 US Climate and Health Assessment. Last year, when I was working with the city of Boulder on climate preparedness, an emergency room doctor told me that extreme weather is one of the biggest challenges they face in counseling people with long-term mental health issues. If a patient misses one appointment due to snow, flooding, or other situations that prevent travel, there is a big chance they will fail to keep their next one, and the next, and their problems -- some of which may have been on the road to recovery -- will resurface in full force. That's not all, though. Sometimes just thinking about climate change can overload us. As the American Psychological Association says, "mental health impacts of actual and perceived climate change include stress, anxiety, apathy, and guilt." When we view climate change as a huge global issue and we are only one human, we can be overwhelmed by fear, anxiety, and despair. But acknowledging those feelings is the first step to dealing with them.

7. Political Instability And Conflict

The seventh and biggest way that climate change affects our health is something you might never have thought about before -- through its impact on the political stability of failing states and nations. These past five years have shown in brutal clarity how a nation like Syria already teetering on the brink -- due to decades of conflict, corruption, and mismanagement of its natural resources -- can be pushed over the edge into disaster. Did climate change cause the Syrian refugee crisis? No. There were many factors at play. Did climate change contribute to it? Yes, it did. As one scientific study concludes, "Human-induced forcing has increased the probability of severe and persistent droughts in this region, and made the occurrence of a 3-year drought as severe as that of 2007−2010 two to three times more likely than by natural variability alone." Climate change increases the risk of conflict in the poor, unstable, and desperate regions of the world. Public health systems collapse, families will be driven into refugee camps, and attempts to flee to safer countries often end in unmitigated disaster and tragedy, with permanent and all too often even fatal impacts on millions of peoples' lives.

So, given all this, why should we care about a changing climate? Because it affects us, our families, our communities, and people everywhere: real people, particularly the poor, the vulnerable, and those who already lack the resources to cope.

-- 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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Redside Dace  

John Jimmo posted a photo:

 
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Therapy and Prevention: The Race to Stop Youth from Radicalizing  
The recent spate of deadly attacks in Germany have highlighted the need to intervene with angry young men before they turn to extremism or violence. But the country has a lot of catching up to do -- and the work can be controversial.  
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Living Off the Electrical Grid in America's Capital  

In the heart of Washington, D.C., Keya Chatterjee and her family live off the energy produced from a single solar panel. It started in 2006, when Chatterjee and her husband had a fight with their electrical company. They were so tired of the astronomical bills that they stopped power to their home and spent the entire winter living without heating or electricity—essentially camping in their own home. After a frigid few months, they installed the solar panel and returned to Pepco, but now they supply energy to the grid rather than using it. Today, Chatterjee's life runs on solar energy, she takes public transportation everywhere, and she's figured out how to live with as little consumption as possible.

 
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In praise of Descartes  
Robert P Crease tackles Steven Weinberg's criticisms of René Descartes  
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In praise of Descartes  
Robert P Crease tackles Steven Weinberg's criticisms of René Descartes  
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Lead in Australia's drinking water is leaching from brass taps  
Tap water in samples from across New South Wales can contain unsafe lead levels, probably down to brass tap fittings  
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Löyly is a public sauna located on the edge of the Baltic Sea in...  

Löyly is a public sauna located on the edge of the Baltic Sea in Helsinki, Finland. The building, constructed with repurposed wood, features a shell-like design that has been described as a “tunturi” - the Finnish word for something in between a hill and a mountain. In total, Finland contains approximately 3.3 million saunas or roughly one per household. This incredible shot was shared with us by Joel Miikka

Instagram: http://bit.ly/2bijyMe

 
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One Helluva Fella: The Horrifically Contemporary World of Hieronymus Bosch  
Impaled heads and burning bodies: Hieronymus Bosch, the great Dutch painter whose images depicted the horrors and terror of the past, present and future, died 500 years ago. In the era of Abu Ghraib and Islamic State, his work feels as contemporary as ever.  
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