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The longest call

Operations image of the week:

On 10 August 2016, ESA's tracking station at New Norcia, Western Australia, hosting a 35 m-diameter, 630-tonne deep-space antenna, received signals transmitted by NASA's Cassini orbiter at Saturn, through 1.44 billion km of space.

“This was the farthest-ever reception for an ESA station, and the radio signals travelling at the speed of light took 80 minutes to cover this vast distance,” says Daniel Firre, responsible for supporting Cassini radio science at ESOC, ESA's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

The signal reception was part of a series of tests to prepare several ESA stations to support Cassini's radio science investigations, planned to begin later in 2016.

This image shows New Norcia station as seen in 2014 by Dylan O'Donnell, an amateur photographer based in Byron Bay, Australia (the blob of light apparently hovering above the antenna is a light artefact, ‘lens flare').

Credit: ESA/D. O'Donnell

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Nearby Venus-Like Exoplanet --"Oxygen, But Not Necessarily Life"

The distant planet GJ 1132b intrigued astronomers when it was discovered last year. Located just 39 light-years from Earth, it might have an atmosphere despite being baked to a temperature of around 450 degrees Fahrenheit. But would that atmosphere be thick and soupy or thin and wispy? New research suggests the latter is much more likely.

Harvard astronomer Laura Schaefer (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, or CfA) and her colleagues examined the question of what would happen to GJ 1132b over time if it began with a steamy, water-rich atmosphere.

Orbiting so close to its star, at a distance of just 1.4 million miles, the planet is flooded with ultraviolet or UV light. UV light breaks apart water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, both of which then can be lost into space. However, since hydrogen is lighter it escapes more readily, while oxygen lingers behind.

"On cooler planets, oxygen could be a sign of alien life and habitability. But on a hot planet like GJ 1132b, it's a sign of the exact opposite - a planet that's being baked and sterilized," said Schaefer.

Since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the planet would have a strong greenhouse effect, amplifying the star's already intense heat. As a result, its surface could stay molten for millions of years.

A "magma ocean" would interact with the atmosphere, absorbing some of the oxygen, but how much? Only about one-tenth, according to the model created by Schaefer and her colleagues. Most of the remaining 90 percent of leftover oxygen streams off into space, however some might linger.

"This planet might be the first time we detect oxygen on a rocky planet outside the solar system," said co-author Robin Wordsworth (Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences).

If any oxygen does still cling to GJ 1132b, next-generation telescopes like the Giant Magellan Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope may be able to detect and analyze it.

The magma ocean-atmosphere model could help scientists solve the puzzle of how Venus evolved over time. Venus probably began with Earthlike amounts of water, which would have been broken apart by sunlight. Yet it shows few signs of lingering oxygen. The missing oxygen problem continues to baffle astronomers.

Schaefer predicts that their model also will provide insights into other, similar exoplanets. For example, the system TRAPPIST-1 contains three planets that may lie in the habitable zone. Since they are cooler than GJ 1132b, they have a better chance of retaining an atmosphere.

The Daily Galaxy via Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

Rocky Planet with a 3-Day Orbit --"Only 21 Light-Years Away"

NASA: "The Rosetta Stone for Super-Earths?"

Mystery Objects With Strange Orbits Discovered in Outer Solar System --"There's More Going On Than We're Fully Aware Of"

Chance of Life in the Universe --"Much Higher in Distant Future" (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

China's Space Scientists Warn of Extraterrestrial Danger --"Universe is a Jungle with Every Civilization a Hidden Hunter: Those Who are Exposed Will be Eliminated"

50 Billion Suns! -The Biggest Single Object in the Universe -A Galaxy Insight - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

China Could Legally Seize Moon's 'Peaks of Eternal Light' --"Will Earth's 1st Space War Start There?"

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China's Scientists Propose the Human 'Quantum Brain' --"The Source of Our Dominance on the Planet: More Complex Than a Galaxy"

Chinese scientists have proposed a new theory that explains why humans are so much more intelligent than animals even though our brains are often much smaller than those of other species. Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Neuroscience and Neuro-engineering have previously carried out studies backing the theory that the brain not only processes and passes on information not only through electrical and chemical signals, but also with photons of light.

Now, their latest study, the Wuhan researchers, led by professor Dai Jiapei suggested two years ago that neurons, the nerve cells in the brain that transmit information, emit extremely "lights," photons, stimulated by a chemical called glutamate and detectable only with the most sensitive equipment, but capable of transmission along brain fibers and circuits. The key finding is that human brains are able to create information-relaying photons using much less energy, enabling homo sapiens to operate more speedily and efficiently than brains of other species.

The hypothesis that our brain also operates using other mechanisms --a quantum consciousness--rather than just electrical and chemical signals has been around for decades. Its supporters have included the physicist Eugene Wigner, Nobel Prize laureate in 1963 and more recently the eminent physicist Sir Roger Penrose at the University of Oxford, who has suggested that the human brain is more complex than a galaxy.

"If you look at the entire physical cosmos, our brains are a tiny, tiny part of it," said Penrose. "But they're the most perfectly organized part. Compared to the complexity of a brain, a galaxy is just an inert lump."

These theories include the idea that the brain transmits non-electrical particles, a form of physics which also underpins the idea of the quantum computer. But other scientists have remained sceptical, with one of their biggest concerns the absence of a physical medium in the brain through which information is transmitted.

It is still not clear, for example, how the brain carries out the transfer of information, coding and storage via photons.
Critics of the “quantum brain” theory have also questioned whether the brain is physically able to relay information through photons.

“The critical questions we are concerned with is whether any components of the nervous system ... wet and warm tissue strongly coupled to its environment - display any macroscopic quantum behaviors, such as quantum entanglement,” wrote Christof Koch and Professor Klaus Hepp at the University of Zürich in an earlier study.

According to the South China Morning Post, in their latest study, Dai and his colleagues sliced tissue samples from the brains of a bullfrog, mouse, chicken, pig, monkey and human. The neurons, still alive in the culture dish, were then stimulated with glutamate and the photons recorded with specially-built sensors. They observed the spectral redshift, or the change of light waves from higher to lower energy levels. Human brain tissue showed the lowest energy photons, followed by the monkey, pig, chicken and mouse, with the frog at the highest level.

“Interestingly, we found that the chicken exhibits more redshift than the mouse, raising the question of whether chickens hold higher cognitive abilities than those of mice,” the researchers wrote in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

“It has been suggested that birds might have evolved from a certain type of dinosaur and that dinosaurs, which dominated on Earth for a long time, should hold certain advanced cognitive abilities over other animals. Based on this theory, it may be true that poultry have higher cognitive abilities than rodents, at least in language abilities, because certain birds, such as parrots, are able to imitate human words,” the Wuhan team observed.

The authors said they hoped the findings would suggest a new viewpoint in understanding the mechanisms of the brain and also explain why human brains were better than those of other animals in some advanced cognitive functions, such as language, planning and problem solving.

The Daily Galaxy via South China Morning Post and The Allen Institute

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life --"Motion May Signal Microorganisms"

"Your Inner Jellyfish" --Origin of Electrical Communication in Human Brain Traced Back 600 Million Years

How Would Alien Astronomers from Andromeda Detect Life On Earth?

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Astronomers capture a nova - a brilliant moment in the life cycle of a star

Images reveal a classical nova: a key instant in a cycle of events than can last thousands to millions of years

Astronomers have monitored a nova a sudden eruption of brightness in an anonymous star 23,000 light years away, and used their observations to add weight to a theory of heavenly happenings.

The nova, a white dwarf in a star system known only as V1213 Cen, in the southern sky in the direction of the constellation Centaurus, would have been visible only to observers with binoculars. It suddenly shone brightly and then dimmed in May 2009.

Continue reading...
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NASA's BARREL Mission in Sweden

NASA Goddard Photo and Video posted a photo:

Prior to launch, the BARREL team works on the payload from the launch pad at Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, Sweden.

The BARREL team is at Esrange Space Center launching a series of six scientific payloads on miniature scientific balloons. The NASA-funded BARREL which stands for Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses primarily measures X-rays in Earth's atmosphere near the North and South Poles. These X-rays are produced by electrons raining down into the atmosphere from two giant swaths of radiation that surround Earth, called the Van Allen belts. Learning about the radiation near Earth helps us to better protect our satellites.

Several of the BARREL balloons also carry instruments built by undergraduate students to measure the total electron content of Earth's ionosphere, as well as the low-frequency electromagnetic waves that help to scatter electrons into Earth's atmosphere. Though about 90 feet in diameter, the BARREL balloons are much smaller than standard football stadium-sized scientific balloons.

This is the fourth campaign for the BARREL mission. BARREL is led by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The undergraduate student instrument team is led by the University of Houston and funded by the Undergraduate Student Instrument Project out of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. For more information on NASA's scientific balloon program, visit: www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons.

Image credit: NASA/Dartmouth/Robyn Millan

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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Fear of Rattlesnake Island

The state of Massachusetts has proposed to introduce a small colony of Timber Rattlesnakes to an island in the Quabbin Reservoir, to the vehement outrage of many local residents. “If we only conserve the cute and the cuddly,” said Lou Perrotti, who is supervising the breeding of Timber Rattlesnakes, “we're going to have forests full of butterflies and bunny rabbits, and they're going to be very nonfunctioning ecosystems that would eventually collapse.”

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Yuko Shimizu: Money or Control Pick One.

About this presentation

As creatives, we're often put to the test of making tough decisions and sacrifices for our work. However, according to Yuko Shimizu, our biggest decision needs to happen at the beginning of our career asking ourselves: “What kind of artist do [we] want to be?” and having a clear picture of what that looks like.

In this talk, Shimizu distills insights from her own personal story of being fired just days before her 99U appearance, gives advice on learning to say no, her thoughts on personal work, and tying it all back to the reality that while we might not win every job or shine on every project, sometimes we can recommend someone who will.

About Yuko Shimizu

Yuko Shimizu is an award-winning Japanese illustrator based in New York. Her work has appeared on the pages of the New York Times, TIME, and Newsweek, on the covers of DC Comics, Penguin, Abrams and Random House books, on the Gap and Nike T-shirts, and on Pepsi cans.

Her monograph Living with Yuko Shimizu will be published this spring. A Wild Swan, her collaboration with Pulitzer-winning author Michael Cunningham, came out in 2015. She was chosen as Newsweek Japan's “100 Japanese People World Respects” in 2009.

Links

@yukoart

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Skeptical About Climate Deniers
Few concepts are more poorly understood or more abused than skepticism. The best example of this abuse is to attribute the moniker of "climate change skeptic" to those who ignore the overwhelming data concerning global warming.

The shortest definition of skepticism is "an attitude of doubting the truth about a claim or statement." Something a bit more meaningful would be "suspending judgment and applying systematic reservation about a claim or statement."

So why can't we rightfully call a denier a skeptic since he doubts or has reservations about the truth about climate change claims, which would at first glance meet the definition of skepticism? We shall see.

Michael Shermer, Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, has rightfully noted that "skepticism is not a position, it is a process." It is the application of critical thinking to evaluate the validity of an assertion. Saying that "I am a skeptic" has little meaning because that is a stance; more meaningful is a statement like, "I am open to accepting a claim if presented with sufficiently convincing evidence."

What we are talking about here, even though everybody uses the term skepticism, is actually "ordinary incredulity." We are not including here what is technically "philosophical doubt" -- a more formal version of skepticism, an intellectual exercise to deny the validity of an entire class of claims by positing that certain knowledge is not attainable even in theory. Yeah, I know, that is a little opaque. But we really do need to understand the distinction between ordinary incredulity and philosophical skepticism before we can nail down why deniers are not in fact skeptics. The best way I've come across is a review of the Truman Show and the Matrix as put forth in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Truman is placed, without his knowledge, in a contrived environment so that his "life" can be broadcast on television. Truman comes across clues that something is wrong. In The Matrix, where everything is running as programmed by the machines, there is no possible way for the "people" in the matrix to determine that the world as experienced is only a "dream world" and not the real world (the world of causes and effects). The Truman Show is a depiction of a case of ordinary incredulity because there is some evidence that is, in principle, available to Truman for determining what's really the case; whereas The Matrix depicts a situation similar to that imagined by a typical philosophical skeptic in which it is not possible for the Matrix-bound characters to obtain evidence for determining that things are not as they seem (whenever the virtual reality is perfectly created). Put another way, the philosophical skeptic challenges our ordinary assumption that there is evidence available that can help us to discriminate between the real world and some counterfeit world that appears in all ways to be identical to the real world.

So from that we conclude that ordinary incredulity (what people typically call skepticism) arises when in principle doubt can be removed by discovering the truth of some claim or statement.

And here is precisely why climate change deniers do not have the high privilege of being called skeptics. No amount of data, no convincing evidence, and no degree of proof would ever convince a denier that climate change is real. Even in principle a denier's doubt cannot be removed because a denier is relying on faith rather than evidence to support his position. If doubt cannot be removed with new knowledge or advances in understanding, then that is not skepticism - it is just a form of religion.

Cynicism Is Not Skepticism

Offering a skeptical perspective is not cynical; in fact quite the opposite is true. Cynics doubt and mistrust not on the weight of evidence or lack thereof but on suspicions of underlying motivation. Cynicism can lead to the rejection of a claim but not to new discoveries, unlike skepticism which can lead to both.

Provisional disbelief is often mistaken as cynicism; the two are not equivalent. It is perfectly reasonable to start out unconvinced that humans are causing our climate to change. But that shifts to cynicism and faith-based opposition with the inability to modify that position in the presence of overwhelming evidence. What matters, independent of one's starting hypothesis, is the willingness to draw conclusions when a claim is confirmed "to such an extent that it would be reasonable to offer temporary agreement."

Skepticism is fully embedded in the scientific method: the application of systematic observation, reproducible measurements, and experimentation in order to gain new knowledge about and a deeper understanding of our physical and biological world. The entire reason for applying systematic observation is that we are open to but remain skeptical of any claim's validity until observation, reproducible measurements and experimental confirm or reject the claim.

Climate change denial is a form of cynicism and as such is the antithesis of skepticism; it is the closed-minded pre-determined rejection of any and all data that might validate the claim that our climate is changing, and the blind credulous acceptance of any unsubstantiated assertions that support the denial. Here is the bottom line difference between a denier and someone currently convinced the climate is changing: if presented with convincing contrary evidence that demonstrates the earth's climate is not warming, or is changing by natural cyclical variation alone, one who temporarily accepted that the earth is warming because of human activity would modify his conclusion based on this new knowledge. In contrast, no mountain of data demonstrating that humans are causing a changing climate would cause a denier to modify his conclusion. Skepticism demands an open mind and allows for and encourages the advancement of knowledge by seeking explanations of phenomena anchored in the natural world; faith-based denial is immune to modification.

A denier may come back and say that in fact those who claim the climate is changing are the ones with closed minds since they openly reject what deniers believe. But no, that is false equivalency; deniers could indeed make headway if they could present convincing data but the inverse is not true.

Open Mind, Gullibility and Conviction

We must not confuse an open mind with gullibility. A mind open to change in the face of convincing data is not equivalent to credulous acceptance of a claim absent of evidence. Nor can we confuse an open mind with lack of conviction. Climate change experts are secure in their conclusions based on overwhelming evidence across multiple disciplines, confirmed independently by thousands of scientists in hundreds of countries. They have no less an open mind because they are firm in their conclusion. With overwhelming evidence in hand the threshold for modifying one's temporary acceptance becomes ever higher. The threshold for change is elevated on the basis of accumulating evidence, not faith. We can confidently conclude, without being accused of being closed minded, that atoms are a building block of nature, that DNA contains the genetic code, and that the earth orbits the sun. Being highly confident about these statements is justified by incredibly precise measurements, reproducible observations and extraordinarily refined experimentation performed by tens thousands of scientists over decades or centuries. Yes it would be possible to overturn these conclusions with sufficiently convincing contrary data, but given the history leading to our understanding of these aspects of the natural world, that is not likely to happen. That does not make us closed-minded; it makes us firm in our convictions but open to being convinced otherwise by overwhelming data. Climate change deniers in contrast can never be otherwise convinced.

Deep Irony

Climate change deniers bring to the debate a deep irony and terrible hypocrisy that add another disturbing element beyond the important difference between cynicism and skepticism. We know that deniers demand more proof that the climate is warming even in the face of a growing body of accumulating evidence. We know too that while they demand such proof no quantity of date would ever be sufficient because the denial is not based in skepticism but in cynicism and faith. And yet. And yet this same demand for proof is conspicuously and gloriously absent when the question turns to patently false claims about fat-burning foods or a host of bogus promises relating to diet and nutrition, or the link between autism and vaccines, or the economic viability of nuclear power, or clean coal, or alien landings, or the Bermuda Triangle, or virtually anything that is not climate change. Only with climate change is such proof demanded; meaning we have the circumstance in which deniers reject a conclusion for which we have overwhelming evidence but accept wild claims for which there is none. Some significant number of Republicans, even if not a majority as sometimes reported, believes that Obama is a Muslim; where is the demand for proof? Such is the dangerous brew of faith stirred with cynicism in the absence of reasonable credulity.

There are no climate change skeptics; only faith-based climate change cynics.

-- 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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MyHome home automati

MyHome home automation system on iPad and Android tablet

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Polish poster for LOVE STORY (Arthur Hiller, USA, 1970)Designer:...

Polish poster for LOVE STORY (Arthur Hiller, USA, 1970)

Designer: Jakub Erol

Poster source: Heritage Auctions

R.I.P. Arthur Hiller (1923-2016)

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Venus-like Exoplanet Might Have Oxygen Atmosphere, But Not Life

This artist's conception shows the rocky exoplanet GJ 1132b, located 39 light-years from Earth. New research shows that it might possess a thin, oxygen atmosphere but no life due to its extreme heat. (Illustration by Dana Berry / Skyworks Digital / CfA)

“On cooler planets, oxygen could be a sign of alien life and habitability. But on a hot planet like GJ 1132b, it's a sign of the exact opposite a planet that's being baked and sterilized,” said Schaefer.

Since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the planet would have a strong greenhouse effect, amplifying the star's already intense heat. As a result, its surface could stay molten for millions of years.

A “magma ocean” would interact with the atmosphere, absorbing some of the oxygen, but how much? Only about one-tenth, according to the model created by Schaefer and her colleagues. Most of the remaining 90 percent of leftover oxygen streams off into space, however some might linger.

“This planet might be the first time we detect oxygen on a rocky planet outside the solar system,” said co-author Robin Wordsworth (Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences).

If any oxygen does still cling to GJ 1132b, next-generation telescopes like the Giant Magellan Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope may be able to detect and analyze it.

This work has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online. The journal paper is authored by Laura Schaefer , Robin Wordsworth, Zachory Berta-Thompson (University of Colorado, Boulder), and Dimitar Sasselov (CfA).

# # #

The post Venus-like Exoplanet Might Have Oxygen Atmosphere, But Not Life appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

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Why Birds Really Matter

Catherine McKenna, Canada's Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, talks about the importance of bird conservation and 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 coalmine (pun intended) that let us know when something is not right in our ecosystem.

In the following clips, avid birder President Jimmy Carter, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, Canada's Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna, and 9 year-old bird enthusiast Keith Gagnon, talk 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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Soviet poster for AT WAR AS AT WAR (Viktor Tregubovich, USSR,...

Soviet poster for AT WAR AS AT WAR (Viktor Tregubovich, USSR, 1969)

Designer: Ostrovski

Poster source: Posteritati

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IT'S ALMOST THERE

Hey!!

hum… today i posted the 356 gif… it's been almost a year, and the 365th gif is almost here…

Still not sure if i should keep going after reaching this goal… its been the whole thing, a year of gifs…

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Eighty three - Logo animation [gif]

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How Virtual Reality Is Used to Explore Empathy at Stanford, With Reflections from VHIL Director Jeremy Bailenson
By Julia TraversVirtual Reality (VR) may bring to mind advanced gaming possibilities and simulated, entertaining, sensory experiences. The team at Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) is using VR in an innovative way: to teach and explore human empathy. They create immersive ...

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How we escaped the Big Bang: New theory on moving through time
A physicist is challenging the conventional view of space and time to show how the world advances through time. In her new research, she argues that T violation, or a violation of time reversal (T) symmetry, is forcing the universe and us in it, into the future.
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Bridging a Gap between Scientists and the Public
By Travis J. Bernardo, Ph.D.

What do the following stories have in common?

According to the Centers for Disease Control, endemic measles was eradicated from the U.S. in the year 2000, the result of decades of vaccination efforts. But the last few years have seen a dramatic spike in the number of nationwide measles outbreaks, attributed in part to rising public fears over vaccination use.

The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation together receive just under $40 billion in funding annually, less than 1 percent of a federal budget dominated by transfer payment programs, health insurance spending and military expenditures. Yet medical research projects, often misunderstood as wasteful spending, are routinely placed under the political microscope as a prime target for cuts.

Precise genome editing using the CRISPR/Cas9 system offers the potential to revolutionize scientific research and medicine. The prospect of directly modifying the human genome certainly has ethical implications, which are being openly debated by scientists. But any future groundbreaking therapeutics based on genome editing face strong headwinds due to substantial public opposition.

If the answer isn't clear to you, let me suggest the following: they highlight a significant perception gap between scientists and the public when it comes to important medical advances. Indeed, on a whole host of policy issues, the public simply sees things differently from the way scientists do.

An Obligation and an Opportunity
What is the appropriate response to this gap in perception? For those of us steeped in science and medicine, it's easy to forget that not everyone has the rich knowledge of subject matter and rigorous critical thinking skills ingrained in us by our training.

And perhaps it's just as easy to keep our noses to the grindstone, move our own research forward and survey the public mood with a sense of detachment.

But it is our responsibility to explain to the public why our work is valuable and deserves support. We are the ones who understand the depth and complexity of modern science. We have the ability to translate that information to nonscientists. And while it may sound like a burdensome obligation, it's really an opportunity, not only for personal growth but for securing the future of scientific progress. After all, it is the public and its elected representatives who ultimately determine the fate of funding for basic medical research.

What Can You Do?
Fortunately, there are many opportunities for scientists to engage the public and bridge the perception gap. Here are just a few ideas.

Blog your heart out. Is there a scientific issue near to your heart that doesn't receive enough attention? If you want to add your two cents to the national conversation, start a blog. With many free platforms to choose from, getting going is easy. While your audience will start out small, with a little persistence you may find your message catching on. You can also offer articles to established blogs that have a preexisting readership. For instance, I was invited to write this post by the editors of The Doctor's Tablet after they saw an earlier post I wrote for the ASCB Compass blog.

Edit a Wikipedia page. Wikipedia is one of the most frequented sites on the Web. It is openly editable, relying on contributors to maintain quality. Many pages on scientific topics, however, still lack sourcing or do not meet Wikipedia quality standards, which may lead to incomplete or erroneous content. Given its reputation as the "first place to go" for many laypeople seeking scientific knowledge, consider editing pages in your area of expertise. This small, but significant, contribution can help eliminate the spread of misinformation online.

Practice communicating in a low-stakes environment. Communicating science effectively often means talking in public. If you have a shy streak or feel your public-speaking skills need honing, practice in a risk-free setting. Einstein, for instance, hosts a local Toastmasters chapter where members deliver impromptu speeches and receive constructive feedback from peers.

Poster presentations and conference talks are also good opportunities to practice, and will train you to communicate science to different target audiences. Even consider giving an elevator pitch about your research to family members and friends who aren't scientists.

Advocate for science. If you're comfortable in public forums, consider becoming a science advocate. Here, you'll have the chance to communicate directly with holders of the public purse strings. Advocacy includes a range of activities, such as writing to your local representatives, starting a social media campaign or participating in a Congressional Visits Day, during which you will speak directly to members of Congress or their staffers.

Recently an Einstein Science Policy Group has been formed to promote advocacy efforts on campus. You may want to look at starting such a group at your institution. Examples across the country can be found at the website of the National Science Policy Group, and a beginner's guide to getting started locally was recently published in Molecular Biology of the Cell.

Consider a career in communication. For graduate students and postdocs, finding a job that aligns with your interests and values is an important goal. If you're truly passionate about communicating about science, you might consider making a career out of it. Science communication is a diverse field, encompassing journalism, educational animation and everything in between.

There are many opportunities out there for scientists to bridge the divide with the public. It is up to us to step up and lay the planks.

"2016-08-15-1471300855-8618221-TravisJ.BernardoHuffpo.png"

Dr. Bernardo is a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Arthur I. Skoultchi, Ph.D., in the cell biology department at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is also an associate member of the Einstein BETTR-IRACDA program. Dr. Bernardo writes online about issues related to science policy, education, and communication.

***

This post was originally featured on The Doctor's Tablet, the blog of Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

-- 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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Gold Stocks Cognitive Dissonance & Denial - The Market Oracle

The Market Oracle

Gold Stocks Cognitive Dissonance & Denial
The Market Oracle
Obviously if your NOT in denial, you know this cannot end well, no matter how much the so-called "Monetary Authorities" keep queering up the money supply, digitally, or thru debt issuance or otherwise. The question popped up " Is there an edict that ...

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r0B0t: Trump could become Mr. Brexit
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Early Thursday morning, Republican candidate for president Donald Trump wrote a cryptic tweet.

It read, "They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!"

Almost immediately, the title began trending on Twitter and jokes flooded social media, each more confused than the last. But, there is a method to this that's one example of Twitter madness.

Trump is most definitely referring to the United Kingdom's June vote to leave the European Union, and most probably how the results surprised many because polls leading up to the referendum indicated the opposite result.

Clearly, unless he really has gotten into Mr. Robot, Trump sees himself in the same position as the UK residents who wanted to keep their country out of international economic affairs. Read more...

More about 2016 Election, Brexit, Mr. Brexit, Donald Trump, and World

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r0B0t: The robots of war: AI and the future of combat - Engadget

The robots of war: AI and the future of combat
Engadget
The 1983 film WarGames portrayed a young hacker tapping into NORAD's artificial-intelligence-driven nuclear weapons' system. When the hit movie was screened for President Reagan, it prompted the commander in chief to ask if it were possible for the ...

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r0B0t: Sex doll makers "putting finishing touches" to artificial intelligence app so they can love you back - Mirror.co.uk

Mirror.co.uk

Sex doll makers "putting finishing touches" to artificial intelligence app so they can love you back
Mirror.co.uk
Matt McMullen, CEO of RealDoll, revealed the next step in making the high-end sex toys will be to give them AI to replicate humans more closely than ever. "We are building an AI system which can either be connected to a robotic doll OR experienced in a ...

and more »

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Photos of the Day: Aug. 18, 2016

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.
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Sunset from London Bridge

ekrubmj posted a photo:

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Whales Win Yet Again on Sonar: Why Do the Navy and NMFS Refuse to Get It Right?
On social issues, the military has often seemed the last to know. Ending racial discrimination took decades. Outlawing discrimination based on sexual preference took just as long. This year, the role of women in combat is finally being recognized. In every case, the military's rationale for resisting change has been that military readiness would inevitably be compromised.

But significant progress has been made in recent years on all of these issues without adverse impact on our preparedness. By contrast, progress has been frustratingly elusive in persuading the U.S. Navy to care about the health of our oceans. After over two decades of adverse federal court orders - and over five decades since the "Save the Whales" movement focused widespread public attention on the plight of these magnificent animals - the Navy continues to resist the common sense proposition that needless infliction of harm to whales and other marine life in training with extraordinarily loud, high intensity sonar and heavy explosives is neither reasonable nor legal.

But as two recent court decisions make clear - issued in different cases by different courts -- the Navy's intransigence is based on more than its concern for national security. In fact, much of the blame lies with the government regulatory agency whose mandate it is to protect our oceans. It lies with the failure of the National Marine Fisheries Service to do its job.

"2016-08-17-1471476832-2252068-Bluewhale.jpg"

For over 40 years, under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Fisheries Service has been entrusted by Congress with lead responsibility for the protection of whales and other marine mammals from harassment, injury, and death. By law, the agency carries out this responsibility through permitting authority over a host of federal agency activities - including those of the U.S. Navy -- that may result in "take" of marine mammals. Among other requirements, Fisheries must deny a requested permit - even to the U.S. Navy - if the consequences of the proposed activity have not been reduced to "the least practicable adverse impact."

This statutory requirement is explicit. Court decisions interpreting it are unequivocal. And yet the Fisheries Service continues to violate it.

Just last month, for example, in a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit cited this requirement in holding that Fisheries had illegally issued a permit to the Navy for global deployment of its high-intensity long-range low frequency active sonar system - a submarine detection technology capable of ensonifying vast expanses of the world's oceans with dangerous levels of sound. Twice found to have acted illegally in issuing similar permits in 2002 and 2007, the Fisheries Service nevertheless permitted the system again in 2012, this time ignoring safeguards recommended by its own scientists despite, in the court's words, the resulting "systematic underprotection of marine mammals." The agency gave "mere lip service" to the legal standard and made "a policy choice not to protect areas . . . composing most of the world's oceans," leaving "a meaningful proportion of the world's marine mammal habitat underprotected."

How did the Fisheries Service respond? Just this week, in astonishing disregard of the court of appeals' decision, the agency issued the Navy a Letter of Authorization to continue operating under the illegally-issued permit -- as if the court's adverse decision and the agency's own responsibility to protect marine mammals are irrelevant in the face of the Navy's request to continue business as usual.

Last year, in even harsher terms, the federal court in Hawaii rejected the issuance of a permit for Navy testing and training with deadly mid-range sonar in the marine mammal-rich coastal waters of Hawaii and southern California. Once again citing the "least practicable adverse impact" standard, Judge Susan Oki Mollway criticized the Fisheries Service for merely "parrot[ing] what the Navy says" and failing to "articulate a rational basis" for accepting it, "treat[ing] the standard as if it requires no effort at all." For the Navy's part, rubber-stamped by the Fisheries Service, Judge Mollway found a "total failure to clearly consider important information" and "flaws so fundamental that the [environmental planning] document needs to be totally rewritten." The court concluded that "the Navy's categorical and sweeping statements, which allow for no compromise at all as to space, time, species, or condition, do not constitute the 'hard look' required" by federal law.

In neither case was national security at risk, contrary to the Navy's claim. In fact, the court of appeals explicitly recognized that "the mitigation measures the MMPA requires do not infringe on the Navy's capacity to defend the United States during wartime or heightened threats to national security."

The essential failing in both cases -- and indeed in virtually every case in which NRDC has challenged the Navy's training with high intensity sonar and heavy explosives over the past two decades - has been the refusal of the Fisheries Service to regulate. Rather than exercising the oversight required by law, the Service has chosen in effect to join the Navy's team, acquiescing in the omission of common sense safeguards recommended even by its own scientific experts. However understandable this capitulation might be in the face of the Navy's unique political and fiscal influence, it is precisely this kind of "regulatory capture" that has undermined the integrity of our environmental laws and the recovery of whales and other depleted marine species.

This needs to change. Last June, at the urging of NRDC and others, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration - the parent agency of the Fisheries Service - released for public comment an "Ocean Noise Strategy" intended to expand and strengthen federal management of man-made noise sources in the oceans, including military sonar. An important step, the efficacy of this plan will depend on implementation and funding, neither of which has thus far been addressed by the agency.

But it will also depend on whether, in permitting significant noise-generating activities of the Navy and others, the Fisheries Service is prepared to step up to its regulatory responsibility under the Marine Mammal Protection Act - not as a "captured" member of the permit applicant's team but as a strong and honest enforcer of federal protections. Serial litigation over decades - however successful it may be in targeting the agency's failures on an individual permit - is ultimately an imperfect and unsustainable approach to protecting the long-term health of our oceans.

Unfortunately, although we depend on the Fisheries Service to get it right, its latest authorization to the Navy just this week, in the wake of the latest rebuke by the federal courts, is a telling indication that it won't.

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

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The Climate Post:Americans View of Climate Change Polarized; U.N. Targets May Be Tough to Achieve
Surveys conducted by Yale University and George Mason University suggest that 17 percent of Americans view climate change as an alarming threat and that another 28 percent are concerned about climate change but view it as a distant threat.

The subject has become highly contentious since 1997, when then Vice President Gore helped broker an international treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, to reduce heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and gas. The U.S. later withdrew from the treaty.

"And at that moment the two parties began to divide," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, who was involved in the surveys. "They begin to split and go farther and farther and farther apart until we reach today's environment where climate change is now one of the most polarized issues in America."

Climate change will again be in the spotlight as a group of climate scientists gather in Switzerland to discuss a United Nation's report expected to detail the impacts of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. In Paris last year, some 190 countries pledged to hold the global average temperature increase to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit that increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But there are scientific questions not only about the costs and benefits of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but also about how to remain on a 1.5 C pathway. The Huffington Post shows what the Paris Climate Agreement is up against in a series of charts.

What we do know is this decade is the critical decade for action.

"The risks of future climate change--to our economy, society and environment--are serious, and grow rapidly with each degree of further temperature rise," the Australian government's Climate Commission wrote in a report. "Minimising these risks requires rapid, deep and ongoing reductions to global greenhouse gas emissions. We must begin now if we are to decarbonize our economy and move to clean energy sources by 2050. This decade is the critical decade."

And the Host City of the Summer 2084 Games Is . . .

A study published in The Lancet says that only three North American cities--San Francisco, Calgary, Vancouver--will have a climate sufficiently cool and stable to host the Summer Olympic games in 70 years. The authors, who considered only cities in the northern hemisphere, where 90 percent of the world's population lives, and only those with a population greater than 600,000 in 2012, the lower limit of host cities since World War II, said that climate change would make most of the 645 cities unsafe venues due to rising temperatures and humidity caused by climate change.

"You could take a risk, and plan your Olympics, and maybe not get the hot days you expect, but that would be a big risk when there are many billions of dollars at stake," said Kirk Smith, a researcher at the University of California-Berkeley's School of Public Health and the lead author of the study.

To measure the suitability of future Olympics sites, the researchers used climate change projections and a "wetbulb" globe temperature--a measurement reflecting the combination of humidity, heat radiation, temperature, and wind. They picked 2085 as a target date and as their target event what they considered the Olympics' most physically challenging outdoor endurance event: the marathon. They selected 82.5 degrees Fahrenheit as the "high-risk" temperature for marathoners.

"The findings indicate that by 2085, Istanbul, Madrid, Rome, Paris and Budapest--all cities that are or were in contention for either the 2020 or 2024 Summer Olympics--would be unfit to host the games," the authors said. "Tokyo, the city that has secured the 2020 summer Olympiad, would also be too hot to ensure athlete safety, should these projections come to pass."

Which cities would be viable hosts? None in Latin America or Africa, 25 in western Europe, 5 in eastern Europe and Asia, and 3 in North America.

"If the world's most elite athletes need to be protected from climate change, what about the rest of us?" the study concludes.

One of the most startling implications of the research is that temperatures will be too high for laboring outdoors, where half the world's population works.

Truck Emissions Limits Set

New emissions requirements affecting heavy- and medium-duty vehicles, which represent only about 5 percent of total highway traffic but account for 20 percent of transportation-related fuel consumption and carbon emissions, were announced this week. The requirements call for as much as a 25 percent reduction in carbon emissions and fuel consumption in certain models by 2027. It also requires annual increases in efficiency of 2.5% from 2021-2027 for heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans.

"The standards promote a new generation of cleaner, more fuel-efficient trucks by encouraging the development and employment of new and advanced cost-effective technologies through model year 2027," said Gina McCarthy, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which developed the new rules in conjunction with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "These standards are ambitious and achievable, and they will help ensure the American trucking industry continues to drive our economy -- and at the same time protect our planet."

Official say the new requirements are expected to cut 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon emissions through the next decade and represent a global benchmark for reducing vehicle-exhaust pollutants linked to climate change.

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

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

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Tim Profeta: The Climate Post:Americans View of Climate Change Polarized; U.N. Targets May Be Tough to Achieve
Surveys conducted by Yale University and George Mason University suggest that 17 percent of Americans view climate change as an alarming threat and th...

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r0B0t: Watch Segway's personal robot in action

What if you could have a personal robot helper that transforms into a self-balancing scooter? That's the appeal of the Segway robot, an adorable device which first debuted during CES. We were able to take a close look at it this week during Intel's D...
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Rio 2016: Photos From Days 11 through 13 (40 photos)

Hundreds of photographers have gathered in Rio to follow the action in the Olympic arenas, swimming pools, racetracks, and more. Over the two weeks of the games, I'll be featuring some amazing images from recent Olympic events. Today's entry encompasses gymnastics, BMX racing, water polo, diving, beach volleyball, taekwondo, decathlon, marathon swimming, kayaking, women's wrestling, and much more.

Brazil's Arthur Zanetti performs on the rings during the gymnastics exhibition gala at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on August 17, 2016. (Dmitri Lovetsky / AP)

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Inside The World's Biggest Fish Market
Every day, about 2,000 metric tons of seafood passes through the Tsukiji market in central Tokyo.
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Synthetic supermicrobe will be resistant to all known viruses
A bacterium with a different genetic code to every other living things is in the pipeline. It will be resistance to all known viruses - and its inventor wants to alter humans in the same way
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Birds sing to their unborn chicks to warn them about hot weather
Zebra finch parents prepare their chicks for the heat by giving them advice through the shell
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r0B0t: The best budget robot vacuums you can buy

These affordable robot vacuums clean just as well as expensive models.

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r0B0t: New 'Overwatch' short reveals the origin of Bastion
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Behold this tale of a robot and its bird friend.

Blizzard Entertainment's new origin short for Overwatch hero Bastion shows how the robot went from evil mechanized overlord to a mossy, nature-loving force for good. It's adorable and touching, and offers a shining ray of hope to those who fear the eventual, inevitable robot uprising.

Fan-made 'League of Legends' anime has us begging for a full season

Let Luigi teach you how to make and play a zucchini horn

Michael Phelps understandably doesn't have time for an airport interview

Man pranks Londoners with fake spider, gets wildly mixed reactions Read more...

More about Esports, Entertainment, Gaming, Blizzard Entertainment, and Overwatch

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r0B0t: The robots of war: AI and the future of combat

The 1983 film WarGames portrayed a young hacker tapping into NORAD's artificial-intelligence-driven nuclear weapons' system. When the hit movie was screened for President Reagan, it prompted the commander in chief to ask if it were possible for the c...
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Untitled

movinonagroove posted a photo:

Taken from Westminster bridge.

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When Animals Teach, It's Special

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Can elephants teach? Credit: Carl Safina

Like toolmaking, teaching was once thought to be an exclusive capacity of the human mind. It's not, but teaching is rare, and teachers are an elite group.

"Teaching" requires this: one individual must take time from their own task to demonstrate and instruct and the student must learn a new skill. That's a tall order.

When a young chimpanzee watches a skilled adult and then imitates, that's learning, but the adult has not taken time specifically to instruct, so it is not teaching. In the honeybees' amazing waggle dance, the dancer takes time to indicate information about a source of food, but the other foragers learn no new skill. Same with certain ants; same with animals who alarm about the presence of a predator. They do take time to show, but they do not impart new skills to the learners.

Killer whales teach; they take time and impart skills. Around the Indian Ocean's sub-Antarctic Crozet Islands, killer whales catch fur seal and elephant seal pups by surging onto beaches. But it's dangerous. The whales risk stranding themselves and must thrash their bodies back into the rescuing surf.

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Killer whales are just one species of teachers. Credit: Carl Safina

Adults teach the young how to do this. They teach in steps, giving lessons. First, they practice on beaches without seals. Mothers gently push their young onto steeply sloping beaches, from which youngsters can easily wriggle back into the sea. It's the killer whale equivalent of learning to operate an automobile in a parking lot before driving in traffic. This teaching builds skills in a safe environment, eliminating the very real risk of a fatal stranding.

Then the young learn hunting by watching their mothers' successful attacks. At five to six years old, young killer whales finally attempt to catch seal pups using the beach-surge technique. An adult female often helps them return to the water, creating a body wave if necessary. The time required for teaching means that mothers catch fewer seals for themselves.

This training may well be the absolute height in both teaching and long-range planning among non-humans. In Alaska, researchers saw two killer whales teaching a one-year-old to hunt by practicing on seabirds. Adults stunned an unsuspecting seabird with their flukes; the yearling whale came and practiced the fluke-slapping technique.

A pod of killer whales. Credit: Carl Safina

Atlantic spotted dolphin mothers sometimes release a prey fish in the presence of their youngsters and let their youngsters chase the fish, recapturing it if it's getting away. Atlantic spotted dolphin youngsters also position themselves alongside mothers who are scanning and prodding sandy bottoms for hidden fish. They can "eavesdrop" on her sonar echoes and imitate her technique, but the mother spends extra time demonstrating. Australian bottlenose dolphin mothers who wear sponges on their snout to protect against urchin spines and the searing sting of hidden scorpionfish while they're probing the sediment teach their children the sponge-wearing technique.

So yes, teachers are an elite group. Other teachers include: cheetahs and housecats (who bring back live prey and let their young learn to catch it), birds called pied babblers (who teach their young a call that means "I have food"), peregrine falcons (who lure their young away from nesting cliffs before dropping killed prey for them to catch in flight), otters (who drag their babies into and under water, teaching them how to swim and dive), and meerkats (who first bring to their growing young dead scorpions, then disabled ones, to demonstrate how to dismember the venomous stingers). Humans teach, of course. That's about it; we know of few other teachers, so far.

But many more must be hiding in a spread as diverse as that. Like toolmaking and teaching, imitation--considered to reflect high intelligence--is also rare in the animal kingdom. Some researchers believe that only apes and dolphins imitate, but it's a little more common. Our parrots' habit of dunking hard bread crusts in water was probably in vented by one and copied by the other. Young dogs imitate older dogs.

"2016-08-18-1471531731-302174-DogsinNapeaguecopycopy.jpeg"

Dogs Jude (left) and Chula playing in the water. Credit: Carl Safina

And dogs imitate people in their way. When I am "doing" firewood by cutting, hauling, and stacking it, our dog Chula "does" wood by finding a suitably sized piece and lying down nearby to chew it. When I am "doing" paper-sorting for recycling or burning in the stove, Chula might find an envelope and very inconspicuously lie down with it. Chewing envelopes is usually not allowed, but at these times we both understand that we have paperwork to do.

In South Africa, a captive bottlenose dolphin named Daan had watched divers cleaning algae off his pool's windows. He found a gull feather and started cleaning the window, using the same long strokes. He positioned himself vertically, with one flipper touching the glass--like the divers, who'd steadied themselves by holding on to the window frame--and made sounds almost identical to the diver's breathing apparatus, and released a similar-looking stream of bubbles.

When a window-cleaning diver left his vacuum-cleaning apparatus in an exhibit, he returned the next morning to discover a dolphin named Haig clasping the hose with her flippers, her snout on the scraper. When the diver took back his equipment, the dolphin found a broken piece of tile and started scraping seaweed off the bottom of the pool. Who couldn't use a roommate like Haig?

In a South African aquarium lived a baby Indo-Pacific bottlenose named Dolly. One day while she was just six months old, Dolly was watching a trainer standing at the window smoking a cigarette, blowing puffs of smoke. Dolly swam to her mother, briefly suckled, then returned to the window and released a cloud of milk that engulfed her head. The trainer was "absolutely astonished." Somehow Dolly came up with the idea of using milk to represent smoke. Using one thing to represent something else isn't just imitation. It is art.

"2016-08-18-1471532028-4683900-Niceone.JPG"

Dolphins, like dogs, are exceptionally intelligent imitators. Credit: Carl Safina

Carl Safina's most recent book, Beyond Words; What Animals Think and Feel, is newly out in paperback.

-- 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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NASA to begin first asteroid sample mission: Seeks 'pristine' specimen

Bennu.... no, not a scientology overlord

NASA is preparing for its first mission that will see a spacecraft retrieve a “pristine sample” of an asteroid so that it can be studied on Earth.…

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Technology that Could Turn the Tide on Climate Change: Carbon Dioxide Removal
New technology is required to make meaningful progress on climate change. This column will focus on one of those options: decreasing the CO2 already in our atmosphere.

Despite robust efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, current technology does nothing about the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere and therefore some climate experts argue that carbon dioxide removal efforts will be needed.

One carbon dioxide removal process is called "direct air capture." CO2 is captured from ambient air in a filter using a chemical process. The CO2 would then be removed from the filter and stored. Other technologies capture the carbon dioxide from the air using a liquid instead of a solid sorbent.

One process called "enhanced weathering" involves spreading crushed rock in areas that receive large amounts of rain. Rainwater includes some atmospheric carbon. The chemistry between the rain and silicate rock can form a new hard substance with the carbon locked inside.

Carbon dioxide removal is not without controversy. Skeptics argue that even the most efficient projects can't remove sufficient CO2 to be meaningful globally. Current projects are too expensive to deploy on a large scale. Some opponents are concerned about the unintended consequences of tampering with the chemistry of the atmosphere.

Nevertheless, this area of research will continue to get attention and resources given the strong interest in seeking solutions to climate change.

-- 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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Ripples by Matilde Aamodt

Ripples by Matilde Aamodt

Matilde Aamodt: Photos

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Thinking big thoughts
Vlatko Vedral is wowed by cosmologist Sean Carroll's paean to "poetic naturalism" and the ability of science to bring meaning to the world

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Thinking big thoughts
Vlatko Vedral is wowed by cosmologist Sean Carroll's paean to "poetic naturalism" and the ability of science to bring meaning to the world

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Between the lines
A book of mathematical detective stories (yes, really) and a graphics-heavy guide to "science, but not as we know it", reviewed by Margaret Harris

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Between the lines
A book of mathematical detective stories (yes, really) and a graphics-heavy guide to "science, but not as we know it", reviewed by Margaret Harris

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Science-writing and media-outreach workshop
Workshop: 23 Sep 2016 - 30 Sep 2016, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Organized by Carola de Keijzer.

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Conference on 90 Years of Quantum Mechanics
Conference: 23 Jan 2017 - 26 Jan 2017, Singapore. Organized by Institute of Advanced Studies @ NTU, Singapore.

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Comprehensive Short Courses on AES and XPS/ESCA including Data Processing
Course: 6 Feb 2017 - 10 Feb 2017, Tampa, Florida, United States. Organized by John Grant.

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r0B0t: A fork in the road for driverless cars - Financial Times

MLive.com

A fork in the road for driverless cars
Financial Times
Ford has said there is no safe way to combine human and robot but rivals such as Mercedes-Benz and Tesla are already selling thousands of vehicles that can drive themselves at least part of the time. A fatal crash this year involving a Tesla Autopilot ...
Uber to use autonomous cars to haul people in next few weeksDaily Mail
Uber and Volvo commit $300 million to developing autonomous cars togetherRecode
Uber's Self-Driving Car Plans Involve a Trucking Startup, Report SaysFortune
BBC News -TechCrunch -Business Insider -PCWorld
all 132 news articles »

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r0B0t: ICYMI: Goat-inspired robot design and apple picking

Today on In Case You Missed It: A researcher at Carnegie Mellon created the GOAT leg for robots that moves much like a pogo-stick and posted a video of its tests to YouTube. Meanwhile a robot to harvest apples might still be in prototype, but it'...
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r0B0t: With Human Emotion Recognition AI, MJI's Communication Robot Tapia Can Now Understand Your Emotion - PR Newswire (press release)

With Human Emotion Recognition AI, MJI's Communication Robot Tapia Can Now Understand Your Emotion
PR Newswire (press release)
18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MJI announces that they integrates human emotion recognition AI into their communication robot Tapia. MJI adopted Smartmedical's Empath, a vocal emotion recognition technology utilized in various business fields such as mental ...

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r0B0t: The Brave New World of Robots and Lost Jobs - Asharq Al-awsat English

Asharq Al-awsat English

The Brave New World of Robots and Lost Jobs
Asharq Al-awsat English
People shouldn't hate the future, or the technologists who are building it, but this anger could become a polarizing fixture of the national mood. Politicians need to begin thinking boldly, now, about a world in which driverless vehicles replace most ...

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Iceman Ötzi rocks the bear-fur hat and goat-leather coat look
A famous 5300-year-old mummy preserved in ice is yielding prehistoric fashion secrets. His clothes were stitched together from five different species
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Chemtrails conspiracy theory gets put to the ultimate test
What happened when 77 atmospheric scientists actually took a look at the claim that aircraft are spewing out mind-controlling chemicals, wonders Phil Plait
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Making Environmentalism Accessible through Reality TV
As a genre, reality television has a bad rap. A so-called "guilty pleasure" in many circles, top of mind here are the dating shows, cabin fever-fueled competitions, and the observational fly-on-the-wall brand of reality that has turned regular people into celebrities. For better or worse, reality TV holds the attention and interest of a wide and diverse audience, taking up more than half of the total annual audience viewership for top 10 primetime programming. One thing is for certain: when it comes to reaching a large number of people and keeping them hooked, reality television has it down.

Can the mass appeal of reality television be used to make environmentalism more accessible to a wider audience? At TerraCycle, our teams are constantly brainstorming new ideas and activations to engage consumers and take steps towards closing the "green-gap" and turning values into action. We have found that the first step to enacting social change is raising awareness.

In a previous post I discuss getting people excited about environmental issues by presenting them in a positive and fun way. Topics like poisoned water in Flint, the steadily increasing tonnage of the nation's landfills, and the methane gas released by decomposing trash adding to the earth's greenhouse gas emissions are not exactly light fare. The seriousness of these matters can be quite intimidating to the average consumer, subduing them into inaction. Moreover, the people contending with these issues, environmentalists, may seem like an intimidating, unrelatable bunch, as well.

Human Resources is a reality television show bringing viewers behind the scenes and into-the fast-moving environment of the TerraCycle office. It's shot on-location, features real employees (including myself), and uses no scripts. Definitely more Real World than An Inconvenient Truth.

Early on, we realized that an important balance had to be maintained between our message of sustainability and eco-mindedness (TerraCycle is a recycling company "Eliminating the Idea of Waste," after all), and creating an entertaining premise that viewers will come back to. We have achieved that equilibrium by integrating TerraCycle projects, mission goals and events into each episode, and giving them a fun, more often funny, spin on our corporate culture by highlighting what really makes TerraCycle tick: its people.

TerraCycle runs on the ideas, work ethic and talent of people of all ages, backgrounds and experiences, and not only does that make for a successful company, it makes for great entertainment. Described as "The Office" meets "Project Runway," Human Resources has given viewers a dynamic look at our Materials Sales team as they struggle to find a recycling solution for dirty diapers, chronicled the friendly intra-office competition that a boys vs. girls "recycle-a-thon" (with collegiate Greek-life recruits, no less) inspires, and followed our Design team down the rabbit hole of turning items bound for landfill into valuable, usable works of art.

These are the same people we see eating ramen at their desks, playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors" (badly), giving each other side-eye across the office, and laughing together. It is this human element that makes the show interesting and relatable, creating a conduit for exposure to our environmental message, and allowing viewers to see themselves as very much alike to the "professional" environmentalists featured on-screen.

The appeal of reality TV as a form of entertainment stems from our desire to know ourselves better by "knowing" others. This social comparison tendency is a potential reason people are drawn to this type of entertainment, as reality television creates perceived access to people, lifestyles and concepts they are either very familiar with, or can learn from. These reference points to our own experience create connections that allow us to see ourselves through characters and scenarios, increase our empathy, and potentially make us more receptive to new concepts and topics we may not have considered before.

Now in its third season (premiering August 26 on Pivot), Human Resources has been invaluable to TerraCycle's message. The success of the show is proving that people connect to environmental concepts and can be stewards for the planet in their own way, and we hope that it continues to be as fun for viewers to watch as it is for us film.

-- 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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India mourns crocodile-wrestling 'Queen mother' of tigers

Machali, thought to be world's oldest wild tiger and known for serene bearing, dies in Rajasthan national park aged about 20

The “Queen mother” of royal Bengals, thought to be the oldest surviving tiger in the wild, has died in a northern Indian national park.

Machali, aged about 20, was the star attraction of the Ranthambore national park and one of the most photographed tigers in the world.

Continue reading...
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Pierre Sonnerat Scientist of the Day Pierre Sonnerat,...

http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/32146

http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/32187

http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/32193

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http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/32001

Pierre Sonnerat Scientist of the Day

Pierre Sonnerat, a French explorer and naturalist, was born Aug. 18, 1748.

Swimmer by Mikhael Domanov

Mua: Marina Doigova Md: Marina Doigova

Mikhael Domanov: Photos

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How Does a Person Know When Someone Is Looking at Her?

This question originally appeared on Quora, the knowledge-sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

Answer by Paul King, director of data science at Quora, computational neuroscientist:

There are several things going on when you see someone looking at you, all of which happen very quickly. (This applies to actually seeing someone looking at you, not “sensing it” from behind or in the periphery.)

Primates (including humans) are unique in the degree to which the eyeball can move around in the eye socket. This allows visual attention to be shifted quickly without physically moving the head. Primates and certain other mammals can tell when another animal is looking at them, but humans are particularly good at doing this from a distance. In fact, humans have the added ability to be able to tell where someone is looking, even when it is not at them.

It is easy to see why this skill confers an evolutionary advantage: By being able to do this, you can essentially “read out” the location of another animal's attention. If you are a social animal, and the one looking at you is a superior, you'd better behave. Or if it is an inferior, you are being challenged and need to respond so you don't lose your place in the status hierarchy. For humans, knowing where another human is looking allows you to read their mind regarding what they are thinking about. This is invaluable when trying to learn language, since it allows you to pair particular words with particular objects in the environment. Pointing is also effective for this.

So, how do we do it?

Detecting the direction of gaze has to do with noticing the relative location of the dark spot of the eye (the pupil and iris) in the context of the whites of the eye. The differential size and location of the white region shows where the eye is pointed. And if the pupil is exactly in the middle with equal white regions on each side, then the eyes are looking at you. We can see this from across the room. Head direction also provides a cue, which is primarily determined by where the region of the two eyes and the nose are relative to the oval face region, with hair as another reference marker. When the head is turned, the brain has to do some geometry to determine gaze direction from both head angle and relative eye angle.

There is an additional effect that happens when “eyes meet.” When you look at someone and he looks back, you have the feeling that your gaze was met. This can feel uncomfortable, and the person who was “caught” often quickly looks away. This effect is caused by a feedback loop. The second person to make eye contact sees immediately that the first person is looking at him. The first person realizes he was “discovered” and responds often according to perceived relative status or confidence. There is also the mutual knowing that eyes met, which becomes a shared event establishing a transient relationship.

The meeting of gaze helps people recognize each other. You may think you recognize someone, but if she seems to think she recognizes you too by not looking away, then the odds are greater that you are both correct. The visual systems of both individuals thus collaborate to establish mutual recognition. This happens quickly and subconsciously, allowing the social exchange to move forward toward acknowledging each other. If one person doesn't acknowledge back, it becomes an awkward case of mistaken identity.

Public speakers use the illusion of eye contact to create emotional intimacy with the audience. When people learn public speaking, they are told to glance around the room as they talk. This creates the illusion of intermittent eye contact with as many people in the room as possible, which allows the audience to feel that the speaker is talking to them personally, creating a feeling of intimacy.

When TV newscasters deliver the news, they want the audience to have the impression they are talking to them. To accomplish this, they talk to the camera lens as if it was a person. In movies, actors avoid looking at the camera so that the audience never experiences mutual eye contact with them, preserving the feeling that the viewer is invisible. To look at the camera is called “breaking the fourth wall.”

How do we know when someone is looking at us? originally appeared on Quora. More questions on Quora:

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Viscous liquid oozing down the walls? You must have hives

Hospital combed for cause of sweet infection

Pest control was called to Rockwood Hospital, Cardiff after elderly patients noticed honey oozing from the ceiling and dripping down the walls.…

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Better Burgers, More Healthful Hot Dogs: Could A Pinch Of Seaweed Be The Answer?

Processed meats used in hot dogs and hamburgers are high in levels of salt and fat. Some scientists want to boost these foods' nutritional profile by adding seaweed to the meats.

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How my First Snow Leopard Encounter Defined my Career Path

The snow leopard is an endangered high-altitude predator species occurring in 12 Asian countries, including Afghanistan, where around 50-200 individuals exist. Wakhan National Park, in northeastern Afghanistan, a high-elevation region above the tree line (most of the sanctuary is at 3600 meter and above), is considered a hotspot for snow leopards and their spectacular wild prey species such as Marco Polo sheep, urial, and ibex. As a young wildlife biologist trying to define my future career, I spent much of my time involved in conservation projects in Wakhan National Park where snow leopard depredation on livestock, and sometimes, retaliatory killing of snow leopards, seemed fairly commonplace. I was constantly thinking about the direction I should take in my conservation interests. I was fascinated by the snow leopard and by these remarkable wild ungulates; however, I did not foresee that future circumstances might shape my mind.

It was early in June 2010 that the door of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) office in Wakhan was being hammered very hard and accompanied by angry shouting. I came out of the office and was met by an angry old man with a long stick in his hand shouting, “Your snow leopard has killed the only bull I had and I want compensation!”

While this man was crying and yelling at me, I was trying to calm him down and learn more about the incident. Showing him respect and sympathy by calling him “Uncle,” I asked when, how, and where this had happened. He pointed towards the steep hill south of our office and said: “It happened today over there close to the snow patches.”

I told him that I felt sorry for his loss but that we were an NGO only helping communities to manage their natural resources, and therefore didn't own the snow leopards. I said the cats belonged to the government of Afghanistan and he would need to register his complaint with the District Governor's office.

Before he left, I managed to get a rough location of the incident, and then peacefully sent him on his way. Now, as a young biologist, I was interested in using camera traps to photograph this snow leopard at the bull carcass, where he would likely stay for a few days.

Early that afternoon, my three colleagues and I started walking in the direction that the old man had pointed. Our task was to find the carcass and set the camera traps nearby. After three hours of hiking over steep slopes and cliffs, everyone had spread out to increase our chances of finding the carcass. Two of my friends were exhausted and stayed behind, while the third one, who was a local ranger, was far ahead of me climbing even higher. Eventually, we lost contact with one another in the rough terrain. Since it was getting late and we had to return home before dark, I had already given up trying to find the carcass and was more interested in finding my friends.

Though I was fatigued from my search efforts, I continued to seek out the local ranger. But then I saw something jump and disappear. I first thought that it was some bird of prey, but quickly saw another jump and then a third one that ended with an aggressive snow leopard about 15 meters in front of me, trying to defend its kill. The animal appeared much more aggressive than the old man beating our door earlier today and I froze.

While I always dreamed of seeing a snow leopard in the wild, and maybe take pictures of it, this encounter was not what I had in mind. Though I had my camera hanging around my neck, I did not even think about it's existence, let alone using it to make photographs. The only thing on my mind was to save myself from this belligerent animal. I slowly stepped back a step or two then turned and quickly “escaped” by jumping over big rocks and scrambling down cliffs. After racing for about 200 meters I turned back to discover that the animal was not chasing me. My heart was beating hard and I was still trying to figure out if I was safe.

After find my friends we went back together to the area being, almost certain that the carcass would be near where I encountered the snow leopard. As expected, we found the carcass and set the camera traps around it. Those cameras had captured many photos of the snow leopard, including the one at the top of this post, as well as of red fox, vultures, and other wild species.

It turned out that we would meet this particular snow leopard again. We named him “Pahlawan” (wrestler) two years later when we trapped and tagged him with a GPS collar in June 2012. We identified him through his coat patterns.

This unexpected encounter with a snow leopard, along with the heartbreaking concern of the owner of the bull, made me think carefully about conservation in the area. Although I had heard about depredation incidents before, none of them gripped me until this series of events. I saw that snow leopard depredations pose threats to community livelihood, as the dead bull would have been worth as much as 4 to 5 month's salary of a regular government employee at that time, and thus much for a poor household to lose.

Such predations not only threatened people's economic circumstances but also posed real threats to snow leopards by means of retaliatory killings by the affected community members. Aiming to mitigate this problem, I decided that if I did one good thing in my life it should be solving the conflicts between snow leopards and the livelihoods of these poor communities.

Although it was very scary and dangerous, this single incident that included the screaming face of the old man, my first ever confrontation with a wild snow leopard, and all the excitement and emotion behind those events, helped me find my real interests and shaped my future career. I continued to help with snow leopard camera trapping and participated in capturing and following 4 snow leopards in Wakhan using GPS telemetry. In addition, I helped draft the national policy for Afghanistan on snow leopards, the National Snow leopard Ecosystem Protection (NSLEP), with collaboration of the Government of Afghanistan. I also have contributed to the snow leopard book entitled “Snow Leopards-Biodiversity of the World-Conservation from Genes to Landscapes”, providing the chapter about snow leopard conservation and status in Afghanistan.

As I thought more about snow leopard conservation, I became even more interested in the root causes of depredation on livestock. Research related to this would certainly help mitigate snow leopard-human conflict and would eventually lead to conserving both the species and community livelihoods.

Having this in mind, I came across the Fulbright PhD Scholarship in 2014, and by articulating my research interests I eventually got the scholarship. This appeared to be a unique opportunity for me to turn my dreams to reality and study snow leopard depredation and conflicts with human communities.

I am now a second-year PhD student at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts, currently studying snow leopard-human conflict in the mountains of the northeastern Afghanistan. I trust that my research brings positive changes to the lives of local people, as well as to the conservation of this magnificent big cat species in my study area.

"IMG_7970" Zalmai Moheb was burn in Khoshi District, Logar, Afghanistan in 1981. He spent 12 years of his childhood in Pakistan, where he completed his primary school, before his family moved back to Afghanistan. Mr. Moheb completed his secondary school in Khoshi, Logar and then he joined the Kabul University, from which he received his Bachelor's Degree in Agricultural Science in 2005.

He started his career with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) as a Field Research Assistant in 2006. He later went to India, where in 2009 he received a Master's Degree in Wildlife Science. After completing his Master's, Zalmai rejoined WCS-Afghanistan, where he served in different positions including Conservation Officer, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Research and Monitoring Manager, and Ecological Survey Manager.

In his tenure with WCS-Afghanistan, Mr. Moheb conducted several wildlife surveys in remote areas throughout the country. He conducted research on several wild species such as the snow leopard, Persian leopard, brown bear, Marco Polo sheep, urial, markhor, ibex, Bactrian deer and several other species. In addition, Mr. Moheb actively contributed to several national documents e.g. National Snow Leopard Ecosystem Protection, and the justification document for the Afghanistan's second national park, the Wakhan National Park, declared in 2014. Moreover, he acted as technical advisor to the government of Afghanistan at several international conferences. Zalmai Moheb has published articles about brown bears, snow leopard, Persian leopards and Bactrian deer in various international journals. He has also contributed as lead author of the chapter for Afghanistan in the gain book “Snow Leopards-Biodiversity of the World-Conservation from Genes to Landscapes”.

Zalmai Moheb is interested in wildlife and nature conservation in Afghanistan, in particular conserving the endangered snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and its prey species in northeastern Afghanistan. His focus is to study the explanatory factors of snow leopard depredation, prey-predator relationships, the pastoral behavior of local communities, and the impact of livestock management for mitigating human-wildlife conflict in the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains within the Wakhan National Park in northeastern Afghanistan. Mr. Moheb's future goals are to train more and more people in the field of environmental conservation and to build a conservation network in Afghanistan. Moreover, he wants to establish a non-governmental wildlife organization that could serve in the field of wildlife and environmental conservation throughout Afghanistan.

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Todos los ríos lleva a Londres 2 / All rivers lead to London 2

Emilio A.S. posted a photo:

Támesis, atardecer

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Recap: World's First DNA Technology for #Endangered #Shark Species Identification - #cites #cop17 https://t.co/5BqxNxcWJC
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Westminster

http://malonsophoto.wix.com/malonsofotografia posted a photo:

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Helping Hands on Holiday: How To Avoid the Pitfalls of Voluntourism
Volunteering in exotic places during vacation is a growing segment of the international travel market. But experts warn that meaning well can sometimes do more harm than good, particularly when children are involved.
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Orbiting black holes

Full Text:

This numerical simulation is part of a series depicting orbiting black holes and represents the first time that three-quarters of a full orbit has been computed. The simulations show the merger of two black holes and the ripples in space time--known as gravitational waves--that are born of the merger.

Image credit: Scientific contact by Ed Seidel (eseidel@aci.mpg.de); simulations by Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert-Einstein-AEI); visualization by Werner Benger, Zuse Institute, Berlin (ZIB) and AEI. The computations were performed on NCSA's It

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1/23. I am going to do a series of tweets about #CITES - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora.
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<strong>[NSFW]</strong> CERN staff conduct 'human sacrifice' at supercollider site

Macabre video was a joke, but boffins promise better security

MILDLY NSFW Staff at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) spend their days trying to prise open the secrets of other dimensions … including by staging occult rituals.…

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The glorious Galaxy Note 7 is what happens when a company isn't afraid to go crazy

Galaxy Note 7 reviews have hit the internet this week and the consensus among them is that it might be the best designed smartphone ever. Today I got my hands on this precious new device, and my skepticism has quickly morphed into geeky reverence for the sheer brilliance, unfailing symmetry, and outrageous efficiency of the Note 7's design. And what also strikes me is how far back you have to go to find the roots of its creation.

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Soybean science blooms with supercomputers

Full Text:

Knowledge of the soybean in the U.S. has come a long way since its humble start, namely as seeds smuggled by ship from China in the 1700s. All the way through to the 20th century, knowledge of soybeans came from the outside through selective breeding and manipulation of its environment -- the warm weather, targeted water, loose soil, and full sunlight it needs to grow. Today, an ambitious project called Soybean Knowledge Base (SoyKB) developed at the University of Missouri-Columbia aims to find and share comprehensive knowledge from within the soybean, its genetic and genomic data, all publicly available and achieved through the use of high-performance computing.

Image credit: Scott Robinson

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sugi by Shouya Grigg

sugi by Shouya Grigg

sugi after a storm

Shouya Grigg: Photos

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r0B0t: Marlin Makes Largest Factory Automation Investment Since 2014 - Robotics Online (press release)

Robotics Online (press release)

Marlin Makes Largest Factory Automation Investment Since 2014
Robotics Online (press release)
"To stay on top, American manufacturers need to have the best people, the best processes, and the best tools. We're investing in our team and our tools so we can deliver better wire baskets and rack products faster. This is how American companies like ...

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Small population size? It doesn't have to mean that species can't adapt to environmental change
Worldwide, there are 16,938 endangered species. From the white rhino to the blue whale, numbers are dwindling in the face of poaching, habitat destruction and climate change. Although the situation may seem dire, new research gives us reason to hope. A new study shows that small populations of species can still adapt and respond to natural selection.
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r0B0t: 'Mr. Robot' just revealed its latest mind-bending twist, but this one feels a bit familiar
"Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f182055%2fnup_173599_0480"

"Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f182055%2fnup_173599_0480"

Warning: If you're not a fan of spoilers, you might want to stop here.

Dammit, Reddit.

After weeks upon weeks of speculation over a very popular fan theory, Mr. Robot proved the internet right by pulling the curtain back on the second big reveal of its young life.

Sam Esmail's tech-drama-turned-psychological-thriller revealed that Elliot's uneven reality has yet again escaped him. While we were led to believe he was living with his mother and recovering from his dystopic view of reality, he'd actually been entrapped in prison this whole time.

More about Usa Network, Tv Reviews, Tv Recaps, Mr Robot Season 2, and Mr Robot

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@John_CITES @CITES Yes that's why #EU and all nations need to #DemandAppendix1 for #elephants, #rhinos, #pangolins & all endangered species.
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Meet the Doctor Who Makes House Calls by Horse
"I can't refuse to taste at least a glass, otherwise they get offended."
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The Harvard Whisperer of Mumbai
This businessman turned counselor gets more than half of his clients into Ivy League or equivalent schools.
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McDonald's launches wearable then pulls it after kid feels the burn

LED on 'Step-It' Happy Meal fitness tracker scalds child

Burger baron McDonald's' short foray into the fitness-tracking wearables caper has ended badly, with a device called “Step-It” pulled after burning at least one child's arm.…

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5 Ways Businesses Can Conserve Water: Going Blue to Go Green

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Image source: PhotoDune

When most businesses think about environmental sustainability practices, water conservation isn't always top of mind. But it should be. From the drought in California to water quality concerns in major cities like Flint, Michigan, water conservation is not just a business imperative- it's a global issue. Water is a limited resource. While 70 percent of the earth's surface is water, only 2.5 percent of this water is fresh water. An even small percentage is suitable for drinking, reports the Water Project. Water is a scarce resource we take for granted every day. If we continue down this same path, scientists predict worldwide water shortages will become increasingly prevalent.

Here's the good news: like many sustainability measures, simple changes can make a significant impact on daily water use. Every business uses water in different ways, of course - and some use a lot more water than others. But even making a small change, like installing low-flush toilets, can help your business conserve water. Here's how to get started integrating water conservation into your business's environmental sustainability model:

Start with a water audit. Many companies that use a significant amount of water underestimate just how much water they are using. A commercial water audit will assess how much water your business is using each day and identify conservation opportunities. Audits can also uncover costly leaks where inexpensive repairs could help stop unnecessary water loss and save your business money. Talk to your utility company about what water audit options it provides. Depending on your utility provider, you may even qualify for a free water audit or receive rebates for instituting water-saving initiatives, reports Small Biz Trends.
Educated and empower employees. No one wastes water intentionally, but without conservation education, it can be difficult for your staff to know what they're doing wrong. Engage employees in a workplace initiative for conscientious water use and management. Start a workplace challenge, publish updates on your company blog or internal newsletter, and encourage the entire team to get involved.
Know your state's status. Be informed about the major water issues facing your state and community. While California's water crisis is well known (as is general water scarcity throughout the Western states), did you know that every state in the country faces their own water challenges? This interactive water quality map from Pelican Water aggregates the most significant water issues facing our nation on a state-by-state basis. Texas, for example, faces water quality problems due to contamination from chlorine byproducts, TTHMs, and mercury. In Arizona, arsenic and lead contamination are exacerbating groundwater depletion problems. Know the issues facing your state and what your business can do to protect employees better from contamination concerns with drinking filters.
Go low-flow. Contact your building management team and request they install low-flow restrictors. For example, the difference between older toilets and new, low-flow toilets is pretty significant. Older toilets use as much as 5 gallons to flush compared with low-flow toilets that only use 1.6 gallons. Don't stop at the toilets! Low-flow faucet aerators can cut water flow down from 2.2 gallons per minute to 1.5 gallons. Pre-rinse spray valves cut water usage down from 4 gallons to 1.5 gallons. Let you building management know that going low-flow is a priority for your business!
Re-think landscaping. I live in Texas, a state notorious for scorching summers with limited rainfall. One trend I've noticed among local businesses is a push towards sustainable landscaping. That means choosing drought-hardy plants, like succulents and cacti, rather than bushes or shrubbery that requires significant water to flourish. Another option: eliminating grass. Consider replacing your grass with pebble and stone steps. Not only will you significantly reduce landscape water needs, but you will also save a bundle on upkeep costs. Just think, no more mowing, weeding, or fertilizing either! Plus, drought-tolerant landscaping sends an important message to your customers and clients that you value environmental sustainability.

Bottom line:

Much of the water that's wasted by small businesses is "lost" through inefficiencies in toilet/faucet usage in the restroom, landscaping, air conditioning and cooling, cleaning/washing down floors and equipment, reports NASA. Generating a profit and conserving resources are not mutually exclusive business goals. Small changes - like opting for low-flow toilets - not only save money but also protect the environment and our scarce water resources for future generations.

-- 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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Proton radius mystery deepens as deuterium measurement comes up short
Smaller than expected radius of nucleus puzzles physicists

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'Flying Bum's' first flight was a gas, gas, gas

We like big blimps and we cannot lie, as the Airlander takes to the sky

Video To quote Douglas Adams, “uglier things have been spotted in the sky, but not by reliable witnesses”: England's Airlander 10, nicknamed the “flying bum” for obvious reasons, has taken its first test flight.…

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Cultivating soybeans to combat the kudzu bug
A few strains of wild soy are able to fight the kudzu bug by limiting the ability of its nymphs, or young, to survive. The next step is to identify which gene gives the soybeans this defense mechanism.
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r0B0t: We Built This Robot to Explain Rape Culture to Men
Reductress Is Devoting Its Entire Site to Rape Jokes That Punch Up: "In response to a sexual assault controversy that's currently engulfing the New York comedy scene, women's satire site Reductress has devoted its entire landing page to humor articles (primarily written by women) about rape." [warning: pointed satire about rape, rape culture, and abuse]

Articles include:

Nicole Silverberg: Have You Considered Spending $300 on a Self-Defense Class?:

My Facebook feed has been flooded with chicks talking about stuff like catcalling and assaults and rape, and I'm like, why complain when you can do something about it? When a man comes at you, you need to be able to defend yourself—which is why you should consider shelling out $300 for a self-defense class.

As my chest tattoo says, "boys will be boys," and so you need to be prepared, even if in this case, the test is a crime, and doing the homework costs you close to half a month's rent. This is your responsibility!

Marcia Belsky: How to Be an Ally to Both a Rapist and His Victim:

We've all had that classic uh-oh moment: Someone's been accused of rape and you're friends with both the rapist and his victim! What a disaster! You may be feeling cursed and alone, wondering, "How can I possibly support both of them?" It's only natural to feel this way. Luckily, there's no need for you to complicate your life just because one of your friends has destroyed the life of another friend. Here's how to be a caring and attentive ally to both a rapist and his victim.

Mo Fry Pasic: This Rapist Has Figured Out a Way to End Rape Culture:

Jeff, a yet-to-be-convicted serial date rapist, offered to share his secret on how to end rape culture. How generous! Here's his advice:

"Rape culture doesn't exist."

Wow! Jeff admits that rapes "do happen" but that culture is "not even a thing." "There are individuals who make decisions, and that's it," Jeff says. "It's like, why can't you use logic?" Good point! We should just drop it. Be the change you wish to see in the world!

Ingrid Ostby: 'Most Women Lie About Rape,' Says Man Lying About Rape:

Revelatory statements from 31-year-old Todd Ratner have been made public today just minutes after several women came forward with allegations accusing him of sexual assault.

"This is a true stat, I'm not making this up—99 percent of women are lying about rape," Ratner said, blatantly lying about rape. According to reports, Ratner wrote this across several Facebook comment threads and also shared it aloud to anyone who would listen.

Marcia Belsky: This Brave Man Hates Social Media Witch Hunts So Much He Decided To Start His Own:

Ready to be inspired?

Faced with the difficult decision of having to either listen to women or talk over them, one man spoke above the crowd in his brave yet endearing attempt to make somebody else's rape about himself. 29-year-old Dave Harrison was sick of seeing public attacks on an alleged rapist, and so he asked for that energy to be put elsewhere.

"I hate this society we live in where social media dictates how we should discuss things," Harrison tweeted this morning to his thirty thousand followers. "These witch hunts started by @AmandaNewman, @KatieLeGuin and @BethanyDiaz cannot be tolerated."

Harrison then encouraged his followers to tweet at these women in order to put an end to what he calls "social media lynch mobs."

Sarah Pappalardo: Let Me Tell You What An Actual Witch Hunt Looks Like:

Hello, it's me, Hagatha. Yes, Hagatha the Witch. It seems that a lot of people have been calling rape accusations across social media a "witch hunt," and while I'm not usually one get involved in other people's business, this one in particular has really given me pause.

Would you like to know what an actual witch hunt looks like? Cut me down from this burning stake and I'll tell you. Seriously, pull me down, I am about to burn.

Anna Drezen: Chill Ways to Just Sort of Live with It:

Hm, okay, so: You've been raped or abused or harassed by someone and the police won't help you and he's well-liked and you're traumatized and you have to do work for work but everything is currently shattered and you'd sort of rather just die than try to answer even one email. Yeee-ikes! You could start down the painful road of recovery, but that's more work for you to do. Plus it makes everyone uncomfortable, so ... have you considered just sort of burying it down deep, deep, deep where no one can find it? Here's how to pack your trauma in a lil' bindle and keep on keepin' on.

Bonus print edition headlines:

Fuck, Marry, Kill: Your Rapist, Your Abuser, or the Cops Who Did Nothing

Is It Technically Rape If I Have to Explain to Him What Counts As Rape?

We Built This Robot to Explain Rape Culture to Men

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Study Of Sudden Cardiac Death Exposes Limits Of Genetic Testing

Some genetic tests for a common cause of sudden heart failure can be wrong, researchers say, because the underlying science didn't take into account racial diversity.

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With Demand For Its Products Down, Cisco Will Cut Workforce

The company says it will lay off 5,500 employees and, like other Silicon Valley pioneers, move into different types of business.

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Distilling The Story Of California Wine, One Label At A Time

At the world's largest wine research library — inside UC Davis — librarians are crowd-sourcing their archives to understand the forces that shaped California's wine industry into a global powerhouse.

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r0B0t: God Help Us, These Researchers Are Using Reddit to Teach a Supercomputer to Talk

OpenAI, the nonprofit backed by Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, wants to teach technology to talk. It has enlisted the help of a supercomputer named DGX-1 to help train its machine learning systems. (What are machine learning systems? MIT Technology Review describes them alluringly as a “network of crudely simulated neurons” that use data to glean “a probabilistic understanding of conversation.”) DGX-1 can feed prodigious amounts of natural language to OpenAI's robotic reticulation, which then takes the input as a model for its own “speech.” All the student teacher pair needs in its quest for cocktail chatter mastery is source material.

Source material—that sounds easy enough! Did the researchers prescribe a steady diet of luminous prose from English's marquee authors? Did they plunder the canon for Martin Luther King Jr.'s oratory, Virginia Woolf's collected letters, and Tennessee Williams' plays?

Nope. “We're training,” said OpenAI research scientist Andrej Karpathy in a press release, “on entire years of conversations of people talking to each other on Reddit.”

Oh boy.

To recap: Of all the possible linguistic corpora on earth, these scientists have decided to expose their learning systems to a discourse that usually ends with someone calling someone else a fat gay loser cuck and comparing him to Hitler. And then the second guy cracks a xenophobic, sexually explicit joke about the first guy's mom. And then the first guy pretends to solve the Boston Bombing.

Have we learned nothing from Tay, the Microsoft chatbot that spewed foul racist garbage after only a few hours of interacting with trolls on Twitter? Sure, Reddit models a colloquial tone, as Sophie Kleeman at Gizmodo points out, and its many communities discuss a wide range of subjects, but it is also frequently the boneyard where all grace and decency go to die. Will OpenAI's learning systems absorb strategies for choosing careers and college majors, or only gain expertise in nihilistic lulz and platform-specific acronyms? At least, a success from the researchers on this front would break new ground: They'd have created the only brain ever to get smarter by reading Reddit.

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Air traffic

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Sunset 17 Aug 2016

Sculptor Lil posted a photo:

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Sunset 17 Aug 2016

Sculptor Lil posted a photo:

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More London Summer

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