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The Next Great Victory For Birds
One hundred years ago, Canada and the United States signed the historic Migratory Bird Treaty to protect birds from indiscriminate slaughter for food and fashion markets. Millions of birds were killed each year and few species were spared, including unlikely ones such as robins, bobolinks, and meadowlarks, as well as egrets, herons, shorebirds, ducks, and grouse. Bird populations dwindled, spurring one of the earliest conservation crises and a historic agreement between two countries.

Millions of birds like the Great blue heron were slaughtered annually for fashion markets. By 1910, populations had crashed and plumes were worth more than their weight in gold. Photo credit: ©Jukka Jantunen.

The Migratory Bird Treaty, signed on August 16th 1916, was implemented through Canadian and American federal legislation making it illegal to kill, import, export, sell, or purchase migratory birds, their nests, and eggs. Over the next century, it ushered in several critical reforms: abolition of hunting for food and fashion markets; bag and season limits on hunting game birds; new protections from pollution; and habitat protection through establishment of wildlife refuges, migratory bird sanctuaries, and stewardship initiatives.

Ratification of the Migratory Bird Treaty and subsequent conservation successes of the 20th century resulted from cooperation among hunters, naturalists, writers, scientists, industries, environmental organizations, governments, private citizens, and elected representatives.

The plumes, or aigrettes, of egrets and herons were especially prized for women's hats. Photo credit: ©W.M. Morrison.

William T. Hornaday was one of the most ferocious and relentless advocates for the protection of wild birds and the Migratory Bird Treaty. As founding director of the Bronx Zoo, operated by the newly-formed New York Zoological Society (the precursor to my current organization, the Wildlife Conservation Society, or WCS), Hornaday was uncompromising in his position. He published dramatic accounts of the extinction of several species such as Great Auk, and the presumed plight of other birds like the Great Egret if the commercial market for wild birds persisted.

When efforts were flagging, Hornaday rallied support, pushing for the expansion of proposed protected species to include most migratory birds. And when the Treaty process had apparently stalled, Hornaday tracked down a missing Canadian document to a British embassy cabinet where it had been sitting, misfiled. The treaty was signed soon after and Hornaday called it 'the greatest victory ever achieved for the birds of this continent'.

Today, WCS continues to play an important role - discovering new ways to protect myriad avian species and their habitats, leveraging partnerships with others, and inspiring people to share in our mission.

Hornaday's vivid testimonials on the fate of North American birds were part of his relentless campaign for bird protection and the Migratory Bird Treaty. From The Wild Life Call, March 1911, Number 1. Edited by William T. Hornaday, Director New York Zoological Park, ©WCS.

The Migratory Bird Treaty was crafted to protect wild birds from intentional killing for commercial markets and to recover dwindling populations. What was not anticipated when the Treaty was written was the rise of new and different forms of human activity that would result in the unintentional harm or killing of birds in the late 20th and early 21st century.

More than one-third of the 1,154 native bird species of North America are in need of urgent conservation action. Each year, billions of birds are killed and nests are lost as a direct result of human activity, including collisions with vehicles, buildings, and power lines; predation by domestic and feral cats; and, as a result of agriculture, forestry, and fishing by-catch.

A regulatory framework governing incidental death of birds under Migratory Bird legislation, combined with enforcement of existing Migratory Bird Regulations, is critical and decades overdue. But birds face other threats: habitat loss and fragmentation, pesticides, and climate change, among others. Effective recovery of all birds requires commitments to collaborate across borders and across agencies. The geography of our shared birds transcend the government systems developed to protect and manage our environment.

Lapland Longspurs migrate in the thousands along roads on their way to Arctic breeding grounds. Unfortunately, this makes them especially vulnerable to mortality from vehicle collisions. These six were among many that collided with a large truck on the Klondike Highway of the Yukon. Photo credit: Hilary Cooke/WCS Canada.

The successful cross-border partnerships initiated 100 years ago should inspire us to work even harder to identify shared values and goals while leveraging collective knowledge and capacity. Such efforts will secure a future for all North American bird species while inspiring other international collaborations on migratory birds.

Our ultimate goals should be to ensure that no bird is added to Hornaday's list of extinct species. I do not wish to end my career with regret knowing that, despite our knowledge, capacity, and tools to secure the future of North America's birds, we failed to rise to the challenge. So let us seize the opportunity of this 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty to catalyze a new era of collaborative conservation.

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5 Environmentally Safe Actions That Will Increase Your Home's Value

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Image source: PhotoDune

Sustainable building is all the rage these days, and for good reason. Climate change and the undoing of the earth's delicate ecosystem is no longer a point of conjecture. According to the EPA, "The global average temperature increased by more than 1.4°F over the last century." And "the decade from 2000 to 2010 was the warmest on record." Global warming is a real thing. And the sooner we as a society adapt to this reality, the sooner we'll adjust the way we live to be kinder to planet earth.

I've written in the past about "Ethical consumerism." That is the idea that we can buy our way to a better version of ourselves. I would also like to suggest that ethical consumerism extends to the home you live in. In other words: the idea that green homes do less harm to the earth has marketable value. If you reside in a more progressive neighborhood, this value is even more enhanced.

Recently, the Institute for Market Transformation released a study showing a positive correlation between home energy efficiency and curb appeal. On average, high-performance homes are valued at a premium of 3.46 percent more than non-high performance homes. Some were even valued as high as 6% to 7.7% more. That equated to between $10,343 to $53,000 that buyers were willing to pay for a high-performance home over a standard performance home.

What does this mean for you, the enterprising homeowner who wants to reduce their footprint? It means that renovations designed to improve the efficiency of your home can also boost its resale value. Here're some actions to get started.

1. Get an energy audit: When you are just starting out, getting an energy audit can be a great way to identify your home's specific energy deficiencies. Plenty of private companies offer this service. The Residential Energy Services Network is a database of qualified local professionals. A comprehensive audit can be conducted within the course of an afternoon. The auditor will do a full overview of your home; checking for leaks, examining insulation, inspecting ductwork and more. After a thorough walkthrough, the auditor can make recommendations based on your home's specific needs.

If you're up for it, you can go the DIY route. Keep in mind, conducting a proper energy audit is as much science as it is an art. The best auditors have years of construction experience and have reviewed all manner of houses. An energy audit also involves crawling up into your attic and down into your basement or crawlspace. But if you love DIY home projects, then, by all means, give it a go.

2. Spend an afternoon at the hardware store: Before you tackle any of the high budget considerations for upgrading your home (see below), start with the low cost & high yield repairs and upgrades that you can do yourself. Sealing up holes in your insulation and caulking windows is a good starting point. Energy.gov has a comprehensive guide to the process of caulking. This article on energy efficiency basics provides more suggestions on sealing, insulating, and smart home integrations.

3. Install energy efficient windows: When you have windows that are not energy efficient (think "old" or "thin") your house is losing energy. Through a process called "heat transfer," hot air is always trying to equalize with cold air. That means that heat is going out in the winter and coming in during the summer, even if you don't want it to.

The most permanent and energy efficient solution to this problem is to install energy efficient windows. The Department of Energy estimates that replacing your windows with ENERGY STAR® rated windows can reduce heat loss by 10%-20%. That means it will take a lot less energy to heat and cool your home. Say hello to lower energy bills.

4. Power your home with renewable energy: Believe it or not, there are some effective alternatives if you want to power your home without polluting the environment. Depending on the state you live in, wind power, geothermal, and solar may be great options.

The easiest way to switch is to work with your utility or an independent supplier to simply choose a 100% renewable plan. Wind energy is the most common form of renewable energy offered by providers.

Choosing to place solar panels on your roof requires a greater upfront investment, but that investment pays for itself over time. The amount you save overall will depend on where you live and how much sun your panels absorb. Project sunroof offers a calculator you can use to estimate savings based on your location.

5. Upgrade your appliances: In the eloquent words of ENERGY STAR Consumer Messaging Guide for 2015 "every appliance comes with two price tags: the purchase price and the cost of operating the product." Old or inefficient appliances are a significant drain on energy usage. Upgrading them all at once can constitute a major one-time cost but can benefit you over time. Many experts rank updated appliances as the number-one home improvement project for the kitchen.

6. Read up on green home rating accreditations and get your home rated: The term "Greenwashing" refers to people (usually those interested in inflating the price of a house for sale) who falsely represent the efficiency of a home. There are rating systems that will "grade" your home for efficiency so you can legitimize your efforts to prepare for a future sale. HERS, LEED, E nergy Star, and Built Green are some of the more well-known certifying bodies. Each one of them has their defining criteria of what makes a home sustainable. Some homes have more than one certification. Once you've taken steps to move your home to a more sustainable footprint, research them to find out which one is right for you.

There's even a search engine to find certified homes for sale called Viva Green Homes. That will be useful if you'd like to do a bit of competitive analysis to determine what ratings are typical in your area.

Bottom line:

Follow these steps to transform your home into a more sustainable place. The world will thank you - so will your pocketbook.

-- 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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How Companies Will Use VR and Read Your Brainwaves to Sell You More Stuff

I'm passing through the front foyer of a major Chinese bank. I careen through well-lit hallways and teller booths, before sliding by some signage written in Cantonese. It's as if I'm there, minus the tellers, customers, and sounds of a bustling financial institution.

But the thing is, I'm not actually in China, or in a bank, although it almost feels as though I am. I'm using the Microsoft HoloLens to see a visual representation of this branch's layout, as designed by Toronto branding and design agency Shikatani Lacroix. Augmented reality gives me a bird's eye view of the scene. I then put on a Samsung Gear headset, and take a VR tour of the same space.

What I'm experiencing is part of the design firm's offering to its clients: An application that creates realistic retail environments using 3D technology, visualized through augmented reality and virtual reality. Experts say they can then analyze a consumer's brainwaves to judge how they're responding to the virtual environment, via electroencephalogram, or EEG. The EEG capability comes from a new partnership with True Impact, a neuromarketing research firm.

VR bank kiosks. Image: Shikatani Lacroix

This marriage of technologies is still in its newlywed phase, and it's difficult to assess its value this early. But it's easy to understand the appeal. Instead of a design firm building dollhouse prototypes to show focus groups, it can tour consumers through the environment in AR or VR, and report back to a client on what excited or bored them, using intimate details to make the case: These consumers will be outfitted with sensors across their bodies, including EEG.

“What we found with VR is that people aren't always honest about how they feel about what they're seeing,” said Daniel Terenzio, head of immersive solutions at Shikatani Lacroix. “But we eliminate that with neuroscience.”

The Chinese bank is this technology's first client (Terenzio declined to name the bank). Their tests found that in areas with lots of information and detail, for example where large signs were displayed, “cognitive responses go up,” noted Terenzio in our interview, “but in areas with larger more empty spaces that cognitive effort level goes down and it's more soothing and restful.”

A test subject is fitted with an EEG and Microsoft HoloLens headgear to view the AR retail environment. Image: Mark Willard

Shikatani Lacroix is not the first to harness neuroscience to give brands detailed data on what their consumers supposedly want. More companies are embracing it.

Earlier this year, Carl Marci, chief neuroscientist and executive vice president of Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience, spoke at the Digiday Retail Summit about how tools such as eye tracking, EEG and biometrics can help brands identify visual hot spots (areas in a store or on a product that attract the most attention) and blind spots and determine levels of emotional impact. For instance, wearing an eye-tracking glasses unit and EEG sensors, you can walk through a fake store and a firm can determine which area of the shelf your eyes turned to most and what made your heart rate fluctuate during your shopping trip.

AR and VR are also finding a home in retail. In 2013, IKEA introduced an app to let customers “place” a product in their home by placing the outline of that table, for example, in a living room space.

The web interface. Image: Shikatani Lacroix

And earlier this year, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba allowed shoppers to check out their goods on a VR headset to view at clothing and other fashion items in 360 degrees. This move comes several months after Alibaba opened a VR research lab to develop VR and AR technologies to help sellers on Alibaba platforms build their own 3D product inventories.

Terenzio demonstrated to me how they use a tablet outfitted with AR technology to display a digital label on a bottle of Pepsi (one of their clients), wrapping around the product fully. As I turned the bottle around, on the tablet I saw the new label, a moving image as opposed to a static one.

“This is a much better way to show clients how a label will look on their product, rather than just showing them flat pictures,” said Terenzio.

When I first heard about what Shikatani Lacroix was unveiling, I had that initial creepy feeling of “Oh great, another company hoping to read our brains to sell us more stuff.” It made me think of something out of a Cronenberg movie. But from their clients' perspective, it could save a lot of money. Who wouldn't want a virtual tour of a new shopping mall you're about to build, say, instead of seeing its miniature model that you literally can't walk through?

Reading our minds to build better stores and products will be the future or retail, for better or worse. Responsible companies have to ensure consumers give consent to have their bodies scanned to optimize shopping. It would be a dark day if this neuromarketing spun out of control: if we walked into a bank and didn't know our heart rates were being monitored.

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The Looming Extinction of Humankind, Explained

For most people, driving with a seat belt tightly strapped around their bodies is a smart habit. Not only is racing down the highway without it illegal—“click it or ticket,” as the slogan goes—but seat belts also “reduce serious crash-related injuries and deaths by about half.” Yet as we've previously estimated, your chances of dying in a car crash are at least 9.5 times lower than dying in a human extinction event.

If this sounds incredible—and admittedly, it does—it's because the human mind is susceptible to cognitive biases that distort our understanding of reality. Consider the fact that you're more likely to be killed by a meteorite than a lightning bolt, and your chances of being struck by lightning are about four times greater than dying in a terrorist attack. In other words, you should be more worried about meteorites than the Islamic State or al-Qaeda (at least for now).

The calculation above is based on an assumption made by the influential “Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change,” a report prepared for the UK government that describes climate change as “the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen.” In making its case that climate change should be a top priority, the Stern Review stipulates a 0.1 percent annual probability of human extinction.

This number might appear minuscule at first glance, but over the course of a century it yields a whopping 9.5 percent probability of our species going extinct. Even more, compared to estimates offered by others, it's actually quite low. For example, a 2008 survey of experts put the probability of human extinction this century at 19 percent. And the co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Sir Martin Rees, argues that civilization has a 50:50 chance of making it through the current century—a mere coin toss!

How could the probability of a global disaster be so much greater than that of dying in a car accident?

How is this possible? How could the probability of a global disaster be so much greater than that of dying in a car accident? To be sure, these estimates could be wrong. While some existential risks, such as asteroid impacts and super-volcanic eruptions, can be estimated using objective historical data, risks associated with future technologies require a good dose of speculation. Nonetheless, we know enough about certain technological trends and natural phenomena to make at least some reasonable claims about what our existential situation will look like in the future.

There are three broad categories of “existential risks,” or scenarios that would either cause our extinction or permanently catapult us back into the Stone Age. The first includes natural risks like asteroid and comet impacts, super-volcanic eruptions, global pandemics, and even supernovae. These form our cosmic risk background and, as just suggested, some of these risks are relatively easy to estimate.

As you may recall from middle school, an assassin from the heavens, possibly a comet, smashed into the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago and killed almost all of the dinosaurs. And about 75,000 years ago, a super-volcano in Indonesia caused the Toba catastrophe, which some scientists believe dramatically reduced the human population, though this claim is controversial. Few people today realize just how close humanity may have come to extinction in the Paleolithic.

Although the “dread factor” of pandemics tends to be lower than wars and terrorist attacks, they have resulted in some of the most significant episodes of mass death in human history. For example, the 1918 Spanish flu killed about 3 percent (though some estimates are double that) of the human population and infected roughly a third of all humans between 1918 and 1920. In absolute numbers, it threw roughly 33 million more people into the grave than all the bayonets, bullets, and bombs of World War I, which lasted from 1914 to 1918. And based on CDC estimates, the fourteenth-century Black Death, caused by the bubonic plague, could have taken approximately the same number of lives as World War II, World War I, the Crusades, the Mongol conquests, the Russian Civil War, and the Thirty Years' War combined. (Take note, anti-vaxxers!)

Influenza patients during the 1918 flu pandemic in Iowa. Image: Office of the Public Health Service Historian

The second category of existential risks concerns advanced technologies, which could cause unprecedented harm through “error or terror.” Historically speaking, humanity created the first anthropogenic risk in 1945 when we detonated an atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. Since this watershed event, humanity has lived in the flickering shadows of a nuclear holocaust, a fact that led a group of physicists to create the Doomsday Clock, which metaphorically represents our collective nearness to disaster.

While nuclear tensions peaked during the Cold War—President Kennedy even estimated that the likelihood of nuclear war at one point was “between 1 in 3 and even”—the situation improved significantly after the Iron Curtain fell. Unfortunately, US-Russian relations have recently deteriorated, leading Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to suggest that, “we have slid back to a new Cold War.” As we write this, the Doomsday Clock is set to a mere three minutes before midnight—or doom—which is the second closest it's been to midnight since its creation in 1947.

While nuclear weapons constitute the greatest current risk to human survival, they may be among the least of our concerns by the end of this century. Why? Because of the risks associated with emerging fields like biotechnology, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology. The key point to understand here is that these fields are not only becoming exponentially more powerful, but their products are becoming increasingly accessible to groups and individuals as well.

For example, it's increasingly possible for nonexperts to cobble together a makeshift gene-editing laboratory. The affordability of home-built labs is being driven in part by the biohacking movement, which aims to empower interested hobbyists by making inexpensive, automated equipment readily available. DNA material can also be ordered from commercial providers, as journalists for the Guardiandiscovered in 2006 when they managed to acquire “part of [the] smallpox genome through mail order.” Even more, anyone with an internet connection can access databases that contain the genetic sequences of pathogens like Ebola. We're a long way from programming organisms' DNA the way we program software. But if these trends continue (as they likely will), terrorists and lone wolves of the future will almost certainly have the ability to engineer pandemics of global proportions, and perhaps even more devastating than anything our species has previously encountered.

As for nanotechnology, the most well-known risk stems from what's called the grey goo scenario. This involves tiny self-replicating machines, or nanobots, programmed to disassemble whatever matter they come into contact with and reorganize those atoms into exact replicas of themselves. The resulting nanorobotic clones would then convert all the matter around them into even more copies. Because of the exponential rate of replication, the entire biosphere could be transformed into a wriggling swarm of mindlessly reproducing nanobots in a relatively short period of time.

Alternatively, a terrorist could design such nanobots to selectively destroy organisms with a specific genetic signature. An ecoterrorist who wants to remove humanity from the planet without damaging the global ecosystem could potentially create self-replicating nanobots that specifically target Homo sapiens, thereby resulting in our extinction.

Perhaps the greatest long-term threat to humanity's future, though, stems from artificial superintelligence. As one of us recently wrote, instilling values in a superintelligent machine that promote human well-being could be surprisingly difficult. For example, a superintelligence whose goal is to eliminate sadness from the world might simply exterminate Homo sapiens, because people who don't exist can't be sad. Or a superintelligence whose purpose is to help humans solve our energy crisis might inadvertently destroy us by covering the entire planet with solar panels. The point is that there's a crucial difference between “do as I tell you” and “do as I intend you to do,” and figuring out how to program a machine to follow the latter poses a number of daunting challenges.

A wildfire at Florida Panther NWR. Image: Josh O'Connor/USFWS

This leads to the final category of risks, which includes anthropogenic disasters like climate change and biodiversity loss. While neither of these are likely to result in our extinction, they are both potent “conflict multipliers” that will push societies to their limits, and in doing so will increase the probability of advanced technologies being misused and abused.

To put this in stark terms, ask yourself this: is a nuclear war more or less likely in a world of extreme weather, mega-droughts, mass migrations, and social/political instability? Is an eco-terrorist attack involving nanotechnology more or less likely in a world of widespread environmental degradation? Is a terrorist attack involving apocalyptic fanatics more or less likely in a world of wars and natural disasters that appear to be prophesied in ancient texts?

But this isn't the end of the story. There's also ample reason for optimism.

Climate change and biodiversity loss will almost certainly exacerbate current geopolitical tensions and foment entirely new struggles between state and nonstate actors. This is not only worrisome in itself, but with the advent of advanced technologies, it could be existentially disastrous.

It's considerations like these that have lead the experts surveyed above, Rees, and other scholars to their less-than-optimistic claims about the future. The fact is that there are far more ways for our species to perish today than ever before, and the best current estimates suggest that dying from an existential catastrophe is more likely than dying in a car accident. Even more, there are multiple reasons for anticipating that the threat of terrorism will nontrivially increase in the coming decades, due to the destabilizing effects of environmental degradation, the democratization of technology, and the growth of religious extremism worldwide.

But this isn't the end of the story. There's also ample reason for optimism. While the existential risks confronting our species this century are formidable, not a single one is insoluble. Humanity has the capacity to overcome every danger that lines the road before us. For example, advanced technologies could also mitigatethe risks posed by nature. A kamikaze asteroid barreling towards Earth could be deflected by a spacecraft or (perhaps) blown to smithereens by a nuclear bomb. Developments like space colonization and underground bunkers could enable humanity to survive a catastrophic asteroid impact or super-volcanic eruption. As for pandemics, recent incidents like the Ebola and SARS outbreaks have shown that scientists working with the international community can effectively contain the spread of pathogenic microbes that might otherwise have caused a global disaster.

Other risks like climate change and biodiversity loss could be solved by reducing population growth, switching to sustainable energy sources, and preserving natural habitats.

This leaves technological risks, which society could potentially neutralize by implementing policies and regulations intended to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals, psychopaths, and terrorists. It's unclear, though, how effective such strategies could be, and this is in part why many experts see the biggest future threats as being associated with advanced technologies. Fortunately, organizations like the X-Risks Institute, Future of Life Institute, Future of Humanity Institute, and Centre for the Study of Existential Risks are working hard to ensure that a worst-case scenario for our species never occurs.

The cosmos is a vast obstacle course of life-threatening dangers. And while our extraordinary success as a species has improved the human condition greatly, it's also introduced a host of novel existential risks our species has never before encountered—and thus has no track record of surviving. Nonetheless, there are clear, concrete actions humanity can take to mitigate the threats before us and lower the probability of an existential catastrophe. As many leading experts have confirmed, the future is overflowing with hope, but realizing this hope requires us to take a sober look at the very real dangers all around.

Phil Torres is an author, contributing writer at the Future of Life Institute, and founding Director of the X-Risks Institute. His most recent book is called The End: What Science and Religion Tell Us About the Apocalypse. Follow him on Twitter: @xriskology.

Peter Boghossian is an assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State University. He is the author of A Manual for Creating Atheists and creator of the app Atheos. Follow him on Twitter: @peterboghossian

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Adaptability: The True Mark Of Genius

Image credit: Eric Terrade/Unsplash.

Good grades, aced tests, high IQs -- we have lots of ways to approximate someone's intelligence. These indicators are undoubtedly good at getting a general understanding of a person's ability to retain information and solve problems, but are they useful for indicating whether or not someone is a real "genius?"

First off, there is no universally accepted scientific definition of "genius." It is simply a word used to describe someone demonstrating exceptional intellectual ability. Even this is a vague understanding of the concept, as "exceptional" and "ability" are somewhat relative -- ultimately in the eye of the beholder(s).

What then, is the universal signature of genius? Rather than trying to define it through the narrow band of human uniqueness -- the traits making our species special like literacy, artistic expression, and so forth -- it might be better to think of genius as a concept existing independently of humanity. On this new playing field, genius is not determined by taking tests or possessing a high IQ. Instead, genius is calculated by how successfully an organism can adapt to changes in its environment.

Strange changes

Very few businesses can operate long term without changes to various parts of the system. Name an enterprise which was in operation before the year 1990 and it undoubtedly had to make a significant shift toward computer technology and the internet. These demands never stop thanks to an ever-changing market and the increasingly sophisticated nature of technology.

For example, the previously mentioned enterprise may now be struggling to coordinate resource planning among its various departments. For 20 years, it relied on a DIY, seat of its pants method of managing this information. The time has come to shop for top Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software to reduce waste and inefficiencies. Its leaders now have to choose which of the dozens of possible solutions is right going forward.

Analysis paralysis

This is where the test of genius comes into play. Presented with a multitude of options for overriding a problem or set of challenges, it's very easy to become overwhelmed and unsure of what to choose. The basis for your ultimate decision -- the factors leading to leaning toward one particular solution -- are a product of how well you grasp the demands of change.

Faced with dozens of possible courses of action, it's common to be afflicted with analysis paralysis. This tendency to overthink a major decision often leads to people falling back on their worn-out playbooks for clues on what to do next. Whether we consciously or subconsciously do it, people desire the comfortable, the familiar, the routine. Among numerous choices, the common option stands out and holds appeal. In the face of changes, the "go-to" old ways of doing things are unlikely to prove advantageous.

Those with a gift for adaptability, on the other hand, are going to sever their emotional ties to the past and actively search for information regarding what to do next. Slowly but surely, the options get whittled down to a viable, practical array from which the final choice is selected.

What nature intended

Finding a specific way of doing things and sticking to it is human nature. In fact, it's nature across the board; the diversity of an animal kingdom sharing the majority of their DNA with one another is a result of millions if varying ways to survive. Being afraid or otherwise resistant to changes is instinctual, as we're hardwired to walk a relatively very specific path.

However, nature repeatedly challenged its own construct with mass extinction events, where over 90 percent of life on Earth would be eradicated. Dinosaurs are the most famous example of what happens when a successful species is thrust into a new environment and cannot cope with the changes. An established company incapable of making changes to evade destructive forces is not much different.

Free will vs. free won't

The stubbornness hardwired into us preventing successful adapting to cope with changes is perhaps the true seat of our "intelligence." There is growing evidence to suggest the concept of "free will" is an illusion and we are in fact driven by the desires of a subconscious, inner version of ourselves. This is why we so often do the things we "know" we ought not to do, and procrastinate with the things we "know" need to happen to achieve our clear goals.

A theory put forward by the late Benjamin Libet, a renowned pioneer of human consciousness research, suggests the persona we associate as our "self" is not the one leading the way. Rather, we are an executive of sorts, with limited direct control over how we react to change. Libet's ideas resulted in the concept of "free won't": we have the power to veto the courses of action taken by our subconscious, but are otherwise at the mercy of our nature.

Think of it this way: intelligence is that thing inside of us making all the decisions we mostly go along with; meanwhile, genius is the ability to know when these automatic choices are worth adjusting or switching up entirely.

Overriding the system

With all this in mind, a better understanding of "genius" starts to emerge. Can we take credit for the almost automatic way our brains take to making decisions? Calling someone a genius for test scores and grades is a bit like applauding software for doing what it was designed and programmed to perform. Predictable, routine paths of logic hinged on training and practice, while impressive, do not indicate a person's propensity for triumphing through change.

Rather, genius can be seen as the ability to break free from the predestined, comfortable route when all signs point to the need to change. It's the absorption of observations without precedent or plans. It's drawing conclusions and taking a new course of action to outmaneuver the inevitable drawbacks of staying on the same course. Everyone and everything alive today is a product of past genius and thus carries the potential for genius going forward.

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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.

design

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design

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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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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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"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"

astronomy

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astronomy

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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