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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/15-21-august-2016/inside-airbnbs-redesigned-tokyo-office/
Inside Airbnb's redesigned Tokyo office

Airbnb has worked with Japanese architect Suppose Office Design on its new Tokyo office, which has been designed around the travel company's “belong anywhere” positioning.

The office, located in Shinjuku, Tokyo has been designed in a way which reinforces the idea of a neighbourhood and features a reception and café area leading onto a wooden path that gives way to building-like meeting rooms with interiors based on real lettings.

Airbnb lead interior designer Rebecca Ruggles, who works on the Environments Team, says that “when you walk in you know where you are even without a logo in the door.”

Suppose Office Design worked with Airbnb's Environments Team to conduct interviews with the company's Tokyo-based employees and help conceive the original concept and floorplan.

It is a redesign of a building the company already occupied, but before there was limited communal space and it consisted largely of a series of corporate communal spaces according to Airbnb.

Nature and serenity referenced

Employees can reconfigure communal work tables, height adjustable desks, project tables, private and semi private phone booths, lounges and cafes.

Ergonomics, socialising and engagement were key priorities and the flexibility helped to underline the “belong anywhere” mantra.

Employees were keen that nature was well referenced so that the space felt peaceful and removed from the chaos of urban life.

Plants have been used throughout and the reception area has been designed to look and feel like an outdoor café, with a double height atrium and natural light. There is also a public park-inspired work area with wooden communal tables and green flooring.

Another part of the building has been turned into the Engawa an elevated platform covered with Tatami mats, inspired by traditional Japanese culture. Employees can remove their shoes and enjoy views over Shinjuku.

Phone booths are made from local white oak and rice paper film to give them the soft glow of a typical Japanese tea house.

Making space look bigger

Employees had expressed a desire to make the spaces feel bigger and brighter but this was problematic with a fixed low ceiling height.

In response a black ceiling with dropped lighting was created, which helps give a sense of space.

Local craftspeople were engaged to create bespoke lighting and furniture, while the architects created what look like floating lanterns, in the café area.

International references

Rooms in the building have an international feel and reference listings from the likes of Prague, Tijuana and Barcelona.

Suppose Design Office architect Makoto Tanijiri says: “Instead of using simple walls, we laid out building-inspired volumes to articulate the space, dividing the various functions while keeping a continuity throughout the whole office.

“These buildings' walls have different wooden cladding, to reflect the eclectic mix of volumes, textures and patterns that is Tokyo, and to mark a threshold between an outside and an inside, a social and a private space.”

The post Inside Airbnb's redesigned Tokyo office appeared first on Design Week.

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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/15-21-august-2016/neuro-virtual-tailoring-system-change-face-fashion-industry/
Neuro: the virtual tailoring system that could change the face of the fashion industry

French designer Clement Balavoine has developed a workflow process to virtually design and tailor clothes, involving a total of three different software programmes.

Neuro would allow fashion designers to digitally alter the fit of the clothing on virtual models, as well as other features such as colour and texture, without having to touch any physical fabric.

The first software programme used during the design process, Daz3D, is designed to create a virtual fitting model based on the body shape and dimensions of real scanned models which can be edited to pose in different positions.

Balavoine then uses Marvelous Designer, which is used to draw and cut patterns in 2D, just as a designer would in real life.

Visualise the design using 3D gravity simulation

“Once all the parts are virtually sewn together, you can instantly visualise the design using a 3D gravity simulation which will display exactly how the garment fits on the model, as well as showing how it falls and the movement of the fabric,” Balavoine says.

Finally, 3dsMax allows the designer to change the texture, weight and colour of the fabric. This programme can also be used to create digital environments such as a studio, where virtual “photoshoots” can take place, creating images to be used in campaigns, lookbooks or videos.

Balavoine, who has been using his production “pipeline” for just over six months, says he was first inspired to adapt software systems like Marvelous Designer to fashion design by concept artists working within the video game and film industries.

“Build the bridge between different creative worlds”

“Talented concept artists like Maciej Kuciara or Ash Thorp…have actually [been] using these softwares for a while now, but for character development,” he says.

“With Neuro, my goal was to build the bridge between the different creative worlds and reflect the process in fashion.”

Balavoine says he hopes Neuro could be used by fashion designers looking to reduce production times and take a more eco-friendly approach to clothing design.

“This process could definitely become a business model in the near future, in which you can design garments without fabric, have a “just-in-time” production, and promote the garments even before producing them via virtual reality catwalk, digital campaign or look book.”

The designer says he is currently in talks with designers about potential collaborations, but is unable to confirm any details at this time.

The post Neuro: the virtual tailoring system that could change the face of the fashion industry appeared first on Design Week.

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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/15-21-august-2016/dixonbaxi-looked-give-premier-league-brand-new-life-screen/
How DixonBaxi looked to give Premier League brand new life on screen

DixonBaxi has worked on a major brand activation project for the Premier League, creating title sequences, in-match graphics and idents that are designed for any broadcasters showing matches.

The work builds on the identity system, which was created by DesignStudio in February.

DixonBaxi's work on the brand also extends to augmented reality features and touch screen graphics.

On-screen graphic system

Its “Field of Play” design language is an on-screen graphic system, which has been designed to make sense of live data, league tables, charts and player profiles in a way that makes them look like they are part of the same family.

Aporva Baxi of DixonBaxi says the consultancy “watched hundreds of hours of football to analyse all the key plays in the game.”

Movement, speed, inertia, impact and agility were all analysed to create a set of motion graphics called Field of Play, designed to be “beautiful, elegant and bold” and inspired by what happens on the pitch.

Studio design with AV capability

A Premier League studio environment has also been developed and includes a table-top touchscreen and real-time and an augmented reality feature so that presenters can interact with player, team and match data.

Show titles are “human, energetic and celebrate fans and players,” according to Baxi. Networks like Sky and BT in the UK and NBC in the US will still use their own show titles and graphic treatments on screen.

“That's why they pay the big sums of money to acquire the rights,” says Baxi. Other broadcasters around the world receive Premier League footage as it is given to them by Premier League.

“These are the networks that don't want to create their own packages,” says Baxi. Premier League Productions produce a series of shows for pre, during and post-game. Some of these are picked up by BT, which may also use some match graphics.

There are more than 12 shows which Premier League Productions create and 24 hour programming is on offer. DixonBaxi has worked on products including Fanzone where fans from around the world participate Preview, Review, Matchday Live the main show which fronts every game Fantasy League Football, News, Match Pack and more.

Soundtrack for stadiums

A soundtrack has been developed by MassiveMusic as an “official anthem” and has been remixed for different shows as well as “walk on” music played at the beginning of every match at every stadium.

The new look is rolling out now, with the new season underway.

The post How DixonBaxi looked to give Premier League brand new life on screen appeared first on Design Week.

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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/16/thomas-hardy-altarpiece-discovered-in-windsor-church
Thomas Hardy altarpiece discovered in Windsor church

Reredos hidden behind panelling in All Saints church discovered by chance and thought to be the work of Tess's author

Thomas Hardy is best known for his grand tragedies, but the chance discovery with an iPhone torch of an altarpiece believed to have been designed by the writer for a Windsor church reads like the start of a crime caper.

The author of Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd trained as an architect and worked as a draughtsman in the 1860s, working on designs for a number of churches. In the 1970s, a collection of designs was discovered behind the organ of All Saints church in Windsor, many of which featured the work of Hardy. Although three of the drawings were kept in the church, until Stuart Tunstall and his fellow churchgoer Don Church embarked on a search for the building's foundation stone, it was believed that none of the designs had been realised.

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LDF london design festival 2016: raw color present playful experiments in blend exhibition

the exhibition will feature 'chromatology' - an installation based on paper shredders, each connected with a motion sensor and fed by coloured paper rolls.

The post LDF london design festival 2016: raw color present playful experiments in blend exhibition appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

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joshua dawson explores the issue of water privatization through dystopian film cáustico

the film details post-water privatization in a generic city in 2036, where only the privileged are granted this basic human resource.

The post joshua dawson explores the issue of water privatization through dystopian film cáustico appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

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astronomy

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"Super-Babies to a Quantum Portal to the Cosmos" --China's 2016 Headlines Foreshadow Control of the Planet & Beyond

In 2016, with headlines announcing yesterday's launch of the first quantum computer to the completion of the world's largest radio telescope, China is emerging as the new science super power, opening portals to new and uncharted territory with some of the world's most powerful and costly research hardware at their disposal.

China foreshadowed its current great leap with several amazing advances in 2015: moving a big step closer to ‘Star Wars' laser weapons; creating a new material can support something that is 40,000 times its own weight without bending --the new ‘super-strong foam' could form lightweight tank and troop armor; and, in a world first, Chinese scientists edited the genomes of human embryos, sparking a global debate about its ethical implications. All of which has set the bar for the seminal accomplishments of 2016...

1.The largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built, called FAST. The five-hundred-meter aperture spherical telescope (FAST) will search for alien life far out in the cosmos. This is due to be ready by September. With a single dish measuring about 30 soccer fields in area nestled in the remote mountains of Guizhou province, the five-hundred-meter aperture spherical telescope (FAST) will not only grant access to hitherto unseen parts of the cosmos, but also pick up extremely faint radio signals generated by intelligent life in outer space if it reaches out to make contact. China is also building one of the world's first astronomical computers to power the giant, alien-seeking telescope. With a dish the size of 30 football grounds, made of 4,450 panels, scientists have depicted it as a super-sensitive "ear", capable of spotting very weak messages - if there are any - from advanced civilizations.

2. Yesterday's launch of the world's first quantum satellite marks new era China puts into service the world's longest quantum communication network stretching 2,000 kilometers from Beijing to Shanghai. The launch of the world's first quantum satellite thrusts mankind into the quantum age, and paves the way for new leaps in spook-proof, hack-proof communications. The satellite will establish an unbreakable communication link and offer global coverage. Relevant quantum teleportation experiments will spur the development of quantum computers that could be tens of billions times faster those in use today, which would have profound military, economic and political implications with the ability to compute the entire evolution of the universe in seconds vs centuries for a classical computer.

3. Chinese scientists made headlines in 2015 by creating “super puppies” through DNA manipulation. Moreover, gene editing used by Chinese researchers on human DNA ranked as Science magazine's breakthrough of the year. At biology labs, powerful gene-editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 have been perfected on animals and are expected to be performed on humans in 2016. The first patient may appear in China, where researchers made the first attempt to edit the genome of a human embryo in search of cures for various diseases. But the work also courted controversy because the same technology could be used to create super-babies with unnaturally high levels of intelligence and physical strength.

4. A second space lab, a huge neutron accelerator, and a hard X-ray space telescope: China will also launch its second space laboratory, the Tiangong-2 (above). Earlier this year, it said that improved space docking technology would help with future missions. Also in 2016, China will test-fire its largest neutron accelerator, the China Spallation Neutron Source (shown below). It will also launch the world's most sensitive hard X-ray space telescope, called HXMT, as well as the nation's first earthquake-warning satellite and other space probes to monitor greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to better tackle climate change.

5. Is China a new superpower in physics? Bolstered by increased government budgets, China's physicists were already publishing more papers than any country except the United States as far back as eight years ago.The work on quantum teleportation by Professor Pan Jianwei's team was regarded as the most important breakthrough of the year in physics, and the discovery of the Weyl fermion, a ghost particle first predicted in 1929, that have unique properties that could make them useful for creating high-speed electronic circuits and quantum computers.

The Daily Galaxy via Nature and South China Morning Post

Holiday 'Galaxy' Insight --"Why the Cosmos, Why the Quantum, Why Existence"

China Preps for 2020 Mars' Landing

China Building World's Largest Radio Telescope--"Will Search for Intelligent Life Outside of Milky Way"

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Dark 'Fifth Force' of the Universe -- "A Separate Invisible Sector With Its Own Matter and Forces"

"If true, it's revolutionary," said Jonathan Feng, professor of physics & astronomy at the University of California, Irvine."For decades, we've known of four fundamental forces: gravitation, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. If confirmed by further experiments, this discovery of a possible fifth force would completely change our understanding of the universe, with consequences for the unification of forces and dark matter."

Recent findings indicating the possible discovery of a previously unknown subatomic particle may be evidence of a fifth fundamental force of nature, according to a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters by theoretical physicists at the University of California, Irvine.

The UCI researchers came upon a mid-2015 study by experimental nuclear physicists at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences who were searching for "dark photons," particles that would signify unseen dark matter, which physicists say makes up about 85 percent of the universe's mass. The Hungarians' work uncovered a radioactive decay anomaly that points to the existence of a light particle just 30 times heavier than an electron.

"The experimentalists weren't able to claim that it was a new force," Feng said. "They simply saw an excess of events that indicated a new particle, but it was not clear to them whether it was a matter particle or a force-carrying particle."

The UCI group studied the Hungarian researchers' data as well as all other previous experiments in this area and showed that the evidence strongly disfavors both matter particles and dark photons. They proposed a new theory, however, that synthesizes all existing data and determined that the discovery could indicate a fifth fundamental force. Their initial analysis was published in late April on the public arXiv online server, and a follow-up paper amplifying the conclusions of the first work was released Friday on the same website.

The UCI work demonstrates that instead of being a dark photon, the particle may be a "protophobic X boson." While the normal electric force acts on electrons and protons, this newfound boson interacts only with electrons and neutrons - and at an extremely limited range. Analysis co-author Timothy Tait, professor of physics & astronomy, said, "There's no other boson that we've observed that has this same characteristic. Sometimes we also just call it the 'X boson,' where 'X' means unknown."

Feng noted that further experiments are crucial. "The particle is not very heavy, and laboratories have had the energies required to make it since the '50s and '60s," he said. "But the reason it's been hard to find is that its interactions are very feeble. That said, because the new particle is so light, there are many experimental groups working in small labs around the world that can follow up the initial claims, now that they know where to look."

Like many scientific breakthroughs, this one opens entirely new fields of inquiry. One direction that intrigues Feng is the possibility that this potential fifth force might be joined to the electromagnetic and strong and weak nuclear forces as "manifestations of one grander, more fundamental force."

Citing physicists' understanding of the standard model, Feng speculated that there may also be a separate dark sector with its own matter and forces. "It's possible that these two sectors talk to each other and interact with one another through somewhat veiled but fundamental interactions," he said. "This dark sector force may manifest itself as this protophobic force we're seeing as a result of the Hungarian experiment. In a broader sense, it fits in with our original research to understand the nature of dark matter."

The Daily Galaxy via UC Irvine

Manned Mars Missions --"The Cosmic Threat"

Tiny Fossil Galaxies of First Stars of the Universe Found Orbiting Milky Way (Weekend Feature)

Tiny Dwarf Galaxies Inside Dark Matter Halos Orbiting Milky Way (Today's Most Popular)

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/28922781592/
Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, from Space

NASA Goddard Photo and Video posted a photo:

While gymnasts leap, cyclists pedal and divers twirl for Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, several NASA Earth Observing satellites catch glimpses of the city and its surroundings from space.

This image shows how Rio Olympic Park appeared to the Operational Land Imager (OLI), a sensor on Landsat 8, last September as the city prepared for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

Image credit: Landsat 8/NASA Earth Observatory

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA's mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA's accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency's mission.

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culture

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http://99u.com/articles/54274/dan-mall-shares-his-design-trade-secrets/
Dan Mall Shares His Design Trade Secrets

Everything from Dan Mall's demeanor to the name of his company, SuperFriendly, makes one thing clear: He is here to help.

Before heading out on his own to found his Philadelphia-based design agency, Mall was the design director at Big Spaceship, interactive director at Happy Cog, and technical editor at A List Apart. Today he works with high-profile clients such as Google, Apple, and the New York Times.

With a belief that setting the table for good design needs to start with the right questions, mutual understanding, and checks and measures, Mall freely shares how's he's built an enviable career and business.

You were the design director for well-regarded digital agencies like Big Spaceship and Happy Cog before you left to start your own company. How was it transitioning from traditional agency life to setting up on your own?

I didn't leave Big Spaceship because I was unhappy there. In fact, it was probably one of the best places I have ever worked. I left there to move back to Philly to be closer to my parents and in-laws once we had kids. I knew a bunch of agencies here in Philly and there was no place I wanted to work. I also wanted to be home with my wife and my baby and realized that running my own business would allow that best. I knew this was coming so during the last year of working at Big Spaceship I actually worked two jobs: the agency during the day and then after dinner at night I would start my own work. I wanted to make sure I could make it work on my own.

SuperFriendly is differentiated by having no set staff but “super friends.” How do you approach finding the right crew for each job?

As far as creating a team, I realized you often don't have the right person on staff for a particular project — whether that be an illustrator with a certain style or a 3D animator who has worked on movie stuff before. My thought was that I could just pull those people in temporarily while working on a project then they wouldn't have to be committed to me and my agency full time. We could work on a great thing together and then all go our separate ways. That is how I set up SuperFriendly and that's how it's run ever since. Each team is made up of the right freelancers for the job.

How many of these people have you gone out and searched for, and how many are from your existing network?

I sell “good work” to clients so I almost always go with people I know and know their work. I can't stand behind the unknown of people I haven't worked with. I've spent years having lunches with people and getting to know them, and creating lists of people who I would really want to work with, so when the time comes, I know exactly who to call. I almost always work with people I know personally and am constantly trying to expand that pool, getting to know people whose work I admire.

I've spent years having lunches with people and getting to know them … so when the time comes, I know exactly who to call.

When you work with clients, how do you get past a bad brief?

People don't buy products: they buy outcomes. Selling websites is no exception. The client wants to know what the site will do for them and how it will help them sell more product. Try to have conversations about that at the very start. And, to take a page out of journalism, you have to control the story. If your client writes a bad brief, then write a better one. That's one of the first things I do in a project. I write a brief regardless of whether a client wrote one and say, “Here's the brief for the project that we think is going to accomplish the goals that you want, and here's the project that we want to do.” Then I get them to ratify that. If we are agreed at that point, then we can keep moving forward.

If your client writes a bad brief, then write a better one.

You can also use that brief to look back once you are working on the weeds of a project so you don't get lost in the forest. I also always write a list of metrics, or OKR's (Objectives and Key Results). That makes the grading scale built in. You can look at them and measure over a quarter and see how well you did. It's certainly dependent on the collaboration of vendor and client to go through that stuff together, but it gives you ways to know what you're designing as well as ways to measure whether what you design is the right thing.

How often do you meet with clients at the start, and how many people do you choose to get to know from the client end?

One of the first steps in a project is just talk to people, whether that's people who use the product, stakeholders, or people who are working on it day to day and try to understand what is important to all those different groups. I think a good product sits in the middle of all those groups — good for users, good for the business, good for all the parties involved. The goal of a good designer is to strike the right balance. Then we will do a prioritization exercise to work out the highest priorities. Running a project that has 18 priorities is really difficult, while one with two priorities is significantly easier! Sometimes making the brand more established is a priority over making money and vice versa. Once we have the top three priorities, we start to write our OKRs.

The Objective aspect should be vague and ambitious; the Key Result that is paired with an objective should be measurable and have a number associated with it. An example of an Objective would be to “Improve user experience on a site.” How do we know we've done that? We write the Key Result, which may be reducing load time on the site by 20 percent. The recommended time for an OKR is a quarter, so you can measure whether you are getting there in your three-month period. You might even map three or four key results to a particular objective. Track where you are headed and where you are going and it gives you a framework to be really actionable about your design.

It's common for designers to work towards goal, but it's rare for them to work within OKRs. Have you had any issues working with your designers in this framework?

I try to have my team come up with the OKRs. I find it's a lot easier to get designers, developers and engineers on board with those goals if they've been involved in creating them. Once we have the key results, the designers really know what they are working on. A key result might be “increase search results accuracy by 10 percent.” That is a very actionable thing to design. If you say, “Let's make the site better,” they might not think to work on search. Having really specific things to work on empowers designers more than it makes them feel constrained.

Once you've reached this point, how do you overcome the blank page?

The blank page is still terrifying for me! One of the ways I get around that is to try to design something really quickly. Sometimes I just put stickers on the page of my sketchbook to feel like I've started something. The other thing I do a lot is steal. I will often lift sites directly and then start moving things around, like switching the columns, or changing the typeface etc. If you do enough of that stuff, you can't recognize the original.

The other thing I do a lot is steal.

When I design a comp it kills me to start with the header if I don't have a good idea for the header. But I might have a great idea for sidebar or button instead, so I start with whatever idea I can't wait to get out of my head. I call that an “element collage.” I leave the ones I don't have the ideas for until later and start working from there. I get into a browser very quickly too. There are certain things that work really well in tools like Sketch, Photoshop or Illustrator, and others that work really well in HTML or CSS. I try to spend the least amount of time in every tool that I can. Use the tools that give you the highest amount of impact in the shortest amount of time.

Do you have a system or process you use to walk the client through your initial presentation?

I'm a big fan of frameworks over process. When I think of a process, I think of things that happen the same way every time. It is consistent. I don't like working that way as it is boring and the variables change too much. By contrast, a framework is more like a soccer field. You know where the constraints are, but every game is different because of the variables. I have a framework for presenting, but the order changes from situation to situation. Instead of the “real estate tour” (pointing out where everything is), you do the goals tour. So you might explain that you put the search bar at the top because our analytics showed us that is the thing people use the most. You talk about why you did things rather than what you did. I also believe it's important to make the subjective things objective. If you say you used blue because you really like blue, well that's subjective and you open yourself up to the client combatting that. But if you say you you tested the different shades of blue to see which had better conversion and picked the best one, the client would have to combat your fact, which is harder to do. Root everything you use in facts.

Another point I learned from an art director at Big Spaceship is to compliment your own designs. So he'd say something like, “ We used these columns here, and they are working really well”… It either helps to rally people or it leads to a good discussion on a particular point.

The final thing I do is try to frame the feedback that I want. Before starting the presentation, I set expectations on the feedback I need (or even lay out the feedback I am not looking for) — whether that be on colors, typography, or any aspect of the design — as it helps the listener work out what to pay attention to. There is a lot of sensory overload with the first presentation and it also helps avoid feedback on things you don't want to have feedback on. So rather than a “What do you think?”, focus the feedback before you begin.

You talk about selling “good work” to your clients. How do you make that a reality?

Now that big companies such as Apple, AirBnB, Google and Microsoft are talking about design being important, it's really taken a seat at the table. I find that a lot of designers are still focused solely on the craft of what they do and that doesn't always lead to good design. Just because you are good at pushing pixels around, doesn't mean an idea has traction and that people will rally behind it or that it will test well — all the things that ultimately make design good for real people. I think designers could do a better job thinking about the things around their craft, and looking outside of just the execution of their work. My favorite definition of design is by Jerod Spool, when he says, “Design in the rendering of intent.”

How do you communicate this issue with designers who are in the mindset of “I just want to make this look better?”

I have a lot of conversations with designers on this topic. Some want to improve their presentation skills, while others might want to improve how something looks, and I sometimes think they are focused on the wrong stage of design. If you're worried about how a client is going to react to something, you likely could have addressed that issue at an earlier stage. It's better to have those conversations earlier so that you and the client know that something is right rather than having to convince the client that it is. Good design starts very early in a process. In an agency, a lot of design issues can be solved in the sales process even. If your client trusts you there, if you write a good agreement…all that leads to good design work being achieved. If you don't do those things well, it is actually really difficult to move design through the organization.

Mall, speaking at the 2016 99U Conference about the role of apprenticeship. Read Mall's “advance transcript” here.

So essentially, you're talking about “setting the table for good design?”

Exactly. When I first get an email from a client, I attempt to put up as many road blocks as possible. Not to be a jerk, but to find out how much I really want to work with them and how much they really want to work with me. If we are both prepared to jump all the hurdles, then we are a good fit, and ultimately it's the fit I am looking for. I like to know a client is willing to match the effort I am going to put in. This is what I see as setting the table for a good design process. There are a lot of signs in the first two or three conversations that a project is not going to go well. A lot of agencies and designers brush that stuff off and then complain about it later on. But if you can demonstrate to your client your expertise and show that you can work on the problem they are trying to tackle and really add value there early on, I feel like the pixels will take care of themselves. A lot of agencies end up having the sales process conversation too late. They want to figure that stuff out later, but then realize further down the line that they are in the middle of the wrong project. They realize they didn't want to “make the yogurt site more beautiful” for example, but that they wanted to “work out how to sell more yogurt.”

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Matthew Boulton Scientist of the Day Matthew Boulton, an...

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Matthew Boulton Scientist of the Day

Matthew Boulton, an English manufacturer, died Aug. 17, 1809, just shy of his 81st birthday.

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http://insider.si.edu/2016/08/birds-really-matter/
Why Birds Really Matter

Why Birds Really Matter

Step outside your house in the morning and one of the first things you will hear or see is a bird. They are such a ubiquitous part of our lives that most of the time we don't even notice them. Yet the truth is that their numbers are declining. According to the State of North America's Bird Report 2016, more than one-third of North American bird species are at risk of extinction without significant conservation action.

The issue of conservations is not, in fact, for the birds. This week the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center is hosting the largest-ever North American Ornithological Conference, which brings together thousands of ornithological professionals to address the question of bird conservation.

Birds are indicators of environmental health. They are the canary in the coal mine (pun intended) that let us know when something is not right in our ecosystem.

In the following clip, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell talks about the importance of bird conservation and why birds really matter.

The post Why Birds Really Matter appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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http://insider.si.edu/2016/08/finery-feathered-friend/
A Finery-Feathered Friend

Laurel Roth Hope, “Biodiversity Reclamation Suit: Carolina Parakeet,” 2009
Smithsonian American Art Museum

Laurel Roth Hope uses humor to address the serious subject of species extinction in her “Biodiversity Reclamation Suits.” These crocheted suits allow common rock pigeons to masquerade as extinct North American birds—if not actually to “reclaim” biodiversity, then at least to give the appearance of it.

Using traditional techniques of carving, embroidery, crochet and collage, Hope transforms ordinary materials into elaborate animal sculptures that are both playful and poignant. Her work is influenced by her background as a park ranger and focuses on the relationship between humankind and nature, touching on topics such as environmental protection, animal behavior and species extinction.

This piece is currently on view in the exhibition “Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery.

Hope's video featuring a crochet-suit-clad bird can be seen on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOvQPDGX068&index=34&list=PL94AA4771224B27E1

The post A Finery-Feathered Friend appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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http://movieposteroftheday.tumblr.com/post/149028804777
US one sheet for PORTRAIT OF A GARDEN (Rosie Stapel,...

US one sheet for PORTRAIT OF A GARDEN (Rosie Stapel, Netherlands, 2015)

Artist: Martin Jarrie

Poster source: Grasshopper Film

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http://insider.si.edu/2016/08/new-species-extinct-river-dolphin-discovered-smithsonian-collection/
New Species of Extinct River Dolphin Discovered in Smithsonian Collection

A fossil that has been in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History since it was discovered in 1951 is today helping scientists piece together the evolutionary history of whales and dolphins, including the origins of the endangered South Asian river dolphin.

The skull of “Akrtocara yakataga” rests on an 1875 ethnographic map of Alaska drawn by William Healey Dall, a broadly trained naturalist who worked for several US government agencies, including the Smithsonian, and honored with several species of living mammals, including Dall's porpoise (“Phocoenoides dalli”). Near the skull of Arktocara is a cetacean tooth, likely belonging to a killer whale (Orcinus orca), collected by Aleš Hrdlička, a Smithsonian anthropologist who worked extensively in Alaska, and an Oligocene whale tooth collected by Donald Miller, a geologist who worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, and collected the type specimen of Arktocara. (Photo by James DiLoreto)

According to Nicholas D. Pyenson, the museum's curator of fossil marine mammals, and Alexandra Boersma, a researcher in his lab, the fossil belonged to a dolphin that swam in subarctic marine waters around 25 million years ago. It represents a new genus and species, which Pyenson and Boersma have named Arktocara yakataga.

The researchers reported their findings Aug. 16 in the journalPeerJ. They have also produced a digital three-dimensional model of the fossil that can be explored athttp://3d.si.edu/model/usnm214830.

Artistic reconstruction of a pod of “Akrtocara yakataga,” swimming offshore of Alaska during the Oligocene, about 25 million years ago, with early mountains of Southeast Alaska in the background. The authors speculate that Arktocara may have socialized in pods, like today's oceanic dolphins, while possessing a much longer snout, like its closest living relative in the freshwater rivers of South Asia. (Linocut print art by Alexandra Boersma.)

The fossil, a partial skull about 9 inches long, was discovered in southeastern Alaska by Donald J. Miller, a geologist with the United States Geological Survey. It then spent decades in the Smithsonian's collection. With more than 40 million specimens in the museum's Department of Paleobiology, “We are always learning new things about the vast legacy built by our predecessors at the museum,” Pyenson said. But earlier this year, he and Boersma were captivated by and focused their attention on what Boersma calls “this beautiful little skull from Alaska.”

By studying the skull and comparing it to those of other dolphins, both living and extinct, Boersma determined that A. yakataga is a relative of the South Asian river dolphinPlatanista, which is the sole surviving species of a once large and diverse group of dolphins. The skull, which is among the oldest fossils ever found from that group, called Platanistoidea, confirms that Platanista belongs to one of the oldest lineages of toothed whales still alive today.

The South Asian river dolphin—a species that includes both the Ganges river dolphin and the Indus river dolphin—is of great interest to scientists. It is an unusual creature that swims on its side, cannot see and uses echolocation to navigate murky rivers in Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Unlike its known ancestors, it lives only in fresh water. But human activities, including the use of fishing nets, pollution and disruption of its habitat, have decimated the species to only a few thousand remaining individuals. The group's endangered status makes the dolphins difficult to study.

“One of the most useful ways we can study Platanista is by studying its evolutionary history, by looking at fossils that are related to it to try to get a better sense of where it's coming from,” Boersma said. “Exactly how that once diverse and globally widespread group dwindled down to a single species in Southeast Asia is still somewhat a mystery, but every little piece that we can slot into the story helps.”

Based on the age of nearby rocks, the scientists estimate that the Arktocara fossil comes from the late Oligocene epoch, around the time ancient whales diversified into two groups—baleen whales (mysticetes) and toothed whales (odontocetes).

“It's the beginning of the lineages that lead toward the whales that we see today,” Boersma said. “Knowing more about this fossil means that we know more about how that divergence happened.”

Fossils from Platanista's now extinct relatives have been found in marine deposits around the world, but the Arktocara fossil is the northernmost find to date. The name of the new species highlights its northern habitat: Arktocara is derived from the Latin for “the face of the north,” while yakataga is the indigenous Tlingit people's name for the region where the fossil was found.

“Considering the only living dolphin in this group is restricted to freshwater systems in Southeast Asia, to find a relative that was all the way up in Alaska 25 million years ago was kind of mind-boggling,” Boersma said.

Pyenson notes that some conservation biologists argue that the South Asian river dolphin should be prioritized for protection to preserve its evolutionary heritage. “Some species are literally the last of a very long lineage,” he said. “If you care about evolution, that is one basis for saying we ought to care more about the fate of Platanista.”

Chesapeake Testing provided X-ray scanning and support for digital-image processing. Materialise provided technical support with 3-D model rendering.

The post New Species of Extinct River Dolphin Discovered in Smithsonian Collection appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160816084746.htm
Hey, tall guy! What's the politics like up there?
If you want to predict which political party someone will support, take note of the person's height. The taller a person is, the more likely he or she is to support conservative political positions, support a conservative party and actually vote for conservative politicians, according to a new study using data from Britain.
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Plunging deep beneath the sea in a tiny sub to map the ocean
Aviva Rutkin took a ride off Bermuda in a bubble submersible to survey the depths for the newly launched Nekton Mission
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Life may have emerged not once, but many times on Earth
Far from being a miracle that happened just once in 4 billion years, life's beginnings could have been so commonplace that it began many times over
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The Internet Is Taking Over Memory As Our Brains Rely More on The Web

Having Wikipedia on hand to resolve that argument in the pub might be useful, but it's actually changing the way our memory works.

Researchers have found that human reliance on the wealth of information the World Wide Web has to offer, means that our thought processes are being permanently affected.

Problem solving, recall and learning are being changed by ‘cognitive offloading' as we increasingly resort to the vast resources available at our digital fingertips.

Published in the journal Memory, the findings showed that every time we use the internet to prompt our memory our brain's tendency to rely on it increases.

In the study two groups of participants were asked a set of questions, one group were allowed to use Google on their smartphone and the other had to rely on information stored in their head.

They were then asked a subsequent question and allowed to use whichever method they preferred.

SEE ALSO

How To Delete Yourself (And Your Searches) From Google's Memory

How To Improve Memory: Exercise Four Hours After Learning, Say Scientists

How To Forget Painful Memories: Scientists Discover Way To ‘Flush Out' Past Experiences

Those who used the internet first time were shown to be more likely to reach for it again. In fact, they were not only more likely to use it, but were much quicker to choose it as the first resort than the memory group.

Remarkably 30% of participants who previously consulted the internet could not answer a single question form memory during the testing period.

Lead author Dr Benjamin Storm says that this suggests that a certain method for fact finding has a marked influence on the probability of repeat behaviour by the brain in the future.

Dr Storm said: “Memory is changing. Our research shows that as we use the Internet to support and extend our memory we become more reliant on it. Whereas before we might have tried to recall something on our own, now we don't bother.”

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Climate experts deconstruct the possible roles of global warming and Louisiana's warm swampy landscapes in fueling a devastating inland tropical deluge.
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Opinion: The Cognitive Dissonance of Marijuana - Northeast Indiana Public Radio

Opinion: The Cognitive Dissonance of Marijuana
Northeast Indiana Public Radio
You'd be forgiven for being confused about whether marijuana has medicinal qualities. On the one hand, 25 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized the use of marijuana specifically for medicinal purposes (Indiana isn't one of them). On the other hand ...

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r0B0t: Robot and I - brand-e.biz

Robot and I
brand-e.biz
AI robotics Those robots are slowly turning emotional on us, writes Steve Mullins. Take Olly, the maker of which claims will develop a unique personality through the interactions users have with it. That's because Olly is powered by 'nuanced ...

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r0B0t: Automation in the workplace friend or foe? | Scoop News - Scoop.co.nz (press release)

Business Insider Australia

Automation in the workplace friend or foe? | Scoop News
Scoop.co.nz (press release)
Fifty-six per cent of New Zealanders 'definitely' think their job will be impacted by artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in the next 10 years, according to ...
Australians are starting to worry about robots moving in on their jobs ...Business Insider Australia

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