%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168979697%2Fmedal-by-asante-gilbert&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Medal by Asante Gilbert
Crown of Thorns is part of series of Photos I did for Afro Musician, Medal, for his upcoming Album, "Thank God". This was inspired by the death Jesus Christ obviously :)
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168905739%2Funtitled-by-darijit340&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Untitled by darijit340
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fjohn-mandyck%2Fthe-1-trillion-mountain-t_b_11653386.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 The $1 Trillion Mountain: The Actual Cost of Food Waste Imagine receiving just 60% of your pay. Or when you send email, 40% are never delivered. We don't tolerate 40% inefficiency in anything, yet we've come to accept it with the major resource that sustains the human race: our food.
One-third or more of food never makes it from the farm to our fork. The food is lost to waste or spoilage. At the same time nearly one billion people go to bed hungry every night.
The $1 Trillion Mountain
Setting societal and environmental issues aside for a moment, the direct economic cost of food waste is a $1 trillion mountain, and growing. That's $1 trillion worth of food that required manpower, water and energy (with resulting greenhouse gas emissions) to plant, harvest, transport and sell.
Unfortunately, this massive amount of food never made it from the farm, spoiled in transport due to inefficient refrigeration systems, was deemed "ugly" and unsellable and therefore thrown away, or was discarded by people in homes around the world who didn't use or want it after all.
The Hunger-Money Connection
When you go to the grocery store and buy food without having a plan for what to do with it, you may end up wasting money - a few dollars here and there quickly adds up. The financial impact of food waste, however, goes far beyond that.
Many studies have demonstrated that reducing hunger and undernutrition can actually raise a country's gross domestic product (GDP). A report by the International Food Policy Research Institute showed that for every dollar a government invests in nutrition, it can see an average return of 16 times - and in some countries much higher.
ReFED's (Rethinking Food Waste through Economics and Data) recent publication, A Roadmap to Reduce Food Waste, reports that the United States spends $218 billion a year, or 1.3% of GDP, to grow, process and transport food that is never eaten.
Simply put, if we can reduce food loss and waste and keep nutritious calories from leaking out of the food supply chain, we have the potential to improve the economies of countries around the world.
That is a connection between hunger and money worth remembering.
Developed countries bear an enormous financial burden when their citizens suffer from food insecurity. A study published in 2011 concluded that hunger costs America $167.5 billion annually due to lost productivity, more expensive public education, avoidable health care costs, and the price of charity to provide food for families in need.
In our own homes, the average American family spends $1,410 each year on food it throws away. That's money you could use for household bills, a vacation, tuition, or other expenses - money back in your pocket, just from reducing food waste. Focusing on food waste could yield economic results relatively quickly.
Factor in Conflict, GHGs and the Actual Cost Balloons to $2.6 Trillion
The $1 trillion mountain of food waste? It exists, but this number only includes direct food waste - the value of that food if it was sold at market. The actual full cost, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, is $2.6 trillion!
Further, a 2014 study by the FAO offers a smart, ambitious look at the environmental and social costs of our distressed food chain. It calculates, for the first time, the financial costs related to health, conflict, water shortage, greenhouse gas emissions and more. The study also describes the enormous opportunities available to fix the problem of food waste and improve human welfare.
Staggering as the cost of food waste may be, together we can discover new solutions to this global problem. Tweet me @JohnMandyck to tell me what you think!
-- 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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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Flisa-kitinoja%2Foutreach-and-awareness-bu_b_11654938.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Outreach and awareness building approaches to reducing food waste Awareness of the immense volume of wasted foods and associated problems is an important first step to reducing food waste in many countries, and the goal of creating increased awareness via outreach and capacity building is one reason that so much activity in the sector has been underway in the past few years.
Feeding the 5000 launched in London in 2009, and partners with local farmers, NGOs and governments to reclaim wasted foods and host public events where masses of people are provided with free food. Events have been held in partnership with: • Slow Food and Belgian Food Banks in Brussels (Jan 2014) • EndFoodWaste.org in Oakland (October 2014) • "Just Eat It" film makers in Vancouver (May 2015)
"Just Eat It" is a documentary on food waste (http://www.foodwastemovie.com/ ). JUST EAT IT: A FOOD WASTE STORY follows a couple who find it rather easier than expected to survive on discarded foods during a six month period, and was awarded the EFFY 2015 Grand Jury Prize at the Environmental Film Festival at Yale University.
In May 2016, two cities in the USA held Feeding the 5000 events (NYC and Washington DC), ramping up the food waste reduction movement in America. Future events are promoted via their website. http://feedbackglobal.org/events/
WRAP in the UK and NRDC in the USA were among the first to raise the issue of high levels of food waste in 2011, and the SAVE FOOD Initiative was launched in May 2011, with the FAO commissioned report "Global Food Losses and Food Waste" (Gustavsson, 2011).
WRI published its series of working papers on "Creating a sustainable food future" beginning in 2013 (Lipinski et. al. 2013), just a few months before the UN FAO launched their global SAVE FOOD Initiative online community and partnership drive -- more than 700 organizations have joined in to date. The Global Food Loss and Waste Protocol was developed by WRI with stakeholder input during 2015 and was launched in June 2016. It is being promoted now via a new website. http://www.flwprotocol.org
In Germany, www.foodsharing.de and their partners co-ordinate 7,000 people doing food pickups at more than 1,000 businesses across the country. These "food savers" either distribute the food themselves or leave it at designated spots, where it is free to pick up.
The Zero Hunger Challenge includes as one of its main objectives Zero loss or waste of food. "Minimizing food losses during storage and transport, and waste of food by retailers and consumers; empowering consumer choice through appropriate labeling; commitments by producers, retailers and consumers within all nations; achieving progress through financial incentives, collective pledges, locally-relevant technologies and changed behavior" (Zero Hunger Challenge).
During 2015-16 there have been a wave of activities and global, regional and national programs, projects and public outreach and capacity building events: • Expo Milano 2015 (May 1 - Oct 31, 2015) in Italy was attended by hundreds of thousands of people • UNEP - Think Eat Save • EU Consortium "Fusions" • Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) • Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition (AAHM) • Brookings Institution's Ending Rural Hunger project • National initiatives in UK, Denmark, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, USA, Canada, Portugal, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand • Thai SAVE FOOD Campaign
Many unique approaches to increasing awareness have been developed. The Culinary Institute of America in 2015 introduced the world's first business school dedicated to food entrepreneurship & innovation. Their slogan is: "We develop leaders to transform the business of food."
WastED, a pop-up restaurant in New York City, was launched in March 2015 by Dan Barber, Blue Hill. In an effort to both draw attention to and elevate the possibilities for food waste, the pop-up serves meals made from food scraps, with ingredients like cucumber butts, and typically rejected produce like ugly sweet potatoes and misshapen fruits and vegetables. Twenty renowned guest chefs are helping to develop recipes for the daily specials (WastEd 2015).
Food Tank (www.foodtank.org) has published a list of 21 organizations that are working to reduce food waste around the world. Food Tank: The Food Think Tank featured a series of articles throughout the week of World Environment Day in June 2015 highlighting different initiatives that are helping to prevent food waste in developing and industrialized countries. They have highlighted organizations working in schools, restaurants, businesses, and on farms to make sure all of the labor and natural resources that go into growing, processing, storing, processing and marketing food doesn't go to waste (Food Tank 2015) and interviewed the leaders of some of these organizations (Food Tank 2016).
This blog post is based on a major review article on food loss and waste issues prepared for the Brookings Institution's Ending Rural Hunger Project (https://endingruralhunger.org/report/), and has been updated to include activities being undertaken in 2016. For further information you can read the original review article (Kitinoja, 2016) and cited reports.
This post is part of our "Reclaim" initiative, which showcases solutions to the issue of food waste and engages our readers to take action. You can find all the posts in this initiative, as well as feature pieces, investigative stories and video, here. Follow the initiative on Twitter at #Reclaim. And if you'd like to add your own thoughts to our series, sign up here for a HuffPost blog account.
-- 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.
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fvideo%2Findex%2F496904%2Fwhen-your-best-friend-becomes-a-woman%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeed&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 When Your Best Friend Becomes a Woman
Byron and Neil have been friends for decades, but their relationship is faced with challenges when Byron transitions from a man to a woman. This short documentary, Same But Different, explores the struggles regarding trust and honesty between the two friends that arise out of Byron's transition. “He's one of not many people that I've just been completely myself with,” Neil says. “That's what I find difficult about this transition is that he has not been completely himself with me.”
This film comes to us from the Loading Docs initiative, which supports 10 filmmaking teams to create three-minute, creative documentaries that tell New Zealand stories. This year's theme is change.
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedaily.com%2Freleases%2F2016%2F08%2F160822111924.htm&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Logged rainforests can be an 'ark' for mammals, extensive study shows Research reveals that large areas of 'degraded' forest in Southeast Asia can play an important role in conserving mammal diversity. gaia
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fsusie-lee%2Fa-means-to-an-end-method-_b_11624010.html&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Susie Lee: A Means To An End, Method 4.0 I recently collaborated with Joe Freeman, an artist who explores imagined and existing landscapes. We created A Means to an End, Method 4.0, a work that documents rebuilding a tree out of harvested wood in the middle of a clearcut in Washington state.
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fjasonbuckley777%2F29055342992%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 METAL CORD
%feed http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia20492/a-moons-contrasts A Moon's Contrasts Dione reveals its past via contrasts in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. astronomy
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Ftheatlantic%2Finfocus%2F%7E3%2FFmNcbnRfh3s%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Rio 2016: Photos From the Final Weekend (40 photos)
Hundreds of photographers gathered in Rio to follow the action in the Olympic arenas, swimming pools, racetracks, and more. The final events wrapped up over the weekend, capped off by the Closing Cermony in Maracana Stadium on Sunday, and the handoff to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games. Today's entry encompasses rhythmic gymnastics, wrestling, triathlon, mountain biking, canoe, modern pentathlon, soccer, the Closing Ceremony, and much more.
A picture taken with an underwater camera shows Britain's Thomas Daley competing in the Men's 10m Platform Semifinal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 20, 2016. (Francois-Xavier Marit / AFP / Getty) images
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F37683098%40N06%2F28541100213%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Monday morning in London before the heavens opened
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F169003779%2Fcliffhanger-by-nick-carnera&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Cliffhanger by Nick Carnera
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168891395%2Fspicy-noodles-by-tony-moore&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 spicy noodles by Tony Moore
%feed https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/22/museum-of-skateboarding-kirill-savchenkov-calvert-22 Zen and the (male) art of skateboard combat
At the Museum of Skateboarding, Russian artist Kirill Savchenkov turns the urban skater into a rōnin-style warrior engaged in a boys-only martial art
London has a new Museum of Skateboarding. But before you dust off your Vans, be warned: this is not a public institution on the South Bank dedicated to outsize shorts, broken wrists and the unseasonal wearing of beanie hats. It's in an art gallery.
The work of Russian artist Kirill Savchenkov, the “museum” opened at London's Calvert 22 last week. Addressing the deathlessly hip sport mock-anthropologically, it's an exhibition that gazes back, as if from the near future, to a fantasy New Skateboarder culture in which the urban skater is a kind of warrior monk or rōnin on wheels.
%feed https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/aug/22/the-papermeal-project-yelldesign-food Compliments to the sheaf: food made out of paper in pictures
In between their work for corporate clients, Australian studio yelldesign has created Papermeal, a series of playful paper sculptures of food
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fvideo%2Findex%2F496829%2Fthe-florida-retirement-community-only-for-indians%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeed&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 The Florida Retirement Community Designed for Indians
ShantiNiketan is known as “little India”—it's a small cluster of retirement homes in Central Florida that was planned for Indian Americans. It's meant to be a space for people who cannot grow old in their homeland because their lives are rooted in the United States. “Because of the very unique culture, food, and religion, Indians find it very difficult to retire in a mainstream retirement community,” says Iggy Ignatius, who was born in India and founded ShantiNiketan in 2008. “But for those who want to come here, I can tell you this is heaven for them.” We went inside ShantiNiketan to speak to the Indian Americans who live there, and to understand the appeal of moving to a place that's steeped in the culture of your birthplace.
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%feed https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/22-28-august-2016/johnson-banks-reveals-first-designs-open-source-mozilla-rebrand/ Johnson Banks reveals first designs for “open-source” Mozilla rebrand
Johnson Banks has unveiled seven potential brand identities for Mozilla, as part of its ongoing “open-source” rebrand.
The search for the not-for-profit software company's new identity was first announced in June, and it has been taking feedback from the Mozilla community and members of the public since then.
Seven initial themes were created by Johnson Banks, all exploring different facets of Mozilla's advocacy for shared and open-source internet access and software.
More open and positive message
After further refining these themes in response to feedback that suggested “upping the positivity and doing more with the whole principle of ‘open'”, seven visual identities and their accompanying assets have been made available to view on the Mozilla Open Design blog.
The designs include everything from a simple typographic mark to a modern version of its former Dinosaur logo, and public comments on them are already coming thick and fast.
“Our work on the narrative has changed a lot as we learn more about them,” says Michael Johnson, founder and creative director of Johnson Banks.
“It's debatable whether some of our other clients, either blue-chip or not-for-profit, could handle this but this is unprecedented as an approach. Perhaps it will push others to be more open.”
We outline all of the proposed design concepts below.
1) The Eye
This abstract eye design plays on the not-for-profit's former Dinosaur logo, which is still used internally.
2) The Connector
The consultancy has experimented with Mozilla's name, using intertwining letters inspired by circuitry and tribal patterns.
3) The Open Button This button pictogram is designed to represent Mozilla's commitment to making the internet “open to everyone on an equal basis”.
4) Protocol Alluding to the not-for-profit's longevity, this symbol is intended to show that the not-for-profit is “at the core of the internet”.
5) Wireframe World
This concept highlights Mozilla's place within “the enormity of the internet”, forming an “M” symbol out of a series of 3D grid systems.
6) The Impossible
Another simple typographical mark, this “impossible” design gives a nod to computer graphics and optical illusions.
7) Flik Flak
As an extension of the former dinosaur logo, this visual identity builds a character out of isometric shapes, also spelling out the name “Mozilla”.
%feed https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/aug/22/museum-of-skateboarding-kirill-savchenkov-calvert-22 Zen and the (male) art of skateboard combat
At the Museum of Skateboarding, Russian artist Kirill Savchenkov turns the urban skater into a rōnin-style warrior engaged in a boys-only martial art
London has a new Museum of Skateboarding. But before you dust off your Vans, be warned: this is not a public institution on the South Bank dedicated to outsize shorts, broken wrists and the unseasonal wearing of beanie hats. It's in an art gallery.
The work of Russian artist Kirill Savchenkov, the “museum” opened at London's Calvert 22 last week. Addressing the deathlessly hip sport mock-anthropologically, it's an exhibition that gazes back, as if from the near future, to a fantasy New Skateboarder culture in which the urban skater is a kind of warrior monk or rōnin on wheels.
%feed https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/22-28-august-2016/mettle-studio-creates-wearable-button-carers-find-wandering-dementia-patients/ Mettle Studio creates wearable “button” for carers to find wandering dementia patients
London-based Mettle Studio has created Proximity Button, a wearable device worn by dementia patients to alert their carers if they wander further than a safe distance.
Wandering is a common side effect of dementia, and Mettle's design aims to instil confidence in patients' carers. The device works using radio signals emitted to a carer's phone via the Proximity Button app. The signal is lost if the patient wanders, and an alarm is raised as a warning.
The look and feel is simple and lightweight, with a focus on comfort and discretion, using a magnetised fastening to snap onto the wearer's clothing. “We didn't want anything to look too explicitly medical, we wanted it to be a bit more towards the agnostic tech end,” says Mettle Studio creative director Alex Bone. “That's why it's more plain, and we wanted to have all the places and weight on the inside, to make it less noticeable.”
Mettle Studio was approached by Proximity Care to work on the project in November last year, and created the hardware designs and the accompanying app. The UX and UI were created to be as simple to view and use as possible. Bone says, “The UI and UX was heavily geared towards simplicity. We stripped a lot of features out to make it more simple, as the target user wasn't necessarily expected to have a smartphone as standard. We had to assume no prior knowledge, so the app is designed with a step-by-step tutorial and allows you to see pretty much everything on one page.”
According to Bone, the device is currently in production and should be released in around November this year.
%feed https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/22/airbnb-urban-planning-samara Airbnb has started building its own listings will planning cities be next?
With a new design studio and a communal house in a Japanese village, Airbnb has announced its ambitions to change the way we live, travel and share space. Some say the company are venturing into urban planning are they?
Since its inception, Airbnb the website that allows people to rent out their homes for holiday accommodation has been a contentious issue in cities. It's a cost-saving convenience for travellers and a money-making opportunity for homeowners, yet a source of ire to scores of traditional hotels and guest-houses.
Some have accused the global home-sharing initiative which operates in 34,000 cities of playing a part in gentrifying neighbourhoods, as more Airbnb listed properties means fewer available homes to live in, thus pushing up prices. Mark Tanzer, chief executive of the Association of British Travel Agents, has also criticised Airbnb's contribution to growing tourism numbers as a threat to historic cities around the world. Meanwhile, a number of city governments have implemented restrictive permits and regulations to curb the practice and its negative impacts.
%feed https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/22-28-august-2016/work-fiction-think-inspire-great-visitor-experience/ What work of fiction do you think could inspire a great visitor experience? Sarah Clarke, projects director, Mather & Co
Not to give away the average age of our design studio but we think our deep-seated love of cult 1980s movies could make an amazing visitor attraction. Who doesn't want to fly on a bike with ET in front, go Back to the Future in a DeLorean or shrink in size to meet Gizmo face-to-face?
Just think how great it would be arm yourself with proton packs to fight the Marshmallow Man or journey through the labyrinth to the goblin city.
With strong cinematic plots, iconic music and amazing special effects that live on in our memories well beyond they should for grown adults, this decade of movie magic could translate into an experience with mass appeal.
Wayne Hemingway, founder and director, Hemingway Design
I would translate horse racing game Escalado onto a local high street, get people riding large fibreglass horses while groups of volunteers turn a giant cog which makes a giant plastic sheet vibrate and the horses move forward.
This will mean nothing to 95% of people reading this, but for those of you who have never played one of the greatest toy games ever, get onto Ebay and buy yourself one in full working order. It will cure your Pokemon Go habit, period!
It will make our high streets much more vibrant. Town centres need giant Escalado to take up the Woolworths and BHS slack.
Philip Hughes, director and project director, Ralph Appelbaum Associates
A book I read recently that would be a cool visitor experience is David Egger's The Circle. It's about how a young woman finds a job in Silicon Valley with a company like Facebook or Apple (perhaps The Circle refers partly to Foster's new building for Apple).
The visitor experience is a kind of digital journey from ordinary small town life through a series of transformations to a crazy world of total digital connectivity, where every piece of information has to be shared and every experience is transformed into data.
The data is endlessly churned by algorithms and represented by an almost obligatory social media.
As a visitor experience it would start with an ordinary home from the 1980s and end with an immersive digi-scape where data surrounds you, weaving into your life and shaping a strange and often unwished for destiny. Like Dave Egger's book, it would be strange but all too familiar.
%feed http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nybooks/~3/tYGD1x9-66k/ Lucian Freud: The Pitiless Eye “Lucian Freud Unseen,” a small display of drawings and sketches from Freud's voluminous notebooks, now at the National Portrait Gallery in London, is a small display of artist's autobiography, vivified by jottings on ideas and projects and people, phone numbers and racing tips—it takes us through his life, beginning with packed, colorful childish paintings. Looking at Freud's sketches you feel you are in the company of a man of wit, intelligence—and who has a rather uncomfortable, even frightening power. culture
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%feed https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/21/neptune-wildest-weather-solar-system-cosmic-rays-weatherwatch Neptune the wildest weather in the solar system
A new study shows that Neptune's exotic clouds and violent storms are driven by a combination of cosmic rays and sunlight
It is the last stop before Pluto and 4.5bn kilometres from the Sun, and yet Neptune has some of the wildest weather in the solar system. Winds of over 2,000km per hour (nine times faster than Earth's fastest winds) whip up extreme storms, and exotic clouds (made of ammonia, methane and hydrogen sulphide) come and go. The methane in Neptune's atmosphere absorbs red light and makes the planet appear blue to us. Meanwhile the high-level cirrus-like clouds, made of frozen methane, give the planet its ever changing pattern of bright white dots and dashes.
%feed http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/08/22/playstation-plus-get-little-pricier/ PlayStation Plus is about to get a little pricier PlayStation Plus launched back in 2010 and since that day the price has been $49.99 for a year of exclusive content, online play, free games, cloud storage and a handful of other features. Starting next month, you'll have to tack on an additional $10. Current subscribers aren't going to see the new price hike until their subscription ends. Monthly subscribers won't notice a price bump at all — there isn't one. But for those on three-month or one-year subscriptions, expect to pay a few extra dollars once it's time to renew. New membership prices are: $59.99 for one year (up…
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fmarco18678%2F28870434840%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Good art is a talent; Good design is a skill
For more info and stories about my pictures or any questions follow me on facebook .... www.facebook.com/mbontenbal
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdailyoverview.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F149325730359&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 This week we will be looking at fascinating examples of urban...
This week we will be looking at fascinating examples of urban planning - a major focus of the Where We Design chapter in our new book “Overview”. To start off, here is one of our favorite shots of the radiating streets that surround the Plaza Del Ejecutivo in Mexico City, Mexico. If you have examples of other cities that you think might look particularly mesmerizing from above, please let us know in the comments!
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168995549%2Fimg-1999-3-jpg-by-li-li&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 IMG_1999-3.jpg by Li Li
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168952465%2Fin-the-ghost-town-by-lena-osmolovska&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 In The Ghost Town by Lena Osmolovska
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fpeterschwartz%2Fthe-zika-virus-and-politicized_b_11589078.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dscience%26ir%3DScience&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 The Zika Virus And Politicized Science Science today is regularly distorted to serve other ends. The religious right, for instance, claims that "creationism" should be taught in public schools as a scientific alternative to the theory of evolution. The environmentalist left, for instance, claims that science reveals genetically modified foods to be harmful to one's health. Both groups subordinate the facts of science to other considerations, whether Biblical or ideological.
The same dishonesty is shaping the response to the Zika virus.
The Zika threat is causing great concern at the Rio Olympics, with some athletes having chosen to avoid the Games altogether rather than risk infection. Florida recently reported the first locally contracted cases of Zika in the United States. And the Centers for Disease Control is advising pregnant women not to travel to certain areas of Miami--the first time the agency has ever issued such a warning for the continental U.S.
But among the measures being taken around the world to combat this danger, one is notably absent: the use of DDT.
Zika is carried by mosquitoes, and DDT has been highly effective in eliminating mosquito-borne diseases. India, for example, had 75 million malaria cases in 1953, but only 50,000 by 1961, after DDT had been introduced. In Sri Lanka close to 3 million cases of malaria occurred in 1948; 15 years later, owing to DDT, the number dropped to 17. (Source.) The National Academy of Sciences stated in 1970: "To only a few chemicals does man owe as great a debt as to DDT.... It is estimated that in little more than two decades, DDT has prevented 500 million deaths due to malaria."
But strong opposition to DDT arose, spurred by the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Environmentalists got DDT banned in the U.S. and, eventually, in dozens of other countries. Western nations, which fund anti-malaria campaigns throughout the world, largely refused to underwrite any efforts that employed DDT. As a result, DDT use shrank--and malaria surged.
In India the number of cases increased to 30 million in 1977. In Sri Lanka the number went to 2.5 million in 1969. (Source.) More recently, other forms of malaria control--such as installing bed-netting and reducing the presence of standing water--have lowered the incidence of the disease worldwide. But they are generally less effective than DDT. In South Africa, for example, after DDT spraying was halted in 1996, malaria infections rose from under 5,000 in 1995 to over 60,000 in 2000. At which point DDT was reintroduced--and six months later the number dropped by half. (Source.)
This hostility to DDT was not based on science. For instance, DDT was said to be carcinogenic, because of studies in which mice developed liver tumors--but only after receiving doses of DDT 100,000 times higher than what a person would typically absorb (source.) Further, the opponents of DDT ignored many facts contradicting their views--such as the fact that during the period of highest DDT use (1944-1972), deaths from liver cancer fell by 30 percent (source)--or that workers who regularly handled DDT were found to have no higher rates of cancer than the general population (source)--or that people who voluntarily ingested DDT daily for up to two years suffered no ill effects (source)--or that the amount of DDT (per kilogram of body weight) required to kill mice is greater than that of aspirin (source).
What, then, was the motive behind the anti-DDT crusade? It was based on the premise that the man-made is inherently suspect--that the natural is good and the non-natural is bad, that human "intervention" in nature is deleterious and that we have to protect nature from man, not for man. The millions of lives saved by our "non-organic" use of DDT--and the millions lost when it was not used--were disregarded. Instead, the thinning of the eggshells of the bald eagle was presented as an intolerable effect of DDT.
As explained by David Graber, a biologist with the National Park Service, environmentalists,
... value wilderness for its own sake, not for what value it confers upon mankind. . . . We are not interested in the utility of a particular species, or a free-flowing river or ecosystem to mankind. They have intrinsic value, more value--to me--than another human body or a billion of them.
True, there is evidence that some mosquitoes are developing resistance to DDT. But even where DDT's toxicity has been diminished, its repellent properties still work. When house walls are sprayed with DDT, even resistant mosquitoes are repulsed and don't enter. More important, though, one's attitude should be: "If DDT's effectiveness is lessening, let's find some way to make it work better." Instead, the operating premise seems to be: "Man-made chemicals interfere with nature, so let's find some way to prohibit them."
Man survives and prospers, not by living "in harmony" with nature, but by reshaping it--by creating houses and roads and factories out of the wilderness, by transforming nature into a tool that serves human purposes. The problem with environmentalists is not that they have an ideology, but that it is an ideology with an inverted standard of value. It is an ideology that regards the very means of human flourishing as destructive. In assessing DDT, therefore, if your overriding concern is to restructure nature in order to promote man's well-being, then you will focus on whether DDT does in fact save human lives. If, however, your overriding concern is to preserve nature against human encroachment, then you will focus on the "evil" of injecting chemicals into nature's domain. And you will be drawn to any arbitrary claim about adverse consequences of those chemicals.
My primary aim here is not to argue for the use of DDT, but to underscore the need for objectivity is dealing with such issues. We should not uncritically accept the assertions of those who are hostile to technology and industrialization. We should not accept any allegations of some product's harmfulness--say, that DDT causes Alzheimer's, or that vaccines cause autism or that fracking causes earthquakes--without being certain they rest on genuine, unpoliticized science.
-- 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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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPhysicsWorld%2F%7E3%2FgivgteQqcTA%2Foptical-link-connects-atomic-clocks-over-1400-nbsp-km-of-fibre&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Optical link connects atomic clocks over 1400 km of fibre Connection is important step towards European network of ultra-precise timekeepers science
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fvoices.nationalgeographic.com%2F2016%2F08%2F22%2Finvolving-communities-in-the-fight-against-wildlife-crime%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Involving Communities in the Fight Against Wildlife Crime
Conservationists are not crying wolf there really is a global wildlife crisis and many animals will disappear from their natural habitats within our lifetimes.
Occasionally wildlife issues wrest the headlines from other crises and there are a few fleeting moments in the lime-light to make the case that protecting nature is not a luxury but essential for securing the future of the planet's inhabitants human and animal.
One such headline-making topic is wildlife crime. Estimates of the illegal trade in wildlife products for 2009 of as much as U.S. $20 billion placed it fourth behind the trafficking of drugs, people and arms in terms of value for the criminal gangs and terrorists masterminding it. Wildlife crime is no peripheral issue; it leads to political, economic, social and environmental instability, undermines the rule of law, destroys human livelihoods, and lays waste to our natural heritage.
With the issues capable of attracting attention in the highest echelons of government and institutional architecture in place, why then does the problem persist? What are the missing ingredients for an effective solution?
What is needed is a more “bottom up” strategy where conservationists join forces with local people. Where such approaches are tried, they work. With communities on board, seeing tangible benefits for their local economy and environment, the tables can be turned on the poachers. Crimes are no longer seen as minor transgressions. With local communities acting as advocates for conservation, pressure can be exerted on politicians to allocate resources to protecting wildlife, and on courts to start imposing penalties that are real deterrents.
Among those tangible benefits is secure and sustainable jobs. Wildlife tourism is a great money-spinner from safaris to whale-watching and generates significant foreign currency earnings and employs thousands of people. The challenges are significant those actually doing the dirty work receive only a fraction of the $2,000 per kilo that ivory commands as a finished product in Asian markets, but still a fortune for a poacher who sees no alternative offering similar rewards.
The experience of CMS indicates that the best approach is to involve local communities, following the rules of engagement developed by the World Conservation Union's Sustainable Livelihoods Specialist Group. CMS has financed projects based on the fundamental principles of ensuring that benefits accrue to the community (and that compensation is paid for loss of crops or livestock to predators) and that local stakeholders assume responsibility for implementing agreed measures.
One project bringing together all key governmental and civic stakeholders aimed at protecting the Cross River Gorilla, Africa's rarest great ape found on the Cameroon-Nigeria border. Local inhabitants' understanding of the need of using forest resources sustainably was enhanced through the establishment of ten “Village Forest Management Committees” to encourage participation in the management of the local environment. As well as focusing on raising awareness of young people, the project also included training in alternative livelihoods such as beekeeping.
In Gourma, Mali, a project for protecting elephants built communities' capacity to manage their resources effectively, one element being setting up vigilance networks where local people assume an active role in tackling poaching. Not only does this protect elephants, but it also provides employment to the young people in the community.
At their most recent Conference of the Parties (Quito, 2014), CMS Parties adopted the Central Asian Mammal Initiative, to conserve Saiga Antelopes, Argali Sheep and Snow Leopards. After the loss of 200,000 Saigas to a devastating disease last year, efforts to protect this species have to be redoubled, not least by combating poaching. Male Saigas' horns are much prized in traditional medicine, but most illegal taking is done to satisfy local demand for the animals' meat. In the Ustjurt Ecosystem, home to the antelopes, the Association for the Conservation of the Biodiversity of Kazakhstan has equipped a yurt which tours the region and from which information material on sustainable livelihoods, business plans, employment opportunities and micro-loans is distributed.
In Tajikistan, CMS is working with the NGO, Panthera in the Pamir Mountains where five community-based conservancies have been set up for Snow Leopards, to address illegal trade and human-wildlife conflict. Providing predator-proof corrals for herdsmen's livestock has helped eliminate retaliatory killing of the cats.
We cannot turn Africa into a continent of beekeepers that was a solution suitable for unique local circumstances; we can, however, devise innovative ideas that prevent local people from turning to poaching and convert them to the cause of conservation. It is in the hearts and minds of people at the grass roots as much as with ministers in the corridors of power and poachers in the field that the battle against wildlife crime has to be fought and won.
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F145717486%40N05%2F29158541425%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Family of elephants.
Student and elephants come back to home at elephant village.
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2101866-mouses-body-made-entirely-transparent-to-reveal-nervous-system%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Mouse's body made entirely transparent to reveal nervous system A technique that shrinks a dead body and makes it see-through could enable us to inspect human brains and bodies in greater detail than ever before gaia
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2101886-the-mission-to-find-the-worlds-rarest-cat-in-jungles-of-java%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 The mission to find the world's rarest cat in jungles of Java A search party is headed to the Indonesian island to look for critically endangered Javan fishing cat, unique amongst felines in its semi-aquatic lifestyle gaia
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%feed https://medium.com/kickstarter/the-explosion-artist-5db66a99ba2f?source=rss----b48742a6a63d---4 The Explosion Artist
Massoud Hassani's plan to rid the world of landmines
Yellow-headed spruce sawfly (Pikonema alaskense) collected in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and photographed at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (sample ID: BIOUG14321-F12; specimen record: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=SSGBA3378-14; BIN: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:ABZ5094)
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%feed http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/ocZPct9JAi8/-nasa-scientists-vast-ocean-of-saturns-moon-enceladus-could-be-the-site-of-a-second-genesis.html NASA Scientists --"Vast Ocean of Saturn's Moon Enceladus Could Be the Site of a Second Genesis"
Chris McKay, an astrobiologist with NASA says: "I've been interested in the search for life in the Solar System for decades and I'm still flabbergasted by what we're seeing on Enceladus. It's such a small world so far from Earth, putting out such a wealth of organics and water and indications of habitability - it's astounding, and the samples are right there, free for the taking."
With enormous jets of icy particles and water vapor shooting tens of thousands of kilometers into space, and an vast, global ocean covered by an ice shell, Saturn's moon Enceladus is one of the most fascinating objects in our Solar System. NASA's Carolyn Porco, director of flight operations and imaging team leader for the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn, has described findings of the jets and elevated temperatures at the moon's South Pole as “the mother lode of all discoveries." The findings, noted Porco, point to the possibility of “an environment where life itself might be stirring.”
Complex organic molecules, whose precise composition remains unknown, have been detected in Enceladus's jets, creating conditions appear to be favorable to the emergence of life. The relative thinness of the ice shell at the south pole could also allow a future space exploration mission to gather data, in particular using radar, which would be far more reliable and easy to obtain than with the 40 kilometers thick ice shell initially calculated. It looks as if Enceladus still has many secrets in store!
“Should we ever discover that a second genesis had occurred in our solar system, independently outside the Earth,” Porco added, “then I think at that point the spell is broken. The existence theorem has been proven, and we could safely infer from it that life was not a bug but a feature of the universe in which we live, that it's commonplace and has occurred a staggering number of times.”
An international team including researchers recently proposed a new model that reconciles different data sets and shows that the ice shell at Enceladus's south pole may be only a few kilometers thick. This suggests that there is a strong heat source in the interior of Enceladus, an additional factor supporting the possible emergence of life in its ocean.
Initial interpretations of data from Cassini flybys of Enceladus estimated that the thickness of its ice shell ranged from 30 to 40 km at the south pole to 60 km at the equator. These models were unable to settle the question of whether or not its ocean extended beneath the entire ice shell.
However, the discovery in 2015 of an oscillation in Enceladus's rotation known as a libration, which is linked to tidal effects, suggests that it has a global ocean and a much thinner ice shell than predicted, with a mean thickness of around 20 km. Nonetheless, this thickness appeared to be inconsistent with other gravity and topography data.
The image below shows the thickness of Enceladus's ice shell, which reaches 35 kilometers in the cratered equatorial regions (shown in yellow) and less than 5 kilometers in the active south polar region (shown in blue).
In order to reconcile the different constraints, the researchers from the Laboratoire de Planétologie Géodynamique de Nantes (CNRS/Université de Nantes/Université d'Angers), Charles University in Prague, and the Royal Observatory of Belgium1 proposed a new model in which the top two hundred meters of the ice shell acts like an elastic shell.
According to this study, Enceladus is made up successively of a rocky core with a radius of 185 kilometers, and an internal ocean approximately 45 kilometers deep, isolated from the surface by an ice shell with a mean thickness of around 20 kilometers, except at the south pole where it is thought to be less than 5 kilometers thick. In this model, the ocean beneath the ice makes up 40% of the total volume of the moon, while its salt content is estimated to be similar to that of Earth's oceans.
Since a thinner ice shell retains less heat, the tidal effects caused by Saturn on the large fractures in the ice at the south pole are no longer enough to explain the strong heat flow affecting this region. The model therefore reinforces the idea that there is strong heat production in Enceladus's deep interior that may power the hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor.
%feed http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/k9yj5thXKBA/join-startalks-neil-degrasse-tyson-to-explore-parallel-universes-and-the-meta-universe-listen.html Join StarTalk's Neil deGrasse Tyson to Explore Parallel Universes and the “Meta-Universe” (LISTEN)
Join Neil deGrasse Tyson and theoretical physicist and cosmologist Paul Steinhardt as they explore concepts like cosmic inflation, quantum tunneling, and whether gravity is extra-dimensional. Neil and Paul discuss whether the perception of time would be consistent across the multiverse, and whether reality and gravity are granular. Find out about the difference between the Big Bang and the Big Bounce.
Compare the concept of parallel universes with that of an ekpyrotic “meta-universe” that had no singularity at its birth, where space and time have existed forever, and where quantum fluctuations at the start of this cycle have given birth to causally separated regions that, though they can never know about each other due to distance and the limitations of the speed of light, are nonetheless connected by the fabric of spacetime.
This image from ESA's Planck satellite appears to show something quite ethereal and fantastical: a sprite-like figure emerging from scorching flames and walking towards the left of the frame, its silhouette a blaze of warm-hued colours.
This fiery illusion is actually a celestial feature named the Polaris Flare. This name is somewhat misleading; despite its moniker, the Polaris Flare is not a flare but a 10 light-year-wide bundle of dusty filaments in the constellation of Ursa Minor (The Little Bear), some 500 light-years away.
The Polaris Flare is located near the North Celestial Pole, a perceived point in the sky aligned with Earth's spin axis. Extended into the skies of the northern and southern hemispheres, this imaginary line points to the two celestial poles. To find the North Celestial Pole, an observer need only locate the nearby Polaris (otherwise known as the North Star or Pole Star), the brightest star in the constellation of Ursa Minor.
Some of the secrets of the Polaris Flare were uncovered when it was observed by ESA's Herschel some years ago. Using a combination of such Herschel observations and a computer simulation, scientists think that the Polaris Flare filaments could have been formed as a result of slow shockwaves pushing their way through a dense interstellar cloud, an accumulation of cold cosmic dust and gas sitting between the stars of our Galaxy.
These shockwaves, reminiscent of the sonic booms formed by fast sound waves here on Earth, would have been themselves triggered by nearby exploding stars that disrupted their surroundings as they died, triggering cloud-wide waves of turbulence
These shockwaves, reminiscent of the sonic booms formed by fast sound waves here on Earth, were themselves triggered by nearby exploding stars that disrupted their surroundings as they died, triggering cloud-wide waves of turbulence. These waves swept up the gas and dust in their path, sculpting the material into the snaking filaments we see.
This image is not a true-colour view, nor is it an artistic impression of the Flare, rather it comprises observations from Planck, which operated between 2009 and 2013. Planck scanned and mapped the entire sky, including the plane of the Milky Way, looking for signs of ancient light (known as the cosmic microwave background) and cosmic dust emission. This dust emission allowed Planck to create this unique map of the sky a magnetic map.
The relief lines laced across this image show the average direction of our Galaxy's magnetic field in the region containing the Polaris Flare. This was created using the observed emission from cosmic dust, which was polarised (constrained to one direction). Dust grains in and around the Milky Way are affected by and interlaced with the Galaxy's magnetic field, causing them to align preferentially in space. This carries through to the dust's emission, which also displays a preferential orientation that Planck could detect.
The emission from dust is computed from a combination of Planck observations at 353, 545 and 857 GHz, whereas the direction of the magnetic field is based on Planck polarisation data at 353 GHz. This frame has an area of 30 x 30º on the sky, and the colours represent the intensity of dust emission.
Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration
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%feed http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/2vI_YU8GoDQ/ecoalert-mass-extinction-of-earths-large-mammals-predicted-their-loss-would-be-a-tremendous-tragedy.html EcoAlert: Mass Extinction of Earth's Large Mammals Predicted --"Loss Would be a Tremendous Tragedy"
“The loss of these magnificent animals would be a tremendous tragedy,” said Blaire Van Valkenburgh, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and article co-author. “They are all that is left of a once much more diverse megafauna that populated the planet only 12,000 years ago. And more importantly, we have only just begun to understand the important roles they play in maintaining healthy ecosystems.”
Preventing the mass extinction of gorillas, rhinoceroses, elephants, lions, tigers, wolves, bears and the world's other largest mammals will require bold political action and financial commitments from nations worldwide. In an article in the journal BioScience, 43 wildlife experts write that without immediate changes, many of the Earth's most iconic species will be lost.
Among the most serious threats to endangered animals are illegal hunting, deforestation, habitat loss, expansion of livestock and agriculture into wildlife areas, and human population growth, they write.
The scientists, who represent six continents, write that humans have “an abiding moral obligation to protect the Earth's megafauna,” or large mammals. “We must not go quietly into this impoverished future.”
In addition to their significance to ecosystems, animals such as tigers and elephants attract tourists and their money to parts of the world that have few alternative sources of income, said Van Valkenburgh, who holds the Donald R. Dickey chair in vertebrate biology in the UCLA College. “This paper is a call for action at all levels, local to global, to halt the rapid decline of the megafauna,” she said.
The paper reports that 59 percent of the largest carnivores and 60 percent of the largest herbivores have been classified as threatened with extinction, and that the situation is especially severe in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where the greatest diversity of extant megafauna live.
William Ripple, the paper's lead author, a distinguished professor of ecology in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, said the animals' declines are occurring rapidly.
“The more I look at the trends facing the world's largest terrestrial mammals, the more concerned I am we could lose these animals just as science is discovering how important they are to ecosystems and to the services they provide to people,” he said.
The scientists call for comprehensive action, including expanding habitats for the animals and changing conservation policy. The paper notes that some conservation initiatives have been successful and that, if measures are taken now, it may still be possible to rescue these animals from extinction.
%feed https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160821220548.htm Young heavyweight star discovered in the Milky Way A young star over 30 times more massive than the sun could help us understand how the most extreme stars in the universe are born. astronomy
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%feed http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond/~3/EESSe_lRGQ0/worlds-astronomers-warn-our-21st-century-technology-is-too-primitive-to-detect-a-hostile-advanced-ci.html World's Astronomers --"Our 21st Century Technology Too Primitive to Detect an Advanced Alien Civilization"
Some of the world's leading astronomers -- including Great Britain's former astronomer royal, the Cambridge physicist Lord Martin Rees -- believe aliens, rather than using different radio waves or visible light to signal, may be using an entirely different communication medium such as neutrinos or gravitational waves (ripples in the fabric of space-time) or using communication mechanisms we cannot even begin to fathom.
“The fact that we have not yet found the slightest evidence for life -- much less intelligence -- beyond this Earth," said Arthur C. Clarke, "does not surprise or disappoint me in the least. Our technology must still be laughably primitive, we may be like jungle savages listening for the throbbing of tom-toms while the ether around them carries more words per second than they could utter in a lifetime."
Lord Rees, a leading cosmologist and astrophysicist who is the president of Britain's Royal Society and astronomer to the Queen of England believes the existence of extraterrestrial life may be beyond human understanding.
“They could be staring us in the face and we just don't recognize them. The problem is that we're looking for something very much like us, assuming that they at least have something like the same mathematics and technology. I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can't conceive. Just as a chimpanzee can't understand quantum theory, it could be there as aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.”
"I think it very likely in fact, inevitable that biological intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon… If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is very likely to be postbiological in nature, wrote Arizona State's Paul Davies in "The Eerie Silence". Davies suggests that advanced technology might not even be made of matter. That it might have no fixed size or shape; have no well-defined boundaries. Is dynamical on all scales of space and time. Or, conversely, does not appear to do anything at all that we can discern. Does not consist of discrete, separate things; but rather it is a system, or a subtle higher-level correlation of things.
"Are matter and information," Davies asks, all there is? Five hundred years ago, Davies writes, "the very concept of a device manipulating information, or software, would have been incomprehensible. Might there be a still higher level, as yet outside all human experience, that organizes electrons? If so, this "third level" would never be manifest through observations made at the informational level, still less at the matter level.
We should be open to the distinct possibility that advanced alien technology a billion years old may operate at the third, or perhaps even a fourth or fifth level -all of which are totally incomprehensible to the human mind at our current state of evolution in 2012.
Frank Drake, the founder of SETI and Drake's Equation, believes that satellite TV and the “digital revolution” is making humanity invisible to aliens by cutting the transmission of TV and radio signals into space. The earth is currently surrounded by a 50 light year-wide “shell” of radiation from analogue TV, radio and radar transmissions. According to Drake, digital TV signals would look like white noise to a race of observing aliens.
Although the signals have spread far enough to reach many nearby star systems, they are rapidly vanishing in the wake of digital technology, said Drake. In the 1960s, Drake spearheaded the conversion of the Arecibo Observatory to a radio astronomy center. As a researcher, Drake was involved in the early work on pulsars. Drake also designed the Pioneer plaque with Carl Sagan in 1972, the first physical message sent into space. The plaque was designed to be understandable by extraterrestrials should they encounter it.
Milan Cirkovic of the Astronomical Observatory in Belgrade, has pointed out that the median age of terrestrial planets in the Milky Way is about 1.8 gigayears (one billion years) greater than the age of the Earth and the Solar System, which means that the median age of technological civilizations should be greater than the age of human civilization by the same amount. The vastness of this interval indicates that one or more processes must suppress observability of extraterrestrial communities.
Since at this point, there is no direct and/or widely apparent evidence that extraterrestrial life exists, it likely means one of the following:
We are (A) the first intelligent beings ever to become capable of making our presence known, and leaving our planet. At this point, there are no other life forms out there as advanced as us. Or perhaps extraterrestrial life does exists, but for some reason extraterrestrial life is so very rare and so very far away we'll never make contact anyway -- making extraterrestrial life nonexistent in a practical sense at least.
Or is it (B) that many advanced civilizations have existed before us, but without exception, they have for some unknown reason, existed and/or expanded in such a way that they are completely undetectable by our instruments.
Or is it (C) There have been others, but they have all run into some sort of “cosmic roadblock” that eventually destroys them, or at least prevents their expansion beyond a small area.
Since Earth's placement in space and time appears to be unremarkably random, proposition “A” seems fairly unlikely. Assuming humans evolved like other forms of life into our present state due to natural selection, then there's really nothing all that mystical, special or remarkable about our development as a species either. Due to the sheer numbers, there are almost certainly other planets capable of supporting at least some form of life. If that is so, then for Earthlings to be the very first species ever to make a noticeable mark on the Universe, from a statistical perspective, is incredibly unlikely.
For proposition “B” to be correct would defy all logic. If potentially thousands, or even millions of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist in the known Universe, then why would all of them, without exception, choose to expand or exist in such a way that they are completely undetectable? It's conceivable that some might, or perhaps even the majority, but for all of them to be completely undetectable civilizations does not seem likely either.
Proposition C in some ways, appears to be more likely than A or B. If “survival of the fittest” follows similar pathways on other worlds, then our own “civilized” nature could be somewhat typical of extraterrestrial civilizations that have, or do, exist.
The idea communicating with aliens comes with concerns. British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has warned that communicating with aliens could be a threat to Earth: "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans."
"The Three Body Problem" by science fiction Hugo Award winner, Liu Cixin, depicted the universe as a jungle with every civilization as a hidden hunter. Those who are exposed will be eliminated.
But Han Song, another leading Chinese science fiction writer, believes humans naturally want to connect, citing the Internet as proof. "I think aliens might think similarly. It is a biological instinct to connect with each other. Everyone wants to prove that they are not alone in the universe. Loneliness is intolerable to humans," he says.
Song also points out that the contact will be driven by curiosity and real requirements. "Humans will ultimately go to space to find resources and expand their living area, so it will be hard to avoid aliens. Contact with them, especially those with more advanced intelligence, may help us leap forward in civilization."
Regardless of the theoretical debate, scientists have never wavered in the search. "I think we shall call out. As a matter of fact, we have been yelling for years, and our radios and televisions are broadcasting in space all the time," says Mao Shude, director of the Center for Astrophysics of the Beijing-based Tsinghua University. "Aren't you curious what our counterparts would look like?
"If they are inferior or equal to us in terms of civilization, we won't be easily destroyed. If they are much more intelligent than us, they wouldn't be so narrow-minded as to compete with us. Some worry they will come to rob us of our natural resources, but they likely have the power to transform the entire globe already. What's the point of eliminating a much lower civilization?"
Mao believes the result will be significant however it turns out. "If we find other life, it will undoubtedly be the most important scientific discovery in our history; if not, it shows that life on Earth is unique and we should respect life and cherish each other."No matter the outcome, we shall never stop searching."
The image at the top of the page shows the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT): a gigantic instrument with a mirror nearly three times as wide as any telescope in existence (another telescope, currently being built in Chile, will be larger). Once it's finished in 2024 atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea, astronomers plan to use the TMT to observe objects billions of light years away to better understand the processes that occurred just after the formation of the universe.
The Weekend Feature
The Daily Galaxy via The Telegraph, South China Morning Post, and xinhuanet.com
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%feed https://www.pinterest.com/pin/255016397629341238/ foldio360 - Take 360
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fbjarn-kjarand-haugland%2Fcan-students-change-the-f_b_11651356.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Can students change the face of business? What happens when you give eight bright young entrepreneurs the freedom and resources to change the way we approach sustainable business?
They create something revolutionary, while making established businesses sit up and take notice.
Over the northern summer, DNV GL gathered a team of students from a range of studies at the company headquarters outside Oslo, Norway. They were given six weeks to create a digital platform to drive awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while creating value for both business and society.
The result is Wembo - a two-part digital platform designed to enable businesses and consumers to do their part in reaching the Global Goals through transparency, collaboration and sharing.
Four of the eight dedicated summer students in 2016 with the new Wembo app, from left: Marthe Sogn Lien, Alexander Gaugstad, Ingrid Bye Løken, and Stefan Elston.
What is Wembo?
Wembo consists of two digital products: an online dashboard called Wembo Analytics for businesses, and a smartphone application called Wembo Go for consumers.
Wembo Analytics is a web portal that will enable companies to share, monitor and improve their sustainability performance across every link of a product's supply chain. The information is then analyzed by DNV GL's data center that will provide companies with a score of how sustainable their production is. A company could see how it measures up against competitors, and select suppliers based on their sustainability scores.
The Wembo Go app lets consumers scan and compare to products side by side, choosing the product with the best sustainability score. This could be based on things like labour practices, or how far a product has travelled for processing and packaging. The aim is to encourage more sustainable consumption by letting consumers see the global impact of the products they choose.
"Before I started working on the project I didn't really grasp the size of the negative impact we humans are having on the planet. I hope Wembo can contribute to a more sustainable future", explains Stefan Michael Elston, a graduate student from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).
The team presenting Wembo at DNV GL head office, from left: Stefan Elston, Eivind Harris, Ingride Bye Løken, Simen Hexeberg, Erlend S. Harbitz, Marthe Sogn Lien, Johan Jørgen Grav and Alexander Gaugstad.
Backing youth in business
When companies like DNV GL hire interns, the standard assumption is that we're going to teach them about the world of business. With our summer project, we turned this completely around. Instead we gave the students the opportunity to teach us what to do. I am convinced that giving young digital natives this kind of opportunities and responsibility will be a key factor for success in the accelerating technological shift that is happening today. As a company, this approach is extremely valuable. It helps us stay flexible, creative and keep us energized.
It's also a boon for the students: partnering with a global company and working on something that has real-world significance puts them a step ahead in the competitive graduate market.
I am truly impressed to see what the students have created over just six weeks. At DNV GL, we aim to enable sustainable business models and encourage industries to see the opportunities and the value of being transparent. Wembo fits right into this approach. Over a short period, these students have given us a tool to help the world reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals by year 2030. They really are members of 'Generation S'; the custodians of tomorrow who understand the power of sustainability to create positive change.
The combination of big data analysis and transparency Wembo provides could very well be the key to unlocking a safe and sustainable future.
You can read more about Wembo here, or check out the prototype for yourself.
Johan Jørgen Grav shows how Wembo connects to the UN Global Goals
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Flindahall.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F149319218453&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Denis Papin Scientist of the DayDenis Papin, a French...
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168888377%2Fpansies-by-anita-anti&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Pansies by Anita Anti
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fsteven-cohen%2Fthe-role-of-government-in_b_11649632.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 The Role Of Government In Rebuilding After Disasters People are losing their homes to floods in Louisiana and the Midwest and forest fires in California. It is not just heartbreaking to see people have their homes and life savings destroyed in an instant; it is a problem that calls out for a government response. I have written many times about the need for dedicated federal funds for the reconstruction of homes and communities destroyed by nature or terror. This will require a dedicated revenue stream, or what we used to call a tax, to generate these funds. The facts are that our population is growing, we live in places we never lived before, and we depend on energy, transport, water and waste infrastructure to live a modern lifestyle. We are more vulnerable to the impact of a storm than we were before our homes became hosts to the technology of comfort. Everyone watches the disasters on TV, feels bad, figures it can't happen here, and use their remotes to switch to the Olympics. But many can't flip the channel; they are living with the disaster and are desperately trying to find a new \home for their family.
The fundamental job of government is to provide security and safety for its people. Natural disasters may be predictable to some degree, but they are unavoidable. What is avoidable is the sense of economic hopelessness that follows these events. The community can't replace the memories and mementos of the past, but it can rebuild homes, schools, libraries, roads and other institutions. It's too bad that government can't support religious institutions because they are so valuable in the aftermath of loss, but the constitution really does forbid it.
In last week's New York Times, Campbell Robertson and Alan Blinde reported that:
In Louisiana, severe weather can often seem a trauma visited and revisited. But the disaster unfolding here this week fits into a recent and staggering pattern in more than half-dozen states, where floods have rolled out at such a scale that scientists say they might be a once-every-500-or-1,000-year occurrence. The cumulative, increasingly grim toll, from Maryland to South Carolina to Louisiana to Texas, includes scores of lives and billions of dollars in economic losses.
What were once rare occurrences have become commonplace. You could argue that we should build out communities in places less prone to flooding, but there are no such places. Even deserts occasionally get hit with sudden downpours. In addition to the flooding, we see growing impact from forest fires. California's Blue Cut fire has caused 80,000 people to evacuate their homes. According to Nick Strayer of the New York Times:
The size of wildfires has grown steadily for more than 30 years. In 1982, the average fire covered less than 25 acres. Today, the average wildfire burns about 100 acres...The federal government spent $202.8 million to fight fires in 1986. Last year, it spent $2.1 billion. One cause of the longer seasons is environmental: The warming climate has melted snowpacks earlier, increasing the length of time that forests dry out and become vulnerable to burning.
There is no question that with 39 million or so people living in California, many are living in places that were unpopulated a generation ago, and so a fire might have burned in some remote location 50 years ago but would had little impact on human communities. That increases the probability that people might be in the pathway of destruction, but frankly, that's the point. More and more extreme weather events are taking place, and we are more likely to suffer damage form those events.
It's time for a policy response that provides reconstruction insurance, so that along with a federal disaster declaration, funds become immediately available to rebuild homes, facilities and infrastructure. There are a lot of ways to generate revenue for such a trust fund. There are even more ways to create a lock-box system that ensure the money can't be diverted or influenced by political considerations. I would tax gasoline to fund this. Our federal gasoline tax is quite low when compared to other parts of the world, and a disaster surcharge could be set annually based on the needs of the previous year. We get lucky, the tax goes down; we get hit a lot, the tax goes up. But with a dedicated trust fund in place, when a twister carries your home to the Land of Oz, the state of Kansas shows up the next day with a check for you to rebuild your home. They also provide another check for temporary housing. If you're a landlord with renters, the same deal applies.
The disaster will be just as miserable, but the aftermath can be made predictable and less wrenching by a national insurance system that cleanly and efficiently funds reconstruction. Here in the northeast, we continue to live through the horrific follow-up of Superstorm Sandy. First, our congressional delegation had to beg their colleagues for funding. Then began a long and complex process to determine who was eligible for aid and to ensure there was no fraud in the process. Years later, people have still not returned to their homes.
Observing this failure of government response after Sandy and seeing the representatives in the Midwest and South resisting funding reconstruction, I warned that they would be next. And now they are. The ideology of a do-nothing government is an obstacle to taking the action needed. There are plenty of reasons to be cautious when designing a big new federal program--I get that. But how many more miserable people will we need to see before we act? How many lives and family savings are we willing to sacrifice before we design an approach to fund reconstruction?
The American dream of hard work and reward is under siege. That is part of what is fueling the political insurgencies of this presidential year. Reconstruction funding is an appropriate role for government because pricing disaster insurance is nearly impossible and no private firm will take this risk. But our community is stuck with somehow paying for the cost of reconstruction.
The news media covers the drama of first response to disasters, and our capacity to predict and respond to disasters has improved over the past several decades. But once the cameras depart and the media trucks have driven away, the devastated communities are left on their own. As the number, severity, and impact of these storms grow, the ad hoc response to them will become increasingly unacceptable. I can't say that I expect any of our elected officials or presidential candidates to advocate for a reconstruction trust fund, but some form of creative response by government is desperately needed.
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fnorman-solomon%2Fclintons-transition-team_b_11648470.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Clinton's Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold Like other Bernie Sanders delegates in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, I kept hearing about the crucial need to close ranks behind Hillary Clinton. "Unity" was the watchword. But Clinton has reaffirmed her unity with corporate America.
Rhetoric aside, Clinton is showing her solidarity with the nemesis of the Sanders campaign -- Wall Street. The trend continued last week with the announcement that Clinton has tapped former senator and Interior secretary Ken Salazar to chair her transition team.
After many months of asserting that her support for the "gold standard" Trans-Pacific Partnership was a thing of the past -- and after declaring that she wants restrictions on fracking so stringent that it could scarcely continue -- Clinton has now selected a vehement advocate for the TPP and for fracking, to coordinate the process of staffing the top of her administration.
But wait, there's more -- much more than Salazar's record -- to tell us where the planning for the Hillary Clinton presidency is headed.
On the surface, it might seem like mere inside baseball to read about the transition team's four co-chairs, described by Politico as "veteran Clinton aides Maggie Williams and Neera Tanden" along with "former National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm." But the leaders of the transition team -- including Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, who is also president of the Clinton-Kaine Transition Project -- will wield enormous power.
"The transition team is one of the absolute most important things in the world for a new administration," says William K. Black, who has held key positions at several major regulatory agencies such as the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Along with "deciding what are we actually going to make our policy priorities," the transition team will handle key questions: "Who will the top people be? Who are we going to vet, to hold all of the cabinet positions, and many non-cabinet positions, as well? The whole staffing of the senior leadership of the White House."
Black's assessment of Salazar, Podesta and the transition team's four co-chairs is withering. "These aren't just DNC regulars, Democratic National Committee regulars," he said in an interview with The Real News Network. "What you're seeing is complete domination by what used to be the Democratic Leadership Council. So this was a group we talked about in the past. Very, very, very right-wing on foreign policy, what they called a muscular foreign policy, which was a euphemism for invading places. And very, very tough on crime -- this was that era of mass incarceration that Bill Clinton pushed, and it's when Hillary was talking about black 'superpredators,' this myth, this so dangerous myth."
That choice [Ken Salazar] means the oil and gas industry just hit a political gusher.
Black added: "And on the economic side, they were all in favor of austerity. All in favor of privatization. Tried to do a deal with Newt Gingrich to privatize Social Security. And of course, were all in favor of things like NAFTA."
As for Hillary Clinton's widely heralded "move to the left" in recent months, Black said that it "was purely calculated for political purposes. And all of the team that's going to hire all the key people and vet the key people for the most senior positions for at least the first several years of what increasingly looks likely to be a Clinton administration are going to be picked by these people, who are the opposite of progressive."
In that light, Salazar is a grotesquely perfect choice to chair the transition team. After all of Clinton's efforts to present herself as a foe of the big-money doors that revolve between influence peddlers and government officials in Washington, her choice of Salazar -- a partner at the lobbying powerhouse WilmerHale since 2013 -- belies her smooth words. That choice means the oil and gas industry just hit a political gusher.
On both sides of the revolving doors, the industry has been ably served by Salazar, whose work included arguing for the Keystone XL pipeline. His support for fracking has been so ardent that it led him two years ago to make a notably fanciful claim: "We know that, from everything we've seen, there's not a single case where hydraulic fracking has created an environmental problem for anyone."
Salazar is part of a clear pattern. Clinton's selection of Tim Kaine for vice president underscored why so many progressives distrust her. Kaine was among just one-quarter of Democrats in the Senate who voted last year to fast track the TPP. When he was Virginia's governor, Kaine said that "I strongly support" a so-called right-to-work law that is anathema to organized labor. A few years ago he faulted fellow Democrats who sought to increase taxes for millionaires.
Clinton announced the Kaine pick while surely knowing that many progressives would find it abhorrent. A week beforehand, the Bernie Delegates Network released the results of a survey of Sanders delegates showing that 88 percent said they would find selection of Kaine "unacceptable." Only 3 percent of the several hundred respondents said it would be "acceptable."
The first big post-election showdown will be over the TPP in the lame-duck session of Congress. Clinton's spokesman Brian Fallon reiterated a week ago that "she is against the TPP before the election and after the election." But her choices for running mate and transition team have sent a very different message. And it's likely that she is laying groundwork to convey anemic "opposition" that will be understood on Capitol Hill as a wink-and-nod from a president-elect who wouldn't mind "aye" votes for the TPP.
Blessed with an unhinged and widely deplored Republican opponent, Hillary Clinton may be able to defeat him without doing much to mend fences with alienated Sanders voters. But Clinton's smooth rhetoric should not change the fact that -- on a vast array of issues -- basic principles will require progressives to fight against her actual policy goals, every step of the way.
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%feed http://twitter.com/WWFPak/status/767708068876460033 One of the top international initiative to combat #illegalwildlifetrade is Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) http://ifttt.com/missing_link?1471872084
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Faudrey-peterman%2Fnational-parks-mission-ac_b_11649300.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 National Parks Mission Accomplished At 65! OMG!
The first day of my 66th year, I woke up early to write my blog saluting the National Park System on the 100th anniversary of its caretaker agency, the National Park Service. I planned to write about my top five favorite national parks ( Grand Teton, Denali, Badlands, Kingsley/Timucuan and Everglades) using the vivid descriptions from being there to excite others to visit.
Then I opened the first email, and found my mission already accomplished in this podcast produced by my friend Natasha Milne from Australia and who I have still to meet. Natasha and her collaborator Dr. Barbara Royal are the inspiration behind 101 Reasons to Get Out Of Bed, profiling 101 "planet heroes."
Listening to the podcast, I enjoyed all over again the adventure, the mission, the challenges and successes that Frank and I with many allies have encountered through the years of striving to reconnect people with the vast swaths of nature in our national parks and public lands. Now I feel I NEED DO NOTHING ELSE other than share it with the world. Anyone who can resist the call to explore our public lands and actively engage in their enjoyment and stewardship must already be completely happy in their current situation and need try nothing new.
This week we'll find out if President Obama issues the Presidential Memo that the Next100 Coalition asked him for on the Centennial, calling for greater diversity in the park service's workforce and visitorship, and a more inclusive vision of the public lands system for the next 100 years. You can help by signing the petition here.
Meanwhile, Happy 100th Birthday this Thursday, September 25, National Park Service! Congratulations to all those who act in the spirit of love that I express in this podcast. Others who take it to heart might find that Americans of color are natural and necessary allies in the preservation of our precious natural, cultural and historical treasures so that we can hand them off intact to future generations. There is no other viable way.
-- 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.
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fellen-kanner%2Fmeatless-monday-small-ste_b_11474546.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Meatless Monday: Small Steps, Big Changes -- Gene Baur and "Living the Farm Sanctuary Life" There was no plan, there was only "concern about animals and nature," says Gene Baur. "I wanted to do something positive it the world." He did. In 1986, he co-founded Farm Sanctuary. Now almost 30 years later, Farm Sanctuary is America's premier farm animal protection organization, a safe haven for factory farm animals abused and/or left for dead, and a transformative place for people, too. Farm Sanctuary offers education, outreach and the opportunity to rediscover our primal bond with animals.
"Farm animals are not that different from cats and dogs," says Baur. "They have feelings, relationships, respect and compassion." Their open affection remind of us our own humanity. And our responsibility. "We don't share our lives with animals just because we want to. We do it because we need them," Baur writes in "Living the Farm Sanctuary Life."
Co-written with Gene Stone, Baur's new book provides a little Farm Sanctuary wherever you are, with adorable farm animal photos, pleasing plant-based recipes from fab chefs and cookbook authors including Chad Sarno, even one from Baur. And of course, transformation.
There are stories about rescued farm animals, like a ewe named Hilda, Farm Sanctuary's first rescue and resident. Just as compelling are the stories of people whose lives have changed after close encounters of the animal kind, from a former pig farmer to Twitter creator (and vegan) Biz Stone. Baur's book also shows you how to to live according to Farm Sanctuary's five tenets:
Live and Eat in Alignment with Your Values Engage in a Mindful Connection with Animals Engage in a Mindful connection with Your Food Eat Plants. . . for Your Health Eat Plants. . . for the Health of the Earth
Taken together, it's a recipe for "compassionate vegan living. You can live and do well without meat." And it's easy. "Try Meatless Monday, substitute meatless meats for meats," Baur suggests. "Small changes lead to bigger changes."
One small change that's helped lead to bigger ones and greater vegan acceptance is the current state of vegan eats, more accessible and more delicious than when Baur went vegan in 1985. One thing hasn't changed in three decades. "Health," says Baur, "is the biggest driver." You want healthy? Hello, powerful plant-fueled athletes like David Carter, Rich Roll,Ellen Jaffe Jones, even Baur, who's been running marathons and triathlons to prove vegan and buff go together.
Farm Sanctuary's undergone other big changes. In addition to the original site in Watkins Glen, there's now two more animal sanctuaries in California. That's more than 500 acres of land for happy, healthy animals. Along with expanded acreage is expanded awareness. "It's an exciting time," says Baur. "People are starting to think about the impact of animal agriculture on nature and that's a very good thing. People want more mindful choices, there's more momentum than ever, a convergence of awareness. That gives me a lot of hope."
Now as it enters its third decade, Farm Sanctuary is working to reach more people, from the underserved to "people in urban places," as well as tying in to existing and emerging trends. They're all little steps which taken together "catapult it to the next level."
As Farm Sanctuary evolves, its goal remains the same. "To save animals' lives," says Baur. "One of the best ways to do that is by not eating them. They're our friends, not our food."
The Best Tofu Scramble You've Ever Had
Reprinted from Living the Farm Sanctuary Life by Gene Baur and Gene Stone, copyright 2015 by Farm Sanctuary. By permission of Rodale Books.
Baur's sole culinary contribution to his new book and a family favorite, an awesome, animal-free version of the "wonderful Sunday morning family breakfasts of bacon and eggs when I was growing up."
1 medium red onion, chopped 1 red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, chopped 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 8 ounces sliced white mushrooms 1 pound firm tofu, rinsed, drained, and crumbled 1 cup nutritional yeast 1-1/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 5 cups fresh spinach
In a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat, add about 2 tablespoons water and cook the onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Stir frequently and add a 1/8" layer of water (it will steam off) to prevent the veggies from sticking. When the onion is translucent, add the mushrooms. Continue stirring and adding water as necessary.
When the mushrooms boil down to approximately half their original size, reduce the heat to medium and add the tofu, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. Continue stirring frequently, mixing and adding water as necessary. When the tofu, spices, and veggies are mixed well and heated evenly, after about 5 minutes, add the turmeric and continue stirring and adding water to prevent sticking.
After the tofu attains a uniform yellowish color, mix in the spinach, which will boil down to a fraction of its original size. Then enjoy!
Serves 4.
Variations: Feel free to add other veggies or more of the veggies listed above, which will make the dish less protein dense. You can also add vegan sausage, like Tofurky or Field Roast, if you want a heavier dish.
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Frobinbisping%2F29076089061%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 London Eye
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Frobinbisping%2F28534946753%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Little Venice
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2016%2F08%2F22%2F490895567%2Fresearch-challenges-assumptions-on-why-voters-support-trump%3Futm_medium%3DRSS%26utm_campaign%3Dresearchnews&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Research Challenges Assumptions On Why Voters Support Trump
The conclusion of new research shows supporters of Donald Trump are not experiencing economic anxiety driven by trade and immigration policies, which are common themes of his campaign.
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2101780-chinas-drive-to-clean-up-its-coal-power-one-plant-at-a-time%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 China's drive to clean up its coal power, one plant at a time A visionary engineer, Feng Weizhong, plans to reduce the country's carbon footprint with cleaner-burning technologies, and he is designing its cleanest coal plant yet gaia
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2101753-fluorescent-jellyfish-proteins-light-up-unconventional-laser%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Fluorescent jellyfish proteins light up unconventional laser Molecules derived from jellyfish may lead to a new generation of energetically efficient lasers that could improve everything from communications to medical procedures gaia
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fsjdarlington%2F28534456273%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 The Crossing
Cutty Sark with the sun peeking through at sunrise.
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168788737%2Fnature-s-power-by-john-carr&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Nature's Power by John Carr
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FScience360NewsServicePictureOfTheDay%2F%7E3%2FdnxqHiKSEHA%2Fwhite-matter-connections&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 White matter connections
Full Text:
Shown here is a map of the white matter connections in the human brain. The human ability to create and use technology surpasses that of any other species. How did these advanced technological skills evolve, and what can this evolutionary perspective tell us about the basis of modern human technological learning? A team of investigators from Georgia State University and Emory University will use a multidisciplinary approach to explore these questions, integrating expertise in neuroscience, informatics, anthropology, biomedical engineering and educational psychology.
Image credit: Erin E. Hecht, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Georgia State University Data credit: Human Connectome Project
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FScience360NewsServiceBreakingStory%2F%7E3%2FppnXEt6zPX0%2Fbiodiversity-salt-marshes-builds-climate-resilience&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Biodiversity in salt marshes builds climate resilience
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Coastal ecosystems worldwide are feeling the heat of climate change. In the Southeastern U.S., salt marshes have endured massive grass die-offs as a result of intense drought, which can affect everything from fisheries to water quality. Now, new research shows that a mutualistic relationship -- where two organisms benefit from each other's activities -- between ribbed mussels and salt marsh grasses may play a critical role in helping salt marshes bounce back from extreme climate events such as drought. The results found that mussels piled up in mounds around salt grass stems helped to protect the grasses by improving water storage around their roots and reducing soil salinity. With the mussels' help, marshes can recover from drought in less than a decade. Without their help, it can take more than a century.
Image credit: Christine Angelini
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ozy.com%2Ftrue-story%2Fthe-life-and-death-of-a-professional-mourner%2F71260&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 The Life and Death of a Professional Mourner "If you're going to cry anyways, that's easy money." general
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Faustralia-news%2F2016%2Faug%2F22%2Fcassowary-ruthie-relocated-after-trying-to-break-into-elderly-mans-home&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Cassowary 'Ruthie' relocated after trying to break into elderly man's home
Bird in Queensland's Innisfail had come to associate people with being fed, says environment department, and decision to relocate it was taken ‘reluctantly'
Wildlife officers have relocated a young cassowary, known by locals as Ruthie, after it threatened an elderly man and tried to enter his Innisfail home.
It is the second time this month a cassowary has been relocated in north Queensland due to aggressive behaviour.
%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgo.theregister.com%2Ffeed%2Fwww.theregister.co.uk%2F2016%2F08%2F22%2Fnasa_wants_to_sell_international_space_station_to_private_enterprise%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 NASA wants to sell International Space Station to private enterprise
For sale: Space station, several owners, billions of miles travelled
NASA has signalled its intention to offload the International Space Station (ISS) some time in the 2020s.…
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%feed http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgo.theregister.com%2Ffeed%2Fwww.theregister.co.uk%2F2016%2F08%2F22%2Fradio_astronomy_pioneer_dies_at_92%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8 Radio astronomy pioneer dies at 92
Vale Owen Bruce Slee, who helped our universe expand
One of the pioneers of Australian radio astronomy, Owen Bruce Slee, has died in Australia aged 92.…
science
1471829144000
images
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AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G with Nikon D750 March 2nd, 2015 London, UK
images
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images
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Sunrise on Puget Sound near Anacortes, Washington, USA on August 20, 2016
gaia
1471822480000
technology
%feed http://www.npr.org/2016/08/21/490821042/hopping-on-hashtag-bandwagon-host-rachel-martin-recounts-her-firstsevenjobs?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology Hopping On Hashtag Bandwagon, Host Rachel Martin Recounts Her #FirstSevenJobs
Social media feeds have been peppered with the hashtag #firstsevenjobs for the past few weeks. NPR's Rachel Martin shares her list, from store window mannequin to English teacher in Japan.
technology
1471817120000
images
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“Lucian Freud Unseen,” a small display of drawings and sketches from Freud's voluminous notebooks, now at the National Portrait Gallery in London, is a small display of artist's autobiography, vivified by jottings on ideas and projects and people, phone numbers and racing tips—it takes us through his life, beginning with packed, colorful childish paintings. Looking at Freud's sketches you feel you are in the company of a man of wit, intelligence—and who has a rather uncomfortable, even frightening power.![]("http://chimpfeedr.com/img/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fnybooks%2F%7E4%2FtYGD1x9-66k&width=540&mix=42dfe-culture")
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The plight of elephants is well documented and the international community is responding through the appropriate channels. The !["13239471_10153792884468370_5934086633637940520_n"]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/13239471_10153792884468370_5934086633637940520_n-600x472.jpg")
Among those tangible benefits is secure and sustainable jobs. Wildlife tourism is a great money-spinner from safaris to whale-watching and generates significant foreign currency earnings and employs thousands of people. The challenges are significant those actually doing the dirty work receive only a fraction of the $2,000 per kilo that ivory commands as a finished product in Asian markets, but still a fortune for a poacher who sees no alternative offering similar rewards.!["10377449_10152324181758370_2259959871726388410_n"]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/10377449_10152324181758370_2259959871726388410_n-600x450.jpg")
The experience of CMS indicates that the best approach is to involve local communities, following the rules of engagement developed by the World Conservation Union's !["SONY]("http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/08/13_Bradnee-Chambers_Portrait_AydinBahramlouian-150x200.jpg")
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