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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.

The post Mettle Studio creates wearable “button” for carers to find wandering dementia patients appeared first on Design Week.

 
design  

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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.

Related: Which cities have the oldest residents?

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design  

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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?  

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.

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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.

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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.

The post What work of fiction do you think could inspire a great visitor experience? appeared first on Design Week.

 
design  

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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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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.

Related: Neptune's first orbit: a turning point in astronomy

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astronomy  

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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…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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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  

marco18678 posted a photo:

For more info and stories about my pictures or any questions follow me on facebook .... www.facebook.com/mbontenbal

 
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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!

19.420511533°, -99.08808712°

 
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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  

IMG_1999-3.jpg by Li Li

Li Li: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168991833%2Fyuangyang-rice-terrace-by-enrico-barletta&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
yuangyang rice terrace by enrico barletta  

yuangyang rice terrace by enrico barletta

enrico barletta: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168989819%2Fbarbershop-by-%25C5%25A0t%25C4%259Bp%25C3%25A1n-lohr&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Barbershop by Štěpán Lohr  

Barbershop by Štěpán Lohr

Street barbershop in Hanoi, Vietnam

Štěpán Lohr: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F168989819%2Fbarbershop-by-%25C5%25A0t%25C4%259Bp%25C3%25A1n-lohr&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Barbershop by Štěpán Lohr  

Barbershop by Štěpán Lohr

Street barbershop in Hanoi, Vietnam

Štěpán Lohr: Photos

 
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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  

In The Ghost Town by Lena Osmolovska

Lena Osmolovska: Photos

 
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https://medium.com/kickstarter/the-explosion-artist-5db66a99ba2f?source=rss----b48742a6a63d---4  
The Explosion Artist  
 
technology  

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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.

 
science  

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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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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.

The plight of elephants is well documented and the international community is responding through the appropriate channels. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) established in 1973 regulates, monitors and, in some cases, prohibits international trade in animals and plants. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) signed in 1979 aims to preserve those animals that cross borders on their annual migrations.

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.

Dr Bradnee Chambers is the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Environment Programme's Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

 
gaia  

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Family of elephants.  

visootuthairam1 posted a photo:

Student and elephants come back to home at elephant village.

 
gaia  

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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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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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https://medium.com/kickstarter/the-explosion-artist-5db66a99ba2f?source=rss----b48742a6a63d---4  
The Explosion Artist  
 
technology  

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https://medium.com/kickstarter/words-in-translation-a6d4723d56c6?source=rss----b48742a6a63d---4  
Words in Translation  
 
technology  

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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/354095589436034136/  
Yellow-headed spruce  

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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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"  
 
astronomy  

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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)  
 
astronomy