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Tour de Turtles Journey from Cuba to Florida  
This past Summer, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Maria La Gorda, Cuba, the far most western tip of Cuba as part of the Sea Turtle Conservancy Sea Turtle Expedition.

While the core part of our trip was to tag sea turtles to be entered in the upcoming Tour de Turtles race, the trip also provided a wonderful introduction to Cuba.

Beginning with a two night stay at the Historic Hotel Nacional and a tour of the five plazas in historic Old Havana, we then left Havana for Maria LaGorda.



On the way to Maria La Gorda we visited Laz Terrazas, a former coffee plantation worked by slaves, that has been reforested and converted into an ecotourism resort. With the end of slavery, coffee was not as profitable. The new resort has provided jobs, education for the community, and a new pride in the local people. A small portion of the area still grows coffee, which we did sample at Caftan Buenavista.



On our return to Havana, we were able to spend a night in the town of Vinales, in Pinar del Rio. The area is the heartland of Cuba for tobacco, fruits and vegetables, and their fine rum.



As we were leaving Havana, David Godfrey, executive director of the Sea Turtle Conservancy summarized our trip of exploring the environment, the culture, the people, and the sea turtles of Cuba, and experiencing recreational tourism in a sustainable way. View David Godfrey sharing his thoughts in video below.



The nights on the beach at Maria La Gorda tagging the sea turtles were magical. The night sky was so dark in this remote part of Cuba that one could see Saturn with the naked eye, something I didn't realize was even possible.

While in Maria La Gorda I had the opportunity to speak with Richie Moretti, Director of the Turtle Hospital in Marathon Key, Florida, which sponsored one of the turtles we tagged in Cuba.

Richie shared some of the many hazards that sea turtles face and some important ideas that humans can implement to help protect them from fishing line, boat strikes and more.

View Richie sharing his thoughts below.




We were on the beaches for three nights and yet only able to capture, tag, and release turtles on one of them. The night we were successful, we tagged two sea turtles. We worked from 9:00 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. under the knowledgeable and skilled direction of Dan Evans, the Sea Turtle Conservancy technology and research biologist, and Dr. Julio Anza Ricardo, the research scientist in Cuba.



There are multiple purposes for placing the tracking devices on the sea turtles, including:

• learning where they go and where they spend their time
• 
  
• what areas are important to the sea turtles beyond the nesting areas
• 
  
• what foraging and feeding areas they go to
• 
  
• how often they come up to nest
• 
  
• whether they use the same nesting beaches and do they use different beaches at different times of the year
• 
  

This is important new research as there has been little tracking of sea turtles in Cuba.

Already through the tracking devices we have seen one turtle Esperanza nest in both Cuba and Mexico traveling first to Belize and then hugging the coast line around the Yucatan. This is the first time a sea turtle has been documented as nesting in two different countries in the same season.

The other turtle Juilia in contrast has gone South toward Nicaragua.

This information is critical for knowing where and how to best develop new sustainable tourism areas and make existing tourist areas more sustainable in their practice.

View an overview video of the project in Dan Evan's own words.



Dr. Julio Anza Ricardo is the scientific coordinator for all the conservation going on in Cuba's protected areas.

A key part of her organization's work is to achieve sustainable tourism particularly in all the coastal resort areas of Cuba. This includes both existing tourism resorts and future ones to be developed with an emphasis on protecting sea turtles. Education is a key part in her work with tourism including developing the protocol on how tourists can interact with the turtles in these resort areas.

View Dr. Julio Ricardo's thoughts below.



Also on the expedition was Gary Appleson, the Sea Turtle Policy Coordinator. Gary provided some thoughts on important policy to protect sea turtles, and equally as important, some of the education that is needed for tourists to best protect them.

Some of the key issues that Gary raised included lighting that protects turtles, the need to keep pets off the beaches, particularly in nesting season, and the need to not build sea walls or other barriers that impede sea turtles from nesting.

Gary expressed hope that Cuba would learn from some of the better models around the world. Specifically in the ares of sea turtle friendly lighting, waste water treatment, and education for tourists who will be visiting sea turtle areas. View Gary's comments below.



When I returned from Cuba, my sea turtle adventure continued later in the month at the Tour de Turtles. Two of my graduate students, Jerry Comellas, and Joshua Calero joined me as we met up with Dan Evans, David Godfrey, and Gary Appleson again as part of a new team to capture, tag, and release the final two turtles for the Tour de Turtles kick-off.



The Tour de Turtles was started in 2008. Sea Turtle Conservancy describes it as a "fun, educational journey through the science, research and geography of sea turtle migration using satellite telemetry. Created by Sea Turtle Conservancy, with help from sponsors and partners, this event follows the marathon migration of sea turtles, representing four different species, from their nesting beaches to their foraging grounds."

This year there are 14 competitors in the race from Costa Rica, Cuba, Florida, Nevis, and Panama. The University of South Florida Patel College of Global SustainabilityCu, where I teach, is co-sponsoring with Cubamar and Pro Tortuga in Cuba, one of the sea turtles from Panama in the race, named Tortuga Turista,

The kick off for Tour de Turtles begins at the Disney Vero Beach Resort. The resort is a model resort for sustainable tourism, sea turtle conservation, and protection. Key features of the resort include:

• Amber lighting that keeps all negative lighting away from sea turtles.
• 
  
• Closing the beach gates at night to tourists.
• 
  
• Educating tourists to close their drapes after sunset if they are facing the beach
• 
  
• Daily beach cleaning.
• 
  
• Not serving plastic straws or lids with food and beverage at the resort.
• 
  
• Developing educational sea turtle programs so that guests will go away not only more informed but actually as ambassadors for sea turtle conservation and protection.
• 
  

Dr. Blair Witherington, Sea Turtle Program Manager for the Disney Animal Science and Environment team, and I talked about some of the ways that sea turtle conservation can help humans develop a stronger ethic to address common issues and concerns with sea turtles such as climate change, maintaining a clean environment, and reducing plastics in the ocean.

View Dr. Witherington's comments below:

The Tour de Turtles kick-off includes the release of two sea turtles at Disney's Vero Beach Resort, an evening reception at the Barrier Island Center with fun, food, music, and an auction to benefit sea turtles that evening, and the release of two more sea turtles the following day.

Below are a few videos from the past three years that capture some of the beauty, fun, and excitement of the Tour de Turtles.

I hope you will consider participating this year by supporting one of the turtles in the race and/or coming to the event next year.


Tour de Turtles Kickoff

2014 Disney Vero Beach

2015 Barrier Island Center

Tour de Turtles 2015 Kickoff from Coalter Digital on Vimeo.

2016 Brooke Vu produced a video log of the event that captures much of the beauty and excitement.



Dr David W. Randle - Director USF Patel College of Global Sustainability Sustainable Tourism, Managing Director International Ocean Institute Waves of Change Blue Community Initiative, and President & CEO WHALE Center.

Follow David Randle on Twitter

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Lady Gaga To Headline The Super Bowl LI Halftime Show  
Following much speculation, the "Perfect Illusion" singer, 30, has officially signed on to perform at the 51st annual football championship event at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on February 5, 2017.  
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World Leaders Have An Historic Opportunity To Support Migrants And Refugees  
Two years ago, I traveled to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. I met a Syrian refugee family there who had recently fled Raqqa. Unable to find regular work, the family was depending on the labour of their 12-year-old daughter who was working in the fields. The family and this young girl herself would have preferred her to be in school.

The Bekaa Valley is among the areas hardest hit by the refugee crisis. Two years ago when I was there, some 770 informal tented settlements had sprung up and the valley was home to more than 410,000 refugees. These numbers have largely stayed the same two years on.

Today, more people are forcibly displaced from their homes than at any time since the end of the Second World War. A recent report by the UN agency for refugees, UNHCR, estimated that 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, compared to 59.5 million just a year earlier. Measured against the world's population of 7.4 billion people, one in every 113 people globally is now either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced, or a refugee. This tally is greater than the entire population of the United Kingdom.

In some cases, people are fleeing from poverty and lack of opportunity. In others, people are fleeing from conflict and lawlessness. Many millions need international support.

The Syria crisis has caused serious displacement -- 4.8 million Syrians have become refugees, and 6.5 million are displaced. This is the largest displacement crisis globally.

Many Syrians have fled to neighboring countries who are now hosting large numbers of these refugees. In Lebanon, Syrian refugees number roughly a quarter of the population. In Jordan, the number is estimated at about one in five people. Turkey hosts more than two million Syrians and Iraqis. The host countries and communities need international support too.

The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- provide a framework within which to respond to these large movements of people. The UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants convening this week in New York provides a unique opportunity for world leaders to come up with a blueprint for a strong international response to the needs.

What could be done to prevent displacement crises in future?

First, the international community should place conflict prevention and mediation at the centre of international peace and security efforts. Early warning and response systems are needed for when tensions emerge and to foster reconciliation.

Second, international support is needed to strengthen good governance and the rule of law, and to address structural inequalities. Promoting inclusive economic growth and sustainable livelihoods is critical for building peaceful and inclusive societies. These are long-term investments that are also critical structural prevention efforts.

Third, development actors can assist governments to improve their capacity for data collection and analysis on the root causes of displacement caused by poverty and lack of opportunity, to help design sustainable responses.

The organization I head, UNDP, will play its part. We provide support for host communities and help countries anticipate and prevent future crises. We promote inclusive and accountable institutions which can improve social cohesion, and drive inclusive development. We work to tackle inequalities and to improve access to justice and to basic services like education and health.

Going forward, UNDP will work to ensure that the inclusion of migration and displacement issues are priorities during the implementation of the SDGs. UNDP will also support at least thirty programme countries over the next five years to analyze and address the drivers of migration and of forced displacement. And we will work with partners to build the evidence and data base around migration and displacement. More needs to be known about the development impact of displacement in countries of origin and in host countries and communities.

This week, world leaders have an historic opportunity to address this issue and come together in a spirit of shared responsibility for the world's refugees and migrants. Let's remember those refugee children sent out to work instead of being able to go to school, and resolve to see that their needs are met.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post to mark the occasion of two critical conferences at the UN on the Refugee and Migrant crisis: the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants (Sept. 19th, a UN conference) and the Leaders Summit on Refugees (Sept. 20th, hosted by U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, at the UN). To see all the posts in the series, visit here. To follow the conversation on Twitter, see #UN4RefugeesMigrants.

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http://twitter.com/NoAnimalPoachin/status/777640211819835392 
@NoAnimalPoachin .... in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), will B held in Johannesburg from Sept. 23 to Oct. 5. where.... 
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Ahead of @CITES #CoP17, #MEPs set out their priorities for safeguarding endangered species http://www.europarl... 
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Banzai  

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Blurred Banzai ride at the Western Fair, London, Ontario.

 
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/us/duane-graveline-doctor-who-was-forced-out-as-an-astronaut-dies-at-85.html?partner=rss&emc=rss  
Duane Graveline, Doctor Who Was Forced Out as an Astronaut, Dies at 85  
Dr. Graveline resigned after two months because he was getting divorced and NASA was worried about its image; his later career as a doctor was marred by scandal.  
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Manhattan Loft Gardens  

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Manhattan Loft Gardens is a multi-purpose 42 storey tower located near to Stratford international Station. Currently under construction the building has been designed by SOM architects.

Alex Upton Photography


© All Rights Reserved


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The Heist  

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St Pauls at sunset  

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St Pauls Cathedral in London taken from the roof terrace of a building on Cannon Street.

 
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grant-stern/its-official-poop-in-miami-beach-waters-causing-sobe_b_12074150.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green  
IT'S OFFICIAL: Poop In Miami Beach Waters Causing SoBe Swimmer's Advisory Warning  

Florida officials have concluded that swimming in the waters of South Beach is hazardous due to human feces in the waters, with the most likely culprit being a new pumping system intended to keep the low-lying island dry during next week's king tides. The Miami Herald reports:

Miami-Dade's branch of the state health department reported levels of the bacteria enterococci that exceed federal standards on South Beach and at the north beach of Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. The presence of the bacteria, which is found in animal and human intestinal tracts, is an indicator of fecal pollution. That pollution may come from storm water run-off, wildlife, pets and human sewage. “The results of the sampling indicate that water contact may pose an increased risk of illness, particularly for susceptible individuals,” read the advisory.

Speaking of things that are both low and lying, in May, I asked Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine what he planned to do about scientific reports indicating the presence of human poop in the waters off his city.

Levine responded on Facebook: “Nothing because that it a big fat lie! Thanks.”

And in the three months since he made his promise to do nothing about water quality, he's succeeded wildly.

South Beach visitors can thank the Mayor for living up to his promise and doing absolutely nothing in the last three months, leading to a swimmer's advisory from county health officials, due to the high level of human waste pumped into near shore waters surrounding the beleaguered tourist town.

In fact, the only detectable response to Miami Beach's water crisis from Mayor Levine was blocking me on Facebook and Twitter to avoid reading reports on why denying science is wrong, why violating the open records Sunshine Law is wrong and why FIU scientist Dr. Henry Briceño (who must be feeling vindicated, but still upset) is absolutely, undeniably, 100% verified and independently tested as correct.

This week, Mayor Levine was in Toronto for the big film festival, skipped a contentious meeting about zika virus spraying at Miami Beach City Hall

It's an elegant solution to Miami Beach's difficult problems, fly a thousand miles away to hang out with celebrities.

It also means that Levine probably missed this report about the health of hundreds of Biscayne Bay swimmers being threatened by poop polluted waters from Miami Beach's expected King Tides discharge.

Meanwhile, the Mayor's propaganda machine - he doesn't take a salary, but does pay for a lot of full time self-promotion online - created the ironically titled theme “Rising Above” to describe how the island city is handling a swarm of poop in its waters and a swarm of disease bearing mosquitos on land.

Unfortunately, Miami Beach's efforts didn't include anything at all to warn swimmers of problems and in fact, the original flyer design depicted pristine blue water.

So I'll leave readers with this revised flyer design to share with their friends and loved ones, so they understand clearly, precisely what is going into the waters off South Beach today.

It's poop.

UPDATE: A reader has pointed out that today ― ironically ― is Global Coastal Cleanup Day.

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POP Home Switch Simp  

POP Home Switch Simple smart home control for the whole family

 
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How They Wrestled with the New  
It is fascinating to learn about the concrete historical circumstances under which great philosophical works—works that have become timeless classics—were produced, and about the relation to their own times of the extraordinary individuals who produced them. For those with limited firsthand knowledge of the works this biographical approach can serve as an accessible introduction or reintroduction to the thought of some of the most important creators of our intellectual world.  
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The Real Power of Putin  
As Putin's rule has turned more authoritarian and his foreign policy more aggressive, observers have been asking themselves whether something fundamental has shifted in his outlook, and if so, why.  
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The Sorcerer of Jazz  
In 1975, Miles Davis put down his trumpet and retired. Davis was famous for his dramatic silences in performance: the notes he chose not to play were almost as meaningful as those he did. But this silence would last for nearly five years, during which he all but disappeared into his Upper West Side brownstone.  
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https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/18/blair-witch-new-film-review-mark-kermode  
Blair Witch review efficient horror sequel  
The 1999 original terrified audiences with its ‘found footage' shtick, but there are few surprises left down in the woods today

In the mid-1890s, Parisians reportedly ran screaming from the Lumière brothers' experimental short film L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat, terrified that the train coming towards them was about to run them down. A century later, cinemagoers were traumatised by The Blair Witch Project, unable to determine whether its faux-documentary story was fact or fiction. Kickstarting the “found footage” boom that has dominated 21st-century horror, directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez brilliantly reminded us that cinema's greatest trick has always been in convincing us that what we are watching is “real”.

Distributors Artisan famously picked up the no-budget The Blair Witch Project, with its unknown cast, for $1m and watched it make hundreds of millions worldwide. Now franchise inheritors Lionsgate have come searching for equally rich pickings. Reprising the DIY gimmick of its forerunner, albeit in less grainy style, Adam Wingard's sequel Blair Witch finds young James (James Allen McCune) venturing into the Black Hills Forest in search of his sister Heather, who disappeared in October '94. Accompanying him are film student Lisa (Callie Hernandez), eager to exploit James's sibling anguish, and close friends Peter (Brandon Scott) and Ashley (Corbin Reid).

For media-savvy audiences raised on Paranormal Activity, [Rec] et al the film's aesthetic is just business as usual

Related: The first Blair Witch film killed me. I can't wait for the new one | Heather Donahue

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Breakfast in the Ruins  
In September 2015, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles acquired the first photographs ever taken of Palmyra, the great trading oasis in the heart of the Syrian desert. With a history that extends back nearly four thousand years, Palmyra has risen and fallen many times. The worst destruction, certainly, was inflicted between June and September of 2015 by the militants of the Islamic State, who obliterated the ancient buildings amid accusations of paganism and idolatry.  
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/18/brian-cox-interview-it-is-a-book-about-how-to-think-universal-a-guide-to-the-cosmos  
Brian Cox: ‘It's a book about how to think'  
In Universal: A Guide to the Cosmos, Brian Cox shows how anyone can see the world like a physicist. Here he explains why he loves changing his mind

Professor Brian Cox is advanced fellow of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. He is about to embark on a nationwide tour to promote the ideas in his new book, Universal: A Guide to the Cosmos.

I was looking through your tour dates. You are playing Wembley…
The bigger the venue the fewer people you can see is a general rule. It's just great that cosmology can get people out. I did another event at Wembley Arena for 8,000 children, which was brilliant.

You can see the Andromeda galaxy with the naked eye, and it's two and a half million light years away

Is space-time real? Is the universe really a fabric? I don't know but I do know the model works brilliantly

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http://www.designboom.com/art/doug-aitken-monumental-survey-moca-los-angeles-museum-of-contemporary-art-09-18-2016/  
doug aitken: a monumental, multi-sensory survey opens at MOCA, los angeles  

comprising large-scale moving-image installations, sound works, sculptures, photographs, collages, and films, the exhibition exemplifies the artist's core themes throughout his career.

The post doug aitken: a monumental, multi-sensory survey opens at MOCA, los angeles appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/18/infinite-mix-hayward-review-wifredo-lam-tate-modern  
The Infinite Mix; Wifredo Lam review  

Hayward Gallery at the Store; Tate Modern, London
From Hitler's Berlin to Kendrick Lamar's Compton, the Hayward's diverse fusion of 10 immersive installations offers a feast of sound and vision

Down in the car park below the Strand is a pop-up cinema reached through a seething black tunnel. We are given 3D specs and told to stay as long as we want. Shooting out of the screen towards us are glittering explosions, fireworks blossoming like silver flowers to a mesmerising dub soundtrack. It soon becomes apparent that we are up with the starbursts: the camera is high in the sky.

It's a gorgeous experience sound and vision perfectly matched. But Cyprien Gaillard's Nightlife grows darker and more complex. The drone's footage shows a plane landing dangerously low over a quaking tree in America. Those fireworks are exploding over the Berlin stadium where Jesse Owens won Olympic gold (and that very tree) in 1936. You see the shattered figure of Rodin's The Thinker in Cleveland, a sculpture blown up by the militant Weathermen, who had links to the Black Power movement. Everything connects. And everything is inflected by the soundtrack, featuring the refrain from Alton Ellis's Black Man's World “I was born a loser” looped until it becomes hauntingly ambiguous and poignant.

For a moment it seems possible that she is real, and the living resurrection of Maria Callas

Tiny children dance to the sound, in a never-ending cycle of blood, music and death

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kvtes: tru studio  

kvtes:

tru studio

 
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conceptmodel: by CREATO source  

conceptmodel:

by CREATO

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